peanutgirl

Thank you Andie. I didn't think cooking them would be a factor in dehyrating, but thanks for the tip. I'll pass along this info to my daughter. Perhaps along with the suggestion that they try the experiment both ways... cooked / sweetened and just plain raw the way they picked them. That should be an interesting comparison for the class I would think. Even if the raw ones turn out "hard as marbles .

Today I accompanied my daughter's 4th grade class on a trip here. Very informative, learned a LOT about cranberries, harvesting, history and all that fun stuff. The children were also given the opportunity to dry pick some of what's left of the berries out in the drained bogs. Her teacher, knowing that I love to cook and send in lesson related food items ( i.e. home smoked salmon & dried apples for their Lenape feast last winter) asked for suggestions on what to do with what they had gathered. Aside from cookies, breads cranberry relish etc. , I said I'd look into how to make home made Craisins. I have a food dehydrator, so that's the easy part. How do I get them sweetened? I'm thinking along the lines of soaking them in simple syrup, drain and then dehydrate. Any help, experience in making, and suggestions are much anticipated .

My neighbor is having garage sale and I picked up: Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan for .25 !!!! It's in excellent ( never been read/ used) condition. Besides the fact that it cost only a quarter... my 7th grade daughter bought it for me . Other than that... I'll have to do a re-count. I haven't been keeping track.

Thanks tryska, nice compliment! Right now that blizzard is a cold, frozen nightmare. Lounging by the pool has erased that pain for now . I've been lurking mostly.... pim kind if intimidated me with her comments about my interpretation of larb. Not to worry... I'm still larbing and experimenting and cooking away. I was intmidated... but not offended. I'll just call my attempts Thai-inspired from now on . Hubby had oral surgery a few weeks ago and larb was one of the things he actually requested . Susan, lovely pictures as always. I'm revived! Hope to post something good soon.

Thank you Smithy... she has no aversion to eggs or dairy or seafood even. Just MEAT. But as I've mentioned she'll eat just about whatever I make as long as I don't give her pieces of meat chunks. I will check out that particular recipe. YUP... that's what I was looking at after you recommended another of her books. My CC is going to explode!!! Thank you everyone for your input.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I haven't had time to read through all of the recipes... I ordered so many books at once . Now I may have to get the other one you mentioned.

All of your tips are a wealth of info for my new obsession! I did use your recipe for preserved lemons after my dismay at the size of the jar I ordered: Thank you so much for the compliment . It means more than you know . I baked my oiled / ashed / baked my Rifi today for the 1st time. I hope it turns out as lovely as Richard's did. Can you point me in the direction of an all vegetarian tagine recipe for my daughter? Should I pick and choose veggies, and stay within the spice/ herb combos so the pot retains the basic flavor? She'll eat things cooked "with meat"... but not the meat itself. Maybe something w/ potatoes, carrots, olives, onion, garlic, cumin, cilantro, eggplant, zucchini + the traditional spices... or am I straying too far? I want to try to stay true to new cusines I try... but my experimental side usually prevails .

Received my order from Tagines.com last Tuesday (minus this: Tangiers Cazuela ordered separately. The jar of preserved lemons I ordered greatly disappointed me in both price of and size. I only ordered them instead of making my own because I had no idea what to expect taste wise. After seeing the jar... I promptly set out making my own as per Paula's recipe. My very loosely based adaptation on Double-Cooked Red Chicken Marrakech-Style. I simplified a few steps to save time and added potatoes & carrots. I hope I haven't offended you Paula. The family loved it. Served over whole wheat couscous (and pardon the fork please). I received a bunch of books today, including: Cooking at The Kasbah by Kitty Morse... and 2 of Paula's: Couscous and Other good Food From Morocco and The Cooking of The Eastern Mediterranean. Now... please induge me one final stupid question about curing the Rifi.I have it soaking now. Then I drain and dry it & rub it with the oil and ashes and bake. Do I soak it only the one time... or every time I rub it w/ oil,ashes and bake???

Congratulations!!! Both are beautiful BTW .

My Rifi should arrive on Wednesday !

Thanks Patti... yours looked delicious too. Everyone's did !

Here's my chicken expo. The kitchen was a mess... but it was oh so good! Chicken soaking in a seasoned buttermilk bath. Thighs dredged in flour using the same seasoning mixture. Lazer Thermometer used to spot check oil temperature... CAUTION: NOT FOR USE ON CHILDREN ! Fried fish (whiting I think... it was in the freezer) for "vegetarian" daughter that will eat seafood . Same buttermilk/ seasoning/flour ingredients. Ignore the nibbled off sample please, had to make sure she wouldn't get sick . Drum sticks singing to me! Thighs...1/2 way there. Only 6 more to go. Corn Bread. Coleslaw. My version of country or cream gravy. I am from NJ, so cut me some slack. Done! Dessert...We're not Irish (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I had to bake for my Kindergarten son's class and we had extra. One more close up of the chicken, lest I've bored you with all the other stuff !

Chicken marinating in buttermilk & " secret spices". We like dark meat so it's mostly thighs & a few drum sticks for the kids. Will post results tomorrow .

Thank You... Thank You... Thank You Paula!!! I wlll most definitley seek out & buy the book you mentioned :smile! Now, if I can ban the Chamba site .... doubtful since it's all desirable! This and the LC is all Fifi's doing ... in a good way ( for an addict anyway ) edit to add: I did write Sami an email

I know there are numerous threads on tagines... that's what caused me to order the medium sized Rifi from tagines.com. ( as well as some of those cute colorful spice and condiment ones!). Given your explanations on curing Paula... please explain one last time about how to cure the Rifi. Is it as simple as OO and wood ash? The site says: TAGINE SEASONING In order to use your cooking tagine and get optimum taste from your recipes, it is highly recommended if not, mandatory that it is seasoned before initial use. Please follow these simple instructions below for maximum results: 1. The new tagine needs to be first submerged in water for at least 1 hour. 2. Rub the inside of the base and lid with olive oil. 3. Put into a cold oven and set temperature at 350 F and leave for 1.5 to 2 hours. This process will strengthen your tagine and insure addition of a distinct flavor that tagine lovers seek at every use. I don't want to ruin it before I even use it.... to soak or not to soak? Also what if I don't have access to wood ashes? I'm assuming it's the patina that will be missing. Is that correct? Or is it a flavor issue as well? One last question if you don't mind. I have your Slow Mediterranean Kitchen book and adore it but there's only a few tagine recipes in it. Could you recommend a good book devoted to tagine cookery ( don't be modest if it's one of yours ). TIA !

Daniel... everything I've seen you post always looks great! You post some very creative / interesting combos. Why not experiment with the scallop satay and let us know if it worked out? As another suggestion for the scallops though... hubby & went out recently to our local Thai place and I had scallop pad Thai. Humungous scallops, seared and plentiful atop the noodles. I had to bring some home . It was delicious. Sorry if this is too late for your dinner.

All those suggestions make sense. My husband read somewhere on the web a while back (can't recall the site)... that the sauce (GTN) consisted of Open Pit BBQ sauce and duck sauce among other things. It would be great if we could order , say, a gallon jug of it ! We love it that much. The local Cluck U. that we go to is stingy with their sauce. We always ask for them to be extra wet and when we do buy some sauce to bring home they charge about $2 for a tiny container . If we have any luck tinkering with the recipe, I'll let you know .

All of the recipes/ variations sound good, but I too am searching for a wing sauce recipe. Google has NOT been my friend . I need something that replicates Cluck U.'s Global Termo Nuclear, it's one step below their hottest which is 911. I don't think it's butter or margarine / Tabasco based... seems to have cayenne in it, and it's a rich tomatoey colored sauce. It's spicy good. Anyone familiar with Cluck U. ?

Thanks Susan. Yours look amazing as always as well! Actually it was 2 days. The day before, I marinated the pork and made the peanut curry sauce to serve with... also made the Hot & Sweet Dipping sauce ( from Hot Sour Salty Sweet). To be honest, the curry paste & sweetened chili sauce were store bought, and pretty good we thought... and as for the coconut milk...canned. Then on the day of the blizzard, I quickly busied myself to avoid having to help with the shoveling . The spring rolls were by far, the most difficult to get the hang of rolling w/o the rice papers turning to mush before I burned my fingers getting them out of the hot water in one non-globulous blob. In the end, they did turn out better than I thought they would. I agree, so far, for me it hasn't been a quick to get on the table sort of cuisine... but I'm still learning and enjoying... otherwise why in the heck would I now have 4 kinds of fish sauce in the pantry ?! Patti, the recipe you posted looks tasty. Maybe more lime & fish sauce? Just guessing. I just received a box of books from Jessica's Bisquit today. The shipment included The 2 DT books, It Rains Fishes, French Laundry, Are You Hungry Tonight? and Cuisines of Hidden Mexico. Looks like I have a lot of reading to do . Starting with It Rains Fishes... it's a colorful paper back that seems interesting so far. I'd like to do some soups & if I can get my pad Thai to taste as good as Behemoth's picture looks... I fear we'll never go out to our Thai place again .

Behemoth's Pad Thai looks delicious! Snowed in on Saturday and feeling inspired by the Crying Tiger cook book: Spring Rolls Fried Tofu w/ Sweetened Chili Sauce Pork Satay w/ Hot & Sweet Dipping Sauce Pork Satay w/ Peanut Curry Sauce Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy, Sticky Rice and Red Curry with Chicken Thai Tea Bubble Tea Made with Green Tea & Strawberry Puree for The Kids

Thanks. I bought mine in a disc wrapped in plastic... it's hard enough to use as a doorstop. Maybe I'll transfer it to a jar or another container so I can try warming it as you suggested.

That's a good idea. I'll post my results after running some taste tests on my husbands palate. Larb nuea? Beef... lot's of chilies, added mint which we haven't previously and some Thai basil. Also, I threw in a handful of bean sprouts for no reason other than I have a large bag from my shopping spree the other day and didn't want to waste any of the 85 cents worth I bought . Of course I used the homemade toasted rice... I made extra this time so we can have more larb in a few days ( have leftover lamb in the fridge right now). Thanks for the link... looks informative. Sounds about right Susan. I don't know if it's ever served hot... my husband always gets his iced. As for larb... ! Thanks to snowangel and her friend for clarifying the meal breakdown. Now I wish I had a noodle cart dinging outside my door ... I do have a bowl though . Fifi... did your sugar come in the jar, or do you just store it in one? Noodle dishes...I've tried making Pad Thai a few times, likewise with some soups. Once I recieve my armful of books I recently ordered, I suspect some inspiration. If not... there's always...LARB ! I'd like to get into making some good curried dishes... not too spicy so the kids will eat & enjoy the meals. Any favorite ones... anyone?

I made another cook book purchase thanks to snowangel. Yesterday I ordered Crying Tiger ( here's a link to the author's website) as well as a bunch of other items (including the rice steaming basket & pot) from the Temple of Thai website. Feeling slightly guilty, I had to take a trip to the closet Asian mkt, to justify the online purchases. Guilt asuaged... they didn't have most of the things I ordered anyway. Does anyone make their own Thai Tea? My husband loves it when we go out, and the stuff in cans tastes, well.. tinny. I bought a bag of loose tea mix ( ordered the tea steeper bag)... now if someone could please tell me what the tea to water ratio is , I'd appreciate it. My plan is to make a half gallon of the tea (minus the sweetener + cream). Larbing tonight.

Great topic Susan. The larb thread hooked me too . I've been on all the sites mentioned... love my Hot Sour Salty Sweet and now... because of this I just ordered: Classic Thai Cuisine It Rains Fishes Thai Food and The French Laundry Cookbook

I plan on larbing ours for dinner tonight . Larb Thread Here