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Broken English

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  1. Broken English

    Fish Sauce

    I'm a big fan of 'Squid brand'.
  2. It was regular apple pectin. Can't recall the brand, but it's a common one from a dry goods supplier.
  3. So it's not necessarily a temperature thing? That seems odd to me, I should look into that. Whenever I've made jam in the past its been pectin free, but the recipe the groom wanted to use contained pectin. I know it was hydrated properly, there were no lumps and the jam was boiled solidly for about ten minutes with the pectin in. Upon passing it through a chinois it had clearly dissolved. One for the research file.
  4. I don't think that is necessary. In my Dad's baking oven the steam hit goes for ten seconds or so once you press the steam button, the moisture lasts long enough for the bread to kick up and become lighter. Any further moisture seems redundant to me.
  5. I found for a perfect set on my panna cotta (ie. set enough to stand on its own, but barely supporting itself) was 20g titanium strenght gelatine for every 2L cream. Gelatine brands vary by strength though I've found, so you're best experimenting with too little and re-melting and adding more if it's not to your liking.
  6. Don't know if this is the right topic or not, but I hope I'll get some form of logical answer anyway ... I was helping a good friend with the food prep for his wedding a while back. A day before the wedding, I made a blueberry jam using 3% pectin and canned it to give out as gifts at the wedding. On the day we went to check it, and found it had not set, so we explained on the night that it was a blueberry sauce. Fsst forward one week later and people are calling my friend saying the jam is amazing, and has the perfect set for spreading, and begging for the recipe. SO my question is, why did the jam set after a week in jars? Why did it not set in the days prior? I haven't used pectin before, but surely this isn't normal.
  7. You could create some serious artwork with those, worthy of a place at the flavourtown art gallery.
  8. Yes, I have. On several occasions when it was rather charming brasserie and once as 2*. This latter visit was great, interesting food, well cooked with many of the well-documented surprises and tricks. However, it was amateurish, sometimes inconsistent, slightly arrogant and self-important and certainly not world class by a country mile -- in fact, not even comparable to 2* in France. Anyway, before this thread goes completely off-topic, I'd like to restate my argument that Michelin's elevation of the FD was strategic rather than based on merit; that it was a reaction to the the 50 best list and the power of buzz in nations with weak culinary traditions, and that subsequent Michelin operations in the UK and US have tended to follow this reactive methodology, which, in gastronomic terms tends to make the guide of diminishing worth the further it strays from its French roots. If they're following trends set by 50 best why are so many top 50 restaurants, Noma included, only 2 star? Noma's topped the list almost as many times as El Bulli, the fact it's only 2 star puzzles me. I can only imagine it has to do with the more informal setting, which goes directly against Michelin's claim that the stars are solely for the food.
  9. Alex Stupak definately deserves the award. Empellon Cocina is amazing, especially for a restaurant that's only been open just over a year. Probably my favourite meal of last year.
  10. Dried fruit leaves me cold, I don't like the texture, and the flavour completely loses the freshness that I enjoy about fruit. Licorice and strong Aniseed flavours do nothing for me, and linger on the palate, ruining it for a length of time. I will also never understand the love for peppers (that's capsicum to us Aussies). Still, I can eat pretty much anything, and if these were on the plate I'd eat them, you just wouldn't catch me putting them there if the dish was for me.
  11. Steak in general. I find that these days anything more than about 4/5oz and I just get so bored of chewing. Plus, the last bits are usually getting cold and the fat is starting to congeal and leave a nasty residue on my palate.
  12. Well there you go. I really should explore Modernist Cuisine a little more.
  13. I assume you were cooking on gas and the flame was deflecting up the edges of the pan, heating the extremities more readily. I would think cooking over a lower set flame would fix this.
  14. The Black Hoof here in Toronto has both a horse tartare and horse charcuterie on their menu. The charcuterie is nothing to write home about, but the tartare is great, gamey yet subtle. Definately worth trying if you're at a restaurant with the balls to serve it.
  15. It's not a bad show, though it's not what I expected of Bourdain. For the comments re Nigella's weight, she came into Momofuku Noodle Bar TO the other night, she looked absolutely amazing. Especially given her age.
  16. There's 2lb of butter to 2lbs potato, so I really have no idea, it's already ludicrously shiny. It did give a nice gloss to the sunchoke dashi puree we made a while back though.
  17. It's odd to me to use Xanthan AND Ultratex. I switched from Xanthan to Ultratex for everything and never looked back. To be honest, I have no idea why we use both. I'll ask the question. I would think it's because the amount of xanthan would ruin the texture, so the ultratex is for thickening and the xanthan for stabilising.
  18. Not as long as it's fairly fluid. From my understanding the stabilisers help with emulsification and help the foam hold better, they're not for thickening.
  19. I've seen beer used in baked bean recipes before, it certainly did them no harm, they were delicious.
  20. The potato foam we make at work contains Xanthan gum, ultratex and lecithin. It's pretty stable, but not to a point where it stands up high, it tends to relax onto the plate.
  21. Thank you for your input. What do you mean by freeze-dried version? For me the biggest issue was that the Lucky Peach version calls for only 2.25kg chicken necks and not a lot of butchers will sell you that in bulk. I do not own one at the moment, but I was thinking that this recipe could be probably be sped up in a pressure cooker. Sorry, I skipped over the part when you mentioned the Lucky Peach version, and assumed you were referring to this ...
  22. Gail Simmons' cleavage is always a special time. Honestly though, Blais coming good on his potential and winning All Stars.
  23. I know that the broth we make at Noodle Bar TO is pretty much identical to the cookbook, with an added pigs head. The freeze dried version is way too expensive to be viable at the moment, the biggest saving for it is time.
  24. The best suggestion I can give is to try and learn about what is happening to your products as they're cooking, and try and work out what flavours the cooking will bring out of the products. To quote Raymond Blanc, "when making a stock, taste it every fifteen minutes, it will get to the point where it is delicious and if you cook it longer the flavours will die".
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