slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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I'm with Chris on this one. Blanched almonds aren't so much more expensive that it would be worth home-blanching.
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It's really difficult to come up with a universal recommendation, because cooking preferences vary so widely. Some people could simply not do without a wok. I haven't owned one in 15 years, and have no plans to acquire one. On the other hand, I cook a lot of pasta so for us a stock pot with pasta insert large enougo to submerge and cook a pound of spaghetti is a must-have piece of cooware, as is a saute pan suitable for preparing a quick sauce and finishing the pasta together with the sauce. For other people, these would not be high on their list.
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Hi Jessica,
I have two usual responses to this kind of inquiry:
First, I think it's a bad idea to purchase a whole lot of cookware at the same time. You inevitably end up making some wrong decisions for your uses and/or spending money on pieces you won't really use.
Second, I think it's the wrong approach to say "I want a such-and-such piece of cookware." That is putting the cart before the horse.
Rather, I think the process you want to have is to think about what it is that you do (or want to do) the most frequently, and which you feel is insufficiently served by your current battery of cookware. Once you know what it is that you want to do better, you have a basis upon which to make the critical decisions: (1) what is the appropriate cookware shape to accomplish this task (or tasks); (2) what is my budget; (3) what is the best materials design for this cookware and my contemplated tasks that is within my budget; and (4) what are my other considerations (what kind of stove do I have, do I want something I can toss in the dishwasher, how many portions am I cooking at the same time, etc.). When you answer those questions, you have the ability to go out and get the piece of cookware that really suits your needs. And then, later on when you have some more money to spend and you find that there is something else you really want to do and can't to your satisfaction with your current battery, you go through the process again.
Otherwise, it is my observation that there are some critical cookware purchasing errors that most people make.
The first is in spending big money on cookware that is massive overkill for the use in which that cookware is typically employed. For example, most everyone uses a saucepan or tall saucepan of around 3 quarts for things like making and reheating brothy soups; steaming, blanching and boiling vegetables; etc. There is simply no reason that one needs an expensive clad straight gauge pan or a professional-quality heavy disk bottom pan for this. Perfectly adequate stainless pans with a reasonably thick aluminum base can be found at stores such as Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond for a reasonable price. Hey, get three of them for the price of one All-Clad!
Another common error is purchasing a piece of cookware on the assumption that it will be useful, when it really isn't. This is true, for example, of most any frypan or saute pan smaller than around 11 inches in diameter. Sure, the smaller sizes may be useful in commercial kitchens where the cooks are preparing only one individual portion at a time. But how often are you going to fry a single chicken cutlet or one serving of sauteed Brussels sprouts?
A related error is purchasing a piece of cookware on the assumption that having that cookware will motivate you to cook certain things in it. For example, I see that you want an enameled cast iron casserole (aka, French oven, Dutch oven, etc.). Why? What is it that you want to make that will be so great in this kind of pan? Unless you have a reason to know that you want to make a lot of long-cooked braises and stews and sauces, frankly a Le Creuset-type pan isn't likely to be all that useful for you. Yes, plenty of people love theirs, but most of them would really be better off with a disk-bottom rondeau.
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I've even been known to partake of the occasional "reverse" Martini at around 1:2.
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Personally I find 5:1 too lean for my tastes. I'm most likely to have mine 1:1, or 3:1 at the most.
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Huh. How grainy is the preground stuff? I wonder if it might be easier to whirl it around in a spice (aka coffee) grinder?
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Have you considered putting just the flax seed and liquid into the VitaPrep and letting that run for 60 seconds or so before adding the other stuff?
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Shouldn't all recipes be named after eighteenth- and nineteenth-century aristocrats, military officers, opera composers and performers, and ballerinas?
I use a similar rule when choosing bottled condiments. If it's named something like "Colonel Switherington's Pungent Crimean Elixir" -- I'm in!
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I think you'll find that most everyone will recommend the Edge Pro as the best (except for those who will suggest that you devote part of your life to perfecting freehand sharpening as a hobby).
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The San Martín: 2 gin, 1 sweet vermouth, 1 tsp Yellow Chartreuse, stir, strain, up, twist.
I remember clearly when I first had this cocktail, which goes to show how good it is considering how much I had that evening.
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Right, but it's evolved away from that a long time ago. There's also the question, of course, as to just how much maraschino they might have included (how much is a dash?) -- and just what that maraschino might have tasted like. Not to mention that those Manhattans tended to be 2:1 in vavor of the vermouth.
Many of the oldest Martini recipes called for curacao, Old Tom and/or simple syrup. But I think we'd agree that equal parts Old Tom gin and sweet vermouth along with some curacao, simple syrup and bitters, while tasty, would fall outside of the modern/classic definition of Martini.
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As much as I enjoy Brooklyn-ish cocktails made with Sweet Vermouth, it is, as I was recently reminded, good to remember The actual Brooklyn Cocktail calls for Dry Vermouth.
I was going to say that too. I feel like if you consider this, a Red Hook has about as much in common with a Manhattan as a Brooklyn.
The main thing, I think, is that the guy who created the Red Hook says hs was doing it inspired by the Brooklynm, with Punt e Mes standing in for both the winey vermouthyness contributed by dry vermouth and the bitterness/sweetness/richness contributed by Amer Picon in the original. If you try them side-by-side, there is a definite kinship among the two that is not present among the Red Hook and the Manhattan.
Both the Brooklyn and Red Hook are whiskey plus winey/herbal plus maraschino (plus some extra bitterness), whereas the Manhattan is simply whiskey plus winey/herbal. Take the maraschino out of either the Red Hook or the Brooklyn, and you have a Manhattan. So clearly the maraschino creates a kind of dividing line.
This is what I mean in saying that you can't go too far afield from the primal, elementary formula for the Manhattan before you're off in a different drink altogether. Adding an aromatic rinse of something? Sure. Subbing in some amaro (more bitter) sherry (less bitter) or other reasonably similar product for all or some of the vermouth? Sure. Adding a little bit of certain liqueurs? Maybe. Depends on the liqueur. A touch of curacao still keeps it a Manhattan. Green Chartreuse, not so much. Rye whiskey with Punt e Mes and maraschino is no more a kind of Manhattan than gin with vermouth bianco and maraschino is a kind of Martini.
If I went with Rye, Carpano antica, bitters, and 2 drops of, say, fino sherri, is that too far?I think you make what you like, of course. That's the most important.
To my mind, there is a certain kinship among fortified wines (which includes both vermouth and sherry) so that they make suitable partners for a drink that can still be within the family of a "Manhattan variation." Even a tawny port might bring something interesting to the table. In a way, these fortified wines are going in the opposite direction that we go in using something such as Punt e Mes -- in the direction of less bitter/herbal as opposed to more bitter/herbal. Although you could, I suppose, balance the drink back to the bitter/herbal side with bitters.
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Wrapping it in turkey skin is, I have found, quite difficult. At the least, you'd need some transglutaminase to get it to stick. And even then, you have to be very careful that it stays stuck (I glued some turkey skin to a transglutaminase-bound leg meat "terrine" and browned it with a blowtorch) and doesn't instead stick to the pan.
I'd also recommend against wrapping it in things such prosciutto, bacon, etc. There are, of course, similar difficulties in keeping the cured pork stuck to the turkey. But, more to the point, turkey breast meat is rather mildly flavored. Wrap the breast in prosciutto or bacon, and you're going to end up with meat that tastes more of prosciutto or bacon than it does of turkey. One of the great things about cooking poultry breast to temperature sous vide is that you can really experience the mild flavors of the breast meat. The othe rdifficulty with wrapping low-temperature soud vide breast meat in something that has to be crisped, is that you run the meaningful risk of overshooting the target temperature by the time you get the wrapping sufficiently crisped. It's possible to do (e.g., baste frying" the outside by pouring hot oil over it), but it's a lot of trouble and it's not clear that the results are worth it.
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I've done this a few times before. Wasn't quite to my liking this year (too much mousse relative to the amount of turkey) but that was more of an architectural fault than a conceptial one.
All I do to make the mousse is take the turkey breast scraps and toss them in the food processor with salt and pepper, start the motor, and then I add cream and an egg or two until I get the texture I want. After that, I fold in things such as minced herbs, spices, truffles, nuts, mushroom duxelles or whatever else I might want in the mousse.
That gets spread onto a piece of flattened skinless turkey breast, which is then rolled into a tube with a sheet of plastic film (using the plastic to make a tight roll, just like the mat is used in making a sushi roll), then each end of the plastic is twisted tight. That roll goes into a vacuum bag.
After that, it's simply a matter of cooking it to temperature in the water bath. I don't bother browning this, because I don't find that the appearance of unbrowned turkey or chicken breast meat is particularly off-putting as it can be with other meats. I suppose it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to lightly brown the outside of the roll in a large pan of brown butter. In other years, I have wrapped the exterior of the turkey roll with chard leaves or savoy cabbage leaves, which makes a nice presentation.
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I suppose it depends on what you consider a "Manhattan variation." If we're talking about cocktails that are boozy, whiskey-forward, bitter/herbal stirred cocktails, the possibilities are endless. But that seems like an overly wide field to me.
Is the Brooklyn a "Manhattan variation"? How about the Van Brunt? Why not the Vieux Carré? Or a Diamondback (and its seemingly endless riffs and variations)?
In my opinion, once you start adding flavorings (maraschino, Chartreuse, absinthe, etc.) that takes the flavor profile meaningfully away from the universe of "whiskey, vermouth and bitters" -- then you don't have a "Manhattan variation" any more. This makes, for example, the Little Italy (rye, Cynar, sweet vermouth) a Manhattan variation, but not the Red Hook (rye, Punt e Mes, maraschino). The Red Hook is properly understood as a variation on the Brooklyn (bourbon, sweet vermouth, Amer Picon, maraschino) with the Punt e Mes replacing the sweet vermouth and Amer Picon.
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There is some question in my mind as to whether the foam on a Ramos Fizz is a protein stabilized foam (egg white) or a fat stabilized foam (cream). It can't really be both.
While it is true that a protein stabilized foam is inhibited by the presence of fat, it is not impossible to make one. Indeed, it is possible to make a dense foam using whole eggs if you beat it long enough, and we do get some foam on the top of whole egg cocktails. Protein stabilized foams are also enhanced by the presence of acid, which may help to counteract some of the inhibiting action of the fat. It is also true, as Katie points out, that the foam on the top of a cocktail is hardly the kind of persistent, high-volume foam they are expecting in a pastry kitchen.
On the other hand, perhaps the foam on a Ramos Fizz is really a fat stabilized foam. The foam on a Ramos Fizz seems to me to be more dense and creamy -- more like a fat stabilized foam -- than the foam on, say, a Pisco Sour. The way to find out would be to make three Ramos Fizzes; one with the standard recipe, one with cream only and one with egg white only. Take a look at the foam on all three and pick the two that are most similar.
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I sort-of wonder about the point of cooking squash sous vide. Most of what we want to do when cooking squash is evaporate moisture to concentrate the flavors. One could, I suppose, pre-treat the butternut squash doing the starch retrogradation trick if there was some concern that a squash puree might become gluey.
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No, I woudn't think that a superbag would work for that. The thing about a chinois is that you reduce the particle size of something like an asparagus puree by scraping it through the sieve. A superbag is just going to hold the particles back and clog up. You want a superbag for applications where you more or less want just liquid to come through the other side.
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The main difference between the ones you bought and the Superbag is strength.
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What's not natural and healthy about xanthan gum?
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You won't get the traditional confit texture at a lower temperature. Remember that traditional confit is simmered in fat. This isn't to say that you can't get something tasty at a lower temperature, but it won't be like confit. Also, part of what confiting does is actually render fat out of the meat. A confit-ed duck leg that's had the external fat scraped away and been crisped in a pan actually has less fat than if you were to simply fry up the same duck leg.
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My understanding is that it's related to a controlled amount of rancidity. Which is why aged SV confit doesn't develop the same flavors as aged tradtitional confit in a crock.
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I've done something similar before, yea. The trick with turkey skin is to really scrape out the underside so you remove all the fat, etc. Or, alternatively, I may decide to debone the legs intact and then cut off most of the meat but leave behind a thin outer layer connected to the skin.
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I use SV and related techniques/technologies extensively for this kind of dinner. It frees the stove for other uses, and makes things more or less idiot-proof.
I'm going to do something like this:
Salad starter: Endive with flash-infused apple matchsticks, caramelized pecans and Stilton moussse. This just uses the vacuum machine to infuse the apple.
Soup: Cauliflower cream puree with arugula pudding and pickled shallots. I cooked the cauliflower and cream together SV at 85C until tender, then cooled it down to handling temperature, pureed it in the VitaPrep, chilled it and sealed it back in the bag. Cooking it this way ensures that the puree is snowy white. I'll chuck the bag in the circulator to keep it warm for service on Thursday. The pickled shallots are bagged with a mild sweet/sour solution and cooked SV until just tender, then chilled and reserved for service.
White meat course: Turkey breast roulade (filled with black truffle/turkey mousse), broccoli puree, celery root cream, potato coins. The roulade is cooked SV a la minute to 60.5C. The celery root cream is cooked SV similarly to the way the cauliflower puree is cooked so that it stays nicely white. The potato coins are cooked through SV at 83C with rendered turkey fat and seasonings, then chilled and crisped up for service. Once I make the celery root cream, I can put it into a squirt bottle, cap it and put it in the circulator to stay warm for service.
Dark meat course: Cubes of recomposed dark meat "terrine" with chestnuts, bacon-wrapped cornbread dressing, sauteed brussels sprouts, reduction sauce. As described above, the leg meat will have all the tendons removed, then will be chunked up, dusted with Activa, mixed with the chestnuts, etc., and packed into a square form lined with turkey skin at top and bottom. This will be cooked for several hours at around 70C, then chilled. For service, I'll cut it into equal sized cubes with skin on one side. The skin will be crisped in clarified butter a la minute for service (which will warm them through). For the dressing, I'll make a sheet of overlapping slices of extra-thin Schaller und Weber double-smoked bacon, and I'll wrap that around some cornbread dressing like I'm making a huge sushi roll. That will get wrapped tightly in cling film, bagged and kept warm in the circulator for several hours to tenderize the bacon. I'll crisp the bacon for service with a blowtorch or run it under the broiler. The trick is to use plenty of egg and make a moist dressing so that it stays together when you slice the roll.
So, that's probably a fair amount of reliance on SV technology. I won't be using my oven for anything but keeping plates warm.
Techniques for Roasting Potatoes
in Cooking
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I have done something like this, and it worked fine. However, I should point out that if you cook them sous vide at around 83C (above the temperature for starch but below the temperature for pectin) you will wind up with potatoes that are fully cooked but still have more "bite" than is usual for a cooked potato.
If you are not going to cook to this temperature, then cooking via sous vide doesn't make much sense and is no more convenient or effective than simple blanching and chilling in a pot of salted water. I had thought (hoped?) that putting some butter in the bag with the potatoes would cause the potatoes to absorb some of the butter or otherwise become extra buttery-tasting, but no dice. Other flavors might absorb better.