Haggis. It’s a Scottish thing, probably originally a Roman thing brought to the British Isles and still enjoyed there (kinda). It’s one of those love-or-hate-type deals, and I definitely fall into the former category. I may blog on bread and pastry but I’m a carnivore to my very core. I’m also a Scotsman by heritage […]
READ ONMaking tapioca is a slightly involved process, though it really makes sense when you think of it in terms of what it really is: a kind of cassava starch pasta. Starting with the pure cassava starch that I talked about in the previous post, the starch is moistened slightly and put into large rotating pans, […]
READ ONAs I mentioned, cassava root starch is very similar to cereal grain starch. It’s made up of the same basic molecules: the very long, straight carbohydrate amylose, and its branched and bushy carb counterpart amylopectin. Thus, it can be made into flour (it’s also make into flakes) and used in many of the same ways […]
READ ONThe wife’s craving gives me an opportunity to discuss a topic that baffled me for years: tapioca. I was told that tapioca was made from the same root that yucca came from, but that seemed impossible. Those little translucent pearls seemed to have nothing in common with the big, fibrous tubers that were so easily […]
READ ONAfter a much extended hiatus, it is my great pleasure to announce that pigs in blankets have formally re-entered high society. I wonder where they held the debutant ball?
READ ONBetween my posts on foie gras and the little kerfuffle about the etymology of the word pita/pizza, last week turned out to be fairly controversial. This week I have no time for such nonsense. It’s half over for chrissakes, and my projects aren’t even up! For that reason I think I’ll forego a bread and […]
READ ONAs it turned out I decided to go the authentic route on this one and get all my ingredients from cans and boxes. Last week was a mighty busy week, donchaknow. I used canned peaches in heavy syrup and Bisquick, and it tuned out great. I just poured the peaches into a pie pan, eyeballed […]
READ ONNormally I freeze it, since that works extremely well. However there is much to be said for letting it stale. As I’ve often discussed, stale bread was the norm through most of human bread making history, and an entire family of recipes have evolved in the Arab world to make full use of it. Fattoush […]
READ ONSomething interesting occurred making the deep dish pizza crust (link to the right) Friday evening. By upping the proportion of corn meal I found I didn’t need quite as much oil to lubricate the dough. This is certainly a factor of surface area. A few drops of water in your palm is all it takes […]
READ ONSomething that also impressed me watching Ace of Cakes was the notion that old school French icing tip techniques truly are dead. Everything, and I mean everything that the Charm City crew was producing were fondant-covered cakes. Fondant of course is a cooked sugar-and-water paste, almost dough-like in consistency, that can be rolled out in […]
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