Your Nutella would be safe with me until the end of time! Hazelnut isn’t on my lust list. As for melting chocolate my Breville Control Freak induction hob makes it easy to dial in very low temperatures! All that and it looks like chocolate is on the doomed charts!
Curious about your choice of vegetable oil. I do olive oil, avacado oil and butter. But when neutral vegetable oil is preferred I am flummoxed!
Love the story about your theatrical young squealers. When my very spoiled only was told it was a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, he had a full throttle, on the floor hissy fit crying “I don’t want a girl cheese sandwich. I want a boy cheese sandwich!”
I tend to use sunflower oil or plain vegetable oil - unless I'm at IKEA where I buy grapeseed oil cheaply. I used to depend on peanut oil until alarms went out about allergies.
I want recipes for girl and boy cheese sandwiches...
Thanks for your response. I’m looking specifically at baking. I don’t know where you are but in the US avocados may become very $$$ thanks to the tariff nonsense. Already pure avacado oil has seemed to vaporised—pandemic like! I’ve ordered some from California. I’ve also ordered an avocado-olive oil blend which I have never used. We’ll see. With seed oils getting the evil eye here and with self-induced labor shortage creating supply problems, desserts may become a rarity or drastically modified. TOT: my grandmother was named Zora!
We may be back to Crisco and lard! My grandmother swore by lard. And it is the secret ingredient (though with butter added for flavour) in the pastry of more chefs than you might imagine.
A couple of young local farmers just opened a small butcher shop near me, where they sell meat and lard from their own farm-raised Mangalitsa pigs, along with other local meats. I am currently in possession of a pint jar of rendered Mangalitsa lard, still undecided about how best to use it.
Was your grandmother from Serbia or elsewhere in the Balkans? I learned in adulthood that Zora is a common woman's name there -- and in Afghanistan. I claim no heritage in either place. I am named after my maternal grandmother, and would have been named Sarah, if my father didn't think that was too ordinary.
I consider avocado oil to be a neutral vegetable oil. That and grapeseed oil are my go-to neutral oils for virtually no added flavor and a high smoke point. Sunflower oil is another, although I can get grape or avocado oil more cheaply. Canola oil is probably the cheapest.
It's interesting that grapeseed and avocado oils are cheaper for you than vegetable, a consequence of global events, I imagine. It's not the case in the UK - yet.
Just found out there is an avocado shortening! Like Crisco with better DNA!! I ordered 2 tubs. I wonder what a threesome of butter, lard and avocado would be like in a pie crust. As for boy cheese sandwich I think I told him when boys make their own sandwich it becomes a boy cheese sandwich. The old deflect and divert! Haha
I get grapeseed oil at Trader Joe's and avocado oil at Costco. Those two and EVOO are the only oils I use on a daily basis, although I admit to having a big jug of peanut oil in my pantry, which I use and re-use once or twice, for deep frying. I am very fortunate to be at a point in life when cheap is no longer my primary criterion for making choices when I buy.
When making ganache, I'd advise against trying to melt chocolate in a pan with even just a tablespoon of water in it--it will sieze up and get grainy. Heavy cream, brought to a simmer is the preferred base, and liquor added after the cream and chocolate are smoothly amalgamated. As someone who has known the heartbreak of siezed chocolate, this jumped right out at me. There is a notable exception to the rule of melting chocolate with water: Heston Blumenfeld's method for making chocolate mousse involves pouring boiling water over chopped chocolate and whisking until smooth.
This is incredibly helpful advice! I confess how Nigella instructs the creation of ganache isn't how I do it. For the reasons you give. But I didn't feel I had the right to alter her recipe, whimp that I am. I now point everyone to your method. And will post a Note to that effect.
Your Nutella would be safe with me until the end of time! Hazelnut isn’t on my lust list. As for melting chocolate my Breville Control Freak induction hob makes it easy to dial in very low temperatures! All that and it looks like chocolate is on the doomed charts!
Curious about your choice of vegetable oil. I do olive oil, avacado oil and butter. But when neutral vegetable oil is preferred I am flummoxed!
Love the story about your theatrical young squealers. When my very spoiled only was told it was a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, he had a full throttle, on the floor hissy fit crying “I don’t want a girl cheese sandwich. I want a boy cheese sandwich!”
I tend to use sunflower oil or plain vegetable oil - unless I'm at IKEA where I buy grapeseed oil cheaply. I used to depend on peanut oil until alarms went out about allergies.
I want recipes for girl and boy cheese sandwiches...
Thanks for your response. I’m looking specifically at baking. I don’t know where you are but in the US avocados may become very $$$ thanks to the tariff nonsense. Already pure avacado oil has seemed to vaporised—pandemic like! I’ve ordered some from California. I’ve also ordered an avocado-olive oil blend which I have never used. We’ll see. With seed oils getting the evil eye here and with self-induced labor shortage creating supply problems, desserts may become a rarity or drastically modified. TOT: my grandmother was named Zora!
We may be back to Crisco and lard! My grandmother swore by lard. And it is the secret ingredient (though with butter added for flavour) in the pastry of more chefs than you might imagine.
A couple of young local farmers just opened a small butcher shop near me, where they sell meat and lard from their own farm-raised Mangalitsa pigs, along with other local meats. I am currently in possession of a pint jar of rendered Mangalitsa lard, still undecided about how best to use it.
Gosh, you are lucky! Before I went further, I'd just spread some on thick toast!
Was your grandmother from Serbia or elsewhere in the Balkans? I learned in adulthood that Zora is a common woman's name there -- and in Afghanistan. I claim no heritage in either place. I am named after my maternal grandmother, and would have been named Sarah, if my father didn't think that was too ordinary.
I consider avocado oil to be a neutral vegetable oil. That and grapeseed oil are my go-to neutral oils for virtually no added flavor and a high smoke point. Sunflower oil is another, although I can get grape or avocado oil more cheaply. Canola oil is probably the cheapest.
It's interesting that grapeseed and avocado oils are cheaper for you than vegetable, a consequence of global events, I imagine. It's not the case in the UK - yet.
Just found out there is an avocado shortening! Like Crisco with better DNA!! I ordered 2 tubs. I wonder what a threesome of butter, lard and avocado would be like in a pie crust. As for boy cheese sandwich I think I told him when boys make their own sandwich it becomes a boy cheese sandwich. The old deflect and divert! Haha
A very smart tactic.
Would love to hear a report!
I get grapeseed oil at Trader Joe's and avocado oil at Costco. Those two and EVOO are the only oils I use on a daily basis, although I admit to having a big jug of peanut oil in my pantry, which I use and re-use once or twice, for deep frying. I am very fortunate to be at a point in life when cheap is no longer my primary criterion for making choices when I buy.
When making ganache, I'd advise against trying to melt chocolate in a pan with even just a tablespoon of water in it--it will sieze up and get grainy. Heavy cream, brought to a simmer is the preferred base, and liquor added after the cream and chocolate are smoothly amalgamated. As someone who has known the heartbreak of siezed chocolate, this jumped right out at me. There is a notable exception to the rule of melting chocolate with water: Heston Blumenfeld's method for making chocolate mousse involves pouring boiling water over chopped chocolate and whisking until smooth.
This is incredibly helpful advice! I confess how Nigella instructs the creation of ganache isn't how I do it. For the reasons you give. But I didn't feel I had the right to alter her recipe, whimp that I am. I now point everyone to your method. And will post a Note to that effect.