Bernaise
-
Posts
239 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Bernaise
-
-
Lascivious is the first word that springs to mind when I recollect GG..that and the uproariously funny "um-gala-gala" story. At least in our family that is how we remember it. I cannot precisely recall if it was a story of bat guano or bulls testicles and does it really matter?
Food is art, spectacle, sometimes lusty and sometimes slutty but always theatre. GG's legacy for me was the notion that dinner was far more than food. Bon vivant, racconteur -nourishment is so much more than a plate of something. Plus he always sat at table and used linens and flatware with confidence.
He engaged us with his cooking and then re-engaged us and a few lucky audience members with the results. Who wouldn't want to be a dinner guest of Graham?
He inspired me to throw dinner parties and I mean parties! Complete with stories some ficticious others not and whoops of laughter and groans of pleasure -everyone replete and spent and gently brushing the last crumbs of whatever off of each other.
For me, only Nigella Lawson has come close to his panache. Especially her earlier series when she visits the fridge for leftovers. While she is not as bouncy as GG she is literary and I bet a great time at dinner!
I guess my bias is that I really don't get excited by cooks\chefs who aren't enchanted by their food and completely unable to resist it as it is being made!!
Oh and I'm ok with the drinking too!
And I agree the sober reformed version of GG is quite sad. I mean if he can't get excited about quinoa who can?
-
Yes I do recall the first time I felt forced to smuggle in treats-not so much because the theatre treats were so expensive - they just didn't have what I enjoyed. In recent years Canadian multiplexes have sen an invasion of USA candies -milk duds junior mints etc. sadly we have lost Maltezers(sp).
At my most audacious, I snuck in fish and chips with a small cup of malt vinegar. The fragrant vinegar wafted throughout the theatre - I thought we were done for-but no! Often we split a sub sandwich, bottles of Perrier and once a huge bag of leftover halloween treats.
-
The fun of winterlicious is in meeting upp with friends and trying a new spot! However we managed to get lunch at Bymark, and dinner for 8 at Pangaea. I am considering Mildred Pierce for chicken and waffles.
Last year, we were forced to enjoy cocktails while waiting for a table at Canoe. Worth it though they gave us the best table in the house overlooking the city..it was magical and the food and wine was excellent.
-
I made s'more squares
layer of g crackers
layer of dark chocolate and a bit of white
layer of marshmallows
a glue of g crumbs with butter and sugar
layer again as above
add a few extra mallows
yummy
-
Can you name the bakery and can they tell you what it was called? sounds a bit like a mustacoli or mostaccioli to me...
-
Here's the one I love with a few modifications because I felt it didn't have enough flour or heat.
Traditional British Gingerbread
2 cups of self-rising flour
2 tablespoons of ground ginger
1 Tablespoon minced crystal ginger
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1\2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1\2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1\2 unsalted butter
1\2 packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2\3 cup black treacle
also I've tried using molasses which I found a bit too strong....any thoughts?
-
I had a fab carrot cake for the new year. We have a famous baker in Toronto, Dufflet Pastry. I worked for her for a number of years and of all the frostings for CC I prefer hers:
1 lb cream cheese (not Kraft Philly brand)
1 lb butter
8 oz honey
simple, easy, and makes TONS!!
-
We make a buttercrunch with a layer of lightly crushed mixed nuts (salted and NO peanuts) and for a minute we thought we had a disaster on our hands as we melted the butter and then doubled the sugar, requiring another pound of butter after the fact...OMG...would it all work!!! Candy can be a bit fussy.
But no fears fantastic friable candy!
Now to guild the lily we thought we would add a layer of chocolate with the addition of crushed dark roast coffee beans and a little expresso powder...sadly it was all eaten before we had a chance to taste it..with people muttering "Jeez, what is this, CRACK?"
Using the Bon Appetit magazine we decided to make the fruit jellies - french style.
WHAT A DISASTER!
I have had some professional training and can usually tease out what will not work in a given recipe-I realy want to contact those recipe testers at BA!!
They suggested that the fruit mixture would need to cook and reduce for about 50 minutes - try 3 hours!! They thought 3 oz. of pectine would do the trick no actually way more than that.
What they didn't mention was that the jelly would seep a sugary juicy mess and some of the soft squares would turn into what I called the "bruised tongues"
They're tasty but hardly worth the effort and expense....my niece commented: hey this is tasty frozen jam! The final insult!
In second place was the frosted sugar cookies: cookies were delicious, royal icing was cooperative, however our snowflake motif just look like scars on the cookies. We ended up making flooded surfaces completely drenched in sugar crystals and tiny silver balls.
It took three adult women several bottles of wine, inordinate patience and hours of our lives we will never get back to produce 87 -6" cookies.
Devoured in multiples of two and three in seconds!!
-
I heard a rumour that Mark Thuet was opening a specialty cheese shop in Toronto...anyone know what I'm talking about?
-
re: gritty bits, yes if you introduce any sugar crystals it will seed the fudge or any candy and make it gritty. Steam is bad for melting chocolate, but necessary for candy. Also the corn syrup helps to reduce the crystal problem. With fudge though over mixing is the other culprit.
-
Fudge- temperamental fussy to make but worth the effort!
Ingredients:
2 cups of superfine sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
5 tablespoons butter
3 ounces unsweetened choclate (chopped)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1\4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanillla extract
Method:
butter an 8-inch square pan. In a heavy 3 quart saucepan whose sides you have buttered, combine te superfine sugar, heavy cream, butter, chocolate, corn syrup and salt. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over low heat.
When the mixture reaches a boil, cover tightly and continue to cook for 3 minutes(this will help to steam down any sugar crystals that might form on the sides of the pan).
Uncover and pop in the candy thermometer-slowly boil, stir occasionally and wait til it hits 236 degrees.
Put the 236 degree pan of candy in 1-2 inches of COLD water(no ice) pour the vanilla on top but do not stir. wait until the candy reaches 110 degrees, remove from the sink, dry the bottom and beat with a mixer or wooden spoon. Beat until the candy begins to lose its gloss and to offer slight resistance to the mixer. Don't be tempted to overbeat.
Pour the fudge into the buttered pan. Don't scrape the pot-just let what comes out naturally fill the pan -and snack on the rest.
I make a vanilla variation of this and add salted cashew nuts -divine!!!!!
-
I'm digging into a bowl of homemade veal stew with dumplings bookended by the BEST new Loblaw's product: the Organic milk chocolate bar with hazelnuts and raisins. Madre de dio!
edited to add punctuation kind-of
-
Make a solution as follows:
3 cups heavy cream
3 cups white sugar
1 pound butter
melt these ingredients until silky and smooth, allow to cool.
Using a #12 funnel, have four guests hold the offender down and place the funnel in her mouth and pour the solution down.
top with gently toasted and crushed macadamia nuts.
-
I have begun thinking long and hard about the following recipe idea:
1 plain flavour pringle chip
1 Hershey's scoop chocolate candy chip thingy
1 more plain flavour pringle chip
Like a salty cunchy smoothie chocolatey sandwich of PMS yum!
Has anyone already beat me to this?
-
Cassis.
I would consider selling my niece into prostitution for the cassis...especially with a side of vanilla
mon dieu
-
My Mom is from San Daniele in Friuli. Best prosciutto hands down - don't believe those bums from Parma!!
Here's her Prosciutto fat recipe.
in a cold pan add a smidgen of olive oil, butter and several slices of the prized P-fat. As it begins to melt and bubble, add a small onion cut into quarters and a large clove of garlic -broken but not minced. When the onion softens add fresh -if you're lucky - or frozen green peas. Pop the cover on it and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Lift the lid and add a small sprig of rosemary and a generous splash of white wine - 4-6 oz...
cook uncovered till the peas are done.
Watch as normally articulate and polite people stab each other with forks while grunting and fighting for the P-fat! Or maybe that's just my family..
-
Yay! you love them too! thanks for the tips...I guess I am going to have to head into the chinese bakeries of Toronto. But that bread recipe is so soft it must be loaded with butter or made with soft flour. Can you make bread with soft flour?
-
I have been secretly nourishing a tasty craving with these supremely soft long sweet buns baked with a buttery coconut centre.
I've seen some small round buns with a darker filling - not so good to me!
Problem here is: technically I don't know the proper name correct term for what I've had.
So sad the Korean grocer has decided not to drag them in from China town anymore
And I'm wondering if there is a recipe for this deliciousness.
Am I alone in this love of the coconut bun?
-
have you read the thread about worst meals ever? you might consider some dinner ideas from there...just kidding!
have you considered an israeli cous cous salad?
-
I get ratings :-(
I mean I feel like I'm at some amateur games!
I make the meal, SO eats and comments: "oh I'd give this one an 8". "This one is an 11!".
Risotto always seems to fall between 5 and 7.
Another peeve, LOVES Indian food but HATES Mexican like d'uh?
Oh wait, and wants to add to chilies to every damn thing!
-
as everyone has suggested, if you have the option of returning it to CostCo you might want to. But another thought I had was...the fat on lamb is usually what gives a distinctive odor that can be off-putting for some-even when cooked. Another thought, maybe they're selling mutton as lamb
-
Kraft foods (spawn of the devil) puts out a magazine- quarterly I think. Anyway though they try to use every one of their products which is a bit vile they do put together many casserole ideas I've thought might be nice if made with things other than minute rice, salad dressing and cheese shreds.
Truth is I do use a lot of that balsamic dressing at work. Does anyone understaand minute rice though? I mean rice cooks in like 15 minutes - oh well
-
I like them in place of starch. For instance, smothered in thyme and duck fat drippings-holding up a lovely confit of duck leg.
Mixed with heaps of caramelized onions and piece of salmon-any style.
-
Hi!
I am a non Jew with many Hebrew friends. I've been to a few of these meals. Might I recommend a flourless chocolate roll filled with chesnut puree (marons glaces) and whipped cream.
Or, lemon feather cake, a sponge made with potato flour and lemon filling -with again whipped cream and a little powdered sugar.
Favorite baked desserts
in Ready to Eat
Posted
In no particulr order
cookies:
any variety of meringue cookie, mostaccioli, frosted sugar cookies, lace cookies, florentines, brandy snaps, macaroons coconut, almond, chocolate. Do bars make the cookie category....
cakes:
chocolate mud cake, chocolate banana cake-chocolate frosted, banana layer cake with buttercream and toasted extra large coconut flakes, flourless chocolate roll, occasionally a dacquoise. Lemon feather cake. I really am fussy about cakes iced with real italian or swiss style buttercream. Has to be butter no highly stable fats for moi!
pies:
there are two pies that elude me and yet I yearn for them always: peach pie and strawberry rhubarb. Almost every version I've had has included soggy wet bottom crusts, overly gluey fillings=more constarch than fruit. Thing is I've had one or two great ones and the memory of them haunt me. Sure I've made some too, but, I think there is a kind of magic that happens with seasonal fruit from its natural habitat that produces something perfect. Georgia peaches for example or Ontario strawberries and rhubarb when we've had just the right amount of rain. I know everyone thinks they have the perfect apple pie recipe but actually I really do. I like a well made frangipane tart with apricots and almonds. Ooh the sour cherry pie. And while techincally this isn't a pie, the butter tart reigns supreme in my heart - occasionally I turn it into a pie -rich and delicious. Coconut pie with a custard base loaded with coconut and topped with real whipped cream, tarte au sucre.
Jeez why don't I tell you how I really feel!
slinking off now because I am embarrassed about the amount of goodies I love!