anzu

This is not helpful with the question of origins, but the Goan bebinca is made in essentially the same manner, traditionally with 16 layers. There is also a debate about its origins here in eGullet: bebinca. Chufi, your spekkoek looks delicious.

Okay, corrections here: Fresh? 新鮮的嗎? (XINXIAN DE MA?)i s clearer in meaning. The others should be: Ｈot? 熱的嗎﹖ (RE DE MA?) Spicy hot? 辣的嗎﹖(LA DE MA?) Crispy? 脆的嗎﹖ (CUI DE MA?) 馬 means horse, whereas 嗎 turns a statement into a question. Hoping this works, because the characters wouldn't show when I previewed the post. Edited to get the characters to show.

I also have a little one who is woken by the sound of a gnat sneezing. Before he was born, I was naive enough to think that one could accustom babies to normal background noise and not have to tiptoe around while they slept. But from the time he was about 3 days old he showed me how misguided I was... He's also one of those babies who barely naps. Instead of trying to cook and/or eat silently while he slept, however (I think I would starve if I relied on him sleeping long enough for me to cook and eat), I decided to approach the issue differently, and cook and eat while he was still awake. I bought one of these, and cook and eat with him on my back. I even get housework done like this too. He's happy, I'm happy.

You might want to try: Bengali Thor 2 cups Thor (Banana Pith) 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 2 Green Chilies, slit 1 tsp Mustard Paste 2 tsp Yogurt Salt and Sugar to taste Oil for Frying Put mustard seeds and the slit green chllies in hot oil so that it sputters. Put the Thor (finely diced) in the oil. Stir fry for a few minutes. Add the mustard paste and the yogurt along with the salt and sugar. Cover and cook for a few minutes. Serve at room temperature. SB (I think banana pith is part of the stalk rather than peel, but it's a neat recipe anyway?) ← I don't speak Bengali, but I believe this is part of the stalk. However, there are indeed Indian recipes using plantain peel. Here is a link to one. I haven't made this one, but have made others. The taste and texture is similar to green beans, in my opinion.

Does the following sound right with respect to the taste? (From the site Turkey - now And a few questions: - not all the simit and acma you've shown were round with a hole in the center, whereas here in Berlin they only come in the round variety. Are non-round simit and acma a regional variation, or an innovation? - not something you've mentioned, but local Turkish groceries here sell unsweetened ground poppy seed paste. Can you tell me how it's used? - (sorry, this is not well expressed. I hope it is intelligible). I have the same type of gas stove as you, complete with the huge gaps in the metal frame where the burners are located. Fitting small pots on, or Italian coffee makers, etc. is an impossibility as the gaps over the burners are too large. You seem to have some type of metal frames that you slot together onto the pre-existing frame so as to reduce or get rid of the gap, is that right? They look so useful, where on earth did you get them? - please, please, recipes and/or tips for dried eggplants and peppers. I can easily buy these locally, but don't have much clue about interesting things to do with them. To tell the truth, I often don't read the food blogs, but I am definitely hooked on this one!

Miso stirred into risotto instead of Parmesan cheese. Discovered when I found that the hunk of Parmesan I was sure I had in the fridge had mysteriously disappeared. But repeated since then since it tastes so good. Wasabi in mashed potatoes, why didn't I think of that! DH is a wasabi freak, this is going to be on the menu in the very near future.

In Japanese cooking, beans - talking about beans in the form of beans, and not as miso, soy sauce, etc. tend to make an appearance either in the form of soy beans, fresh and boiled in the pod, or dried beans that are soaked and simmered to form a 'simmered dish' (nimono) that is served as a side dish. Other dried beans apart from soy beans also appear as nimono. For my taste, these tend to be too sweet. The reconstituted beans are usually simmered with mirin (sweet cooking wine), sugar, and soy sauce till they are essentially covered with a sweet glaze. I'm sure some people like it, but I - who otherwise adores beans - find them rather sickly. Adzuki beans are used not just as bean paste, but also appear as oshiruko wikipedia link here, a sweet adzuki bean soup, that can be served with chestnuts, rice cakes, etc. There is an extremely similar Chinese bean soup. Again, this is probably just me, but I'm not wild about it - I prefer my beans in savoury preparations, preferably with lots of sour Indian spices such as amchur and ground pomegranate seeds.

I never noticed a taste difference linked with the amount of separation, so I would guess it doesn't matter. (If people know otherwise, please say so). In India we didn't refrigerate bought ghee (Nafed brand), but did refrigerate the home-made stuff because we felt there was a chance that we hadn't got rid of all the water, and therefore it might go bad if left out. I do refrigerate my ghee now, though. And the reason for this is that I find it less messy with clean-up to gouge a certain amount of solidified ghee out with a knife instead of spooning out liquid ghee. Less wastage also, as you don't have ghee sticking to the knife, and also easier to dish out a very small amount of ghee if that is what you want. Shelf-life: I don't know. I've never had a problem with it going off, and usually work from pretty large containers. It can sometimes be several months before I've finished the container (since I sometimes move away from ghee for a while and go on a mustard oil kick, then move back to ghee). On usage. If desired, you can drizzle a tiny bit of ghee into the dish at the end of cooking. You don't need much, but it really brings a nice fresh ghee taste to the food. This is particularly useful if, for health or cost reasons, you would prefer to cook with regular oil but still want the taste of ghee.

There is some supposition about why Carlin peas are eaten on this date, as well as an explanation of the word 'Carlin'. here. This site here also discusses it a little. Excerpt: And a fairly loose translation of the above: In Great Britain the day is linked with food offerings for the deities of vegetation. In Yorkshire a porride of pears and peas, called Carlings groats, was prepared, which gave the day the name Carlings Sunday. A similar phenomenon ocurred in the small Western islands. Here people offered Whirling cakes, small choux pastries, to the spirits of the wind. Here the day was called Whirling Sunday. In Wales, also, peas played a role as a symbol for desired variety and riches. They were eaten with water from a mountain spring, or were softened in apple cider, wine or water and then made into a soup. In Northeast England people fried peans and beans in butter, and flavored them with vinegar and pepper. Of course, this begs the question of why one made offerings to the deities of vegetation on this particular day.

While living in Japan: sushi and/or sashimi, especially popular for gatherings where people have to stand up while eating. Usually catered, not home-made. While living in New Delhi: chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in a sauce that contains no onions or garlic, together with some type of bread, usually fried Rationale: 1) Lentils are too everyday, whereas beans and chickpeas, because they require pre-soaking , are more time-consuming to prepare and therefore (theoretically at least) served less often in home cooking. The extra work shows that you are going to extra lengths for your guests. 2) It is a vegetarian dish, because in a larger gathering you don't know how many people will be vegetarian, but it is usually guaranteed that a significant number will be. Onions and garlic are omitted because again you don't know how many of your guests (Jains, for example) do not eat these foods. 3) The bread is usually fried because this is the classic combination with chickpeas (the two are often mentioned together for this reason: chole bhatura = chickpeas together with fried bread). It is also popular to serve this because using oil - and ghee in particular - to fry bread is both more costly and less common than everyday breads, which are usually chappatis. Again, it shows you are going to extra lengths for your guests. Expat Indian gatherings which often cut across regional lines. The same dishes tend to be repeated over and over again. So much so that they get to be quite tedious. The same rationales as above apply re use of oil, more time-consuming preparation than everyday foods, vegetarian preparation, and avoidance of onion and garlic. Dahi vada - a thick batter is made lentils that have been soaked, ground to a paste, and spiced. The batter is formed into rings and deep fried. The rings are then soaked in a spiced yogurt mixture. Poha - (an exception here, as this can be made quickly). Flattened rice flakes fried with spices and usually a few vegetables that provide a nice color contrast with the yellow of the rice - the yellow being attained by including turmeric among the spices used. Pakoras and/or tikkis - Pakoras: vegetable pieces dipped into a spiced chickpea batter and deep fried. Tikkis: many possible variations here, but often a filling of spiced mashed potato with a chickpea batter crust, deep fried. Served with some type of chutney.

No, they're not parsley seeds, though they are in the same family. Read here for more.

The best substitute would actually be dried oregano (and yes, I am being serious). Maybe add a little extra black pepper also. And on no account substitute caraway seeds - the taste is very different indeed.

Thickness does seem to vary according to the manufacturer. However, I think feuilles de brik would work reasonably as a substitute for yufka, though most of the yufka I've seen is still somewhat thicker. I know a couple of people who went to the US and, when they couldn't find yufka, found the thickest phyllo they could, used two layers at a time, and then worked with it as they did with yufka. It wasn't exactly the same, of course, but it was still better than nothing - and a lot faster than making your own. Got to make those borek, they look really good!

You can freeze both pandan and curry leaves. The curry leaves, in particular, tend to lose some fragrance if you do this, but better than them going rotten in the fridge if that's the alternative. (Pandan tends to go moldy quite fast if only refrigerated, and curry leaves slowly turn black and tasteless).

It was 700 grams, not 900 grams. I think my brain has become totally useless since my baby was born. That's the total weight of lemons, including the ones used for juice. (In case you want to try the pickle again, but with less sitting-around time, or with sunning it more). I lived in Ohio for 5 years, and never dared make pickles that needed to be sunned since I felt the humidity was too high. Some of my Pakistani neighbours did, though, and as far as I know they never actually suffered from food poisoning. However, I'd still suggest modifying the recipe to have 12 or 24 hours marinating time, then the cooking step, and then allowing to age for a few months before serving. Just keep a look out for signs of fermentation, such as minute bubbles forming, during those few months.

I bought my copy of her book locally, so it's the German translation. Not sure if the Enghlish version has it, but she specifies it should be 900 grams of lemons. The fact that she clarifies the weight suggests to me that she has taken into consideration the fact that it's usually limes in India (never actually seen a lemon in India - not sure they exist there) and lemons may be more available elsewhere. But I also don't have lemons in the house, only limes, so am unsure how many lemons this actually amounts to. None of the Indian lime pickles I've ever made needed the jar to be filled entirely with juice in the first stage. These are not the same as Moroccan type pickles. Instead, (for climates less hot than India) what you are doing is 'marinating' the fruit first in a certain amount of juice, salt and spices and drawing more of the juice out before proceeding to the next step where they are cooked with oil, boiled, or whatever. However, the pickles I've made in the last few years, when I've been in places cooler than India, usually have this first step for only 24 hours or so. Many also use turmeric, which also inhibits bacterial action. For the pickle you are making, a week seems awfully long to be leaving them, and sounds to me a ripe breeding ground for bacteria and/or mold. That said, there are also plenty of pickle recipes where the limes are left with spices as in your recipe and are either cooked much later, or are not actually cooked at all. HOWEVER, all of these are intended for the temperatures of India in summer, and require the jar of limes to be left in the sun for a week, ten days, or even longer. So we are not talking about letting the limes simply sit around, but basically 'cooking' the limes in the sun. I've made this type of pickle in India, and the liquid in the pickle truly appears to come to a boil with the temperatures it reaches. Outside of India, I don't feel the temperature is ever hot enough, and I haven't made this type of pickle. So, do you live in a place where it's extremely hot right now (at the very least 100F) and preferably not too humid? If so, put your jar of lemons in the sunniest place you have and you should be okay. If it's not too hot, you don't have a sunny spot, or it is extremely humid, I would be a bit wary of what might happen to the lemons. Edited to add more detail.

Never made a lemon pickle that sits for so long before being cooked further. The ones I make it's always about 24 hours after adding spices and salt. Sounds possibly unsafe to me to be leaving it so long. How long have they already been sitting around? If not too long, maybe try proceeding to the next step straight away. The carrot should definitely be covered in oil. Many recipes in India don't give specific amounts of oil, but simply say 'to cover'. They also say to top up the oil if it's too low (these pickles are usually 'cooked' in the hot Indian sun. If you top up the oil, then compensate for not doing this by heating the oil before adding). Again, how long has it been sitting around with bits uncovered? If more than a day, I'd pull out the sticking out pieces. If less than a day I'd push them down or add more oil.

Yes, her samosa filling is also my favorite. These are the ingredients: 1 ounce ghee 1 ounce ginger 8 ounces potatoes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon garam masala (curry powder) 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds 2 ounces onions 2 green chilies 6 ounces shelled peas 3/4 teaspoon red pepper 1 teaspoon pomegranate seeds 1 dessertspoonful powdered, dried mango OR 1 dessertspoonful fresh lemon juice Your book must be a different edition, Ed. No comments at all about her family in mine!

With the pumpkin greens I've been able to obtain up till now, the stalks are too stringy to be eaten unpeeled. Peeling them is a bit of a nuisance - you have to snap the stem part-way along, whereupon the outer stringy layer separates from the softer inner layer. Then pull along the tringy part to remove the outer layer. This can take a few attempts to build up the knack of how to do it. I try to showcase the flavor by sauteeing simply with a little garlic and some salt.

More Berlin farmers markets: Winterfeldplatz: Wednesday and Saturdays, 8 to 2 pm - one of the larger markets, and not too bad. If you're there in summer, the fruit is pretty good. (south from Nollendorfplatz station). Wittenbergplatz: Tuesdays and Fridays. Not a huge amount available, but sometimes they have less common types of apple varieties and such like. Nice breads also, including some not sold so frequently, such as the 'Ostschrippen' ("East German" bread roll). Diagonally opposite KaDeWe and, while not particularly cheap, still an awful lot cheaper than KaDeWe (though I would visit the food floor just for the region-by-region offerings of smoked pork products anyway). Not German food, but a relatively large Turkish market: the Türkenmarkt along Maybachufer. U-bahn Schönleinstrasse. Tues and Fri from 12 - 6.30 pm. Very fresh fruits and vegetables, different types of Turkish breads, olives, cheese, and Turkish sweets. Chocolate: Fassbender and Rausch. Charlottenstrasse, at Gendarmenmarkt (one street east from Friedrichstrasse). Various types of chocolate, pralines, etc., believe they are just setting up a chocolate-themed restaurant as well, but maybe it's not ready yet (?). Also has kitsch sculptures made out of chocolate, like the Brandenburg Gate and such like, if you are interested. Tea (leaf tea, not a cafe): Benjowski at 3 Danziger Strasse. Near U-Bahn station Eberswalder Strasse, in Prenzlauer Berg. This has a REALLY good selection of teas, best I know of in Berlin. Not sure if they speak English, though. Never actually gone here (yet), but Rogacki is meant to be good. Wilmersdorfer Strasse, U-bahn Bismarckstrasse. Web site is here. This developed from a place that smoked fish and now sells smoked fish, chicken and eel, as well as wine, bread, cheese, salads, etc. to either eat on the spot in a cafe/snack bar or to take away. More-or-less-local specialty of Berlin: Spree Gurken - i.e. pickled cucumbers from about the Spreewald located about half-way between Berlin and the Polish border. These have various flavourings and are often sold loose from wooden tubs. Some supermarkets have them in the vegetable section (if you see wooden tubs in this area, this is what they will be), and I have seen them for sale in an out-of-the-way corner at the Winterfeldplatz market as well. Another local (Spreewald) specialty is flax oil (Leinöl). This is sold in small brown bottles, and should be used up quite rapidly. It is often served here over mashed potatoes. I'm not totally won over by the taste, but am mentioning it anyway.

Nitpicking here, but the sound in Chinese is not actually a 'd'. It is an unaspirated 't' sound (not a sound that appears in English at all. though it is pretty common in many languages worldwide). English speakers tend always to aspirate their 't' when it is not combined with another consonant. That is, they add a puff of air with/after the 't' when they pronounce it. They do the same with 'k' and 'p' as well. (as a test, a native speaker of English can try saying 'tar' vs 'star' and note the puff of air that appears with the first 't' and is absent or much reduced with the second). By contrast, 'd' is a voiced sound, and voiced sounds are extremely rare in Chinese. I believe they appear only in Shanghai dialect. Incidentally, the difference between aspirated, non-aspirated, and voiced sounds is why some romanization systems of Chinese other than pinyin (such as the Wade-Giles system) use t and t' to represent the sounds now represented as d and t in pinyin. If you hear an average native English speaker pronouncing 'tofu; or 'doufu', therefore, both the 't' and the 'd' sound they will produce almost cerrtainly be inaccurate if compared to how it's pronounced in Chinese. It's just that, of the two, the 't' - due to the aspiration that is added - sounds further removed from the actual Chinese sound.

Not completely tangential, as grated coconut goes into puttu! Puttu steamer and recipe for puttu. This is the kind of steamer I have. Also, pressure cooker puttu steamer and recipe. (Scroll down). Not sure I'd recommend this way of cracking open coconuts, though.

Not crazy. I also tried the baking method a couple of times and found that the coconut tasted too cooked for me. I just wack it with a hammer after I've drained out the water. Don't see the need for bringing sharp knives into the picture (partly this is because I am a most unco-ordinated person likely to sink the cleaver into my forehead were I to use the back of a cleaver ). Joking aside, though, I have used both hammers and cleavers in the past, and simply find the hammer to be the more appropriate tool. Hah, my husband doesn't even know that I have a ravioli maker (and I certainly won't mention the recently purchased puttu steamer!) Such information is sometimes better kept to oneself.

Some more questions: How much time do you have overall for each class? Are you demonstrating first, and then having them make it, or having them make it in groups while you go from group to group and troubleshoot? (I've done this both ways, and both have their advantages, but the time required varies greatly for the two methods). Definitely you need to look at how much time is needed for: - talking about ingredients/methods etc. - food preparation - consuming the food (expect this to take longer than planned. I always found a kind of party atmosphere appeared, and everyone tended to eat more slowly). Then again, I've always taught classes where at least four dishes were cooked per class, so this might be different with your class. - clean up afterwards A couple more things to remember: Remind the group to bring plastic containers for taking leftovers home. Handouts with the recipes printed out on them. An alternative approach to how to treat the budgeting and ingredients issue (suggested because of your mobility problems). When I've taught, I've always used public transport, and therefore lugging ingredients, utensils, etc. for a whole group just wasn't practical. One approach to save your own sanity is to have a short meeting with the participants first (you can use this time to find out about their dietary etc. concerns), and at that time give out a list of what is to be brought and in what quantity. (Though I would bring anything really unusual or difficult to track down). That way, x can volunteer to bring tomatoes, y brings eggplant, z brings olive oil to each class, etc. Each brings the receipt with them, then you tally it up on the spot and divide by the number of participants. Each participant also has the phone number of at least one other participant so that, if for some reason, they can't make it to class, an alternative person will bring the ingredient they should have brought. My students always complained about this at first - often they'd done cooking classes before and had not had to do this kind of work. However, when they did it, they realized that it was a good experience in learning where and how to pick out the best produce. I ended up with students really enthused by this and swapping tips on where to buy the best whatever...

I have used powdered hilbeh, and it did form a jelly once mixed with water. However, it tasted awful - and I'm a big fan of fenugreek in all its forms. Whole seeds soaked overnight to soften, the excess water poured off, and then ground were far superior in taste. It could well be that the powder I bought was stale, but it tasted bad enough that I haven't been tempted to buy the powder a second time to find out. There have been a couple of threads on fenugreek in the past. Here is the link to a recipe I gave earlier. Link