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February 13, 2005

Puerco Pibil

Yesterday i helped Buzz cut up a huge pork shoulder to make puerco pibil. I also helped him de-vein some habaneros, which after several hand washings, still is on my skin (I found out after I rubbed my eyes this morning when I woke up). Anyway, he has a very helpful tutorial on making this dish!

Tutorial

Posted by alejandra at 10:11 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack






February 06, 2005

chocolate fondue and muffins

chocolate fondue


  • 12 oz chocolate. I couldn't find semi-sweet so I used about half bittersweet and half sweet dark chocolate.
  • 1/2 cup of heavy cream.
  • spash of brandy. (or kirsh or cointreau)

Strawberries are an obvious dipper. I also cut up some madeleines and cointreau-flavored pound cake.

But shockingly, some was left over. I guess I didn't really need to make a double batch, as I had about half left over. So I folded them into some muffins, using a modified version of the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 4-5 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • leftover chocolate fondue
  • roughly 1 cup chopped pecans

I omitted the sugar because I figure there was enough in the chocolate, and the results were fine. A little sweeter also would have been fine, and I'm wondering if maple syrup would have been a good sweetener for it.

Dry ingredients went in one bowl. Eggs in another. Milk and butter went into the fondue pot and got warmed and melted into the chocolate. Then mix it all together, don't sweat the lumps, and pour into your greased muffin tin. Makes exactly 1 dozen, which is pretty good for a batch whipped up purely to get rid of some leftovers. Bake for 15 minutes... shorter than the 20-25 that JoC tells you, but I suspect messing with the ingredients changes the baking time.

These turned out very, very rich.

Posted by amanda at 01:56 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack







mad scientist chef

NYT: When the Sous-Chef Is an Inkjet

He also plans to buy a class IV laser to create dishes that are "impossible through conventional means." (A class IV laser, the highest grade under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's classification system, projects high-powered beams and is typically used for surgery or welding.)

Mr. Cantu said he might use the laser to burn a hole through a piece of sashimi tuna, cooking the fish thoroughly inside but leaving its exterior raw. He said he would also use the laser to create "inside out" bread, where the crust is baked inside the loaf and the doughy part is the outer surface.

Posted by amanda at 01:43 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack