
jackal10
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Thanks. I can make daubes, bourgignons, gabures etc. What I wanted to know was what made this one special?
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May seem obvious, biut it depends what size bread you want to bake. I've just measured mine, and they are 25cm outside diameter, 22cm inside. If you can use linen rather than muslin. Muslin is quite a loose weave, and the bread might stick.
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In Nimes (Languedoc/Carmargue) at the weekend (conference) I had the local speciality of "La Gardian", a tender long-cooked beef stew (Daube) with carrots, olives etc. The beef was fork tender, but not falling apart. Delicious, especially when washed down with copious amounts of the local Costieres des Nimes rouge. Can anyone help with the recipe in English? Also the origin of the neme. I have variously heard it translated by the natives as "Ox-keeper's stew" and "Guardian of the orphan children".
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That looks great bread! The big holes do indicate a wet dough. You might get more even and rounder holes if you turn the dough (turn it out onto a board, flatten gently, and then fold side to side and top to bottom, like making puff pastry) every hour for the 3 hours of bulk fermentation. Nancy Silverton says that the bread is less likely to blow out of you let it come to room temperature before baking. I'm not sure about this - I think it doesn't rise as much.
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This is about half of a draft of a section of a forthcoming eGCI topic on potatoes...comments welcome This section starts with mash, and then looks at variations. Too often mashed potato is either a lumpy or a gluey mess. What goes wrong? We need to consider the structure of the potato. It consists of lots of cells , held together with pectic polysaccaride material, like the pectin that is the setting agent in jam. Each of these cells is a bag of starch.. The trick to making good textured mashed potato to break the cells apart from each other without rupturing them and letting the starch out, to give free starch floating around in the water. When you heat starch in the presence of water it swells and gelatinises – think of making custard or wall paper paste. The starch molecules bond to each other to make a gel. That’s wallpaper paste. Overcook, and you break up the cells and get glue. Over process, such as with a blender and you mechanically shear the cells and get glue. As Steingarten says “Any cookbook that sanctions the use of a blender or food processor should be carefully shredded” If you let the starch out you get gluey wallpaper paste. If you don’t break apart the cells enough you get lumps. You are between the devil and the deep blue sea. Fortunately we can use another property of starch, which is known as “retrogradation”. If you cool a starch gel down it thickens and solidifies (think of pastry, or custard), and it retains this structure even if reheated. This property is widely used in the commercial processing of potatoes for dehydrated potato flakes (instant mash, such as the brand that was promoted with TV adverts featuring tin Martians), and has been adapted and written about for home and restaurant use by Steingarten, Blumenthal and others. The trick is to pre-cook the potatoes to about 160F/71C for about 30 minutes, then cool to room temperature or below. The starch swells and gelatinises in the cells, but the temperature is not hot enough to melt the pectic material and break or separate the cells The following cold step is essential, as it causes the starch to retrograde and fix. Temperature control is critical. Use a digital thermometer. Having fixed the starch we can be much rougher in the treatment of the potatoes. We can dissolve the binding between the cells by cooking the potato slices in gently salted water above 180F/82C and ideally below boiling so they don’t get knocked about too much – say 190F/90C or a very gentle simmer for 30 minutes, and then drain, dry and puree. This method ensures that the mash does not go gluey, but at the same time can be cooked long enough and pureed well enough to ensure no lumps. Furthermore it can be allowed to go cold and reheated without loss of quality. Before giving the definitive mashed potato recipe we need to cover some other points: Choice of variety: Floury (high starch) or Waxy (medium/low starch) variety? There appears to be a cultural difference here, with the US preferring a floury variety such as Idaho to make a fluffier mash, and European tradition preferring waxier varieties such as Belle de Fontenay, Bintje, Charlotte or Desiree. Floury potato varieties have more irregular cells, waxy potato varieties have more regular and closely packed cells. Hot or cold water to cook in: There is an old tradition of putting root vegetables in cold water and then raising the heat until boiling. Opinion is divided as to whether this is beneficial. On the one hand it ensures the food is more evenly cooked, and the slow heat rise may allow better gelatinisation of the starch granules before reaching temperatures that disrupt the cells. On the other hand some Swedish studies have shown more Vitamin C leaches out into the water because of the extended cooking times. How much butter, cream, milk? To some extent this is a matter of taste. Authorities differ, for example for 2lbs of potatoes Mrs Beeton advises 2oz, Escoffier 10% (3 oz), Blumenthal 33% (10oz) and Joel Robochon a massive 50% (16oz). Lady Clark of Tillypronie (1909) adds ¼ oz, and half a cup of cream. Personally I follow Escoffier. It is hard to lay down a hard and fast rule about how much cream or milk to add. It depends on taste, the variety of potato, how much you dried out the puree, and on the desired texture. I find a tablespoonful more than enough. Hot or cold milk, butter? Most authorities agree that one should use cold butter and hot milk. Why? Is something more going on here? I believe there is. I think what is happening is that the emulsified form of the butter is acting as a sort of butter sauce, in which the separated potato cells now float. Butter emulsions are only stable if the butter is melted at a low temperature, and not heated over 190F. You are unlikely to get your mashed potatoes that hot., but beating the butter in at a temperature that just melts the butter seems like a good idea. I am much less clear why hot milk or cream rather than cold is specified, since the amount added, compared to the mass of potato, would have no effect in terms of temperature. I suspect it is a hold-over from the days when milk may have been of dubious health. Milk first or butter first? Adding the milk after the butter is better, since it allows for easier control of texture. How to puree?: More choices. Most agree on the use of a potato ricer or failing that a mouli-legumes (food mill), since the pressing action damages the cells least. Personally I prefer an old fashioned potato masher, or even a fork, since I like the slight variations in texture. Escoffier advises and high-end establishments will laboriously rub the puree through a sieve, possibly twice to ensure smoothness. Don’t tell Jeffrey Steingarten, but once the starch has been fixed by the method here described, and if the cooked potato slices are allowed to cool to warm, then an electric whisk or even a stick blender can be used with care without the puree turning gloopy and gluey. Don’t over process, however. The Recipe This is for two people. Take a couple of spuds. These are Estima, a floury variety Peel and cut into 1cm/1/2 inch slices. The size is to allow the heat to reach the centre in the cooking time. Put into water at 160F/71C for 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature to allow the starch to retrograde. Putting the pan under a running cold tap is easiest Note how the potato have become waxy and translucent Cook them at a gentle simmer (80C/180F) for 30 minutes Drain, and allow to dry and cool for a few minutes. Mash. Here with a hand masher, or even with an electric whisk Add salt, white pepper, cold (room temperature) butter, and correct thickness with a little milk Perfect Mash Sausage and Mash with a Port and Onion confit and buttered cabbage for supper Is it worth it? Why go to all this trouble for basic mash? It depends in part on your attitude to food. You can always reach for the packet of instant mashed potato, and many chefs do. It can make a satisfactory product, but for perfection a little more effort is needed. Pre-cooking the potato has advantages for the professional kitchen and for the busy home cook in that the product can be reheated, and held cold or warm at both the pre-cooked and the finished stage, so much can be prepared beforehand Variations. There are literally hundreds of variations. Each culture has its own, depending on the local ingredients and culinary traditions. Hungarians, for example, add sour cream and paprika, in Provence they add meat glaze. There are spicy versions from India. Here are a few. For the rest you must wait for the lesson...
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Fire away! 12.7% is a bit high. The flour I use is 11.7%. Also, as noted by kwillets the KA flour has malt in it. Some bakers like adding malt. No less and authority then Prof Cavel advises its use (and Vitamic C), but he does not add the yeast/sponge until after the amylisation step - the 30 minute rest time after first mixing.
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Looks great bread! Well done! Good texture crumb and crust. Starter should be fine - just hungry. If you put it in the fridge it takes a while to warm up and wake up. If in doubt refresh it again
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Florence Lin in COmplete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads (now sadly out of print) gives 3/4 cup warm water 1 package dried yeast 2 teaspoons sugar 2 Tbs corn oil 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour She mixes the yeast with the water, then puts everything in a food processor with a metal blade and processes for 60 seconds after the dough has formed. Shapes the buns, lets them rise for 30 mins on silicone paper, then steams them Works for me; I think the key is omitting the salt.
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Cambridge is about the northern limit for Chardonnay, but this year has been particularly hot and dry although yields are a bit down. This place gets more like California all the time.. We picked a small vinyard near here today Ripe grapes Plastic stacking boxes don't crush the grapes as much as dustbins View along a row, picker at work. We picked in pairs. one each side of the row View down the vinyard Grapes stacked in the trailer waiting to be transported to the winery. These will make about 500 bottles of fizz. These grapes will be vinified by the award winning Ridgeview Estate, and be ready to drink in about 3 years time. Apparently you get about 1 bottle per kilo of grapes, and that is about the yield of each mature vine. Quite of the grapes were lost to birds. Bubbly is a good use for these northern grapes as they have comparatively high acid levels and lower sugar. English bubbly is winning prizes in blind tastings against Champagne.
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Vindaloo... Its traditional...
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It gives mousses that are much lighter (bigger bubbles) than anything else I know. It has the texture of washing up or bath bubble foam. Lighter than the froth on a cappucino. It literally just vanishes in the mouth, leaving only flavour traces, so the original liquid needs to be pretty concentrated in taste. I use it to make super-light sorbets, since the freezing stabilises the foam, but I'm sure there might be other ways to make it room temperature stable - freeze drying for example, or maybe using some other setting agent.
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My guess is that you did not leave it to get cool before eating. Hard to do, but needs that time to set up. Some breads, like Rye, are even better next day. If the bread is underdone it is kind of pudding-like and claggy. If the crust is good, but the crumb is under cooked, cook a litle cooler for longer. I'm sure you will soon dial-in to whatever suits your environment. Jack and Jill will rest perfectly happily in the fridge without attention until needed.
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Not Agar - it doesn't foam. Gelatine maybe or glycerine
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My college tutor used to give a party for his students that was a blind tasting. Six different bottles would be decanted or otherwise disguised (wrapped in silver foil). The winner, that is the student who most accurately identified the wines, won a mixed half case. Alas the days of such a liberal eduactioanl regime are passing..
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My standard bread I follow the following schedule. All times are approximate. 9am Take starter out of fridge, refresh 1pm Mix dough. Put the remains of the starter back into the fridge for next time. 1.45pm (half an hour or so after mixing) Add salt. Mix some more 3pm turn the dough, if I remember 4pm Divide and shape. Put into bannetons. Put bannetons in fridge. Next day: Take out of fridge and bake for 40 mins Thus I would not bother to fold, once it goes into the fridge. If you are leaving it there for more than 12 hours slip it into a plastic bag (garbage bags work well) so it doesb't dry out too much. MottMott: I'm not sure what is going wrong. No oven spring indicates the dough is overproved - try shortening the proof times, especially the second proof. I doubt if it is the slashing. Spreading sideways seems to indicate the dough is a bit too wet. Again, shortening the proof time will help, as the acid dough gets weter as it proves. What is the protein content of the flour you are using?
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Regular blade chopper. Haven't tried fruit. I guess apple would work, Why don't you try and report back?
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eG Foodblog: tammylc - Shocking Amounts of Food
jackal10 replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Tortilla -
I don't have a juicer, but I expect that would work if you filter the result. The local supermarkets don't carry pure carrot juice. I tried using V8, but not successfully. Maybe the cooking of the pasteurisation destroys some of the foaming principles, This stuff holds for a few minutes, so it would be OK for service, but labour intensive. It took maybe 5 minutes of hacking with a blender to get that bowlful. Not something I would want to do for a table of 10 in the middle of service. Frozen "frozen air" (and it seems to freeze quickly) it holds forever, and it a nice twist on a sorbet. You can also get away with less - say a small ramekin. You could experiment with flavourings, or with base materials - celery, peas, green beans all work. "Carrots and celery" or "Carrots and peas" side-by-side in a ramekin look nice.
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Serious game Pate Inspired by Michel Guerard's Chicken Liver Pate recipe. You can replace the game by cubes of pork belly,toungue, or by chicken... Serve with an onion puree, cornichons, good bread Marinade 7 T Brandy or Armagnac 3 T Port 3 T Sherry 2 tsp peeled and crushed garlic 20 g parsley, chopped 1 tsp fresh thyme (or half tsp dried) 1 pinch nutmeg 1 ground black pepper 2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar Pate 350 g Chicken livers (frozen are OK) 200 g Cooked game or other meat 350 g Sausage meat (I used Venison Sausage), fairly fatty. 4 Sprigs of Thyme 4 Bay leaves Mix everything together, except the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme and marinate in the fridge overnight. Arrange the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme artistically on the bottom of a loaf tin, or omit - they are decorative only. Remove the biggest bits of game (or other meat). Coarsely puree the rest depending how fine you want the pate. You can, according to taste, have it from unpureed in lumps (e.g as a pate filling), to a fine texture. I think fairly roughly blended with a stick blender works best for me. Tip half into the loaf tin and spread it out. Arrange the reserved game or meat. Cover with the remaining puree. Pre-heat oven to hot: 220C/425F. Put the terrine into a bain-marie (baking tin filled with boiling water) in the oven, uncovered for 1 3/4 hours (105 mins). The top will be nicely browned. When you take the terrine out of the oven, weight it (another loaf tin filled with water), then keep overnight in the fridge. Turn out and slice Keywords: Appetizer, Intermediate, Game ( RG728 )
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Serious game Pate Inspired by Michel Guerard's Chicken Liver Pate recipe. You can replace the game by cubes of pork belly,toungue, or by chicken... Serve with an onion puree, cornichons, good bread Marinade 7 T Brandy or Armagnac 3 T Port 3 T Sherry 2 tsp peeled and crushed garlic 20 g parsley, chopped 1 tsp fresh thyme (or half tsp dried) 1 pinch nutmeg 1 ground black pepper 2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar Pate 350 g Chicken livers (frozen are OK) 200 g Cooked game or other meat 350 g Sausage meat (I used Venison Sausage), fairly fatty. 4 Sprigs of Thyme 4 Bay leaves Mix everything together, except the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme and marinate in the fridge overnight. Arrange the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme artistically on the bottom of a loaf tin, or omit - they are decorative only. Remove the biggest bits of game (or other meat). Coarsely puree the rest depending how fine you want the pate. You can, according to taste, have it from unpureed in lumps (e.g as a pate filling), to a fine texture. I think fairly roughly blended with a stick blender works best for me. Tip half into the loaf tin and spread it out. Arrange the reserved game or meat. Cover with the remaining puree. Pre-heat oven to hot: 220C/425F. Put the terrine into a bain-marie (baking tin filled with boiling water) in the oven, uncovered for 1 3/4 hours (105 mins). The top will be nicely browned. When you take the terrine out of the oven, weight it (another loaf tin filled with water), then keep overnight in the fridge. Turn out and slice Keywords: Appetizer, Intermediate, Game ( RG728 )
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Please set up a broadcast, e.g using Yahoo messenger
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Here we go: Take some carrot (here 60 gm) of prettty rough old carrot, but that was all there was in the vegetable basket and 100 ml of water Put in food processor and whizz Strain out the solids Then fillter some more (this is though a bit of kitchen towel)] You might want to correct seasonings at this point. Have at it with a stick blender, holding the blender just at the surface so lots of air is incorperated. Skim the foam off as it forms. Carrot Air! Since the foaming is quite a tedious process and must be done a la minute, I find it easier to do it before hand as a mise, and freeze the product. As a solid frozen foam it is much more stable.
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Fascinating! How was the stuffing cooked outside the turkey? One of the problems with cooking a big bird is the length of time the heat takes to penetrate that wodge of stuffing. I think left to myself I'd make and cook the stuffing seperately, and cook the main bird long and really low temperature (like 200F), having browned it first (breast up) in a hot oven, or flash it in a hot oven after For flavour and moistness I'd cook it breast side down, and stuff between the skin and the breast with a truffle flavoured butter after Brillat Savarin.