andiesenji

I got some fresh chickpea flour today (posted in Middle East Groceries) and am going to try a batch. I also got a can of Hommos Tahina - I've never tried this and am interested in both the texture and the flavor. It's a big can so I will wait till I have guests to open it.

Thanks, Andie. I'll give it a try. Although I need to sub buttermilk because it's not available around here. Maybe I can use the fermented milk, north African style which is, instead, readily available. Just mix some lemon juice or vinegar into regular milk and allow it to set at room temp for 30 minutes.

I can make very smooth and creamy hummus from either canned or soaked and cooked chickpeas in my Thermomix, or in small batches (not more than 2 cups) in my VitaMix, but never had much success in a food processor or regular blender. Once burnt out an Oster blender making sesame paste.

Here's a recipe adapted from a package of Bob's Red Mill Garbanzo bean flour. Hummus from garbanzo flour I just made a small batch using this formula except I did not use the chicken broth or Tabasco sauce. I mixed a little olive oil in while cooking, maybe two tablespoons, and topped it with argan oil, zaatar and a few pinches of Aleppo pepper when finished. Very tasty and very creamy. The only textured "bits" in it are tiny shreds of garlic as I didn't mash it into a smooth paste.

I personally know of three different restaurants (one Israeli, two are Greek) who make hummus with chickpea flour. This is the smoothest I have ever experienced and I suspect that some other restaurants use the same technique. I know the ingredients are mixed together and cooked for a few minutes to get rid of the "raw" taste of the flour but have no idea of the amounts as it is made in large batches, several times a day.

I've tried a couple of similar products. This one didn't work - liquid got under the inner edge and spilled out and the thing would not work at all on pans with a rolled or flared edge. This one fell off the first time I used it so went straight into the trash. The Silpoura looks like it has an extra clip thingy to keep it firmly attached to a pot. Worth a try, thanks for posting the link. I do love gadgets...

I can't eat fish from the ocean because of an allergy. I do have a fair amount of fresh water fish, mostly trout - a friend's brother owns a fish farm and she brings me a lot of lovely fish, much larger than the usual "farmed" fish. These are not raised for direct sale but are bred to produce fish that are restocked into streams and lakes for sport fishing. The last I got a few days ago were steelhead but I have gotten different species but usually rainbow or steelhead. A close second would be catfish. Being a Kentucky native, I consumed a lot of catfish when I was young and I don't think anyone ever gets over a preference for this meaty fish.

Whatever the liquid specified in a recipe, I substitute buttermilk (usually a couple of tablespoons more than in the recipe if it is regular milk. I melt the butter and mix it with the buttermilk - add a egg, combine these and they will instantly "thicken" to the consistency of soft pudding. Then I add the dry ingredients, which I have already mixed together, mix just enough so they come together, (I use a Danish dough hook which works beautifully) Turn the mass out onto a floured board, using a dough scraper, turn it onto itself a few times, shape into a round, pat to about an inch thick and cut into 8 triangles. Bake at 400° F., for about 18-20 minutes. Less if they are a bit thinner. That's it. I don't know why this works, but it does. It's less "fiddly" than cutting the fat into the dry ingredients and one doesn't need a food processor or pastry cutter for that matter.

This morning my daughter mentioned (on Facebook) that she was baking a coffee cake. This prompted me to work up a batch of oatmeal cranberry scones - recipe loosely based on a recipe broadcast on one of America's Test Kitchen (or Cook's Country) programs. As I use the "lazy" way of incorporating the butter, the process is different. And I added the dish of homemade clotted cream, just to give it a bit of "finish." The scones are very tender and light.

Before I had a food processor I used a potato masher with good luck. I used the kind where the business end is a plastic plate with circular holes in it. Not as easy as the food processor, but not that bad. I wonder if a potato ricer or food mill would work. The food mill works fine for the chickpeas but you need something else for the sesame seeds if starting with whole ones. If using tahina/tahini, it will work just fine.

I agree with the others. I think your ciabatta is beautiful. Wish mine turned out as nice on a regular basis.

Yep. Mortar and pestle. It is a lot of work and you need a fairly non-porous mortar. I used to use one of the large Mason Cash mortars (until I broke it). However I used food processors for many years, now use the Thermomix. This site shows using a potato masher.

The Native Americans made a tea from cedar berries, used in small quantities to relieve coughs and the symptoms of what is now known to be "cedar fever" an allergic reaction to cedar pollen, and stomach pains, muscle aches, etc. The berries are usually picked in midsummer and dried for a few months before use. There used to be a small home-based business in Lee Vining, CA that gathered wild juniper and cedar berries and processed them for use by hobby candle makers and soap makers - I haven't seen the people for several years and their phone is no longer in service. I thought I could get more info for you from them. He was a retired prof. of botany and his wife a Native American. All berries from these plants are mildly toxic in large quantities - gastrointestinal cramps and etc., but they have been used for centuries with no problems. They are a pretty good substitute for juniper berries but have less flavor than the ones gathered from Juniperus communis - range map here with a list of uses and helpful info.

Ch. 9 yesterday afternoon had a segment on it that stated Safeway/Vons and Costco were cancelling it and Ralphs was "considering" it.

Didn't get to the market today because a friend dropped in to show me some clothes she designed and make. I made a batch of hummus for a late lunch for me and a snack for her. We both like garlic so I added sufficient that neither of us need to worry about being attacked by vampires any time soon. I dressed it with argan oil - bottle in first photo - very nice flavor, buttery, a bit of a change from olive oil. with the flatbread.

There was no leftover salad. I grilled some trout and steamed some fingerling potatoes which were just tossed with butter, salt and pepper (a little of the Aleppo pepper too). I forgot to get the olives out but no matter, they weren't missed and will certainly be eaten soon. Patrick, I love tagines too. I also purchased packages of "sausage spices" and "kibbeh spices" that I have found are lovely for flavoring tagines with chicken, duck or turkey. The latter is a mixture of pepper, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, nutmeg and rose. I know I could mix the spices myself but this mixture just seems to be perfectly balanced, especially for poultry. To be honest, I usually buy guinea fowl at the Mexican market for tagines because the meat has much more flavor and does not lose texture with prolonged cooking. The Seville oranges I put up in salt (like preserved lemons) should be done in a couple of days and I'll be preparing a tagine using them. I've got to make another run to the ME market because they had some lovely little globe-shaped eggplants, stripey white and lavender with a bit of green and some orange and green "Turkish" eggplants and I want to make an eggplant pie. I thought I was going to be away this weekend so didn't buy them, but now I don't have to drive up north, so will be cooking.

So far I made a version of fattoush - already tossed the salad first with some of the za'atar (with a smidge of Aleppo pepper, then with part of the dressing, made with oil, garlic, lemon juice, sumac, salt, and now it's ready to add the toasted pita and some crumbled cheese. It's red because of the sumac. Bread and cheese applied. Not pretty but my guest assures me it tastes great. I'm serving it on romaine leaves.

Quote from a Maxine comic: "I get my glow from a bottle. It says Zinfandel!"

Here's an interesting article from Mother Jones. It seems that not only is this whiskey producer not polluting the environment, the waste products may eventually (if everything works out) be turned into biofuel thus lessening the possibility of harm to the Earth. One no longer has to worry that a modest amount of drinking (of this particular product) will have a serious impact on the planet. (Not that anyone who has a few drinks thinks about that anyway...)

I began using Aleppo pepper back in the mid-1980s when I lived across the street from a "blended" family from Cyprus/Turkey, and it was very difficult to find, I would go on shopping excursions with them to stores in ethnic enclaves. I was given a few recipes and taught how to make a version of mahammara in which to dip pita or crudites, or ??? they made soft pretzels for dipping. I explored more recipes when I got Paula Wolfert's book about Eastern Mediterranean foods (1994). It's not as hot as the common crushed red pepper flakes and the seeds are removed before the treated and dried peppers are ground - it tastes a little bit salty/sweet, with a hint of smoke and if you use enough, there is a lemony aftertaste - I think lemon juice is used in the curing with salt. But I'm not totally sure. I decided to stock up because of the problems in Syria, which much of it is produced, although this is sourced from Turkey - the shop owner believes prices are going to go up soon on it and other commodities from that area. It can be used any where you would use red pepper flakes, if you like eggplant, you will not believe what a little of this pepper, cooked briefly in oil, can do to it. Better than candy. (I love eggplant.) It's wonderful on cheese, in omelets or just on eggs, mix with oil and rub all over chicken pieces before cooking in the oven, use less salt, because this is just a bit salty. It also does wonders for bean, both fresh green and dried - or any pulse. Perhaps it's not correct in that part of the world, but I like it on pork - in pork gravy, made after frying pork chops. It is also a great spice for homemade sausage. P.S. I wondered why the light on my camera was blinking and just realized I had not downloaded the other photo - of some olives and a package of "Sweet Cheese" - the latter made in Sun Valley, CA by the Karoun Dairy. The owner insisted on giving me samples of all the olives - 8 or 9 bulk varieties and suggested I would really enjoy these. They are huge and very tasty, not too briny as some of the others were. Lots of good flavor.

Earlier today I made a run to the Middle Eastern store here in Lancaster to pick up some needed supplies. Here's a photo of some of the goodies. The cucumbers are "Israeli" cucumbers and I think they are very similar to the ones Hassouni pictured in his blog photos. There is also Feta cheese(Greek) and Haloumi cheese, za'atar, Aleppo pepper andd ground caraway in the photo. (I bought a few other things but nothing special among them. I have some lovely hothouse romaine, grown by a friend who has a huge greenhouse and is currently "drowning" in green stuff - I am happy to take it off his hands. (He has to clear out some room for more seedlings for veggie plants.) Now I'm going to comb through my recipes and see what I can do with these things. (The za'atar is Jordanian as they were sold out of the Lebanese. They had Syrian but I was told this one was closer to the Lebanese recipe and suggested I add some additional thyme.)

The big steel comals that the local tortirillas use are scraped and scrubbed with a pumice griddle/grill stone so they look very slick and polished, not just shiny from the very thin layer of oil which is laid on with a cloth.

Freeze the duck fat and grind it in with the meat and seasonings and immediately chill portions as you work on more. Keep it chilled until ready to stuff it. You should test it part way through by frying a patty so you can adjust the seasonings before getting through all the meat. I often make duck sausage using duck fat with this process.

Yeah, I have one - if it's a gadget, I usually have at least one. I've used it a few times and it works okay but can be a bid "fiddly." Note on the box I have written - 6 1/2 min. @ 1000 watts for Jumbo eggs. That is 4 eggs.

Nice kitchen. Nice garden - it looks like you are not allowing enough room for the rosemary - it can triple in size in a single season unless you keep it severely pruned. Love the polenta fritters - and everything else.