prasantrin

Is chili bean sauce tobanjan? I've always wanted to make this at home, but I could never figure out which was chili bean sauce (as labelled in Japan). I wonder if Japanese chili bean sauce is different from chinese chili bean sauce...hmmm...I may have to wait till a trip to Singapore to pick up the ingredients!

Mine came with my apartment. Almost all Japanese households (that I know) have one, and it gets used quite frequently. But not by me. I find it gives my hot water an odd flavour, so I avoid using it for anything but steeping ginger for ginger tea. Now you can bet after I'm done with it, it's really going to give hot water an odd flavour!

Your best bet would be to visit a local Filipino grocery store or restaurant. But really, it's much better if you make it yourself. I, personally, prefer the deep-fry method so I can lightly dust the skins with some cornstarch (makes them extra crispy). Sprinkle with salt, and dip in ketchup. Nothings better! Some of my mother's former clients used to work for a chicken-processing plant. They would gift her with chicken skins from all those boneless skinless chicken breasts. Those were the good old days!

I think it's important to mention what kind of pizza you're looking for--what's the crust like? Is it thick? Thin? Thin and crispy? Thin and chewy? Does the pizza end up with big air pockets near the crust, or not? Without knowing details, it may be difficult to give you helpful hints.

Ever try the frozen young coconut versions? Much, much better, in my opinion. The bits of coconut meat are huge, and the drinks even come with a little fork with which to eat the coconut. Oh, they're usually found in the freezer sections, though they are meant to be defrosted. I like them a little frozen, though, because they they're like a slush. See the top right picture here for a look, though this picture has the old packaging. It's much fancier now.

That looks awesome! Is this the recipe you used? I think I'm going to have to make this soon...it's just turning a wee bit chilly in this part of the world, and that means chili! (And soups, but that's another thread!) ← Let's say I used the above recipe to make chili. But suppose I didn't have crushed tomatoes with puree, and instead substituted diced tomatoes (no puree) and added the whole can (liquid and all). But now, the chili is looking a little more liquidy than it probably should (after having simmered for 90 minutes already). When I add the beans, will that help thicken it? Or should I add something else? Puree some canned tomatoes? Help my chili! All this is purely hypothetical, of course, lest y'all think I'm one of those people that substitutes everything, then asks, "What did I do wrong?" But help would be appreciated!!! (Did I mention I didn't have any oregano, so I put in some sage, instead?) Edited to ask: Do you skim the grease off the chili, or just mix it all in for that extra fatty flavour? What to do, what to do....

I have the NYT recipe. If you pm me your e-mail address, I'll send it to you. It's really not much different from the other recipes you can find on the internet--I've tried them all and none have come close to my favourites (which no longer exist, since the woman who made them disappeared--at least from me). I think there's a mass conspiracy of patty makers, and they all hide their secret ingredients from the masses so we'll be forced to buy them.

I almost never laugh out loud at posts, but this one really made me laugh. Thanks!

Not the Thermapen, but this one reads in 8 seconds or less, and is only $23.50 Canadian.

Last night I had a cruller for dessert. Except I actually ate it before eating my dinner. Can I still count it as dessert? I also hacked a big slice off the over-baked brownies I made last week. Or maybe two weeks ago.

I don't have the sharp cleaver, or chopping block. But that's not such a bad thing if you consider that I can't get a whole chicken, or even chicken pieces with bones in them. I might be able to pick up a whole chicken at Costco, but then I'd have to get the sharp cleaver and the chopping block. Oh the dilemmas! I wonder how bad it would be to use boneless chicken to make it...

Spaghetti seems to be a recurring theme here, so allow me to add another spaghetti story... About 20 years ago, my mother and I dropped by the house of a family friend to meet a local politician who would be dropping by to chat. We (including the local politician) were offered some spaghetti, and we all accepted, except my mother, who I think must have known something... It was spaghetti with corned beef sauce--canned corned beef mixed with tomato sauce. Actually, I think it might have been some kind of ketchup-based tomato sauce. After that, I stopped eating spaghetti and the houses of Filipinos. Except my own, of course. More recently I had some wedding cake that made my taste buds revolt. It was so bad that my mother, who will finish anything sweet, took one bite and refused to eat any more. I don't know how one can go wrong with a simple yellow cake, but the woman who made it either used cheap-assed artificial flavourings, stale or spoiled ingredients, or all of the above. Even boxed cake mix slathered with Duncan Hines Frosting would have been more desirable. But the bride took one bite, made a facial expression as though she were in ecstasy, and gave a very emphatic thumbs up to the cake maker. There were a lot of leftovers, I heard...

This is one of my all-time favourite dishes. I also like it when it's done with fish, but chicken is my favourite. I keep hoping you'll add it to your pictoral home-cooking series (hint hint, nudge nudge ).

I am proud to say that today's dessert is the last of the pecan pie I made more than 2 months ago. Pecan pie keeps amazingly well in the fridge!

What is "creamed yeast", or how do you cream it? There's no corn flour in the recipe. Did you mean rice flour? I've been looking for an English muffin recipe, too, as the ones in Japan suck. I found a recipe several months ago on rec.food.baking, the ingredients of which were: 1 ¼ cup water 2 tsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt ¼ tsp. baking soda 3 cups bread flour 3 Tbs. milk powder 2 tsp. yeast The guy who posted it suggested cooking (can I still call it "baking"?) the muffins after the first rise. Is it possible to say how this recipe might compare to ED's, just based on the ingredients? Hmmm...I might have to make more than one batch...such a pity this baking thing is!

I thought the switching version that you describe was the American version...very confused, I am. ← Exactly! I use my knife with my left hand, and my fork with my right - therefore, no switching involved at all. Switching would mean I use one hand for both tasks, therefore requiring me to switch my fork from one hand to the other. ← Oops! I read the "cutting with my left hand and eating with my right" part as meaning "fork in my left hand when I cut" and "fork in my right hand when I eat". I've never been too good with the reading comprehension thing...

I think Americans developed the switching-thing to help burn additional calories. By switching back and forth, one must burn at least 5 or 10 more calories than with not switching, thereby off-setting the bad effects of the super large portions served at many American restaurants.

Ummmm.....yes? No? Maybe? I looked it up, and yes, it's the same. In Morocco it's commonly known as "Eid el Kbir" (sorry, I put an "h" where it didn't belong in my earlier post), "Kbir" meaning "big".

I was in Morocco during Eid el Khbir and I remember sheep brains with eggs being one of the special dishes. I didn't get to see the slaughter of a sheep, but I did eat some fabulous homemade couscous and some kind of lamb tagine that day.

I'd be a very happy camper around those food stalls! And I don't know if I could wait until I got home (or until after sundown) to eat any of it. I have very little self-control. One of my great weaknesses!

I haven't stopped thinking about that chili since I saw your picture of it. I went shopping for the ingredients today--found some kidney beans, but the cheapest pork roast I could find was Y1800/kilo! (That's actually not so bad, since the beef tail--ox tail?--was Y2700/kg!). I'm going to have to wait until I can make a Costco trip. Three more days of just dreaming about that chili! Woe is me!

That looks awesome! Is this the recipe you used? I think I'm going to have to make this soon...it's just turning a wee bit chilly in this part of the world, and that means chili! (And soups, but that's another thread!)

I thought the switching version that you describe was the American version...very confused, I am. Switching or not switching all depends on what I'm eating, where I'm eating, and with whom I'm eating. I usually don't switch if I have to cut, and use my left, but if no cutting is involved, I eat only with my right.

I was just reminiscing about my childhood Japanese curry experience. When I was a child, my siblings and I used to eat S&B curry, while my parents ate spicier Thai curries. They were always full of carrots, potatoes, and big chunks of beef. Imagine my disappointment when I ordered Japanese curry for the first time at a family restaurant in Japan--there was barely any meat in it at all! And the last time I ordered curry rice from the school cafeteria, there were no carrots, no potatoes, and no meat--only onions! I'm going to have to make my own, I think. Can Japanese curry be frozen?

But what are the rules? Can you refrigerate any muffin batter? What's the longest period of time it can be refrigerated for? If I freeze the batter instead of refrigerating it (I know that can be done, because Pam R. said she does it!), should I defrost it before baking? I was thinking that if I froze it, I would freeze it in baking cups so I could just pop them in the muffin tin and bake.