Life by Chocolate

Chocolate, white, milk, dark, in all its forms forms life. Chocolate truffles, caramels, and other confections are at the core of enjoyment. This is life by chocolate because death by chocolate is the wrong attitude.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

If you can't cut the nougat

you can't make the nougat. Here is a photo exposé, though what I'm exposing, I haven't a clue. This Montelimar nougat is hard to cut. It is very dense. I have some great videos of cutting it but I can't upload them. Here are more still pictures.





For this nougat, you have to use two hands. And chop, press, don't slice. Don't forget to trim the overflow off and the extra wafer paper. If you didn't do a good job rolling out the nougat, here's where you make up for it.

I cut two sizes, one inch by 3 inches and one inch by one and a half inches with a thickness of about one inch.


And remember, if you collapse the whites, make ice cream. I made the last of the nougat ice cream last night. I pitted the cherries and dipped them in untempered chocolate. Yum. If I pitted the cherries, why is the stem still attached? Because I carefully pitted the cherry. I used my hand-dandy cherry pitter and pitted the cherry to one side of the stem and then put the cherry's skin back together and held it all in place with chocolate. Or, even better, fill in the whole that the pitter leaves in the cherry with some homemade marzipan.

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Making Salmon Tuile: Steps All

Making tuile is very easy. Here are the ingredients I use to accompany my InnSane Salmon.

5 oz soft butter
3 Salmon Marinade
2.5 oz eat whites
4 oz 10X Sugar
6.5 oz pastry flour

If you sub honey for the marinade, then it's a Honey Tuile. Tuile Means tile in French, btw.

Cream the butter and the marinade. Then slowly add the egg whites.

I'm using my little mixer here. It's great for small batches.

Next add the sugar and let blend. I have a movie showing this but I blogger is not letting me upload. I have a bug report into them.



Then slowly add the flower. Do not over mix this batter. Chill for an hour before using. Spread out a silicon baking mat, I like these great blue ones, they are only silicon. I like to spread the tuile batter very thin. This can get me into trouble and sometimes I get uneven baking. Try to make it the same thickness throughout.







Back until it is golden brown or darker, depending on your taste. Do not burn.




I use the marinade and put some cooked salmon in the marinade and blend well. Liquefy. Or you can just use the marinade plain. It's called tuile because one is supposed to put a wave in the baking mat to give it that Spanish tile wave to it. As you can see here, I didn't do that. I just made sheets of it and then broke it up. You can cut it before it sets and bend it and get fancy. I do that for desserts but go more au natural for tuile I serve as a bread substitute.

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Lunch Ideas in Manhattan or Brooklyn

And this time, I'm askin', not tellin'. So, give me some suggestions. My brother Johnny, of Soy Dracula and Rubbish in Romania fame, is having a birthday party. It's in Manhattan. So, I need some ideas for lunch in Manhattan or Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday.

Also, I need a place that will be open late. Say after 3:00. I was thinking of Park Avenue Summer but I had a bad experience there. Now, faithful readers and foodbuzz buzzers, I need your help. Please write your suggestions on lunch places on a five dollar bill, no make it a twenty, and send it to me via email or post on this page.

Thanks. If you figure out how to write something on a five dollar bill and send it to me via email, I'll be interested.