scott123

A followup - I finally got around to making homemade ketchup. I have actually prepared it 3 times since this thread ended, but the third time I began experimenting with spices. Needless to say I was completely wrong about ketchup not being cooked. After testing both uncooked and cooked ketchup, I can say without a doubt, ketchup is cooked. For this first round of spice testing , I went with three spices. They were allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I mixed a small amount of each with about a teaspoon of ketchup, each in a separate custard cup. I also had a custard cup with heinz ketchup, as well as a cup without my homemade version completely unspiced. I learned some interesting things from the experiment. First of all, everyone's recommendation regarding allspice is right on the money. Between smelling allspice, smelling/tasting the Heinz, as well as my allspiced ketchup and control, I can say with no uncertainty that allspice is in Heinz ketchup. Cinnamon and nutmeg were a little harder to detect. My tastebuds were not as certain as with the allspice. I did notice one interesting phenomenon. Completely unspiced ketchup is no where near as close to Heinz as the ketchup with just a little bit of any of these three spices. Not even close. A transformation seems to occur the moment you add just the smallest amount of spice to homemade ketchup. I eventually used all three, using them in a ratio of 2 parts allspice to 1 part cinnamon to 1 part nutmeg. Although I was ecstatic to see spice's effect on homemade ketchup, I do feel like I have a little more experimentation to match the real deal. My recipe makes great ketchup but it it's still a ways from replicating Heinz.

Preaching to the choir!! My mother did the exact same thing. *shuddering* Nowadays I make my own meatloaf and believe me, those onions get plenty of pre-cooking.

I agree 1000%. I judge the potency of onions by how much they make me cry when I'm cutting them. No tears = little to no flavor when cooked. Sweet onions never make cry. Great raw in salads but not that great when cooked. And for me, personally, there is nothing worse on this planet than a partially cooked onion. Cooked or raw. If they're in between I avoid them like the plague.

For anyone who is still interested, I finally went to the Indian grocer on a quest for long pepper. I found ganthoda. Ganthoda is not long pepper flower. It is indeed shriveled roots. Although it is possible ganthoda might be long pepper roots, it is most definitely not the spice obtained from the dried flower.

I disagree. How about the comfort involved in preparing the food? As much as I enjoy being cooked for, I would never trade in the comfort I receive from smelling onions as they hit sizzling hot fat. As far as my comfort foods are concerned, anything with gravy. Some people chant, others meditate, I eat gravy and it brings me inner peace.

Although I'm very happy with the consistency of my Saag Paneer, the taste of mine isn't "just right" either, at least not when compared to my favorite Indian buffet. I too would enjoy another recipe.

Ice cube trays are great for this. I freeze separate portions of all my Indian "trinity": sauteed garlic, ginger and onions.

Yes, you do. Caramelized are just a fraction of the volume/weight of raw onions. Depending on how much color I'm looking for, my caramelized onions can lose 5/6 or more of their water. If you do them in advance, note how many onions you use and then split up the final outcome accordingly. One thing about sauteing large batches of onions. The pan size/volume of onions makes a huge difference when caramelizing onions. Wide pans with very shallow volumes of onions require either copious amounts of ghee/oil or low temperatures to caramelize well, whereas narrower pans with deeper volumes of onions require much higher temps due to the lack of evaporation. If you do want to saute them in advance, I'd recommend no deeper than about 2" of onions in the pan. If necessary saute them in batches.

I'm not a huge fan of Big Macs, but my life pretty much revolves around the Indian Restaurant lunch buffet. It is a lifetime quest for me to faithfully replicate each of my favorite buffet dishes. I have a long way to go. As far as onions are concerned, I caramelize onions (and lots of them) for almost every dish that I make regardless of the nationality involved. Someone in this forum mentioned their love for onions stemming from their Punjabi heritage. If this is true, then I must have been Punjab in a previous incarnation. I could just bath in onions, I love them so. Caramelizing onions well took me quite a few years to master. One suggestion I'd offer you is to use plenty of ghee/oil. The more fat you use, the easier onions are to caramelize. Also, use your ears. Your ears will tell you the difference between a simmering/steaming onion (not enough heat), a burning onion (too much) and a gentle sizzle suitable for proper caramelization. At the right temperature your onions will sing a sweet little song. At the wrong temperature they will be like fingers on a chalkboard. Listening is much more reliable than a set temperature. Because onions are of varying ages, they tend to contain different levels of moisture. The heat required to sizzle a moist onion will burn a dry one, while the heat necessary for a dry one will steam an onion that is moist. And as far as spices are concerned, I am definitely a beginner in that area, but I have noticed one thing. Nothing is written in stone. I love roasting my cumin but something like pepper, I prefer raw. Spices are highly individual. Taste them at every stage. If you prefer them a certain way, by all means, prepare them accordingly.

I've been using a hand blender on my cooked spinach to get my desired consistency for saag paneer. It's not completely pureed but at the same time, it's also not too clumpy either. Using the right amount of water to cook your spinach is very important. Too little and it might burn and too much will require longer cooking for evaporation, potentially overcooking your spinach.

I don't know what your budget is, but if you run into permission problems, money can be vastly helpful in lubricating the wheels.

Shortening is trans fatty acids. Although Atkins has been publicizing the dangers of trans fatty acids for quite some time, it has only been in the last year or two that the rest of the nutritional world has chimed in. Hydrogenated oil is bad news.

Yowza! I like both of those concepts! Anything to reduce that horrible aftertaste! Thanks for the info......and just to clarify, acesulfame K is Nutra-Sweet, right? And I'm also going to try that Whey-Low stuff......thanks for the tip on that! Annie Nutrasweet is aspartame. Acesulfame K is sold under the brand name Sunnett. Nutrasweet and splenda may have a synergy, although nutrasweet is not all that popular with the low carbing crowd.

Annie, artificial sweeteners that synergize when combined are a huge aspect of low carb prepared foods. The commercial entities are monopolizing on this phenomenon and home chefs are beginning to become aware of it. Basically, the way synergy works is this: 1 cup sugar = 1 cup powdered splenda = 1 cup acesulfame K When you combine the artificial sweeteners, the amounts needed to create the same sweetness drop by one half. 1/4 C. splenda + 1/4 C. acesulfame K = 1 cup sugar Less of both sweeteners = less aftertaste/lower cost That 200% increase in sweetness is only hearsay. There is a substantial gain from combining, though, whatever that may be. One almost requires a degree in rocket science to create good low carb baked goods. This is still very unexplored territory. BTW, low carb baking involves no sugar but high fat, not low sugar low fat. You just want to stay away from shortening.

Kevin, the moment you are anyone else proves to me the partial digestion claims of whey low, I'm buying some. Not the glycemic impact, mind you. That I can believe. But the caloric/ketogenic impact, that's what I'd like to see some good solid research on.

I have heard a few references to the synergistic effect achieved when different sweeteners are combined. I know it occurs when you combine splenda with acesulfame K but I was wondering which other combinations do this as well. Splenda with stevia? Stevia with acesulfame K? Stevia with polyols? Splenda with polyols? Acesulfame K with polyols? Also, besides knowing whether or not synergism occurs, I'm also interested as to how much additional sweetness is generated.

Expensive sushi restaurants don't have a corner on the fresh fish market. I've had not so fresh fish at expensive places and pristine fish at cheap ones. The freshness of the fish depends more on the restaurant than on the price.

My local grocer just started carrying blocks of khoya. Store bought khoya/paneer won't be quite as easy as a mix, but I think the end result might be superior. Now making these things low carb, that's a whole different ball game. The syrup should be easy but the flour? And the khoya? Yikes!

That parsippany shop rite butcher is one of the worst supermarket butchers out there. The chickens are absolutely hideous. If you do any of your meat shopping at a supermarket, I highly recommend hopping on to 80 and driving the 10 minutes or so to shop rite of Wharton. It's still a supermarket butcher but the meat is noticeably better than Parsippany. Don't go anywhere NEAR morris plains shop rite, btw. Morristown has a German butcher on 202, right off the green. This place is as authentic as you can get. The last time I was in there it didn't strike me as terribly clean, but the hunter sausage I bought was divine. I will also second Whole Foods in Madison. Quite a bit pricier than shop rite, but fairly comparable to most butchers. I bought some boneless skinless thighs there about a week ago. Small (young), clean, fresh, and superbly trimmed. If I could afford it, Whole Foods would be my only source for meat. Anyone know how clean Esposito's is? I've driven past that past probably a thousand times but the exterior made me think it was kind of a dive. It can't be spotless inside, can it?

Does anyone find tofu and paneer the least bit similar?

Thanks!

I saw a sign on route 10 advertising an all you can eat sushi place a few weeks ago but for the life of me, I can't remember the name. Does anyone know where this might be?

I too dislike the taste of licorice and was thoroughly revolted by the Stevia I've tasted. I have heard reports, though, of Stevia sweeteners that don't have this taste. I just took a look at WheyLow.com. If one is a diabetic monitoring blood sugar impact, this may be a suitable product. But from a ketogenic perspective, I'm more than a little skeptical. Fructose, sucrose, and lactose? And it should also be noted that sugar alcohols like maltitol are known to have certain adverse effects for part of the population such as digestive distress, blood sugar elevation, caloric impact, and stalled ketosis.

I'm not entirely impressed with the taste of splenda by itself. And I'm especially displeased with it when I add it to unsweetened chocolate. I find splenda tastes a lot better when used in conjunction with another sweetener like a sugar alcohol or acesulfame k (or both). Combining also produces a synergistic effect, requiring substantially less of both sweeteners to create the desired effect. Splenda doesn't affect freezing temperatures, so it won't create as soft a kulfi as sugar will. I'm planning on making a kulfi with a sugar alcohol (sorbitol perhaps) and splenda.

Thanks, those are some great ideas.