NulloModo

I started off the day with ambitions of making beef bourguignon, unfortunately, it was not to be. First, I decided that I would toss a cut up onion and some mushrooms that had taken up residence in my freezer into the smoker for a couple hours, figuring a smokey taste would do wonders for anything. Next, I discovered I had no beef, but did have a venison roast still laying around that I could dice up... Finally, I realized I just don't like beef stew or red-wine that much, and thus beef Bourguignon might just be a waste of time... so, I decided I would sub a couple bottles of beer for the wine. So, I figure I can't really call the dish beef Bourguignon anymore, but, I don't really know what to call it. I also have some collard greens and/or sauerkraut I might add. Anyone have ideas for the evolution of this soup?

Speaking of buffets - I went to my favorite indian buffet for lunch today. For only $9 you get your pick of a range of dishes, today there was chicken curry, chicken tandoori (these two are always present), an eggplant curry dish, a spicy chile chicken dish, several soups, several curries I couldn't quite place, a dish featuring indian yogurt cheese, plus several options for rice, naan, and etc. On top of that there is a spread of chutneys, sauces, and pickles. This particular place gets pretty high turnover, so the food isn't left out for too long before needing to be replaced due to dwindling supply, and everything I have had there is fresh and quite tasty. Myself and my dining companion are also usually the only two non-indian people in the restaurant, although it certainly gets its accords, having won 'Best of Delaware - Indian' and 'Best of Delaware - Vegetarian' for the past two years. The real value here, or in any buffet, is that you can tailor exactly what you get to what you want to eat, or what you can eat. Since I don't do carbs, I can't really go out to a sit-down Indian meal and feel I am getting a decent value, as I am always paying for rice and naan I won't be able to eat. Here, I can just pass on these things and dine on things that I can eat, as well as sample a wide variety of dishes.

A somewhat lowbrow, but very effective, trick for great bread of this type is to add a package of pistaschio pudding mix to the batter. Mix it in well, and when you taste the bread the pistaschio taste doesn't come to the front, but it helps retain moisture and it really adds a cool underlying flavor element.

Some people say that breasts have no flavor, but I definately find some flavor there. My favorite use of breasts, though, is in recipes that call for strips or chunks of chicken. In those cases the extra texture of the breast meat just makes it much more enjoyable. Thighs have too much a tendancy to become rubbery or soft in my experience.

Interesting, that sounds pretty tasty. I have a smoker now, thus easy access to BBQ pork, and I have a recipe for a good LC yeast bread, thus the wrapping. I'm in, here comes some LC Bao...

I never understood the hate towards chicken breasts. IMO they have the best texture, and the most inoffensive flavor, of the whole bird. Now, thighs can be nice on occasion, as can drumsticks if one doesn't mind dealing with the odd bits of cartiledge, but the breats, yeah, that is the way to go.

I think that entirely depends on the type of dish. If it is a meatloaf or something similar, then yes, I drain the fat as I can't really find a way to pass it off a gravey... However, browning hamburger for a red sauce, or chili, or goulash, or whatever else, leave the fat in there. It will blend with the rest of the sauce and just make the whole dish much richer and more flavorful.

That sounds exceedingly tasty to me. I am ashamed to admit it, but my only oyster eating experience thus far comes from Hooters. They offer steamed oysters, but also a shooter involving a raw one, beer, and cocktail sauce. It is pretty darn tasty, plus you get to keep a cool shot glass (one can never have too many...) I would most certainly down several of yours as long as they were reasonably priced.

I have no idea why recipes suggest doing that. Perhaps it is a holdover from the big anti-fat eating wave, but I know I certainly never drain fat, well, certainly not all of that fat (occasionally when I have a huge pan full of the stuff I will waste some of it) before continuing to cook. Extra fat never hurts a dish.

I love buffets, but as an occasionaly thing, not an every day way of eating. I am also now much more pickey about which buffets I will frequent. Hometown Buffet or most Chinese Buffets are straight out, the food quality is overall poor, and everything is laden with starch and sugar to bulk it up and cut costs, blech. Now, a good Indian lunch buffet (every local Indian restaurant here does one) now that can be great, I go straight for the tandoori, have some chicken curry, some of of that wonderful curried spinach that is always there, and whatever other vegetables look good. You get great variety, and for someone like me who doesn't know what half the things are called in Indian cuisine, it is a great way to learn, to sample lots of different dishesfor one low price in one afternoon. Also, sushi/sashimi buffets are a great way to go. The local Japanese Hibachi style places do these, and it is just an excellent value, with some hot dishes usually availible on the side as well. A big reason I don't go out for sushi/sashimi more often is because I tend to leave hungry, and with an empty wallet. While the buffet doesn't completely solve the empty wallet problem, it helps it, and I certainly don't leave hungry. Perhaps the most perfect buffets are those in the hotels in Atlantic City though (well, I hear Vegas is good too). Not the cheapo little ones on the boardwalk, but the nice ones such as at the Borgata or Caesars. Now, of course they aren't cheap, but prime rib, fresh roasted bird of some variety, a huge range of salads and vegetables, cheeses, etc, etc, it is what Hometown Buffet would be if price were no option and the people behind the wall knew something about cooking.

Speaking of beans - If you like refried beans, Black Soy Beans are very low in carbs. I buy Eden's Organic brand (find it at Safeway), and these can be refried in some bacon grease, have some cumin and chiles tossed in, and taste very much like refried pinto beans.

If you need to avoid any possibly digestive issues, most Sugar Alcohols are nixed. However, Erythritol has a unique place amongst sugar alcohols as being digested completely differently, and will not/can not induce a laxative effect. As far as other sweeteners to you: blend multiple sweeteners to gain a much more real-sugar taste. Erythritol, Splenda (use liquid splenda if you can get it, it is cheaper in the long run, and has no carby/sugary bulkers), and Ace-K are apparently a good combo, Stevia is also quite good, and can be found in liquid form as well.

Yes, Polydextrose combined with liquid Splenda is far and away a better option than Granular splenda. While Sucralose, the stuff that makes Splenda sweet, is calorie and carb free, the Maltodextrin the granular stuff is suspended in is most certainly not. Not only does it top out at over 20 sugar-carbs per cup of granular Splenda (which is bad for diabetics as well) the stuff dissapears when water hits it, doesn't retain moisture, and won't help your jams be jammy, your brownies gooey, nor your ice-cream rich and creamy and scoopable. Polydextrose, on the other hand, can do all of these things, and does it with virtually no blood sugar impact.

Heh, today I enjoyed my most infamous breakfast: liverwurst, onion, and soy-nut butter sandwich on a flax seed roll (with lots of hot mustard of course).

There are no hard charts yet as far as I know, although Scott123 has put together some basic ratios on another forum, I would copy the post if I could remember which one... A lot of it is through trial and error and experimentation though. You want to use the most inoffensive tasting sweeteners in the greatest quantity, and use those which have known strong aftertastes as only accents, and that way none of the aftertastes get through, and the overall sweetening intensity is increased. Splenda and Ace-K apparently have a great synergy with each other, but some people find Ace-K to have a bitter aftertaste if used in too great of quantity. I like to use a blend of Splenda, Stevia, and Saccharin, but some people say they can still pick up the saccharin aftertaste, although I haven't been able to. Then, you also have certain sweeteners where there is a lot of difference between brands. Some Stevia is absolutely wonderful, some is horrid, but you have to almost find out through trial and error. As far as sugar alcohols go I like Erythritol because it doesn't digest like other SAs do, and has only .2 calories per gram. Xylitol is a more traditional SA, but it is sweeter than sugar, so you don't have to use as much, and it doesn't effect me like Malitol does. If you are making baked goods and subbing out large quantities of sugar, and not using equal quantities of SAs, that is where the Polydextrose comes in. Sugar gives a lot of bulk and texture to baked goods, but granular splenda does not, nor does it retain moisture well, which is why a lot of LC baked goods have that 'mouth drying' quality. The use of Polydextrose to make up for the bulk lost in omitting sugar regains the original texture, and then you use your artificial sweetener blend to make up the sweetness. One small caution with Erythritol: It has a slightly cool mouth-feel if used in quantity by itself, this is why it is good in blends. When I first started using it I made a batch of gingerbread with it, and while the texture and flavor were very good, they had a mouth cooling menthol cough-drop effect as well, which was sort of odd. I could imagine it could come in handy for something like mint desserts though. FoodTutor - The rest of that menu sounds wonderful. I'd love to hear more about that Salmon, could you share a recipe?

Heh, you know, why not? I've got some milk I've got to use up anyway...

Hiya, I just figured I would share the news of a new product out that I have gotten really excited about: Polydextrose. The stuff is 10% as sweet as sugar, but bulks out near the same, and has all of the textural/cooking properties of sugar. It will melt down/carmelize, it will retain moisture in baked goods and add to that chewy mouthfeel. The best part is that it is about 90% dietary fiber, has no negative digestive side-effects (it actually supposedly aids in intestinal function), and has only 1 or 2 grams of carbs per cup. For anyone out there looking to make very high quality low-carb baked goods, ones that taste exactly like the real thing but aren't loaded with sugar, this stuff is a godsend. I figured some of y'all who run bakeries/pastry shops, etc, might be interested in playing around with it if you make, or are planning on making, and LC baked goods as specialty items.

So, I would just end up with soupy yeast flavored water, or would I get something thick and tangy, but not really yogurt?

Well, I generally just use regular cream cheese for cheesecakes, but use a ton of it in ratio to the eggs, and usually a stick of butter in there as well for extra richness. Macadamia nut crusts are good, but some pecans and black walnuts ground up as well give some great extra flavor. I highly encourage you to use something other than just Splenda to sweeten the cake, we have to get the word about sweetener synergy out there ;). If you blend Splenda, Erythritol (or Xylitol, but Erythritol has no SA aftereffects, and is scientifically proven to be almost completely non-digestible), and a little Ace-K (I know Scott123 is fond of using Diabetisweet, which has some Ace-K in it, use this in small amounts) you will get a much tastier product, and it won't have any artificial aftertastes you would have to cover up. I also don't recommend the use of any real sugar in the fruit compotes, but that is just me, I try to keep things as strict as possible when it comes to real sugar usage. You could keep it to low-carb legal fruits, like strawberries (eh, hard to find good ones now) or other berries. Actually, cranberries would probably be really good, you could do stew them with some more of the sweetener blend (a package of sugar-free rasberry jello helps thicken it considerably, but also adds a nice flavor tang, alternatively you could use xantham or guar gum, but I haven't really played with these) and then spread that overtop. I love cranberry/rasberry relish with clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and a little bit of ginger. You could even incorporate a swirl of some of those flavors into the cheesecake batter and have something really over the top. Also, there is a great new LC baking aid on the market: Polydextrose. It has all of the textural properties of real sugar, but it is 90% dietary fiber, and has only trace carbs. It is about 10% as sweet as sugar, so you still need to use other sweeteners, but it is awesome for getting baked goods to be chewy, moist, and have that feel of real sugar goods. EDIT: By the way, what is on the rest of the menu?

I wish I could find this Total Yogurt somewhere, my local TJs doesn't seem to carry it, and I couldn't find anywhere to buy it online. Actually, I can't find yogurt other than plain old every day dannon style yogurt, which I find pretty damn boring. About making your own yogurt: Yogurt starts with a culture, which is bacteria, which eats the sugar and turns it into something else, right? Yeast is also sort of a bacteria that eats sugar and turns it into something else, correct? What would happen if I poured some milk into the crockpot, added a teaspoon of yeast, stirred it all up, and left it on warm all night?

My mother in law prefers the super tiny ones. She sautes them in oil, sugar and soy sauce. She prefers a crispy finish to them. There is another version with kochujang, sugar and if I recall correctly sesame seeds. I've never seen the ketchup version. ← If you use the tiny ones, do you leave the heads and guts in?

Ah, so soup tonight for me. I felt like something light and warm, and didn't really have the ingredients on hand for any recipes that looked interesting, so I improvised: Browned about a quarter of a large onion in some sesame oil, then to the pot added a couple tablespoons of crushed red pepper, a tablespoon or so of fresh grated ginger, some pepper, a tin of anchovies, and can of chicken stock. I let it come to a boil and then swirled in a couple eggs ala egg-drop soup. Overall it was actually very tasty, the soup didn't have a fishy taste, but the anchovies rounded everything else out, and the ginger gave it a great fresh kick.

For an interesting Hash brown (or home-fry) variation: use Radishes instead of potatoes. They take a bit longer to cook, but the taste and texture are spot on, with just a little radish spiceyness hiding below the surface. The red skin also makes for a pretty presentation amongst the browned bits.

So Penzey's, the spice company, is putting out a magazine and wants people to pay for it? I am personally wary of any magazine published by a major player in that industry, I would wonder about objectivity, etc. I'm sure Penzey's is a great company, and I hear the spices are wonderful, but just as I'm not going to read an auto magazine published by Subaru due to the inherent bias it would be stuffed with, I will have to pass on a cooking mag from any food services company.

$5 for a half dozen? OK, I'll definately have to drop by sometime soon, I've had a hankering for Oysters lately anyway.