Life of Pie's Profile
ISO Glucose Syrup and Dried egg whites
I was hoping to make a nougat recipe that calls for dried egg whites and glucose syrup. Does anyone know where I can get those things. Preferably downtown. Is there a place in Kensington that has this stuff?
ISO gelatin sheets
I would like to buy gelatin sheets and can't find them at my local metro (liberty village). Does anyone know where I can get them? Is there a place in kensington that sells gelatin sheets. I can find gelatin powder, but not the sheets.
SUPER BOWL...What's on your menu
Nanaimo bars are the greatest cookie/bar/diabetic coma inducing sweet. You have not lived until you have eaten a Nanaimo bar. Serious!
Kitchen Stores that carry induction Burners.
That's a good idea to check for a used one. I think I would want one of the more professional ones as I feel the made for home ones aren't really representative of the technology. That said I like the price of the home ones so perhaps I can find something in the middle.
Kitchen Stores that carry induction Burners.
Does anyone know of a kitchen supply store that carries good induction burners. I'm looking to get one of the single burner portable ones to see what all the fuss is about, but I want to get a half decent one. What supply stores carry them in Toronto for a reasonable price?
Induction burner
I was wondering what induction burners people have and if they are as good as the hype makes them seem. I'm really interested in induction and was thinking of just buying one of the portable single burners to see what it's like. Does anyone have a recommendation for a really good one?
The Perfect Grilled Cheese
Grilled cheese is awesome and one of the best comfort foods around. I use a cast iron skillet, challa bread, old chedder and butter. I put the pan on a really low heat (I find this way the bread gets perfectly golden brown and the cheese gets perfectly melty without being too greasy), and then flip only once. The flipped side cooks much faster than the original side. I also like a little bit of thinly sliced onion in my GC, but perhaps I'm abnormal.
Best Mid-priced Electric Range
Hello, I'm ISO an electric smooth top range with a mid range price (700-1100). I would LOVE to get an induction cook top, but the price is just too much for me especially when you consider the cost of a wall oven on-top of the cook top. I live in a condo and cannot get a gas line either, much to my chagrin. So, does anyone have any advice on brands to stay away from or steer towards, or, even better, a specific model that you absolutely love? I'm looking at a Samsung 30 inch smooth top but don't really consider Samsung to be a kitchen appliance brand. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Politica
Hi has anyone been to Politica? Is it any good? I've heard a couple conflicting reports and was wondering if anyone has any insight? I'm supposed to be organizing a casual dinner for some friends and was wondering if this would be a good place.
Pancakes for one?
I make pancake(s) for myself all the time. I don't measure anything so this is not going to be exact but; what I do is whisk one egg, add a little vanilla, some milk (about a quarter cup, maybe a little more) and a touch of oil (maybe a tbl) and mix all-together. Then I take a teaspoon and add some baking powder about a quarter spoon worth. Then I use the same spoon and add some flour I mix. If the batter is too runny then I add some more flour, too thick a little milk. There is probably a cup and half of total batter by the end at most. I'm heating my pan on medium low-heat this whole time and then I just make one giant pancake. The mixing process takes about 3 minutes because my pancake is big it takes awhile to cook, but you could just make 3-4 smaller pancakes.
What's the right cookbook for me?
The New Canadian Basics Cookbook. Great cookbook, comprehensive but not gigantic. Has a lot of recipes but doesn't assume you know how/want to do everything. I'm in a similar situation to you and I definitely use this book a lot.
Bananas- When is it to ripe to use in baking really?
Even if they are completely black they are still good. If there is mold growing at the stem then it is too late, but that takes awhile.
Your best birthday cake.
Hi, I'm ISO your best birthday cake recipe. The person I'm making this for is not a huge frosting fan (Strange I Know..), so I need a cake that tastes amazing on its own. I don't particularly care if it's chocolate or vanilla, or what-have-you, as long as it's amazing. Please help. Thanks.
So I want to make a margarita pizza...
Keep it simple. Heat your oven to as high as it goes and let it stay heated for 15-20min before putting anything in put your pizza stone in too, if you have one.. Dough, Tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil. Put it into the oven until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown. Done!
ISO Cinnamon Buns
The Cinnamon Bun recipe in the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice, is the GREATEST!! Tastes just like Cinnabon. You can find the book on Amazon, or at most any bookstore. Great book, but if you went to the store you could just copy the recipe out.
Creme Brulee French Toast
I have never made the recipe, but Corn Syrup does some pretty interesting things, so I suspect that if you substituted a different sweetener you wouldn't really notice, but you might not get the full effect of the corn syrup. The Corn syrup will keep the caramel in the recipe from getting too hard, and yet will keep it very thick when heated.
Banana Bread Redux
Oh, I'm going to need to buy more bananas. Thanks everyone! This is awesome!
Anyone ever heard of adding fruit to stock?
For the fruit stock:
3-4 pears (I use bartlett, anjou, and asian pears; quartered and cored)
1 granny smith apple (quartered and cored)
1 lemon zested and cut in half
nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla (pod or extract)
sugar to taste
I've tried cherry's, and berries but they didn't work particularily well. I tried a quince once and it worked very well, but quince is difficult to get for me so I don't use it often.
I put all the cut fruit in a medium sized pot and then add cold water.
Add half a stick of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and the zest of the lemon.
bring the pot to a boil and then simmer for 25-30 minutes.
You now have the choice of either straining the liquid, which will have lots of broken down flesh in it and the skins, or you can remove the skins (but not the broken down flesh) and puree the liquid into into a thicker soup. (I've done it both ways and either is good, but produce a quite different finished product).
For the strained version try and get it as clear as possible (strain through cheese cloth if possible). Then add the vanilla extract and sugar to taste (it doesn't require much). If you are using a vanilla pod split it and put the seeds and husk in the strained liquid and simmer for another 5-10min to get all the vanilla flavour out. Let cool and chill
For the puree (which I've only done once just to experiment). I added milk to the soup to thin it out and then added the vanilla and sugar. It had a much stronger flavour and the texture was almost like a really thin apple sauce. Again let it cool.
pear dumplings:
I make a chinese steamed bun dough (like for pork buns). It is a simple yeast dough that has baking powder kneaded into it just before use.
For the filling;
peel, core and dice some pears (4-5)
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4tsp ea. cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2tsp vanilla extract.
Put it all in a pot over medium heat and let it carameilze and get gooey, but not before the pieces of pear turn to mush. Let it cool.
roll out the dough into beer mat sized circles and a heaping teaspoon of filling and pinch closed at the top. Steam for about 15min until the dough is puffy and cooked.
Serve a smallish bowl of the cold fruit soup with one of the freshly steamed dumplings in it.
Enjoy!
Banana Bread Redux
Hello, I'm looking for creative/new style banana bread recipes. I love banana bread and wanted to put it out there to see if anyone had invented an awesome recipe. Classic banana bread always pleases of course, but I figure someone has done something amazing.
Anyone ever heard of adding fruit to stock?
I make a completely fruit stock for a dessert soup I make. I use apples, pears, lemon, and other assorted hard fruits (depending what's around/cheap). I only however use the stock/liquid to make a vanilla soup with a pear dumpling. So I really don't know if it would transfer very well to other uses.
Fried Chicken?
Where can I find good fried chicken? Is there any place that makes it? I'm not sure I've ever seen it on a menu.
Guacamole ideas needed... (moved from Ontario)
I use it as a spread instead of mayo, in a chicken sandwich.
Fried chicken
I don't have a wok just a big frying pan. But, I get your idea, I think that might work.
Fried chicken
I'm looking for a fantastic Fried Chicken recipe that doesn't need to be deep fried. Shallow fry is fine, but I don't have a pot big enough to deep fry more than one chicken piece at a time. Please help!
Best burgers
The Golden Star burger is my favourite burger of all time. By far the best I've ever had. All other burgers are compared to Golden Star, it is very rare that one matches up. It's just a good classic burger!
ice cream recipes
This is my recipe for spiced rum ice cream.
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup dark rum
2 eggs
fresh ginger (thumb sized) cut into 3 or 4 pieces
cinnamon stick
nutmeg (fresh or bottled)
Heat the cream and ginger, cinnamon stick and nutmeg over medium heat until it boils. Take off the heat and allow the spices to infuse into the cream while it cools.
Dissolve the sugar in the rum and make a syrup out of it. Let cool.
whisk the rum syrup into the eggs until frothy add your milk, and then strain your cream into the mixture and whisk until smooth. Put into your ice cream maker and wait!
Ice crystals occur because the water molecules freeze too quickly and don't have a protective barrier from the cold air. This can be for two reasons; either there is not enough fat in your recipe (your using more milk than cream) or you don't have enough sugar which acts as a stabilizer.
Choc Chip Cookie help
Do you want fudgy cookies or crisp? For fudgy melt a couple oz of chocolate than add the creamed butter and sugar (don't let the butter completely melt - just a couple quick stirs) then add your flour (kinda like making brownies, add cocoa to the flour tooo if you want a more complex richer flavour). For Crisp definately do the substitution of cocoa for flour.
COOKING SCHOOL TORONTO????
I went to GB for the one year chef training a couple years ago, and was greatly disappointed. There was not very much cooking done. Also, there are classes that I thought were unimportant and a waste of time and money, business communications (writing memos, sentence structure, etc.), Math (it was barely at a 6th grade level), and Computer Science (how to use a computer). Disgraceful! The food theory/history classes were easy, somewhat interesting, but to me seemed like an after thought and really had no connection to the practical part of the curriculam. As for the actual production classes, the chefs are very skilled, and excellent teachers (for the most part) and this is what I was there to learn and do. However, I think we may have had a total of 9hrs (at most) per week actually cooking something. To me this was unacceptable and I came away very disappointed.
Sri Lankan groceries/restaurants
I'm looking for Sri Lankan food. Where can I go to get authentic meals, and then where can I go to get the groceries to make these meals at home? Specifically I'm looking for a place to buy Sri Lankan Sambhol (which seems to me to be quite different than Thai sambol), and a place to get Coconut and Kithul treacle. I have no idea what Kithul is. Please educate me.
