jmacnaughtan
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Posts posted by jmacnaughtan
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12 hours ago, Duvel said:
Not fully sure what can go wrong - can you specify ?Soup lacking texture, body, flavor (which flavor), ..?
Chop the onions (I’d lean towards the thinner side, but it doesn’t really matter). Sweat in oil & butter until caramelized. Adjust sweetness with a bit of (brown) sugar, if required. Dust with flower, add some white wine (if you like) and some really decent beef stock. Salt. Cook for maybe 1h, so you can still feel the onions, bit there is no stringy bits left. Soup should be viscous by now. Adjust saltyness, sweetness should be well rounded now. Do your fancy stuff with roasted bread & cheese or eat directly …
It depends on what you're looking for, but I generally don't use stock at all. If you use a lot of decent onions and caramelise them properly, a little flour and then just water seems to give a cleaner flavour. I'm not really a fan of the really beefy/winey/boozy onion soups.
IMO, the real problem comes when you try to short-cut the browning process.
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10 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:
Chocolate orange curd sounds heavenly. Care to share your recipe?
Sure, no problem! Here you go.
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This started out as a take on a standard lemon curd. This version will give a softer set that's good for tart filling - if you want something with more structural integrity, use all dark chocolate or increase the dark chocolate content by 50%. The quantities here will give enough for a 16cm tart.
2 large oranges (for a stronger orange flavour and more acidity, use 3)
80g sugar
2 large eggs
80g milk chocolate
80g dark chocolate
- Wash then zest the oranges directly into the sugar, stirring between oranges. Set aside, preferably overnight.
- Juice the oranges and weigh or measure the volume of juice - there will probably be around 250ml (three will give you around 375ml). Put it into a pan or microwave-proof bowl and reduce until you end up with around 120ml of juice (this increases the flavour and acidity).
- Break the eggs into the sugar/zest mixture and beat well.
- Break up the chocolate into a large bowl, then place a sieve or strainer over it.
- Pour the hot juice over the egg mixture, mix well, then pour into a pan and cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens to a bit thicker than a crème anglaise consistency. This should be around 85°C, or until it coats the back of a spoon.
- Take off the heat and pour through the sieve/strainer over the chocolate.
- Let it sit for a minute or so, then stir or blitz with a hand blender until it forms a smooth, ganache-like consistency.
- Pour directly into a tart shell and refrigerate. It will set quite softly, but will still slice. For a firmer curd, see the comment at the top.
ETA: I forgot to adjust the sugar content for the milk chocolate - with all dark, use 100-120g, depending on the cocoa %. I've tweaked the chocolate levels as well.
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Something of a tart-making spree this weekend - more desserts in three days than I've been making all year. Here are two of the better ones:
Apricot and milk chocolate
Pâte sucrée
Apricot confit
Financier
Milk chocolate and apricot crémeux
Dried apricot pieces
Chocolate, orange and hazelnut
Pâte sucrée
Chocolate orange curd
Toasted hazelnuts
Candied bergamot
This one was the most successful - I love my chocolate orange curd recipe 😍
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8 hours ago, trisme11 said:
Made an entremet for a get together/baby announcement over the weekend .
Mirror Glaze
White chocolate mousse
Strawberry confit
Strawberry cremeux
Raspberry Madeleine
I'll probably switch out the Madeleine for something else next time. Still delicious 😋
Nicely done! I find that madeleine and other buttery sponge layers freeze badly. Maybe try a financier next time? They're fairly forgiving.
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Looks great. I'm a huge fan of Spanish style milk-fed lamb.
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In a similar vein, I used to make lemon curd over a double boiler too. I don't do this any more, but I won't use a microwave for it either.
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17 hours ago, paulraphael said:
Tempering egg yolks when making a creme anglaise or custard or French ice cream. There is no point to this. I spent a long time trying to rationalize this step, since every pastry chef on earth repeats it. I came up with nothing. So now I throw the yolks in with all the other cold ingredients and just heat until it thickens.
I don't get it - tempering egg yolks is easier and lazier than your method. You end up hovering over the pan stirring for much less time - put them all in cold and you're stirring from fridge temp to 82 degrees, temper it and it starts much closer to the target.
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9 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
I have been Scottish all my long life, have eaten a zillion bridies and have never seen or heard of bridies containing oats.
From distant memories of eating bridies, I recall them being more like Cornish pasties made with puff pastry. Possibly lower-quality meat and fewer vegetables too.
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I brought back a nice jar of red Keta salmon caviar from Russia, so instead of just spooning it from the tub as usual, I thought I'd make a meal of it.
Plain caviar on buttery croutons
A Russian style potato, fennel and cured salmon belly salad with red caviar
Poached salmon with broccoli and a celeriac galette...
...with a red caviar beurre blanc.
No dessert - I'm not that creative.
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10 hours ago, BonVivant said:
My favourite of all flatfish is brill. I scoff at turbot (in same family) and sole (Solea solea), much of both are now farm-raised .
Simple pizzas/pizze with tomato sauce and mozz.
So... what did you do with the brill? I really hope it's not on those pizzas.
Also, turbot and sole are great! I love doing a turbotini for two 🥰
10 hours ago, BonVivant said:-
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It's got to depend on how aged it is...
Last time I rendered down some properly aged fat (from a sirloin, I think it was 100 days), the kitchen quickly filled up with that blue cheese/urinous kidney stank. IIRC, I only used that fat to sear more beef. I'm not sure I could use it in anything else, it was way too strong.
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On 10/20/2021 at 3:53 AM, andiesenji said:
I used to candy chestnuts and I think I posted about it back around 2007 when I posted about candying ginger and several dried fruits, citrus peel and etc.
Like the dried fruits and the sliced ginger, I steamed the chestnuts in the shell and then slowly simmered them in vanilla syrup (French style) actually keeping the syrup below a simmer using a crock pot.
I originally found the technique on a French language site for, I think, holiday foods. I had to copy the various recipes and paste into a translator page because the site didn't automatically translate.
I had done a search for "Marrons Glacé" to find that site. Which also had the procedure for whole glacé fruits.
Was it this site?
I've tried a couple of times, and learned that it doesn't work (at least for me) with jarred or tinned chestnuts. You really do have to peel them yourself...
Also, discouragingly, it seems that many chestnut varieties can't be candied. He suggests chatting to your local chestnut producer at the market about which varieties he grows.
You've all got a local chestnut producer, right?
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If you're using a cake ring to assemble the cake, you can just leave it on and cover the top with glaze. The only problem is that the glaze is designed to protect the mousse, so it may dry out and discolour.
When using a decent glaze and putting it on at the right temperature, it should be fine to eat. I use the Migoya one from The Modern Café (possibly the only worthwhile recipe in it), which works well. Alternatively, you can spray cocoa butter over the frozen cake, or spread jam or neutral glaze on it before coating with nuts or something else.
Tbh, I've moved away from mirror glazes not because of the flavour, but because it's a pain if you just have to do one cake...
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8 hours ago, weinoo said:
And nothing wrong with Ensaladilla Rusa, when the fancy strikes...
Ensaladilla Rusa is fine, but the king of potato salads is Salad "Olivier" - the proper Russian salad served at New Year. I think it's the malossol pickles and sausage that really makes it.
Great with champagne, and great for breakfast the next day.
I should add that I've never made it - I do most of the cooking, but this is very much my partner's dish and I'm not allowed anywhere near the kitchen when it's being made.
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I hadn't been entertaining for some time, so it was good to finally spend time on a dessert.
This is a milk chocolate and apricot tart.
Tonka bean sablé breton
Roasted apricot and milk chocolate crémeux
Toasted hazelnuts
Candied bergamot
Basil
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I'm a fan of keema - it's usually made with lamb, but it's good with beef too.
For something less spiced, cottage pie is always a winner too.
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I think a lot of the places that make pink pralines do a final coat of gum arabic, so they're smooth to the touch - yours look a little rocky.
You may want to try panning your pralines, if you want to do any large quantities. @Kerry Beal is a good person to ask about this, among many others.
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@David Ross your dessert looks great!
However, that is not a clafoutis. It is something much improved - a proper tart with pastry, and no stones in the cherries.
I feel that I'd very much enjoy your one, which can't be said for most traditional clafoutis.
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5 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Well, they are usually made by Greek or Turkish Cypriots; whether they are as made in Cyprus is something else. Some are, but that's normal. Chinese food in Britain is usually nothing like Chinese food in China. As with most cuisines.
I was rather referring to the quality. The sight of those grey elephant legs rotating sweatily still makes me shudder.
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16 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Greek or Turkish Cypriot doner kebabs are also a popular street food after a night in the pub.
Sadly, there is very little Greek or Turkish Cypriot about most of the kebabs sold late at night.
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2 hours ago, liuzhou said:
I think you need to re-read what I actually wrote. At no stage did I say that British people don't eat pies. I said the opposite.
If that's what you meant, then sure. But it didn't come across like that for me - more like meat pies were an obscure eccentricity.
Whenever I've heard "pie and mash", I've never understood it to be with eel and parsley sauce. Just gravy. And I've never heard any non-British person talk about eel shop pies, either.
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8 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Talking of mash leads me straight on to YouTube’s next top British food destination, to sample a “hugely popular dish” that the vast majority of British people have never eaten and which is becoming more and more rare. But first a bit of history.
Uhhhh...
What British person has never eaten a pie?
They're on the menu of every pub that serves food (almost always with mash), available widely in supermarkets, butchers and service stations, and are a staple at Scottish football grounds. They are a popular dish to make at home, and you can often get them at late night kebab shops and chippies.
And that's only hot pies - Melton Mowbray pork pies enjoy their own protected geographical indication, and are widely available across the country.
This is a horrible slur on the excellent meat pie.
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3 hours ago, haresfur said:
As for the French and their food, I fail to see what the hype is about so I discount their opinions about British food.
@liuzhou, I don't suppose you want to do a sequel about French Food Myths?
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Haven't been baking or eGulleting for a while, but here's my latest:
Pineapple and coconut tart
Pâte sucrée
Caramelised pineapple compote
Toasted coconut frangipane
Fresh pineapple
Next time, I'll get some rum in there.