andiesenji

It may seem strange to some people but I "collect" salts from various places around the world. Since it doesn't spoil, it will still be good when I am long gone as long as it is kept dry and clean. I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt for my general cooking. I also have pickling salt for (of course) pickling. There there are the so-called "gourmet" salts which I have collected over the years. Lima French Atlantic salt which is a moist salt and has to be kept sealed or it solidifies into a solid lump. La Baleine Sel de Mer, fine, medium and coarse. Didier Aube's Sel Gris Marin from Guérande and Fleur de Sel de Camarque. Pacific "organic" sea salt from New Zealand, fine and coarse. Halen Mon from Wales (plain and smoked) and Maldon Salt from England. Hawaiian pink sea salt. Black salt from India (very strong aroma, has to be kept tightly sealed). I have a small container of salt a friend sent me from South Africa but it has never been opened. I also have a large jar of "Real Salt" from Ogden, Utah (mined sea salt) which is white with tan flecks - Real Salt also certified kosher.... and 2 1/2 kilos of Mexican sea salt from Colima, brought back from Mexico by neighbors who paid 20 cents American for the more than 5-pound bag. I also have some huge salt crystals sent to me by one of my cousins who found them while he was exploring around the salt springs in southern Illinois. There are other gourmet sea salts and eventually I will try to collect all available. It is sort of like my collection of hot sauces. It gets to be a rather mild obcession, I will never use all of them but it is fun to keep adding to the number.

if only they would package cereal in zip-lock bags, as they do sliced deli meats. i've found that cereal will stay fresh for years in a zip lock. For several years I have transferred my cereal to the ziploc bags myself. Actually, I don't like just one kind of cereal, I like a combination so I always open the cereal bags and pour the cereal into one of the jumbo ziploc freezer bags and have done since the jumbo (2 gallon) bags became available. Since my pantry has some shelves that are the metal grid shelves, I put S-hooks on some of the shelves and I clip one of the large bindery clamps onto the top of the bag below the seam and hang them from the upper shelf. You can imagine how much space this saves. Consider the volume of a cereal box, such as Cheerios. If you have two cups of Cheerios in the bottom of that box, 3/4 of the volume is wasted space. I do the same thing with any dry item that comes in a box with an inner bag. If it is something that is not easily recognizable I simply cut off the part of the box that has the name and tape it onto bag. Chips, and crackers, get the same treatment. They stay much fresher and are easier to store. This also gives me the advantage of seeing at a glance how much I have of a particular item when I am getting ready to shop and if the supply is low I can add it to my list.

You can compare several food mills at this site: food mill I have the Halco because it holds 5 quarts. The mid-size Matfer is another very good mill. I have seen the All-Clad, similar to the Cuisipro.

On the left from top to bottom the tomatoes are Faribo golden heart (also in the center), Cherokee purple and Beefmaster. Several other tomatoes were also picked but I gave them to my gardener and some to my neighbors. On the right are 3 pineapple tomatoes, two beefmasters and one Cherokee purple. The dark green peppers are poblano, very mild, Sweet Hungarian, Anaheim and Caloro. Underneath the fruit the basket is full of basil, flat leaf parsley and sorrel.

Add some extra nitrogen to the soil to promote more foliage. If you have an extra wet year or not enough sun this is the first thing to go. As soon as you see the plants producing new stems and leaves, apply a high phosphorous compound such a bone meal to promote flowering and fruiting. By the time this begins to have an effect the plants should have developed enough new foliage to support fruit production. I always dress newly planted tomatoes, peppers and squash with a higher nitrogen organic fertilizer to promote vigorous plant growth then add phosphorous to promote flowering and fruiting then shift a couple of weeks later to a regular vegetable fertilizer that is balanced for maintenance. I always pinch off early blossoms on immature plants.

Beautiful photos Walt. Thanks so much for giving us a virtual tour of the market. I didn't see any pictures of the garlic guys, though it might be a little too early in the year for them. When I was last in Plesanton for the Northern California Basenji club specialty I had a chance to visit the market and was very impressed with the quality of the produce. The two guys who had the garlic/onion stand had seven or eight varieties of garlic including a rose colored hardneck that has to be the best garlic I have ever tried. It was so sweet it was almost like candy. The garlic flavor was there but not overpowering. (I was there in late August) Thanks again for the spectacular walk-through.

I haven't made cookie cutters, but I have made forms (bezels) for large gems (semi precious and things like agates, amber, fossil ivory, etc.) that are odd shaped with acute angles, curves, loops, and so on. Some made from copper, others from silver and a few from gold. I used a home made "peg" board for shaping with holes drilled that would take a 1/4 inch steel rod that I had cut into short sections. This bending gig makes it very easy to shape strips of metal and keep the face level. It saves a lot of time and you get clean bends with no jaw marks on the metal. If you can afford it, you should try and find a used, hand-cranked machine for "hemming" one edge of the metal strips. That is folding one edge down which makes for a stronger piece of metal and no sharp edged on that side. I used to borrow the use of one in a metal shop at the place where I used to live. I made a couple of pieces for the owner's wife so he never charged me for the use of it.

Check the recipes here And check this site: verdolagas/purslane It grows like a weed in my garden. I have several neighbors who are from Mexico and they help me keep it under control by harvesting it. I chop it and stir fry it with sugar snap peas, garlic, onions and add grated cheese at the end sometimes I add a chopped tomato. It is very good nutritionally.

My gardener picked a bunch of tomatoes and peppers in the big garden and I picked a few in the kitchen garden plus basil, parsley, sorrel, more peppers and a couple of small cukes. Pesto is on the schedule. And chiles rellenos for tonight. I just had a tomato and onion sandwich for lunch.

When the silk turns brown the corn is ripe.

Not many people still clean their own chickens, but I wonder who first noticed that if you get the gall sac out without breaking it there is no bitterness in the meat. That was the first thing I was cautioned about (after plucking) when I was given my first chicken to clean.

That is like the lupini bean, a favorite Italian snack. I don't know how poisonous it is but it is very, very bitter until it has been processed through many changes of water. I do know that it can be a problem in places where cattle, sheep and other domestic animals feed.

You use your hot ice pick thingie? I buy 1/2 inch cotton twill "tape", which is like a ribbon, at the yardage store, because it comes in handy for a lot of things in the kitchen. I tie it in a figure-8 around the chicken then run the free end through the hole in the center of the weight and have enough to lead out of the pot and tie around a handle. Since it is flat, the lid will still fit tightly. When the chicken is done I untie the tape, use a hook to snag the chicken then lift it out of the pot and the cloth tape slides free. I use this same method when brining a turkey or pork roast. You can put stuff on top to weight them down but this is easier, it just requires some thinking ahead.

Believe it or not, my first teacher,(a Hungarian pastry chef that my mother sponsored following the revolution in 1956), told me that he had learned to make pastry cloches or domes, using a (sterilized of course) pig's bladder which had some sand poured into it to weight it before inflating. I wish I had thought to write down all the tips and techniques he taught me. I recall some but many have erased themselves from my memory. He made one layered creation with thin sheets of puff pastry, blind-baked between two sheet pans, then assembled into a stack layered with pastry cream and fruit pureés then topped with whipped cream that was simply ambrosial. He also did a choux paste horn into which he poured melted chocolate then quickly poured it out again so the horn had a chocolate lining before it was filled with pastry cream.

Yes, Pickles. I don't simmer for 20 minutes, I bring water or stock to a boil in a large pot, must have good volume of water or stock, put the whole chicken in and bring it back to a rolling boil then cover and immediately turn heat off and leave for an hour. This works best with a smaller bird. A stewing hen is too large to cook completely. That would require simmering. I also weight the chicken so it stays completely immersed. (I have a shiny, stainless steel clad 5 pound weight - a flat disc with a hole in the middle, supposed to be for a dumbbell) Which is perfect for keeping a chicken deep in the pot. Guess how I get it out.............

I taped a lot of his shows. I still use his method for poaching chicken, it is the easiest and produces a beautiful result.

Me too! I still have an ancient Foley that still works just fine, however I bought a larger one a couple of years ago that I like much better, mainly because it fits over a larger container. I process a lot of fruits and veg and have all kinds of gadgets but keep going back to the old tried and true things. The tiny seeds still get through but I put the puree through a chinois and that takes care of the seeds.

Do you have a place where you can keep a potted plant? If so, you have a place where you can store ginger, and if the conditions are right the corms will grow and you will have new ginger to use. I have a friend who lives on a boat in a marina and has a window box where she keeps ginger. Occasionally it will sent up a shoot but it lives happily there. She uses a potting mix that has a lot of sand in it so when she needs a piece of ginger she yanks it out of the soil, breaks off what she needs, lets it set on top of the soil for a day so the break can "heal" then sticks it back in the soil. I grow a lot of ginger because I candy it in large batches and also use it in conserves, sambals, sauces, marinades, etc. I leave some in the ground over the winter, under a deep blanket of straw (and a tarp if we have a very wet rainy season as we had the year of El Niño) Then in the spring I dig it up, rework the bed then break it into sections and replant them. I haven't bought ginger for years.

My favorite is made with my own Asiago cheese bread, buttered, and between the slices of bread is a slice of buttery Colby, a slice of tomato, a slice of Jack cheese, several Peppadews, and a slice of Wisconsin brick cheese. Which reminds me, I have to order some more brick. I am down to my last 2 ounces.

For me it is things that are basically inedible unless they are rigorously processed. Olives, for instance, who figured out how to make them edible, and why? And manioc - the root is poisonous. How many people died before someone discovered that if it was grated, the liquid squeezed out and the pulp roasted it was then edible? Same with potatoes, the wild potato is poisonous. How did the ancient Incas discover that with selective breeding they could develop a non-poisonous tuber? And why did they do it? There were other foods available. I have a vision of an early-day Luther Burbank-type Inca, cross pollinating plants then when the tubers developed, feeding some to a slave to see if it was still poisonous. Ooops, back to the drawing board for another cross. Maybe if the slave just got sick, instead of keeling over, he knew he was on the right track and tossed out all the others and concentrated on that one. How was corn (maize) developed? There is no true wild ancestor still extant. There are genetic relatives but you wouldn't recognize them as corn. And why did cultivation of food plants begin in widely scattered parts of the world at about the same time. Of all the claims for visits from aliens, this is the one and only thing that would make me believe it might be possible.

BB's are a tiny sort of shot (like small ball bearings) which are used in air rifles. Their purpose, in this application, is to weigh down the balloon and stabilize it. Anything will do, I guess, as long as it is both dense and small enough to pour through the neck of the balloon. I just stick a funnel into the neck of the balloon and pour in the BBs.

I do the same thing. It never occurred to me until just now that there might be something wrong with the behavior. That's not so bad. At least you pay for what you take. I have seen people snap off a couple of the little "toes" and just stick them in a pocket. A couple of days ago I saw a guy do this, then take a tamarind pod, stick that in a pocket along with a couple of dried peppers (sold in bulk in this market). He did buy a bunch of green onions and a head of lettuce. Also a pint of tequila. All the way home I was wondering what the heck he was going to make with the stuff he bought.

I have a couple of very large dehydrators because I dry a lot of fruit, veg and herbs. However you can dry fruit in your oven if you have a very low setting and a convection oven works even better. There is a good explanation on this site: Drying fruit red or white currants do not dry well. blackcurrants are a different thing entirely, they do. You don't need to buy any fancy equipment. A cheap unfinished wood picture frame with inexpensive nylon (or whatever) mesh from the fabric store tacked or stapled to the front, to make a mesh-bottomed tray, that will fit in your oven. If you have a standing pilot light in your oven you can put the fruit in at 140 degrees and keep it at that temp for about 8 hours, then just leave it in the oven with the pilot light only or the electric light turned on which will keep it at about the same temp if you don't have a standing pilot light. First dip the berries in boiling water for 30 seconds, no longer! let them drip dry then transfer to the drying tray. Just check on the berries about every 8 hours and when they have shrivelled to 1/2 to 1/3 the original size (2 to 3 days, depending on size) and give a little but do not squish when you pinch them, they are done. You can leave them with no heat for another day to make sure but they should be o.k. Taste also as they progress. You will find that the sugar concentrates and they will be much sweeter dried than they are naturally. The regular home dehydrators are very inexpensive and do a fairly good job. I have two of the Excalibur dehydrators and they do a great job. Excalibur I dry everything from berries to mango slices to figs, tomatoes, apples and of course apricots, peaches and nectarines, herbs, celery, sliced onions, sliced shallots, sliced garlic. It also is handy for drying candied peel and ginger. (I make big batches) like this recently finished 12 quarts of ginger.

Cooked down to preserves, placed still warm in food processor with heavy cream, processed until you have apricot cream, warm and lucious.

You might try using a heavy-weight balloon sprayed lightly with release compound. I used balloons into which I had poured a cup full of BBs before blowing it up to the size I needed, you would need more for a larger balloon. Once inflated you clip the valve closed with a wood clothes pin and place it with the valve at the bottom on one side, manipulating it until the BBs are spread out, the bottom is flat and the balloon is stable. After your cage is completely set and dry, hold the valve and gently let the air out by carefully squeezing the clothes pin until the balloon has pulled away from the interior of the cage then let the rest of the air out. Try it with smaller balloons at first. I also use balloons to make chocolate bowls.