scott123

Those solids are veggie particles and emulsified fat. Take a carrot, put it in a blender and then add it to a gallon of water- the visual effect will be the same. A rising cloud. Instead of blending the carrots, you cooked them to the same pulverized state.

Same here. I'm guessing that with the 3 C. of sugar this is an incredibly moist cake but with 1 1/2 it's probably dry in comparison. Sugar's humectant properties are almost impossible to recreate with common ingredients. Tweaking the eggs, the oil, the flour- none of those will compensate texturally for the missing sugar. It'll take some trial and error, but with the correct baking temp/time, you should be able to achieve somewhat similar results. If you want to guarantee an incredibly moist cake, then I'd turn to specialty ingredients such as polydextrose or inulin. Polyd/inulin give you the texture of sugar without the sweetness.

How much sugar are you attempting to lose? I think you could lose a cup of sugar and still have a moist cake. Just bake it for a shorter time.

Trader Joe's low sodium tamari has been my soy sauce of choice for a while now. For tamari, it seemed like a good deal. Lately, I've been considering whether or not I can get something better/cheaper at an Asian Grocer. Stench aside, my grocer of choice is Top Quality in Parsippany (formerly Maxim's). What do you guys think? Any particular brands to look for? I'm not looking for top of the line, just a good everyday soy sauce. I'm also definitely NOT married to the low sodium concept (that's all TJs sells).

I'll second the Taurino. Best body for the buck.

Chris, I'd give these guys a call. Dharma trading are pretty crunchy folks. I'd be really surprised if the alginate wasn't food grade. You could also contact an alginate manufacturer and see if you can get a sample. I've done that with a few retail scarce ingredients. It helps if you give them the impression that you're considering their ingredient for a commercial application. This stuff is definitely on my shopping list. Sounds like fun. I found carageenan (irish moss) at a local brewery supplier and look forward to experimenting with that as well. I'm guessing that since they're both seaweed extracts, they must be similar.

Wow, some great ideas, thanks!

Thanks!

I have to confess to accidently purchasing trader joes low sodium soy sauce and the reduction was an attempt to squeeze some flavor out of it. When I start working with a non low sodium sauce again, I'm sure this will be less of an issue. Thanks for all your help. Thanks, I think I'm going to utilize this process for my teriyaki.

It's all about the veggies. If you'll pardon the pun, carrots are the root of your problem, and, to a small extent, the onions. Heat + time = vegetable disintegration The issue back in November was high heat. A rolling boil for 12 hours will annihilate a carrot. Even though you were nowhere near that temp on this occasion, the extended time had the same result. By breaking down the veggies to this extent, you create particulate matter, which, in turn, settles on the bottom of the refrigerated stock and creates cloudiness. That's part of the problem. The other part stems from: Dissolved starch + water + fat = emulsification These dissolved veggies, specifically the starch containing carrot, are emulsifying some of the fat. This emulsified fat is lending additional cloudiness to the refrigerated stock. This all being said, I'm not that certain regarding the consequentiality of the 'problem.' In fact, it may not even be a problem at all, depending on what you are using the stock for. I, personally, am not hung up on aesthetics. I don't serve consommé to my clientele nor do I require crystal clear stock for any other dish. Emulsified fat is also not a big no no for me, as almost all my applications involve some form of emulsification anyway. That's just me, though. If fat free crystal clear stock is your goal, then I'd either nix the veggies or add them quite a bit later in the cooking process.

Nine or more types of sugar, wow! Thank you, that's very helpful and informative.

I'm a big guy and I like big beverages. When I go shopping for glasses, I usually end up buying flower vases. Seriously. 32 oz. is about the ideal size for me. I've scoured walmart, target, ikea, bed bath and beyond, crate & barrel, supermarkets, dollar stores- all to no avail. I've been calling florists. They might be able to special order me something but it would be in the $10 realm. Ideally I'd like to spend less than $5 per glass. I like simple. Cylindrical/straight up and down. The last glasses I had were 6" tall and with a 3" diameter. A 1000ml beaker without much of a flare would be great. Finding a local laboratory supplier that sells retail in small quantities has proven to be tricky, though. Anyone else like big glasses? And, if so, where do you buy them?

From what I can tell, all mirin, regardless of the level of quality, is sweet, with the sweetness coming from either rice or added sugar. Is that correct? Is there a way of approximating the taste of mirin with other ingredients? For health reasons, I can't have anything with sugar, either cane sugar or naturally occuring sugars. When I make my teriyaki, I use artifical sweeteners for the sugar component and they work wonderfully, but I feel like I might be missing something by omitting the mirin.

What is the impact of heat on soy sauce? Does it alter it significantly? If one were to reduce, say, a cup of soy sauce to 1/4 C. and then add 3/4 C. water, would the taste be the same as the unreduced version? I've been developing a teriyaki sauce for a few months now. I like the taste of the sake, but I don't like the alcoholic bite so I cook the sauce before glazing my meat. As I reduce it, I'm perceiving an overcooked flavor to it. I was reducing the entire sauce (soy sauce/sake/sugar) but since sugar raises the boiling point, I decided to add sugar after reducing. Again, overcooked taste. Soy sauce is brewed, so I'm guessing it should be fairly stable when boiled, right? Could reducing the sake be giving me off flavors? The best way to describe the taste I'm getting is 'dark.' Not stronger tasting, but darker tasting. As if maillard compounds were being formed in the reduction process.

I'm looking for canned peeled tomatoes without basil. I've found brands that didn't list basil on the ingredients only to find basil leaves when I opened the can.

I'm not sure what their distribution area is, but Cento makes an unreconstituted puree as well. I've been buying Cento (and Parmalat) almost exclusively, but of late, I've been giving some thought to the reconstituted stuff. Although the reconstituted stuff lists tomato paste in the ingredients, can anyone confirm that it's the exact same tomato paste sold in the smaller cans? My feeling is that the smaller canned tomato paste is always quite a few shades darker (i.e. cooked more) than any brand of puree, reconstituted or not.

When I worked at Whole Foods, we had a major fruit fly infestation. The traps (either home made or commercial) will only get you so far. The not so secret approach to all bug infestations is to remove all potential sources for food. Clean like you've never cleaned before. Your wine may have sticky residue on the bottle (cleanable) or the flies could be attracted to the porous cork (uncleanable). If it is the cork that's attracting them, I'm not sure what to do. You might want to take your wine outside. It's tricky, temperatures close to freezing will kill these buggers but at the same time, you don't want to freeze your wine. You might want to look into diatomaceous earth. DE is a non toxic powder that can be used in the vicinity of food to kill insects.

How long has the coconut milk been there for? I don't know if this the packaging conditions or the ingredients, but canned coconut milk doesn't seem to have the shelf life of other canned goods. I have yet to open a can of year plus old coconut milk and have it not be brown/off.

Cocoa has more caffeine than chocolate.

The same thing happened to me the last time I bought cocoa butter. Since the store was so far away I ended up throwing it out.

OOh, the yellow lentils- I love those. Those are really easy to make, just spiced butter, garlic, anaheim pepper and fresh ginger. The restaurant I go to calls them yemesir alecha. From reactions I get from people that I go with, it seems like yemesir wat is the favorite. The chickpea paste, at least for first timers, seems to not go over too well. I love the stuff, though. The only traditionally veg. dish I don't like is the green cold one with lots of raw peppers (green or chili, I'm not sure). I go wild for the cabbage and carrots. I'm not big on green beans, but the way they do them I like.

$110!?! Wow!!!! From the outside, Saigon House appears like it would be a LOT more competitively priced than that. At least that was my first impression. And lunch prices are the same as dinner?!?! If this place was in Montclair, Madison, Summit or Morristown, sure, that kind of pricing would be appropriate. But a rinky dink strip mall on route 10?

Sorry, I think you might have misunderstood me. Indian restaurants use curry bases of their own making. There isn't a huge restaurant supplier where these restaurants go and buy base from. Each restaurant makes it's own base sauce, in bulk quantities and uses that for the vast majority of it's dishes. Every restaurant has it's own base sauce. I love this style of cooking. With a well structured/well thought out core sauce and careful augmentation for each additional dish, this practice not only produces phenomenal food but it keeps labor costs to a minimum. Some may see it as cutting corners but I view it as innovation. By using a base sauce you don't get an extreme level of uniqueness as if every dish were made from scratch, but for that kind of labor, you're talking about a different kind of restaurant at a very different price.

Yes, many restaurants do, indeed, utilize a gravy base for their curries, but no, they definitely don't refrigerate it for a couple of weeks. A couple of days perhaps, maybe 5 at the most, but not weeks. In theory the gravy base could be frozen, but with the quantity of base restaurants go through and the turnover involved, I don't think they take this route. A soup such as this, regardless of the moisture content will be growing mold in two weeks. As long as water is still present in this base, it will have a limited shelf life. There are a few mitigating factors such as salt content, chili content and the use of particular spices (such as cloves), but utilizing additional oil and evaporating as much as water as possible will do little to prolong the life of this gravy. As long as there is water in it, there will be a conducive environment for bacteria growth. My experience with both American and UK Indian restaurant cuisine is that the utilization of the tandoor for cooking meat is ubiqitous. Roasted in the tandoor and then sauced/simmered.

I don't consider saffron a luxury ingredient. For me, it's an expensive necessity. Like you, I wouldn't think of making arroz con pollo without it. When I think of arroz con pollo, though, I don't think about how much I like the saffron in it. Everything plays a role. The onions, the garlic, the chicken, the peppers, the stock, the rice- each is a facet. Saffron is just one of many essential contributors. Take away one, any one, and it ceases to be arroz con pollo. I find this to be true for many of the environments where it's found- essential, but certainly not the crowning glory. Saffron is a team player ingredient at a star price. It's a workhorse, not a prima donna.