prasantrin

You can get roasted watermelon seeds in Asian markets. They're a popular snack in Thailand. They are salty rather than sweet, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

St Norbert Farmer's Market is opening this Saturday, and will be open till Halloween this year. AND, I just checked the vendor's list, and it looks like Pembina Valley Meats is back!! I only went to the market twice last summer, because it just wasn't the same without my weekly farmer burger fix. If PVM is really back, I'll be making my usual weekly trip! I'm excited, and I'm not even in Winnipeg, yet!

Could you tell me a little more about how it would change? Is it the texture? Or would it separate completely (more than what a quick whisking would fix)? I'd be willing to sacrifice some quality, but if I have to do a lot of work to it, then I won't bother.

Can a roux-based gravy be frozen and successfully reheated? I've been reading conflicting opinions. My plan is to make Swedish meatballs with gravy (no cream), and then freeze most of it (IQF-type of freezing). When reheating portions of gravy, I'll add some cream for a bit of richness.

Gokuri grapefruit beverage is still my favourite grapefruit beverage of all time. They just came out with blood orange, and also a peach one. The blood orange was good (not as tart as blood orange juices can be), but grapefruit still kicks a**. I've not tried the peach one, yet.

Ditto on the Kir. It's simple but underrated. I've actually met a lot of people who don't even know what Kir is!

What was the Nishiki for? Filipino rice is usually medium or long-grain rice. Is palitaw sort of like mochi or the sweet glutinous rice balls one sometimes finds at dim sum places?

Thanks for the info on Maldon. The recipe calls for sprinkling the salt on the batter and swirling it in. I found another salt in my cupboards--coarse sel de guerande. From your advice, I think this would probably be the best salt to use--it has relatively large uneven granules, so it would provide that textural interest you mention. I'll test it out this weekend! Thanks again!

Perfect! I had looked on Maldon's website, but didn't find a thing. Thanks!

I think that's ube ice cream, not ume. Ube is a purple yam, and the colour of that ice cream looks like ube. Plus her notes say ube, not ume.

When subbing for specific salts in recipes, is there a guide to use? for example, I want to make salted fudge brownies, and the recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon Maldon sea salt. I haven't found any in my area, so I'm going to have to use what I have. My choices are: morton kosher salt fine sea salt (penzey's) coarse sea salt (penzey's) I'm guessing 1/2 tsp kosher salt would be OK, or maybe 3/4 tsp coarse sea salt?? (I read Maldon's is saltier than regular salt, I'm guessing I should use more regular salt??).

I've never heard the first reason before. Got any pointers to an article or such that suggests that reason? I'm curious as to how it's defended. Is Annette Filipino? Do you know what region she's from? I hope it's Bicol, because I want to see some of their native dishes! BTW, it's Cebu, not Sebu. (Assuming you mean the place in the Philippines)

Add a pat at the table to each freshly cooked serving of carrots, peas, or whatever vegetable you've cooked (steamed). Also works for fish or steak.

Why not try a smaller group like this one http://www.cooknwithclass.com/ If you do a private lesson, you can choose what you want to cook.

Along the same vein. . . If I want to use a pie crust recipe for a 9" pan in a 6" pan (or two), I should calculate the surface area of said pans--does that sound right? So, for example, if a 9" pan has a surface area of 92 inches squared, and a 6" pan has a surface area of 47 inches squared, then I should be able to get 2 6-inch crusts out of one 9-inch crust recipe, right? Or is that completely wrong? eta: all the pan conversion charts I've found are for volume only, including the tart pan (which holds 4 cups, by the way). But I'm not concerned about the volume since I'm only filling the tart with jam.

What do you do about those little worm-like bugs that eat squiggly lines through basil leaves? I think I've removed most of the affected leaves and squished all the offenders, but I want to be prepared if they return! It's just one little plant, but I need it for my pizza!

Yuzu are not kumquat!!! They're not alike at all! Kumquat are kinkan.

Wikipedia defines mojito: A mojito is traditionally made of five ingredients: spearmint, rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice ), lime, and club soda. Can someone please give me a better sense of what a mojito macaron, or a mojito anything else might mean? Thanks ← Pretty much anything with mint, rum, and lime. Is it difficult to imagine?

One more idea--look into working holiday visas. Canada, for example, has reciprocity with several countries which gives "youth" (those under the age of 35) visas to travel and work within a specific country for one year, sometimes renewable for an additional year. I don't know if there's a similar program in the US.

I have a strong feeling that her kids are already sick, but not in the way she fears. I hope her kids get some kind of support before she really f***s them up (at 10 and 7, they've got to get that help pretty quickly).

Andiesenji--when you make your own sour cream, is it very very thick? The sour cream in Japan is more like soured cream, and it's so thick it doesn't dollop. It doesn't even come out of the container without a spoon. I'm just wondering how real sour cream compares to what I can get here.

I can't answer as to the size of fruits past and present, but for conversions, Gourmet Sleuth's conversion calculator is pretty good about converting size (ex. half a tomato, juice of one lemon) to volume or weight measurements.

I made the Brrrrrrrr-ownies yesterday. The brownie part is really quite good, but the flavor sort of reminds me of minty fresh toothpaste. That's not necessarily a bad thing (I used to eat toothpaste when I was a kid), but I'm not sure how well it will go over with my (Japanese) co-workers. I'll just make sure I warn them first!

I can get a copy for you in Japanese if you want. . .

Jacques Pepin had a recipe for smashed potatoes in Fine Cooking (I'm pretty sure it was FC), too. His involved cooking the potatoes in a skillet with chicken stock, then when the stock was gone you smashed them and let them fry in oil. I can't remember if the oil was added with the stock (like when making gyoza) or after the stock was gone. I made it once and it was very very good, but the quality of chicken stock was very important. ETA: It's called Potatoes Fondante and it's from Fine Cooking 64, pp. 59, May 1, 2004. It's only available to members, unfortunately. And the potatoes aren't as smushed.