Cake Potato?
Happy cake day! I came for the giveaways, I stayed for the questions. :)
Also, are you a professional baker?
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Glad you enjoyed playing 20 questions (well 12)
And no I'm very definitely not a professional baker but I'm a cook. I am quite lousy at pastry but when my fellow pastry chef needs extra hands, I land them in my limited capacity. She's a real talent, thankfully, and she knows how to make things easier, and how to staff the tasks depending on everyone's skills (minimal in my case) so it works out.
It's really only for special events or when some of her staff is missing.
I was certain you were on my WL already. I reset it by accident recently and restored it but I see you were not restored. Fixed.
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Oh, cool. So what kind of chef are you? Do you work in a restaurant?
Also, thank you for the WL. I gave you a spot on mine for making me think deep, puzzling questions about the things that I like best. :)
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Thanks :)
Not a chef yet. Maybe one day if I get my own restaurant or make the right connections. Started late and I was pretty much self-taught until I worked for someone who thought I had potential and sent me to school to learn more technique.
I do work in several pro kitchens yes. The chef I cook under likes to change things up so he rotates his staff every 3 months or so.
Right now I work in a hotel restaurant in the City of Lights and I'm pretty happy with it. Hours are a bit crazy because there are night shifts every 4 days but it's great experience. As for the type of cuisine we do, I'd say Modern French, basically an upscale version of classic French dishes with modern techniques.
I'm more of a bistro/world cuisine cook for myself but you can't beat French cuisine, it's where most of the classic techniques come from so it's a rite of passage.
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That's really cool (crazy schedule aside). I'm not too familiar with French cuisine (when I visited Paris, I was dirt poor and dined mostly off of croque madames), but I did recently make proper haricots verts amandine which was really good. I also got the My Paris Kitchen cookbook by David Lebovitz, though I've yet to actually make anything from it.
Do you have any advice for an untrained home cook? Or any favorite French (or other) dishes that you think I should absolutely try?
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Heh yeah Paris food can be expensive, and high prices are not necessarily a sign of quality, an unfortunate side effect of real estate being murder and tourists by the thousands with big wallets being ready to eat just anything at any price because they're in France.
Ironically the places to eat on the cheap in populist areas of the city, quite out of the way from tourist attractions, are Asian restaurants in Chinatown Belleville and North African places.
If you do come back, however, and you want to try classic bistro food at ridiculously low prices even for the area, Bouillon Chartier is a cool place. It's really a typical populist restaurant like there used to be a lot of in the city, where workers came to have a good meal without spending more than they had.
Haricots amandine are awesome! How did you come to try them? Did you find a recipe on a blog or a book? Or were you looking for it? My girlfriend was not a big fan of green beans until we met but I can say very proudly that I converted her. Amandine and simple roasted green beans with a lemony garlic dressing are her favorite now.
Lebovitz is a cool guy. His blog is really nice and I like his books. This one doesn't feature a whole lot of classics but it definitely feels like the kind of food everyday Frenchies who cook are eating.
For advice, I'd say this: keep it simple. When you cook at home, recipes are not always easy to follow. Don't be afraid to experiment, or substitute ingredients for others you like more or find easily. You learn from every recipe you make so keep using those techniques into your own cooking and you'll get better and better at cooking on your own.
For example, you made Haricots Verts Amandine, you learned how to blanch greens, you learned to toast almonds, how to brown butter. You can use this in another recipe that doesn't necessarily call for toasting nuts to extract more depth of flavor from that one ingredient.
As for a dish you should absolutely try, it depends on what you like to eat. It's important to cook food that make you drool when you think about it lol
Personally, I can't resist a cheese soufflé. There's a bit of technique (mostly in the folding) but I am sure I can find a good youtube video for you if you want. From Leibovitz's book, the coq au vin is a really nice one but if you're on a more veggie kick, the scalloped potato gratin is on point ;)
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Heh, when I was in Paris, I was just a college student and didn't really know what I was doing. If I go back (which I'd like to do sometime), I'll definitely hit you up for advice on where to go to eat. :)
I came across haricots amandine via Serious Eats. We had green beans, I was looking for a different way to make them than what we usually do, and I found this recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/08/green-beans-amandine-french-almondine-recipe.html I really like Kenji and his recipes (his mapo tofu is amazing!), so I figured I'd give it a chance. How does it compare to your recipe?
I'll try to keep in mind your advice. I find I'm good at following a recipe, substituting similar ingredients, and adding spices to improve a bland dish, but not very good at pure improvisation or taking techniques from one recipe and applying them to another.
I'll definitely try to make those things from Leibovitz's book. I've never had a cheese souffle, is there a recipe you would recommend? I'd be interested in giving it a try. :)
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If I go back (which I'd like to do sometime), I'll definitely hit you up for advice on where to go to eat. :)
Hit me whenever you want :) (that sounded weird lol)
If I go back (which I'd like to do sometime), I'll definitely hit you up for advice on where to go to eat. :)
I thought so. It's such a great site. Kenji's experiments and detailed write-ups are an inspiration. Sometimes I get new ideas just reading them. I like how he thinks about food. He's always trying to get as much flavor as possible from every ingredient.
And yeah it's pretty similar to my recipe. It's a very classic French recipe. Works perfectly. You really can't go wrong with brown butter. In any recipe.
(My girlfriend is quite addicted to brown butter so I've tried it in everything from ice cream to brioche, sauces and condiments)
I've never had a cheese souffle, is there a recipe you would recommend? I'd be interested in giving it a try. :)
It's definitely a French classic and it can impress guests without being very technical. The cheese one is the easiest to try out but it's a good base for any flavoring you can think of. There is a restaurant here that specializes in them and they are so airy and light, it's downright impressive. Basically it's like eating a little cheese cloud, with a spoon ;)
There are a lot of recipes around but the Guardian's How to cook a Perfect... has a really solid one (minus the mustard, I have no idea where that comes from but I've seen it in several recipes in English so I can only assume Julia Child strikes again lol; French people use a little grated nutmeg instead)
It's a great column if you're ever looking for a recipe because they also analyze and test various recipes and come up with what they feel is the best compromise between techniques and it works, also it's interesting.
How to cook perfect cheese soufflé
The only tricky part is the folding of the base and the egg whites but it's really not hard, you just need to be shown how to do it so I recommend this video from that crazy guy. He's using enough butter to drown someone in it which is absolutely not needed but he's French so he has a reputation to uphold lol. His technique is good though. Just follow the proportions from the Guardian recipe and forget about coating the dishes twice with butter, that's nonsense :P
How to Master Cheese Soufflé
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Happy cakeday!
01100010 01110101 01101101 01110000
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Happy (belated) Cake Day!
I actually created this train and thread at work, while baking cake (I kid you not) so sorry in advance for any error that I'll try to fix asap so let me know!
Errors in the cake or in the train? I'm confused.... :D
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Looks like I'm late to the party and also blacklisted, but Happy Cake Day anyway!
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Heh nah it's a great addiction to have ;)
Sorry you missed the train but you always have the (Super)bus ;)
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The best one for me Little Hily(an a melancholic one)
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You aint a loser for not preparing your cakeday. I have yet decide what to do on my cakeday. I do not even celebrate my birthday. hahaha
Happy Belated Cakeday to you. <3
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Heh yeah a bit of a loser stll because I wanted to have a bigger event with puzzles and cool GAs.
Thanks :)
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I am such a loser I didn't even see this day coming until the Holy Cake of Cakedom appeared next to my name (and Kappa and
icaio wished me happy cake) so I was pretty much unprepared and so the resulting train is rather underwhelming
....
(pause for eye rolls)
....
Nevertheless I didn't want to let the day go by without a little something to give thanks to the wonderful SG community for one year of generous giveaways, laughs and games, and for the support you give each other every day, and also for putting up with my pathological (at times) need to debate everything for days.
I actually created this train and thread at work, while baking cake (I kid you not) so sorry in advance for any error that I'll try to fix asap so let me know!
Bundle leftovers tonight but I'll come up with something better tomorrow
So hop on board and have some cake! (is it even still my cakeday??)
Grab your ticket - No Botz Allowed
Oh and read the descriptions, we have a game going with extra prizes to come (◕‿-)✌
EDIT
I am overwhelmed (and so is my Inbox) by the response on that little thread and that little game of mine. I will be looking at all the answers and replying to all of you and give out some 💙 but in the meantime I want to say a big THANK YOU!
I will see you all later this week for more goodies. Stay excellent!
EDIT 2
Phase 2 is still coming. At the moment it looks like invites to reward all you nice peepz who spent time answering and participating and still some 💙 coming for some. Might take another week because this loser is still well swamped with extra shifts.
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