Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: Daily Quiz for August 18, 2019 #17728
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      I was in San Diego a few years ago for a conference and went to dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant with my older son and his family. We went through several stacks of Ethiopian flatbread. It's definitely got a fermented flavor to it. They were saying it takes several days to prepare a new batch of batter, and they were close to running out of flatbread that evening.

      in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of August 11, 2019? #17724
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        It's possible to make white chocolate ganache, but you need a recipe tailored to that, because there are factors such as balancing the fat contents that enter into a ganache recipe. (And it helps to know the specifics of your white chocolate, which isn't always readily available.)

        in reply to: Ice Cream Cones #17723
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          Ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate chip cookies sound simpler, but carb alert!!

          in reply to: Storage Container 4 Capers #17717
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            We have both these days, though we probably use the Sams one more, and I think their prices are, on average, slightly less. But the Costco is much closer. The Sams on this side of town has products the one on the north side doesn't have and vice-versa. Recently I went to the north one to get two five-pound bags of mozzarella cheese, which the south store has stopped carrying again.

            in reply to: Storage Container 4 Capers #17714
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              Sams Club has 18" wide food service wrap, Costco might have it as well, and it's available on Amazon for around $25 including shipping.

              Gordon Food Services has 3 locations in Indianapolis and is open to the public.

              I'm going to miss having a restaurant supply showroom in Lincoln, Restaurant Depot in Omaha is members-only and you have to have a food service tax permit to become a member. I might be able to order through Sysco (my former neighbor manages their Lincoln office), but they don't have a showroom. A friend of ours is talking about opening up a food truck for barbecue and I may be helping him develop some recipes (like cornbread), so that might give me some other options.

              in reply to: Storage Container 4 Capers #17710
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                I like hitting kitchen stores and restaurant supply stores for the same reason. The only restaurant supply store with a public showroom in Lincoln has closed the showroom, though they still service restaurants out of their Omaha office.

                in reply to: Ice Cream Cones #17707
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  My grandfather's drug store had rectangular pieces of ice-cream cone material for making ice cream sandwiches. I've not seen those anywhere in recent years, though. (As a former soda jerk, the challenge was to press down slowly enough that you didn't crack the shell.)

                  The only ice cream sandwiches you can buy these days have a soft cake-like exterior, often chocolate flavored. I've got a Norpro gadget for cutting and pressing the sandwiches once you've baked the cake-like exterior.

                  in reply to: King Arthur and Chef’s Catalog Offers #17706
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Bagels are fairly easy to make, boiling them in an alkali bath leaches some of the starch from the surface, which helps achieve the firm exterior but creamy interior. I've seen some pretzel recipes (which are also boiled in an alkali solution) that just dipped them in a cold solution of water and baking soda, but I've never tried that with bagels.

                    Traditionally, a lye solution was used, but food grade lye is not something most kitchens have on hand. Baking soda only produces a mildly alkaline solution, no matter how much of it you add. (Anything over a couple of tablespoons is a total waste.) I usually add a little honey which is also mildly alkaline.

                    Baking the baking soda in the oven for an hour to produce sodium carbonate is something that's on my 'to do' list, that would raise the pH significantly, but still well below that of lye. (The New York Times suggested this some years back.)

                    Peter Reinhart's recipe in BBA produces nine full-sized bagels (4 to 4.5 ounces of dough each), but we prefer smaller ones, 3 ounces each. That's still about 45 carbs! His recipe in the Artisan book is similar but produces 6 bagels rather than 9.

                    in reply to: Daily Quiz for August 17, 2019 #17705
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      Maybe it was based on 'pastoral' meaning something from the rural countryside?

                      in reply to: Ice Cream Cones #17704
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        The Wall Street Journal has an odd definition of 'share'. :sigh:

                        Anyway, here's a different link to the fish-shaped ice cream cones:

                        fish cones

                        in reply to: What are You Baking the Week of August 11, 2019? #17693
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          I made Vienna bread on Friday. I made 2 large loaves, cut them into thirds and froze all but one of them. I'm hoping having them a little smaller will mean we'll eat most of a segment before it goes bad.

                          in reply to: Storage Container 4 Capers #17692
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            You have to be careful with Amazon reviews these days, some sources say as many as half of them are fake. And apparently this works both ways, companies posting fake positive reviews and competitors posting fake negative ones.

                            in reply to: King Arthur and Chef’s Catalog Offers #17691
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              As I recall, their 'everything' bagel topping includes garlic powder. We're pretty basic when it comes to bagels, I like mine with Asiago cheese (actually I use a 4 cheese blend from Sams Club) and my wife likes hers with some poppy seeds on them, or sometimes a combination of poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

                              in reply to: Daily Quiz for August 17, 2019 #17690
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                I couldn't find anything on where the name comes from, but apparently they developed in Lebanese communities in central Mexico. They're apparently similar to döner kebabs. (When our younger son was studying in Berlin, he basically lived on döner kebabs, which are the most common form of fast food there.)

                                in reply to: Storage Container 4 Capers #17688
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I use demitasse spoons to get things like olives and capers out of narrow jars.

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