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Ling

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Everything posted by Ling

  1. That looks delicious Abra! I saw the photos from the rest of that particular dinner. Lucky dinner guests indeed!
  2. Thanks! I gave a few slices to the staff at Rare One, and I also gave some to my friends. I like the Nutella tart, but the Tarte Grenobloise is my favourite chocolate tart from PH so far.
  3. I had an apple turnover and those chocolate hazelnut cookies, and also 3 truffles. I also did a stage at Rare One tonight. I made an adaption of PH's Tarte Grenobloise using Michel Cluizel chocolate, a chocolate pecan sable crust, and the caramel pecans. The only part of the recipe I followed was for the crust. I served it with cardamom cream. It was really exciting working in a professional kitchen during the dinner service. If you'd like, you can read about my experience here.
  4. Ling

    Rare

    ^Wow, thank-you so much! I had to adapt a lot of things due to the temperature in the kitchen (very cold fridge, hot heat lamps...I am not used to this! ) and the chocolate...I had to keep going back to the flattop, melting a few more ounces of chocolate each time to incorporate it back into the (very creamy) couverture+butter+cream base, then I whipped it a lot by hand to try to get the consistency right. And I get more light in my home kitchen than the area around the flattop, so I pulled the sugar before it caramelized enough and had to wing that too. I don't know if it was your table that had to wait for the tart (I was just finishing it when I had an order for 3 or 4 slices), and if so, I apologize for the wait. I couldn't have done it without the staff helping me out so much today. I can't wait to go back and do something else next week.
  5. ^Wow, that's awesome. The kids in my cooking class want to do chocolate cake on Friday, so I'll get them to bake this recipe and see how it stacks up against the Epicurious one. (Don't worry--I supervise closely and I'll make sure they measure properly, etc. )
  6. Ling

    Rare

    Yes, SWEATING is right. How do you all do this everyday? I am in awe.
  7. Ling

    Rare

    The bread is quite sweet on its own, and not something I would normally go for. Paired with that butter, it is great. I generally prefer a less dense "inside" of the bread, and crustier outside, though. There was a foie gras dish that looked incredible tonight--really artistic, with great height, colour, and texture (well, I am tasting it in my mind.)
  8. Ling

    Rare

    After a few minutes standing by the flattop waiting for my sugar to caramelize, I was sweating more than I do after a workout. Not pretty. Working in the professional kitchen is really hard! I'm tired. I was not happy with my dessert tonight. I give it a 4 out of 10. It is SO much easier doing pastries at home! I got to use Michel Cluizel in my tart tonight though, instead of Valrhona, which was awesome! Anyway...had to wing the ganache b/c the chocolate was couverture and I thought it was regular bittersweet...until I noticed that the ganache was way too light and liquid. Different cocoa available in the kitchen too...not what I'm used to. The crust was...medium brown. I had a million problems tonight. I was so nervous. I have to thank everyone in the kitchen for being so patient with me...showing me where everything was, grabbing things for me when I couldn't reach, and cleaning up after me too! Props to the staff...they are so efficient and can multitask and make everything look so easy!! I feel so incompetent next to them. *sob* The dishes that were coming out of the kitchen were amazing! I can't believe they're charging only $65 for 6 courses. Damn. I can't wait to go back! ETA: Someone sent me roses at Rare tonight, and I've called some friends already and they said it wasn't them. So if it's someone on Egullet, I just want to say thanks. I can't read the signature, but I really appreciated the gift!
  9. Ling

    Rare

    OK the chef approved my dessert choice--tonight's special will be Valrhona tart with caramel pecans, served with a cardamom cream.
  10. Ling

    Rare

    Wow, I'm nervous! I'll have to peek in the dining room to see if I can figure out who you are.
  11. Tuesday Aki I watched "Eve and the Fire Horse" at Tinseltown, then J took me to Aki and we had uni, amberjack, sockeye salmon sashimi, yakiudon, California rolls, and steamed clams in sake. Washed the food down with more sake. The sashimi was of excellent quality, and the uni was good. A light hand was used for the soy sauce in the yakiudon, and although it looked much paler than other restaurant versions, it was absolutely delicious--very chewy and peppery. Beef was overcooked, though. Wednesday and Thursday I ate non-descript Chinese take-out for dinner both nights. On Wednesday, it was a strange sweet and sour pad-thai-like noodle dish from a restaurant in Richmond called Coconut Cafe, I believe. Someone bought it home for me. On Thursday, it was some 'gong chow ngao hoa' (fried broad rice noodles?). Friday Collingwood Neighbourhood House Today's cooking class featured asian-style honey garlic chicken thighs, bok choy, and apple pie for dessert. I taught the kids how to make pie crust from scratch, and then I made them caramel sauce to eat with their pie. I only ate some of the pie though, as someone made dinner for me tonight.
  12. I thought you said healthy, not hazelnut! Ice cream, lots of ice cream. My Going To Gym treat. ← "Healthy" and "Ling" do not fit together in the same sentence.
  13. I had a slice of the Nutella tart in the morning, and one after dinner. Also had the rest of the jar of Nutella that I didn't use in the tart (oops...heh heh heh) and maybe 10 or 12 of those chocolate hazelnut cigarette cookies I'm always snacking on. ETA: forgot about the apple pie with caramel sauce I taught the kids in the cooking class how to make
  14. ^The recipe looks good! Thanks.
  15. I await your pictures eagerly!
  16. ^Yes, the stilton cheesecake is still on the menu, and it is also sold at both Thomas Haas in N. Van and at Sen5es. I also do a version of it at home, with a toasted pecan graham crust and extra stilton in the cheesecake batter.
  17. (I'm stealing this thread idea from the Philly board...thought it'd be fun ) If you had to choose one meal available locally as your last, what would it be? I would choose something simple, delicious and comforting. It would be the twice-baked almond croissant from Haas. Make that a dozen.
  18. Ling

    Rare

    Apparently, lemon tarts are one of the standards by which pastry chefs are judged! I adore lemon tarts! Dropped by Rare tonight and Chef Fowke is letting me come up with a dessert for Saturday. (I am so excited; I don't know how I'll be able to sleep tonight!!! ) Any suggestions? We talked about profiteroles on Saturday, so perhaps we could do those...I was thinking a profiterole sampler with one each of the following: -espresso chibouste, Valrhona mousse, hazelnut cream or -coconut cream, Key lime curd (or Meyer lemon), dark rum cream or -Valrhona mousse, pear chibouste, pistachio cream or Vietnamese cinnamon + Valrhona + cayenne or a triple lemon one--lemon/basil, lemon/cardamon, lemon/thyme or ginger, lychee, matcha or...well, I can think of a million flavour combinations. or we could reinterpret Keller's "Coffee and doughnuts" by doing espresso pots de creme with mini pain au chocolat. Or instead of the pain au chocolat, we could do blueberry/marscapone-stuffed brioche, with creme anglaise. For the chocolate side, I have many favourite recipes. I adore Pierre Herme's Tarte Grenobloise. There are a bunch of amazing recipes in his Chocolate Desserts book that I would love to put on the dessert menu, like the chocolate and port-steeped fig tart, chocolate crepes (perhaps filled with a chocolate marscapone cream), chocolate semifreddo with coconut dacquoise, a chocolate version of the gateau saint-honore, dark chocolate-filled mille feuille, and so on. I love caramelized, boozy bananas too, so maybe we could do a rum-banana Valrhona tart. I also love dark chocolate, caramel and fleur de sel...especially with macadamia or cashews. You know what else would be cool--if we did an adult version of a childhood treat, like s'mores. We could do a full-on chocolate version too, with in-house made chocolate graham cookies, a thick layer of Valrhona ganache, and in-house made chocolate marshmallow. Anyway, sorry for being so long-winded! I'm open to any suggestions, with the restrictions that it must be completed in, say 2-3 hours (therefore nothing like cheesecake or crepes, which need resting time.) And if you'd like to see something on the menu that takes a little more time, please don't hesitate to suggest it and I'll do it soon, when I have more time! (I had a really busy week.) So for anyone who's coming in on Saturday, you MUST order dessert, even if it kills you or if you have to share it--or else suffer my wrath! ETA: I should re-phrase what I posted earlier--I'll do whatever the Chef would like to see on the menu. But I'll forward your suggestions to him.
  19. Ling

    Rare

    I'm going to drop in with a taste of something chocolate-y for the staff tonight (pictured here)...what sort of chocolate desserts do you think would fit with the menu at Rare?
  20. The chocolate? It's not my favourite for straight eating...it is good in the tart, but I prefer the flavour of Valrhona Manjari or Guanaja. Oh yeah, I used the chocolate almond dough for the Nutella tart so I could get a triple hit of chocolate-y goodness. (The filling is very good--the baked chocolate, butter, and egg mixture on top is very soft and rich without being too dense. )
  21. ^Thanks for the link to Bill Neal's cake! I love pecan cakes...I made one last week! There's rum in the Thankful Butterscotch cake--wouldn't the pecan cake be extra good with some rum? There's rum in the caramel too...mmm! Wish I had an excuse to make the Thankful Butterscotch cake...
  22. Oops...I deleted my old tarte grenobloise picture. Here it is again:
  23. Nutella tart I'm out of Valrhona...I used E. Guittard 64% L'Harmonie.
  24. PH's Nutella tart (with the chocolate almond dough instead of the sweet tart dough...and with E. Guittard L'Harmonie as I'm out of Valrhona at the moment.)
  25. I'm pretty sure you're correct--once, I used a good cupcake recipe and tried to bake cakes out of the same batter, and the cakes were dense and did not rise much at all. They were also dry. Actually, that's why I decided to use this Double Chocolate recipe for the first time instead!
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