prasantrin

I've done curry using a Guyanese curry powder. Does that count? I could handle one serving, but I gave the rest away. It's the texture I'm not crazy about in large doses. I could try adding just little bits into everything I eat once I cook up a bunch and freeze them. And make a lot of hummus and perhaps some falafel (falafel doesn't do much for me, either, though). But I wish I could find something that would really knock my socks off.

I'm really trying to like chickpeas/garbanzo beans, but it's not working. They're not so bad pureed, but I haven't yet found any other preparation that I like. Even the much touted roasted chickpeas just don't tantalize my taste buds. Do I have any other options, other than making many many many cups of hummus to use up the rest of my chickpeas? FWIW, I dislike beans, in general, but I really want to like them.

May I ask in what way the organization is lacking? I'm not asking to be a pain, but I'm asking because of personal interest. When I finally get the opportunity to browse through the book, I'll know what to look out for, then see if I agree or disagree.

True, but it seems people are focussing on the recipes rather than the non-recipe content. With the exception Lesley's comments, I've not heard much dialogue about how the book may or may not have fallen short regarding the science of baking. If the goal of the book is to provide information rather than recipes (I don't know that it is, but I suspect it may be so), then I wish I could hear a little more about that before I buy it. I probably won't be able to pick it up until summer, though, so I can buy it and leave it in Canada, rather than haul it back when I leave Japan. Upon reviewing this topic, I did notice that rickster brought up the same point--looking at the book as a reference book with some recipes, rather than as a true cookbook.

Steirereck has stars? When did they first get them? I don't remember them have any stars when I ate there (2004), but I didn't pay much attention to those things. I did enjoy my meal there, though, and my mother still talks about it longingly.

A new question. . . When Cookwise came out, I thought it was considered to be first a reference book (like Harold McGee's book), and second a cookbook. People bought the book for the information provided, and the recipes were just a bonus. It seems like people are looking at Bakewise first as a cookbook, and then as a reference book. If those who are having problems with the book were to just read it rather than bake from it, would you consider the book to be more valuable?

Yeah, and maybe not. Has anyone else made the biscuits from the book? My biggest complaint with these was not their heavy texture but their overly salty flavour. ← The flours are milled from different types of wheat, and in general, the Canadian flours have higher protein levels. For example, Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour is 10.5% protein (according to Cook's Illustrated) and Robin Hood unbleached ap flour is about 12%. The higher the protein content, the more gluten formed, the tougher (or less tender, depending on how you look at it) your baked goods will be. There may also be differences in ash content, etc. but I haven't found any of that kind of info on North American sites (except King Arthur). And remember, she wrote the book in the US for an American audience, tested with American products. So when the recipe says "any self-raising flour", it really means "any self-raising flour in the US". I do remember hearing, however, that White Lily gives the best result for those biscuits. You can still get good biscuits using other types of flour with similar protein contents, but not as good as with White Lily, so I heard. Back to American vs Canadian flour differences, I vaguely remember reading that some US companies were using stronger wheats for their flour more recently, so the protein contents of those flours would be more in line with Canadian flours.

Can I freeze caramels? I have a ton of them, and want to save some for a future trip (end of March). I was thinking of vacuum packing them (they're wrapped) and sticking them in the freezer. Bad idea?

I would just brine it in a water-based solution.

I've never been, but other restaurants have given me the following reasons for not allowing take-away: The food suffers when not eaten right away (Frontera Grill). They don't have take-away containers (most places in Japan). They're worried about food safety (places in Japan during the O-157 scare, and a place in Dubai that made us sign a release before they'd let us take our food). With Momofuku Ko, I would guess the primary reason is the first one.

I just read it's a salt where the magnesium chloride has not been removed, but I also read it's salt that has been roasted slowly. (The latter is from http://kiifc.kikkoman.co.jp/foodculture/pdf_04/e_007_009.pdf , a nice article, btw). Maybe it's both?

The ingredient on the bottle of salt is just "sea salt", but it's not plain salt. The front says "yakishio"--grilled salt? Maybe it's like smoked salt?

I went to the Hokkaido Fair at Kobe Daimaru today and got some new (to me) potatoes! I asked specifically about frying and baking, so the man suggested (and I bought) Hokkai-kogane and toyoshiro for the former, and Red Moon for the latter. He said Red Moon were slightly sweet, but not like American sweet potatoes (darn!). If I had the language skills, I'd have asked why they don't grow American sweet potatoes in Japan. I'd eat them all the time if I could! I've got some of the toyoshiro cut into fries and soaking in water. Some of them had soft spots aready , but I'm hoping for the best!

What if I don't have access to fresh jalapeños or garlic salt, but I have dried jalapeños and garlic powder. Would it really be such a horrible thing to use those, instead? I've been meaning to make Jaymes' salsa forever (really, for years), and now I have a serious craving for it. Fresh jalapeños are difficult to come by in my area of Japan, though, so I've got a jar of Penzey's crushed jalapeños peppers in my fridge. I could search for canned ones, too, if that would be better. And for the tomatillo version, could I use canned tomatillos? I hauled one back from the US, and am dying to use it before I leave this country. I know it will lack that nice roasted flavour, but since I've never actually had the roasted version, what I don't know won't hurt me. I could also roast the canned ones in the oven for a bit, if that might help.

I got up early to go to a department store in another city and line up for some special caramels available for a limited time. I bought 4 little containers, 12 caramels each, and paid a whopping Y850 for each container (that's about US$9.35). They suck. Why oh why did I ever buy them? Not just one, but 4 containers! (two plain, one strawberry, and one matcha) Have you ever spent a wad of dough on a food item you had to have, but then absolutely hated?

Good god that was painful to watch. ← I would have said torturous. I have an aunt like her. "Let's not get bitchy," she said. Sorry, I think you already crossed that line (I think he thought so, too, and that's why he laughed.)

FWIW, flour in the US is different from flour in Canada, period. That's probably one of the reasons you're not getting good results. If you head down to the US in the near future, I would suggest picking up some flour there (particularly whatever flours Shirley suggests using), and trying the recipes again. You'll probably see a difference in the final product.

Thank you for asking them, Hiroyuki! It's a huge help. I did some research and found the former is sometimes referred to as pumpernickel flour, which I guess is the coarsest type of rye flour. I'm now trying to figure out how to make it into pumpernickel bread since all the recipes I've seen call for just rye flour (which would be the latter, or even the fine milled one I didn't ask about). I suspect I'd have to increase the liquids or decrease other flour components by a touch. I'm off to place my order!

My parents have always obsessed about food. When they were living in Thailand, my father heard about a place famous for a particular dish, so he dragged my mother out to a filthy divey truck stop in the middle of nowhere to eat what turned out to be bull testicles. She was not happy.

I tried melting some cheese on the croutons in the toaster oven, then adding it to my bowl of hot soup. It worked really well! And it wasn't too messy, so I think I might be able to do it at work, too! I think, though, adding some croutons to the soup earlier would be a good idea, too. As it was, the croutons barely absorbed any of the soup. It was good in that they remained crunchy, but it's nice to have a little bit of absorption. Must do more experiments.

Thanks! So you can eat the hatsuga genmai arare without cooking it any further? I might order some it. I could use it to make chocolate bark since I learned how to temper chocolate at Kerry Beal's chocolate class last summer!

I punched it into NYC, and as is, it's 5.2 points per regular-sized muffin. If you replace 1/2 cup flour with whole wheat flour, and reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup (I often reduce sugar by 25-50%), then it's 4.6 points per muffin. Totally do-able with WW if you can limit yourself to half a muffin, or if you make mini-muffins and only eat one each time. That's what I used to do when I was actually making an effort with WW. Then I'd freeze the rest in WW portion sizes, or take the rest into work (where they could do damage to other people's waistlines). Beanie and Pam R.: I'll try the flour tossing trick! I'll try it with pancakes, first (but I'll do the blueberry sprinkling trick after that), just to see what happens.

I like that! I wonder how to say "heat gun" in Japanese so I can do a search. . .

Perhaps! I love baking bread (and a couple of years ago, I made my neighbours envious with my constant no-knead bread tinkering), but bread and WW are incompatible, at least for me. Japan is woefully lacking in rye and whole wheat breads, though, so if I want those, I have to do my own! No 100%-types for me, but I like to add other flours to the no-knead when I can. I'd love to start doing non-no-knead breads again, but I'm too lazy right now. . . I'm going into Kobe today and will do a price comparison between local stores and Kikuya. Thanks for your help! (I should add that the situation regarding rye and whole wheat breads is getting better in my area, but they're usually quite expensive.)

Whew! I almost passed out from holding my breath for the return! White Spot has pad thai? That is just sooooooo wrong!