teonzo

Probably it's just a matter of the kind of chocolate. I suppose you are using a chocolate with more cocoa mass and less cocoa butter than the one used in the original. Is it written what kind of chocolate they are using, besides the %? Cluizel? Teo

Leave it where it is, as everything made by Ponti. They are one of the cheap companies here in Italy, their products are among the worst you can find in our supermarkets. Plus I would bet that their exported stuff is of lower quality than what they sell here. Teo

Thanks for posting this! This technique seems to have some fun potential! Teo

Uhm, this is not correct, Mjx wrote it right. Here in Italy the word "gelato" is simply a general definition for all that kind of preparations (water based, dairy + egg, only dairy, artisanal or industrial... everything). Most professionals look for medium/high overrun, not for low (if we are speaking about traditional gelato in Italy). Teo

Near Ostuni: Ristorante Da Gino Contrada Montevicoli, 57b 72013 Ceglie Messapica (Brindisi) http://www.ristorantedagino.it/ Ristorante Le Palme - Hotel Masseria Torre Maizza Contrada Coccaro 72015 Savelletri di Fasano (Brindisi) http://www.masseriatorremaizza.com/ Taverna della Torre Via San Quirico 3 72014 Cisternino (Brindisi) http://www.tavernadellatorre.it/ Hosteria Gia' Sotto l'Arco Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 71 72012 Carovigno (Brindisi) http://www.giasottolarco.it/ ------------------- Near Specchia: Pasticceria Arte Bianca via Don Sturzo 73052 Parabita (Lecce) Ristorante Lemì Via Vittorio Emanuele, 16 73039 Tricase (Lecce) http://www.ristorantelemi.it/ Ristorante Il Bastione Riviera Nazario Sauro, 28 73014 Gallipoli (Lecce) http://www.ilbastionegallipoli.it/ Ristorante LaltroBaffo Via Cenobio Basiliano, 23 73028 Otranto (Lecce) http://www.laltrobaffo.com/ Trattoria la Puritate Via S.Elia, 18 73014 Gallipoli (Lecce) U Purpitiellu corso Annibale Ugento di Torre San Giovanni (Lecce) I'll try to look for some more. Teo

Most probably you need to add some acid too, otherwise pectin won't gel properly. Teo

I was totally skeptical about this re-edition, thanks for confirming it's not worth any cent. Teo

Be careful if it's something like Gelatina Vegetal by Sosa: it works at different temperatures than standard gelatin (much higher, causing troubles if you want to make mousses), plus it is not suitable for freezing. Teo

Other books coming out this year: Marc Forgione - "Marc Forgione: Recipes and Stories from the Acclaimed Chef and Restaurant" Dan Barber - "The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food" Sean Brock - "Heritage" Teo

Some stuff from past year that went under my radar: Kris Goegebeur - "Fruity Pastry" Emmanuel Mollois - "Patissier" Jialin Tian - "Choux Temptations" Teo

If I were you I would avoid the feuilletine, just for a matter of overall balance considering the other tastes... If you add neutral oil to white chocolate then the result is obviously a sort of ganache. 10% is enough to start loosing the crunch of the tempered white chocolate. Other possible solutions are these ones: - brush a piece of parchment paper with a very thin layer of tempered white chocolate, immediately (it sets quickly) sprinkle it generously with dessicated coconut, then cut is with the needed shape for your entremet (in this way you get a very thin and crunchy layer, easy to cut, but being thin maybe you need to use more than 1 layer); - put some desiccated coconut in a bowl, add some untempered white chocolate (just enough to hold together the coconut), put some of this between 2 pieces of parchment paper, roll it to desired height (2 mm I'd say), cut it of needed shape (using untempered white chocolate will give you the desired firmness for this kind of layer). Teo

If you want to make fruit mousses then agar-agar gives some troubles due to temperatures: it starts gelling at 40°C, this is a bit too high when you need to fold in the whipped cream. The best substitute is cocoa butter, it works almost at the same temperatures as gelatin. About quantities, you need to multiply the gelatin quantity per 5 or 6. Example: if your recipe calls for 10 g of gelatin, then you can subsitute it with 50-60 g of cocoa butter. Teo

In Pãstryrevolution #5 (a great magazine on pastries and bread, if you can read Spanish language) there is an interview with Francisco Migoya where he says he is starting a project with Nathan Myhrvold. This seems like the beginning of the works for "Modernist Patisserie". This is a great news for me, an equivalent of "Modernist Cuisine" for pastry and baking would be a dream! Teo

Some more stuff: David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald, Alex Day - "Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails" This seems a must buy in cocktail books. Christopher Kostow - "Beyond the Vineyard: In Search of a Napa Valley Cuisine" I'm curious to see how much pages will deal with the restaurant and how much with the Valley. Gunnar Karl Gíslason, Jody Eddy - "North: The New Nordic Cuisine of Iceland" Same here, I'm curious to see how much will be dedicated to the restaurant and how much to Iceland. Per-Anders Jorgensen - "Eating with the Chefs" I'm not interested about the contents, but I'm sure it will include tons of great photos and good writing. Christian F. Puglisi - "Relæ: A Book of Ideas" This is a must buy for me, I really liked everything I've seen by Puglisi. Charles Phan - "The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food" I'll wait for some reviews before deciding. Teo

Some personal suggestions (based on my tastes). The most important thing is the potato variety, you need a "firm" one (don't know what's the correct term in English language, plus I don't know how to translate the potato variety names), meaning potatoes that are quite dry after cooking, so they will absorb less flour possible. The best way to cook potatoes for gnocchi is baking them on a baking tray covered with salt. Salt will tend to absorb the potatoes' humidity, so you'll end up with the drier cooked potatoes possible. The best way to make the potato puree is passing the cooked potatoes through the finest sieve possible. In this way the puree will be finer than with the other methods (resulting in better gnocchi texture) and you will loose another good amount of residual humidity. Food mills or "potato mashers" (don't know the English term for that specific tool) are the traditional tools used to prepare gnocchi, but they give a worse result than a fine sieve. Just after sieving the potatoes, spread the potato puree as thin as possible, so it will loose more humidity and will cool down sooner. Move it every minute and dry the condensation that formed on the surface before spreading again the potato puree over it. Adding the yolk(s) will help getting a plastic dough (easier to handle while forming the gnocchi), but will result in more flour to be used. I much prefer to avoid using yolks. You just need to add a bit of flour, mix the dough, add some flour again until you get a manageable dough, then form the gnocchi. If you follow all these steps then you can get a dough with as low as 10% flour (10% of the weight of the cooked potato puree). The higher % of potatoes in the final dough, the better tasting gnocchi you will get. Avoid using bread flour, you need flour with low gluten content. Don't add salt to the gnocchi dough, salt the cooking water as when you cook pasta. Some nutmeg (just a pinch, not to be noticed) is always a good addiction to the gnocchi dough. Teo

If you already know what frame (length, width and depth) you can fill with a given recipe, and you need to scale down that recipe for another frame (different length, width and depth), then you just need to calculate the ratio between the 2 volumes. Simple example: you have a recipe for a pate de fruits that fills a 60 cm x 40 cm x 2 cm frame (let's say these measures are for a standard pate de fruits slab), you want to scale it down to fill a 40 cm x 40 cm x 0.7 cm frame (let's say this is for a 2 layers praline). The first recipe gives you a volume of 60x40x2 cm^3 = 4800 cm^3. you want to get a volume of 40x40x0.7 cm^3 = 1120 cm^3. The ratio is 1120/4800 = 0.2333 . So you just need to take the first recipe, then multiply all the weights by 0.2333. If you don't know what volume you get with the first recipe, then you have 2 ways. First one: you already know a recipe that fills your second (desired) frame. Calculate the amount of sugars (this is valid only for pate de fruits) in this recipe (the one that fills the second frame), remembering to consider also the sugars in the fruit puree. Calculate the amount of sugars in the first recipe, then make the ratio in the same way as above. This method is not 100% correct since different sugars have different densities, plus there are the other solids in the fruit purees, but it gives you a good approximation to start with. Second one: you don't know what kind of frame you fill with a given recipe, plus you don't have a recipe that fills exactly your wanted frame. In this case you are forced to make a first batch and see what you get. Teo

There are various "standard" sizes for pre-made frames: 34x27 cm; 40x40 cm; 60x40 cm... If the recipe/book doesn't tell the measures, then you can only guess which is the correct size by checking the total weight of the ingredients. Not much of a help, I know. Teo

You get some recipes on the official website: http://www.pacojet.com/en/recipes/ Pacojet is more versatile than a standard churning machine, you can get good results even if your recipe is quite out of the standard balance (much less sugars, less fats and so on). Usually all recipes that work with a churning machine work perfectly with a Pacojet too. About sorbets you can drastically reduce the sugars ratio, just give a look at the official recipes. Teo

What's most dubious about this inspection is the violation described as "no hand-washing facility or soap near the food prep area and hot and cold items". It's quite hard to think that Per Se changed their kitchen set-up after the previous inspections. So, if previous inspections declared that the kitchen set-up was ok, why should there be a violation now? Teo

Then it seems that the problem lies in how you freeze and defrost them. There should be no need to let them set in the refrigerator before freezing them, you should try to put them immediately in the freezer. Pay attention on how you defrost them, if you get the same problem with 2 different recipes then it sounds more like a problem of condensation during defrosting. Teo

The main problem is given by the egg whites, you whip them at hard peaks and without making them stable (Italian meringue). You end up overwhipping and overmixing them while you mix your batters, in this way the whites separate a bit and you get the mushy effect. Plus you have the troubles of using raw eggs (unless you pasteurize them or use already pasteurized eggs, but doesn't seem so if you talk about separating them). I would try a simpler and quicker recipe, like this one: 350 g dark chocolate 70% 350 g cream 500 g cream Make a ganache with the chocolate and the first amount of cream. If your chocolate has a different % then you need to re-balance the ganache, Wait until the ganache cools to 35°C, then add the second amount of cream (whipped to soft peaks). This mousse is stable and really easy to make. When you make mousses and similars you always have to whip your stuff to soft peaks and not to hard peaks, this way it will be much easier to mix the batters and you will avoid overwhipping and overmixing troubles (mostly resulting in air/volume loss and separation). Teo

If you can read French then there is this one: Délicieux macarons salés by Christophe Felder Teo

Dave, thanks for the blog (just finished reading, can't comment there since it's closed) and for opening this thread. I really appreciated that in these weeks of complaints about the scarcity of blogs on this forum (and so on) you just took the ball and started rolling. You showed a nice pair of b***s and confirmed it with your life resume. I really hope you will continue writing some more anecdotes, it seems like you have a boatload of them in your bag. If I can ask for something, then I would be really glad if you could write some stories about your years in SF, with the rise of Chez Panisse and so on. Thanks. Teo

I've ordered a LED globe (cool white, 5500-6000K) from an Amazon.it marketplace seller (costed 15 euro including shipping), hopefully I'll receive it in the next days. Now I'm using just two pieces of cardboard with some aluminum foil taped over it, I'm keeping the cheap route to see what I'm able to learn and what results I'll get. While surfing on Amazon I've seen a set composed of 2 umbrellas (each one with a CFL bulb) and a big reflector screen (about 7 x 5 feet), it costs 120 euro. Maybe I'll consider it if I'll see I'm able to get quality pictures. BTW, here is my last photo: http://www.teonzo.com/immagini/cake_dolciviaggio/crostata_patatedolci_mandorle_favetonka.jpg I made it this way: - sunny day (one of the last until next spring I suppose), about 1 pm, table placed under a window facing South with a white curtain to diffuse the direct sunlight; - placed a big sheet of white paper over the table, then set the white balance on the camera (luckily my cheap camera has this option); - placed the pie on the paper (with something underneath to not be in direct contact, of course); - placed the 2 homemade reflectors (if I consider South as 90° then I put them at 30° and 120°); - put the tripod in place, set the camera at ISO 80, shutter speed 1/60, self-timer at 2 seconds (to avoid shatterings after clicking the button). The only manipulation of the photo was resizing and saving it as jpg, I didn't change/touch anything else. I'm quite happy with the result, now I need to find out if it was a lucky shot or if I'm really starting to learn. If you wonder what the pie is, from bottom to top it's made of: - Tonka bean flavoured shortcrust; - sweet potato "jam" (don't know how to translate it in English); - almond crumble. Teo

I don't know which varieties you have in the USA, but here in Europe chestnuts are divided into 2 main groups: "castagna" and "marrone" in Italian language, or "châtaigne" and "marron" in French language. I'm ignorant, but as far as I know both of them are translated as "chestnuts" in English language, never found a distinction between the two. Castagna / châtaigne is usually smaller, tastier, there are 2 or 3 inside the shell, it's a real PITA to peel since the skin goes far deep into the flesh in a lot of zones; they are used mainly to prepare the chestnut flour or dried chestnuts. Marrone / marron is usually bigger, less tasty, there is only 1 inside the shell, it's much easier to peel; they are used mainly to prepare marrons glaces, chestnut jam and all the other uses in pastry. So if the ones you got were "castagna" and not "marrone", then there was not much you could do, peeling them is a nightmare. If you roast them then a good tip is putting them in a bowl (just after roasting) and cover them with a towel for some minutes, in this way the humidity will help a bit to detach the skin. Teo