raybeezbabee

I make aiolis and various emulsions many, many times a day. I am not a home cook. There is no problem here. Just use proper mayonaisse technique, use a light oil, fold in the lemon rind and you're done. I still can't tell why this is a topic of conversation.

Do you do anything to the lemons before using them in the aioli? Do you make them yourself or buy them? Yes, I do blanch the brunoise preserved lemon very quickly. Regarding salt content, I also curing them entirely surrounded by salt with only a little bit of lemon juice. I am 100% sure that lemon or curing technique is not your problem. One thing that I've noticed is that olive oil does not maintain emulsions as well as oils with less solids, though I have no scientific evidence to back that up. You should not be using olive oil in a basic aioli anyhow. I would stick to grapeseed oil or canola and drizzle VERY slowly for the first bit of oil and then speed up as the emulsion gets going. Mayonaisse technique is your problem here, not ingredients.

The preserved lemons are not your problem. I make preserved lemon beurre blanc and preserved lemon aioli regularly in the restaurant and both emulsify like normal.

I want to get one of the japanese veg turning slicers but I'm not sure which are garbage and which are good. Thomas Keller recommends this one but it is very expensive for us to do an occasional little garnish with. There are a variety on Amazon but I'm unsure of their quality. Can anyone recommend one and its supplier?

most people order it as "bahn mee." the accent, ive noticed, moves. i usually accent the second word.

I owe a big debt of gratitude to EatNopales and Katie. The Jose Garces book is a major help and working with another chef who grew up eating latin food doesn't hurt. Because I'm still in the "starving artist" stage of my career, it will be about a week or two until I feel comfortable enough to buy all those Spanish language books but I am thrilled to know what's up in that field. For now, I am a chef in a Latin fine dining kitchen and feeling my way through the cuisine. It makes me very happy that eGullet is around. Thanks guys! And keep the recommendations coming if something strikes you!

I'm not sure what you're looking for. You just need to cook in enough kitchens and taste as much food as you can. If you don't immediately know the textures of foods and how to create those textures in various product, you just need to work under more chefs with a greater knowledge of product.

I'll post in here just so I can be hilariously reminded when you find your recipe book that slid behind the desk or was shelved with old equipment manuals on an unused shelf.

Can you explain your (or Hazan's) thinking on this a little bit? It doesn't really make scientific sense to me but what do I know.

Thanks, EatNopales! That does help quite a bit! Can you recommend any english language books on modern latin food? I found it impossible to navigate the Larousse site but even specific books in Spanish will help a little. Anyone else want to chime in and recommend some print material in English?

"Melted" is a fairly widely accepted modern cooking technique and not an invention of word-play. It means to cook a vegetable long but without searing or caramelizing it; sort of the equivalent of "caramelized onions" but without allowing the veg to take on any color. Even in very classical french menus, you will see "melted leek," etc.

Jose Andres, in his reply to this thread, mentions working on a minibar book. Does anyone know if such a book was ever completed and released? I cannot find it.

I'm in consideration for a position at a Latin small plates restaurant and need to bone up on examples of "modernizing" traditional Central & South American food. Can anyone more experienced in this area recommend books or blogs on latin cuisine using contemporary platings and variations on the traditional stuff?

A very nice blog to read; made me fondly remember my time in the midwest and the fact that every US region has awesome food opportunities, even if fine dining is mostly restricted to a few cities.

Can everyone please detail the model names, etc of their equipment and mention whether or not they'd recommend them and why? I can identify a few but not all of these things. Thanks!

Sorry to say that I think you are all weird but I might also be weird. I like every part of a pizza slice and my primary way of eating is to balance my bites from front-of-slice to back-of-slice; i.e.: on my first bite from the front of the slice, I also take a bite from the crust in order to achieve a balance of crustiness, cheese and sauce. These sorts of things change DRASTICALLY when you consider that much of the country (like the midwest, etc) has nothing even slightly comparable to either ny/nj pizza or italian style pizza. The types of "pizza" in those regions is probably more properly eaten in other ways.

Blanching the basil keeps the final product significantly brighter in color and lengthens its shelflife.

I share LisaShock's conception of rice in salt; it is a mild desiccant and a mild breaker-upper of clumps.

I'm currently steeping the zest of 18 lemons in 100ml of Smirnoff 100 proof. I put the wife on the job of microplaning lemons and walked back in to see about one pint of zest and five lemons down (she was zesting far into the pith, unfortunately). It's been about a week and I'll let everyone know how things go with all that pith infusing. My question: Has anyone kept a simple syrup blended liqueur at room temperature for any period of time? I'd like to keep my limoncello out on a counter, if shelf-life will allow.

I have to say that one of the most beautiful things about restaurant pesto is the obligatory amendments. We don't have too much money so we supplement with walnuts, pecans, supplementary cheeses, etc. Even though it's meant as a cheat, that stray walnut flavor in a pesto is what I love most.

For Jlaw, re: weights. At home, I do it to taste with no measurements and it is always a bit different, which I don't mind at all. In the restaurant, I buy basil in one pound clamshells and do 1# blanched/shocked/pressed dry basil to 4 oz pine nuts, 4 oz walnuts, 4 oz parm, a bunch of big grinds of black pepper, salt to taste and then leave the motor running and drizzle in olive oil until I get the consistency I want. I usually do multiple batches in succession and then mix them all together and readjust salt and oil en masse before reportioning into smaller containers. I often brighten it slightly with a touch of lemon zest and juice. Hope that helps.