Pam R

The first time I made it I just seasoned the flour, but it needed more. I use kosher chicken, so it's already salted but the bulk of the coating comes from the slurry, I think, so the next batch I seasoned the slurry and the flour.

I just tried this. Using the flour/water mix then dipping it into plain flour makes the crunchiest fried chicken I've ever had. It's also the best make-ahead fried chicken because it keeps the crunch even after it's been in the fridge for a day. Thanks for showing us this. It's great.

Sorry to ask newbie questions: - What do you mean by 3-layer bags? - What is that thing with the strip of mesh? - How do these compare to the tilia bags? ← Sorry, I don't know the technical details but dougal's answer sounds good. My machine will only work with bags that have either a strip of mesh running down the middle of one side, or a whole sheet of mesh. The ones with a whole sheet or the "3-ply" bags have a top outer plastic sheet, a mesh sheet, and a bottom outer plastic sheet. The others have ta strip of mesh that runs down the middle of one of the outer sheets and both edges of the strip are securely attached to the outer sheet. My issue is purely with filling the bags. It's much easier to pack items into a 2-layer bag than a 3-layer bag because that inner mesh sheet can get in the way. I just received a 2,500 bags this week - but when I'm ready to re-order in a few months, I think I'll be replacing my machine with a vacuum chamber that uses much cheaper bags. I use mine in a commercial kitchen and the difference in pricing means that I should be able to pay off the chamber machine within 1 to 1 1/2 years.

I like Pereg.

And Rogers sugar, which is what we tend to see around here, has a beet sugar plant in Alberta that produced 150,000 tonnes of sugar a year.

Western Dairy actually comes out of Brampton, Ontario. I order it for my store every year for Passover. Their sour cream and pressed cheeses are great.

Do you push down with the chef's knife or saw with it?

I've made some good fried chicken with kosher birds tossing chicken parts in seasoned flour, then dipping in a mix of eggs, a little water and some lemon juice, then back in the flour. If you don't want to do the egg step, I think I'd sprinkle a little acidulated water on it then go into the flour, but I like the crust a little thicker. Add salt to the flour, but no need to brine or salt the bird first (as others have mentioned).

Have you tried tossing the berries in flour before folding them in?

Any good parmesan out there? If it's available in Canada, all the better. I haven't been able to find anything but the pre-grated (ok, powdered) stuff in the last few years.

It's a new year, so it's a good time to put together a list of the must-have books for 2009. Anything that's already been released this year or is expected to be released before January 1, 2010 can go on the list. What's on your list?

OK, I'll take one for the team and try to pick another one up this week.

For some reason I have a coconut on my kitchen counter, staring at me every time I walk by. I've never opened one myself, but was recently told that if you freeze the coconut for a few hours before opening, the flesh will basically pop out. (Theory being that the flesh expands when frozen then shrinks when thawed, pulling away from the shell.) Has anybody tried this? And should I drain it before freezing or freeze with the water in it?

A rancid walnut might be bad enough to make you spit it out. I have.

Absolutely. When you open a bottle of nut oil that's rancid, you'll know. The smell will hit you fast. If you taste a rancid walnut, you'll know it and most likely wish to spit it out and throw out the bag.

If you could have a favourite local shop that prepared foods that you could stock in your freezer, what would you like them to carry? Or better yet, do you already have one and what are your favourite items? Right now I can't keep the freezers full in my store and I'd like to offer my customers some more variety. Whatever we put in them gets snatched up. We have a freezer full of soups, make our own tv dinners, chicken fingers, lasagnas, and traditional Jewish items (knishes, kreplach, kugels, etc.). What would be your ideal frozen food items -- knowing that the items are fresh and made with great ingredients. I can only do kosher items, but I think it would be great to hear about anything you'd like to be able to pick up.

No aversion - love them, in fact. But I've had them plenty of times and I'd like to try something different. Cheesecake is appealing . . caramel/macadamia cheesecake? white chocolate cheesecake with macadamia nuts? Pies also sound good . . I might have to keep all of the nuts.

I have a suitcase full of macadamia nuts and before they get distributed, I`m wondering if I should keep a couple of bags for baking. The only things I can remember having with macs are cookies (chocolate/mac), which I don`t want to make and a pretty good macadamia slice that had pecan pie style filling. Anybody make any killer desserts with themÉ

After years of making latkes, I figured something out this year. If you must use a food processor for latkes (which I usually do because of large batches), grate some of the onions with a hand grater. The problem with the food processor is that the onions turn to mush and liquid. Then most of the onion flavour is left in the bottom of the bowl when you form the latkes. If you grate a few by hand and mix them in, they'll retain some texture. I'm not sure about this. I squeeze, add eggs, salt, black pepper and flour (I prefer it to matzo meal) then fry up a sample, adjusting the seasoning. If I don't squeeze the liquid out before seasoning, by the time it sits for a while, it's swimming in liquid and I'd imagine the finished latke loses some of the seasoning. No? This is probably a bigger issue for large batches than small ones, but I think it would make a difference.

I order my bags from vacsealers.com. It's a Canadian site, but your order would be shipped to you from the US. Good, standard 3-layer bags. Good service. I'd prefer the bags with the strip of mesh, rather than the whole sheet, but I'm happy with them.

Every spring I zest and squeeze two cases of lemons and freeze them in liter deli containers. The zest freezes just fine. If you're not using big batches up at once, I'd follow Rob's advice and freeze the juice in cubes. The zest can be frozen all together, it's easy to break it up as you need it.

Yeah, it bugs me that I can get a 10# bag of potatoes at Superstore for less per pound than the per pound price of the 50# bags at the wholesale. I have noticed that they're starting to carry more of the restaurant stuff - it used to be the same stuff they sell at the grocery stores, but now they're going a little more 'pro'.

I've been shopping there for years. Originally, it was just other business members, but I see more civilians shopping there all the time. The funny thing is, you really have to know your prices. It's not uncommon to find an item priced higher at the wholesale club than at their grocery stores (Superstore in Winnipeg).

I was on my way home the other day feeling awful, freezing and hungry. I grabbed a bowl of their mushroom soup from the drive-thru. It was terrible. But I don't mind the occasional timbit.

Are you asking why does canola oil smell fishy even when you don't fry fish? Apparently for some people, canola oil does give off a fishy odour all on it's own. I've never experienced it, and I use canola often for frying.