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Gabriel Lewis

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Everything posted by Gabriel Lewis

  1. sf&m, I don't really understand what you're saying. Blood and Cara Cara oranges, forelle and rocha pears, and pommelos are all in season. These are the fruits I like to buy. I believe in buying and eating seasonally, but I'm not going to be a zealot about it. Where do you get the idea that I'm expecting a foreign fruit in any season? Also, I'd love to know what kind of apples you like, and from which stall(s) (at the JTM)?. I tried a bushel and wrote them off (there's little worse than a mealy apple). As for berries I'm sure some they were some great ones, but being good doesn't make them any less expensive; it makes them a better value. Unless the berries are going to be otherworldy there are other food items I feel I get more out of than a small basket of berries for 5-8$. Did you actually find any good strawberries at the market this season? I tried a couple different vendors; none were bad, but neither were they excellent. I did see some gorgeous charentais melons at Nino the other day, they looked good enough that I considered buying them, even at 8$ a pop. If you've never had charentais melons before, they're pretty special.
  2. Recently I became interested in specialty sugars, which a number of chefs and cookbook authors promote, but seldom define precisely. I got to wondering what exactly was the difference between muscovado and demerera? I've more or less sorted them out now though, largely thanks to Mcgee and this article by Rose Levy Berenbaum. To put it briefly, in sugar production sugarcane is washed, milled, and crushed to produce cane juice. This is then then clarified by heating with added lime (not the citrus fruit), and concetrated under a vacuum, resulting in a dark brown syrup. This syrup is then crystallized and centrifuged three times to extract as much sucrose as possible. Each crystallization/centrifugation yields a different sugar/molasses. According to Mcgee, Demerera originally referred to the first crytallization, and Muscovado to the third. Rose Levy Berenbaum says Turbinado is raw sugar from the second crystallization washed with steam. But these are, as Mcgee says, classic definitions. A quick internet search will reveal many others. Ironically all of these sugars cost more than regular white sugar despite being refined less. I wonder if there is any physical basis to this? But what I'm most interested in is availability and use. Muscovado seems to be the hardest to find in my experience; the only places I have found it to date are Sur le Table (ridiculously priced) and new seasons in portland. There seems to be some availability on the internet too. Are these sugars available in your area and if so do you buy and use them? What do you like about them, and what do you use them for? Any special applications of specific types?
  3. Seveneightoh, Thanks for the suggestion, Marche Lobo was one of my haunts back when I lived only a few blocks away, they do have some nice produce at good prices but most of their fruit wasn't great. I will have to check out some of the suggestions: Marche Outremont, fruiterie Val-mont, Adonis, and the fruiterie on St. Joseph and St. Denis which is especially close to me. Lesley, I would agree that the fruit scene here is not great, worse than that even, but that doesn't mean I can't find some fruit I enjoy eating. It is febuary so I wouldn't really expect to find any palatable apples other than granny smith. I have rehashed the "montreals fruit sucks or montreals produce sucks" discussion/argument many times before, and I don't really care to do it again. I prefer to focus on what IS available that is atleast good. As I mentioned in my first post there were some yellow honeydew melons from brazil floating around for a month or two before christmas. They looked like this: And they were probably the best melons I've ever had; unbelievably juicy, firmly textured and full flavored. But other than that its been mostly a mix of really bad, ok, good, and very good. sf&m, I believe in the merits of eating seasonally and locally, but only for products I can get locally. My interest in fruit is far greater than whats limited to our small, cold corner of the world. Most of the fruit I mentioned is in season, in the places that it comes from. Maybe you enjoy sticking with a box of clementines during winter; I do not, and see no reason to when plenty of good fruit from other parts of the world are available to me. Where are you getting this fantastic local fruit? I visit the JTM weekly more or less and it doesn't seem like much of the fruit is local, even in season. Did they have ontario peaches this past year?. Berries I can't speak for much outside of strawberries, as I find the prices at the JTM prohibitive, but even the strawberries I did buy were OK, not great though. I'd love to get out to the you-pick farms but not having a car makes this pretty difficult, though I do hope to make the trek out to windmill farm when they reopen.
  4. Sizzleteeth, I am in complete agreement with your philosophies; I do not think that the most expensive is in anyway in the best. I apologise if my comments seemed construed as a judgement of your appreciation of quality. I simply don't think that thin, cheap stainless steel pans are a good investment for an inexperienced cook. I think it better to invest in something of higher quality that will last longer and facilitate learning easier; this does not necessarily mean buying the best that's available. Many great chefs have doubtless learned to cook with good quality pans from day one, but I don't think anyone would say that they would be incapable of producing good results with worse equipment if necessary.
  5. I agree with others that it seems plain excess. Even if it is for charity it seems like a waste of unparalled ingredients to me. I think you are highly diminishing the magic of ingredients that special when you shove a few hundred of them into a single evening. I imagine that "one of the single greatest wines of the 20th century" served with the 8th course doesn't taste any better than them than a well picked 50$ bottle fo wine does to me.
  6. Some might say this an oxymoron, but I have found some good fruit and a little excellent fruit. Currently I get most of my fruit from supermarche PA on the corner of Laurier and Parc. They carry a good selection at very good prices with fairly good quality. Sometimes the asian pears are a steal at less than a dollar a pound and can be remarkably tasty, if intermittently so. I like the ya asian pears, forelle; rocha; and red anjou regular pears, honey tangerines, moro blood oranges, and cara cara red oranges. Also good for low prices is Sakaris on St. Laurent between Rachel and Mont Royal. They often carry some nice stuff at good prices. A while ago there were some yellow honey dew melons from brazil packaged in red netting floating around that were unbelievable. There is of course also JTM and atwater. Atwater I don't have much experience with and would be keen to hear some opinions on. At JTM there are the ubiquitous fruit stalls which sometimes carry good stuff, but I find it a bit overpriced and their practice of sugaring the fruit distasteful. There is also of Chez Louis and Chez Nino but I find their prices somewhat prohibitive, and I'm not certain some of their lower priced stuff is any different from other stores selling it elsewhere for cheaper. I would be interested in anything people would consider outstanding; if its good enough its worth the price to me. What kinds of fruit do you like to buy and where do you buy them?
  7. Wikipedia's article is good. There are already extensive threads on soy in general here and on soy sauce in Japan here. Also, in the pinned topics in the China forum there is a section on chinese ingredients with pictures and preferred brands broken down by hrztw. Doing a search on "soy sauce" in all forums for thread titles only will reveal a few more threads. I might add this type of search is an excellent way to check for pre-existing info. In addition to the soys in the wikipedia article I would mention thai soy sauce. There are a couple of different types, a breakdown description of types and best brands can be found here on Kasma Loha-Unchit's excellent site. Browse the site for individual articles on the different types.
  8. I should be more precise with my words, I guess when I said most home stovetops I was thinking electric, as gas is rarer generally speaking. Interesting that you choose flat bottom carbon steel for electric. I have one of these and would love to use it more often but I just find the heat distribution too uneven. I have an old electric stove with a big burner that really pumps out the heat, but its all concentrated on the bottom 2 inches or so of my wok. I find that when cooking medium to large batches the bottom stuff burns or cooks too quickly. Is there something I'm missing, more tossing perhaps? It has been a while since I gave it a spin, maybe I just gave up too early. I think you said earlier in a thread that you'd prefer a frying pan for a single portion due to more even heat distribution. What changes between this and a larger portion that makes you prefer a wok? It seems like a flat bottomed wok would better for smaller portions as most of the food would be in contact with or close to the heat source. Thermal conductivity is an inherent property, different for different metals. It's a measure of how quickly a material moves heat around. Rereading my posts there I see that some of the thermodynamics are a bit iffy, thanks for pointing that out. But, I don't want to get bogged down in the science when it's all laid out so clearly in the eCGI course. I think the basic point for a carbon steel wok is that at its thickness it doesn't have much thermal mass, so you need a powerful heat source to bring it back up to temperature after adding stuff to it.
  9. Perhaps I should qualify my statements a little bit. I am in complete agreement that there is value in considering our circumstances, but given that, I prefer my tools highly functional. I am not saying that good chinese food cannot be made with inexpensive stainless steel, I just think its better to invest in a good quality pan that will be easier to use and last longer. Generally when learning something new I prefer explanations of what the variables involved are. Personally, I always found this sort of explanation more useful than "its all in the skill of the user, just go buy whatever". As far as cast iron goes, I was talking about a cast iron wok. I think cast iron woks are great for certain applications (e.g. a lot of Indian food), but not for very high heat cooking. I wouldn't use a cast iron wok for high heat cooking because of its greater size, and therefore weight and thermal mass. I think a 14" wok is the preferable minimum, 16" being better. This is larger than a standard 11" cast iron pan, and will therefore be heavier and have more thermal mass. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I think there is value in buying and using good tools. And there are limitations to certain tools as well. Making sushi, whipping egg whites in a plasic bowl, and achieving good wok hei all things that are very difficult to do without the proper tools. I am no metallurgist, but according to the eCGI course and this website carbon steel has lower thermal conductivity than cast iron. I qualified my statement with "relatively" with the idea in mind that almost all cooking metals are relatively poor thermal conductors outside of aluminum and copper. I did come on a bit strongly with the bit about home stovetops, but I don't think its a stretch to say that carbon steel woks aren't ideal for most home stovetops.
  10. Sorry about the wait, its been a busy week. Hope your curry leaves are still ok, or if not perhaps this will give you an excuse to buy some more! I'm opting to provide a carrot salad recipe, as it is more my own intepretation of a recipe of hers and simpler to boot, but if your interested in the steamed lentil cakes let me know and i'll send you a pm. Southern Style Peanut Salad (for two) 1/2 lb carrots, peeled and shredded 1 T ghee or oil 1T black mustard seeds 1 green chile, finely chopped 1tsp sugar 4 curry leaves 2tsp lime juice 1T roasted peanuts or cashews (optional) salt to taste Place carrots in a mixing boil, and heat the ghee or oil until it just beings to smoke in a small frying pan, remove from heat briefly before returning and adding the mustard seeds. Have a pot lid ready as these will start to pop like crazy, cover the pan and let the seeds pop for 10-15 seconds until the popping has subsided to intermittent pop and the seeds are gray. Add the green chiles followed 10 seconds later by the curry leaves and sugar, stir and shake vigorously for 10-15 seconds until leaves are fragant and then pour over the raw carrots. Let them cool briefly and add lime juice and salt to taste, toss to mix and serve garnished with nuts. Alternatively in her version you can fry the carrots briefly, adding at the stage at which you would pour the mixture over the carrots, and add a scant amount of yogurt as well. Heres a recipe based on another of hers for Spinach with mustard Oil 1lb fresh spinach 2T mustard oil 1tsp black mustard seeds 1-4 dried red chiles 1T minced garlic salt to taste 2 T water Wash and trim the spinach of any tough stems. Heat the oil over medium-high heat and fry the mustard seeds as in the previous recipe. When popping has subsided add the dried red chiles and fry till darkened, then add the garlic and fry until light brown and fragant, add the spinach and toss vigorously until coated with oil and beginning to wilt. Add salt and water and cover the pan, turn heat down to low and let steam for 2-3 minutes. Uncover pan and turn heat up, frying and reducing until almost all the water is gone and leaves are glazed. Hope you enjoy!
  11. Real stir-frying is just about having a really really hot pan, but a wok is preferable for a number of reasons. The shape of a wok is good because you can toss things around in it without much worry of them coming out, and it evaporates liquids quickly due to its outward sloping sides. When well seasoned, its nonstick surface allows the use of less oil and is excellent for frying as nothing sticks, interefering with the frying process. It also builds up a flavor profile from the dishes that were cooked in it, as it isn't washed with soap. The issue with woks is that they are thin and made of carbon steel which is a relatively poor heat conductor, which is why extremely powerful heat sources are needed to use them effectively. A home stovetop is unlikely to be able to produce sufficient heat for anything but the smallest batches. Cast iron is probably not a good choice for a number of reasons. Firstly, although cast iron would build up the necessary heat provided you preheated it long enough it would be very hard to control the heat after that. Because it is very thick cast iron retains a lot of heat, and it would be very hard to cool it down. So if your were finishing a dish you were making with very high heat by making a sauce in the pan, a cast iron wok might still be too hot after you had added your liquid. This isn't a problem with a wok as it is thin and doesn't have much thermal mass, so when you add some water it cools down quite quickly. Secondly, a cast iron wok of any decent size would be very heavy and make it difficult or unwieldy to pick up the entire wok and shake it. Non-stick isn't really a good choice because non-stick coating starts to breakdown at high temperatures, precisely what your looking for in a lot of chinese cooking. Also as others have noted, the frying properties of the non-stick surface are very different from other conventional surfaces. I suggest you read the eCGI course on stovetop cookware to get a good understanding of the different attributes of stovetop cookware and whats good for what. If your not going to get a wok I would suggest a large stainless steel saute pan or saute evasee with a thick aluminum base. You'll find all the relevant information for a selecting a good one of these in the eCGI course.
  12. I am in general agreement with your views. The bit about southern vietnamese was just to clarify that you were indeed talking about ingredient availbility, I don't even know that much about the vietnamese food scene here but I am well aware of the ubiquitous specialty "soupe tonkinoise" restaurant on every other corner. I would agree about the thai restaurants too. And I'll mostly agree on the ingredients, but I think you may have missed out on some good stores. Personally I find china town less than satisfactory on most counts, and before my discover of two other asian markets in the area I probably would have agreed with you completely. The two are Marche Orientale, on the corner of St. Denis and Jean Talon, and Marche Hawaii way out in St. Laurent near cote vertu metro. Marche Orientale is one of the most well kept, best run asian market I have ever run across and they have some really great stuff there. Fresh shipments arrive every tuesday and if you go shopping on tuesday or close to it you can find some really fresh stuff. Marche Hawaii is like the mother of all asian markets, its way out there but is incomparable. Its in a giant warehouse and has a massive selection of anything and everything from asia, but it is subject a bit more to availability. If you get there or the right day though you can get some great stuff. Now I have never been to thailand, and I know most stuff (coconuts!) will not compare, but if you get to the good markets on the right day you can find some nice stuff. Even If I have not been, my sister has traveled extensively in thailand and she has given me a good idea of how my food compares. I might also point out that massive baskets of fresh herbs and roots out in the heat of a Thai day are naturally going to be more aromatic than individually packaged stalks of lemongrass or wrapped trays of galangal in a refrigerator case. But this does not mean that they are any less flavorful provided they are processed correctly, shipped promptly, and you get to them in a reasonable amount of time. After all, most of this stuff is coming from thailand and a lot of it stays good for a while provided it is storred and shipped properly. Additionally, in the case of galangal, older roots are actually preferred for some applications like curries.
  13. Octaveman: Doing a little searching, I didn't find anything specific for choo chee duck but I did find two "chuu chii" recipes in David thompson's Thai food. Maybe someone who speaks thai or knows more might be able to chime in on the particular meaning of choo chee or chuu chii? In Thai food both recipes are for seafood red curries, one with lobster and one with scallops. In fact, in the lobster recipe Thompson mentions that this kind of curry is mainly used for seafood. The basic foundation for the paste seems to be dried red chili, red shallot, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, coriander root and shrimp paste (gapi/kapi). If you specify a little more about the details of what sort of choo chee duck you are looking for I might be able to provide you with a recipe that should replicate it. The biggest thing I guess would be was it a coconut based curry? Myself I am hoping someone can help me identify some herbs I bought the other day at the market. I have long been on a search for holy basil (bai gkaprow). One herb I bought seems to match the description of one type of holy basil as it has slightly hairy ridged leaves, with something a peppery taste (sort of like peppermint), and purplish undersides and stems. This is the picture: I am not sure though as I think it may have been sold under the name Tito at the store, which I understand to be another herb commonly used in vietnam. The other one I am fairly sure is also another herb known as Vietnamese mint, or Kinh Gioi, but it would be nice to be sure.
  14. I can't say that it will match up to Vietnam, but I can recommend Au Cyclo on the corner of park and laurier. This is probably not what you are looking for, but they are a solid little Vietnamese place with excellent service and good food at reasonable prices. I'd love to hear about if you do find any place that you think matches or even comes close to what you had in Vietnam. As far as Thai food I would probably agree with you, although I think some good things can be said about Chao Phraya and Red Thai. I think you're saying here that southern vietnamese food is hard to find here? For a second I thought you were saying these ingredients are hard to find here, which is not the case at all. I would point out that many traditional recipes for tom yum do include tamarind, and it could be considered part of the classic dish, though tamarind is rarely included in modern versions. I think I'd also disagree on the availability of fresh ingredients, there are a number of excellent asian markets in montreal now that offer a wide variety of good quality ingredients, provided you know where to look. I cook thai all the time and have been very pleased with the stuff I've been able to get lately.
  15. I don't know how you define "significant population", but sticky or glutinous rice is the staple grain of Laos, northern Thailand, and to some extent northeastern Thailand. See Mcgee page 473. You are of course correct, but I have found most people classify glutinous rice as a seperate category and the chinese/japanese sticky rices as a type of short grain rice. I call it a long grain rice because the grains are fairly long. I learned about this from Julie Sahni in her book Classic Indian Vegetarian Cooking; reviewing what she said you are correct, as Texmati is a cross of basmati rice and Carolina long grain. She describes it as closer to basmati than regular long grain but with grains that don't expand as much lengthwise, and little to none of basmati's famous aroma. (Sahni 59) Also of interest is the Calmati, basmati rice grown in California produced from the original basmati plants of the Punjab region of India. There it is cultivated under "ideal (Indian-like) climactic conditions and earthy red soil". Apparently it is sold unmilled as brown basmati and thus resembles normal milled basmati little, but is special in its own right. (Sahni 59)
  16. I have a great recipe by Julie Sahni with quite a few curry leaves, but it is somewhat involved. It involves making kari leaf scented dahl/cluster bean cakes and frying their crumbs in mustard seed oil, still interested?i
  17. Suzy summed it up well, but rice is somewhat akin to flour in that the are many more details to be found if one goes looking for them. I love rice and eat it pretty much everday, most of my experience has been with different types of long grain. To elaborate on long grain, there seem to be three different types that I know of. The regular long grain rice that cooks up fluffily and seperately is favored in India, parts of China, and Latin America. Indian seem to refer to this type as arwa chawl which is different from the basmati. The other two types are Basmati as mentioned, and Jasmine, which are a product of their unique growing region. Does anyone know of any other types of long grain that would merit their own category? Basmati is very special rice grown in the foothills of the himalayas in northern India and Pakistan. It is a product of these unique growing conditions, and is a long slender rice with a natural nutty perfume. Basmati rice transplated from these conditions does not produce the same rice. However, there is some basmati that has been transferred to similar growing conditions in California and Texas and is somewhere inbetween himalayan basmati and regular long grain rice. When cooked properly, Basmati rice is light and fluffy with elongated and completely seperate grains; some grains reach an inch in length or so when cooked. Julie Sahni gives an excellent breakdown of basmati in her book Classic Indian cooking on page 355. Jasmine is another very special type of rice, unique to the central plains of Thailand. As in the case of basmati, jasmine rice transplated to different growing regions simply doesn't grow the same. I am unaware of any transplated jasmine rice that paralells the basmati grown in texas or california. Good Jasmine rice should have a subtle but detectable fragance upon opening a bag and have a slight sheen to it. Cooked jasmine rice is slightly sticky, with slender grains that are typically a bit longer than regular long grain, and have a wonderful chewy texture. It also has a wonderful delicate scent that is hard to describe. According to David Thompson this scent is that of Pandanus, a fragant asian leaf; the Jasmine reference supposedly refers to the "pearl-like sheen of the grain" rather than the scent persay (171). Glutinous or sticky rice is a type of long grain that has a higher proportion of the starch Amylopectin, which breaks down when cooked causing the rice to be sticky (Thomspon 105). Due to this it is better suited to dry-steaming than boiling, and typically is soaked for several hours or overnight before being dry steamed for 30 minutes. It is really quite different from other types of rice and a great pleasure to eat; the rice sticks to itself but not to fingers and I think is best enjoyed with ones hands. Kasma's site also contains a lot of great information on sticky rice. I have found most of the brands of Basmati available to me in the U.S. and Canada have been fairly similar. Some have been crap that stick together terribly, but beyond a certain minimum of quality I haven't noticed any strong differences. A good brand I have found is Red-Rose which comes in brown burlap sacks and usually costs about 10$ for a 10 pound bag; price can be roughly correlated with quality.If anyone has a brand they have had outstanding results with, I would love to hear about it. I have read that in India there hundreds of varieties, with many different grades and standards in a system somewhat akin to wine here in the west. There are many ways to prepare basmati rice, if you'd like I'd be happy to share my favorite simple way to prepare it. My favorite brand of Jasmine rice is Golden Phoenix, which I discovered through this website. She gives a great breakdown of Jasmine rice and why it is so special, and also provides a fantastic method for cooking it, my favorite thus far. I think it is worth the extra search; all the other types of Jasmine Rice I have tried have been good but not remarkable, and all more or less the same. Thinking about rice has me wondering. The picture in my mind is roughly long grain in Persia, China, India, Latin America and Southeast Asia; sticky or glutinous in certain parts of asia; short grain in Japan; and starchy short/medium grain in Spain and Italy. Are there any other basic types to be found? Can anyone describe the rice types and rice-eating habits of Africa or elsewhere I have missed?
  18. Hmm this makes a lot of sense. I hadn't considered fermented pickles but after reading the thread I think you may be right, but there are still some things I'm wondering about. I've been reading a lot about vinegar making as well as I am trying my hand at a coconut vinegar from his book. It seems to me that fermented pickles probably make use of only lactic acid rather than acetic acid as acetobacter, the bacteria the produce vinegar, do so by converting ethanol into acetic acid in the presence of oxygen. Given that the recipes says to "cover and leave in the sun" without any special mention of an air permeable covering, and that there doesn't seem to be any real source of alcohol in the recipe, I don't see how vinegar could be involved. Also, light inhibits the activity of acetobacter. It seems I will have to do some reading on lactic acid fermentation, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. But, has has another for pickled cucumber that I can't seem to make any sense of, even in light of fermented pickles. In this recipe he directs you to top and tail 1lb of cucumber, quarter them lengthwises and deseed, rub with salt and leave to drain overnight. You then place the washed and dried cukes in a sterilised glass jar and add a pickling liquid of 1cup vinegar, 1/2cup sugar, and a 1/2cup water that has been simmered with cassia and cloves for 5 minutes and left to cool. He then instructs you to leave in a warm dry place for three weeks before use. This doesn't make any sense to me as it seems to be neither a flavored or fermented pickle. Maybe this will all make more sense after I read up about lactic acid fermentation.
  19. Excellent course Jack, I do love reading these old e-gullet courses I have been wanting to try some pickle recipes from David Thompson's Thai Food but the recipes differ a bit from the ones described here, and I am a bit leary about potential consequences. I was hoping you might be able to comment on them. Essentially all of his pickles describe a basic method in which a pickling liquid is made, and this is then added to a sterilized jar along with the contents to be pickled. He usually then suggests leaving in either the sun or a warm dry place for a period of time depending on the recipe. There is never any mention of processing, and the language he uses seems to suggest that the resting period in a warm dry place or the sun is important. For example, in his recipe for pickled shallots he says "Place the shallots in a sterlised glass gar and pour over the liquid. Cover and leave in the sun or a warm, dry place for at least 4 days. Once sufficiently sour, store refrigerated for another week before use." As this recipe has only 2tbsp vinegar to 1tbsp sugar, 2 cups rice rinsing water, 1 cup coconut water, and 1 cup water I am really wondering whether or not it is safe. I know a discussion of pickling in India in another thread in which someone speculated that the intense sun of the Indian climate during pickling season plays a role in preservation there, and I wonder if this might not be the case for these recipes as well.
  20. Anyone know where I might find some mustard greens in montreal?
  21. Wow, I had been so busy for the past few weeks that I forgot about this thread completely. It is wonderful to see that more people have shared their input. I actually did end up making tamales, but I got so busy afterwards that I neglected to write up the experience and share photos. And now I am visiting my parents over the holidays and the photos are at home! Alas, I will have to post them when I get back. I only got around to trying tamales de puerco, which using my recipe consisted of a filling of carnitas, hominy, and a single spanish olive. I used carnitas a la Jaymes, which are unbelievably good, and maiz para posole that i simmered until soft (it was preshelled). For the masa I used maseca from the white bag, as I was unable to find any Maseca specified as being for tamales in my area. The first time I mixed the lard into the masa until it looked like coarse meal (with a touch of salt), added hot chicken stock until it pulled from the sides of the bowl, and then used it like that, after it had cooled. The second time I followed the general directions from Abra's recipe (near bottom of the first page) but only used lard, maseca, salt, and chicken stock for my ingredients. Both times the tamales were really good, and the salsa colorado really added something, but the masa seemed lacking. I mean it was tasty, but it just didn't have any of the magic that I imagine when I hear people talking about tamales so impassionately. In both batches the masa seemed a littly dry. They were fairly small tamales and only seemed to take 45 minutes or so to set. The first batch I probably let steam after they were set for an extra 15-20 minutes, but the second I watched carefully and took out of the steamer as soon as it seemed they were set. My experience with a lot of similarly steamed things is that usually oversteaming is not a real risk, is this the case too with tamales? The second batch seemed a little lighter than the first, which I attributed to the baking powder and the whipping of the lard, but the difference was not that striking. I was curious about the whipping step in Abra's recipe, as it seemed somewhat akin to creaming to me. My lard was at room temperature though, while I'm not exactly sure about the theory behind the technique, I think that it probably would have been better to have it chilled and slightly softened. Theabroma: Many thanks for the detailed instructions, I hope to try them out soon. I am at my parents home in Portland Oregon for a few weeks over christmas, and availability for mexican ingredients is much better here than in Montreal. One snag though is that I don't have a food processor here, would grinding the corn be feasible in a blender? If not I may be able to borrow a processor. I was intrigued by this comment. Do the tamales improve after a resting period, and if so, what underlies this improvement? And how do you reheat them? Barb: Indeed, success is the ultimate measure. I will be sure to attempt your mixing method, music and good humor included. I wonder if you might elaborate though on how you know when the masa is ready, or what exactly the whipping is doing (just lightening the masa?)? Esperanza: Your method for re-heating sounds wonderful, but what if the tamales are frozen? Now I just have to find some of the right corn and figure out what kind of tamales I'd like to make. More info is always welcome though! I'd love to hear anyone talk about the use of spices in the masa or proportions of fat and liquid used.
  22. Bruce: Thank you for the feedback, I will be sure to try it with ginger next time and play around with the flavors. The exercise in balancing flavors is familar , as Kasma is something of a demigoddess to me. I think I have read every article and feature on her site, and many of them twice. I would highly recommend the exercise to anyone trying to gain a better understanding of thai cooking and the principles involved. Austin: As you said, and as is readily apparent in your blog, it seems you have something of a distaste for sugar. I have never been to bangkok, but I can commiserate on the overuse of sugar in many dishes, it is a theme common among popularized asian food in north america. One thing that I have learned though, is that a little sugar can go a long way. One of the things I find intriguing about thai and asian cooking in general is the more flexible approach to seasoning with sugar. Making some thai and other asian dishes I have learned that even a small amount a sugar can completely change the character of the dish. For example, I can't imagine a thai curry without atleast some palm sugar added, its almost like to magic to me the effect of a 1/2-1 tablespoon of palm sugar has on a thai curry. While I would agree that is important first and foremost to cook to taste, I know that as a cook I don't really have a reference point for any of the thai food I make, and this is why I find Kasma's explanations so helpful. Sometimes it seems like I find that "balance" she seems to describe, and although I can't be sure, I like to think that I have gotten it right. What I am getting at is that I have this idea in my head that many thai dishes have a basic flavor profile that involves a minimum proportion of a certain number of ingredients. For example, most thai curries just wouldn't be right to me without that right balance of hot, saltly, and just slightly sweet. Given that, I have always thought that I was better off looking for some sort of balance - atleast at first. Sometimes I feel like I'm reaching in the dark, because its not like I've tasted a dish prepared a few different times or even one time before, and just adjusting the seasoning to taste with respect to the flavor profile I remember. Whew, this has gotten a little long winded, but it has something I have wondered for a while and I would love to hear your thoughts on this. For example, do you simply cut back on sugar in most recipes where they would normally be some, or do you sometimes omit it entirely? Sheena: I love thai eggplants, as you said they are wonderful just to look at, but they taste great too. From what I have read, it seems that in Thailand a lot of people just eat these raw, often accompanied by some sort of dipping sauce. If you sort back 8-10 pages or so you will find some discussion of thai eggplants. For me, thai eggplants usually mean thai curry. They are perfect for curry because the soak up the delicious flavors of the curry and then melt in your mouth while you eat them; they also act to thicken the curry too. For this reason I usually like to simmer them up until they are close to melted into the sauce. An excellent recipe for a simple green curry can be found here. This recipe calls for pork, but you could easily substitute a few more sturdy vegetables, or even increase the number of eggplants. I might add though that in my area these eggplants don't really work out to be much cheaper than the meat I use in my curries. A pound usually works out to be about 2 dollars or so, and for 3 dollars I can get 3/4lb of excellent pork shoulder, and if you are willing to skin/debone chicken thighs, you can get a lot of great chicken for even less. I find this is plenty of meat, as the meat isn't the main actor so much as another member of the cast. The cheaper cuts work quite well in curry, provided you cut them into small pieces and simmer them long enough to tenderize nicely. At first I found fish sauce pretty disgusting, but now the smel brings to mind all the delicious things it is in. I also find that the better brands don't really smell all that bad, I think it is just something that takes getting used to. Insomniac: Wow, that looks like a great recipe. I will have to try it soon. I wonder about the eggplants though, only 3-4? How big are the eggplants you use, the ones we get here are about the size of a golf ball.
  23. Thanks for the suggestions. A few days ago I tried Sanrensho's asparagus stirfry which was quite delicious; I especially enjoyed the bite the white pepper added. Tonight I tried Bruce's suggestion of the cucumber salad, minus the ginger as I didn't have any on hand. It was tasty but I felt a little lost in making it as no general direction for the dish jumped out at me. Might Bruce or Snowangel be able to give a rough idea of the proportions they use or perhaps what a typical flavor profile for the dish would be? Also, do you tend to use birds-eye or other chilis? I'm wondering if the chilies are primarily for heat or primarily for flavor. Snowangel are you refering to Phat fai daeng (scroll down a little less than halfway) or some other stirfry with chinese broccoli and fermented soy bean? I know what you mean about chinese broccoli, I love the stuff. It's like regular broccoli, which I already love, but better. Sentiamo, I know what you mean about Miang Kam, the combination of flavors is incredible. I have made Kasma's version which includes most of the things you mentioned, and some others like minced pickled garlic. I am curious as to what belacan paste is, is this the same thing as shrimp paste? I am curious about the leaves too, on her website Kasma says that they are wild pepper leaves, or bai chapoo, but I have had trouble finding these as I'm not sure what they look like.
  24. I've decided to make a return to thai food and to start out I went with one of my old simple favorites: Kasma Loha-Unchit's steamed chicken. It was quite tasty, but I was hard pressed to come up with a simple vegetable accompaniment for it. I had some chayote, so I ended up stir frying that with some garlic and soy sauce, and deglazing with a little chicken stock and sherry, but this was really more chinese than thai. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for simple but tasty thai vegetable side dishes. I have an endless list of main dishes I want to try out, but its really good vegetable sides that I am in need of.
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