Mjx
-
Posts
7,621 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Mjx
-
-
Tempura, with a couple of thickish sauces that guests can portion out onto themselves, and won't run all over the plate?
-
My first thought on reading the amounts involved was, 'that seems like a lot of sodium citrate', and I see that it's the amount given in MCaH, but it still seems high. Anyone know why this amount is used?
-
The tins may be a better bet, since those are actually opaque: http://www.herbco.com/c-9-herbal-supplies.aspx
-
What ways are there to skin almonds?
There's blanching, which is easy and efficient, and there are other methods that I no longer recall, apart from the fact that they put me in a terrible mood, wasted my time, and I ended up blanching the wretched things anyway, to get most of the (still-firmly-adhering) skin off. I believe they were described as having the advantage of keeping the almonds dry (I cannot remember why I even cared about that), but you can shove them in the oven and dry them at a low temperature if that's crucial.
I cannot bring myself to resurrect the feelings of frustration and rage that the other methods inspired, so I'm not going to hunt them up, but an online search for "skinning almonds without blanching" should yield a handful of ways to waste a perfectly good afternoon and spoil your mood
-
For about a decade, I've made a sandwich bread that yields a good-sized loaf from 500g flour, 10g yeast, 350-400ml/g water (depending on how slack I want the dough), and 3g salt. The addtion of 50+g butter or olive oil makes it really tender. I usually use spelt flour, but the recipe is flexible enough to work well with every sort of flour or flour combination I've thrown at it.
This yields a tasty loaf in a 2-hour turnaround time, about half an hour for each rise (but it becomes amazing with longer rises).
I often spread out the dough to about 1.5cm and cook it on a sheet pan to make schiacciata, which adds some variety to my boyfriend's packed lunches.
I've scaled this recipe to make up four loaves (the most I've made in a go, for a party), and the results are the same as for the single-loaf recipe.
Mjx, for about how much time, and at what temperature, should this be baked? Does the answer change if it's flattened to make schiacciata? If so, what would the new numbers be?
Oops. Sorry about the omission.
If I'm baking a standard loaf, I preheat the oven to 225C° (437F°), give the bread 20 minutes (with convection; this is standard in Danish ovens), then reduce the temperature to 200C° (392F°), and give it another 25 minutes.
If I'm slammed with work and minutes mean everything, I just preheat to 200C°, shove in the bread, set the timer for 50 minutes, and it's still fine.
If my schedule is not so hectic, I preheat the oven with a cast iron pan in, then, after I've put in the bread, I fill the pan with water; this comes out at the 20 minute mark, when I adjust the temperature. If you have an oven with a steam setting, you're in luck.
To be honest, I don't usually check the internal temperature, but when I do, I'm looking for a minimum of 95C° (about 200F°), which yields a darker, crustier bread; 90C° (about 195F°) would give the just-golden-brown surface that is more characteristic of American sandwich bread (going with just 200C°/392F° would probably help yield this result, too; although you might want to brush the top with milk).
I've used loaf pans of varying sizes and shapes, and have found they yield loaves that are more or less the same, without any adjustment to time or temperature.
If I'm making schiacciata, I give it 25 minutes at 225C° (437F°), but keep an eye on it, since the Husqvarna oven from the mid-80s that I'm using these days is prone to random heat spikes (it's also 15 to 35C° off, depending on temperature used, how long it's been on, etc), so it can suddenly incinerate things with no warning.
-
In which case while it's not necessary for removing the skins, you may want to go with longer boils anyway. Are there actually any alternative ways of blanching besides what we've discussed here?
Since blanching involves a shortish dip in boiling water, essentially, there's just the one way to do it. I've come across different ways of skinning almonds (one involved some sort of toasting, and was an aggravating failure).
I haven't found that leaving the almonds in for longer than half a minute makes any difference to ease of skinning; i just chuck them in the boling water, wait half a minute, pull one out to see whether or not I can skin it, drain, spread them cool a bit, and get on with the skinning.
-
I add a pinch of nutmeg to most meat dishes, especially game; it seems to balance, and sort of round out any excessive gaminess, and I like what it does in all sorts of soups. Also, I often add a pinch to coffee and hot chocolate (also, eggnog, of course; in case you appreciate silly warnings, don't give eggnog to your pets). When I've had mace, I've used it in the exact same way.
If you keep your stash in the freeze, it should stay fresh a long time.
-
Beef dust!
When I ate at the CIA, I had the roast beef something-or-other, and part of the reason I chose it was because one of the ingredients was 'beef dust' (or 'powder', perhaps? It was half a year ago, i'm a bit hazy on this now, although i do recall this being excellent and ultra-beef-y). I'd experiment with this by roasting or microwaving it until it's completely hard and dry, and grinding it in something you either are certain can handle it, or don't care about too much (I have a hunch that proteing fibres, even when dead dry, may present a challenge to the ordinary grinder).
-
Sounds like it might be good in larb.
-
For about a decade, I've made a sandwich bread that yields a good-sized loaf from 500g flour, 10g yeast, 350-400ml/g water (depending on how slack I want the dough), and 3g salt. The addtion of 50+g butter or olive oil makes it really tender. I usually use spelt flour, but the recipe is flexible enough to work well with every sort of flour or flour combination I've thrown at it.
This yields a tasty loaf in a 2-hour turnaround time, about half an hour for each rise (but it becomes amazing with longer rises).
I often spread out the dough to about 1.5cm and cook it on a sheet pan to make schiacciata, which adds some variety to my boyfriend's packed lunches.
I've scaled this recipe to make up four loaves (the most I've made in a go, for a party), and the results are the same as for the single-loaf recipe.
-
2
-
-
Would something like these work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ten-10-Vintage-Small-White-Glass-Jars-with-Screw-On-Metal-Lids-1-75-034-Square-/291137472931?nma=true&si=ZetqI%252BSJBYD3%252Bw%252BDKRky9g%252FIaR4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
What is your kitchen aesthetic, by the way?
We currently have an ultra-modern, all-white kitchen under construction, and these jars I linked to would not be out of place in it.
-
That's the way it's come out when I've made it; I'd describe that as 'dense' (i.e. way, way more dense the devil's food cake recipe I have), although I'd also go with 'extremely rich'. It looks deliciious.
-
I make elderflower cordial, but the forms I'm familiar (Danish ones) with aren't fermented.
I follow the ingredient ratios, but do more prep (I snip the florets of the stems, so there's minimal stem material in the mix), I use a much larger amount of flowers and other ingredients per volume of water, and I use a far shorter steepng time, overnight, at the longest, since there seemed to be no logic in a long steep for such delicate and raw material. This makes for something that is intensely flower-forward, since the stems aren't contributing the slightly rank, crushed-plant scent.
-
The cloud cake is extremely good, but it's definitely more dense than the devil's food cake in question, which is more or less like a sponge cake in texture.
-
Well, I'll be making a chocolate cake for Skt Hans aften, but using ATK's Devil's food cake recipe, and a bunch of pistachio...mass (?) between the layers; probably some sort of ganache over the top. Strawberries and cream on the side.
That Devil's food cake recipe has been repeatedly requested by everyone who's had it, definitely have to hand it to ATK for nailing it; it's lighter than [proper] brownies or kladdkaka (which I find essentially identical), but has an equally intense chocolate flavour.
-
If it tastes 'pretty awful', I doubt there's any way to make this work for you; the name strongly suggests the sort of thing designed exclusively to get inexperienced girls and women drunk (i.e. the only things that matter are sugar and alcohol content), and those tend to be bad news if you have any tastebuds.
-
I should have been more specific. When I wrote that, I assumed it was just one type of veg; that obvi doesn't hold true if it's a bunch of different veg. If it were a bunch of different veg, I'd probably start with the denser veg first, then add the rest at different times, ending with the least dense a few minutes prior to service.
When you have an assortment of vegetables, do you ever steam or microwave some of the harder ones first?
-
In addition to what Anna said above, you'll need to make sure that the vegetables are all cut the same size. If they're cut (or chopped or diced) the same size, they'll all cook at the same rate.
I find that isn't the case, since something dense, like carrots, takes far longer too cook than something with a softer/looser structure, like mushrooms or bell pepper. Even if you're sauteeing just root vegetables, if you cut them all the same size, some will be far less cooked through than others (which is fine, if you're okay with that).
-
2
-
-
When you sautee vegetables (or anything else), the pan has to be hot enough, and whatever you're sauteeeing has to be prepped to the right size, to achieve the right level of doneness, which will depend on both the specific ingredient, and you personal preferences. But a properly heated pan is a must.
-
1
-
-
I'm dealing with a similar situation in Denmark. After doing some math to figure out which pans had measurements that actually gave the same baked-good surface area (i.e. in this case, similar surface to volume ratios), and which gave significantly different surface areas, I found that often, simply following the recipe worked out fine, even for a slightly different pan; I check for doneness 10 minutes before the item is actually supposed to be done.
If the result was a bit underdone (sometimes happens when the surface area is smaller than you'd get when using the recommended pan), on subsequent occasions I've lowered the temperature 10C/50F, and extended the baking time by about ten minutes (my US cookbooks are now heavily annotated).
-
I see star anise listed as in ingredient in pastis (i.e. a non-Asian application), and when I want an intense anise flavour, I often at least boost the regular anise with star anise, so even if it is not traditionally used, I don't think it would hurt the overall feel of the flavour profile.
-
Olive oil is my go-to, since it's what I grew up with, and seems 'normal'. I also use a fair amount of grape-seed oil, since I'm with liuzhou in finding olive oil very wrong for Chinese dishes (also, for several other cuisines/dishes). I keep rendered duck fat in a little cup of it in the fridge, but tend to save it for special things, since I never have that much of it.
-
I cook alone most of the time and for just me. Yet I find myself adhering pretty closely to the rules of good hygiene. But it's not necessarily a sign of sainthood. The odd time I have tried to drink milk from a carton I have ended up drenched in milk.
I tried that once when I was a kid, but with orange juice, and managed only to pour most of the quart down the front of my nine-year-old self. Mess took ages to clean, and it was difficult to remain nonchalant when my parents wondered about the floor being sticky.
-
1
-
-
As I said, I bought one of those cheap ($10) eBay pocket scales.
I have a set of laboratory calibrated weights for a balance. I used those to check the digital scale.
The cheap scale was very accurate.
I replaced the batteries in the scale with much weaker old batteries, and the measurements were still accurate.
dcarch
I don't know what my scale cost (and didn't look it up), because it was a gift; I'm guessing with a 10-year warranty, it probably doesn't fall into the 'cheap' category, but that wasn't a dig at cheap scales, it's simply that this model is the only scale of this sort I've used, and it's a good one.
My points were A) sitting the scale on a flat surface is apparently important to ensure accuracy, but might not be possible, and B) I wasn't getting why the level of precision that would involve a pocket scale was crucial, particularly since most places have a minimum amount they'll sell of most goods.
Cold Shrimp Hors D'Oeuvre
in Cooking
Posted
Okay. How about something that that starts from the paradigm of Rice Crispie treats, but with smallish shrimp instead of puffed rice?
I'm envisioning something intensely shrimpy and savoury, slightly moist, easily cut into cubes, and eatable as finger food, even if there are no plates, but only tiny paper napkin. Contrasting a crisp/firm/puffed texture and a slightly moist binder, just enough to hold together the other element, and perhaps add another layer of flavour. Avoiding a gummy/rubbery texture would be important, but I'm fairly certain this would be doable, especially with the assist of modernist ingredients. And, it would definitely not be your run-of-the-mill shrimp hors d'oeuvre, although the flavours used could be the traditional shrimp cocktail ones, essentially de- and reconstructing it.
This might even be a way to present shrimp in a way that is attractive to not only shrimp appreciators, but also the shrimp-averse, if their main issue is related to texture.
ETA It might be interesting if the phases were inverted, that is, the solid shrimp were the softer part, and the fluid binder was crunchy, although the only binder I can immediately think of that would set up crunchy is caramelized sugar, and that would not work.