Donuts

A donut is an enriched dough. A fried brioche. A simplifying thought. 

Watermelon Prosciutto

I really don't know how this idea came to me. I was just sitting at the table and looking at the watermelon and I remember thinking about grilling watermelon, then it moved to infusing it with soy and lime and mint and then this idea surfaced.

Peel and square off the melon, maybe let's just use the very core. Reserve rest for watermelon gazpacho. Shape the core into a rectangle. Place in a bag, pour in rendered pork fat, maybe infused with something?, then vacuum seal the bag. The fat will rush in and replace the lost air. Since watermelon is so loose-celled, I am anticipating the fat will resemble the marbling on a good slice of great meat. Chill this infused melon to firm the fat, then slice thinly and serve.

I'm really excited about the idea. Of course, there are considerations. First, what kind of fat? Or does fat derived from different parts of the pig all behave the same? Also, will the fat hold because of the water content of the melon? Would it be a better idea to infuse and then dehydrate? The final product must be thinly sliced.

A search for watermelon prosciutto revealed that the blog Ideas in Food, have called dehydrated watermelon wedges/slices this. They say the texture is sort of bendy, pliable, not crisp, thereby closely resembling prosciutto.

Poppy Seed Pasta with Lemon Butter

Thought of this when I was reading the Grains, Pasta and Pulses book in the Time Life series. The poppy seeds will be incorporated in the dough and rolled out. Either leave the pasta in sheets or cut into wide noodles.
Toss in an emulsified lemon butter sauce. Simple but I think it may work because lemon and poppy seeds are always good together.
The only problem I see is the poppy seeds in the dough. Would it tear the dough as its being rolled out? Or would the pressure from the rollers crush the poppy seeds and cause unsightly grey streaks through the dough?
I guess there's only one way to find it.
For the sauce, I am thinking it will be like a lighter version of a buerre blanc maybe.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Basic ratio for swiss meringue buttercream is 1:2:3. Egg whites: sugar: butter.
updated April 2012: i find that you can increase the sugar to 2.5. Simply add a healthy splash of water along with the whites to help dissolve the sugar.  Also, if shortening is needed to stabilize the buttercream, a 70:30 butter:shortening ratio is working well. Stable but without a perceptible shortening flavor.

French Fries

                                                                   

Not sure if we'll really go all out to making french fries at home, but this article is intense and it makes sense to me.
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-perfect-mcdonalds-style-french-fries.html

Pie Crust

                                                                      
You keep reading everywhere that pie crust must be handled gently and not over mixed or whatever. This is true but only after a point. When there is just flour and butter in the bowl, you can handle it however much you want because the gluten only gets activated in the presence of water. In fact, the more the butter is rubbed into the flour, the shorter the gluten strands become and the more tender the pastry will be. This is similar to Roses technique of making cake where she creams the flour and leaveners with the fat. Of course, if we rub in the butter too much, the pastry won't be flaky, it will just be tender. So how about a combination of both:

Let's use a 3:2:1 pie dough.(flour:butter:water. Measure out flour first, divide by third to get quantity of water. Then its easy to calculate butter needed.)
Melt 1/3 or 1/2 the butter and let it cool. Remaining butter, we can freeze it and then cut into small pieces, about medium dice. Cream the melted butter with the flour, adding salt or sugar at that stage. Let it rip. Perhaps all the flour wont be hydrated or greased because the butter quantity may not be enough? Then add the frozen butter cubes, stir in the water to bind. I like KA's idea of spraying any dry patches with water using a spray bottle.

With a pie dough made this way, I think the pastry will be tender because of the melted butter and flaky because of the cubed butter.

Onsen Tamago

                                                                        

Since the point of making onsen tamago is to keep the water temperature constant for a period of time, how about:

1. using a slow cooker to cook the eggs. However, not sure what temperature the slow cooker hold on warm or low function. Need to check
2. Heat water to a little above temperature needed and pour in thermos flask. Drop the egg in and hold it there. Need to gently swirl from time to time.

Momofuku says water temp needs to be 60C or 140F. He cooks it for 40 minutes. Can't recall temp we used in Perry St. I know the time was 26 minutes. 

The FCI blog has a nice chart. All the eggs were cooked at specified temps for 1 hour.

http://www.cookingissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The_Egg_Chart.jpg