andiesenji

Is the recipe floating around eG somewhere? And what's the first picture? It looks like it's rolled in a bit of coconut. Both the first picture and what I assume are the pistachio balls remind me of one of my favourite (but a little difficult to find) Japanese snacks. The Japanese snacks are made from roasted soybean flour, so I think I'd like yours even more! ← I don't use a specific recipe. They are very simple to make - as long as you have a meat grinder, either hand-cranked or electric. The first one is dried apricots, raw almonds and coconut (unsweetened shredded) put through the grinder then kneaded, shaped into balls and rolled in macaroon coconut (also unsweetened). The ones with the pistachios contain dried apples, apricots - I think I also threw in a few peaches, the candied ginger and raw pistachios. It also is kneaded and shaped into balls and rolled in finely crushed pistachios with a little sugar. I also make them with dried figs with walnuts and coconut. Any combination of dried fruits and nuts works. I can't give you exact amounts because it varies, depending on how much moisture is retained in the fruits - how sticky the mix - add more nuts if it is too sticky. It doesn't take long to develop a "feel" for the correct ratio. When I use dates, raisins or really sticky figs, I roll the balls in a mix of toasted sunflower and sesame seeds as these are much tackier. The combinations are endless and you can sandwich smaller portions between walnut or pecan halves and dip them (or any of the others) in chocolate.

I'm happy they are being enjoyed. In cooler weather, as around the holidays, they can be dipped in chocolate! I can't have chocolate but I have friends who enjoy it. My version of the "energy bar" in bite-size portions.

Stunning!

Lovely photos guys. Makes me hungry (sic) for more!

I have this bookEat Tea that I bought several years ago when first published. Also this book Tea Cuisine that I bought last year around Easter. I have prepared dishes from both and find them equally useful for ideas, not always using the recipes exactly as written but using tea in similar recipes with usually excellent results. One of the tea books I have has a lovely recipe for jellies made with tea - very pretty as well as very tasty. Also one has a recipe for Chai tea ice cream that is excellent. I have noted on other threads that I often use lapsang souchong to impart a smoky flavor to various foods. It gives a more subtle flavor than the concentrated commercial smoke flavoring and works with delicate foods that would not take to actual smoking. I find that many of the fruit-based tea blends work well as a base for marinades or dressings for fruit salads, pasta salads, etc.

I am having huge pangs of envy. I feel I am missing a fantastic adventure.

The vanilla bean should be left whole so that the seeds do not escape into the milk. No need to strain it. I taste it to know when it is finished. It should be a deep caramel color, tending toward brown - actually a sort of chestnut color is preferred by my neighbor, who taught me the recipe and process. When I get back home tomorrow afternoon, I will consult with Celia to see if she has a fix for the grainy problem. (I'm in New Mexico.) I've never had it turn out that way - I have burnt it and ended up with a burnt-sugar flavor but it was never grainy. It is possible you introduced a little water into the batch near the end? That is the only think I can think of that would cause it to seize or become grainy. (That is why you never want to cover the container in which it is cooked.)

I pick it very early in the morning, stems and all, rubber band the base of the stems together and hang them to dry in a dark (and dry) place. If it is too humid where you live, hang them where a fan can blow on them. Some varieties are not as aromatic as others. Pick a leaf and scrape your fingernail over the underside of the leaf. You should get a pungent aroma and it concentrates with drying. Dried sage is usually stronger flavored than fresh because of this concentration of the essential oils.

I'm not home so can't experiment but I have found blueberry syrup will dye anything and it is so dark it is almost black. To cut the sweetness, add some of your strong tea and reduce it a bit - I might be tempted to try it with some lapsong souchong for a smoky flavor. I have dyed Israeli couscous with saffron after the soaking and steaming.

I'm not home right now so can't check my notes. If you are using my recipe, I would suspect the grainy texture is because of milk with not enough butterfat. Try substituting 1 cup of cream for 1 cup of the milk. I tried a couple of times to make it with lower fat milk and had significant development of sugar crystals around the edges and the end result was grainy. Personally, I don't like the condensed milk version, although it is much easier than making it from scratch, I don't think the end result has as much flavor, however that is just me and I wouldn't bother making it myself because the commercial stuff is available in almost every local store because of the large Hispanic population here.

This article arrived in my email today and I am seriously disturbed by the information. Chinese food imports not as safe as our government says. I no longer purchase any food item that originates in China. I know people, including a family member, who have had serious illnesses, at least one life-threatening, from food products produced in China and containing ingredients not listed on the labels. Our government seems determined to force feed (sic) the US consumer with imported products that have little or no safety restrictions. Having the Chinese test the products they want to unload in the US seems to me to be an exercise in futility. I am interested in the opinion of others. Incidentally, I am currently in Albuquerque, sitting in one end of a large conference room with a bunch of aerospace technogeeks having a totally (to me) incomprehensible discussion at the other end of the room. I have agreed to dine with them but who knows when that will be. Apparently they are used to living on vast amounts of coffee and snacks.

This morning I consumed the last of a batch of quince jam to which I had added a strong brew of lapsang souchong tea to give it a slightly smoky flavor. Originally the jam was much too sweet - I used the Splenda/sugar baking mix in the jam and although I reduced the amount, the result was cloyingly sweet. The addition of the smoky-flavored tea tempered the sweetness nicely and the additional cooking produced a spreadable concoction that was just perfect for spreading on toast or ????. Now I have to wait until quince season to roll around before preparing another batch, this time on purpose. However I have several other types of preserves that I put up last year that I think may benefit from a similar conversion. I certainly have enough varieties of tea with which to experiment.........

I have purchased many on ebay Select the Buy-It-Now option You can find them in almost any size for a reasonable price. You can also check ebay Express

I like to combine Trader Joe's Greek Style yogurt (thick, about the consistency of cream cheese) with the SE Asian sweet chile sauce. Mae Ploy is my favorite brand. Spread on toast or toasted muffins or hot scones, (or one of the sturdier-type biscuits) it has just enough "bite" to make it interesting and it goes very well paired with poached eggs.

One of my friends visited Israel last year and found a canned product "Vegetable Ghee" which she used to make scones that turned out quite nice, according to her husband (a Georgia boy). So you might look for that.

My weekly email from This Week In Southern California has this link. Food Network looking for Hopeless Cooks. Not that anyone on eG could possibly be considered a "Hopeless Cook" - however, I thought that some members might just have someone they would like to nominate. I wouldn't dare..... It might be interesting seeing just who turns up. Also in the same newsletter:Annual Tiki Beach Festival in Long Beach

AKA: Tamago-yaki in Japanese I recently learned about these interesting "omelets" which to me seem to be a combination of crepe and omelet. My daughter discovered the special pan and the technique a while back and when she described it to me a few days ago, I realized I actually have one of the pans, given to me several years ago. I have never used it as the recipe book that came with it was entirely in Japanese and I really had no idea how to use it. At the time I had so many other projects going that I simply put it away and forgot about it. Since her revelation that these little creations are very tasty, I have ordered a cookbook and have also printed out a couple of recipes I found online. I did a search but could not find a topic specific to this. Has anyone had much experience with these and more important, does anyone have any interesting recipes?

Particularly good slathered with butter and some red pepper jelly. ← I bought a crate of local peaches at Littlerock last weekend. I have been making peach preserves and one batch was "brightened" with the addition of some chiles - just enough to give it a bit of "bite" but not overpowering.

Thank you! Kerry. Reads like a gem.

I have the Mercer Tools 29-slot case: Item #: M30429M (Scroll down until you see the red liner.) However I also use the Edge guard blade guards sold by the same vendor. If you are a fanatic, there is always this!

Yeah, let's have it. No dilly-dallying now! I am not very happy with the "new" White Lily flour. I have resorted to ordering Odlums cream flour.

I want a really big one and they are difficult to find. A couple of years ago I broke my giant one made by Mason Cash back in the 1960s - It was one that was half-glazed on the outside, not the smaller viterous china ones. I have a bunch of mortar and pestles, suribachis, etc., different sizes but I need something deep and the big one I saw on Tommy Tang's show (saw it again on another segment last Saturday) was much larger than any I can find for sale. Just have to keep looking and hope that someone will import them. Probably not many people want one that size.

KitchenKrafts carries it. as well as the DVD. One of my friends has one and uses it for decorating candies as well as cakes - she has also used it for making "lace" constructions to drape over composed fruit salads and table centerpieces for catering jobs.

I grew up in a house where several types of bread were baked every day, both yeast breads and quick breads. However, when I began working in my mom's bakery at age fifteen, I was surprised at how different some of the steps were and I was fascinated by the big horizontal mixer that really worked the heck out of the dough. From there, the dough was dumped into a huge rolling dough "trough" with a heavy lid for the first "rise" or fermentation. It was punched down after an hour (usually when it was beginning to lift the top) then punched down again, transferred to the bench (in portions) and cut and scaled by hand and allowed to rise again on the bench before being run through the machine that rolled and formed it into a cylindrical roll to go into the loaf pans that were then racked and rolled into the steam box for the final proofing before going into the oven. Note that this involved more fermentation sessions than usual in home-baked recipes and the final product had a wonderful flavor. The "French" and "Italian" doughs were kneaded much longer than the "regular Home-Style" bread. I learned that yeast dough is very forgiving and precise times are not all that important. My mom and stepdad are scaling bread dough on the bench. My mom at the oven, me by the rack - I had been unloading the first run of panned bread. My mom was checking on something else that was in the oven at the same time. That is a 16-rack oven with the "racks" going around the central burner like a Ferris wheel.

I agree. There is a big difference between the so-called "quick" breads, biscuits, scones, and so on, where one does NOT want the gluten to develop and thusly, many of the "southern" quick breads are made with flour that has less gluten, less protein so they will be tender, light and flaky. In yeast breads one does want the gluten to develop strong strands so as to contain the gas produced by the action of the yeast and the only way to do that is to combine the flour with a liquid and bang the bits together until the gluten has formed the long, strong strings that give one the "window-pane" effect where the dough can be stretched into a very thin sheet without falling apart. Unless one is using the "slack-dough" or higher moisture dough technique, this requires a certain amount of kneading, whether by hand or machine and it is difficult to over-knead most types of bread. The "French" or "Italian" types require even more kneading, as do many of the artisan breads. Resting the dough overnight in the fridge after the first rise is one way to develop more flavor and there has been extensive discussion about this on other threads. I never worry about precise timing of the rise because, as mentioned by another, I go by the "feel" of the dough - when I press a finger into the dough and the dent does not immediately spring back, it is ready for the next phase, either into a plastic bag to rest in the fridge overnight, or punched down and formed into loaves for the final rise and bake. If you could see how much the dough is worked in a bakery, you would lose all your fear of over-kneading the dough. It is kneaded, chopped, kneaded, shaped, rolled, banged around and yet comes out looking and tasting lovely. And yes, when shaping by hand into boules or rolls, bakers work on an oiled surface with oil on their hands.