Jaymes

Sigh. What a beautiful idea. Peaches are right up there with cherries with me. But so help me, I can't buy a decent peach in Chicago... But it makes me sad to think that a whole generation of Americans have probably never experienced the amazing sweet sensual burst that marks a real peach. I feel tremendous sadness because of the disappearance of the American peach. Sitting on the back porch in August, Dark. Fireflies. Peach juice running down our chins. The knowledge that tomorrow it was Peach Shortcake. The day after that, peaches over ice cream. Peach preserves. Gaddamit, I'm angrier by the minute. It's as if no one played Mozart any more. Okay, Maggie, it's decided. You're coming to Texas in the summertime. You're coming to Texas in Hill Country peach season. We'll go to the Peach Festival in Fredricksburg. We'll sit on the stoop and eat peach ice cream and peach preserves and peach cobbler. We'll load our shopping bags with jars of peach preserves and peach chutney and peach butter. We'll drink down buckets of peach sangria. We'll go into the peach groves and pick our own, bushel after bushel after bushel. We'll marvel at the beauty of the Peach Queen as she waves to her subjects along the route of the Peach Parade. Oooooh, I'm so excited! Say you'll come, won't you? Please?

Oh, the inhumanity of it all.... Perhaps y'all should start a movement, a groundswell, a force to be reckoned with... A veritable wave of demand for change. An insistance on joining us free-minded, forward-thinking Texans in the wine sections of supermarket aisles.

I like mangos too! I haven't had mangosteens since I moved back to the States. Does anyone ever see them in the markets here? I usually get them in Chinatown, and the high-end produce stores also carry them. Occasionally I also see them in some small fruit shops. Thanks. That is some really helpful info. I had almost given up, but now I'll redouble my efforts! I've seen them at Whole Foods here in Atlanta, too. Okay! Now I'm really optimistic, since Whole Foods is an Austin-based company that began right here. I'll set out at once. By the by, have any of you that buy and eat mangosteens here in the States eaten them in Asia? How do they compare? (Before I get my hopes up too high, I mean.)

I like mangos too! I haven't had mangosteens since I moved back to the States. Does anyone ever see them in the markets here? I usually get them in Chinatown, and the high-end produce stores also carry them. Occasionally I also see them in some small fruit shops. Thanks. That is some really helpful info. I had almost given up, but now I'll redouble my efforts!

I like mangos too! I haven't had mangosteens since I moved back to the States. Does anyone ever see them in the markets here?

Well, I have lived various places where they prepare the rice as Hopleaf suggests, and that light-brown crunchy crusty lacey slightly oily thing on the bottom is certainly crisp. As for the oven method - I watch it closely. And take it out before it gets crisp. But if I take my eyes on it, it most assuredly does get crisp, and then I try to think of things to do with it, like turn it into pudding or something. But it's no good for serving "along with" whatever dish it was that I was originally preparing it to serve "along with."

Cinnamon rolls - fills the entire house with their aroma Banana Nut Bread. Also Cranberry Nut Bread, Pumpkin Nut Bread, Carrot Nut Bread, Zuchini Nut Bread - you get the picture. Corn Pudding. Hearty. Satisfying.

In many of our local markets, the tilapia is swimming in large tanks. You point to the one you want, and they drag it out and gut and filet it for you if you wish, or give you the whole fish. I've never tried it because I've heard mixed reviews. Mixed reviews which, it appears, continue in this thread. So, I'm still uncertain.....

These young men were very happy to be invited into an American home. Also (as, it has been my experience, are young men everywhere who are away from their own homes for an extended period of time), they were homesick for their own families' food, and so I told them to write their mamas and request the instructions for their "favorite" meals, and that I would attempt to replicate them. Which they did and I did. I have the original stack somewhere, but it may take me a while to find. The particular recipes I gave above I have made fairly often through the years, and so they were more accessible. I'll look for the others.

Several years back, I had occasion to host in my home Iranian fighter pilots. They came for dinner several times over a six-month period. Sometimes I prepared the meal for them, and sometimes they prepared the meal for us. These are some of the recipes they gave me: Tah Chin (rice & lamb in yogurt sauce) Ingredients in order of use: 3 to 4 lb shoulder of lamb (trimmed; bite-sized chunks) 2 C plain yogurt (better if you make your own, of course, but if not, store-bought will do) 1/4 t ground cinnamon 1/4 t salt 1/4 t pepper 1 t saffron 2 1/2 C rice 1 1/2 t salt 1 egg, beaten 1 t saffron 2 qts water 2 T salt 1/2 C butter Refrigerate lamb in yogurt, cinnamon, salt, 1t saffron overnite. Combine rice and salt with enough cold water to cover and allow to soak overnight. Next day: Remove lamb from yogurt mixture (reserve yogurt), arrange in ovenproof casserole and bake at 375 for 30 minutes. To reserved yogurt mixture, add 1 egg and 1 tsp saffron; beat to combine. Drain rice that has been soaking. Bring to boil 2 qts water. Add 2 T salt and drained rice and boil for 10-15 minutes. Pour rice into colander and rinse with lukewarm water. Remove lamb from baking dish and set aside. Combine yogurt/egg mixture with rice. In bottom of baking dish, melt 1/2 C butter with 2 T water. Over melted butter arrange half of rice. Scatter lamb cubes over rice. Top with remaining rice. Cover tightly. Bake at 400 for 14 minutes. Then reduce heat to 325 and bake for an additional 40 minutes. Serves 6. (Note - this sounds complicated, but is actually quite easy) Khoreshe Alu (beef in prune sauce) 2 T butter 1 lb tender beef, cut into 1/2" cubes 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 t salt 1/2 t pepper 1/4 t nutmeg 1/4 t cinnamon 2 C beef broth or bouillon 1 1/2 t lemon juice 20-25 dried prunes, soaked, pits removed Melt butter in large pot or Dutch oven. Saute meat, onions, seasonings. Add broth and lemon juice. Simmer until meat is tender (about 30 minutes). Add prunes. Simmer for additional 30 minutes. Serve with Iranian-style rice. Iranian Rice Wash rice thoroughly to remove as much starch as possible. Cook rice in proportions of about 1 cup rice to about 8-10 cups water. After cooking, rinse again to remove additional starch. Place cooked rice on long flat sheet and bake in slow oven until rice is virtually dried out and very fluffy. Mast Va Khiar (cucumber salad) 2 med cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped 1 C plain yogurt (homemade or store-bought) 1 tsp salt 1/2 t pepper, or to taste Combine all. Serve as side dish, or as appetizer with crackers.

Not a bad idea. Of course, we would need our own version of the serenity prayer: "Gully, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change... courage to change the things I can... and the wisdom to know that Plotnicki's mind rests forever in the first category." Actually, I've gotten several PMs from other potential members of AWPA. I'll suggest to them your Serenity Prayer. But as for me, I think it's just grand.

is that like War and Peace? Actually, Awbrig, there IS another book entitled "War and Piece" and perhaps it is that to which Chefvic was referring. It's the story of my first marriage.... And, of course, there was "War and Peas" the story of getting my kids to eat veggies And War and Pees, the story of getting my kids potty-trained.

I read somewhere that if you put flour into the freezer for a few days it kills all those little critters. Don't know if it's true - but I usually keep mine in the fridge anyway.

I am certain you are correct on this, as on all, points, even though you were not there. I do not recall exactly what was served, but I do recall that this was quite a serious food group. And that the "theme" of the nights was announced well in advance. And that everyone was expected to do considerable research on whatever cuisine was being explored. And that I myself had gone to the library several times to peruse books before I made my selection. And that all the members of the group were sophisticated, educated people that had lived and traveled literally all over the world. Most certainly including the Caribbean. As had I. Although let me add again, in case I did not make myself clear, I am absolutely positive you are correct. There undoubtedly existed in all of the Americas no bigger a pile of isolationist dreck than what they served at my Caribbean night.

Memory bogs, recollections run together, truths overlap. Seems to me like most places where I have lived, one can purchase wine at the supermarket. Here in Texas, for sure. Where are you all that you cannot?

Love Mexican "chicken sandwiches," i.e., chicken halves or quarters marinated in citrus juices and chiles and garlic, then grilled over an open flame. You pull off tender, juicy, flavorful hunks of chicken meat and place them in a warm tortilla (I like flour best) with some good home-made salsa or pico de gallo, and maybe a slice of avocado, roll it up and eat. It's the very best, as far as I'm concerned.

You are probably correct when you compare the sales of that one book (Mastering the Art) with Joy of Cooking. But since Steve's point is that by and large the American populace is not interested in the exploration of any foreign cuisine, I'd wager that the combined U.S. sales of ALL cookbooks regarding foreign cuisines are higher than Joy of Cooking.

I can't believe I'm here doing this again. I need to start a new support group: "AWPA" - "Arguing With Plotnicki Anonymous" -- when you feel the compulsion to argue with Steve, you PM another member and they talk you out of it. Steve - those people you disparage as being "culinary isolationists," i.e. intentionally unaware, intentionally ignorant, during that era would not, if you were correct, even have been interested in or attempted tacos, hard-shell or otherwise, if they had not been open to and curious about the food of other cultures. So they tried hard-shell tacos. So hard-shell tacos are not "authentic" enough for you. Do you not see that very few people living in, say, New York during the 50's, had the time or resources to fly to Mexico to learn how to prepare the real thing? The curator of whom you speak is certainly correct in saying that the U.S. pursued an isolationist policy - commercially and politically. That's not news. That's a well-accepted, acknowledged statement of fact. The curator is undoubtedly also correct when he says that in his opinion Julia Child may have had an effect on that policy beyond the scope of food. But then YOU, not the curator, take it one step further: you say that most Americans of that era were intentionally not open to the ideas of cuisines other than plain, old, bland, comfortable "American." That, in fact, they were frightened of it, and disparaged it, along with the thought of anything unfamiliar or foreign and new. Well, I was there during that era. I was, first, semi-grown up and, then, completely grown up. I was cooking and eating. I was in the homes and kitchens and dining rooms of many, many other Americans of that era. I saw and smelled and ate what they put on their tables. I heard them discuss what they were preparing and what they were interested in preparing and what they were trying to learn how to prepare. And the simple fact of the matter is that, on that last point, you are wrong. When the idea of tacos came along, they did NOT say, "Eeew, Mexican, nasty, dirty, less than me. I'm not interested in that. I'd never put that ethnic crap on my table." No, Steve. They said, "Tacos? What are they? Mexican, you say? How do you make them? Are they good? They sound good. I think I'll try to fix some." They most certainly were (for the most part, anyway) interested and curious and open to new ideas and experimentation and dabbling in the cuisines of foreign cultures, other peoples, faraway lands. Of course there were some folks who were not, but I was there and I am telling you that by and large, the vast majority of Americans during that time, at least the ones who were in the kitchens turning out meals day after day most certainly, without any doubt whatsoever, DID want to try such things that were, at the time, exotic to their experience. Like Swiss fondue and hard-shell tacos.

is that like War and Peace? Actually, Awbrig, there IS another book entitled "War and Piece" and perhaps it is that to which Chefvic was referring. It's the story of my first marriage....

U.S. Southwest (the Americans) - Chili & Eggs U.S. Southwest (the Latins) - Menudo St. Louis - Slingers (similar to Chili & Eggs, but you put the whole breakfast - Eggs, Toast, Sausage or Ham - on the plate and then cover the entire thing with chili )

Please don't forget to let us all know how the birthday dinner goes!!

Well, the bottom line is that a box of it doesn't cost much, so it'd probably be a good idea for you to buy one and try it in some batters and gravies and brownies, etc. If you don't like it, you can always pitch it with little lost investment. And then, forevermore, you'll know.

Jaymes, why is this? And how did you acquire the preference? Taught to me by my grandmother, father, aunt, etc. And, it just gives such a light crust. Crunchy, but somehow the texture is so good. Hard to explain. Not heavy. Of course, like others have said, I season it just like flour and use it in the same way, but it comes out better. Kinda puffy, more like tempura. My grandmother was a wonderful cook, and if you had to name a single dish that she liked the best, and for which she was known, in her later years anyway that would have been fried fish. She lived the last decade or so of her life on a ranch in the Northern New Mexico/Durango Colorado area, and the Animas River ran through it. When we'd go visit her, she start in right away trying to talk us all into going down to the river and catch trout so she could fry it up for dinner. I think that as soon as Wondra came out, she tried it and adopted it as her favorite coating. And it's wonderful for gravy as well - smoother, I think, and again, lighter, and it mixes more easily. And there are other recipes I use it in also. In fact, Pillsbury made a similar product. I think they called it "gravy thickener" or some such thing. It came in a round box, like Quaker Oats. I can't find it anymore, but Wondra is the exact same thing. I know because I've compared ingredients and there is no difference whatsoever. I'm not a food chemist, and am at a loss to tell you exactly why and how Wondra (a Gold Medal product) is "different" and so good. But I only know it is. I remember once, not too long ago, I happened to be at a dinner with some friends. One of them had brought HIS friend, who I did not know previously. The friend of the friend was a master chef just visiting from out West somewhere, and they were discussing how he was famous for his fried fish. Everyone kept asking for his "secret ingredient." The people at the table who had eaten it mentioned how light and crispy and puffy the coating was. Finally I said to the guy, "By any chance, are you using Wondra?" He laughed and said that as a matter of fact, yes he was.

It's my flour of choice for dipping fish into before frying.