jasie

I like snacking on furikake too... spoon? No thanks. haha. I love dried squid/cuttlefish. Soft chewy ones, crispy ones.. all good. Congee with salted vegetables, salted radish omelettes, nam yu or spam fried with eggs. Yum! *wanders off into the kitchen for any of those.....* (you guys made me hungry )

It was really really easy. Actually after I did the smoked pulled pork, I did a few smaller pieces and thus could use the lid. I prefer using foil to using the lid as its easier to peek. haha. And its easier to unwrap foil than to get the really hot lid off the very very hot pan. The smoked onions and tomatoes sound so so good. Will definitely have to try that! I've used it to smoke some apples (after looking at the egullet pastry challege involving smoke!) and it came out pretty nice. Didn't look pretty though. But smoked apple + caramel + fleur de sel = awesome. One thing that I've tried that possibly outdid the smoked pork was the smoked char siew. After marinating, I only did a short 30 minute smoke with oak wood chips and then finished it in my counter-top rotisserie (I'm a gadget junkie). It came out great.

I made this a couple days ago to give to share in class. I had expected people to exclaim that it was too sweet or that it was weird but everyone loved it. Even my pumpkin pie hating boyfriend loved it. Must be that combination of way too much butter and sugar.

Don't have a grill or a smoker as I stay in an apartment and we're not allowed to have them either due to fire hazard concerns. Got this grill on amazon as it was on sale for about $30. Did this a few weeks ago. Got 5lb pork shoulder, rubbed with a storebought generic rub (wasn't need, couldn't even taste it). Had to foil tent it as it was too big for the cover to be used. Smoked it on the stove top for an hour and then in the oven for another 4. It was fall apart tender!! Could really taste the smoke, and served with some bbq sauce- made a awesome pulled pork sandwich. Definitely paid for itself. No pictures of it done because it was basically devoured on sight.

ahh ok. Will try going a couple degrees higher next time then. It still tastes really really awesome though. Its really malleable so I stretched some of it and used it to cover some marshmallows and apples. Yum.

I made the caramel this morning. Its still really soft after about 4 hours. Is it suposed to be like this or is it going to get harder by tomorrow? THe little bit that I put in a seperate bowl with some granny smith apples tasted fantastic.

Friend linked me to this and I think its an awesome deal for someone looking for a rice cooker and/or electric tabletop grill (Its winter, indoor grilling sounds nice!). I don't know how to edit it to an egullet-friendly link so hopefully a mod can do it for me. 1. Sanyo ECJ-D100S 10-Cup Micro-Computerized Rice Cooker/Steamer, White with Stainless Accent Link: Rice Cooker 2. Sanyo HPS-SG3 200-Square-Inch Electric Indoor Barbeque Grill, Black Link: Grill You have to scroll down to the bottom and click on the Buy both and save instead of adding each individually , then apply code NOVSAVER at checkout. Item(s) Subtotal: $155.70 Shipping & Handling: $22.37 Best Value Savings: $-39.95 Super Saver Discount: $-22.37 Promotional Certificate: $-25.00 ----- Total Before Tax: $90.75 Estimated Tax: $0.00 ----- Grand Total: $90.75 Edited to add: Forgot to say that you'd have to buy both to get the deal. The rice cooker itself is more expensive at over $100 than the deal price at $90 so look at it as buying a rice cooker and getting a grill free and with a discount on the ricecooker too!

Bake a loaf of bread in it. I've found some recipes off of the king arthur's site that are pretty decent. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landin...faultRecipeMain Even though I use my breadmaker for kneading and then baking seperately in the oven... I think baking in the machine for your first loaf would be nice for the first use just to see if you like it in the machine and if the machine works. Good luck!

A sweet tea jelly or granita sounds cool. I was thinking of what I would love sweet tea with and suddenly I started thinking Bubble tea. Bubble tea is tea (well, mostly... sometimes they use fruit smoothies), and sweet! What about using tapioca pearls for some texture of some sort? Or using chewier(?) sweet tea jelly as a texture? A riff off of some asian desserts like the honeydew and sago in coconut milk kind of dessert rather than a baked one... I keep thinking the tea flavor would maybe be mostly lost after baking, or at least greatly reduced. Or what about using flavored tea? Like sweet jasmine tea syrup. Ok. ok. I think most southerners would be cringing at my ideas by now. Speaking of southern food.. red velvet cake with sweet tea filling? Hehe. maybe I AM thinking too much.

I made the "fresh gingercake" today. Oh my god. It is awesome. Even my ginger disliking boyfriend likes the cake. I halved the recipe, and subbed 1 tbsp of corn syrup for 1 tbsp of molasses as I didn't want the molasses to overpower the ginger. Baked for 43 minutes in a 7" springform and it smelled so nice! Almost half the cake is gone...

I find that if I used all cream and no milk, the ice cream is a lot softer than if I used a mixture of both. I'm thinking the higher milkfat helps?

I watched the video linked off of the Macaroon thread. What about doing something like that? Savory Macaroons with onion confit and pork cracklings instead of buttercream. Or a savory cookie? Enjoy this and the last thread alot- alternating between being totally grossed out (sweet haggis?! ) , missing food from home (The bak kwa/sweet pork jerky), but being extremely amused and inspired by the process of thought/filtering all the information.

Wow, got to delurk to say that I'm loving all the pictures and the blog . And, was really interested in the spice shop that I went to hunt for to see if they had a website.. and .... Tadahh! Kalustyans! According to this page on their website, they have those!

What about making some tapas style food? Here's a thread for inspiration. My friends and I also enjoying noshing on stuff like edamame, and sometimes (don't laugh! ) tater tots. Finger food is always good! And since its movies... what about popcorn? Pop some plain popcorn and with different flavorings/toppings that people can put on it- ranch, furikake , cheese, butter, garlic salt etc?

dip fresh guava in it. sweet, crispy, sour and salty. Yum.

While surfing the net for bento inspiration.. I found this site. Its pretty cute with pictures and recipes. and.. i LOVE the bento calendar(gallery)! http://www.cookingcute.com/index.htm

Might wanna head out of portland to Grande Foods in Cornelius. More information here... http://www.forestgrovenewstimes.com/news/s...214519119922700 http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/i...ll=7&thispage=1 eta: icky spelling/grammar

Wouldn't using a microplane or zester be faster or less work? By the way, enjoying the process and thank you for painstakingly trying and experimenting! And I too, will be waiting for the final version to make it. MmmM. Orange muffins!

I like.. http://www.surlatable.com Sur La Table http://www.deandeluca.com Dean and Deluca http://www.everythingkitchens.com Everything Kitchens- I think this site is kinda messy though And there's a big list on Food 411 ( http://www.food411.com/index.php ) with sections on General Resouces ( http://www.food411.com/general_food_resources.php ) and Kitchenware ( http://www.food411.com/cooking_tools.php ) Hope this is useful! -Jas

Remember that the voltage etc in Singapore is different from the US too.. so many things I wanna schlep back home from the US/Canada a few yrs ago but couldn't because of voltage differences (my flat hair iron was sizzling!) Hmm. ideas for things other than mixers Silicone Pinch Bowls ? Cute bundt pans/cake molds?

So far, the only place I've found selling the actual pandan leaves is http://www.thaiherbs.com/. Its really expensive though (compared to how much we pay in SE Asia at least), at $18 a plant! There's a lot of different species of pandanus/screwpines however. Most of them are trees, shrubs and are not used for flavoring. The one we use in SE Asia is known as the Pandanus odorus. I usually just buy the frozen ones found in the asian markets or pandan extract/paste. I find that the frozen ones don't really come out as strong or flavorful as the fresh leaves I cut when I need them (when I'm home in Singapore) but beggars can't be chosers I guess. Hmm... now I want to make some kueh dardar too. ETA: funky punctuation/spelling mistakes.

I haven't tried the zabar/staub pickles you guys mentioned but I have a recipe that a friend gave me for half-sours. Not sure how it compares to those but to me, its pretty good! I like it with jalepeno, or even a habanero in the salt solution but even straight up without, its pretty good. This makes about 4cups/a quart. Half- Sours 5 cloves garlic 1 quart pickling/small cucumbers 1 small celery heart 4 tsp kosher salt 3 cups water 1-2 small chili (optional) - peel, lightly crush garlic - arrange the cukes, celery, chili, garlic etc in non-reactive container - combine salt, water, stir til dissolved, pour into container. - cover with non-reactive weight (plate/saucer?). cukes etc shd be submerged by 2 inches - cover with clean tea towel, store ar room temp for 4-6 days. skim off any foam that forms - when fermentation stops (no more bubbles) cover and refridgerate. - Keeps for 3-4 weeks refridgerated. Notes: -I use a pyrex measuring jar for the pickling, and a 2 small saucers as weights before transfering them to another jar for refridgeration. -Habanero, jalapeno etc can be added for variety. I don't like Dill so I've never tried adding dill...but should be good too! -Bubbling/fermentation starts around the 2nd day, ends around 4th. -Check everyday for foam on top -Recipe can be easily doubled

I'd say give/take about 10-15 minutes.

If you get it from the store, I believe they include a recipe book with it, and instructions. I got it without instructions since I got it off of craigslist.. but it was really easy! There were markings on the metal part of the machine that showed where the water was suposed to be up to, and I'd read the website a little and it had some too. You're suposed to measure about 80-100grams of soybeans per batch and soak for 6-8 hours. I usually do that at night before i sleep, and when I wake up I rub the beans a little between my hands to try to get off some of the skin. I wash it, and alot of the skin comes and floats off. I then set the machine (fill it with the beans/water etc) and then go brush teeth etc. Hehe, by the time I finish that, the machine has usually beep'ed and I have hot soy milk for breakfast! The remainder I put into a container in the fridge. One thing though, because it has a mesh filter, there might still be very very tiny pieces of soybeans in the soymilk that sinks to the bottom of the container. Sometimes I strain it with cheesecloth or a coffee filter, sometimes I don't... they don't really bug me. I'm used to the asian style soy milk, without the vanilla, guar gum and other junk that they put in it. I sometimes add blended pandan leaves and strain, being that I love pandan flavored anything. lol. I also tend to add a little bit of sugar syrup but it tastes pretty good without too. If you look at the soymilkmaker site, there's a few recipes that gives ideas on how to replicate the taste of silk/edenjoy soymilk and how to make rice milk too... For tau fu fa, I sometimes use...agar agar powder, and sometimes use gypsum or GDL. hehe. GDL gives a slight sour taste that I don't mind and can't tell the difference if I make tofu for savory foods like mapo tofu.. but in tau fu fa, its really obvious! For making of the tofu, I use those plastic containers that tofu is sold in- I kept a couple of them, and cut slits in them for water to seep out and use those to make tofu with a couple pieces of cheesecloth/muslin and a heavy can of tomatos! Works out pretty well, but sometimes i wish I had a proper tofu mold as they're rather flimsy. The steps for making them... its exactly the same as handmade soymilk, I can add the gypsum/nigari/GDL right after it beeps as it is boiled already etc. I have to say though, if I didn't have the machine... I probably won't drink as much soymilk or even make tofu. Its alot of hassle compared to using the machine and I really hated dealing with the cleaning up of everything (the blender, the pots and pans, the cloths, strainers etc). It was actually wanting fresh soy milk, and hating the hassle that made me buy the soymilk maker. If i wanted fresh soy milk (that's a relative term as its really made and bottled somewhere else and then shipped and sold at the asian grocery stores and I have NO IDEA how fresh they really are ), I'd have to drive at least 10 miles each way and pay like $5-6/gallon at uwajimaya. I haven't regretted the purchase. hehe. Ick. I sound like a walking advertisement!