***Food TV THREAD***

[oli collett]

Bain marie scrambled eggs are great but.. I don't think I could be bothered with all the stirring! There is a sous-vide recipe for them in his book (I think it comes from Modernist Cuisine but it might have been done in collaboration with Chris Young) that is a bit less hassle, but still lengthy.

The lemon tart is really good, but one thing to watch out for - the filling mixture is supposed to be mixed together with a spatula as per the recipe here:
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/lemon-tart-recipe

What happens when you try mixing sugar, eggs, cream and everything else with just a spatula? Well after a while of trying it just didn't get anywhere, so i ended up using a whisk to try and mix it through.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

good idea for a thread! i will catch up on the episodes and try a couple of things! we should all feed back if we try to make anything

 

[cainer]

i just watched the first episode about beef on 4od, looks like ive been cooking my sirloins wrong.. cant wait to get some more to try it his way

 

[bsoltan]

It seems that "spank" is one of the brothers' catchphrases. :/

Heston was great, amazing tips for basic eggs.

 

[jizzyJames]

I know I'm being a massive pedant here, but I don't think I've seen a single Heston recipe use sodium alginate or the spherification technique, unless it's been on one of his feasts

Actually I'm not being pedantic because it does form part of a bigger point I would like to make about Heston's cooking in general.

Away from the TV stuff, I don't think he's one to use technique where it's not needed at all. Looking at the food at the fat duck, when you get away from some of the odd-sounding names of dishes, the combinations of flavours and textures are not really that odd, and compared to other chefs at that level he doesn't tend to use crazy techniques or dozens of hydrocolloids to achieve the result.

Compare Noma to the Fat Duck - most people recognise Noma as a restaurant that serves modern scandinavian food emphasising the natural environment the food came in and keeping the number of components to the dish fairly low to not overload the palate. The Fat Duck is often thought of as some kind of crazy mad-science type place, but in terms of technique and complexity I don't think there's a lot in it - just have a look through each of the cook books, both feature a huge amount of work to create perfection on the plate.

Erm, anyway, back to the TV show - looking forward to tonight's episode!

Ok fair point - however quite a few of his recipes do use sodium alginate/spherification - I can dig out the fat book cook book (I definitely saw some in there), but its also referenced several times on le web (eg: http://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Alginate-Powder-3-Oz/dp/B005YGQQZI "Experiment the most popular molecular gastronomy techniques created by famous chefs like Ferran Adrian and Heston Blumenthal")

That said, he is interesting - but I find some of his cooking pretentious.

 

[randomshenans]

I have sodium alginate What's the problem?!!?

 

[jizzyJames]

I have sodium alginate What's the problem?!!?

hehe no problem, tbh I want to have an experiment - use it much?

 

[Jonny69]

Don't think I could be bothered with scrambled eggs like that. I just do them in the microwave with butter and milk

 

[Jolteh]

Don't think I could be bothered with scrambled eggs like that. I just do them in the microwave with butter and milk

Ack dude, I had you pegged as the OcUK numero uno chef until this. Microwave scrambled eggs are awful!

 

[Jonny69]

Not the way I do them

Seriously, no different to doing them in a pan, just less mess. My dad also worked out this little dodge where you microwave the butter first, which coats the bowl in butter and stops it sticking

 

[DirtyJester]

Another new series starting on itv http://www.itv.com/food/programmes/hungry-sailors

 

[Jolteh]

While we're talking good general cooking TV I'd like to recommend an american show called "Good Eats". There are plenty of episodes on youtube and are well worth a watch if you want something different from the normal English stuff.

 

[Glaucus]

I really wish it hadn't been.

It's much easier to keep discussion about a certain show within said show's dedicated topic than to have a myriad of programs being discussed within one larger all-encompassing topic.

If people want to discuss How To Cook like Heston then a single dedicated thread is useful. Mixing that with discussion about other shows is just confusing.

We've got our own food section now; let's make the most of it.

What does community think, separate threads or combined?

IMO, as you can tell, unlike other sun forums, it doesn't move fast enough to warrant separate threads.

 

[Skillmister]

Keep it all together i say.

 

[Glaucus]

Another new series starting on itv http://www.itv.com/food/programmes/hungry-sailors

God he's gone on to do a lot, wasn't his rise to fame from scrap heap challenge.

 

[DirtyJester]

God he's gone on to do a lot, wasn't his rise to fame from scrap heap challenge.

He sure has and yes it all started with Scrapheap.

 

[MaX_PoWah]

When he boils the eggs.. he says wait for the water to boil. What exactly is one looking for? steam ? bubbles ? and then move off the heat

 

[Glaucus]

A good rolling boil, ie lots of constant bubbles, steam doesn't mean boiling. Steam you can get at very low temperatures,

 

[Nightglow]

When he boils the eggs.. he says wait for the water to boil. What exactly is one looking for? steam ? bubbles ? and then move off the heat

Haven't boiled a egg in a pan for years, I got a Bosch egg boiler, cooks 1 to 6 eggs soft, medium or hard.

 

[Ahleckz]

Quite good programme on channel 4, some of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's pals travel round the country without any money, foraging for food en route. They just cooked up a pan of snails taken out of a car park!