scott123

Identification for spearmint (mentha spicata) Identification for peppermint (mentha piperita)

Spearmint (mentha spicata) courtesy of the Digital Flora of Texas Vascular Plant Image Library

If you're in a hurry to work with cold dough, I've noticed that you can speed up the warming time by gently flattening the dough as far as it will comfortably spread every 15 minutes or so. I say gently because very cold dough is less extensible and has a greater tendency for the gluten to tear. The increased surface area (a flat disk rather than a round ball) will shorten your warming time substantially.

I agree. Adding yeast to retarded dough is a bit sketchy, but I do agree with her when she states that yeast loses some of it's punch in doughs retarded overnight. I've noticed that as well in my own breads/pizza crusts. And I am by no way dissing Reinhart. I use a few of his bread recipes religiously. It's just that if one were to aspire to replicate John's pizza, Reinhart would be the last recipe to follow.

I concur. I'd venture to say that's what your pizzeria was doing with the semolina. Unless their crust had a slightly yellow hue, I would say the semolina was being used on the peel and not in the dough.

I have the utmost respect for Peter Reinhart when it comes to bread. When it comes to pizzas or bagels, though, he is not in a New York state of mind. There may be a handful of exceptions, but typical NY Vulcan Pizza is: 1. A relatively lean if not completely lean dough. 2. Made from high protein bread flour. I'll bet my life on it. The overnight thing is excellent for developing a more flavorful dough but a two hour dough made with the right flour is just as manageable/stretchable/throwable as a 24 hour dough. Unless Shirley Corriher is talking out of her ass, yeast loses a portion of it's leavening punch during long (overnight) refrigeration, so more yeast is need for overnight doughs, not less. She actually recommends kneading in fresh yeast the following day.

I'm a big fan of experimentation. I also tend to lean towards increasingly complex ingredients and procedures. In this case, though, if a John's (Bleeker) crust is what you are striving for, it doesn't have to be that complicated. Good quality high protein bread flour is all you need (13%). Adding gluten to durum flour will approximate bread flour, but, because of the extra processing to extract the gluten, the taste will be impaired. Sear that feeling of unmanageability into your memory. When you start working with bread flour, that memory will return and the hallejuh chorus will erupt. At least that's what happened to me when I started using the right flour. It's good to see your pizza journey continues unabated :) I'm still on sabbatical for a few more weeks.

I'd be careful there, Rob. In any other forum, anti-goat comments might not cause a lot of waves. But not between these hallowed cyberwalls. Goat is highly revered in these parts. And welcome to the forum.

One huge dietery distinction immediately springs to mind. Coconut. According to this article: Neither Pakistinis nor Bengalis are eating anywhere near 90 coconuts a year.

As far as the chicken naming inconsistency, I've seen menus listing both murgh makhani and fenugreek chicken as well. I think this stems less from ignorance and more from a desire to portray a greater variety of food. I'm curious, are you equating chicken methi with chicken saag? Although I have seen variations of both dishes that share common traits, I do think there are subtle differences between the two. The dryness of the chicken methi is one thing that comes to mind. The proportion of ingredients is another.

I've been to Saffron once for the lunch buffet. The decor is very impressive - especially the marble floors and the intricate tile work. I was initially going to say that being a buffet, service was not that much of an issue, but upon further reflection, I do recall a problem receiving our bread. We placed our special request for "no butter/oil" naan with the manager when we walked in the door. 20 minutes later, no naan. Only after reminding the manager that we had yet to receive our bread did any arrive. Beyond that, the staff seemed somewhat pretentious to me, at least when compared to the average smiling staff of the many buffets I frequent. The air was not of suburban NJ but of NYC. The food, except for one barely inedible dish, was superb. Best chana masala I've ever had - a subtlety of flavoring that you generally don't find in buffet food. Great bread. Excellent dal. Good saag (another rarity). The only glitch was the chicken. It tasted like someone dumped a whole container of black pepper in it by accident. Although it was barely edible, I did notice one thing about it. The quality of the chicken was top notch - again something you don't find in your average buffet. My biggest fault that I can find with the restaurant is that the buffet closes down very early - 2ish. Compared to the 2:30/3:00 of other places in the county. Regardless of the pretentious atmosphere, forgotten bread, black pepper accident, and inconvenient hours, the food, for me, is all that really matters. The food showed enough promise to warrant a second try. I will be returning soon.

I've successfully sanded down the surface of a 12" frying pan. It took some elbow grease but I was able to get a nice smooth finish.

That sounds like a good way of doing it. No burnt oil stench that occurs with most seasoning procedures. I take a similar tack with my electric oven - 200 degrees for 24 hours.

Time devoted to mastering one of the top three lipids on the planet (along with pork and duck fat) could never be misspent.

I've been checking ingredients on my favorite halvahs for a few years now - not one ever had flour in them. It is quite possible that different middle eastern cultures make halvah differently. The recipe I'm looking for has no flour. Thanks, though.

As far as cake recipes go, that recipe is surprisingly tweakable for reducing carbs. The sugar needs to (obviously) become splenda The semisweet cholate needs to become unsweetened chocolate and splenda The 3/4 cup of flour could probably be broken down into something like: 1/2 C. almond flour (to add to to the other 1/3 C.) 1/4 C. cream cheese Vital wheat gluten (or WPI) might be a good substition for part of the flour and/or whey protein. Some people substitute soy flour for regular flour but from what I hear, it's an acquired taste.

I've scoured all the old threads and couldn't find any recipes for halvah except for some conjecture that halvah is sesame paste (tahini) mixed with honey. I've tried this and it doesn't match the block halvah that I'm seeking to replicate. I did a search on the web and was able to find one recipe that might fit the bill. Before I attempt to make this, I am requesting your input and/or alternative recipes.

May I suggest a fight scene with one of the bandits getting wacked with a karhai and the other going head first into the tandoor? For some reason I'm also picturing someone's mouth getting stuff with naan and then getting blinded with crushed chilis.

It's funny, although I've always shopped for spices/paneer at my Indian grocer, I've never bought much produce there. In the last couple of weeks this has changed dramatically. I don't own a digital camera (yet) but the cauliflower I bought was a work of art and a third of the price I pay at my supermarket. The onions they carry are a little bit small, but the garlic and ginger are excellent, and, like the cauliflower a fraction of the cost. Lemons and limes are also a huge bargain. Would you post your okra recipe?

That's a wonderful idea. I think Tampopo style could be applied to a myriad number of cultures. An Ethiopian Tampopo An Alaskan Tampopo An Italian Tampopo A Morrocan Tampopo An Argentinian Tampopo Just about any nationality of cuisine (or subnationality) would make a great Tampopo. One could even combine cultures and make Tampopo fusion. Wouldn't that be delicious?

I stand corrected. Although I can't recall her gastronomic exploits in Ocean's Eleven, you've jogged a memory of some pigging out she did in Pretty Woman. Oh well... back to the drawing board! :)

FWIW, the DVD of Bend It Like Beckham has a bonus segment of the director making aloo gobi under the supervision of her mother and aunt. It couldn't be funnier if it had been written. That segment, for me, was more entertaining than the film. I have such a huge crush on Gurinder Chadha :) I downloaded the recipe a while back but can't seem to relocate the original link. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know.

When it comes to the portrayal of food in film, Bollywood's aversion is not that dissimilar to Hollywood's. Does Hollywood's audience have any issues with putting food on the table? I think it has less to do with the financial situation of the audience and more with a larger than life image these studios are perpetuating. The activities of preparing food, eating and sleeping are just too mundane for popular cinema. Have you ever seen Julia Roberts eat on film? Denzel Washington? Brad Pitt? Aamir Khan? I haven't. Movie stars don't eat. Not publicly at least. It's an archetypal anima/animus thing.

Ship Inn has a nice ambience, okay food, but if you're going, go for the beer. Top notch English bitter - yes, it's way too fizzy/cold but it's the best I've had this side of the Atlantic. And it's only 4 times the price of a real English pub :) Make sure you get good directions. You don't want to get lost in that area. There's not a lot of landmarks to go by and it's very easy to go around in circles (I know). If they have it, order "Cromwell's Revenge."

I think that's the best looking okra I've ever seen. Which reminds me, it's time to make some gumbo. I have to admit that I know little about unripe mangos. Besides chutneys what are they used for? What does one look for when choosing an unripe mango?