belgand's Profile
favorite gougeres recipe?
Like much of a baking this is less an issue of recipe and more of an issue of ratios. Thankfully it's also a ridiculously easy ratio and method.
Roughly you want a 1:1 ratio of water (or milk) to flour. That's pretty much it. The whole trick right there.
Method is equally simple. Boil the water with a few tablespoons of butter (somewhere in the range of 1-3 Tbl. per 1/2 Cup of liquid is standard and since it isn't structural it's not a problem) and a bit of salt. Remove from the heat and dump the flour in all at once and then stir vigorously until it comes together. Return it to the heat for a minute or two until the bottom starts to film and it cooks up a bit. This will remove the excess moisture and let it take on more egg more easily.
Remove it from the heat again, beat a bit to let it cool down (you don't want your eggs to curdle) and start adding the eggs. Usually you'll want somewhere in the range of 1 large egg for every 1/4 Cup of flour. Add an egg and beat with the wooden spoon until it incorporates. Some people suggest that this can be done in a food processor (Jaques Pepin, others below) while other cooks (JC in The Way to Cook, for example) state that this will only lead to it becoming horribly gluey and ruined. It's very little work by hand though so probably better to play it safe and avoid having something where you have multiple pieces to wash.
When done the pate choux should just hold its shape. It will usually be a bit sticky and if you take a wad between thumb and forefinger it will stick slightly and ribbon gooily as you pull them apart.
If you want to turn this into gougeres you add finely grated cheese while it's still warm, again, roughly 1/2 Cup for every Cup of flour, but it will depend the most on how strong the cheese is.
You can store it as is, but rewarm it to tepid before you bake. Pipe it out with a bag (or improvise with a ziploc with a corner cut off) or use a pair of spoons as you would for drop cookies. It all depends on what exactly you're making. Either brush the tops with an egg wash, melted butter, or a sprinkling of cheese. Definitely use parchment. Baking times and temperatures depend on your size so you're best off consulting a specific recipe or table to get a good idea. Either way they're done when they've doubled in size and are a crisp golden brown. Once they finish don't forget to pierce them to let out any remaining steam or they'll start to go soggy far more readily. Many recipes suggest putting them back in the turned-off oven for about 5-10 minutes after piercing.
As I said up top though pate choux is like so pastry dough and many other aspects of baking in that you really don't need to learn a recipe, but a basic ratio and the essential techniques and reasons for them in order to make it work. Even as a dedicated believer in recipes, exacting measuring, and repeatable results it's less important than knowing why. That way you'll never be mislead by a bad recipe again.
Fear of green market foods - homemade sold at the market
They are.
More to the point is that they aren't known for their high level of cleanliness and attention to food safety guidelines, yet people rarely think anything of purchasing something from a child selling on the street.
Most of these issues are really more about perception and unfounded psychological attitudes about "trustworthiness" than anything that actually has a legitimate bearing on food safety.
Critique My Menu? 5-6 Courses, French
Rogue is ridiculously easy to find out here, we even have one of their pubs in town.
Any suggestions on an acceptable rose at around the $10 mark? Yeah, it's cheap, but I'm working from a budget of about $10-15 person for the dinner and based on the RSVPs it looks like about 6-8 people will be showing up.
Dr. Pepper Ten
I'd disagree. That's actually the standard for most of these drinks. Traditionally diet soda was marketed to women and, as a result, has taken on negative connotations for men who tend to see drinking it as effeminate. All of the current wave of lower-calorie and Splenda-sweetened sodas have intentionally changed the packaging, naming, and marketing to target more of a male audience: Coke Zero, Pepsi One/Max, and now Dr. Pepper Ten.
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
Thanks, that sounds even better than I had previously thought. I'm always on the hunt for new sides, mains are easy, but sides somehow seem to elude me.
Fear of green market foods - homemade sold at the market
Freshly made fruit drinks... so lemonade is out of the question? I guess it makes a certain degree of sense, especially if it's children with their dirty, filthy, horrible little child hands. But there's no way I'm going to avoid a nice glass of agua fresca.
Critique My Menu? 5-6 Courses, French
Sounds great, especially the beer as I was worried about finding something appropriate. As for the wine what courses would I want to serve each with?
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
Dinner party prep week continues as I hammer out the new items I plan to cook and brush up on classics while thinking through the best way to get everything out on time.
After weeks of blissfully pleasant psuedo-summer (i.e., actual warm weather, not the frigid temperatures we actually get in the summer months) San Francisco has turned cold again just in time for Daylight Savings Time to end. Even though it always feels like horrible, freezingly cold fall here it's really been hammered home recently. Which made it the perfect time to work on my cream soup technique. Trying something different I decided to go with a velouté base which came together nicely while the carrots roasted in the oven. Just as my girlfriend got home the soup had come together and the quiche was almost ready to go in the oven... but not before she was able to steal a few bits of bacon from the bottom of the shell.
Extra slice of quiche? Well... my diet was going too well (~3 lbs./week), I really needed the extra calories. For my health.
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
Those apples look amazing. Any chance we could get a recipe?
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
It's amazing how much "waste" there was while practicing making chocolate curls later in the evening. Even better was finding that they do factory tours.
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
That looks disgustingly good. I think there's a good chance I'll dream about it (not the first time, I once actually dreamt about a torta, sadly that place is now closed) . We simply must have the recipe, or at least where we can find it.
Mission District Food Crawl
I can personally confirm that it can be purchased from Haight Street Market as well as directly from the restaurant. I'd guess that Bi-Rite and other local, pricier sorts of markets carry it as well.
Now that I think about it another place to get their style of salsa doesn't immediately spring to mind. My problem with it isn't that it's bad, per se, but just that I find it to be inordinately overrated. I just find it to be average and unexceptional.
Fear of green market foods - homemade sold at the market
Have these friends ever eaten at your home? WHY!?! They don't know a single thing about it and I'm certain it has never undergone a government inspection. They're taking their lives in their hands doing that sort of thing!
Oh, but they know you so they assume, without any sort of evidence whatsoever, that it's safe to eat. It's a logical fallacy. Most people probably do all sorts of unsafe things in the kitchen every day and think nothing of it because they don't actually get sick.
In all likelihood these products are produced to a higher standard than you'd make at home for yourself or friends because they're actually concerned that someone would hold them liable.
Frying pans, sautes, what do the professional chefs use in restaurants?
The standard recommendation these days for All Clad, but actually having enough money left over to be able to purchase food is Tramontina's tri-ply line. As far as I'm aware they have some sort of weird deal where it's exclusive through Wal-Mart or something, but you can order online.
In practice a number of different places have tested it and it performs close enough to All Clad that it's tough to tell the difference and looks almost identical. I just got a 10-piece set ($200) a few months back and I've been very happy with it.
Dr. Pepper Ten
I haven't tried it yet myself, but I find it interesting that they released a new ten calorie version after spending years on advertising how much Diet tastes like the original. If it really does, why make one that tastes even more original?
Looking over the ingredients was also enlightening. Number two on the list was high-fructose corn syrup. My guess is that they're just making it fairly close to the original formula, but replacing a portion of the corn syrup with... hmm, I think it uses aspartame. A shame, as I'm personally a fan of Splenda when it comes to fake sweeteners (and with Pepsi One and Coke Zero has done a much better job than aspartame).
Mission District Food Crawl
Farolito is open until something like 2 AM or so. It's one of the standard late-night stops. I wouldn't really worry about crowds. Even on a busy night at peak hours. These are all fast, order at the counter places so it's rarely much of a problem.
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
Pics and hopefully a recipe as well. Mmm... amateur food porn.
What's for dinner? #115 - Old
I too ended up doing a Marcela Hazan recipe. After spending the afternoon doing my final election research and getting out to vote I still wanted to run a quick errand to price out some ramekins. My girlfriend complied by calling to say she was working late and all my earlier plans didn't have enough time to come together.
So tomato sauce with pancetta and rosemary served with penne backed up with a simple green salad. For dessert I broke a tiny stray edge off of the bar of 60.5% cacao TCHO bar we're not allowed to eat because I need it for a dinner party in three weeks.
Tarte Tatin, Caramel, and mushy Apples
According to Cook's Illustrated it's not just the pectin, but the gases used to store apples for year-round sales. Some varieties hold up while others have their pectin broken down sufficiently to make them mushy. Thus freshly picked apples shouldn't be a problem, but if you're buying them from the store you'll want to avoid those Grannies. Along with GD they suggested Braeburn and Honeycrisp.
I just made a crisp the other day using a roughly similar method and the Golden's came out wonderfully in it.
Tarte Tatin, Caramel, and mushy Apples
This was actually just on Jaques Pepin's current show (Essential Pepin) two weeks ago. IIRC he also cooked the caramel first to prevent exactly this.
Critique My Menu? 5-6 Courses, French
OK, so I've fiddled with things a bit and this is now the revised plan:
Hors d'oeuvre:
Choux three ways: gougeres, filled with crab, and filled with duxelles
Dinner:
Roasted Carrot Soup with Parsley Cream
Pissalidiere Nicoise and/or Tomato Tart (still undecided)
Individual Spinach Souffles
Green Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts
Cheese served with Pears and Shallot Confit
Three-layer Chocolate Mousse Cake
The idea of lentils is still something I keep thinking about, but as of yet I've been unable to find any recipes that really inspire me or a good place to put them into the menu. They feel like something just thrown in to add bulk and protein in place of meat... which is my general view of lentils to begin with.
The other problem is one that I've been putting off a bit: wine. This in and of itself is actually an astoundingly tricky problem as I don't drink and never have so I'm basically working blind here. My thought is that a light, presumably dry white would go best. I'm also looking to keep the expense down as we're all a bit budget conscious and under-employed and none of my guests are connoisseurs. Even better would be possible beer pairings as a number of my guests ARE craft beer enthusiasts and home brewers.
Papalote Mexican Grill, SF - go or avoid?
For burritos? Taqueria Cancun, El Tonayense, Taqueria el Buen Sabor, El Castellito, El Farolito, Jalapeno Taqueria (pretty much only if you're stuck in Ingleside, but it's surprisingly good).
Avoid: La Taqueria (go for tacos, not burritos), Taqueria San Jose, Pancho Villa Taqueria, Taqueria Balazo (even their nachos are bad), Zona Rosa.
At almost every place I'd go with the carnitas, but that's my personal preference and I think it shows the most about a taqueria's skill to get it perfectly crispy without being dry. The one exception is El Tonayense where the Al Pastor is the one to beat and the carnitas is rather ho-hum.
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Taqueria Cancun
3211 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
La Taqueria
2889 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Zona Rosa
1797 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117
El Tonayense
2598 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA
Jalapeno Taqueria
1338 Ocean Ave, San Francisco, CA 94112
Papalote Mexican Grill, SF - go or avoid?
I meant Fulton and somehow didn't notice. I go there because, as I said, there aren't any other, better options for burritos in the area and when I want a burrito or a relatively inexpensive, quick meal.
My point is that if you have a choice don't go. If you're making a dedicated trip there you'd be much, much better off going to a much better taqueria. If you're going to the Mission location you'll pass several on your way there.
I've actually thrown out the salsa before due to disinterest. I seriously cannot fathom what people see in it. It's utterly generic.
Mission District Food Crawl
I'd suggest skipping Papalote. While the salsa does have a strong following it seems ridiculously overrated in my opinion. It's just a fairly average creamy roasted tomato salsa. I go there fairly regularly only because the Haight really lacks a single decent taqueria.
While El Farolito is certainly a respectable choice Taqueria Cancun is also quite good (and I'd say, better) with excellent carnitas. If you'd prefer the simple deliciousness of getting your burritos from a truck El Tonayense's Al Pastor is hard to beat with their delicious spicy sauce and a strong contender for best in the city. They're a bit out of the way though now that the walk-in restaurant location on 24th has closed.
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Taqueria Cancun
3211 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
El Tonayense
3150 24th St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Mission District Food Crawl
While whole pies they're also on the small side. Each serves one to two people depending on how hungry you are. For a small group with lots of other stops you could probably quarter it
Mission District Food Crawl
I'd take that "relatively" quite liberally actually. While most trips won't be more than 2 or 3 miles at most you'll still be paying roughly $20.
For public transit the 14 bus runs all night along Mission St. and will take you up to Market St. where you can catch a bus to just about anywhere else, including transbay buses to the East Bay (though they only run on an hourly schedule after midnight or so).
Anyone Else Planning for Thanksgiving Already?
Not even a little. I'm planning for a dinner party taking place the next week and slightly cursing Thanksgiving for getting in the way and taking up the week when I had actually wanted to schedule it.
Then again almost all of my friends are either vegetarian or going home. I've tried too many times in the past and been consistently unable to find anyone who actually wanted to show up. I'm pretty much the only family-hating carnivore. It's quite unpleasant.
Why did my Pyrex baking dish explode?
Yep, I had this happen once as well. My girlfriend accidentally turned the oven to "broil" and after a few minutes... explosion of glass. As far as I'm aware the only modern Pyrex products designed to handle a direct flame are the labware and even then I've always been very careful not to immediately put them back down on a cold bench or throw them in the fridge unless absolutely necessary.
In this case you were applying a pretty significant amount of stress to the dish: fridge, to stove (and now filled with boiling water), to oven. The important thing is that you learned a valuable lesson.
Critique My Menu? 5-6 Courses, French
I considered quiche, but dropped it from the running for a couple of reasons, most of them practical considerations. Essentially I just don't have the pans necessary to produce them in large enough quantities. I currently lake a proper tart pan (I'm making the tarts as free-form galettes) or straight-sided quiche ring so my only options would be a pie plate or the springform. The springform pan is going to be filled with the mousse cake and will be chilling from the day before so that's out and the pie plate's slanted sides aren't quite reliable enough when I need to make multiple partially-baked shells in advance and because I only have one plate can't serve them in it.
It's simply much easier to buy some extra ramekins for a few dollars and make individual souffles. They also cook quickly enough due to their size that the time shouldn't be too much of a problem. Much less hassle than pre-baking several pastry shells one at a time.
The socca is definitely an interesting idea. I'm not sure I'd want to replace the pissalidiere with it outright though and the tomato confit seems a bit off (shouldn't pepper be the only topping?), but it's certainly under consideration now.
Critique My Menu? 5-6 Courses, French
No, only one set are gougeres. It's simple enough to divide up the pate choux and the rest don't really need the cheese.
The crepes are out for practical reasons as I really don't have any non-stick pans remotely up to the task. I've also never really been much of a fan of them personally.
I agree that the carrots as an entire course seems a tad odd. Soup would fit in wonderfully, but I feel like I'd want to drop the salad entirely in that case. On the same point if I do keep it and move it back I'd want to serve it alongside the cheese, but that would probably mean moving the goat cheese off the salad, out of the pan, and onto the cheese plate. Not a huge problem, but it made it onto the menu in the first place because it's one of those dishes that takes almost no time or effort and is always a crowd-pleaser. Likewise while salad with a cheese course is typical I prefer the cheese to be the focus of the course and feel that fruit, bread, and other accompaniments don't hog the spotlight in the same way. I've never heard of having a simple salad course (now without the chevre, of course) and then following it with the cheese separately, but I'd be open to that.
As for feeling limited by vegetables, well... that's less about the fall and more about me. Basically, I hate vegetables. Especially mushrooms (pretty much the #1 thing I will not eat), squash, and cauliflower. As I said, carnivore.
