djyee100
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Posts posted by djyee100
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I'm on the side of the knife aficionados in this debate. I'll choose usefulness and craft over artsy looks every time.
This knife would be best for a movie remake of "Dial M for Murder." In the remake, the betrayed wife would be in the kitchen when the hired killer arrives. She grabs the closest weapon at hand (it's this knife) and she does him in. A showy knife for high drama. Also, $800 is nothing in a big movie budget.
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... poison ivy that grows so prolifically in my yard, and this sounds like a good way to kill the roots without creating a permanent biohazard.
Try googling "pour boiling water on poison ivy". Yeah, there really are links about it.
There's a risk of volatized oils from this method, although it works.
This woman learned the hard way:
http://jenontheedge.com/2011/09/12/poison-ivy/
If you cover up completely, just like you would for pulling up poison ivy, that would offer protection. Also be careful where the wind is blowing.
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A nice effort! If you're interested in cutting with scissors, consider making an epi (or wheat sheaf loaf). Here:
http://bakerbettie.com/how-to-make-epi-bread/People like this shape because it has plenty of crust, and they can tear off a handy piece for a dinner roll. Pretty to look at, too. If you've messed up shaping a baguette, you can salvage it by turning it into an epi. That's how I learned to make it.
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Hmmm...It may be the photo, but those slashes look like 90-degree cuts. A classic baguette is slashed with shallow cuts for the entire length of the loaf. The slashes are angled and overlap each other a little. The purpose of slashing is to release gases during baking and produce an even shape in the loaf.
I was taught to slash at 15-degree angle from the surface by an old-school French baker. This website says 20-30 degrees.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/10121/bread-scoring-tutorial-updated-122009A lame requires practice to get it right. I use a straight-edge razor. I've seen skilled bakers use a sharp chef's knife for slashing. Slashing is more about skill than equipment, IMO.
Good flour is important but knowing proper fermentation is key. That's where the big flavor in your breads will come from. I once attended a demo by Peter Reinhart. He said (to paraphrase): "If you taste some raw flour, what does it taste like? (Pause) Flour. Most flours taste about the same. Fermentation is the reason breads taste so good."
I use King Arthur bread flour most of the time. Central Milling sells superb organic flour when I can get my hands on it. I used to buy it at a local Costco when I was a member there.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/21720/availability-central-milling-co-flourgood luck with your future breadbaking! Learning how to make a good baguette is demanding but rewarding.
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...Thinking about adding marjoram and lavender -- have never cooked with either, What are some uses for them? ...
I like lavender with a mix of other Mediterranean herbs (e.g., rosemary, basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram) on grilled or roasted meats. Think herbes de Provence. You can also make infused sugars, vinegars, and cooking oils with lavender.
My favorite lavender recipe is a drink, Lavender Ginger Lemonade, in Sharon Shipley's Lavender Cookbook. Adapted recipe here (same ingredients, different instructions):
http://www.citymarket.coop/recipe/lavender-ginger-lemonade
Shipley suggests a shot of vodka or gin in this drink for the grown-ups.
Not all lavenders are suitable for cooking (too much camphor), so be sure to grow the right kind. Lavandula angustifolia is the species most mentioned by cooks. Shipley liked Lavandula xintermedia 'Provence'. But the other L. xintermedia cultivars--'Provence' is the exception--are not recommended for cooking.
I've found Lavandula angustifolia 'Buena Vista' to have a remarkably sweet flavor and fragrance. It's my favorite lavender cultivar for cooking.
Marjoram is a friendlier version of oregano--it doesn't have that edge. It goes great with grilled or roasted lamb with jus. My favorite herb for that kind of preparation with lamb. Add some fresh chopped marjoram to the jus at the last minute, heat slightly, and serve.
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How does New Haven apizza differ from other forms of pizza and how possible is it to duplicate in the home?
IIRC, Peter Reinhart covered New Haven style pizza in his cookbook, American Pie. He had recipes and techniques suitable for a home cook.
Unfortunately, Reinhart is stingy in allowing people to preview his book, whether on GoogleBooks or Amazon, so I could not confirm what content is really there. Try your public library for this book.
If you google "peter reinhart new haven pizza" some relevant links will come up. Reinhart labels the pizza dough as "neo-neapolitan" dough.
Reinhart's blog with the recipe:
A discussion about the recipe:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=26370.0
In my neck of the woods, Whole Foods carries 00 flour in its bulk department, and Italian specialty groceries also carry it.
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You're welcome! Congrats on your first Thai curry!
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I love this idea! Since I'm only cooking for one most of the time I really don't use much in the way of herbs. What do you do with them after they dry? Make sachets, or just leave them in bowls to perfume the air? I'd have to figure out how to keep my cats away from them...
You could make sachets, though I don't. I discard the herbs as the scents fade, and cut some more. I notice the marjoram, oregano, thyme and lavender keep their scents well. The rose petals and violets turn vegetal--they would need a fixative to preserve them. As an alternative, once the herbs are fully dried, you could jar them for your own culinary herb mix.
The fresh potpourri doesn't have the strong long-lasting scent of regular potpourri, because it lacks a fixative and essential oils. I crush some between my fingers to get a whiff of scent, and I like the look of it on my table.
You could also cut the herbs and keep them in water as small bouquets, especially if the herbs have flowered. They're not showy like garden flowers, but they're very pleasant to have around.
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As a lifelong urbanite, I'm always amazed by the pics of Shelby's garden. It's a field with a horizon line.
The severe drought persists here, so I think not twice, but three times or more, before buying any new plants. I've kept the containers on my sunny (but small) front deck, replenishing the marjoram, oregano, and thyme. I'll buy some new basil plants to complete the herb set. My drought-resistant culinary lavenders are doing well and setting bud. So is the kaffir lime tree and the kari leaf tree (Murraya koenigii).
A family photo of some springtime plants on my front deck. In the lower center of the pic: leafy sorrel, marjoram (which has already been cut back), English thyme, and an unusual mounding form of oregano (Origanum vulgare 'Compacta Nana'). On the right side of the pic, culinary lavender (Lavandula angustifolia 'Royal Purple'), lemon verbena, kaffir lime tree, and Parma violets. The small blue flowers in the center-ish of the pic are a type of N. American wild iris, named Blue-Eyed Grass. I'm in love with it. The yellow flowers are California poppies, which seem to be going dry right now, like the rest of the state.
Meanwhile I've pulled up all the plants off my back deck, due to the water shortage, keeping only the large shrubs, including some camellias and a Mediterranean bay shrub (Laurus nobilis). I've planted a drought-resistant groundcover to hold down the soil. Someday I'll think about landscaping that area again, after the drought.
But I did succumb at the nursery and bought a couple cowslip plants. They're English wildflowers with medicinal-culinary properties and mentioned in folklore. Girls used to make balls of them, and toss them around with a rhyme to spell out the name of their future husband. Fairies are supposed to hang out around them. (I haven't seen any yet.) If I had a field of them, I could make cowslip wine. Instead, I'll enjoy them until the deer or the drought knock 'em off.
I've started clipping excess growth on my herb plants and making a fresh potpourri from them. The clippings dry on shallow bowls on my dining table (which often looks more like a reading table).
Left to right: a potpourri of marjoram, thyme, oregano, rose petals, violet; a tiny nosegay of Parma violets; some dried culinary lavender. I acquired the storybooks at the Bay Area Storytelling Festival last weekend (very enjoyable), and picked up the cookbook on sale during my last visit to SF. --Not a recommendation for the cookbook, BTW, I'm still going through it.
Happy Spring, everyone!
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Pamela Sheldon Johns, author of Cucina Povera, explains what kind of bread is used in traditional panzanella, and gives her recipe here:
http://food52.com/hotline/20141-panzanellaI've never tried this version of panzanella. I'm guessing you have to get the quantity of water just right and use a light touch in combining the salad. Otherwise you get bread mush. Also, you should probably start with dry bread that is like a rock.
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My best friend from high school lives in Staunton. She's a veterinarian. Need some pet care?
I visited her a couple years ago. We ate lunch at the Depot Grill. I had the crabmeat sandwich, which the place is known for. Another time we ate pizza at Shenandoah Pizza (my treat), and ice cream at Split Banana Co. (her treat). I thought the food at all these places was good.
There's a lovely tasting room for Ox-Eye Vineyards in downtown Staunton. This winery is still on the learning curve, and the wines were sometimes good, but not great. Not yet ready to compete with the big boys. But everybody starts somewhere. (I've tasted wine from the early Napa days that took the enamel off your teeth.) I had a great conversation with the winemaker's wife, who was behind the counter, and I was so pleased to learn about the wineries in this area.
I did visit Sunspots Studios that is hosting the festival. Loved the glassware and demo that I saw there.
Do you ever go to the plays at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton? It's a charming performance space, modeled after an Elizabethan theatre. My friend and I took in a Shakespeare play while I was there.
Hope you enjoy your trip!
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Beginners to Thai food--the ones I've known--always like Panang (or Panaeng) Beef Curry. It's a red Thai curry with coconut milk. Maybe that's the place to start.Some online recipes that look promising, though I haven't cooked them:Curry paste recipe here: http://www.templeofthai.com/recipes/panang-curry-paste.phpI've liked the recipes in Nancie McDermott's Quick and Easy Thai cookbook. The recipes are streamlined, so the food doesn't have the same complex flavors as a traditional recipe. BUT the recipes are very cookable--a big plus. McDermott has this recipe for a red curry online. Here:Pls let us know how it goes.
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Is a coconut a tree nut?
The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) states: “Coconut is not a botanical nut; it is classified as a fruit, even though the Food and Drug Administration recognizes coconut as a tree nut. While allergic reactions to coconut have been documented, most people who are allergic to tree nuts can safely eat coconut. If you are allergic to tree nuts, talk to your allergist before adding coconut to your diet."
Better check if this is on his No list.
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You could look at Thai desserts, often rice-based puddings with coconut milk. Tapioca starch is the binder as an alternative to arrowroot. If tapioca starch is a no-go, you're back to square one.
The basic mixture of coconut, coconut milk, rice flour, sugar and flavoring (e.g, pandan or vanilla) is used in a variety of steamed or griddled cakes in Thai cooking (kanom bah bin, kanom krok, kanom tuey). That's another lead you could follow.
Kasma Loha-unchit has various Thai desserts on her website, including kanom krok.
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipe.html-
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Were they sticky or sweetened in any way?
moist or dry?
darkened--possibly toasted?
did you taste the rosewater? any other spice or herbal flavors?
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Well, I spent more time than I wanted to this evening reading some case law, a law review note about recipe copyright, and the Registrar of Copyright's description of recipe copyright. My curiosity got the better of me, it's now 10:45PM PST, and I haven't had any dinner.
The courts agree that recipes are not per se copyrightable or uncopyrightable. They practically use those same words. (See Publications International, Ltd. v. Meredith Corp., 88 F.3d 473 (7th Cir.1996); Barbour v. Head, 178 F. Supp. 2d 758, 764 (S.D. Tex. 2001)) Yeah, I love it. More of this and the issue will be kicked upstairs for the U.S. Supreme Court to deal with.
The standard seems to be whether the recipe is written in a rote or functional style, or in an expressive, artistic fashion. The artistic recipes are protected by copyright, the simple and functional recipes are not.
That analysis creates more problems than it solves, IMO. Do you feel comfortable judging if a recipe is "artistic" enough for copyright protection? Where's the workable objective standard? Any written material is the author's unique creative expression, even if it is more functional than "expressive."
The U.S. Supreme Court has not spoken about the copyrightability of individual recipes. Given today's environment of celebrity chefs' distinct creations, not to mention the endless copying of recipes on blogs, perhaps the time has come for a definitive rule.
A 2011 Note written for a law review at Vanderbilt Law School does a nice job of summarizing the current (murky) state of copyright as it applies to recipes. This was the most recent journal article on the subject I could find with a quick search.
http://www.jetlaw.org/wp-content/journal-pdfs/Lawrence_FINAL.pdf
If you hunger for more on this subject, you can read what the Registrar of Copyrights has to say.
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
For now, assume the writing of a particular recipe is copyrighted and protected if you want to stay out of trouble.
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...developers wonder “how many changes to a recipe makes it a new recipe”? (sic)
The workshop description is making the distinction (I think) between "adapted from" recipes with credit to the original author,
and recipes based on another recipe with no such attribution. The second category is supposed to be "new" recipes from the person publishing the recipe. There should be something so different about the recipe, compared to the original recipe that provided inspiration, that the writer can take credit for it.
That doesn't happen in the real world, of course. A cookbook author I know was incensed to find a recipe she recognized in somebody else's article, and the only change was an additional tablespoon of sugar. The recipe had been rewritten of course--otherwise it would have been a case of copyright infringement.
The last time I checked, it's legal (i.e., no copyright infringement) to use an ingredients list. However, the text of a recipe is protected by copyright. So on blogs, on EGullet (I've done it) it's legal to copy an ingredients list and rewrite the recipe text. It's ethical, sensitive, polite, and good karma to give attribution ("adapted from") to the original recipe author.
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My Saveur subscription expired last year and it took me six months to notice. A pile of unread magazines still sits on one of my bookshelves. A far cry from the first time I read Saveur, issue #18, while waiting in my dermatologist's office. I loved the magazine so much I stole it. That issue is also on my bookshelf, a nostalgic reminder.
My other subscriptions, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit, also CI, have drifted away over the years. I don't miss them.
I haven't seen the new Saveur, post-Oseland, but this discussion makes me realize that I've changed. I do not need more recipes from a magazine. Ever. I have enough recipes in cookbooks and clippings to last me and anybody else for the next 100 years. Likewise, food ethnography and food memoirs have palled. I still have an interest in ethnography and memoirs, but the sense of exploration is gone.
These days I rely on websites and email newsletters for food news and recipes, all local to the Bay Area: SF Eater for food trends and new restaurants, SFist also, Janet Fletcher's Planet Cheese because I'm a cheesehound, CUESA for artisanal foods and sustainability issues. My interests are tilting more and more to sustainability and public policy around food. Well, I can't ignore climate change and the painful drought here in California.
I do pick up Edible East Bay when I see it around, and I enjoy reading that. But that's the only food-related magazine I'm willing to spend time with these days.
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...I'm curious what are other cuisines that are currently difficult for Westerners to learn about due to a lack of English language resources?
Probably lots, if you count small ethnic enclaves. Rosetta Costantino tells how she wrote her cookbook to put her family's region of Calabria, Italy, on the culinary map. So even a well known cuisine like Italian food still has secrets to reveal.
While researching a non-Western cuisine, another writer told me she found useful cooking material and techniques demonstrated on YouTube. No English required to understand.
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...Also monkfish liver, veal head, pig ear and foot, beef muzzle salad, lamb testicle...
The worst out of those was the liver- it has the texture of foie gras and the flavour of mackerel. Really offputting.
I've eaten monkfish liver at a sushi restaurant. The chef steams it and serves slices with ponzu sauce and grated daikon. Sorta like this:
http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/article/Liver-of-the-monkfish-a-controversial-delicacy-2689335.php
Monkfish liver is like a lighter version of foie gras, with a delicate flavor--not fishy to me, and certainly not like mackerel. I wonder if your dish was not well-prepared, or simply not fresh. If you come across monkfish liver again, it might be worth another go.
...Can't think of the Italian wormy cheese name.
dcarch
This is it. http://culturecheesemag.com/cheese-bites/casu-marzu-aka-maggot-cheese
A friend and I were talking about it one day. We were both grossed out at the concept. He was sure it was all clever marketing to sell rotten cheese. "Call it a delicacy," he said. "And sell it to those stupid Americans."
My most "exotic" --I prefer to say "unusual" by Western standards--fried frog skins and fried bamboo worms in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Posted here on Egullet, post #7:
http://forums.egullet.org/topic/121025-thailand-north-to-south/
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SF Eater posted a list of notable foie gras dishes being served in SF restaurants, now that California is celebrating the end of Prohibition.
Here: http://sf.eater.com/maps/san-francisco-foie-gras-where-to-eat-2015
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Colman Andrews said it's Irish to serve smoked salmon with brown bread or soda bread. From his cookbook The Country Cooking of Ireland. Go to page 115. Also links to some other salmon recipes in the book.
good luck with your Irish feast!
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Sounds like springerle. Have you looked into that at all? I've eaten springerle that were dryish and tasted OK. The texture was slightly firmer than shortbread. The traditional cookie certainly holds complex designs well. Of course you can experiment with flavorings to come up with something other than the traditional anise.
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Make a lemon glaze with some lemon juice and sugar. I combine 1/2 cup lemon juice with 1/3 cup sugar for a 9-inch loaf cake. Don't worry about dissolving all the sugar--the glaze is actually better that way. While the cake is still very warm, punch holes all over it with a wooden skewer or toothpick, then spoon the glaze over the top and sides.
Boyajian lemon oil is also great, per cdh's post, but it's expensive and will increase the cost of your cake. That lemon oil does give a unique lemon-y punch to a cake, though.
Time and temperature to roast lobster in an oven
in Cooking
Posted
You can put the lobster in the freezer for awhile so that it won't move so much. Supposedly this freezing will also dull their nervous system. I was taught to put the lobster in the freezer for 2 hrs, but I've heard of lesser times that are effective.
The lobster makes it easy to off it by cutting through the head. There's a cross mark shaped like a "T" on the carapace.
See?
Put the point of your chef's knife at the intersection of the "T" and bring the blade down in one quick motion along the stem of the "T".
Intersection marked by "x", cutting line marked in red (your knife will make a straight line, of course).
These photos are from http://www.cookingissues.com/2012/07/04/how-to-become-a-seafood-anesthesiologist-and-kill-your-4th-of-july-lobster/ and adjusted to illustrate what I'm saying.