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Karri

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Everything posted by Karri

  1. We live in a world of hidden danger, I boil everything for a minimum of five hours before eating it.
  2. Hello and welcome, I'd just like to chime in on the electric stove, we have one in the pastry, it is a monster, one of the best stoves I have ever worked with briefly. But it came with a price tag about double that of a gas system. I don't think that a home system will stand up to the challenge of being set on full blast multiple nights of the week? And as jsmeeker pointed above, have you thought about only venue rental and having a satellite kitchen that you rent where you do all your food prep and simply ship it over in hotboxes?
  3. I second Bragard, I had one for a while until it got lost in the laundry. Felt like a cool afternoon breeze was gently kissing my skin every time I wore that baby... How I miss her...
  4. Hello and welcome! Please tell us what does your gelatin layer contain?
  5. Karri

    Odd sensations

    It promotes the Maillard reaction. I had my very first dish with real Sichuan peppers, the first time I bit in to one it felt like licking a battery and suddenly my tongue started going numb and I had this very interesting pulsating sensation travelling down my tongue. We did all kinds of experiments with the peppers after that, it was quite funny, the taste of the peppers was nice, but the after effects were not.
  6. I understand exactly what you mean. My homecountry of Finland boasts such a meager spending capital for fine dining experiences that it is almost impossible to run a succesful business there... But that is more of a cultural thing than an actual matter of poverty. I find that Finnish people are almost instinctively drawn to foods they find as safe, only now a younger more active generation has begun to rise who demand 'bang for their buck', and this has now slowly started a roll towards new and exciting restaurants opening up. I actually read an article about the chef of the restaurant I mentioned before, Hans Välimäki. He said that just to be nominated within the top 100 is the true honor, because it is virtually impossible to discern a ranking between all the thousands of restaurants in the world, and who should be the first, the second, etc.
  7. This may be the most ridiculous post I've ever seen on eGullet. You must be a New Yorker if you actually believe that everywhere in the US not NYC or SF is "the middle of nowhere." It's a profound lack of perspective that only seems to exist in the five boroughs. It's also bullshit that a major city is needed to support a world class restaurant. I've eaten at 3 restaurants in that top 100 and have had as good a meal at places not on the list that are in metro areas of under 1M people. I am not from the US, I represent a country that has one restaurant on that list there, Chez Dominique, a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in the center of Helsinki. And if you had read my post thoroughly you would notice that I said with the right concept you can sustain a restaurant outside of a major city. For example el Bulli in Rosas or The Fat Duck in Bray. Talking about the Fat Duck, I read in Modernist Cuisine that before Mr. Blumenthal got his third star he was in serious financial trouble and almost had to close the restaurant. This is the point I am trying to make. And yes, I have had amazing experiences at top end restaurants, a friend of mine recently dined at Noma, and said it was a huge disappointment, I can't remember all the dishes he complained about but he said some of them were just taking the piss. The appetizer was a live shrimp in a pickle jar filled with ice, he was served a rock and told to eat the moss, etc. edit: Oh an on the chefs who say that they like to cook simiple dishes, etc. I have no trouble believing that, I too at home don't cook what I cook at work. I like to make traditional macaroni or potato casseroles from my home country. They taste great, of course. Personally if I rate a restaurant I place the most emphasis on the quality and taste of the food. I don't care that much for decor unless it's something completely new. But ingredients that have been processed and cooked perfectly usually happen in fine dining restaurants, where there is adequate staff to do it all. And I'm sad to hear about Madison Park, as I said the book looked amazing!
  8. I have no problem believing that the best food in the world is made in fine dining restaurants. On another note, the one at number 10. 11 Madison Park, I had a chance to read their cookbook at work a few days ago, and the food they are making is amazing. And the reason great restaurants are in big cities is simple math. It takes a truly unique idea and a lack of competition to be able to sustain a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.
  9. Karri

    Homemade Chili Oil

    The oil coats your mouth, paradoxically protecting you from the burn you are looking for. Also oil is not a great thing to infuse as it takes taste quite slow and mild, this is why you have to have a long period of infusion to reach high Scovilles. Chopping the chillies as fine as possible will hasten the process of infusion.
  10. For transglutaminase you would need protein. I would try the recipe up above. You could infuse cream with the cauliflower, blitz it and strain it.
  11. As luck would have it, I did this very experiment about a month ago. I didn't save any pictures, BUT: I did a chicken the way Thomas Keller advocates in the French Laundry Cook Book. Trussed and roasted at 210C until done. And the one of Heston Blumenthal, I rubbed a stick of butter (500g) on the chicken and roasted it for 5½ hours at 90C untrussed, and finished in the oven at 210C to crisp the skin. Thomas Keller: The chicken was nice, moist, crispy skin, I had to untruss the chicken to finish the cooking of the legs though, as the skin was starting to turn very dark brown and it was still raw in between the leg and the breast. Leg meat was beautifully moist and tender. The juices left in the pan made for an excellent Madeira and shallot reduction sauce finished with cream. Heston Blumenthal: The breast was one of the juiciest I have ever had, it was in a word perfect. The legs on the other hand were stringy, hard, chewy, inedible. The pan juices were obviously just a stick of butter, the chicken itself did not leave much of anything in the pan. I did make a sauce, but it was more like a beurre montee. Not very nice. Then I had some friends over for dinner and I made a third one, untrussed rubbed with butter, roeasted at 180C until done. This was by far the best of the lot. The legs were perfect, the breast was moist and delicious. edit: I brined all the chickens.
  12. Sort of. The same way that Americans sort of speak English and Quebecois sort of speak French. (Which is why that's bracketed in my earlier post.) What South Americans speak is sort of a somewhat corrupted form of Castellano from about 100 years before the distinción (soft C pronounced as TH) was introduced to the language. Hence, while somebody from Castille would say "thervesa" we say "servesa" for cerveza (the first example of the distinción that occurs to me at this late hour), and the words casa and caza are homophones. This is particularly evident in the Ecuadorian province of Loja, where the language has been preserved almost exactly as the conquistadores are thought to have spoken it - the Real Academia has actually done studies on this. In addition to the ceceo, most forms of Latin American Castellano also incorporate words from the precolumbian languages of their areas; hence, Ecuadorian Castellano is distinct from, say, Colombian in that Ecuadorian includes a great number of Quichua and Shuara words into the general lexicon, while Colombian tends more towards Muisca and Tairona words, and the Peruvian and Bolivian Castellano that also include Quichua will include different words from those of Ecuador, simply because the Quichua spoken in Peru and Bolivia is quite different from that spoken in Ecuador. And so on. If that's confusing, consider that only an Ecuadorian will use the word "Chuchaqui" to describe being hung over - the rest of Latin America uses "resacado." Also consider that in Ecuador and Colombia, an avocado is an Aguacate, while in Peru and Bolivia it's a Palta. Also consider the regional differences in the pronunciation of the letter LL - in some countries, most notably in Chile and Argentina, it's arrastrado (pronounced sort of like sh or zh), while in others, like Ecuador and parts of northern Peru, it's elido (pronounced l'y) and still others it's pronounced more like z (Colombia and Venezuela are like this). So, it's sort of Castellano. It's got the same grammar and structure, and shares a basic vocabulary. But really it has as much in common as Quebecois does to Parisian. Oh, and it's also worth noting that Latin Americans make merciless fun of Spaniards for the perception of lisping that goes with the distinción. Nobody down here would be caught dead ordering a thervesa - it's considered to be a very effeminate way to speak and if you're a Latino man that's the last thing you want anybody to think of you.... ETA - and when it comes to Carpaccio, most Latin Americans will look at it and pronounce it "Carpaxio" with the x sound being closest to ks. Those who have a bit more culinary education will pronounce it "Carpachio" (and it's often spelt this way on menus in places that offer it.) The changed spelling is actually quite common with words that would have an awkward pronunciaiton otherwise - focaccia becomes focachia, etc. Thank you very much, this has been very educational! I work on the Canary Islands, and here they identify themselves as speaking 'Isleno', which does not follow the Castellano speech patterns. cerveza is a servesa, and the doouble l is a kind of "y". Yes, my dentist is Argentinian, and I find myself struggling when her sentences contain words beginning with ys and double ls...
  13. I am working in Spain at the moment, and we serve quite a bit of Carpaccio. Now the Spaniards here don't pronounce it in the italian way, but as "carpassio". As you would in Spanish. Regional variants... Panaderia Canadiense, do people really speak Castellano in South America?
  14. Ask him where he has worked before, who he has worked for in the past. If he name drops someone, contact this person and ask them about him. edit: spelling like a monkey without opposing digits.
  15. I think the water bath is agood idea, if you make a very light genoise, pour the creme pat on the bottom, and cover it up to where the creme pat is in water, and then you put your genoise mix on top of this and bake high. You could try making it cold water, this would possibly result in only the part above water being cooked, since genoise generally doesn't need a long time to cook. edit: and since the genoise mix is lighter than the creme patissier, it would not mix. So a marriage of all the brain storming here.
  16. Instead of baking the creme brulee, why don't you cook it like a crema catalana? Make a heavy pastry cream and just pour it on top of your cake and let it set in the fridge.
  17. It is my understanding that none of the above mentioned bacteria are anaerobic, therefore unable to multiply without oxygen, Sous Vide. And there is also case in point that toxins can be destroyed by cooking just like bacteria.
  18. Jalapeño, following Spanish pronounciation would be actually pronounced halapeenyo. In a word with no accent the stress is placed on the penultimate syllable, ha-la-PEE-nyo. Edit: Frame of reference México without the accent would be Me-HII-co.
  19. Karri

    Cooking for 26!

    If anything the army taught me the brilliance of a one-pot dish. If you have no aversion towards anchovies, combine raw potatoe that've been cut to sticks with chopped onion, anchovies and mix the oil from the anchovies with cream enough to cover the potatoes. Put all this in a bain marie and bake in the oven on medium heat until the potatoes are cooked. Any type of casserole would do the trick, just mix and match, so you can provide the starch, protein and sauce all in one.
  20. Was the roast beef in the first lunch delivered as is shown in the picture?
  21. Karri

    The IKEA Travesty

    Who wants generic brand when you had the possibility of the original. Most of the scandinavian food items are available also in my homecountry of Finland, and whenever I've felt homesick I would go pick up some Marabou or Leif or Fazer, and now I can't anymore... Well atleast in a while...
  22. I would imagine that dehydrated items would soak up more oil in the frying?
  23. Karri

    Crisp Pizza Crust

    Whatever recipe you are using, substitute about 20% flour with fine semola. This is the way a very succesfull pizzeria near me makes their delivery pizzas crispy even after a half an hour wait.
  24. As from a 'basics' standpoint. As you delve in deeper you will notice that historically the people in Asia did not have as much to go on, so they dusted almost all bits of 'meat' with a type of flour (rice, tapioca, etc) to make them more palatable, and it has the additional effect of thickening the sauce one is preparing. The Maillard reaction is not so much in use in Chinese cuisine, at least the ones I have had the chance to try. Secondly, as to the meagerness of the staple, the ratio of starch to meat is much higher. The best way to learn a cuisine is obviously a trip and complete immersion, you have the benefit that your in-laws are chinese, can you ask them to provide you with some recipes? And a list of ingredients that are needed? But yes, to understand another cuisine is to understand your own basics, and make a comparison from there. How are things prepared, chopping has an enormous impact on the flavor profile of the final dish. Ask your husband how vegetables are prepared, is meat cut across, with, or slightly angular to the grain.
  25. Karri

    Gimme an Herb ...

    I would recommend chervil. One might think it doesn't work, but it does, and it would give you a little "what's that?" factor as well
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