Mjx

From what I've seen, it's used interchangeably with 'riso originario', which is short grain and very starchy, holds together very well, and can get very porridge-y when cooked (i.e. not great in risotto, more information here, http://www.cucinaitaliana.info/riso/riso-qualit%C3%A0-tipi-chicchi-immagini/riso-qualit%C3%A0-cosa-%C3%A8-fotografie-descrizione.htm, which you can run through a translator; there's not much text for it to make a mess of)

I'm fairly certain that enough gelatin to stabilize would also change the texture; I'd expect it to be a bit marshmallowy. Might almost make sense to go with a different dessert, but if your crowd is not super-uptight, I doubt anyone would care if the texture is untraditional for tiramisu.

Gelatin might stabilize the zabaglione, but it will change its texture, too, which could be a problem (e.g. I think most Italians would notice the difference, and not be thrilled with it, since tiramisu is expected to be a bit loose, not tight and firm).

Simultaneously with the reflexive gagging over the joint presence of 'yummy' and 'tummy', I thought 'Right. Must be popular with predators that prefer to kill their prey by eviscerating it, and eating the innards first..? I mean, who else would care how your stomach tastes?'

Unless most of your guests will be self-styled 'gourmets' or 'foodies' (in which case, I recommend simply doing what works, then pounding a couple of glasses of something potently alcoholic immediately before the first guests arrive), guests at a holiday dinner tend to arrive expecting to enjoy themselves, and eat too much, so don't put too much pressure on yourself. The amount of food seems fine for the number of guests you'll have, and if you have any lingering doubts, go ahead and cook some pasta and some marinara sauce. The vegetarians will appreciate it, and if there are none, anyone who is still 'hungry' (i.e. hasn't already eaten him or herself into a coma) will. In addition to whatever else I make, I usually include a large, undressed salad composed of the more robust salad greens. Even if nobody touches it (and usually, one or two people will decide to have a go at it, to break up their three colossal helpings of meat and starch), it will still be quite edible the next day, when you may have little inclination to prepare food or eat it. Your menu sounds great, don't panic

It's really straightforward, no mystery: these are two different techniques that give two different results when it comes to biscuit texture. This just sounds peculiar, unless the biscuits in question aren't actually specific types, but broad categories (e.g. 'Christmas biscuits' or 'sweet biscuits'). pbear's suggestion is a good one: post a couple of links demonstrating what you mean by 'sometimes from the same chef you see two recipes for the same product with different mixing methods.'.

Both techniques are 'ideal'/'right' for different things: You'd typically cream butter if you're making softer, cake-like buiscuits, and cut-in butter for things like shortbread. Usually, if you cream butter, you cream it with sugar, then the rest of the ingredients are combined with that, in one sequence or another, so you get a somewhat wet mixture. When butter is cut-in, it's usually into flour, which yields small bits of butter, each of which is surrounded by flour, which is somewhat coated by butter; when the other ingredients are added, they usually include minimal liquid, so the mixture is firmer, and usually not intended to rise much.

Regarding the term 'Scandinavian', maybe (although I've never heard anyone in Denmark express a distaste for the term), but 'nordisk' is used to mean the exact same thing (and of course, 'det er meget mere moderne'), and when it comes to acknowledging the many similarities of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish food/shared culinary traditions, that's widely accepted.

God, YES. And, yes, 'yummie/yummy' and 'tummy'. Baby talk from adults is just plain creepy, why is there such an uptick in it?! <Blergh>

I'd start the pearl barley, using appropriate the amount of water, then, at the 20-minute mark, add the rice and the amount of water for that, boiled (so you don't lower the temperature), give it another 25 minutes and then let it rest. You'll probably need to fine-tune it a bit to get it exactly the way you want it, but this should give fairly decent results (this is the way I proceed when I'm doing this sort of thing, and prefer to keep it all in one pot).

You might have better luck just doing a really thick layer of the powder mix, since I suspect oil might make things a little pasty. In the meantime, here, there is no snow at all. Things are looking a bit dingy, as you'll see. Today, I went on a hunt for salt. Special salt, to be precise, a smoked salt so amazing that I'd scraped out the last remaining grains the other day, and was grieving. The man who makes and sells it shows up at the Ingerslevs Boulevard greenmarket, on Saturdays, sometimes: today seemed a bit iffy, since it's been bloody cold, and he is not a young man. I hopped on the bus, and headed into the centre. The greenmarket looked more or less the same as it did when I last posted images of it (so, I won't duplicate them), except for the plants for sale were skewed more towards holiday greenery and poinsettias for people to kill over the holidays, and everyone was freezing their nads off. Sadly, the salt man was not there. I wandered off, and while festively gnawing on a chicken-skewer-thingie from 7-11, I noticed some holiday platters waiting for pickup in a the window of a delicatessen. At this point, it occurred to me that the salt man might well be at the Christmas Market, so I headed over there. Immediately inside the entrance to the Christmas Market (housed in the old cavalry training building) are some tables, and some food service; it was crowded, but this doesn't begin to suggest how packed the place was: I ploughed my way around the place twice, and had just concluded that the salt man wasn't here, either, when I saw my goal. But, would he have the salt I sought?! He did Then I headed home, and we prised this from today's window of the Advent calendar:

Wouldn't this simply be 'marinading'? Whatever you call it, It would probably just make the outer portion of the meat (the only part it would penetrate) kind of mushy; if you want the cider flavour in the meat, you'd be better off using the cider as [part of] a braising liquid.

Do you find a definite difference when you soak the fruit more for an extended period, as oppose to a week or less? since the fruit can absorb liquid for only so long until it is saturated, I'm guessing it's a question of aging..? That's about twice the size of the one I've got maturing, but you should be fine; I steamed mine for 8 hours, by the way. The only place I've been able to source suet in Denmark is the slaughterhouse. This can be a bit overwhelming, since their attitude is 'Take lots! We've got plenty more!', and they hand over a warm, bloody, several-kilo bag you hope won't leak, and is a bit of a project to render in one go. Still, you'll have very attractively-priced suet for ages (I keep it in the freezer), and a certain sense of accomplishment.

Are you making a large one or a bunch of small ones? I always use the recipe from this site, http://pudding.denyer.net/ I've found it really flexible, and it's reliably given great results, regardless of whatever experiments I may try.

I've concluded that 'Some of these look kind of dingy, but that's liquorice powder, seriously, they're tasty, and the black things are liquorice granules, not dirt' is way too long and unpretentious sounding, so in honour of the city that spawned me, I present 'Homage to NYC Snows' <cough>: Incidentally, pictures (and a few patches of sticky residue on the kitchen counters) are all that remain of these, since they were consumed at a speed that was astonishing. This is one damn good, super-reliable recipe (i.e. thank you, David Lebowitz).

This (6th image from the bottom, here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/138044-my-last-and-anyones-best-shot-at-elbulli/?p=1804527): http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/monthly_04_2011/post-1-0-74185800-1302345749.jpg There is something absolutely perfect-looking about that, and I'm dying to have a go at making it myself.

What Quesmoy said. I'm fairly certain that using whatever marshmallow recipe you usually use (I love David Lebovitz's recipe), and reducing the length of the final beating/mixing (i.e. when all the components have been combined) would do the trick. I'm basing this on the fact that the first time I made marshmallow, I underbeat, and it never really set up firmly, and whenever I overbeat, the marshmallow sets up much more quickly.

In the spirit of upholding the apparently transcultural, overarching, winter holiday tradition of making more sweets than anyone can reasonably eat, I made a bunch of marshmallows. No food colour, BUT it turned out to be semi-irrelevant, because I didn't use that 'powder'. At least, not as I'd intended. I pulled up a recipe that I'd tried previously and liked, and set to work. I'd decided to not use the liquorice powder in the marshmallows, but on them, and flavoured the marshmallow itself with some anise extract and a tiny bit of vanilla powder. Mixing went smoothly, if stickily, and after covering half the bottom of the pan with half powdered sugar/rice starch, I reached for the liquorice powder, to cover the other half. At this point, I discovered that the liquorice powder is not powder, but...granules..? Black (which I like), and sort of crunchy, coarser than powder. Can't possibly use that, texture is just wrong, damndamndamn. Right. I have some other liquorice powder, which I know to BE powder (from shaking the still unopened can). This takes about ten minutes to find. A surreptitious swipe at the marshmallow indicates that it's setting up surprisingly fast. In the bowl. So. The liquorice powder is YELLOW. Ochre, if we're being precise. Whatever. I dust it over the unpowdered half the pan, and begin to scoop the surprisingly firm proto-marshmallow into the pan. At this point, the spatula breaks. Of course I have no other spatula, I have a laughably over-curated selection of kitchen utensils, and this single, simple, elegant double-ended spatula is all I ever deemed necessary (I'm fairly certain I hear kitchen gods giggling at my hubris, and calling their friends over to watch). Undaunted, I grab the nearest flat-surfaced tool, and scoop the now semi-solidified glop into the pan in chunky blobs. I didn't want to not use the liquorice granules, so I sprinkled them over half the marshmallows. It looks kind of like dirt. Because I'm a complete idiot To satisfy my 'scientitific curiosity' (the same curiosity that prompted me to investigate a 220V electrical outlet with a hairpin when I was about 2), I scrape a few blobs of marshmallow directly into some naked (i.e. no powdered sugar/cornstarch/liquorice powder, no cooking spray, nothing) silicone moulds, just to see what will happen (I'm predicting that they'll need to be scraped out of the wells with an espresso spoon). Setbacks notwithstanding, this stuff tastes amazingly good, and is extremely worth making.

Thanks: I tried rolling, but the marzipan stuck to the silicone paper, and the foil, and the cling wrap, and would not sit/stay in wells. I even tried using the rigid clear plastic sheet stuck to the back of of the mould, in case that was what it was for, and the marzipan stuck to that. To make things worse, this spectacularly non-stick mould deforms more easily than marzipan or fondant that is firm enough to hold that level of detail. Regarding the temperature, what you say makes a lot of sense (plenty of silicone withstands really high temperatures). Going to have to try some poured pieces.

All things being equal, would you prefer to make the syrup, or buy it? If you prefer to buy, and the DK Starbucks don't sell it, Torani makes a product that has a virtually identical ingredient profile (i.e. condensed milk+sugar syrup+flavours [most likely cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt]), and of course, you can get either of these on Amazon.

I was thinking of piped or moulded marshmallows (I'm in luck, I have the blood pressure of a hibernating tortoise), since I noticed that I have a lot of eggwhite sitting about. I'm wondering whether there's any way to really work that dingy brown you get, though.

Anyone have tips for using soft, solid silicone moulds, like this one? It's very soft and flexible: I got it because I loved the idea of being able to make decorative leaves from marzipan or fondant, but despite the fact that the 'instructions' (which merely note that the mould is suitable for marzipan, rolled fondant, and all cold moulding) indicate that this is exactly what it is for, I've had no luck getting anything into the moulds: it sticks to my fingers/spatula, but not even a little bit to the mould. Since pouring anything warm into these is apparently contraindicated, I can't imagine how the hell to use these, and I can't find any instructions or discussion of this online (I checked in both English and German, since this is made by a German company, Städer). Suggestions? Anyone have any luck with these?

Use the rule of three, and you can figure it out in a couple of minutes

I'd say 'no', but that's probably unfair of me, since it's a matter of personal taste (and I grew up in a country where coffee is generally frowned upon if it is anything other than coffee-flavoured). Somehow, though, pumpkin in coffee sounds like a regrettable idea, although I can get behind adding spices. Just to establish a baseline, Iød say it's worth the drive to Århus (yeh, I know, I know) and try Starbucks' actual offering: there are two Starbucks, one in Salling and one In Storcenter Nord, and as far as I know both are open 7 days a week at this time of year, if making it on a weekday is an impossiblilty (but park at the harbour, if you go to Salling, their parking garage is a nightmare these days). ETA Supposedly, the pumpkin sauce Starbucks sells on its own is the same stuff they use in their coffee drinks, Fontana pumpkin sauce.

As far as I can make out, 'Napoleon' has no legal significance when applied to brandy. I may be wrong; my conclusion is based on a brief online search (aka 'Google') for "Napoleon brandy". My search mostly revealed that fine chains such as Aldi sell the stuff, so I think it's safe to conclude that they put the 'Napoleon' on the bottle because the head of marketing said she didn't care how damn ironic the art department guys are feeling, they can't use 'Fancy pants' on the label, and that's final.