andiesenji

I buy a great deal of tea online. I buy from several importers/vendors such as Harney & Sons, Adagio, British Express, Blue Moon Tea, Capital Tea (Canada), My Gourmet Tea (Ceylon), Betjeman & Barton, In Pursuit of Tea, Republic of Tea, Special Teas and others. I also buy at tea shops, particularly Chado in Pasadena that carries an extensive line of teas. Devan Shah, the proprietor is one of the founders of the Nilgiri Tea Society. I buy from vendors that carry the teas I want at a fair price. I am willing to pay premium prices for rare teas but like to sample first. Several vendors offer sample packages that provide enough for 2-4 cups of tea at very reasonable prices. If one is plunking down up to forty dollars (or more) for four ounces of tea, one wants to know that it is something one will drink.

I agree 100%. The "soft wheat" flour that is sold in the south is difficult to find but at least it is available on line. White Lily has long been a favorite of mine and prior to online ordering, one of my cousins in Kentucky used to send me a "care package" from time to time. A friend in North Carolina swears by Red Band but I think it is more difficult to find than White Lily. The only domestic flour I have come to like as well, possibly better, and also have to order online, is Hudson Cream flour (Kansas). I order it in a 25 pound bag (I use a lot) for 7.00 and 9.00 shipping. I also order their self-rising in smaller amounts and their white cornmeal. If you want to check them out. http://www.hudsoncream.com/ However, for the past couple of years I have also been ordering a flour from Ireland, Odlum's Cream flour. It is available at some specialty shops in NYC but since I am in Calif. that doesn't help me. I read an article about the flour in a Brit. food magazine (Waitrose), which said that for super tender cakes, extremely flaky pastry and scones, it was unparalleled. I have used it to make puff pastry and croissants, as well as cakes, biscuits and scones, and in my opinion it is a superior product. There is a French pastry flour which is probably as good but costs four or five times as much. I am a bit of a fanatic about baking and am ever on the lookout for an ingredient that will produce a better product.

The magic word here is "horseradish" - - - It acts as a preservative. Mustard does also. The acid does kill the bacteria at room temperature and it does take several hours to work. However in the rare case of an egg that has been in storage for a long time and perhaps has not been kept at the optimum temperature after purchase, the salmonella can grow and produce toxins which are not destroyed by the acid or by cooking. However that is very, very rare. The egg board in Calif. estimates that one in 50,000 eggs is affected by salmonella and of those, only 1 in 10,000 would have been in conditions where the salmonella would be able to incubate. The safe way is to keep the eggs refrigerated, if you plan on grocery shopping and being out for an extended time, take a small ice chest along and put eggs, dairy and meat in it. I keep one in my van all the time and just buy an 80 cent bag of ice to keep the stuff cool. No worries!

I buy pasturized eggs at Vons, the only market that carries them near my home. Trader Joe's carried them for awhile but they didn't move quick enough so they discontinued them. A few upscale markets also carry them but none are close enough for me to visit on a regular basis. They are great for making mayo and eggnog, Caesar salad, etc.

If you buy nothing else, get a good copper pan for sugar/caramel/butter/chocolate. It can be a treasure and can make your tasks much easier. The response to heat is rapid and absolutely nothing else works as well. You do not use this pan for anything else, being unlined it can't be used for cooking anything that has high acid content (except for fruits cooked in sugar for jams, etc., but for sugar work it is ideal. This site http://www.chefsresource.com/solcopsugsau.html and this site http://www.chefsresource.com/solcopsugsau.html have the best prices. I have three and the one I use the most is the 1 3/4 quart, the diameter to depth ratio makes this one the easiest to use for me. The smaller one, 5 1/2 inches in diameter is just a bit too small for most recipes and the largest 3 1/2 qt. is simply too big to handle easily with one hand. If you want to do larger batches, Sur La Table http://www.surlatable.com/ has an 18 cup (4 1/2 qt.) small preserving pan with two handles at an excellent price (49.00) right now. This item is not always available at such a good price. I have two of these and they are extremely useful for candying. Andie

It develops a metallic taste if it does not become rancid. Believe me you would not like it. Make a smaller batch. However if you go to the trouble to make it you will find that you can use it up fairly rapidly.

For years a friend in Sydney would pack up a bundle of AWW along with whatever cookbooks I wanted and ship them to me a couple of times a year. Then their site came on line and when they began accepting international orders I bought direct. http://magshop.com.au/Books.asp?CID=522 I have at least 25 of the cookbooks. In the back of every book is a sections that explains the conversion factors and the difference between Australian measurements and English and American. I find that the recipes are easy to understand and I have yet to prepare a recipe that wasn't excellent. Some of my favorites are: Biscuits and Slices, New Finger Food, Wicked, Good Food Fast and The Christmas Book.

Has no one tried True Blue from Australia? I am extremely partial to gorgonzola Dolcelatte and also to Stilton, however I tried the Aussie blue cheese a couple of years ago and found it very satisfying. The only Roquefort I like is the Papillon. I have had a couple of bad experiences with roquefort. One time I opened the package and it had a strong odor of ammonia. I took it back to the store and the clerk cut open three other packages, all had the same odor. I use Maytag when I need a very strong blue, when it is going to mixed into cream cheese, or into a sauce because it is sharp enough to hold its own. Another domestic blue that I like is Crater Lake Blue, made in Oregon. It is similar to Pt. Reyes but just enough different with a little extra pungency without being harsh.

Adele, I know you are going to have a good time with your adventures in baking. There is something so satisfying about watching something that looks like an offspring of the Blob, emerge looking like a piece of art. There are people who will tell you that there are "born" bakers or cooks but the truth is that baking works on scientific principals that are dependably predictable. There are of course certain variables, altitude, humidity or the lack of it, barometric pressure, all of which can have an effect but once you understand how to work in your area you have the basics. I have a couple of hints when baking a new recipe for the first time. Gather all the utensils, pans and ingredients ahead of time. I use a tray for each recipe. This insures that you will have all the necessary ingredients and implements when you are ready to start. You can even measure the dry ingredients and store them in ziploc bags days ahead of time so when you are ready to bake all you have to do is combine the ingredients. If you figure out how much time it takes to do all the measuring and other prep work you will see that it will make a difference, particularly when you run into something that has 10 or 15 ingredients. (I bake numerous batches of various types of cookies for the holidays each year and I do all this prep work ahead of time and have all the pre-measured dry ingredients assembled on a tray or in a bus tub and placed in plastic bags and stacked in my pantry. When I am ready to start baking it works like an assembly line and saves me loads of time.) I use a lot of shortbread for bases in desserts, or just for tea cookies. I mix it in large batches in a food processor and store it in a sealed container in the fridge. When needed I just scoop out as much as I need, press it into a pan and bake. It keeps for several weeks. Heres wishing you the very best of luck in your endeavors, Andie

Add 53 additional cookbooks for me. 4 boxes of books purchased on ebay arrived in today's mail. Publication dates from 1921 to 1986.

More notes about the fruited cocoa cake. I like to give friends the makings for this cake, pre-measured dry ingredients, fruits, nuts, spices, etc., wrapped with a baking pan, and a laminated copy of the recipe. People who seldom go to the trouble of making cakes from scratch have fun with this one, particularly because it doesn't need icing. It is so easy to just dust it with XXX sugar. It is also easy to decorate when one uses the glaze because dragees, candy spots, and othre decorative sugar items stick to it quite well. I bake it in a large Christmas tree pan and 4 small tree forms and group them on a large tray. I surround the "grove" with macaroon coconut and decorating the trees with red hots, green candies and making "strings" of silver and gold dragees. If I feel ambitious I can pipe red and green garlands. It can also be baked in a Bundt pan but the pan can only be filled half way. It takes so long to bake it so the center is done that the outer edges overcook if the pan is filled. It is because the fruit makes the center very moist.

Speaking of resurrecting "classic" cakes, this one is truly ancient. Here is a very old family recipe. The earliest mention of the cake is in one of my ancestor's journals ca. 1690. My great-grandmother found the "receipt" and deciphered the recipe in about 1880. Although it was prepared at other times of the year, it was always called Christmas Cake. I brought it up to date about 20 years ago when I was allowed access to my great grandmama's journals. I have continued to refine it right up to the present. Like many cakes of that era it contains dried fruits and is fairly heavy. You can use a combination of dried fruits, but the larger ones have to be chopped so all pieces are about the same size. I have used cherries, cranberries, blueberries, black currants, Zante currants, sultanas and my home-dried extra sweet seedless red grapes, dried plums, dried persimmons, peaches and pears. As long as the total amount is as listed in the recipe, it doesn't matter about the combination. I often make this for parties and most people love it. Technically it is a "fruit" cake but even people who do not care for fruitcake will eat this. Also like most of the English cakes that are served at tea, it keeps very well, as I have noted in the recipe. FRUITED COCOA CAKE original recipe ca. 1690 Notes: It is important to use Dutch process cocoa. I use King Arthur Flour's Double Dutch Cocoa and Black Cocoa Half and Half. When glazed with the glaze at the end of the recipe, this cake will keep for several days at room temp and will stay incredibly moist. I have in the past made this cake ahead of time and wrapped it well in aluminum foil and kept it in a cool place for 6 weeks. However I now live alone. When my family was still all together, I could not keep it more than a couple of days......to give you an idea of the way things used to be, the original "receipt" called for 6 pounds of twice-boulted flour and 3 full pound loaves of sugar well beaten..... 2 pounds of butter and 3 dozen eggs. 1 cup BUTTER unsalted 1-1/2 tsp SALT 1 tsp CINNAMON 1 tsp CLOVES, ground 1 tsp NUTMEG, ground 1 tsp ALLSPICE, ground 1/3 cup COCOA, Dutch process 3 cups superfine SUGAR 4 extra-large EGGS 3 tsp BAKING SODA 4 cups unbleached FLOUR 1-1/2 cups CURRANTS 1-1/2 cups DRIED CHERRIES 1-1/2 cups WALNUTS, chopped or pecans or macadamia nuts, etc. 3 cups APPLESAUCE, unsweetened chunky style if you can find it, even better is homemade. Preheat oven to 350 F Grease and flour a deep 11" x 15" pan or 2 10-inch square pans or 2 holiday mold pans. In a large mixing bowl (or mixer bowl) cream together butter, salt, spices, cocoa and sugar. beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each one. Mix baking soda with flour and sift, reserve 2 heaping tablespoons. Instead of sifting the flour you can simply put it in a large bowl and run a wire whisk through it which does the same as sifting, i.e. fluffing it up a bit. Add flour to batter alternately with applesauce. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts with the reserved flour, toss to coat well and fold into cake batter. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 1 hour or until cake tests done. (deeper pans will require longer baking) ORANGE GLAZE GRATED PEEL OF 2 ORANGES 1/3 CUP SUGAR 1/4 CUP WATER 1 CUP ORANGE JUICE 3 TABLESPOONS GRAND MARNIER LIQUOR OR BRANDY Combine ingredients in saucepan, bring to simmer, stirring constantly, continue cooking until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Drizzle over cake ( I use a turkey baster and a perforated spoon as the glaze is too hot to dip my fingers into which is usually the way I drizzle icing) . After the glaze has set, decorate edges of the cake and the plate edges with powdered sugar sifted thru a fine sieve or use a cut-out pattern or paper "lace" doily.

I also use various types of pepper, although my favorite black (at present) is the Tellicherry extra bold from Penzey's. I have a small shaker in which I mix fresh ground pepper and kosher salt and carry in my pocket when I am meandering around my garden just in case a ripe tomato should happen to fall into my hand. And of course there are the Persian cucumbers that are coming along just fine. Apricots from my old heirloom tree also benefit from a judicious application of pepper and salt, not to mention the ripe peaches which will be coming along in July. Much of this goes back to my childhood when my cousins and I used to sneak out of the house with a salt shaker and visit the apple orchard. Green apples with salt.....lovely, as long as one remembered that there was a limit, otherwise a tummy ache. The green corn, the little ears that were entirely edible, cob and all. Nothing like the rather tasteless canned baby corn that shows up in salad bars... Geez, now I am hungry. You guys are a bad influence.

You should read some of the posts on the TeaMail list. Incredible detail.... I do love tea but the descriptions of the various aromas and flavors as the tea steeps and as it is consumed, the after tastes and etc., may be educational for some but for me it is enough to simply enjoy the tea. I do not have to reassure myself with all this minutiae to get satisfaction from my cuppa.

Tea is truly a subjective taste. Not everyone senses the same taste in a paritcular tea. You can go broke buying a selections of teas and often they will languish on the shelf until they no longer brew up as they should. I would like to suggest that you check out Harney and Sons http://store.yahoo.com/harneyteas/index.html Harney has a sample program where you can order up to 5 samples of loose teas per order, each sample costs 2.00 and is enough to brew 4 cups of tea. Place an order for a regular item, either in bags or loose, perhaps a tea with which you are familar such as an Irish breakfast if you like strong tea or a Formosa Oolong if you like a more delicate, winey tea. Then add 5 samples of teas that sound interesting and you have a good selection with which to experiment with not a lot of outlay. If you like floral teas, Jane's garden tea is a green tea (Bancha) blended with rosebuds.

I have 3 Perfex pepper mills. One is 30 years old and still works fine. I bought a second one about 10-12 years ago just for white pepper. I bought the third just for allspice 3 or 4 years ago. (allspice is so tough it wore out another type of mill.) They are not cheap but they say they will last a lifetime and so far they have been proven correct. Check at shopping.com to find the best price. Get the 4 1/2 inch model.

and here is a site with recipes for various liquers. http://cocktails.about.com/library/recipes/blirishcream.htm

Perhaps you might find this interesting: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_01.14.9...rink/dr0114.htm Which reminds me of a friend who can't afford to keep numerous liquers on hand and makes her own when needed. Her secret? Flavored ice creams, French vanilla, coffee or espresso, butter pecan, caramel vanilla, peaches 'n cream, mint chocolate chip, etc. It is allowed to soften, then mixed in a blender with brandy, rum, vodka, Irish, bourbon or rye, she can approximate many commercial liquers and has even invented a few of her own. Brandy with butter pecan is one that people just love. I don't recall she made any mezcal creme liquer but I do know that she loves one particular tequila, Lago Azul which she describes as a "sippin tequila" because it is very sweet and smooth.

The strangest restaurant in my memory was a place named Coulibah on Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana, California. The chef-owner was a martinet and made his customers march to his tune. First of all one had to make reservations months in advance. It was only open on Thursday, Fridand and Saturday evenings. As I recall there were only 8 tables. Reservations had to be made for the exact number of people who would be served. Show up with one less or one more and you would be refused admittance. Also if you showed up late or more than 10 minutes early, same thing. No bar at which to linger. The wine list was excellent but not extensive. Just enough to enjoy with the meal was allowed. Anyone asking for more than the owner thought was necessary risked the ire of the temperamental man. His attitude was that drunks could not enjoy his perfectly prepared food. The food was exquisite and one had better praise it voluably or that would be one's last visit to the place. It was very expensive and worth every penny. I don't know how he stayed in business. Some of us who managed to get reservations more than once or twice hazaraded a guess that he had a regular job somewhere else and this was run as a hobby. I was sorry to see it go. I drove past one day and the sign was gone and later the wallpaper store next door extended into the place where I had enjoyed some memorable meals. I also could never figure the name. Coulibah is in the song "Waltzing Matilda" and refers to a tree. The owner was certainly not an Australian and no one I knew ever had the nerve to ask him about the name.

I can empathize with you about the chicken skin. When I roast the chicken on the rotisserie I always manage to "taste" the skin when I remove it. I grow a lot of different varieties of chiles as I have two lots, one of which is all garden. The Obregon's have a smaller garden and grow tomatillos, melons, squash and a few other Mexican vegetables and we pool our produce and share. She has taught me a lot about the various types of chiles and the differnt flavors that can be coaxed from them depending on how they are prepared. I make a large batch of dried smoked jalapeños (Chipotle peppers) every year - they are usually only available canned in adobo sauce but I like to use them in dishes where I don't want the sauce. A little goes a long way. Unlike most jalapeños these are allowed to ripen on the bush until they are completely red. Some people think they are a different pepper but they are just plain old ripe jalapeños that have been dried and smoked. The flavor is unusual and lends itself well to rubs and sauces for roasted meats.

I don't eat seafood myself, however there are a number of authentic restaurants that serve seafood enchiladas, many use a light cream-based sauce but of the "green" variety. Just think of the amount of the country that is close to the seacoast and where seafood is the main ingredient in their foods. Ceviche is very popular along the west coast of Mexico and Baja California. They prepare tacos and enchiladas with some unusual seafood also. Skate is common, they pound and shred it to make it tender.

Fortunately for me, we have in southern California the string of Vallarta SuperMercados or Supermarkets that have been adding new stores at a phenomenal rate. http://www.Vallartasupermarket.com/ I recommend these stores to anyone who wants to find great produce at terrific prices, authentic Mexican, Central America and South American foods. Their meats are also excellent and there are real live butchers to cater to your needs. The in-store tortilla bakery produces wonderful corn and flour tortillas. You can also buy prepared masa for tortillas or the masa made special for tamales. They carry an extensive range of Mexican dairy products.

I don't know where you are located, however if you can find a Mexican market in your area try some of the Mexican, "Grade A Table Cream". This is a sweet cream that is twice as thick as ordinary "heavy" cream. When you take a spoonful out of the jar it stays slightly mounded on the spoon. You can thicken it further by pouring it into a paper coffee filter and letting it sit in the fridge for several hours or overnight. It is just pure cream, no sweeteners, no additives. I also buy Labne or Kefir cheese at the middle eastern markets. It has only a hint of "tang" not at all like sour cream, and is quite thick. I mix these two products together for spreading onto scones with jam or marmalade or spoon over fruits or sweeten slightly for dipping strawberries. My preferred taste is also for a plain cream - I have never cared for marscapone, it always tastes somewhat "off" to me. For fruit salads I sweeten sour cream - I use Splenda because I am now a diabetic but in the past I used sugar whipped into sour cream because whipped cream always tasted too sweet to me.

Mrs. Obregon's Chicken Enchiladas This recipe came from my neighbor who is from Durango, Mexico. Lived on a ranch with her husband and children until 1987 when they turned the ranch over to their two eldest sons and emigrated (legally) to California and settled here, close to their oldest daughter. They have a lot of family celebrations which require massive amounts of food and I have helped prepare 200 tamales beef, chicken, etc., numerous enchiladas, burritos, tortas, chemichangas, etc., and my oven has been host to huge amounts of beef, chicken, goat, pork and various baked goods. I love Mexican foods of any type, especially enchiladas, and have eaten them in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and of course in several parts of Mexico. These are the best enchiladas I have ever tasted and I had to work to get the recipe. This recipe would be for a 4-pound chicken. 18 to 24 corn tortillas, the extra-thick are more like the home-made ones we use. The chicken is roasted, not poached, either in the oven or on the barbecue(barbacoa) and always has a lemon and half of a large onion stuffed into the cavity along with cumin seeds, Mexican tarragon, and a whole Anaheim chile pepper. The latter is for flavor, not heat. Cooking time depends on the size of the chicken - when the leg wiggles freely it is done. The skin is set aside along with the carcass after all the meat has been removed. (The bones, skin and wings go into a pot to make a broth.) The meat is pulled into bite-sized pieces, seasoned with the following mixture: 1 fresh chile poblano seeded and deveined then finely chopped. If more heat is desired use 3-4 jalapeños or 4-5 serranos. 2 medium tomatoes, cut in half, broiled for 3 minutes then chopped 3 tomatillos, cut in half, broiled for 5 minutes then chopped. 2 cloves of garlic minced. 1 medium onion, finely chopped. 3 tablespoons lime or lemon juice 3/4 teaspoon sea salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cumin Combine all ingredients and cook in a little oil in a large skillet just until it begins to stew. Remove from heat, cool and toss with chicken. Set aside. Cut Jack cheese into strips 1 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick, 4-5 inches long. If you have access to Mexican cheese, use Queso Fresca or Queso Seco, Cotija. Into 12 oz of tomato sauce mix 3 tablespoons of tomato paste Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground chile guajillo or chile arbol or other freshly ground whole chile. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet Add 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon salt Stir constantly until garlic is just beginning to show color Add the tomato sauce and heat until it bubbles. Remove from heat allow to cool slightly. Fry tortillas in a little oil until just softened and pliable. Stack on a plate and cover to keep warm. Lay a tortilla on top of sauce then pick up with tongs and lay in baking dish sauce side up. Place a strip of the cheese on the tortilla. Add a portion of the chicken mixture on top of the cheese, fold the sides of the tortilla over the chicken and turn it over so the seam side is on the bottom. Continue adding them side by side until the baking dish is full. Pour a line of the sauce down the center of the enchiladas then add a few strips of the Jack cheese diagonally across the sauce, or you can use shredded mild cheddar. Bake in a 300 degree oven for 15 -20 minutes, or just until cheese is melted. Top each portion with a spoonful of salsa fresca and a dollop of sour cream on top. For a breakfast dish serve two enchiladas topped with a fried egg.

Once you find out how easy it is to make them you won't go back to the commercial ones. Here is my recipe: Pita Bread 2-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 teaspoons rapid-rise or "instant" yeast 2 tablespoons oil, olive or canola or grape seed. 1-1/4 cups water room temp. Measure the flour (unsifted) into a large bowl. add the salt, yeast and oil. Make a "well" in the center of the flour and pour in the water. Using your hands, bring the flour into the water and continue mixing until a ball of dough is formed. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for about 15 minutes. (If you have a mixer that has a dough hook you can place all ingredients into the mixing bowl, blend until ingredients form a ball then continue mixing for about 10 minutes with the mixer set on lowest speed.) The dough should feel silky and soft but not flabby, when a thumb is pressed into the dough it should fill in quickly. Spray the inside of a large Zip-lok bag with Pam or similar oil spray. Place the dough ball into the bag and seal. Set aside to rise until it has doubled in size. At normal room temp this should be about an hour to an hour and a half. Turn the dough out onto the floured board, knead 3 or 4 times then stretch into a fat cylinder. Cut in half, then cut the halves in half, and so on, so that you end up with 8 pieces of dough. Roll the pieces into balls and press flat into a disk. Spray a sheet of plastic wrap with oil, place disks on it then cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Set aside to rest for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven to 475 degrees, F. Using a rolling pin, flatten the disks on a lightly floured board and roll into about a 6-inch circle. They should be about 1/4 inch thick or slightly less. If you have a baking stone you can bake the pita directly on it, mist the stone with water before placing the pita on the hot stone then mist the pita. Otherwise, place the pita on a lightly oiled baking sheet and place on center shelf in oven. Mist the pita and close the oven door. Watch closely. In about 3-4 minutes the pita will have blown up like a baloon and are done. They should not brown, but might show a little color around the edges. Immediately remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool. Depending on the size of your oven you should be able to bake 3 or 4 at a time. You have to leave room above the pita for them to expand. To reheat, fold into a kitchen towel and heat in microwave for 30 seconds.