andiesenji

I will have to figure measurements and times and write down my recipe. I have been making them for so many years it is automatic and I don't need to refer to a recipe. I have a bowl in which I mix the dough and I just put flour in to the usual level then add the other ingredients. I will measure and time as I make up a batch tonight.

The Pineapple vinegar sounds great. It also ought to make nice fresh pickles. Speaking of different vinegars, I am partial to Coconut vinegar(suka ng niyog) which I buy at a Phillipine market in town. It is a Phillipine product and the brand is Gold Medal, marked "Export Quality". 1 liter $1.39 - Palm vinegar (sukang paombong) brand Favorite, is the same price. They have lower acidity than most vinegars so lend themselves well to marinades when you want a smoother taste. I also use the Thai mild sweet chile sauce (Mae Ploy brand) on the cooked carnitas for a different flavor. Instead of rolling it in a tortilla I stuff it in a pita pocket. I bake pita at least once a week because I use them instead of bread for sandwiches.

Outlaw cook has the best recipe on the 'net. You have to find the non-ultra-pasturized cream I use manufacturers cream that I buy at Smart & Final wholesale grocers. There are similar suppliers most everywhere because chefs use it for sauces as well as the usual uses for heavy cream. http://www.outlawcook.com/Page0221.html

The chemical reaction is exactly correct. Just as milk is a "cure" for hot peppers because the casein in the milk grabs onto the capsaicin molecules and carries them away, the same effect takes place with the onion as the casein in milk combines with the sulfer compounds that give onions there pungency.

I know exactly what you mean. It is one thing to avoid certain foods because of an allergy. It is another thing to exclude an entire group of foods for what I consider idiotic reasons. The Low Carb diet has seemingly taken over the nation. I simply do not believe a diet so restrictive can be healthy. My main complaint is when someone that wears a size 2 and looks from the back like she left a coat hanger in her sweater, tells me that she can't have any carbs and doesn't even want to see them on the table. I simply suggested that she and her boyfriend come to dinner at a later date when she was eating a normal diet because I had three other couples coming for dinner and I was going to serve normal food for normal appetites and that would include some carbs. She got a bit huffy with me and made a remark about my weight (I am considerably overweight) and that I would probably benefit from the low carb diet. I finished her off by telling her that I had a chronic kidney problem and a high protein diet would cause harm. I thought she had an amazing amount of chutzpa in asking me to cater to her and ignore the wishes of other guests.

Cumin is the one that is absolutely necessary. Use cumin seed, toast it in a dry skillet till the seeds start to pop, shake it constantly, let it cool a bit then grind it just before using. The flavor is much more effective. Ground cumin loses its strength rapidly. You also don't have to use fresh chile pepper. Grind some hot red pepper flakes instead, a teaspoon would be enough. I had considered using some brown sugar in the rub but forgot about it. The meat is so naturally sweet that it wasn't needed, however some pork would benefit from that little extra sweetness.

Yes, rinse with water. I usually slice them before soaking in milk, then rinse and chop. However I have put chopped onions in milk when I realized after chopping that they were too strong.

You will enjoy their cookbooks. They really spend a lot of time preparing every recipe several times before they include it in the book. Every recipe is a tried and true one. I have been to two of the Border Grill restaurants, Santa Monica and Pasadena several times. I made it to Ciudad once and would like to go again but it is not always easy to get friends lined up for a trip to downtown L.A.

The boar carnitas was well received. Seconds and thirds were requested. I sliced and chopped it prior to heating in microwave then mixed in pico de gallo and chopped cilantro. Homemade corn tortillas were the perfect wrap. The flavor was excellent and the meat was very tender. Even the "crunchy bits" were tender, almost dissolving in the mouth. Before rolling and tying the meat I seasoned it with a mixture of 1 rounded tablespoon Cumin, toasted and freshly ground 2 tablespoons kosher Salt 1 teaspoon black Pepper 1 tablespoon minced Garlic 1 tablespoon minced Anaheim chile 3 tablespoons Lime juice 3 tablespoon Tequila worked into a paste then rubbed all over the meat. Here are a couple of photos. I sliced some which will go into sandwiches. also a close up showing the color of the interior of the meat. Definitely not the other white meat.

Taming the wild onion, strong onions. Actually a very old-fashioned method for taking the "bite" out of strong onions and the "wild" onions gathered in the spring in Kentucky and most of the other southern states, AKA "ramps", is to soak them in milk or buttermilk. Our cook, when I was a child, was a Gullah woman from the Carolina lowcountry and every spring she and her "girls" went out hunting for the little pungent wild onions. She always split them lengthwise and soaked them in milk for an hour or so to "break their spirit" (her words). I have been using this method ever since I began cooking on my own. Usually I can tell with the first cut if an onion is going to be hot and strong. It works with garlic also.

How about the Italian chameleon, the lupini bean. They can be a shock to someone who simply cooks them. The incredible bitterness is awful and is difficult to get out of your mouth. When I was taught to cook them I had to taste one so I would know. They do contain alkaloids that can make one ill. Also, the invasive crop has to be kept away from areas where animals feed. After cooking they have to be throughly rinsed in fresh water then placed in the fridge in salt water that must be changed daily for five or six days (I was told in Italy they used to put them in mesh bags and place them in a stream for a couple of weeks.) to get rid of the bitterness. At the end of the process they have changed into a tough skin containing a sweet, nutty snack that is unlike any other bean. To me the flavor is reminiscent of chestnut. They are available already prepared in jars. It seems odd that a foodstuff that requires so much preparation would be popular but it has been around for at least two thousand years. There is mention of them in Roman literature.

That is exactly how I feel. I come from a long line of book collectors and grew up in a house with a real library (my grandfather's) but books could be found throughout the house. No wonder I became a bookworm. Fortunately I am a rapid reader. I have been questioned many times by people who ask why I have so many cookbooks because, "You couldn't possibly use recipes from all of them." Perhaps not, but my philosophy is that if there comes a time that I need a particular recipe I will certainly have a source in which to look.

Are you anywhere close to a Trader Joe's? Try the Better'n Peanut Butter. It is super yummy.

Since my first post on May 1 when I said I had "well over a thousand" cookbooks, I have managed to find my list from the last time I catalogued my collection in 1999. The count of cookbooks, not counting the little paperbacks from companies such as Westinghouse, etc., was 1014. Since then I have bought a collection from a lady who was moving into a retirement home. (247) and 57 new books and 32 books at used book stores and 19 from a thrift store and received 5 as gifts in 2000. In 2001 I bought 22 new books, 37 used books and 10 from the thrift store, received 2 as gifts. In 2002 I bought 41 new books, 104 used books and 16 books at the thrift store, 11 gifts. In 2003 I bought 35 new books, 54 used books and 22 from the thrift store, 8 gifts. So far this year I have bought 39 new books(3 today), 44 used books and 2 from the thrift store, 1 gift. This brings my grand total to 1822. The center hall in my home is 52 feet long and has 4 doorways and a linen closet. All the free wall space has floor to ceiling bookcases attached to the walls. This room (family room) has two walls with floor to ceiling bookcases 18 feet on one wall, 12 on the other. One bedroom is a book room with 15 barrister's bookcases bought at auction 20 years ago very cheap. The remainder of my books are stored in metal footlockers in a storage facility. I bought 60 footlockers at a military surplus auction in 1988 for a buck each. They aren't pretty but they are certainly sturdy. And even better they can be stacked and a rod run down through the handles at each end which stabilizes the stack and makes it difficult to steal them. The newest cookbooks and the ones to which I refer on a regular basis are in a smaller bookcase next to my desk which has at one end a swing out book rest that holds a book at a good angle for reading. I bought it at an auction, it was called a "librarian's bookcase" in the auction catalog. I would like to find another but have never seen one. I have run out of room in it and now have books stacked on the floor at each end of my desk. On the settee behind me and on top of my paper shredder. One stack is teetering a bit too close to one of the dog beds and poor Teafer keeps eyeing it with distrust. She has been "attacked" by books in the past, one falling off the arm of a chair, sliding off the end of the desk when something else was pushed into it. No wonder she doesn't trust them. She has been known to nap on top of books too.

If I don't make my own I like Trader Joe's. If I have a chance to get down to the Farmer's Market in L.A. I get freshly made peanut butter. I have tried a couple of the so-called "natural" butters but they all tasted a bit rancid to me. The one put out by Laura Scudders always have about an inch of oil on top and that turns me off.

That reminds me of a funny thing that happened years ago. My ex loved choc mousse and I made it fairly often. One evening he came home from some event and delved into the fridge and came out with a dessert in a crystal goblet that I had prepared for a tea the next afternoon. Without asking, he removed the cover and dug into it, thinking it was the choc mousse. He made a face and said "What is this stuff??" I smiled and replied "Prune whip" - it was requested by the ladies at the bridge club that were having the tea the following day. He continued eating then said it wasn't bad and wandered off into his den, leaving the goblet for me to pick up and take back to the kitchen. I often wondered what he thought it was......... It looked like chocolate mousse in the dim light from the family room. If he had bothered to switch on the kitchen light he would have noted the difference.

I don't know. He was a fairly big one. I think the dressed weight was 200 pounds. Before I deboned it the leg weighed almost 40 pounds. I sawed the lower 2/3 into pieces which will probably go into a stew of some kind. the thigh portion had a massive femur bone, at least 3 times the size of a regular ham bone and the "H" bone, part of the pelvis was also much thicker and heavier than a comparable bone in a domestic pig. I prepared the "saddle" for a big party the hunter held for a large party of friends last Christmas, and each loin and the attached rib portion weighed over 35 pounds. I had to roast them separate then assemble after roasting on a huge platter. I just thank God he didn't ask me to prepare the head. He decided to have it mounted. Ugly sucker....

Have you ever tried feeding them duxelles? I have sneaked this into a dish and it was consumed with gusto by a person who wouldn't eat mushrooms that were recognizable (but eats Campbells cream of mushroom soup) gak.... I do understand about the bell peppers. I can eat all kinds of chiles and have no problem with ripe red peppers but when they are green I have a bit of a problem. I avoid them in big chunks, like stuffed peppers, etc. But if they are chopped up and part of a dish or a sauce I eat as much as I can tolerate and just leave the rest. I have serious allergies to shellfish and other seafood from the ocean - freshwater is okay. I also have a severe allergy to raw alcohol. If it is cooked in a sauce or in a dish for long enough for the alcohol esthers to be eliminated it doesn't bother me. Otherwise I get laryngeal edema, my airway closes and it could be fatal. Simply flaming it doesn't remove enough to make it safe for me. I have to avoid desserts that might contain alcohol.

I have eaten javelina (peccary) many times. My neighbor brings them back from his ranch near Durango, Mexico. They are a pest because they tear up their crops and also compete with their goats for food on the open range. They are also dangerous to people. They aren't very big but are very aggressive. They do make good eating.

The flavor is pretty much the same as domestic pork. It has more color, the flesh is reddish pink, it looks more like the pork I knew as a child on the farm. That was of course before pork became "the other white meat" and lost a lot of its flavor. I used about a pound of pork belly fat in the meat otherwise I think it would have been pretty dry. You can see a strip of it in the close up picture. I have never noticed any "gamy" flavor to wild boar. I think it is the way they feed. I have a note that this one was taken in Mendocino county. It is probably the same way that elk is more like beef and also has no gamy flavor because they graze like cattle. Deer, on the other hand, eat a lot of tree leaves, bark and such and develop a stronger flavor. They are also a lot more active whereas elk tend to stand around or anble slowly around their range while deer do a lot of running. Most of the venison I get is from mule deer because most of the hunters go up to Utah to hunt. Occasionally one will show up with a whitetail but that is pretty rare out here.

I forgot to note that I started out with 14 pounds and after cooking have slightly less than 10 pounds. It lost considerably less weight than I would have expected with regular pork.

After 7 hours cooking in foil I took the meat out, cut it into chunks and moved to a sheet pan. Roasted uncovered for 1 1/2 hours, turning twice so all sides nicely browned. Meat very moist and tender, shreds readily. It is delicious, rich and full of flavor. Close up of piece that I pulled apart with two forks.

About the price, I don't recall what I paid. I got it at Wal-Mart and the big bars were on sale for the holidays in a big display next to all the cookie cutters, pans, etc. At the time I recall thinking it was a really good deal, compared with what I usually pay. As I recall I bought 10 bars. I think I have 2 left. I can't eat chocolate so I have to depend on someone else to taste for me. One of my unfortunate allergies - the other is alcohol........

I chopped it and measured out 10 oz. to which I added 2 oz heavy cream and two drops of almond oil. I melted it in a ceramic double boiler because it was not enough volume to put into the tempering machine. I brought it up to 105 degrees F, then removed the ceramic insert from the double boiler and placed it on a pre-heated heating pad, brought the temp down to 92 degrees and held it there. I dipped the fruit and peel and it took about 20 minutes to set up. I didn't need to refrigerate it, it held nicely at room temp on a tray with a dome cover. The chocolate could be touched briefly without leaving a fingerprint.

In a 30 inch range, to get the most bang for your buck take a look at the Bosch. http://www.us-appliance.com/hgbo30gasfrc1.html Two of my neighbors bought this model, one last summer and the other in December (It was a Christmas present). They both love it. I have cooked on it and the cooktop is every bit as good as mine and cost less... The 15000 btu burner is hot enough to adequately heat a wok and the continuous grate makes it easy to move large pots and pans. The warming drawer is a great plus and one that is not found on every range. If I had to furnish a kitchen with a small range this would be my choice.