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pacman1978

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  1. You can easily make crustini - bread, olive oil and salt in a low oven if you can't find them. One canape I like is a traditional tomato bruschetta but with the addition of smoked mozzarella.
  2. Why would you sous vide scallops - they are so simple and perfect cooked in a pan with butter and oil, does it really add anything? I do a scallop dish with a warm salsa of tomatoes, red onion, corrainder, chilli, garlic and red wine vinegar. Then also fry discs of chorizo as well as the scallops. Its a rather wintery dish though. Curry flavour goes very well with scallops as well so something like a curried cauliflower purree wth some small florets of caulfilowed deep fried in a lite coating of gram flour with a few spices(a kind of bhaji) is really good with the scallops/
  3. pacman1978

    Onions with ... ?

    Shallot puree. Peel about 250g shallots and saute with butter very slowly for an hour till really soft and intense. Then add a little stock and cream then blitz and pass through a tamis drum - quite simply amazing!
  4. Just my thoughts: I would not serve deep fried fish segments cold myself as they start to lose there appeal in my opinion. What about blinis or crustini for the salad? Why do you need to freeze the tarts - they will keep a couple of days then just finish them as you were going to. Good luck.
  5. http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/vinopolis.aspx That place is considered great by some of my whiskey drinking friends. It is part of the wine shop vinnopolis which is absolutely amazing if you are into wine (http://vinopolis.co.uk/) This is another smaller shop http://www.uncorked.co.uk/. I have purchased a couple of single barrel whiskey from there as presents for people and it is located near liverpool street in the heart of the financial district (what we call confusingly the city). Hope that helps somewhat. Regards, Paul
  6. All the hersheys chocolate I have ever tried has turned out to be truly awful. Do they do a proper high quality dark chocolate? A standard kind of supermarket high quality chocolate here in the uk would be something like Green and Blacks. I'm always shocked by how bad chocolate is in the states. I'm not trying to wind all you Americans up(my wife is american), but I guess if you are brought up eating it you get used to it. I believe it originates from them not being able to stop it melting in the packs so came up with some methods to stop it. Don't know how true that is.
  7. Got me thinking of dinner tonight, nice weather here in london. Might make chicken tikka wraps with a mint and cucumber raita and salad
  8. Interesting thanks Broken, is it a cut that requires a long time in the bath or just the standard sterilisation time? Cheers,
  9. Thank you very much for your responses. The butcher always takes out the centre to create two steaks. It sounds like trying to cook it without butterflying it will work as well and result in a thicker slab of meat as I find butterflying can make some parts slightly too thin due to the tapered nature of the steak. So leaving it whole it means these will not be as prone to overcooking. I always use onglet/hanger steak for steak frites, believe it can be good for tacos and such when sliced upon the grain. Has anyone ever tried cooking it sous vide? Cheers,
  10. Hi, Whenever I purchase onglet from the butchers it is always butterflied. Has anyone every tried grilling/frying/bbqing it without butterflying it first? Reason I ask it when I see hanger steak pics from the US it looks to me very much like an un-butterflied version. Thanks, Regards,
  11. Totally agree with always having a nibble first - assuming you are sure they are not a naga chilli or some such crazy chilli:-) Surprising how buying the same chilli's from the same store can range between mild and blisteringly hot. One thing I have noticed is that in the UK our suppermarkets are getting much better at stocking a wise range of chillis. In the past it was very much just red or green whereas now there are thai(birds eye) chililes, habernaro, etc I used to love going to the states just for the different chillies such as padrano, jalapino, etc
  12. pacman1978

    Aged Steak Smell?

    Brown to me indicates that they have not been kept cold enough or they are starting to spoil. Or possibly they have freezer burn - Personally I would never freeze a good steak as it can affect the quality of the flavour and texture although if they are going to go off otherwise I guess I see why you did it. Aged steaks do smell depending on how well aged they are from sightly nutty to parmesan type flavours so the smell is probably normal but the brown discoloration is not.
  13. Thanks for the all the tips, I put them on a wire rack dusted with flour and worked a treat. Not a single one stuck nor split when cooking them. No its roasted squash pan roasted with coriander seeds mashed and then nutmeg, a couple of biscotti, ground pepper and parmesan added.Never heard of pine mouth and used them a lot of times in a multitude of ways. Generally in the UK pine nuts are about £28($42) a kilo/£13 ($20) a pound anyway so not that cheap.
  14. Hi, I make a roasted butternut squash ravioli served with sage and pine nut butter, roasted squash and pea shoots which is one of my signature dishes but I struggle with it sticking to the ceramic plate I store it on even though I flour it. I used to put it in the fridge which I thought might have been the issue due to the moisture in there but have experienced it storing it outside of the fridge as well. Then I realised not letting the filling completely cool before making them was not helping either I have a dinner party on Saturday and I want to make the ravioli on Friday so my question is what is the best way to ensure it does not stick to the plate - it has Parmesan cheese in the filling so should be refrigerated I assume so should I let them dry out first before placing them in the fridge. I also thought of placing them on top of bounty or towel although concerned they will just stick to that instead. Thanks for any help. Paul
  15. British culture has changed in the last 10-15 years where it is standard now to have 10-12.5% automatically added to the bill although it is labelled as optional so you can not pay it but they know us stiff upper lipped brits are unlikely to be that confrontational. I have to admit I don't like the 20% tipping in the states as it seems ridiculous when you go out for a fine dining meal that costs say $400 and so are expected to tip 80 bucks. The service whilst good is not worth the cost of a family meal at a diner! If a meal is say 8 dollars I will happily leave $13 but there becomes a tipping point where the service can not be worth that percentage. I am coming to NYC in April and going to try and get a table at Eleven Madison Avenue and with a set menu at $195 per head that will already be up to a $80 tip for me and my wife already which is just crazy... Just my thoughts...
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