andiesenji

I use a fine monofilament line - bought in the fishing section at Wal-Mart. Cut a piece long enough with some extra to tie around a couple of bottle corks at each end. Grasp the corks, stretch the line tight (I have water running in the sink and wet the line under the running water. I put the taut line on the top then pull to one side while pushing down. This gives a clean cut. You can also use a steel guitar string, very fine. You still need something to hold onto at each end. I use this method for cutting lakhoum, taffy, cheeses, etc. The mono line is very cheap, you can get a lifetime supply for a couple of bucks.

I have not made them with agar agar, however I have made them with marshmallow root (from my garden), with guar gum from the health food store and with kuzu root. The first two turned out well but were a lot of work. The kuzu root was not successful. Addendum: I began using guar gum years ago to make lakhoum, Turkish Delight, because I liked the stability better than the candy made with gelatin. My teacher, way back in the 60s, used gum arabic (has to be food grade, can't use the stuff in artist's supply stores) for making jellied candies and for some reason the flavors were much more intense than with any other product. He also used it for making decorations for cakes. It remains pliable and combined with pulled sugar to support it, can make spectacular decorations. My teacher made a 5-tier wedding cake with a waterfall on one side made with the gum arabic jelled material. For many years it was very difficult to get superior food grade gum arabic in significant amounts at reasonable prices. (Most came from the Sudan and the tribal warfare nearly destroyed the trade.) read about it here:http://www.jumbo.th.com/ and here:http://www.bostick-sullivan.com/Technical_papers/gum_arabic.htm

I have not made them with agar agar, however I have made them with marshmallow root (from my garden), with guar gum from the health food store and with kuzu root. The first two turned out well but were a lot of work. The kuzu root was not successful. I was trying to develop a recipe for friends who are vegans and did not want to use gelatin. I don't see why you couldn't use agar agar, you would probably have to experiment. considering my experience with agar agar, I would use a little less than the amount of gelatin in the recipe as agar agar has more "setting" power. This site will give you quite a bit of information. http://www.vegsoc.org/info/gelling.html

Yes I have. I have made a custard based ice cream using Splenda. French vanilla. Excellent. Frozen yogurt with Splenda. I have also made granitas with Splenda, coffee, fruit juices etc. The best was a chai granita, black tea with spices and milk, sweetened to taste with Splenda, strained, then frozen and scraped to make the granita. I have also used it a lot in baking with very good results. It does not have the same moisture effect as sugar so things tend to dry and stale more rapidly, I just make smaller batches.

After I have threshed the seeds and cleaned them to get rid of all the tiny bits of chaff, I store them in an airtight container. Following is my basic mustard recipe plus a couple of variations. Version #1 simple and quick. If you want to have the perfect mustard, make your own. It is really easy. Mustard seed, yellow, brown or black, is easy to process into a spread that you can customize to your own taste. Indian Grocery stores carry the seed, all varieties. It is also very easy to grow. Start with 1/4 cup of mustard seed. Put the seeds in a jar and cover with wine and water 1/2 and 1/2, cider vinegar and water 1/2 & 1/2, or even strong beer. The seasoned Rice wine vinegar which is slightly sweet makes a very nice mustard. Add honey, about 2 - 3 teaspoons or another sweetener like apple jelly, currant jelly, lime marmalade, etc. close tightly and allow to soak overnight or for a couple of days. Put in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You can add a few drops of olive (or other vegetable oil) to smooth it out a bit more. Never add very hot water to powdered mustard. You will end up with a yellow paste with no flavor. I grow my own mustard - several varieties in the same patch - both for the greens and for the seeds. I don't separate them so end up with a mix of mostly black and brown with a small amount of yellow (also known as white) mixed in. You can grind the dry mustard seed but you have to be very careful with the mustard flour unless you have a seed or grain mill. The little spice grinders pulverize it into a powder which floats about and will go up your nose easily to create an effect that is difficult to explain - let us just say that you suddenly know what the term seeing stars means. Large batch mustard - variation #2 Anyway here is my method. I make a lot of mustard, different flavors, etc. so use a lot more than you will so just reduce the amounts. These are the amounts I use when I am going to make a batch for canning. I start out with about 2 pounds of mixed mustard seed (whole, more about this later) in a 2 gallon glass jar to which I add 1 quart of apple cider, 1 quart of cider vinegar, 1 pint of water. I let this sit at room temperature for a minimum of 3 days I then dip out a cup or so of the soaked seeds, put them in a food processor and add either a mix of apricot jam and apple jelly or orange marmalade to make the base for my regular sweet hot mustard. I process it until at least 2/3 of the seeds are crushed but there are still some whole seeds in the mix. I may then add various freshly ground spices, roasted garlic, peppers (various varieties of different heat levels, roasted onion, fresh ginger, raisins, etc. always to taste. If I am giving it as gifts I keep in mind that some people do not like mouth-searing heat and omit the peppers or use mild ones. Now, here is the secret of mustard. When you first mix it with a liquid - when it is already ground, you have to use a cold liquid, ice water, cold beer, whatever, because the enzymes which give mustard its taste have to go through a chemical conversion at a fairly low temperature until they stabilize. If you add hot water to dry mustard all you will have is a bitter paste with none of the mustard flavor. AFTER the mustard has been mixed or processed and is stable, you can then heat it to modify the heat and the flavor. You can do this on top of the stove, but I use the microwave. I pour the batch of mustard into a shallow casserole dish and nuke it for 30 seconds or so until it starts to bubble around the edges. I stir it, mixing well, taste and return for additional heating for 30 second intervals until it is close to the point I want. I then immediately transfer it to sterilized jars, place in a hot water bath, drop on the lids and the lid rings, tighten and add water so the jar tops are covered by about 1 inch then simmer for 5 minutes then tighten the rings, remove the jars from the water and allow to cool. You can hear the "ping" as the lids seal when the jars cool. P.S. This past holiday season I made 36 pints of cranberry mustard which all went as gifts and I already have people asking when I am going to make the next batch. With mustard, it is difficult to find a combination that is not tasty. I have made up batches with Hoisin sauce, mincemeat, various chile sauces, barbecue sauce, maple syrup, Coca-Cola, Rose's lime juice, currant jelly, grape jelly, etc. experiment - you never know when you might come up with something entirely new. Variation #3 - cranberry mustard I make cranberry mustard by substituting whole berry cranberry sauce (canned) for the apricot jam - I usually keep the apple jelly in the mix because the cranberry is usually quite tart. You can modify the heat in cranberry mustard, just like the regular, if it has too much "bite" or is too harsh, can be toned down a bit by heating. It is the same technique in the microwave as the regular. The result will be a little darker, a bit more translucent, and a little thicker. I think it looks better in a jar after being cooked because it looks like it has tiny colored jewels in it. Once the enzyme reaction has taken place, which is after the seeds are broken up so the liquid can mix with the mustard and this takes only a few minutes, the mustard can be heated without becoming bitter. If you add heat before the seeds are cracked, i.e. hot water, or popping the seeds in a dry skillet, the result will be bitter. Some Indian foods include toasted or fried mustard seed for that bitter essence. Check out the Mustard Museum: http://www.mustardmuseum.com/ He has some great books on mustard.

If you use a lot of Kaffir lime leaves you can get the plant itself from Nichols Garden Nursery. http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/index.htm It makes a great container plant. I bought one two years ago and it lives outside in the summer (in the shade) and in the greenhouse in our very short winter because we do get some very cold weather for a brief time. Mine is just 30 inches tall right now. Pinching the tips of the stems makes is bushier so it will produce a lot of leaves. I also have a Meyer (sweet) lemon and a Calmodin orange (like a Seville, good for marmalade) and they also have to winter indoors. Also from Nichols.

However, there is a product that can produce pretty good results. It is a meringue powder that contains a stabilizer and is for use when one is in conditions that are inhospitable to natural egg white use. You can find the powder in small containers in shops that supply cake decorating and candymaking supplies. Usually it comes in 10 pound containers. PastryWiz may have it, they have just about everything else. I order sugarpaste and marzipan in bulk from them when I don't feel like making my own.

Balmagowry, I've tried them in London (various postcodes); Glasgow; Edinburgh; and (most recent attempt) Herefordshire (perilously close to Wales). And yes, I know that nowhere in the UK are you more from 60 miles from the coastline but... I think it's just me. Egg whites despise me as a weakling. They can smell the fear. Fi Too, too true. I prepare meringues, including large ones for schaum torte, for a friend who lives in Malibu. The humidity here is less than 20% most of the year (11% today because the wind is blowing). One advantage of living in the desert. Another thing that is impossible in high humidity is a lot of sugar work. Spun sugar starts to weep minutes after it is finished. Pulled sugar slumps and deforms, enough to make one take to the bottle.

Long before the advent of the "Ove" glove here in the U.S. I was ordering the "Coolskin" gloves from the U.K. http://www.coolskin.com/shtml/home.shtml They are made of Nomex which is the fireproof material, Kevlar=bulletproof. The ones I buy are sized and also come in a longer version and I was always getting burns on the backs of my wrists or forearms when reaching deep into my oven to turn a pan, or on the sides of the oven when grasping a very wide pan. I don't care how much they cost, they are worth every penny. If I am going to be handling anything that is wet or steamy, these are roomy enough that I can wear a rubber glove under the Coolskins. I bought one of the new silicone mitts and it is not as easy as the gloves. It is difficult to grasp a pan that is on a sheet pan without putting the tip of the mitt into whatever is in the pan. Major damage to a layer. I checked out the "Ove" gloves when they were first available and the material was not as thick and they were too short - I have large hands. Regarding the hot hands problem when using a pastry tube, you can order kneading gloves from King Arthur flour - they are available also from a commercial supplier buy only by the gross. http://www.coolskin.com/shtml/home.shtml They were developed to keep dough from sticking to hands. They actually do keep the heat of your hands from the dough - I don't use them for regular bread dough. (I use latex food-handler gloves). However I do use them when I am working with puff pastry or a very short pastry dough. I keep them in the freezer between uses, in a ziploc bag.

Have you ever tried growing mustard? It does not take a lot of room and can be grown in containers. I am not referring to the mustard usually grown for greens. I grow the black and brown mustard (for seed) and the nice thing is that as the young basal leaves grow you can pick some of them and use them in a salad or other dish and the plant will continue to grow and put up a stalk that will flower and eventually form seed pods. Here in SoCalif I can get three crops a year and last year harvested 22 pounds of seed from a patch that is 4 ft x 12 ft. I save back a half-pound or so for the next crop and the rest is used to make various flavors of mustard which. You can buy the mustard seed at an Indian market. The mature plants will be 4 to 5 feet tall and very narrow, they do not spread sideways so work very well in containers.

I had the same experience. I had bought her first book and the things she wrote about stuck such a note with me that I kept meaning to write to her but never got around to it. (isn't it so much easier nowadays) I used her bread recipe frequently - not only was it ease, the flavor was wonderful. When More Home Cooking came out I bought it and was saddened to see that the copyright was to her estate.

Perhaps someone here can help me locate a book that I read quite a few years ago. I can't recall the exact title or the name of the author. It was one of those "trade paperback" books, larger than a regular paperback, and I recall that it was from one of the small publishing houses that does short runs. Part of the title or subtitle was "Confessions of a Food Stylist" and the author was a woman who did the compositions for the photographs of foods that go into the large "coffee-table" books. It was very funny and I would like to read it again. I lent it to someone who did not return it and I have not come across another copy. I am sure it is out of print but without a correct title or author name my search has been unproductive.

I just ordered Candy Freak by Steve Almond and Bittersweet by Alice Medrich (Recipes And Tales From A Life In Chocolate) The latter recommended by a friend.

I have to admit I am a bit of a fanatic about clean dishes. I have gone through several dishwashers during the fifteen years I have lived in this house. I was never really satisfied with the way the dishes were washed and they all too far too long. When I decided to remodel so I could get my kitchen certified (in case I wanted to do some contract work and because I do a lot of canning) I got a Hobart. No normal microbe can live through that. The greatest advantage is that the cycle takes 90 seconds. 1 1/2 minutes and the cycle is done. I have a large plate rack above so I can unload it and put in a second load, pots, pans and etc. Two years ago I went to the instant water heaters and got rid of the 2 tank type heaters that were supposed to be guaranteed for 10 years but one had to be replaced after 6 years. It saves on gas and the hot water never runs out. I have one just for the kitchen/laundry and the other one is for the bathrooms. My gas bill went down 25%. (Prices very high in California) I had a guest staying with me for a couple of weeks last year and she was one of these people who use a glass, rinse it out with plain water, wipe with a paper towel and return to the cupboard. She was suprised when I insisted that she put her glass in the dishwasher after use and it would be washed in the next cycle. Her reasoning was "it didn't have anything in it except water." Some people just do not have a clue..............

How instant do you want it? Serving 4 You will need one of the 2-quart Pyrex measures or a microwavable bowl in which you will place - 6 apples pared and cored, cut in wedges then cross cut in bite-sized pieces. add 1/3 cup sugar - I use Splenda because I am diabetic. 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt Toss so the apples are pretty well covered with the cinnamon/sugar. Nuke in microwave for 10 to 12 minutes depending on how dense the apples are. Golden delicious take less time, Jonathans take longer. Test with a fork. Stir the apples to coat with the syrup that has formed in the bottom of the measure. Meanwhile mix 4 oz cream cheese with 1/2 cup sour cream till well blended. Spoon apples into microwaveable serving dishes, add a generous dollop of the cream cheese/sour cream topping onto the top of the apples. Place in microwave for about 30-40 seconds. You can lightly dust the top with cinnamon if you wish. If you want to get fancy and you happen to have a package of palmiers you can break them up and put some in the bottom of each dish. This makes it more like an apple pie or tart.

When I first bought the book, perhaps 5 years ago, there were a fair number of reviews of the book by people who were well acquainted with the author. As I recall, most noted that she seemed to have no fear of revealing intimate details about her quirky or downright odd family, friends and her own quirks. There have been many writers who enhanced their "mystique" by stretching credibility in their writing, (Hemmingway for instance) but sometimes it is done simply because it makes the story more interesting. On a brighter note: I also want to mention the book by Carol Drinkwater, The Olive Farm. No so much revolving around food but about her purchase of an olive farm in the south of France and her struggles with the French property laws. Murphy's law was in full flush.......... If anything could go wrong it did. If you liked Peter Mayle's books or Frances Mayes book Under the Tuscan Sun, I think you will like this one.

All of her books are wonderful - Is yours the 50th anniversary edition? In 1974 she was introduced to me but at the time I did not realize who she was. She was introduced to my party at Chez Panisse simply as Mary Frances. I had read With Bold Knife and Fork shortly before and earlier had read The Art of Eating and How To Cook A Wolf. Some time later, as my friends and I were returning to the hotel where we were attending a conference, someone said, "Oh my God! I just realized that was M.F.K. Fisher." We all felt a bit chagrined. It was a conference for women writers. I wasn't a writer but was attending with a friend who did not want to go alone.

I know that it has been out for a few years but I recently re-read Ruth Reichl's "Tender At The Bone: Growing Up At The Table". I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading the book (bringing some odd looks from strangers) in fits and starts, usually when I was waiting for an appointment somewhere. I have been meaning to get the sequal, "Comfort Me With Apples" which begins when she became a restaurant critic. The problem being that when I am ordering books I don't remember about this one and when I recall this one I am not where I can order it.

Yes indeed, Peter has produced yet another masterpiece. Many of my fellow members on the Bread-Baker's digest participated in testing the recipes in this book, as they did in the prior book The Bread-Baker's Apprentice. I didn't have time to take part, but I did get it as soon as it was available. He has been so nice about signing and sending his books directly. I must confess that I cooked a lot of pizza as I was reading the book.

Hi David, Since it carries your recommendation I will have to get it. AndieP

I used to forage for pine nuts before arthritis in my knees made hiking in the hills impossible. We carried "snake sticks" also because our native nasty, the Mojave green (rattlesnake) just loves to rest under the pinoñ pines. We used rakes to drag the pine cones out from under the "trees", which are usually just big bushes with branches near the ground. Several years ago I attended a "nature walk" with foraging led by a Native American in the San Gabriel hills, very close to the city. Most people think of the L.A. area as being mostly a metropolitan area but there are some wild lands close in. Just last weekend a California brown bear was tranquilized in a back yard in a suburban area. I can't recall offhand all the plants he gathered but it was enough to feed the seven of us a very satisfying lunch. The ones I do remember were mallow "cheeses", squaw root, wild onions. I have snacked on a particular type of kelp, recommended by someone who was familiar with the stuff.

First of all, do you have a good cheesemonger? If so ask them for advice, most are more than happy to spend time with you, offering tastes and making suggestions as to what to serve with the various cheeses and in what order to serve them. I order a lot of cheese and highly recommend The Ideal Cheese Shop. If you live in New York City is will be local for you. http://www.idealcheese.com/ Forbes named it #1 for 2003 and Zagat rates it as tops. They have a staggering variety of Italian cheeses. I just received (this past Wednesday) an order which included a wonderful Molitrno and an exceptional Caciotta Al Tartufo, an Umbrian chees that contains bits of black truffle. Also a Fontina Val D'Osta and two pounds of Ricotta Salata which I prefer to use in baking instead of Farmer's cheese. It is quite dry and slightly salty. It is nothing like regular ricotta. It is a wonderful addition to salads - I also use it on fruit pizza. jimgeralds mentioned fresh Pecorino and they have both a young cheese Pecorino Al Pepe, not available at present, and PECORINO TOSCANO STAGIONATO which is a fairly new product for them. Also temporarily unavailable, unfortunately, is the supurb Buratta Mozzarella imported from Italy which can spoil one for any other type of mozz. If I order it for a party I always have to order extra just for me, otherwise I will not have enough to serve my guests. I have also ordered cheese from Bacchus Cellars, http://www.bacchuscellars.com/eabout.htm, however I had a bit of a problem getting my last order delivered on time and had to pick it up at the depot. Their cheeses are fine, my problem was with the shipping department.

The heirloom apricots from my huge old tree. The fruit is also much larger than any I have seen in the produce makets. They are incredibly sweet and when dried have none of the sourness one finds in commercial dried apricots. The treat bears heavily ever other year and already some of the branches have had to be propped up, otherwise they break. I also have an Elephant Heart plum which also produces wonderful fruit. The fresh tomatoes from the garden are also worth waiting for and I begin carrying a tiny salt shaker in my pocket when working in the garden. This year I only have 9 varieties because I decided to grow some different veg. I picked a lot of fresh sorrel this morning - it is already setting seed. Time to make a carrot/sorrel soup - good hot or cold.

I prefer the Schokinag extreme bittersweet chips 75% choc liquor http://www.schokinag.com/eng/default.htm if you are going to buy in small amounts Try the King Arthur Flour site. They list them as Chocolate chips, extreme dark http://ww2.kingarthurflour.com/cgibin/html...647618121140064 I also like the Guittard's bittersweet onyx wafers (buttons) 72% choc liquor This is what I usually use for dipping candied peel and candied ginger, glacé fruits.

Usingers is pretty good and I have ordered brats from them. However I like Nolacheks better since they came online. http://www.nolechekmeats.com/products.html When I lived in Wisconsin back in the mid 1950s we used to drive to Thorpe to buy their fresh brats and the hams that were dry cured. They have extended their line. They now have a frest brat made with dried cranberries and wild rice that is out of this world. Another favorite of mine is the fresh apricot/Dijon brat.