andiesenji

I am so stuffed full of food that I can barely move. It is a good thing we have a gate in the wall between our properties because there is no way I would have been able to walk the long way around. I went over at 12:30 and returned at 4:30. They had over 100 people there for dinner and most are still there. There are 4 motorhomes parked in my north driveway with another three outside my front wall next to the road. There are at least that many on their property and in front of their place. It's a good thing were are in a rural area, this would never work in an urban neighborhood.

My flan looks a bit homely next to those works of art. I prepared six as my contribution to my neighbor's huge assembly of foods. There were at least 100 people there for dinner. 2 extra large turkeys, 2 hams (huge), 1 barbecued goat, 1 barbecued javelina, 400 tamales (assorted) and every kind of snack, condiment, side dish and dessert - I lost count - one could imagine.

I forgot to take a photo of the masa before I used it (for tamale pie). However my neighbors are having a huge gathering today and made a huge batch of tamales. They did have some masa left so I "inherited" it since I have plenty of room in my fridge. I made six flans and also baked several sheet pans full of pan dulce that Leila, one of the daughters, prepared. The celebration is going to continue for the entire weekend. The homemade masa - she used a yellow corn grown on their ranch in Durango. They brought back two 100 pound bags week before last. She gave me enough to fill this 2-quart container. She started out with a 5-gallon pail full. And the flan:

I have started a batch in one of my bread machines to mix and proof it -no heat- I have it in the pantry against the outside wall where it stays very cool, highest temp yesterday was 58 F. but right now it is 48, almost as cold as my cheese/produce fridge. I opened the door and it was almost like a walk-in. Tomorrow I wil try baking it off in a round-bottomed cast iron pot in the barbecue, in the grill/firebox section because the barbecue is going to be used to roast a javelina for my neighbors. We finally have temps suitable for November and tonight the low is supposed to be 28 F. I wil have to cover the little citrus trees and a cherry tomato plant that is still going strong as they have yet to be moved into the greenhouse.

The beans have been cooking for 1 1/2 hours: The raw beans: Soaking: Cooking for 1 1/2 hours: The aroma is just lovely.

Our weather has finally cooled down to what one expects in November (90 in the Valley a couple of days ago and in the high 70s up here). So, I pulled a canister with the last of my cranberry beans out of the pantry and have them soaking. I have some smoked pork neck bones to flavor them, along with some winter savory I just picked this morning. I am also going to toss in a fresh bay leaf.

At any health food store you can find a spray bottle of stuff that is made specifically to remove the wax from fruit. It works. It isn't cheap. However, I use baking soda, dry - I buy it in the large industrial size at Smart & Final - you can find it at other places. I put a couple of cups of the soda in a bowl - dry - and scrub the fruit with the stuff. It is just abrasive enough to remove all the wax and it works on apples, pears, citrus of any kind, etc. You can test the surface of the fruit by scraping it with an inverted teaspoon. The local health food market puts the entire fruit through the juicer, peel and all. Perhaps yours is different. However it is more time consuming to peel the fruit which is why most of these places use whole fruit. I get most of the citrus I use for candied peel from a grower in Ojai. His brother is a neighbor and brings me 5-gallon plastic buckets full of beautiful, untreated citrus. They know I like the kind with the thicker skin for candying so that is what I get. Most people prefer the fruit with finer pores, smoother, indicating thinner skin.

I have better luck with putting the almonds through a grinder first, then using the food processor to incorporate the sugar - I also add rose water because that is the way I learned close to 60 years ago. Back then the almonds were put through a hand-cranked meat grinder - then were worked by hand with a large mortar and pestle to incorporate the sugar - (regular granulated sugar was "powdered" in a Waring blender my grandpa bought in 1937 after hearing Fred Waring promote it on his radio show.) The sugar actually was super-superfine, not like powdered sugar that has other stuff added to it. Sometimes sugar syrup was added if the almonds were very dry. The marzipan was then turned out onto a marble slab and kneaded and worked by hand until it was very smooth. Sometimes small batches were worked with a muller to incorporate the colors which were either powder or paste. (my memory isn't perfect but I do know they were not the regular liquid food colors and had to be ordered by mail.) It wasn't till years later that I learned a muller was actually used to grind artist's pigments into oil and I have no idea where my grandmother got the idea to use it in the kitchen, and none of my aunts recall that either, just that it was "always there" at least from the 1920s. My grandmother had a ceramic cornucopia on its own tray, that she would fill with marzipan shapes of little fruits and vegetables and was a centerpiece on a sideboard in the dining room. I can buy fresh raw almonds that are grown locally so I have had no problems with the almonds being dry.

I have a Nutrimill. It featured prominently in the old thread on ways to eat grits (Page 3 post #65) and also in my Cornbread from Scratch topic. I just grind the stuff, coarse for grits alone, but I grind some finer for cornbread.

I haven't read through this entire topic today, but I have been following it and I don't recall anyone posting a link to this thread Ways to eat grits. That was very active in the summer of 2005. And this thread, earlier in '05 that discussed where one can find heirloom grits with listing for several vendors. And soon after I joint eG there was this thread on "Cheese Grits". I now have some dried blue corn and some dried blue corn posole that was given to me by a friend who has been visiting in New Mexico for two months (she also brought me a huge ristra of Hatch chiles). I don't recall ever preparing grits with blue corn meal - I have made cornbread with varying success - sometimes found the blue corn to be a bit bitter. However I plan to grind some of each and see how it works. I am particularly interested in seeing (and tasting) the differences between the plain corn and the posole.

This is the type that is most common clamp type meat mincer You have to take it apart and wash the parts in soapy water and make sure they are dry before storing them - don't put it back together to store - put it and all the parts in a plastic bag along with the instructions. If you can find one of the little packets of stuff that keeps things dry, often packaged with vitamin capsules and with electronic stuff, put one of those in the bag. This electric meat mincer is very similar to one recently introduced in the states that has received good reviews.

I also love beans of any variety. I didn't plant any this year but had a few volunteer vines that grew on the fence out back. One was a scarlet runner bean and another was a "mystery" bean that works nicely as "shelly" beans, some mature in the pods while new beans are coming along and are really good when shelled and cooked together with the green snap beans. The beans are a yellow-brown solid color but I don't recall ever planting any like this so don't really know where they came from. The blossoms are white. I had left them on the vine to dry and managed to get some harvested but most were harvested by animals or birds. I saw some rats out by the new wall and these are probably the culprits. (These are not the brown Norwegian rats but are the desert kangaroo rats native to this area - they are really cute.)

I'm not real fond of scrapple.

Being a great fan of liver and onions, I found this recipe, including grits, to be quite interesting. I didn't use calf liver because I have a lot of beef liver in the freezer, however this is very tender beef liver. And, as evidenced by Lex Culinaria's notations, some Canadian's are getting the message about grits. some time ago I came across a website with a recipe for "Down East coarse cornmeal casserole, sweet or savory, also with seafood or meats." I haven't been able to find it today, although I know I bookmarked it, but I have thousands of bookmarks. As I read the recipe I thought to myself, "Gee, this sounds a lot like grits or polenta basic cooking method, then placed in a casserole and baked, much like southern spoonbread." a case of yankees adopting a southern tradition and re-naming it as their own??

Excellent question, and perfectly reasonable. Southern people do not necessarily depend upon reason. But you deserve an answer, and it is the best I can give you. Yes, there is an intersection. Yes, there is a union. All grits = polenta, grits, and other various derivations of dried corn, and possibly other ground grains. Considering history, all polenta = grits, all grits = either hominy or dried corn, all hominy = dried corn. Corn culture. In my opinion it changed the world, with very little credit to this day to the origin. I am beginning to sound a bit like Mayhaw Man and Okra, though I do agree that Okra is the universal answer to all the world's problems. Another story.. Just make a nice, lovely porridge, and enjoy. ← I agree with your opinion about corn/maize changing the world, or at least the western hemisphere because, without maize, it is questionable if the mesoamerican empires would have developed to the level they did as early as they did. The diversity of the varieties of corn is also remarkable as is the wide range of growing conditions which it tolerates. When you consider that it also has an unusual sex life, entirely dependent on humans for propogation for thousands of years, it is even more interesting. Maize.

Note the variety of Grits recipes at RecipeSource. I have a couple of grits cookbooks that I enjoy a great deal. Gone With The Grits has quite a few unusual recipes, including some dips made with grits. Grits.com has 52 recipes for grits plus a bunch of other good southern food recipes including a sweet potato/pecan casserole that is very, very good.

This discussion also reminded me of one of my favorite DVDs, "My Cousin Vinny" and the introduction of these two New Yorkers to real southern grits.

There is a difference between grits and hominy grits. However 99% of the grits marketed by small mills in the south are not from hominy or nixtamalized corn. The dried and finely ground "hominy" grits are commonly seen in grocery stores everywhere else. You can tell because the white is all white or the yellow is an even, light yellow, with no variation in color, which you see in stone-ground meal. I grew up on a farm in western Kentucky that had a water-powered grist mill in regular operation until the late '50s. It is still maintained in working order but is not in regular use because of enviornmental restrictions on the damming of the creek which feeds into an area where waterfoul are protected - a federal permit is now required before it can be operated. Most of the farmers in the area brought corn to be milled, white corn for cooking, and yellow corn for livestock feed. Most southerners preferred the white "dent" corn for cornmeal for cooking and baking because it was "sweeter" and this was simply because the starch/sugar conversion was higher. The yellow "horse" or "hog" corn was larger and when ground, contained a lot more fiber and a lot more starch. This is obvious when milled cornmeal is sprinkled in water. Some will sink immediately, a lot will float for a while before absorbing water and sinking - the hull bits of high-fiber corn will float indefinitely. Nowadays, however, there are yellow corns that have been developed that are as sweet and as flavorful as the heirloom white corns grown when I was a child. Bob's Red Mill produces coarse, medium and fine grades of yellow cornmeal - the coarse is the same as the one labeled polenta. If you want a product that is very close to the traditional stone-ground meal available 60+ years ago, mix these three types together. The stone mill output is all grades at once but the milled meal is directed over screens, first fine, then medium, then coarse to separate the various grades. When I mill whole corn, I set the mill (Nutrimill) for coarse and run it through. I then reserve 1/3 of the coarse, mill the remaining 2/3 at medium, then mill half of that batch on fine, then mix them all together. I like the texture this produces, whether it is for boiling for grits, mush or polenta, or for making cornbread.

I have done some experiments with reducing sugar in cakes, as well as some of the fat. I measure out all of the regular amounts of ingredients, either by weight or volume. I cream together the butter and sugar then remove a measured portion from this mixture and set it aside, beginning with 1/2 the total amount. I then add the remaining ingredients and beat as the recipe instructs. Using a small cake pan I fill it to the level I would in a regular-sized pan. I then add a measured portion of the reserved butter/sugar mix, blend well into the batter and pour some into another small cake pan. I repeat this again, using the remainder of the butter/sugar mix. I bake the three small cakes at the same time and note the rise, and when done, the texture of the finished cake. I have found that reducing the fat/sugar by 1/3 gives a result close to the full amount. However the cake will stale more rapidly. Using 1/2 the amount resulted in less rise, a rubbery texture that rapidly staled to tough and dry.

Try my method of refreshing the bread. If frozen, allow it to thaw part-way, then do the water/oven thing. In fact, I am going to pull a loaf of Asiago cheese bread out of the freezer now and refresh it when it has thawed a bit.

Andie, are you thinking of one of the episodes of Baking with Julia, possibly the one with Steve Sullivan? MelissaH ← No, I would have remembered if it was Julia. It was more like one of the "Great Chef's" shows on PBS. It was two men bakers being interviewed by another guy. I vaguely recall one of the bakers had a ponytail and one was wearing a skullcap. For some reason, I think it may have been in Canada, possibly Toronto. I believe they mixed and proofed the dough in shallow rectangular tubs, which I thought was very clever. - - - The problem is that over the years I have watched so many of these shows that they all seem to run together after a while, unless there is something really distinctive.

I have used the KAF white whole wheat flour in "sturdy" quick breads, such as pumpkin, banana nut and date bread. I have used it in carrot cake but it gave a pretty heavy result. To get a feel for it, try making pancakes with it. I use that method for testing various types of flour before I start a larger project. (I ordered some French "strong" flour and pastry flour as well as an Italian flour and tested them by preparing pancakes. - the "strong" flour pancakes were tough. but it is a great bread flour.)

I noticed a couple of years ago that the name on the bottle was no longer Cherry Heering but had been changed to Peter Heering - with "Cherry Liqueur" in smaller print under the name and more recently just the name Heering with the same cherry liqueur below. I just found this Danish site. with the newer bottle.

I keep forgetting to post this for those who have problems with "walking" mixers. Get some "museum wax" anyone who lives in earthquake country is familiar with this stuff. knead a marble-sized ball until soft, mold it around the mixer's feet and stick it down. It will hold to just about anything, including glazed tile, Corian, wood and marble. The only surface I have found it less tacky, was stainless steel. quakehold products

I have noted that I get a better result if I add a little extra yeast when I add more salt to this type of dough. I have also allowed dough to overproof, refrigerated it for a couple of days, then added to it a new "sponge" to get a very flavorful loaf with nice oven spring. I saw this method of "old" dough and "new" sponge made with both yeast and sourdough culture on a TV show about 10 or 12 years ago. I know I have it on VHS somewhere in the hundreds I haven't looked at in years. I wish I could remember the name of the bakery or even the show. I do remember that the baker made an "epi" baguette(wheat-ear shape) and a complex multi-braid that was very impressive.