more food pics

Another pic dump! I keep rearranging my schedule as to what I'm prepping when. Here's what I have to show for yesterday's efforts.

The eppel peh was a bit of a mess. Despite my having folded over and crimped the edge crust, the hot filling burst through and poured over the pie's rim. Luckily, this didn't lead to major burning inside the oven: somehow, the pie filling bubbled and boiled but didn't carbonize. I did, however, have to clean the oven up. My major worry with the pie, though, is that I used a bit too much cornstarch this time around, and the filling, when cool, is just too thick. I'm going to advise everyone to heat their slices of pie up before they dig in. Hopefully, that will solve the problem, and no one will be any wiser. Worst-case scenario: the pie ends up a bit too goopy.

I didn't use an egg wash this time: I used a milk wash, followed by a sprinkle of turbinado on top.

Next: cups of raspberry gelatin:

I have no idea how this is going to turn out. This is my replacement for cranberry sauce.

Finally, Chef John's corn pudding:

I guess this is pudding in the British sense. To an American, this is almost cornbread.

Corn pudding is a lot like cornbread, but it's softer and looser. As you see above, part of the pudding got a bit suntanned because I'd forgotten that I'd left the top burner on during the entire bake. I wouldn't call the above burned, per se, but it's definitely a bit browner than golden brown. I think it ought to be okay for the troops, though.

Tonight and tomorrow, I have to do everything that's left to do: my chicken roulade, the ham, the peas & carrots, and the gravy. The gravy's going to be a project because I'm making the chicken stock from scratch. And once everything's made, I have to tote it all to the office. 

Since I now have a probe thermometer, it ought to be easier for me to check the chicken's doneness (as before, the roulade will be bacon-wrapped). In the past, roulade-baking was a lot of guesswork. The first time I did a roulade for my coworkers (back when I was cooking for 25 people), the thing turned out perfectly. The second time, when I made the roulade for a smaller group of friends, it turned out dry. To combat the dryness problem this time, I added olive oil to raise the ground chicken's fat content. I also added panko bread crumbs, which will keep liquid from escaping out of the chicken, and I ground up dark meat along with white meat—plus the dark meat's skin, which ought to amp up the chicken's fat content a great deal (it's very hard to overcook dark meat, whereas breast meat dries out easily). All of that, plus the probe thermometer, ought to lead to perfectly cooked chicken. We'll see tomorrow.