How can I approximate a Starbucks latte at home?

Question

I'd like to save a little money by making my morning latte at home instead of buying it. But it seems like the barista does something beyond just mixing coffee and warm milk to result in that perfect latte.

What ingredients go into a coffee-shop latte, such as those made at Starbucks? What techniques do I need to approximate one at home, with common household equipment?

Asked by KatieK

Answer

Espresso, steamed milk.

It isn't a complicated recipe at all, but it does require some equipment and technique.

Espresso: You need to use an espresso roast coffee that is finely ground. If you like Starbucks, then buy a pound from them.

Milk: There are a whole bunch of beverages made out of coffee and steamed milk. My joke about Italians is that every time they make one tiny little change in the preparation of something, they give it a brand new name.

You need to steam the milk to introduce air and to warm it up, subtly changing the flavour. If you watch the barristas at starbucks, you'll see that they end up with a steel pitcher of warm milk with a thick foam on top.

I'll define a cappuccino as the base beverage.

A Cappuccino is 1 measure of Espresso, 1 measure of the warm milk from the bottom of the pitcter (Use a spoon to stop the foam from pouring out) and then one measure of the dry foam spooned on top.

A Macchiato is a DRY cappuccino. Omit the milk. Just spoon the dry foam on top.

A Latte is a WET cappuccino. Omit the foam. You can spoon a little on top for appearances.

I've used the terms wet and dry. If you were to actually order a wet cappuccino, you'd get something between the Latte and Cappucino. If you were to order it dry, you'd get something between the Cappuccino and the Macchiato.

The French Cafe Au Lait is strong coffee (brewed, not expressed), with almost boiled milk. If you don't have a steamer available, this might be the route to take. It's similar to a Latte, but without the equipment.

Answered by Chris Cudmore

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How do cooks prepare risotto in a restaurant?

Question

I'm not looking for a Risotto recipe. I make a pretty nice risotto, thank you very much.

But, making a risotto takes about 20 minutes. It seems unreasonable to me that a cook would start from scratch in a restaurant.

So how do they do it? There must be some pre-cooking involved, and then it's finished off when ordered in about 5 minutes.

Asked by Chris Cudmore

Answer

It's actually hard to hold when it's almost all the way cooked -- it'll start getting gluey on you if you let it cool off, but could start scorching on the bottom if it's not stirred, and get too runny if you keep adding stock.

I saw a show and Mario Bitali said that risotto isn't finicky in the middle -- so you can cook it part way, cool it down (I think he said he spread it on sheet pans to cool quickly), then can add hot stock and cook it from that point, so you've already got a 10 minute head start.

I've also been to a restaurant where it was only served on the hour and half hour.

(okay, I admit it ... it was on Martha Stewart, about 12 years ago ... I was living in Kentucky, and didn't have cable, so there weren't many options of what to watch in the morning while waiting for the others in my carpool)

Answered by Joe

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How is congee made?

Question

Does anyone know how to make the congee like those in Dim Sum/Yum Cha restaurants?

Asked by zachary

Answer

Congee itself is just thick rice porridge. It is usually made with a combination of short-grain and 'sticky' (glutinous) rice, but any kind of white rice will work.

Put 3/4 cup rice (1/2 cup regular, 1/4 cup sticky, if you have it) in a pot with 8 cups of water and a little salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it is a thick porridge. Stir now and then so it doesn't stick. Many electric rice cookers have a congee setting, which makes everything really easy - just put in a measure of rice, add water up to the congee mark, turn it on and wait.

There are many, many traditional toppings or additions to congee. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo said it well in her "From the Earth: Chinese Vegetarian Cooking": "Virtually any food can be added to one's breakfast congee in China. What you might add to it depends upon your preferences."

Answered by McKenzieG1

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How to make Chicken Laksa taste more like To's restaurant?

Question

I've tried a couple of recipes to make Chicken Laksa but I cant get it to taste like this Malaysian restaurant (To's in North Sydney).

I've had the best luck with this recipe from Taste.

Is it just Red Chilli and Shallots I'm missing, or am I doing it wrong using laksa paste (Tean's Gourmet Malaysian Curry Laksa Paste)?

Answer

For a start, any Asian dish will be effected if the chicken stock is not good. Make quality chicken stock from whole chicken carcases, and take your time with it

In the case of Laksa, the key flavours are mostly in the Laksa paste (shrimp paste and lemon grass). If you don't have an equivalent of the one used at To's you will have an entirely different dish. A lot of effort can go into a Laksa paste (or for that matter curry pastes in general), in terms of exact ingredient ratios, roasting times etc, quality and freshness of ingredients etc

Laksa is often made with prawn stock, not chicken stock. Save the prawn heads and other fish bits, and boil them up for a very stinky prawn stock

Don't overdo the coconut milk/cream. Stick to one brand, and start with a lot less and see how it goes, if it is lacking, add more. Record what the magic amount for your favourite brand is

Getting quality and fresh ingredients for Asian dishes is often a major stumbling block for truly authentic tastes. Making your own decent Laksa paste is near impossible outside of Asia. Western grown lemon grass, tastes like, well grass!

When you're next at To's have a peek in the kitchen, ask if you have too. And check what they use for Laksa paste. If it's out of a branded jar you're in luck, if it's homemade, it's back to the grindstone, literally

The recipe linked, does not seem like a very good Laksa recipe to me. Also a good Laksa is topped with chilli oil. This is an import part. It consists of a lot of chilli and a little garlic cocked in a cup of oil. Float a couple of spoons of this on each bowl as you serve it

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Secret to takeaway curry

Question

It's become something of a quest for me to find a curry recipe that tastes like the curry you get from an Indian Takeaway. I'm getting close with the consistency, but can't get the taste right.

I won't list the various and numerous things that I've tried, but most of the variations that I've tried include:

tomatoes (I've tried fresh, tinned and purée), onion, yoghurt (although this doesn't seem to affect the flavour, so I stopped using it), cumin (tried seeds and ground), mustard seeds, coriander (fresh and ground), ginger (fresh and ground), fenugreek (fresh and ground), garam masala.

I'm pretty sure that I'm missing one or two ingredients that restaurants and takeaways use as a matter of course, but I haven't been able to find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

EDIT:

I didn't realise that they differ, but I'm in the UK - so that's the takeaway I'm referring to.

I appreciate curry's vary in taste, but there seems to be an underlying taste to all the tomato based ones. For the purpose of clarity, I'm trying to make a Rogan Josh.

Here's a sample of the sort of thing that I've been trying:

• 4 - 5 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 lb Diced Lamb
• 2 - 3 Garlic cloves crushed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons of Garam Masalla
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 inch root ginger grated
• Oil

Slowly heat the mustard and cumin seeds until the pop, then add the onions and garlic and fry gently until soft. Add the meat and up the heat to cook. After about 10 mins add the other ingredients and leave for an hour or until the tomatoes have turned into sauce.

Another thing that I've tried is puréeing the garlic, spices, tomatoes and ginger and adding that after the onions are cooked. This helps with the consistency, but doesn't really affect the taste.

EDIT:

The best single answer that I had to this was cream. However, cloves did also make a difference. I still haven't managed to get the takeaway flavour, but thanks for all the suggestions.

Answer

If the English curry is similar to this, you are missing CREAM!

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How do I prepare tofu so comes out like at Noodles & co

Question

I really enjoy the texture of the tofu in the pad thai with tofu dish at Noodles and Company. In particular, it comes out much firmer than it does when I make tofu at home by cubing it and cooking it in a pan with vegetable oil. How do I prepare the tofu so it comes out in a similar way?

Answer

My girlfriend and I cook a lot of tofu - we have also found that "firm" and "extra-firm" tofu is highly variable and that the quality makes a big difference in the actual firmness, density and cooking results.

Here in SF though we did have good luck with the random brand of tofu available at our local produce market (in the Outer Sunset) we have now switched to almost exclusively cooking with tofu from http://www.tofuyu.com/ who are a local tofu maker and whose plain tofu cooks up amazingly well - gets great color, stays firm and in short is far better than anything else we've tried.

While not every part of the country is as lucky as the Bay Area to have multiple artisanal tofu makers competing to make fantastic tofu you should experiment with the various brands of tofu you can find - look for the one that gets the best results for your in your preparations.

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How to get those professional looking peaks on top of tiramisu?

Question

Most tiramisu-recipes end with the last layer of mascarpone mixture spread on the last layer of lady fingers/sponge cake (and some chocolate powder on top). So you have a flat surface. I've seen pictures of tiramisu with a bumpy surface, like small peaks (picture of what I mean).

I want to replicate the peaks, but I'm not sure how to do this. I already tried to form them when the last layer of mascarpone mixture was on top, but this didn't turn out well. My next attempt will be with a piping bag. And the one after that will be with cold mascarpone mixture, so it's a bit more firm.

However, I'm not sure any of those will work, so in advance of making two batches of tiramisu, I'm asking if anyone knows how to form the peaks, or if anyone knows that my two next attempts will fail.

I've seen also this question, but I don't think that would help me. If you think otherwise, please say so.

Answer

You probably wont be able to get that exact result with a pastry bag because the almost perfect square grid they are divided into. I still think a pastry bag will be your best bet.

I am not sure were you got that picture but my guess is that the tiramisu was machine made and the marks and peaks are from the tooling that was made for the machine to deliver the mascarpone topping.

I would try a good sized round tip on a pastry bag and make my dot and slowly raise up and cut it off by stopping the pressure on the bag and pulling straight up. It has worked for me in the past.

My background is not in pastry though so you may also just go to a local bakery or wedding cake designer and ask how they would do it. They will probably tell you.

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How to make an apple pie like KFC/McDonalds?

Question

I'm trying to figure out to make an apple pie like KFC/McDonalds, something crispy and delicious, such as one of these:

(above - McDonald's Apple Pie)

(above - KFC Apple Pie)

I do not want the consistency of a typical homemade or store-bought apple pie, such as the one below:

What is the difference between the first two pies and the last? What do I need to know in order to make the crisp, gooey pies in the first two photos?

Answer

McDonald's' et al pies are essentially fried pies, a feature of Southern US cooking, adapted for cooking in fast food facilities. A Google search for 'fried apple pie recipes' turns up plenty of results. Try this:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/apples/r/bl90416c.htm

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