andiesenji

For most rice dishes I use half and half, coconut milk and water or coconut milk and chicken stock, etc. If I am cooking sticky (Thai Sweet) rice I use mostly all coconut milk, with just about 1/4 can of water to rinse out the can after emptying the coconut milk which has to be shaken well because there are always some solids that settle into one end.

I suggest you try this site: Recipes by Ingredient Enter "Coconut Milk" into the "Search Ingredients" window and you will get 2 + pages of recipes. I have made the Jamaican curried bananas and it is unusual and very tasty. I have also made the grilled pork satay with curried peanut sauce and it is a favorite. The coconut flan is also easy and very good. (Salerno's coconut flan). I use coconut milk in the liquid to cook regular rice, brown rice, a mixture of grains and seeds and nuts and also for stewing chicken or pork. I have a friend who makes a killer dish with scallops poached in coconut milk. She doesn't have a recipe as it changes every time she makes it, uses different seasonings from curry to chipotle peppers.

I reuse it, however I usually bring it to a boil and add more vinegar and sugar. I've never had a problem, however I keep the pickles in the refrigerator.

I have tried many varieties of honey cake and this is the one that I like best: Marcy Goldman's honey cake

I use both crockpot/slow cookers and pressure cookers quite a bit, depending on the food, the time available and the amount I have to prepare. I have several slow cookers and use them for candying citrus peel, ginger, fruits, and for making jams, fruit butters, sauces, reducing wines, carmelized onions, etc., - I could go on and on. The pressure cooker is great for cooking tough cuts of meat with good flavor so as to extract as much flavor as possible in a short amount of time. I then put the meat and bones (now softened) throught a meat press to extract as much liquid as possible then clarify this and cook it down still more to concentrate it. Some people say that classic stocks require long, slow cooking but sometimes that is just not feasible and for some applications this works as well, if not better. I also use a big pressure cooker for canning things that are not safe canned with the open kettle or waterbath method, i.e., low acid foods, meats, etc. I have a lot of books on both subjects, however there are excellent online recipe sites: CrockeryKitchen andJust slow cook recipes. For pressure cooking I rely a great deal on Miss Vickie's website and Diana's Kitchen. I rarely need to look through a book unless I am looking for a rather obscure recipe.

I have to step in here and agree with Aunt Minnie. This was the biscuit-baking philosophy of our cook when I was a child. Lily Pearl Jennings was a Gullah woman from the Carolina lowcountry and a supurb cook. She was hired away from a home in Charleston by my grandfather when he moved to Kentucky in 1920 (having emigrated from England, he stayed for a time with a cousin in Charleston and, ingrate that he was, stole their cook right out from their kitchen.) Lily Pearl believed in patting out the biscuit dough as she said she could feel the 'spirits' that "do make them biscuits to rise" and they did not 'set well' with being pummeled with a batten (rolling pin). The fact that she had as broad a palm as I have ever seen may have helped a lot. *** She baked them in a heavy black rectangular steel pan that weighed nearly as much as cast iron and which always was placed in the oven to heat till the lard began smoking. The biscuits had been cut and covered with a cloth and left to rise for 10 minutes or so. The pan was taken from the oven and immediately the tops of the biscuits were dipped in the melted fat and then placed in the pan, sides barely touching, to bake. These steel pans were the same ones she used for her "light" rolls, yeast rolls that were incredibly light, almost sweet, buttery tops. I have tried for most of my life and have yet to achieve the height of rise in those rolls that Lily Pearl achieved in those old black pans in a wood stove. It isn't much consolation but no one else in my family has been able to duplicate those rolls either. *** I am sure about the palm because it was applied to my posterior many times when I was into mischief in the kitchen, which was often.....

Actually there is little difference in the flavor extracted from the fresh as compared to the dried leaves. If you are measuring by weight you have to note that the fresh leaves weigh a lot more than the dried. So you use twice the weight. The volume is also changed. However it takes only a couple of days for the leaves to dry, just strip them from the stems, put them in a wire colander and toss them every so often as you walk past. If you are in a humid climate put them in your oven (in the colander) with the light on. This will give enough heat for them to dry.

With the grains, seeds, etc. the food starts out in the liquid which boils away until there is just steam. Have you never had couscous which is cooked in a steam basket over the meat etc., which is stewing in the bottom of the couscousierie? The steam definitely carries the flavor into the couscous.

I buy the "bulk" slabs in the meat department at Vallarta Supermarket. I just got a 2 pound slab for $3.56. Of course it contains the seeds which have to be strained out after it has been softened in water but it is very fresh and quite tangy. I use it in a number of condiments I make - including my variation of an Indonesian sambal. I also include it in some of my homemade mustards, ketchups and etc.

All rice cookers do steam - You can also use the small bamboo steamers in the rice cooker, as long as they are above the water level. I have a little round wire trivet that will fit in the bottom of the smaller rice cooker and on which I can stack two of the small (6 inch) round bamboo steamers - no need to use their own lid as the top on the rice cooker holds in the steam. I also have a couple of "berry baskets" which are little colanders which also fit into the rice cooker and can be used to steam anything you want to keep out of the liquid. Someone gave me an oval steamer/cooker that has a separate water chamber at the bottom and two stackable plastic grids above, one divided in half, with a dome cover. I have never used it but it looks like it would work quite well. As for flavor, you get out what you put in. I cook all kinds of grains and seeds as well as rice in various liquids for different flavors. I season baby potatoes with rosemary, salt & pepper, parsley, then toss with butter. Steamed dumplings can be made in any flavor, savory or sweet. I have a very large steamer that cooks 20 cups of rice, the Zojirushi "Neuro-Fuzzy logic" rice cooker, 10 cup, a slightly smaller one and a 5 cup for small jobs. I use the smaller ones for steaming dried fruits and vegetables prior to adding them to yeast or quick breads or to other recipes. This makes them tender without becoming soggy as they are when soaked. Dried mushrooms also...... some spices and herbs also benefit from steaming before crushing, if I am going to use them in an infusion instead of directly in a mixture. Once you get into the routine of using the steamer you will wonder how you ever got along without it.....

Peter Reinhart's books, any or all. However I would start with Crust and Crumb.

Here is a peach one: peach upside-down cake and an orange spice here and a cherry: from Diana's Kitchen There are also recipes for rhubarb, cranberry, mincemeat, apple and mango. I have made a large combination fruit upside-down cake in the past, using contrasting colors, in a pinwheel pattern. pineapple/kiwi/mandarin/cherries(dried and reconstituted cherries). I just used a pineapple upside-down cake recipe, tripled, mixed the batter pouring it over the fruit, and filled the pan to within 3/4 inch of the top. Using a broad spatula, I worked the batter out from the center so that it was a bit thinner right in the center to counteract "the bulge". I had cut a large Silpat liner to fit the round pan, though liners are now available, because I was worried it would stick. When I removed the silpat, the bottom (now the top) looked like it was coated with glass. Perfect!

I also mentioned on a earlier thread that I steam a mixture of grains and seeds, most including rice, particularly the Lundberg variatals. Lundberg rices In particular the Wehani and the Jubilee blend. Millet, amaranth, teff, steel cut oats, kasha, sunflower seeds, etc. Occasionally I mix couscous in with the cooked grains and seeds. I seldom use water as I prefer diluted coconut milk, chicken, beef or duck stock, vegetable stock. There are a variety of seasonings I use depending on what it will accompany. I sometimes add chopped steamed vegetables but cook them separately. Of course I like plain rice also but it is always "doctored" with butter, various sauces, Memmi, Ponzu, sweet chile, sweet soy sauce, etc. I like the combination of cooked rice mixed with the jarred "three bean salad" then the whole thing heated and served with crumbled crisp bacon on top. The combination of sweet, sour, salty, smoky, etc. is making me salivate as I type.

30 minutes? You obviously do not have any idea of the distances involved or the cab charges in the area. You can easily spend more on cabfare than on your dinner. Pasadena would be my suggestion, it is next door to Glendale and has some very fine eateries. Old Town is a stretch of Colorado Blvd. (See it every year during the Rose Parade) where there are some places that are bistro style and you will get a good meal. I don't know about places with chef's tasting menus. My favorite in Old Town is Bistro 45 which is just off Colorado on Mentor Ave. (at 45 south Mentor) They were one of "Top 30 in L.A." in Zagat's, the Wine Spectator rated them in the Top 10 and they had high ratings in other publications. An old standard for me, excellent food, fair pricing and a very "homey" atmosphere is a long-held Pasadena secret, is Beckham Place on Walnut or West Walnut. This place is favored by long time Pasadena residents. My second husband, third generation born in Pasadena, and all his family frequented the place. They do a duck in cherry sauce that is remarkable. Their desserts are awesome, if you have room. Another place, on Arroyo Parkway, the Parkway Grill, has been a favorite in the past. I haven't been for a couple of years, mainly because I am usually with people who want to hang out in Old Town. http://www.oldpasadena.com/ I can't get the hyperlink thing to work so I am simply posting the link here.

Try these There are a lot of things to do with tamarind. I love tamarind drinks. They are very simple, such as this one and here is some more info. more recipes here not just tamarind.

I had suggested merging the L.A Potluck and Pie topics and I thought someone was going to do it but it hasn't happened yet.

Try this place. Plain high side cake pan non stick, scroll down to the 5th item. They range from 4 inch, 4 3/4, 6, etc. and the latter is 1 7/16 inch high. I just thought of the disposable molds that I use for little cheesecakes and for fruitcakes here. I get the M155D size - These hold up nicely. The price is certainly right.

I have been using a commercial (Blodgett) convection oven for several years. I have found that I get a better product if I keep the temperature as indicated in the recipe but shorten the time, sometimes by half, for very thin cookies, by 1/3 for thicker cookies. Also for baking yeast breads to get the "oven-kick" the temp has to be optimum. Time is the variable and when making a new recipe I check he internal temperature of a loaf with an insant read thermometer to make sure it is done. Once established I mark the exact time the loaf attained the correct temperature for doneness and use that as my baking time in the future. Regarding cheesecakes. You either have to turn the convection fan off while cooking or have a barrier to keep the fan from blowing ripples in the batter while it is soft. I have a sheet of heavy gauge aluminum, 8 inches wide, 32 inches long, bent into an arc that is large enough to allow a 14 inch cake pan to set inside it and into this goes the water for the bain marie when baking cheesecakes or large custards. I put the arc into the back of the oven on a shelf positioned near the middle of the oven. This deflects the air from the fan in the back of the oven from blowing directly on the unset cheesecake. I just bought a pieceof aluminum and took it to a metal shop and had them "hem" the edge- they have a machine that turns the edge down all the way around and crimps it so there is no sharp edge. It didn't cost much and comes in very handy in many applications. Once you get used to a convection oven you will not want to go back to a radiant oven. My oven will hold 7 full size sheet pans for things like cookies that do not rise a lot and each level bakes evenly all at the same time, there is no need to rotate from top to bottom and etc. (It actually would have 10 levels but the bottom three are taken up by a steam injection device - I do a lot of bread-baking and steaming for the first couple of minutes gives the best crust.

This site has this recipe and explanation from Craig Claiborne's "Southern Cooking" Many consider him to be the quintessential southern cookery gatherer of obscure and arcane facts, traditions and "down-home" trivia.

I have been preparing Brussels sprouts this way: Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts practically forever. This is not my exact recipe, I use two cups of chestnuts and instead of the oil I use 1/4 cup (or a bit more) of brown butter sauce. However except for these two changes my recipe is very similar. In my family this dish came from England and was often served during the holidays. We had 3 huge chestnut trees on the farm that escaped the blight back in the 1920s or so and we used to gather bushels of chestnuts which were roasted and eaten as is, boiled and mashed, combined with other things as in this dish, dried and ground into flour for baking, canned for later use and turned into confections by cooking them in syrup to make glacé chestnuts or marrons glacé. The combination of the sweet chestnuts and the slightly bitter sprouts is just wonderful. A variation was to drizzle a bit of Calvados over them half-way through the baking.

Ahem, I have used annatto like this for many, many years to get the red coloring so desired in spare ribs and etc. And who turned me on to this? Charlie Lau, one time chef at Kelbo's on Pico, back in the early 60s. He said there were a lot of gloppy sauces that were used to produce the color but he liked the annatto that a Mexican cook at the jai alia palace in Mexicali introduced him to back in the late 40s. It was his "secret" concoction and was simply Karo syrup, lemon or lime juice and annatto with some chinese 5-spice cooked and strained and in which the ribs were briefly dipped prior to being dipped into the barbecue sauce. He said to use tongs to handle the ribs because the stuff will dye your hands for days or weeks. Now, of course, we have gloves. It has very little flavor in and of itself but the color - that is intense.

And sausage gravy is........... simply sublime.

I have a very old sandwich grill, that is an appliance that is like a waffle iron (or a panini grill) but has smooth plates. I slice extra firm tofu about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick, soak in either teriyaki, barbecue, sweet & sour and mustard sauce or some of each. I then butter the plates of the sandwich grill, place the "flavored" slices of tofu, lower the top plate and "fry" for a couple of minutes. These are then incorporated into a sandwich or simply placed on top of green or vegetable salads. You can also do this with a panini grill if the grids are not too deep. I have tried to do it in a grill pan but it is difficult to turn to cook the top side. Cooking on both sides at the same time works much better as it firms both sides at the same time. I also simply slice it, add some seasoning and use brown butter. Nice!

Nope. I am in Lancaster, California. I am just 9 miles from Edwards AFB where the shuttle used to land and where the test pilots fly the new aircraft that are in development. I got to see the first roll-out and the first flight of the Stelth bomber. Nothing like being in the middle of a tricky bit of kitchen work and having sonic booms shake the house. It used to bother me but now I can decorate a cake and never notice it. This area is known as the "high" desert as it is an ancient seabed at over 2000 ft altitude and almost flat as a pancake but surrounded on three sides by mountains. We have a great deal of ethnic diversity in a city of almost 130,000 - Palmdale, next door to the south is about the same size. The population growth has been incredible. We have, besides the Mexican supermarkets, Korean, Thai, Fillipino, Indian, Italian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Salvadorean and British. There are probably more but these are the ones with which I am familar.

And to flavor a syrup that keeps practically forever - I have some 4 or 5 year old stuff that is still potent. It has one very great advantage. Unlike citrus based syrups, it will not cause milk to curdle. You can also make an extraction with alcohol and concentrate the flavor. You need to really pack the leaves into a jar, cover with alcohol and then using something like a muddler, crush the leaves, close the jar and shake it well, let it settle and crush the leaves some more. Put it in a dark place for several days, making sure the leaves are completely covered by the liquid - (I have a small round and heavy lid from a little stoneware jar that just fits into a wide-mouth caning jar.) After a week or so, take a tiny bit of the flavoring in a spoon and taste it. It should taste as lemony as lemon zest, if not leave it another week, crush the leaves some more.