Torrilin

Start with lentils or split peas. They don't need to be soaked, and even at their most ancient and dried out should cook through within 4 hours. That gets you practice working with dried legumes. Gradually, you'll learn how to tell when your lentils or peas are fresh and when they're ancient and dried out. Then you can start branching out into other dried beans which mostly (unless you get *very* fresh beans) take around 4 or more hours to cook. Sometimes lots more. The hard part with the longer cooking dried beans is that it's a slow, patient process, and it's hard to learn the right balance of hands off and fussing. Emily

Why doesn't she ask the staff for advice on what dishes are ok if she's observing a fast from meat? It's not like Vietnam has no observant Buddhists... It should be trivial to present it in a culturally acceptable way. IIRC fish sauce isn't used in the traditional fast day dishes, nor is any other animal product. Emily

I'm not a big fish fan, however... Until a year or so ago, I'd have to cook it quite often. My mother adores seafood of all sorts, and would buy it regularly. Since she also adores having her children cook for her, that meant whoever was around would get practice with fish. White fish are mostly alright in my book. Individually quick frozen fillets of tilapia and catfish are one of mom's staples. They both survive freezing fairly well, and have a flavor that I rather like. They're also (mercifully) well suited to a variety of cooking methods, including things like southeast Asian fish soups. If you can get fresh trout (the scent and texture notes everyone is giving you are critical here) it's also very nice. Since you're in the upper midwest, sunfish and crappie should be common in your local lakes and streams, and are good eating if the water is clean. Cod can be very nice to work with as well, but if you're not near the ocean it's harder to get good quality ocean fish. If you get lucky and some kind fisherman gives you a bunch of quick frozen rockfish, have a party. These guys freeze well and are delicious. Since freshwater whitefish can be farm raised, they tend to be quite inexpensive. Saltwater whitefish is usually pretty unpopular, especially if the name sounds odd or it's a small fish. That makes whitefish good to experiment with. Each species has a slightly different flavor and texture too. Scallops, clams, mussels and oysters tend to be good shellfish if you like white fleshed fish. The texture isn't so odd, and the flavor is more fishy and less candy-like. All of these are rather nasty when overdone, and lovely when cooked to a turn. The proper degree of done here is largely a matter of taste and what sort of dish it is. Clam chowder gets a lot more cooking than a seared scallop. These are all very dubious unless you get lucky and find ones that have been flown in fresh that day. You also can sometimes find high quality frozen, but be picky with them. If it doesn't smell good thawed, it's not worth using. For shrimp, lobster and crab, they tend to have a sweet taste and they get rubbery when overcooked. They're also very easy to overcook. If the sweet taste disturbs you, try them with things like sriracha sauce or other good quality hot sauces. They're also really good with lots of garlic and tomato. If they're cooked properly, the texture won't be so weird. It's ok not to like these. I'm only in the mood for these sorts of shellfish once every couple of years. In Chicago, unless you're buying a live lobster, you *will* be getting these frozen. Red fish like tuna and salmon are (IMO) really unpleasant. The fat often has a distinct "fishy" taste, unless it's sublimely fresh. The meat is much "meatier" than white fleshed fish and shellfish, and I find that combined with the texture to be very offputting most of the time. These fish also don't ship well at all, and suffer a lot from freezing. About once in a blue moon, I'll be in the mood for smoked salmon on a cream cheese covered bagel. Otherwise, I avoid red fleshed fish. These tend to be very popular fish, and the price will reflect that. I grew up about 3 hours from the ocean, and a family friend would work summers as a fishing tour captain. Even that close to the ocean, you *will* get better quality fish when working from frozen. It's expensive to truck fish 3 hours or more at low enough temperatures to keep them properly fresh without getting them frozen, and it must be done daily. If the boat has good onboard freezing equipment, you can get amazingly good frozen fish for much less money tho. Even now, I live about 5 miles from the ocean and I'm *still* better off buying frozen fish. The average grocery store around here has a terrifying "fresh" fish department that smells nauseating. At least I know the frozen stuff hasn't been abused that badly. Emily

The simplest way I can see to tackle this is to set up some trial runs. Make a list of all the sensible single variations that may get you closer to the right result. Then (gack) do each of them. It's a very brute force method, but when you can compare many samples it gets a lot easier to identify what is closer to right and what is closer to wrong. I've helped do this before with several baked preparations, and it's *very* educational. Side by side comparison of your various products gives you a clear idea of what each small change does. The other side effect is the massive repetition may give you a clue about minor fine points of technique. From what JeanneCake has found, it sounds like this may be one of those difficult recipes where practice matters. Emily

I was attempting to provide a familiar western dish that has elements of what a Chinese person might call wok hay. Not the same, but an analogy. Most western dishes aren't served at a temperature that a Chinese person would feel is appropriate for a stir fried dish, but french fries come close. The deep fried texture is quite wrong, but good french fries have a balance between heat, steam and the actual food that does resemble the best Chinese food I've had. I'm specifying Chinese, because in my experience, other Asian cultures do not exalt the wok hay sort of feel the way Chinese do. And further, not all Chinese diaspora cultures are the same. My Indonesian-Chinese friends and my Taiwanese friends don't cook in anything like a Chinese restaurant style, because their families are from different parts of China. (And I know it sounds like I'm talking solely about temperature, but wok hay is not just temperature. It's not just wok seasoning. It's not just that wonderful stir fried texture. It's one of those concepts that just doesn't translate well, and I'll probably be banging my head on for the rest of my life.) I'm glad you did get it right last night . Emily

I'm not sure what's your goal here. That feels quite wrong in terms of getting the desired texture. Fried rice is not a flambe, it's just what it sounds like. Fried. The proper American analogue is a hash. The wok hay you see mentioned is *not* flame. A decentish literal translation is "the breath of the wok". A good analogy is properly done french fries. You want them right after they come out of the fryer, when they're so hot they nearly scorch your fingers, and you have that perfect balance between the crisp and the steam and the starch. French fries on fire, wrong. French fries sizzling hot and trying to burn you, just right. Note that as near as I can tell, all stir fried dishes should have wok hay if you're Cantonese. Not just fried rice. Your problem here is not enough heat. As it states earlier in the thread (and I can attest they're right from much experience), you need at least a 100,000 BTU wok burner to prepare restaurant style fried rice. You can come a *bit* closer with a 20,000 BTU burner and a heavy, preheated cast iron pan, but it will never be just like the dish as prepared on the higher output burner. The raw egg added directly to the rice does work, if you have high enough heat. You end up with something rather like "velveted" rice grains. I've never managed the effect at home, tho it does work nicely one some restaurants' rice. IME, you can prepare a fairly close to restaurant style fried rice at home on a low BTU burner in suitable quantities for one fairly small appetite. If you wish to feed more than one person, you're screwed. If you can live with home-style fried rice, then you're fine again. Emily (who *does* use ginger, but only because ginger is a vegetable in her household, and of course you use extra veggies in your fried rice)

I've got that one and find it helpful on occasion. It's not really to my taste to cook from it, because it focuses heavily on dishes that are staples to both me and my mother. And while it's fun to try someone else's version of a favorite dish, it usually won't get remade exactly unless it's substantially better than our method. (Yes, I grew up on lots of French style food) If French style food appeals to you, I think that book would be a good choice. There are no techniques used in there that cause mom and I to throw up our hands in horror. The ingredients used are pretty available. And honestly, it's the kind of cooking that makes up a large part of our daily life . The leek and potato soup recipe is quite good (try it both ways to see which you prefer), and I seem to recall the methods for roasts were pretty good as well. Emily

Most authors who've done training in Europe will include a note or two on expected ingredient weights *somewhere* in the book. I'd check the book to see if Maida Heatter gives such instructions. I know I was quite surprised when I realized that Joy of Cooking has ingredient weight instructions, since it's such an American classic. I'd also try turning the oven temperature down (if you have no thermometer) and beating the eggs *precisely* as instructed. Very often an author will presume that you have a stand mixer and are using that or that you have a lightweight hand held mixer. Using the kind of tool they expect will make it easier to judge whether you've got the right texture. Emily

it did indeed come out delicious, and i thank you all for your help. and beating it wasn't THAT hard. i mean, my arm was tired (especially because a little later i had to whip cream to go on top of it), but it wasn't unbearable. it was hard to know when to stop, though. ← Keep in mind that it's *very* difficult to overbeat anything if working by hand. You can do it, but until you develop the necessary physical strength and endurance, it's not easy. Emily

Know how to turn out a good roast. Chicken is a common one but roasts are done in nearly all cultures. Know how to braise or poach or stew protein. It's another one that's done in all cultures. Know how to do basic stock. Veal, chicken, beef, duck, doesn't matter. Know how the technique works for at least one, preferably more. To go along with this, know how to produce at least one flour thickened stock based sauce. Know how to do basic chopping. Yes, onions are a common tricky one, but knife skills are knife skills. Drill long enough and it comes naturally. Know how to produce a basic egg dish. Omlets are common, but poached eggs, shirred eggs, fritattas and hard boiled eggs all have their fine points too. Also, know how to produce at least one egg yolk thickened sauce. Know how to turn out a "dessert" ingredient. If you can do pie crust, crepes, a good cake batter or some other primal dessert building material, making desserts becomes doable. Even if all your desserts are variations on gateaux des crepes and crepes suzette, you're still ahead of the game. The recipes and techniques alone are not enough. Once you've got them down, you need to *practice*. So eating a proper meal, with at least one vegetable dish, at least one protein dish and at least one dessert every day becomes the other part. You need the daily drill of getting the parts of the meal onto the table in the right order. The kind of practice appropriate for a home kitchen is much less stressful than for a restaurant kitchen where you're feeding 200 covers a night, but you still need the pieces to go together in the right order. Emily

The pizza dough recipe derived from pain a l'ancienne in RecipeGullet is actually quite nice. The dough is of course best if you retard the dough overnight in the fridge, but it's quite tasty even if you don't have time for that. If you would like thin crust pizzas, it does require some technical practice to get nicely stretched pizzas. For a Chicago deep dish style pizza, I find approximately one batch of dough makes a fine deep dish crust in a 9*13 baking dish. I also find it makes very good cibiatta style bread. The Pizza Cook-off is a great thread to check out. Emily

While Mastering the Art of French Cooking has a lot of dishes that maybe don't fit your daily life, many of Julia Child's lesser known cookbooks fit better. From Julia Child's Kitchen is (aside from the minor horror of flour in potage parmentier) a much better fit for a typical American household. My other preferred option would be to work your way through a comprehensive cookbook for a cuisine that *does* fit into your daily life. While I enjoy Thai food a lot, I probably wouldn't cook my way through the Thai cookbooks available to me. I live in a desert, not a tropical country, so many of the fruits called for don't grow well or at all here. On the other hand, Mediterranean cuisines fit well with what's available, and so does Mexican cuisine. Emily

If you're using Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet a lot, keep in mind their recipes call for whole, unseeded peppers. I can't take the seeds, so I generally double or triple the number of peppers if I'm cooking for myself, then seed 'em. The authors also note in there somewhere that they frequently use more peppers in their home cooking than they call for in their recipes. So it's clearly toned down for American and Canadian palates. Emily

A dirt floor is not automatically bad (it makes a *fab* potato cellar from what I understand), but it *does* make it harder to keep things spotlessly clean for preserving. Traditionally, in the northern hemisphere, pigs (and many other sorts of animals) were killed in the fall, and preserved meats were a way to save the bounty for/over the winter. Often a culture's traditonal butchering month would be "blood moon" or something similar. Without central heating the meat could be stored in a clean, cold area, and for much of the US cold meant *cold*. Preserving year round is (in a weird way) very anti-traditional. And most traditional things were done that way for a reason, generally because it was easier. Not less work necessarily, but screw ups would be less costly. The reasons for a meat hanging shed on a traditional farm would be easier to keep clean, less chance of contaminating stuff in the house, easy to add smoking facilities... Then the dirt floored cellar becomes storage for vegetables. Emily

Asada seems pretty easy to manage, even if you don't have a market or butcher to do it for you. Citrus (my butcher uses oranges), onion, and a bit of seasoning. My butcher seems to use cumin. Skirt steak is ideal, but there are probably plenty of cuts that would work. I haven't tried making my own because the butcher's is so good. If I buy plain skirt steak, I tend to make a salsa verde and sear the steak to serve with the salsa. Your new toy seems well suited to that too . I'd not try a cheesesteak on it, unless you have a butcher who can do *very* thinly sliced beef for you. The meat needs to sear and steam, and really, Cheez Whiz is best. No need for a cheese warmer, tho I suppose you could be degenerate and add provolone. It just doesn't seem to have enough cooking area to do more than one cheesesteak at a time, and you'd have to pregrill the veggies if you lean towards peppers and onions. Emily

Sure they do, you just have to know where to shop . I've never actually seen brisket sold as anything other than a whole or half. My local butcher shop *only* sells it by the whole or half, Sam's Club and other such places also sell them in the normal fashion. The grocery stores around here don't usually sell it, but if you've got a grocery store with a real meat department you could certainly order one. The local grocery stores sell such a pitiful quality of beef that I'd rather just go to my butcher tho. Then I get middling to top end choice, rather than ungraded beef that'd have a tough time making Select. Emily

If you're not *sure* it's safe, throw it out. Mold that is visible to the naked eye has already invaded the entire volume of food. jsolomon's cleanliness recommendations sound spot on. If you're dealing with intractable basement issues (like a dirt floor or leaks that you can't afford to fix), you need a shroud for your curing bin. I'm not sure what the right kind of shrouding would be, but enclosing the curing area would make it much easier to keep clean. Then your only issue would be contamination in transit from the prep area to the curing chamber, and that can be minimized by doing the transfer with the product covered. From what you've described of the area you have to work with, you're probably better off with things like bacon or country ham. High salt content and whole muscles will make production safer. I'd also see if there's a local butcher, because they'll likely have ideas on labs who can test your products. Butchers who do their own sausages and cured meats will have experience with things going wrong, and can give you in person guidance. In some cases, your cured product may look like something has gone dreadfully wrong, but it's actually ok. In other cases, looking perfectly safe is a warning sign that it's not. Emily

If you are after the silky puree, then yes, you do have to sieve it. Russets in soup tend to go a bit powdery in prolonged cooking, and that would make doing the sieving easier. You'll probably (gack!) need to do a flour thickener to help maintain an emulsion on the puree. (the gack is because this kills the scent of the soup while it cooks... horrifying) The other thing I'd do to make it easier is rinse the leeks' surface, chop off the dark green leaves and roots, then halve the "logs" you have left. Use a food processor to chop 'em *before* trying to clean 'em. Then dump the leeks into a salad spinner, fill with water and use the spinner to dislodge the sand. Repeat as needed until the leeks are by god *clean*. Then if you want to be very thorough, go over the leek bits with your chef's knife to mince them further. I'd also skip any of the variant flavorings on your first few runs. A lot of them don't take well to pureeing, even tho they can add a lot of depth to the flavor. If it's not obvious *g* leek and potato soup is one of my family's standards. Emily

Most varieties of basil have an anise or licorice note to their flavor, even the most classically Italian ones I've tasted. I can offer no help on pesto, because I hate the stuff. Kalli

Hrm, I've never tried flambe myself. But fire is always good Rice pudding might work well, tho I'm not sure if the BF is a fan. I'll ask. Even if he's not a fan, bread pudding might agree with him. Sadly, no blender, or I'd have mentioned it. I *did* discover we have a foreman grill, so that might work for grilling the peaches. I'll have to take notes and try more of these ideas as the summer progresses. They sound *tasty* and there are gonna be a lot of peaches in my future. Kalli

Russets will do fine. So will red potatoes. So will Yukon golds. Really all vichysoisse is is plain old leek and potato soup pureed and served chilled. It's one of those fine old peasant dishes spiffed up with a fancy name and a refrigerator . If you have Mastering The Art of French Cooking, you'll notice there are something over a dozen suggested variations on leek and potato soup. And they miss quite a few varients. So... really don't worry about the "perfect" potato. They'll all do, it's just a matter of making it enough that you know which potato *you* think is perfect. Note that for a formal meal leek and potato soup ought to be pureed, but it can be just as good (in a different style) served chunky. And in the summer, I find it far more chilling to pour over heavy cream on a spinach and asparagus variant served chunky. The vegetables hold the chill of refrigeration very well. Emily

I used to never cook fresh peaches either. Then I moved to southern California, land of peaches from June til October. They're never as good as peaches from trees that got a good chill in the winter, so turning them into baked goods is often useful. Besides, they're one of the BF's favorite fruits, so we eat rather a lot of them... one gets tired of fresh peaches, even if they're fragrant and tasty. Freezer works, cook top doesn't. I may be able to pervert the rice cooker into cooking them tho. Hadn't thought of macerating them, or of panna cotta. BF and I both rather like panna cotta, so that might be a good spot to explore. Sadly for the ice cream and gelato ideas, I'm the food processor and thing that stirs icy stuff. And I'm forgetful and liable to cut myself if I try to chop icy stuff. However, I can see how macerated peaches on ice cream could be lovely. I'd not insult these peaches by trying to do peach melba with the pitiable excuses for raspberries I can get, but they might rather like cherries. And cherries are in season and we can get pretty good ones. I'll see if I can find poundcake, or I might save that idea for when the oven works again. Poundcake topped with peaches could be delicious Thank you all for the ideas. Emily

I have around a half dozen peaches. My oven isn't working (yay for apartment living). I need clever ideas for what to do with the peaches since I can't make any of the baked goods I'd usually do. Right now the only working kitchen equipment is a crock pot, a microwave and a rice cooker. Yes, we *could* eat them out of hand, and they'd be yummy that way. But other ideas would be good. Emily

Hotel in Harrisburg for Hershey Park? *tries to wrap her head around that* Seriously, if you do that, you have to take 322/422 into Hershey, and it's a *major* commuter route. With stoplights. If it's daylight hours, a 10 mile drive will take 20-40 minutes unless you get very lucky. As someone who commuted along there for years, I implore you to not do this to yourself. I'd either downgrade to a motel and live with the less than stellar room amenities (and less than stellar in Palmyra or Hummelstown would still make up for the drive), or spring for the Hotel Hershey. As far as food goes, oh jeez. Al Mediterraneo, Jo Jo's Pizza, and the Chinese place on the square in Hummelstown are all good. The Warwick Hotel is not what it used to be sadly, but the building is still beautiful. I know there are plenty of good indy places in Palmyra, but I can't recall specifics offhand. Guido McNeal's in Middletown is good. Unless they've changed a lot recently, Lucy's Cafe in Hershey is *not*. Go to D'Angelis instead. There's a bar with great sandwiches just up the street from the Red Robin near the park. I can't remember the name for the life of me, but the food is *good* and the parking is awful. Parkside Bar I want to say? If you want picnicky food, get sub sandwiches from Pronio's market, or hit Bread and Cheese on Chocolate Ave. Alternately, get directions and hit The Food Factory for subs. If you have the chance and budget, the Circle Dining Room at Hotel Hershey is wonderful. Save room for desert. The usual source of incredible pastry shops in the area is the current pastry chef at the Hotel steps down to open a shop, and oh do they do lovely pastry. Alfred's Victorian in Middletown is in the same vein, but a very different style. Beautiful Victorian brownstone mansion, and you can have every course on fire if you want. This is where I learnt it is possible to overdo the fire at the table. I strongly recommend calling for reservations at any place except the bar and grocery store and the Chinese place. Tourist season can be really nasty for waits, and even calling 15 minutes before you plan to arrive can mean a lot. Emily

This sounds very similar to how I do peas sometimes. Rather than just using onions, try using onions and garlic or shallots and garlic or onions and shallots. This builds depth of flavor. I personally prefer sage with peas, but this is a matter of taste. I can see the argument for basil or mint as well. You don't *need* stock to make the dish taste good. You also don't *need* wine. Using both works similarly to using 2 kinds of onions and their relatives, it builds depth of flavor. If you don't have both on hand, you'll need to add more depth through your choice of seasonings. I usually fall back on parmesan cheese, but minced carrots, minced celery, oregano, or a variety of other ingredients could be used to get additional flavor. Keep in mind that if you're doing the dish with wine and no canned stock, you're losing salt, and you'll need to add it as you cook. Also, if you try the dish with homemade stock, be prepared to add salt. Homemade stock can be no salt or minimally salted very easily. If you do the dish with stock and no wine, you'll need to make up the liquid from the wine with water. Even if you're working with frozen peas, you're far better off leaving the peas unheated until the sauce is ready to reduce. Toss the peas with the sauce and then evaluate. With individually quick frozen peas (the kind usually sold in platic bags in the grocery store), there may be enough residual heat in the sauce to heat the peas to a suitable eating temperature. If there isn't enough heat, simply warm it to an appropriate eating temperature. The peas should be bright green and very warm, but not so hot it will burn your mouth. If you wait until the sauce is already reduced, you'll have weird water balance problems, and the peas will be coated in a flavored sauce but not absorb much of the flavor themselves. Oh, almost forgot. If you're doing this dish to pair with steak, you don't need beef stock to echo the flavor of the beef. Sometimes contrast may be more effective. Even if you *do* want to echo the beef's flavor, the easy way is to do pan fried steak, then deglaze the pan with a small amount of plain water (or wine or stock) and add that to the peas. I would not recommend adding sugar or acid until you get the pea cooking technique down. Properly handled frozen peas are already quite sweet, cooked onions can be quite sweet, and many of the obvious additional flavorings will add sweetness or astringency. Emily