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Thanks for replying. What you have pictured there is Baamieh (what Melamed also refered to as Shabkia in Iraqi). Zoolbia looks like this: Actually this photo shows both delicacies but Zoolbia are the short, fat, oblong cylinders. It is the technique for making these that I am searching for. I understand making Baamieh because it is similar to other funnel cakes.

Having just celebrated the Persian New Year with my wife and her family, we had to have the traditional pastries, including Zoolbia and Baamieh. I love these pastries and want to try to make my own. I've found the recipe online for the basic dough along with a description of how to form Baamieh. But nowhere can I find the technique for creating Zoolbia even though they are nearly the same. Can anyone help me to understand how to make Zoolbia? Is the dough piped through a piping bag using a very large tip? Or is it formed another way, maybe pressed into special forms?

I doubt it. The natural oils in teak would not allow much water to permeate the wood, IMO. I built a teak cutting board some 14 years ago and still use it daily today. I've washed that board often without the least sign of warpage or splitting. I just oil it occasionally and the patina on that board is georgeous. Your split could have been repaired by cutting the board apart at the split and regluing it.

To unwarp the board, you have to rip the board into a couple of pieces, plane the edges and reglue the pieces again. The process is easy but it's really handy if you know someone with woodworking machines like a table saw and jointer (or maybe have access to a school woodworking shop). Use the table saw or a circular saw to rip the board along the pieces where the board seems to be warping most, or if the board is warped over its entire width, cut into three pieces. Using a jointer or hand plane, joint each piece so that the edge is 90 degrees to the face. That's the reason a jointer makes the work easier because the fence of the jointer references the work to the blades and makes the work easy and precise. When the edges are jointed, reglue and clamp the pieces again. Your board will be a couple millimeters reduced in width after the operation but it will be flat again. andiesenji suggested sanding the board. This would be arduous backbreaking work with no guarantee of acceptable results especially if the board is made of hardwood like beech, maple or some exotic.

It's possible to buy over-stove fans with integrated activated charcoal filters for just such a situation. The air is recirculated in the kitchen but the activated charcoal cleans out the bad smells and alot of the fine particles. Aslo, modern fan technology makes the fan whisper quite.

... Then slowly add 1 cup of oil (while machine is on)... Oil should be added very slowly at the beginning. As more gets incorporated, the rate at which you add oil can be increased.

I think it's a safeguard to prevent the possibility of steam condensation or the boiling water itself from spilling over into the chocolate. Water destroys the emulsifiers in chocolate and causes the cocoa butter and cocoa solids to clump together, seizing up the chocolate. If the bowl is high enough above the water, any condenstation will occur lower down from the rim.

Yes, it does. The results also depends on the shape and size of the pot, the amount of water in the pot as it begins to cool, the shape and size of the egg, the location of the pan as it cools and the ambient air temperature of your kitchen (assuming the pan is left to cool in the kitchen).

Don't want to highjack this thread because the info here is so useful so I'll just say that I read that cooking eggs is a 'simple' heat transfer problem. I have seen the following table: <55C = risk of salmonella 56-63C = soft white and runny yolk 65-70C = soft gel white and runny viscous yolk 73C = hardened white and soft gel yolk 77C = hardened white and soft yet hardboiled yolk 80C = hardened white and onset of green colour 90C = tough white and dry crumbly yolk Source: Peter Barham "The Science of Cooking"

This is covered somewhat in eGCI course on Hard-cooked eggs. The only aspect of hard-cooking eggs not covered completely there was the green tinging of the yolk. The discoloration occurs when the yolk temperature rises to 80C or higher. At this point the egg is overcooked and effectively ruined. The yolk is runny at 63C, begins to gel at 73C and hardens at 77C. How can you tell the cooking time needed to bring an egg yolk to a desired temperature? From the following formula: t=0.0015d**2loge[(2(Twater - T0))/(Twater - Tyolk)] wheret is the cooking time in minutes, d is the diameter of the egg in millimeters, T0 is the initial temperature of the egg in C and Twater the temperature of the water in C. Reference is Dr. Williams, Exeter University, first published in New Scientist 1996. Whoa! The implication of this is that the cooking time of an egg is proportional to the square of the diameter of the egg. A small egg (40mm) takes 60% of the time of a large egg (50mm) and an egg from the fridge takes 15% longer to cook than an egg at room temperature. If you can maintain a water bath at a constant 70C, you can cook a medium egg (45mm) in 8 minutes. This will produce a firm white and runny yolk at 63C. Longer times in a warmer bath will produce a more even cooked hard boiled egg as another poster has already pointed out.

Norway - Salmon, Bacalao

Earlier in the blog Chad wrote: And later Cruzmisl wrote: I'm contemplating buying a Tichbourne K6 and read these comments with interest. The problems I have with the Henkels I own today is that my hands are so big that my knuckles hit the cutting board when I use my larger butcher knives. The width of the K6 blade looked like it would solve this problem. I thought I'd "try out" a K6 for its size but I am in no position to just pop over to Mississauga to get a loaner. So, I made my own K6 today in the workshop. I took a picture of the knife from the Tichbourne web site, printed it full size and made a wooden model (pictured below). It does not emulate the weight of the knife or the balance but I can test drive the knife in other respects. I kind of like the size of the knife so I think I will persue buying one in the next little while. The only thing I don't understand from the comments above is cruzmisl's comment that his knife split food rather than cut it. The only explaination I can think of is that the knife he had was not as sharp as it might have been.

Many years ago, I found a small teak pepper mill at a flea market that I managed to get for around 20 cents! That little mill is hands-down the best bargain ever. It must have been made in the early 1960's and it is still going strong today. It grinds perfectly, not too large, not too small. I'm one happy camper!

IKEA has great cheap kitchen accessories. If you're in the market for cheap teflon cookware, the 365+ line is high quality and low price. Carp, Which boards are no longer available? IKEA still sell end-grain cutting boards in 50x50cm size. Their GROLAND butcher block is cheap-as-chips at $200.

I use fine valve grinding compound only because it is readily available to me. I suggest that rouge is better because the rouge mixed in suspension with lanolin charges and conditions the leather at the same time. I don't know what the suspension agent is in valve grinding compound but it appears to be oily in nature. I don't think it conditions the leather like lanolin would. It does get absorbed into the leather with use so that the power imbedded in the leather remains on the surface.

britcook is right. I visited Canada at Christmas and the sniffer dog picked up the scent of a sandwich my son had stashed in the bottom his backpack. It had only been in there a half-hour and I threw it out before we had boarded for the outbound flight. You should check the TSA website for the allowed/prohibited items list: TSA Travel Tips (permitted and prohibited items) Best case scenerio is they'll confiscate it. Worst case, you'd feel really stupid for being arrested over some cheese.

Cool Michael! Nice steels and I love his power leather stops using an inverted stationary belt sander. That would save a lot of elbow grease if you had many knives and other cutting blades to maintain.

Scott, I had an old Ikea kitchen door cupboard lying about. It was a frame and panel design so I sawed off and used a section of the frame. The door was made of birch. It doesn't matter what type of wood you use -- pine, spruce, maple, and so on -- the wood just makes a stiff backing for the leather. The wood doesn't have to be perfectly flat for the strop to work. The leather deforms in use to conform to the shape of the knife's edge. The advantage to having a smooth piece of wood is that PVA type glues are not gap-filling glues and a sanded wood surface provides better key to the glue than a very rough surface. If you end up using a finished wood piece like I did, it's mandatory to sand it to remove the lacquer finish otherwise the glue won't hold.

For that finished, razor sharp edge, many knifesmiths use a strop. A strop will maintain the edge on a knife in the same way a steel will. A strop will not remove metal as quickly as a steel (especially diamond steels) so the action is gentler. I made a bench strop by glueing a piece of saddle leather to a block of wood. I picked up a scrap of leather from a local saddlemaker. It is heavy gauge, 5mm thick, leather. I chose a block of wood 40x8x2 cm, cut the leather slightly undersized and beveled the edges. I glued the leather, rough side down, to the wood using white glue. I made the length of the strop is as long as a comfortable stroke. When using the strop, charge it with a grinding compound. I use valve grinding compound from an automobile supply. Polishing rouge is probably better. A strop seasons like a cast iron pan; slowly over time, it just gets better and better as the grinding compound works into the leather.

Yea, I really didn't have much of a choice. I tried just about eveything short of abrading the surface to clean the pan but just couldn't clean the carbonizing off. The drill atachment was a very fine Scotchbrite so any damage was minimal. Yes, possible. If so, I can use the pan for less demanding work. Oh well, live and learn. Tremendous thanks for the help, Sam.

I recently bought a couple Paderno Curved Sauteuse Evasées. I had a small accident with one of them where some food scorched to the bottom and slightly up the sides of the pan. Soaking and scrubbing by hand with a steel wool pad did not clean the pan so I resorted to my last alternative -- a scotchbrite pad in an electric drill using lots and lots of mineral oil as a lubricant. I proceeded slowly, stopping when the scorched food residue was removed. The pan came clean however I think the characteristics of the pan have changed from new. I now notice that food tends to react and stick more than before. Has my cleaning removed some sort of factory applied non-stick coating to the pan that I am not aware of? Should I "season" stainless steel in the same spirit that one seasons a cast iron pan?

Sometimes, regional delicacies are hard to stomache. I have eaten Norwegian rakfisk (trout weighed and marinated several months in salt water in a pail) lutefisk (cod marinated in lye) klippfisk (sun-dried cod) gammalost (I have no idea but tastes like you're eating compressed sawdust) brunost (goat's milk cooked to the softball stage) But, there is no way I am ever going to try smalahove EVER!!! It's a complete sheep's head cooked over an open fire until the outside is charcoal. Then, they take an axe and split open the skull. Enjoy! The eyeballs are the best part.

my two nemeses are: fudge - I end up with gludge! pie crust - flakey, in more ways than one.

I will never again make instant coffee half asleep. As a student, I used instant coffee because it saved time in the morning (had no taste back then). I woke up after one particularly late night and boiled up some water for coffee. Not totally with it, I opened the bottle of instant coffee, took a spoonful in the mug, and proceeded to pour the water into the bottle...not the mug. Five seconds into this fiasco I stopped, stared at the bottle ...to the mug ...to the kettle ...back to the bottle ...back to the mug and back to the kettle, mouth agape with a look on my face from something out of a bad TV sitcom. Being a student, I couldn't waste anything so I had coffee-flavoured syrup for a few weeks afterwards.

I really don't understand the advice in this thread that it's over for the knife. If the knife struck the ceramic floor from counter height, it can only be a small part of the tip that has broken off, maybe 2mm max. So a simple regrind will restore the point. But how much of the knife's balance can be put off by the loss of about 20 grams of metal at the tip???!!! You can compensate (if one can even sense this imbalance) by adjusting the rear of the handle. But we're talking about removing maybe 5% of the total mass of the knife. That's _noise_ (in electrical terminology) -- it has little or no effect. Even if you look at the moment arm changes caused by reshaping the tip, it will push the CofG backward a millimeter or less! Who can feel this small change! This is a knife for cutting food. You're not throwing this knife in a circus display! As one poster pointed out, you can regrind the tip to get better performance than before the breakage. Geez, if you're going to chuck the knife, RagallachMC, mail it to me! I'll take it!