Ling

^mmm...how could I have forgotten about the stuffing? It's the best part of the turkey sandwich!!

I applaud your efforts. Remember that you can't out-Ling me in one day. You have to keep it up for, like, a year. We were too full for dessert last night, having had a rather heavy lunch and dinner out (Chinese, then Indian food). I ate some Valrhona when I got home. Gotta love how they're dirt cheap at Trader Joe's. Today I ate another big lunch and dinner, so dessert was just some vanilla ice-cream. I also made a chocolate chiffon cake with a coconut filling (coconut cream, coconut, sugar, cornstarch slurry) and Valrhona chocolate frosting for my boyfriend's friend who is allergic to dairy.

Friday: lunch at Traditional Taiwanese in Richmond We got the Taiwanese chicken nuggets, the fried squid, the stupid noodle ("soa gwa meen") and the saucy beef that's rolled up in the soft green onion pancakes. The pancake dish is always a favourite, but varies depending on the chef in the kitchen that day. It was particularly delicious yesterday. dinner at Vij's We got there around 8-ish and had a few drinks in the back (Merridale cider and a glass of white) while nibbling on some really tasty snacks (potato pancake, a flatbread, some beans with a minty tarragon sauce on a crisp, and Cassava fries that were a bit fiborous). We had a few more glasses of wine with dinner, and shared: braised wild boar with black mustard seed and cream curry, millet, sunflower pilaf Of the three curries we ate that night, this was my favourite. I especially loved the little portion of grains in the sauce, which gave the dish some extra nuttiness, body, and texture. The wild boar was a little stringy though. lamb popsicles in fenugreek curry This dish as a whole was our favourite. The lamb was cooked a bit too much for my liking, but it was still deliciously tender. grilled venison medallions with eggplant and date ginger puree My bf enjoyed the flavour of dish, but I didn't like it so much as it seemed more flat-out spicy. The date didn't come through for me, so there was nothing really to round out the heat. This dish was the spiciest of the three. The venison was tough and overcooked (well done) and the silverskin was left on. The service was attentive throughout the evening, though there was quite a long wait between the appetizer and the mains. Saturday: Granville Island: We decided to do Canada Day on GI and have ourselves a little picnic outside. We chose some things from Oyama--the goose liver with black truffle pate (probably my favourite thing at Oyama), the lamb prosciutto, a heavily spiced dry-cured beef, goose prosciutto, and the boar salami. We also got a regular baguette and a sourdough baguette from La Baguette. It was my first time trying the lamb prosciutto from Oyama and neither of us liked it too much. It is much heavier spiced and salted than the Salumi version, and much leaner as well. Everything else was wonderful, especially the goose prosciutto and the baguette. We didn't enjoy the sourdough one too much (coarser crumb and thicker crust, both which I expect from a sourdough bread, but it wasn't very sour at all.) Regardless, it was the perfect way to celebrate Canada Day. Yes, we ate it all.

What a discerning palate you have. I personally can't tell the difference between a cheddar that is six years old, three or 10. Could you elaborate on the differences, maybe this old palate could still learn a thing or two. Thanks, ← The older cheddars I get from Les Amis seem to have crunchy salt crystals, and a much more pungent flavour. I notice a big difference between the 5 year and the 8 year, but not as much of a difference between the 8 year and the 12 year, so I just buy the 8 year because it's a little bit cheaper.

RheaS: I'm so glad the cookies turned out well. I am kind of nervous giving out approximations to others because I don't know how accurate my guesses are! (And in case you're wondering, the tablespoon of molasses in the recipe is there because I didn't have any brown sugar on hand.) Abra: That caramel sauce sounds perfect for any tropical dessert! Do you just steep the cinnamon and lemongrass in the coconut milk, then add that to the caramelized sugar? (I don't think the bad food day is actually going to happen, btw, because HE'S going to have to eat stuff like Dick's and he really abhors that particular Seattle institution. ) Andrea: When I bake the brownies for myself, I usually cut the sugar down to 1 3/4 cup because I tend to like things a little less sweet than most people. But if you make it with the 2 cups of sugar, the recipe still contains less sugar than most brownie recipes with that amount of unsweetened chocolate.

Last few times I've been in, they had 5 year old cheddar on the cheese list...I think it's from Quebec. I personally love cheddar as long as it's 8 years or older. I don't think the lady at the next table deserved that comment, though.

sweeeeeeet

I know Sandra Lee has been mentioned many times in this thread, but I didn't get a chance to watch her show until recently, when my bf TIVOed it just so I could see how awful she is. (Thankfully, we don't get the show up here in Canada.) Nothing I read on the internet could've prepared me for this atrocity of a "cooking" show. Not only are her movements jerky and awkward whenever she's handling a knife (or any piece of kitchen equipment), but she described the lemon-chicken she was making as being delicious and FLAKY. FLAKY?!! And wtf is a "TABLESCAPE?!!" I guess the goddess of combining processed products in a bowl and calling it food thinks she's above the English language. I wanted to poke my eyes out after watching 5 minutes of this show. *shudder* (However, FoodTV America does seem to get a lot more quality shows. I haven't watched anything on FoodTV Canada except for the occasional Iron Chef episode in years. We get a lot of shows directed towards young families with finicky kids.) ETA: Ditto the comments on Ina's laugh, although I do enjoy watching her show sometimes. I don't learn anything from the cooking, but it's a fantasy world with a gorgeous kitchen, manicured backyard, and beautiful table-settings.

I think I saw Kee's profiled briefly on TV awhile back...they won Best Chocolates in NY, didn't they?

May, you've out-Linged me.

Sure, I would make Jaymes's recipe again. It was really good and my family enjoyed it. Not really interested in trying the recipes with significantly less oil (or fat) because that they seem like they would be quite a bit drier.

^If I had cream lying around, I'd use about 3 oz bittersweet, 2-3 tbsp cream (depending on the consistency you want), and a tiny pat of butter to give it some shine. It doesn't need to sit in the fridge...it will thicken up at room temperature after a few minutes off the heat. (Ah yes, I love my desserts but sadly I must cut down a bit...clothes.getting.too.tight. *groan* )

^Well...I think the chocolate-yness of your recipe and mine are comparable since I use 5 oz 99% + 3 oz bittersweet + 2 tbsp. cocoa and you use 10 oz. bittersweet...so about the same amount of cocoa solids, yes? That's an enormous brownie, Andrea. That's hilarious how you got it out of the pan in one huge piece!

I used Jaymes's recipe; it's in Recipe Gullet. Kris, perhaps you might be interested in that recipe too. The cake was very moist. I just ate the last piece for breakfast and I liked it even more the second day.

^Thanks for the compliment, toni! I rarely measure when I'm making a quick ganache just to put on cakes and cupcakes; I just eyeball everything. I had 6 cupcakes yesterday and cut off about 3 oz. of chocolate, and melted it with maybe 3 tbsp. of butter. (I was out of heavy cream.) This probably gives you a little more ganache than you need...I ate the rest. I'm sure it could be made with milk chocolate...maybe use 2 tbsp. of butter instead of 3 to compensate for the higher cocoa butter content.

It's very red and white indeed! But the cake I made is almost all gone, and I think I'll try a different recipe in a few days. Thanks for the recipes, Swisskaese. We're probably going to have a picnic on Canada Day and the raspberry tart looks delicious and easy to transport.

^It was different! Honestly, one of the reasons I avoided making it for so long was I couldn't get why the recipe called for such a small amount of cocoa....but the flavour is actually quite interesting. If you ever get the urge to try a Red Velvet cake, I would suggest Jaymes's recipe. I've looked at a whole slew of recipes over the years but that one seems the best...it is very moist indeed. I added another tablespoon of cocoa and more red food colouring to the recipe. more thoughts here

I thought the cake was good, and I found the little bit of cocoa flavour interesting. Honestly, I got the tanginess from the batter, but it was very subtle in the baked cake. I'm glad this thread got started because I've looked at a bunch of Red Velvet recipes over the years but never felt the need to taste one until I stumbled upon this heated debate! So of course, I had to try it for myself, and I'm happy I did! However, I disagree that the cake is very flavourful. More flavourful than a white cake or a yellow cake, yes...but not nearly as flavourful as a good chocolate cake or good carrot cake. Regardless, I enjoyed the cake. I ate two big pieces.

I've never used their dessert recipes before...are they good? Looks like I'm going to be celebrating Canada Day in Vancouver after all. We're probably going to get a bunch of different meats, pates, and cheeses from Oyama, and have a picnic.

I love eating certain foods with my fingers...I think it's so sensuous, and enhances my enjoyment. It's something I do often in front of my family (to my mom's disapproval ) but not something I would do in front of company.

I'll take that as a compliment. Thanks for the recipe!

Red Velvet cake (It was my first time tasting this particular cake. I used Jaymes's recipe in Recipe Gullet, with a few modifications.)

I made Jaymes's recipe for Red Velvet cake today. The cake is very moist with all that oil. I doubled the amount of red food coloring (might as well go all the way ) because 2 oz. seemed to be the norm for a cake of that size, and I wanted the cake to be pretty damn red. I also added an extra tablespoon of cocoa. The cake was quite sweet for me, so I barely used any sugar for the cream cheese frosting (only about 3 tbsp for an 8 oz. pack of cream cheese and 4 oz. of butter.) I didn't make a double layer cake because one of the layers stuck to the pan a bit and came out ugly.

I can't believe the price...and that's INCLUDING 2 cocktails, correct? Wow. Stunning, vibrant pictures and a great write-up. (And Happy belated Anniversary!)

Really...so grenadine is basically just red food colouring? I guess I can just leave the red colouring out then, and add 2 oz. of liquid (like water?)