Register

Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

For all refugees from the old Beeb Food Boards :-)
Chill out and chat with the foodie community or swap top tips.
NOTE: CHATTERBOX IS IN THIS FORUM

Moderators: karadekoolaid, THE MOD TEAM, Stokey Sue, Gillthepainter

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 3253
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:50 pm

On the "patisserie" front, I spotted a new shop opening in Watford. They don't look particularly Heavenly to me! A couple of slices of distinct down to earthishness there. Reminds me of school pudding. which alway came in square lumps, so the "edible flowers"(?) on the bottom one look slightly ludicrous to me.* They're actually directly opposite another established sit-down desserts-only place.

Image

Nowt to do with food, but it's two doors down from Heavenly Desserts, made me smile...

When you're really proud of your £5000 new awning, and noone has pointed out to you that there are two "Ms" in Trimming:
http://www.sakkarin.co.uk/foodforumpix/triming.jpg

*Note that I have nothing against edible flowers.

User avatar
Posts: 5297
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
Location: Wiltshire

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Earthmaiden » Sat Oct 17, 2020 6:22 pm

:lol: several things to master there! What are the desserts floating in?

It appears that Heavenly Desserts is a chain, possibly mainly takeaway/delivery

https://heavenlydesserts.co.uk/our-stores/

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 3253
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:07 pm

Maybe it's a bit hot in there and they've melted :-(

EDIT: Not really delved deep into that website, but it's odd that on the home page the two shots of tables are devoid of both people and food.

User avatar
Posts: 8629
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:09 pm

I think this is the dessert café phenomenon - ice cream parlour meets coffee shop

There are a couple quite near here, one I think does well, especially with S Asian families, the other is always empty but didn’t have a chance to build up ahead of Covid-19

User avatar
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby jeral » Sat Oct 17, 2020 11:37 pm

There are several coffee-and-cake cafes near here, although the draw of free wifi looked like there wasn't enough money going into the till with 3-hour visitors nursing just one cup of coffee, with rent/rates as high as they are. Such places seem to last a while but then close and others similar arrive.

The three cakes (junket?) in the window (Sakkarin's post) look the same, tarted up with different adornments on top, presumably to show a world of choice. If it is a chain, you'd think they'd have superwhizz stock photos of their fare. Maybe the technique they should master is competitive marketing?

User avatar
Posts: 2993
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:33 pm

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Pampy » Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:28 am

There's one near me - I hadn't realised that it was part of a chain (or a franchise).

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 3253
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:27 pm

Another technique I would like to master - Dosa cooking. I made two halfway decent ones (and I stress halfway, they weren't really brown enough or crispy enough although tasted great) last night on an old frying pan, but dug my tawa out specially this morning and gave it a good seasoning. The "dosa" completely and utterly welded itself to the tawa rendering it unusable until it had a long soak, so I reverted back to the rubbish semi-non-stick frying pan.

As long as it doesn't stick to whatever you're frying it on, the trick seems to be patience, as they seem to take three times as long to cook as you'd expect. I have similar difficulty with Banh Xeo.

User avatar
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby jeral » Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:51 pm

You try try putting a circle of baking parchment on the pan so if dosa's stick it will only be to that. I learnt the trick from Torode and use some if frying something with dark sugar in the marinade. Another idea might be to add a tsp or so of grapeseed oil to the actual dough paste.

My cast enamel baking tray is brilliant for not sticking. It's the same stuff that many grill plans are made of, so assuming a low rather than fierce heat, it ought to be OK to put that on a hob.

Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:59 am

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Hope » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:12 pm

I wish I could sharpen knives. But the sound of metal scraping on metal hurts my teeth and makes me cringe to the very depths of my everything that even thinking about it makes me feel sick! (it's very odd, I know!)

I wish I could make decent gluten free vegan pastry. It took me years to master wheat pastry, which I can make well now (according to my children anyway!)

User avatar
Posts: 5297
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:58 am
Location: Wiltshire

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby Earthmaiden » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:21 pm

https://images.app.goo.gl/kJD5phU85ZkVRPfH7

I've got a carberundum stone with a handle which I inherited from my mother - like the one in the link. It's lovely to use and doesn't grate the teeth at all. Just needs slight dampening and sharpens beautifully.

User avatar
Posts: 3146
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Is There A Technique You Wish You'd Mastered?

Postby jeral » Sun Oct 18, 2020 8:32 pm

Hope, if you mean shortcrust g-f, some ready-baked offerings are like cardboard despite the price so they haven't mastered it either IMO. All is not lost as Jus-Rol do a puff g-f pastry, if you can find it near you. Their veggie ones are also vegan (so not the butter one). I haven't tried it, but Jus-Rol is usually good (or good enough to me).
https://www.jusrol.co.uk/products/glute ... try-sheets

If it's good, at least you'd know that any home made should be at least as good to be worth the effort, or just buy it ;)

Previous

Return to Food Chat & Chatterbox

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 28 guests