miladyinsanity

I've 17 brownie recipes to try. I will start this week. So far, my preference is Ling's brownie recipe--it's in RecipeGullet--but slightly modified.

Pasta cooked in chicken soup, then tossed in olive oil and garlic.

You mean like doctored cake mixes?

My second thought after marshmallow fluff was Italian Meringue, which is supposed to have this marshmallowy consistency. Then I came to my sense and realized that there's no way you'd be piping that into chocolate shells!

I saw a picture where someone cut heart shapes with a cookie cutter out of the brownies. Maybe you could do something like Mrs Fields and use colored icing to write stuff on top?

Aaaaaah! Now I know why I've been thinking of using up the left over pineapple jam the same way! Thanks for the inspiration!

You can borrow my avatar. SB (it's left-handed and flying, but it's a pig) ← Thanks Steve! (Left-handed's all wrong though--I'm a rightie)

I think it's a lot to do with how one is brought up. My maternal grandpa could reaaaally cook. All of my mom's 12 siblings can cook--I always joke that my uncles's wives lucked out. When we go back to visit, we gather around the kitchen to decide where we are headed for our next meal, or to decide who's cooking what. So basically, a lot of our gatherings are about food. And it's passed on to the next generation. I'm not the only 'young' one who cooks in my family--my cousins do too. We range from 12 to 30-something (I'm discounting the people who are too short to reach the stove :laughs: ). And by cook, I don't mean reheating a frozen dinner. At the same time, I think the time factor plays a big part. I don't doubt that I won't be cooking as much as I would like to when I'm at university. There are so many close substitutes for cooking. Restaurants, convenience foods, take-out etc. Of the lot, cooking clearly takes the most work. Unless you enjoy cooking, I imagine one would gain less utility from cooking than from buying something easy, therefore you'd buy something easy rather than cook.

At 0130am this fine morning, I went into the waffles thread. It is now 0242am where I am at. During the interim time period, I: Climbed up the ladder to get the waffle iron (I am very short) Dug out a recipe Modified it (because my grandpa said substituting rice flour for some of the wheat flour gets you crispy pancakes, and therefore waffles too) Mixed it all up Heated the waffle iron Cooked three waffles whilst eating them hot off the iron, plain, with lemon curd and coconut curd aka kaya (separately, not altogether because that would be disgusting) Washed up I now feel like a pig. Where is that pig icon? PS Will someone tell me that they've done this too to make me feel better?

Depends on the iron content. If a magnet will stick to it, it will work. Not very helpful if you're buying it online though.

I will try again. You guys should start buying stock in rice flour mills, as I foresee kilos and kilos and kilos of rice being wasted in my mad experiments. I shall put your advice to good use, Hiroyuki and helenjp. I wonder if mixing by hand, as opposed to with a spoon, will help.

I've gone through about a half kilo of rice flour today. Please tell me that Joshinko is just ordinary rice flour, right? Because I've gone through several recipes for mitarashi dango now, and each time the first step involves mixing the flour and water to form a dough--I'm using english recipes, so it can't be me reading the recipe wrong. So far, I form a batter, not a dough, Every Single Time. Any ideas what's wrong? The various proportions I've used include: 1 cup (150g) rice flour and 3/4 cup water (this one I've seen on several places) 200g rice flour and 200cc water--this recipe had 50g sugar too In the meantime, I shall go bang my head on the wall. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give me.

*groan* So that's what I forgot today: Cream cheese for my plan to imitate the inimitable Sethro!

Maybe Marshmallow fluff is more what you're looking for?

Can someone translate "上新粉" for me? Google tells me it is upper new powder. The sad thing is, that's what I would have read it as--it translates the same way in Mandarin. Also, I bought dango today (I simply cannot resist) that was dipped in some sort of black sesame sauce. Yummy! I think the sauce is just black sesame seeds, sugar, a touch of salt ground with a little water and will be off shortly to experiment.

← A thousand dollars would buy one many many many bagels with lox and cream cheese.

I think you could fill macarons with lemon curd? But you have to keep them in the fridge and not take them out too early.

You can use the drop the sugar in cold water test. It's supposed to be more reliable than a thermometer. I'm guessing that the first time, you cooked the sugar too long, and the second time you didn't cook the sugar long enough.

My first thought was, "Are you pregnant?"

I think it's kinako, or roasted soybean powder--at least, that's what I'd assume if it were Japanese.

Are the pink, yellow and green ones plain? Without filling? Because if they are, that's what I'm trying to figure out how to make, because I looooooove them.

That's exactly it! I've been to the Japanese supermarkets here but I've not seen shiratamako, so ordinary rice flour will have to do. What's the difference between kushi dango and sanshoku dango, other than sanshoku dango coming in three colors? The pictures I've seen online...the kushi dango looks the same to me. Because I've only managed to dig out kushi dango recipes. Is there a distinct flavor to it? I don't remember the green ones tasting noticeably different from the white or pink ones. I could go ask in the China forum whether anybody knows what mugwort is in Mandarin. I know it's used in Chinese medicine, so it should be the same thing. Or I could be an utter heathen and use pandan juice.

FWIW, I know there is a technique for getting smooth tops with most types of batter, without that sharp point at the end. Something about quickly making a circular motion at the end?

I'd even go as far as saying puff pastry - there are some ok fresh and frozen brands available, and it's a bugger to make yourself. Shortcrust is a different matter though. ← I disagree on this one. It's really not that hard.

← Maybe it would have helped if I had thought to specify what I'm looking for. I usually buy the one (sometimes from Minamoto Kitchoan) that comes 3 on a stick, and each one's a different color, green, white and pink. Does that help? And is yomogi mugwort? And I might be crazy enough to grind sesame seeds by hand, but I'm not going to pound rice.