jmacnaughtan
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Posts posted by jmacnaughtan
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2 hours ago, quiet1 said:
And no mass panic? Impressive.
We've all been stockpiling.
Around the abdomen, mostly.
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16 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:
Thanks for the heads up on the Rochoux rum and raisin / shall go in search!
Let me know what you think. He's generally my go-to guy for chocolate.
I can add a few pictures from the Salon du Chocolat from my visit on Monday that I thought were cool. So, if you don't mind...
Animals:
Flowers:
And of course:
Life-size!
Threadjacking over.
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17 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:Forgot to mention that I had a visit from @jmacnaughtan today at Salon - what a treat! He brought along a friend (and a lovely bottle) and they attended my tempering talk. Always nice to have moral support when one talks in front of people. The set up was a bit of a shit show - I heard 'if you had told us what you wanted we would have had it for you' several times - my thought was 'if you had read what I told you that I wanted then you would have had a better chance of having it for me' - but that was wasted thoughts.
I took an old banner from Premier grinders and flung it over the top to write my little crystal chart on - 'oh no, no. no - look how bad that looks on the other side of the wall - we will get you some double sided tape so it doesn't show on the other side' (which they wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out). The tape showed up about 15 minutes after my talk was over and the banner had long since been removed.
It was a good presentation! And you got to experience first-hand the wonders of Parisian organisation. They even left you a decorative microphone on the stand
26 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:It can cut just about anything!
It is pretty cool. I asked him how long that pig takes to do, and he said "hmmm... maybe fifteen seconds". Want.
It doesn't look like you've hit Patrick Roger yet. I know he's everywhere, but his sculptures are cool and his chocolates are very good. Also, head upstairs and eat some of Jean-Charles Rochoux's rum raisin chocolates.
You seem to have almost everything else covered
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Hi,
Pretty much anywhere in the city centre (1st and 2nd arrondissement) will be a short walk from a very good baker. In fact, pretty much anywhere in the city at all.
I'd recommend staying near the Hôtel de Ville. There is an excellent market on the Quai Saint Antoine almost every day.
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17 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:
I wanted someone with more professional experience to chime in first before I added my two cents. My family of six used to not refrigerate cakes or pies, but with a hungry, growing family with four kids, it was rare for a cake or pie to last 36 hours or so. Now I refrigerate them.
I also think @jmacnaughtan's advice is good for the best result. That would mean peeling and slicing the apples during dinner prep, though, as they'd turn brown otherwise. I have often set a timer and baked a dessert while everyone ate dinner though.
I think your guests are lucky based on the description of the dessert. It sounds delicious.
It does sound delicious. However, you can avoid browning by dipping the slices in diluted lemon juice. They should last a day or so like that. But I suppose, if you're baking them anyway, they're going to turn brown no matter what.
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I generally would, but I don't think it's essential. If you keep in well covered in a cool room, it should be fine.
But in terms of quality, it might be better to prepare all the components beforehand, refrigerate, and then bake at the last minute.
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1 hour ago, TicTac said:
I am not sure I quite grasp the point of this. If you do not use too much oil, nor overcrowd the pan - what is this going to achieve better than say a high heat searing of one's mushrooms? Mine are never greasy, flabby or watery....
@Anna N has a point - the age may make a difference, as does personal taste. However, I find this works particularly well with girolles. Sautéeing them normally, even when they're bone dry, releases a tonne of liquid that then just stews them and leaves them limp. I get much better results with almost all mushrooms (except ceps and eryngii) by toasting or blanching them before adding fat. Even with button mushrooms, it makes a positive difference
But we're missing the point here - everyone talks about adding oil, when what you really need is butter.
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Excellent topic.
One of the most useful tips I've received for sautéeing mushrooms (girolles in particular) is to blanch them for 10 seconds before throwing them into a very hot pan with no fat. Wait for all the liquid to flash off, then add the fat.
It works well, and means that they neither go flabby, greasy or flooded with water.
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It's been a while since I made a cake, so I went back to an old favourite for a dinner last night.
Squash, orange and ginger tart
Speculoos base
Squash and orange crémeux
Crystallised ginger
The base was a bit of a cheat - just crushed Speculoos biscuits, roasted hazelnuts and candied ginger, held together with butter and white chocolate and seasoned with orange zest and flaky sea salt. Not even any baking
Tasty though.
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20 hours ago, dcarch said:
I think it is an electronic refrigerator, not an electric one. There is no moving parts except cooling fans.
You can tilt the refrigerator backwards a few degrees so nothing falls out.
Or if you are not a believer of storing wines horizontally, lay the refrigerator horizontally and store the wines vertically.
I'm unsure of your point concerning electric and electronic. Never mind.
Tilting it backwards would, unfortunately, choke off the air circulation at the back of the cellar.
And I dislike storing wines vertically. I also think having a wine cellar laying on its side would be cumbersome and look awful.
10 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:We buy this stuff at our grocery store in 12" x 60" rolls. (Look in the cleaning supplies section.) As Lisa said, it's useful for keeping cutting boards and bowls from slipping. It's not fabric-based (it's some sort of synthetic, soft, rubber-like material). It handles moisture pretty well, but it's not entirely impervious to mildew. (What is? This is better than cardboard by miles, though.)
4 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:It's really dry in AZ and I have only used the stuff outside of the fridge, but it seems pretty inert. Yeah, it's some kind of foam or rubber or something. On the plus side, I have had some under a rug for about 7 years now and it has not broken down. I have run small amounts of it through the clothes washer, too. You could do that a couple of times a year with bleach to sanitize.
That's good to hear - I've got a friend who has recently redone their floor with fairly heavy duty lining, so I may be able to get some for free. Have you noticed that it has any particular odour?
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12 hours ago, EMichels said:
The only other issue that I would point out is that with any similar solution you'll likely want to leave some space at the front or back of the cooler (don't cut the tubes to the exact depth of the cooler) to allow for air circulation. Without proper circulation, temps in the cooler can diverge significantly from top to bottom.
Good advice. This is another thing I need to sort out, but preferably when I've got the stability issue resolved - there's only so many times I can bring myself to empty and restock the cave.
12 hours ago, Alex said:It'll cut back on capacity, but I see that slider rails are available as an accessory. Can you also install additional shelves?
I've looked at that, but I'd like to keep as much capacity as possible and they are quite expensive. In hindsight, I probably should have bought a larger cellar...
10 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:Try getting some of the stuff people use to keep rugs in place. You can lay it on the shelf bottom surface, then drape some on top of bottles which are supporting other bottles. The same stuff is also sold as a shelf liner for glassware. It's a foam (maybe?) mesh found at hardware stores that's flexible like fabric and thin. I use it all sorts of places where I do not want things to move around. (like under a cutting board, inside my toolbox, inside my box small cookie cutters, etc.) The rug version is available in larger sizes, but costs more per square foot. Occasionally, this stuff shows up at the dollar store.
I like this idea. Do you know if it's inert? If it's fabric-based, it may suffer the same problems as cardboard. Something like this would be a good solution, especially as many of my bottles are unusual shapes and size (Alsace, magnum, jeroboam, etc.) and don't always fit comfortably in traditional racks.
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Hi everyone.
I have a rather bourgeois problem, and wonder if anyone else has found a cheap (or free) way of solving it.
Like many people in the city, I don't trust the security of my cellar downstairs, so my wines are currently sitting in a Climadiff 120 bottle electric wine cellar, in my living room. This works great. However, the cave has only two shelves plus the base, and to reach that capacity I need to stack the bottles - and this is where the problem arises. Every time I open the door, I live in fear of an avalanche.
I've tried using cardboard dividers from wine boxes, but they take up a lot of space and I'm worried about the smell affecting my wine.
So, does anyone know of any way of keeping the bottles in place, while not taking up a lot of space and not affecting the wine?
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10 hours ago, RWood said:
Doweling has nothing to do with the pastry cream. The dowels are for support when stacking multiple cake tiers on top of each other. You wanna take the chance of it collasping, that's fine. I just choose to not ruin someone's wedding with their cake in a pile on the floor.
Ah OK, I missed the part about it being a tiered cake.
I've never seen a tiered millefeuille, but I'm sure it could be done. But you would have a hard time cutting and serving it - it's tricky enough to slice a single-tier one. I can only imagine the crumbs, tears and panic with a two- or three-tiered one...
For what it's worth, you would make everyone's life a lot easier if you just did a long one. One of the advantages of puff pastry is that it's easy to cut it into whatever shape you want (before baking).
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8 hours ago, RWood said:
You would definitely need support as with any tiered cake. So, dowels for sure.
I disagree - there's something wrong with your pastry and/or pastry cream if it can't stand upright on its own.
The traditional way is just puff pasty and pastry cream. I like to incorporate 1% gelatin and 3% cocoa butter into the pastry cream while it's still hot, then when it cools to body temperature blitz in about 20% butter (as a % of the milk). Let it set overnight, then whip for 15 minutes before using - it makes it firmer and lighter.
I think you would have problems with a bavarois (unless you really pack it with gelatin), especially when you cut the cake. They're delicate, so I'd be worried about the cake collapsing and mousse squirting out all over yourself and guests. Then panic, depression, etc.
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Poached eggs. It doesn't matter how fresh they are, how much I swirl or how much vinegar's in there, I always end up with a sad yolk in a cheap dress drowning in scummy water.
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I like squash and pumpkin
It seems that everyone just uses the purée, which is a shame. I like to roast pieces in duck fat with garlic cloves and thyme, serving it with beef or whatever.
I make the occasional dessert with them as well. For me, the key is to whip whatever your doing; when they're dense, pumpkin desserts are really dense.
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8 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:
David Lebovitz's Chocolate Crack Cookies
Crack because of the appearance, or because they're just so moreish?
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I don't cook it at home, but I recently had it in Japan where it was sliced into bite-sized pieces and marinated. Then you cooked it yourself on the little gas barbecue. It was great!
I have no idea what the various parts of the stomach/intestine I was eating (my Japanese is nowhere near tripe level yet), but this is what it looked like:
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Why do you start with such a cold bird? Is it not easier to bring it to room temperature first? I find it cooks much more easily this way.
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14 minutes ago, gfweb said:
Good thoughts. Potatoes do have pectin.
I tried again last night ...cooked 20 minutes. Still a little chunky even with a more vigorous mashing. There is something going on here.
If it is to do with the calcium, you may have to cook them for a lot longer. Here, the water is really hard, so I end up simmering potatoes for a long time. My mashed potatoes were no good at all until I started properly cooking them for at least 30-45 minutes, until I can no longer pick them up by spearing them with a knife.
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18 hours ago, rotuts said:
tails work a lot. they are now Chee-Chee ( only God knows how to spell this )
It's spelled chichi, I believe.
But still, 17 dollars a kilo is ridiculously expensive for something that contains around two thirds bone, fat and gristle, and that requires 5 hours' cooking. You could get a very good steak for that.
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22 hours ago, gfweb said:
They were a little chunky. Something about the process made them harder to mash thoroughly. It may have been that the smaller chunks that I started with fit through the holes in the masher. I wondered about it
Hmmm. It may be something about the calcium in the cream acting on the pectin in the potatoes. If, in fact, potatoes contain any pectin.
Maybe the lower water content affected the heat being transferred, as well.
Would you try cooking them for longer next time?
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8 hours ago, gfweb said:
So I did it. I cut up yukon golds in small pieces and put them in a sauce pan and added enough heavy cream to just short of cover them. And salt.
Cooked for 17 minutes and mashed.
The result was silkier and much deeper flavored than anything I've made in the past (photo on dinner thread).
I didn't measure the cream, but it was about what I'd end up using when cooking the traditional way. Given the enhanced texture (probably from retaining the potato starch) I think some milk could be subbed for some of the cream (but I have no intention of doing that).
I think this is the new standard MP for me.
There may be problems scaling this up for large volumes of mashed pots. I suspect that a big pot filled with potatoes might have trouble cooking all evenly with a small volume of liquid.
Interesting. Did you leave them chunky on purpose, or is that an effect of cooking them in the cream?
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Shin might be a good option.
I love oxtail, but it's ludicrously expensive here too. When you factor in how much you're paying for bone and fat, it works out more expensive than fillet or ribeye... And that's without factoring in the 5 hours of cooking time
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Le Chocdoc Goûte Paris
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
There's a lot of very good (and mediocre, bad and worse) Asian cuisine in Paris - not so much elsewhere in France. One ramen place I go to frequently does it better than anywhere I visited in Japan
If you have the time and the budget, there is a 1* Chinese place in the Shangri-La. Really excellent cooking.