Where's all the Xmas food porn? [Cooking]

2006 Dec 26
Didn't anyone take pics of their Christmas creations? I'm guilty..I did not, but would love to see some...Maybe I'll take some of NY's food...

2006 Dec 29
As far as food porn goes, this is the freaky deviant stuff... Growing up, we'd always have Zopf (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zopf) for breakfast on Christmas Day. This delicious bread is to regular bread what croissants are to dinner rolls. It is fantastic with freezer strawberry jam or honey.

Zopf is traditionally formed into a loaf by braiding elongated chunks of the dough. That's how my mom always does it, but I don't trust myself to get it right and usually make weird blobby shapes instead. These were supposed to be snowmen. Oh well, at least it tasted awesome. :-)

2006 Dec 31
Adorable! Did you eat the heads first?

Thanks!

Happy New Year Mark and Wifey and little ones...:)

2006 Dec 31
Yes, we eat the heads first!

Thanks for good wishes and Happy New Year to you too!

2007 Jan 1
Just in the speaking-of-food-porn category: I stumbled across

www.invisible-jet.net/nosh/

by accident*. Whoever it is has lovely food porn. I think I might try the fried tomatoes and mozz here:
www.invisible-jet.net


* "by accident" = "while using Google image search to look at hard-core tomato pornography"


Edited to add: I used plum tomatoes and bocconcini, and it was delicious. Aioli or something is needed on the side, I think, but.

2007 Jan 1
Bah! 'Edit post' doesn't let you include a picture.

Lousy as food porn, but good as food. This batch ended up using the tiny balls of bocconcini, which didn't work that well. (The slightly larger, though not as large as most, used before I found the camera were just right.) Really more of a side dish than breakfast, but. Beats the snot out of fried mozzarella and tasteless fried mushrooms, etc, in bars, but not too fancy; still replete with fried goodness.

The snot-coloured, greasy glob is aioli.

Made with olive oil that was too fruity and too expensive for the purpose. Any suggestions for a good olive oil?

2007 Jan 2
Depends on what you want to do with it. Personally, I never deep fry in olive oil, because it can't get hot enough with out burning, and then your food tastes like burnt olive oil.I use peanut oil for my frying. Unlike olive oil, which has a smoke point of about 350 degrees, peanut oil smokes at just about 500 degrees, which is hotter than any fryer can go. But, if you ARE looking for good olive oil, I reccomend Kotinos Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It's mildyfruity, and not to strong, so it's great in delicate vinaigrettes. It's organic, too! I hope I could help :)

2007 Jan 2
TJ, you're right that peanut oil has an extremely high smoke point, but I remember seeing some TV show where a Greek chef was poo-pooing people's concerns about deep frying in olive oil. After all, what do you think the Greeks fry their kalamari in? ;-)

I dug around a bit with Google and found this page: www.oliveoilsource.com

Here's what they say:

"Olive oil has a high smoke point, 410 degrees F, and doesn't degrade as quickly as many other oils do with repeated high heating."

"When heated, olive oil is the most stable fat, which means it stands up well to high frying temperatures. Its high smoking point (210º C) is well above the ideal temperature for frying food (180º C). The digestibility of olive oil is not affected when it is heated, even when it is re-used several times for frying."

Digging further, I see: www.hormel.com

"A temperature between 350°F and 375°F is an ideal range for deep-frying. The olive oil grade "olive oil" has a smoke point of 410°F, so it is an excellent choice for deep-frying (extra virgin and virgin olive oils have a lower smoke point than olive oil because they are unrefined)."

This one makes sense to me! It's fine to deep fry using the non-virgin olive oils. I keep the "light tasting" olive oil around for some vinaigrettes and times when I don't want the rich flavour of extra virgin. Next time I deep fry, I'll try using it!

2007 Jan 3
I just love this forum's title...food porn! I know that the marketer in me has to come out for this one. Food Porn is the creative platform that La Queue de Cheval (a MTL Steakhouse & Bar) uses... check out the sight: www.queuedecheval.com/
You can see how this idea is introduced and used throughout the restaurant...there is some beautiful out of home media that reinforces this resto's platform.
As for the food....dear lord, steak of this calibre deserves to be celebrated in a place like this...

2007 Jan 3
Just a quick clarification: the olive oil was in the aioli.

As it happened, I did use peanut oil for frying -- came out wonderfully.

2007 Jan 3
I should have clarified between extra virgin and normal olive oil. I tend to stay away from anything but extra virgin or virgin on account of the chemicals they use to extract the oil. By the way, Fresh Foodie, those are some pretty neat exerpts you found about olive oil. Where did you find them? I'd love to read up on it, seems like a cool site.

2007 Jan 3
TJ, I referenced both my excerpts... just look for the blue web links in my posting.

2007 Jan 4
Man I can be dumb sometimes :)

2007 Jan 4
Me too! :-)

2007 Jan 4
You know what they say: complete and utter ignorance is bliss.