Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Question up for Comment: Powders

If any of you have made any of the powders in the French Laundry cookbook, please let me know and share your best advice because I just tried making the tomato powder and the parchment paper caught fire in my microwave, and um, yeah... I need some advice on powders obviously. I'm gonna go do some research on my own, but I'll take any advice y'all have because burning down my house is not an option right now.

Thanks!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm surprised parchment paper caught fire in the microwave. I've used parchment paper in the microwave many times with no ill effects. Since microwaves only heat water, the parchment shouldn't even get that hot.

As a side note, I once tried to make his pepper confetti, which ended up being black & and charred instead of red and green. Perhaps this microwave trick just doesn't work. If I had a dehydrator I'd try that, but I don't.

..mike

Anonymous said...

You need to use a REALLY low oven temp and leave them in overnight. Actually, putting the oven on lowest setting and leaving the door quite ajar may be the best choice. Glad the jellies worked! Thanks for the shout out.
Andy

Anonymous said...

Yes, my microwave tends to char stuff too. I never had issues with other microwaves-but this one is weird. I actually laughed at kellerman's directions to nuke dry stuff for several minutes. One thing I have done--after I sparked chocolate I was melting--was to put a little cup of water in with the rest of the dry stuff. It seems to keep the charring down!

Carol Blymire said...

Thanks, all for the advice. I don't have a food dehydrator, either, but I'm going to see if anyone in the neighborhood does. If not, then I'll make the tomato powder slow-roasting them overnight, or while I'm home during the day. Thanks also for the tipoff re: the confetti doing the same thing. I'll figure that out one of these days, as well.

Anonymous said...

I made the confetti last summer and it sure was purdy! I expected it to be crispier but it was a bit chewy. It didn't matter; it tasted great and looked beautiful sprinkled on a clear plate around Colin Cowie's recipe for a blanched tomato with baby cubes of fresh mozz and chiff of basil falling out of the tomato (cut a wedge out of 1/3 of tom). A basil vinaigrette was served on the plate in a shot glass. Try this if you have someone you want to impress! Cheers.

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

ok, here I am wayyy after the fact -- yes, I am reading all the posts from the start -- but this may help down the road: Penzey's sells tomato powder.

Anonymous said...

Another vote for Penzey's tomato powder. It is seriously amazing stuff: pure tomato, no salt, nothing added.

Spice House also has some very nifty powders that they make that, once you own some, you find amazing uses for.

blopeep said...

and just for those of you keeping track, the owners of Penzy's are the children of the owners of Spice House. These two places kept me in cinnamon, nutmeg, and amazing spice blends while living in the Greater Milwaukee Area. Personally, I think this family is mostly responsible for the rebirth of Old World 3rd Street!

Three cheers to both of them and I give them, and their products, very high marks.

m said...

FWIW, I have made tomato powder twice in my microwave with no trouble. It has taken about 55 minutes at the power setting I used. The microwave is a GE Spacemaker XL of unknown vintage. It goes from 1 to 10. The tomatoes spent most of the time on 3 and some of it on 2 when I felt I was close to the end. I started at 1 on my first batch and found that 1 is a good approximation of having the microwave off.