lorea

I've been making these for years - I don't know how authentic they are, but they're definitely really good....I get rave reviews on them all the time. Swedish Meatballs - "Köttbullar" - ½ cup fine dry bread crumbs - ½ cup light cream + ¼ cup water - 10 oz. ground beef - 10 oz. ground lean pork - 1½ tsp. salt - ½ tsp. ground allspice - ¼ large yellow Spanish onion, or 1 small onion, chopped finely - 2 crushed garlic cloves - 1 egg, beaten - butter & oil for frying 1) Soak the bread crumbs in the liquids, set aside. 2) In a food processor, chop the onion and garlic with the large blade. 3) Add the beef, pork, salt, and allspice and process until well-mixed. Gradually add the bread crumb mixture. Add the egg, making sure to scrape down the sides of the food processor. The mixture should be smooth and moist. For best results, refrigerate mixture overnight. 4) Over moderate heat, heat about a tablespoon of butter with an equal amount of flavorless oil in a heavy stainless steel sauté pan (or non-stick for no gravy). Once the butter stops foaming, add a small ball of meatball mixture with a small ice cream scoop, while shaking the pan energetically. Shake for a few minutes to set the meatball, and then add the next meatball. Do not crowd the pan. 5) When the meatballs are cooked through, remove from the pan and deglaze the pan with water or beef broth. Remove the gravy water to a bowl and continue frying the meatballs until finished. 6) For the gravy, strain the liquid into the sauté pan. Add in 1-2 tablespoons of blond roux and whisk until thickened - a splash of cream may also be added in. Salt/pepper to taste. Serve the meatballs with gravy, lingonberry jam, and mashed potatoes (traditional), with tomato sauce, or with a veloute sauce.

I've seen re-tinning kits in a few of the Sur La Tables in my area....they come in a little plastic bag, typically near the copper pan section. I've never tried it though, but if you're interested in taking a look at it for yourself...

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually have one, but I normally just grab a towel (and my handles DO get hot...I guess it might be a difference of cooking style, size of flame on your stove, etc.), but I was just mentioning my desire for stainless steel handles just as a wish for at least one of the copper manufacturers to make 2.5mm stainless handle copper cookware. Also, I definitely think handles are a consideration when purchasing cookware, and people tend to forget them sometimes....performance isn't everything!

So for ice creams like lychee...if you wanted chunks in it, how would you keep the lychee chunks from freezing too hard (since the lychees have a lot of moisture)? Alcohol? If so, what kind?

I have both the roulpat and silpat, and the performance is very much the same. The roulpat does well for firmer doughs, but for wet and sticky doughs, it is only a little less sticky than a melanine tabletop. You still need some flour to prevent sticking. It's nice to have such a nice, large surface that's easy to clean though, so I still always use it. Also, the nice thing about the mat is that it makes it easy to transfer the dough because you can pick the whole thing up. And if the dough does happen to stick, you can always pick the whole thing up, flip it over, and peel the mat away from the sticking dough. A thin flexible cutting board also does much the same, so if you can find one of the harder to find large ones, you might as buy that instead - they're much more inexpensive.

Hmm....this is a fun topic. I like my chocolate chip cookies crispy on the edges, but chewy in the middle. In general, I like crispy cookies, chewy cookies, and cookies with a sandy/melting texture (does that mean I like all cookies? ). My favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin cookies, cookies with cinnamon, chocolate chip cookies, cookies with mint, cookies with peanuts or almonds, cookies with caramel. My favorite commercial cookies are Girl Scout Samoas, Lu Le Bastogne (these are seriously the best cookies!), and Nutter Butters. Biscotti and madeleines are a waste of calories to me. I think I like cookies with a stronger flavor, or at least cookies with an interesting texture. Snickerdoodles are fun to look at, but I don't like the way they taste because of the extraordinary amount of acid.

$17.95! with 4 bowls!! I'm jealous. That would be a no-brainer for me as well. But my local Costcos had them for $39 for only one bowl.

I think handles are a huge consideration when purchasing cookware, and in this case - keep in mind that the iron or brass handles on copper cookware DO get very very hot. Stainless steel handles (like the ones on the Mauviel 2.0mm line) don't get hot under normal use, but it has the disadvantage of the thinner copper. This is definitely a consideration for me, as I don't want to have to worry about grabbing a kitchen towel everytime I grab a hot pot handle - I like the no-fuss of being able to confidently grab any pan that I own and know that the handles will definitely not be hot. Also, the iron handles will rust if you don't dry the pan immediately after washing, so that's another consideration. I really like Falk's brushed exterior (although I'm not too fond of the dull, almost grey-colored stainless steel color on the interior - the darkness makes it slightly more difficult to judge color on food) in that it doesn't seem to tarnish very quickly. I have both Falk and Mauviel, and the Falk takes much longer to tarnish. Sooo...perfect copper cookware for me does not currently exist. I would absolutely LOVE to have Falk manufacture 2.5mm copper cookware with a shinier interior as well as with stainless steel handles that resist getting hot. According to the manufacturer, they don't produce it because it costs too much. But I'd be willing to pay for this! Who else is with me??

I noticed that Amazon has the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment for sale (it's their weekly Friday Sale). Has anybody had the chance to try it yet? I just bought the Ben & Jerry's ice cream book in anticipation of making ice cream (yeah, I know I'm behind....it's October and I'm only now starting to think about ice cream?! ) - and it says that one of the reasons why superpremium ice creams have such a great texture is because there is less air beaten into superpremium ice cream as compared to normal grocery store ice cream. They say that you can force this by overfilling your machine so you limit the amount of air that can be beaten into the ice cream mixture. Does that mean I would have to make a full 2Qts of ice cream every time I make ice cream? And is this maker capable of making "superpremium" ice cream with very little air beaten into it? I haven't seen many reviews for this attachment yet, but I KNOW that some of my fellow eGulleteers are gadget-freaks like me and must have bought this when it first came out!

Thanks! I must have missed post #5 in this thread. I think this cake would be very striking as a heart-shaped cake...sounds like a great idea!

I've seen a variety of dolsot bowls, but was told by my Korean friends that they're not all the same...some hold heat better and some don't (resulting in non-crispy rice!). Does anybody have a picture of the best types to get? I noticed that there are vastly different price ranges too (anywhere from $5/bowl - $25/bowl) - is it correct to assume you get what you pay for, in this case?

It's amazing how you can begin to crave something just because other people are talking about it! (<-- We need to find a new "drool" smilie!) Does anybody have a picture of the actual cake that was submitted in the competition?

Yes, very interesting. Thanks for testing it out, nathan!

Sorry Susan, but I've never made it (I will someday!) so I don't have a recipe. It's a spicy seafood soup that you can usually only find at Korean-run Chinese restaurants or Chinese-run Korean restaurants, so I'm thinking it's a "fusion" dish. I did find this recipe, but it's in Korean...perhaps one of our Korean speaking eGulleteers could translate? That top right picture looks exactly like it. It's SUCH a great soup!! It's especially good with hand-pulled noodles. Jam Bong recipe in Korean And here's a little thread about it, but there's no real recipe there either: thread Does anybody have more information about this soup? (Interesting search results for Jam BONG. )

I think it's made out of fermented soybeans or something. It's also very stinky, and it's a good substitute, but it's not the same. If you're not a vegetarian, I would definitely use regular fish sauce, but if you are vegetarian, it gives a better "authentic" flavor than using just salt or soy sauce.

I've tried it...it's very good! For vegetarian, I would just leave out the eggs and substitute the shrimp for some deep fried tofu cubes. For the fish sauce, substitute in vegetarian fish sauce (available at many asian supermarkets). I think it's called Nuoc Mam Chay? When I was vegetarian, I would make pad thai with these substitutions and it was still very good. If you eat eggs though, I would recommend keeping it in, as it adds a lot of flavor.

Lately, I've been going on a creme fraiche binge. I've been making it all summer and eating it on top of stuff and trying to get my hands on different recipes that use it (I especially like the brioche tart in Baking with Julia that uses it), but I'm running out of ideas. What are your favorite ways to use creme fraiche? Do you top food with it? Mix things into it? Savory or sweet? Whipped?

How about a Korean-Chinese spicy seafood noodle soup? I think it's called Jam Pong or Jam Bong in Korean. It's absolutely delicious!

What about when recipes say to use a "dry white wine" - do I pick up a Chardonnay, Riesling, or ? What constitutes a dry white wine? Is Sherry considered a dry white wine? I've seen some people posting about using dry sherry (Julia Child's recommendation?)...is this as a substitute for dry sherry? What wines are considered "sweet" wines? And using Marsala and Port...those are different from an ordinary red wine, right? And like white wines, what are red wines suitable for cooking called? Does dry matter? Are "blushes" used for any kind of cooking application? The world of wine baffles me. Right now, I just use whatever my wine-loving friends leave at my house for cooking. But I'd like to choose my own as sometimes, it's a little hit or miss on flavor for me.

I made your cake! It was an interesting cake that used 100% butter...the cake reminded me of the fabulous Emily Luchetti's Grandmother's Apple Cake I had once at Farallon restaurant...slightly caramel-y tasting with a slightly sticky exterior. I liked it better than the apple cake, in fact. It seemed to be ready at 40 minutes, but I left it in there for the full 60 minutes (like what the recipe said) and the caramel taste fully developed. The cardamom was a nice touch. It's not the classic carrot cake that comes to mind for carrot cakes (like the Southern Living recipe or Frog Commissary cakes), but it's good in it's own right. It was too sweet for me though.

Yes, I agree. So why is it that so many carrot cake recipes are made with oil rather than butter? I have always abhorred the use of oil in carrot cakes and typically substitute 1/2 or all of the oil with melted butter. I find that butter helps to hide that chemical taste of leavenings that oil does nothing to mask. Is it because carrot cake is supposed to be healthy, so the fats in the cake come from an unsaturated fat source?

Also, I think I'm confused...I read conflicting reports about Thai iced tea...some recipes have several ingredients/spices in it, and some just say to brew Thai tea. I always assumed they just meant to use the Thai tea mix (it is a mix, right?). Is Thai tea actually a different type of tea? Or is it just the mix? Some say it is called Nam Cha...is that a different variety of tea? If so, is it possible to purchase the whole tea leaves? What's actually in those Thai iced tea packages, anyways?

I was curious about this as well...I've always made Thai iced tea from those plastic packages and it tastes just like it does at a restaurant, but like a true eGulleteer , I'd like to learn how to do it from scratch. So far, I can't get the taste to come out correctly, but I can get the coloring correct (using both yellow and red food coloring)! I tried using the recipe that phaelon56 posted, but it doesn't quite come out like the way the packaged stuff comes out....there's a missing grassy flavor, and the anise flavorings make it taste too Chinese-y...which isn't bad, but I want Thai. I made a batch of the packaged stuff to compare. I found another recipe that is basically black tea and equal parts cardamom and cinnamon...but that's not it either. The tea ends up tasting kind of like Earl Grey/Chai. Good, but not what I'm looking for. Maybe it's the type of tea I'm using? I'm using the whole Chinese black(red) tea. Or maybe I've gotten used to the cheap quality of the packaged tea! Has anybody successfully made Thai iced tea from scratch? Did I make the recipe that phaelon56 posted incorrectly? I'm stumped.

You can also try putting in ground up red rice in your marinade, in lieu of red food coloring.

Interesting topic...I was just PM'ing Sinclair about her favorite carrot cake recipe, and it happened to be the exact same one that was my current favorite (although I was planning on trying it with half butter, like what browniebaker said). I make mine without the nuts and sometimes without the coconut. The coconut adds a lot of flavor to the cake though, so I may try it again with ground coconut. And the funny thing is, it's the same recipe as this one! So that's 3 votes for this one...