infernooo

Anyone have any ideas on where I could buy one of these water bath thingamijigies and have it sent to Australia? Cheers!

I would say the best way is to wrap individually because the more you have in a package, the more chance you have of the beets on the outer sides of the package cooking before the ones in the middle. Alternatively, just toss them all with olive oil and roast them uncovered in a big baking dish.

Agreed - roast and peel after. Just remember you will need something quite tangy/tart to counter the beets sweetness (roasting them makes them VERY sweet... think roasted bell peppers).

Thanks for that Anna, so you flour everything to avoid the sticking? Did you find it worked best with the dough quite moist or dry? Also did you find that the puffing was effected by how thin you rolled them out? Thanks again for the pointers - will give it a go over the weekend :-).

I love the fact that they are soooo chewy... what is different about khobz that makes it so chewy? For example, why is it so chewy compared to a white loaf with a similar composition (flour, yeast, salt, water, sugar) ? I am also still having difficulty making them properly - mine either don't puff up, or come out brittle and hard.

Thanks Ben!

Anyone? :-)

No one else having this problem?

Thanks for the replies... one more quick question. In general when steaming chinese bood, are we talking about steaming at a VERY high heat? i.e. the water underneath is boiling vigorously? or simmering or barely simmering... ? Thanks again!

This may sound like a silly question... but wouldn't the pork be tough if you just steamed it for 20-30 minutes? I thought spare-ribs were a tough cut that required long braising (i.e. 1 hour +) ? Thanks!

When you guys put the yoghurt mixture in the warm place/oven overnight (or for however many hours you leave it for), do you use an airproof lid? I found that when I left the yoghurt mixture in a plastic container and put on the air tight light & put it in the oven, the lid burst off after about 10 minutes due to the pressure....

Brilliant! Thank you so much for your help & advice Gabe, I will take into account your advice and practice, practice, practice. I shall report back after I have played around some more :-). There also seems to be a divide as to whether or not to grease the comal/skillet, some say do it (as in this post and some books I have read), whereas others say don't (e.g. rick bayless). I guess as long as it doesn't stick it shouldn't make much of a difference except perhaps the oil would be better at conducting heat to the surface of the tortilla.

Thanks for the speedy reply Gabe! I have a few more questions for you (and Jmahl) if you don't mind. I noticed that some of mine didn't puff up... judging from the above posts, this is most likely due to the mixture being too dry? The other problem was that even though I used a tortilla press and they came out pretty damn thin and uniform, the insides on them were still a bit pastey/uncooked even though I cooked them for longer than recommended. They were all cooked on an ungreased cast iron pan (and I also tried greased, but it didn't make much difference). Also, I am pretty sure I had the temperature spot on, so I don't think it was a matter of the pan not being hot enough (I can tell this because they came out with nice brown marks). Finally, should the dough feel very different to normal bread dough? For example, when I was "kneading" it, it would just sort of squish against the bench top and not hold together as a single piece. Thanks again!

Hi Jmahl! I have a couple of questions if you don't mind... 1.) Do you have to knead the dough or just mix it until it comes together? 2.) If you do have to knead it, how long should you knead it for and what kind of consistency are you looking for? 3.) Do you let the dough rest after mixing/kneading it? If so, for how long? Thanks, and keep up the good work! :-).

Hi Alan! I have done some intensive research.... I doubt I will be moving here for work, all my family and friends are in AU. As much as I love it here, I couldn't justify leaving them. You are right about the weather, anything is great compared to the rainy, depressing weather I left when I came here. Regardless of that however, I really love the 14 hours of cloudless-sun every day. Sydney is great... as with any city, once you have lived there your whole life, you take it for granted and don't really think of it as that great a place until you see how much worse some people live. Weather is very nice in comparison to other places (OK not as nice as hawaii), we consider winter "cold" which is pretty pathetic considering it only ever gets as low as around 10 degrees :-). Thanks for the kind words, I am hoping to jam in as much as I can in the last 5 days! You are spot on about the apple juice/cider, that sounds exactly like what I had (slightly darker/cloudy, but almost indistinguishable in taste). I went to the Mountain View farmers markets yesterday (after having visited one of the "top" vietnamese for lunch followed by one of the "top" Thai restaurants for dinner), and was very impressed! I took photos of my trip, and overall was very pleased with my trip. I bought way more than I should have, including 6 types of yogurt, a huge array of fruits and some other goodies. The highlight of my day was trying fresh white corn picked the same morning. It was like candy. In Australia, there is very little demand for corn, and as such, by the time we get it at the markets or supermarkets or fruit shops, it is probably about a week old, and is quite starchy. This was one of those moments that blew me away. I will never look at corn the same way and will be trying to find some corn farms to get fresh corn from when I next go on some cross country trips. Having had fresh fruit from the markets, I have upgraded my impressions of strawberries (they are just as good as our best), the grapes were pretty good, peaches and nectarines amazing (more consistent than ours) and the tomatoes out of this world (would be very close with some of the best tomato producers in the world!)

Dammit! I just got there, spoke to Frank and was told they were closed on sundays . Oh well, gives me something to look forward to for dinner. Having looked at the menu, I think I will be in for a treat! Thanks for the info MaxH - very interesting!

Nevermind, I will be visiting the aforementioned Uncle Franks today - it sounds like it is a damn good place to get barbecue, so I will report back later tonight with my experienced :-).

Hi everyone, I thought it would be more polite to add to an existing thread rather than open another one.... Basically, I am staying in Milpitas (near San Jose/Santa Clara), and am looking for ONE barbecue joint to try. Keep in mind that I have never eaten barbecue before (I am from Australia, and our idea of barbecue is entirely different - to us, barbecue is both the tool used to grill food, as well as the event itself, and we don't smoke stuff). So, does someone by any chance have a place that is nearby that I can try? I would look up the yellowpages and just pick one, but I don't want to have a bad first experience as I feel there it is something that could truly blow me away. I have searched, but came up with too many possibilities, so I am hoping that some of you have been to some of these places more recently so I can get an updated opinion. Thanks!

Hi Jaymes, Well I hit Tropicana and Mu Pueblo today and what can I say.... thank you for letting me know about it. Admittedly, it was a bit intimidating for a person who has probably seen 5 mexicans in their entire life to be the only non-mexican person in a 2-block radius, but I was there for the food :-). I got my tortilla press and Masa Harina and tasted my first properly made tortilla! You see in Australia, we have basically no authentic mexican restaurants, and NOONE makes tortillas from proper Masa dough - everything is either from flour or plain corn flour (i.e. NO Masa Harina - no lime), so it tends to taste the same whether from a supermarket or in a restaurant. Our idea of mexican is tex mex - it's all we have. I also noticed that there seem to be 2 types of guacamole - one thick and chunky, and the other quite runny like a sauce (unless I misread the sign - and no it wasn't the green chili sauce). Overall, I left with way too much stuff, and now I have to figure out how I am going to smuggle this stuff back into Australia :-). I hope we are allowed to bring in dried chilies and masa harina (flour) !! Otherwise I might just have to send myself a package and hope quarantine don't open and remove everything. Thanks again!

Haha, nice. Thanks for that, I am planning to have lunch at Khanh's (supposedly one of the best Vietnamese restaurants around, but then again I suppose it depends on who you ask), then head over to Trader Joes - will report back tomorrow on it! I'm only here for 2 weeks - last week and this week, so my time is almost up :-(. It has been a lovely trip (although very busy as it's for business), my first time in the US, so some things seem strange, but in general a very positive experience so far. The weather here has been just amazing, some of the best I have ever experienced. I'm from Sydney, and some of our produce is outstanding, but I have been trying to make comparisons since I've been here. One thing for sure is that the local Cantaloupe (we call it Rock Melon) is noticably better than ours - much more fragrant and flavourful. The strawberries I have had so far are a bit of a let down, but that could just be where they were sourced from. Nectarines are about equal, peaches are definately better here, pineapple is quite different - sweeter but not as strong a "pineappley" flavour as in Australia (the best pineapple in AU comes from up north where it is hot year round). The apples aren't as good here as in AU, but that could be because it is not prime apple season, whilst it is in AU at the moment. The milk is about even, but it seems that all of the commercial milk here has XYZ added to it (Vitamin A, D etc), fresh juice is pasteurised which is bazaar to me - unfortunately it seems to give it a slightly processed taste. The prunes (dried plums) are identical to the AU ones, the california raisins are _beautiful_, drier than our raisins/sultanas and a bit more "caramely". The golden raisins however were a bit boring. The californian dried apricots are very nice, a bit tangier than our ones, but almost equal (both crap all over the turkish ones which I have never liked the flavour of). Bananas are about equal, watermelon the same, and tomatoes were OK (our tomatoes are similar, the best ones are damn good, but not as good as they could be). The other thing I was looking forward to was apple cider.... I bought a big bottle of it, and even though the only ones I could find were made from apple concentrate, it tasted like..... apple juice! EXACTLY like apple juice. I was thinking I would have to have some tricky substitute for apple cider (it doesnt exist in australia) when called in recipes... but unless someone can correct me, it seems that unless perhaps it is fresh and properly made, they are basically the same?? (I read on the label of one that cider should be tangier, but it looked identical to the apple juice sitting next to it as though they had just swapped labels). EDIT: I bought a tub of the Montain High yogurt (http://www.mountainhighyoghurt.com/products/original_style.htm) and have classified it as OK - pretty good. Slightly sour/tangy, quite creamy, but not mind blowingly good. (I have recently bought every single plain yogurt available in Sydney to find my favourite :-) ). It has an average fat content, so it can't be expected to stand up to some of the ones with double it's fat content. (My pet hates in yogurt are: too sour, no sour/tang, bad aftertaste, fatty mouthfeel, watery). As a disclaimer, remember that I have only tried these foods from a few different places, so for all I know I have chosen poorly! Thanks again for the recommendations everyone!

Hi there Alan! My mistake - sorry about the miscorrect usage of the term - that's what you get when a non-local tries to sound in the know :-), a big mistake for an aussie visiting the US for the first time! Thanks for the recommendations, I see what you mean about Ranch99 being chinese and thus having crappy dairy - very true from what I saw. I will definately check out El Camino real, the farmers markets and trader joes. Cheers.

Great! Exactly the answer I was hoping for - thanks for you help! :-).

Thanks Andie! I will have to visit Trader Joe's and will have a look at those farmers markets! Being an Aussie, I have no idea who the various chain stores are, so I am assuming Trader Joe's is a chain store (the name kind of sounds that way :-) ).

Hi everyone, I'm currently staying in Milpitas, so I was wondering if anyone knew somewhere nearby (San Jose, Santa Clara etc) that sells good quality fruits and yogurts? I went to ranch 99, but the fruit was mediocre, and the yogurt mass produced crap. Any ideas? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I am currently staying near San Jose/Santa Clara (Milpitas to be exact), and was wondering if anyone knows where I could get the following? 1.) Mexican tortilla press 2.) Masa Harina ? If any one has any ideas, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!