Food

[Henry Krinkle]

We used to have a restaurant here run by a lovely young couple, Lien and Tang. It was our first favourite Thai restaurant and it was only much later that we learned it was far closer to Pan-Asian than straight Thai food. Lien and Tang were Laotian, had lived in Cambodia and swam across the Mekong while escaping to Thailand. Their food reflected their diverse life experiences and our absolute favourite thing they made was this compellingly odd fish soup that they called simply Thai fish soup. It was white fish in a deeply spiced chicken broth loaded with chiles, dill, tomatoes and pineapple. They retired from the restaurant business a few decades ago, so now we have to make it.

[Dan R]

Homemade crab cakes on ciabatta bread. Sauce is homemade ketchup mayo green onion siracha mix. Green bean side dish. Quite tasty!

[gnuyork]

Homemade crab cakes on ciabatta bread. Sauce is homemade ketchup mayo green onion siracha mix. Green bean side dish. Quite tasty!

We're doing crab cakes on New Year's Eve. My wife makes them quite tasty.

[Dan R]

We're doing crab cakes on New Year's Eve. My wife makes them quite tasty.

Nice! The last four of five eve's, we've been doing high end hors d'oeuvres and snacks. Great tasting cheeses and crackers. End the year on a snack note. On Jan 1, will do a whole duck dish to start the year off proper. We love to snack, much to our detriment.

[Henry Krinkle]

Nice! The last four of five eve's, we've been doing high end hors d'oeuvres and snacks. Great tasting cheeses and crackers. End the year on a snack note. On Jan 1, will do a whole duck dish to start the year off proper. We love to snack, much to our detriment.

For New Year's Eve my original plan was to break down a duck, make duck consomme with tortellini followed by seared duck breast and then confit duck legs. I was going to hold one breast back and make some duck bacon or proscuitto, most likely the latter.

Then... the best Asian restaurant in the city threw this up on their website, available for delivery:





So, my duck three ways will wait.

[gnuyork]

We love to snack, much to our detriment.

Same. If we were home at my parent's house for the holidays, it would be snacks on NYE and same on Christmas Eve. Cheeses, dips, etc.

[gnuyork]

Nice! The last four of five eve's, we've been doing high end hors d'oeuvres and snacks. Great tasting cheeses and crackers. End the year on a snack note. On Jan 1, will do a whole duck dish to start the year off proper. We love to snack, much to our detriment.

And even though I'm a fish/poultry eater only... I just can't do duck. I had pet Mallards as a kid - Frick and Frack (female and male). I loved those ducks.

[Henry Krinkle]

[Henry Krinkle]

Decent crackle after an hour of cooling. I am fine tuning my basic sourdough. Even by weight it is incredibly sensitive to different flours. My normal local organic flour is hard to get and only comes in small bags. I have found another sole source organic flour from within the province that I quite like and as a bonus it comes in 22 kg sacks. So I am back to the drawing board. I knew this had too much flour right away, but felt it might turn out OK. I feel like I am probably about 30 gms overweight on the poolish and maybe another 50 on the dough itself. I think only the dough itself is down to the new flour. I have been making my sourdough starter thicker lately as well and that is responsible for the poolish being a bit thick.

[gnuyork]

Decent crackle after an hour of cooling. I am fine tuning my basic sourdough. Even by weight it is incredibly sensitive to different flours. My normal local organic flour is hard to get and only comes in small bags. I have found another sole source organic flour from within the province that I quite like and as a bonus it comes in 22 kg sacks. So I am back to the drawing board. I knew this had too much flour right away, but felt it might turn out OK. I feel like I am probably about 30 gms overweight on the poolish and maybe another 50 on the dough itself. I think only the dough itself is down to the new flour. I have been making my sourdough starter thicker lately as well and that is responsible for the poolish being a bit thick.

I made baguettes the other day from a poolish... and in fact I froze two from that batch and baked them about an hour ago for turkey meatball subs.

I have a question, Henry... my baguettes and boule breads come out nice looking, and the crumb is good, flavor is good, but the crust is just so darn crusty that it's hard to eat the bread or even cut it. Do you have any tips to tame that? Am I over baking at too low of temp? Doing something wrong with my dough?

I'm at a loss, and it seems consistent no matter what I bake, baguettes, boule, bagels, etc.