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Emily_R

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Posts posted by Emily_R

    Blender for small amounts of puree

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    David -- until you get someone to mail you the Iwatani, I find that using an immersion blender inside a small-mouthed mason jar works pretty well for small amounts of puree as you describe. It can take a little while to get it going (I lift the immersion blender up and down onto the food to help get things started), and it does require a little liquid, but for something like the parsley puree you describe, or a little baby food, that's what I use.

    Making Hand-Pulled Noodles

    in China: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Ader -- I was offering that recipe and video to present a clear alternative to high protein recipes. Although he doesn't continue to pull the noodles, that dough certainly does not look prone to breaking, and I see no reason it could not have been pulled more. But now I see that in threads above you have already laughed off the very idea that this video / recipe could be useful.

    Making Hand-Pulled Noodles

    in China: Cooking & Baking

    Posted

    Kleinebre -- Did you see this video / site / recipe I posted several pages up? He has very detailed instructions, recipes, and videos... His recipe uses some cake flour in the dough, specifically because he says that Chinese flour typically has less protein than ours -- suggesting less rather than more protein is important. And he talks extensively about the kneading process, which, in his words: "You have to knead this noodle dough many times longer than you would a bread of pizza dough. You need to destroy the gluten structure enough such that it doesn't resist when you stretch it."

    Perhaps worth a try as an alternative to the recipes you've been using?

    http://www.lukerymarz.com/noodles/index.html

    The shrimp dilemma - do you feel it?

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    I'm interested in this topic. I typcally buy Wegmans' (our local very good supermarket) frozen farmed tiger shrimp from Vietnam. And I've been for the most part happy with them - they're not mushy, but they can sometimes release more liquid than I'd like when pan frying them... But I'm aware of the environmental issues, and recently I was at another supermarket and bought a bag of frozen wild-caught shrimp from the gulf of mexico. It was strange -- they tasted so different to me -- they tasted like shrimp from shrimp cocktail, where the tiger shrimp I normally get taste like shrimp you'd have in shrimp scampi. Does that make any sense? Anyway, I just really didn't like the wild-caught shrimp taste... And I don't understand if this is just an issue of whatever variety of shrimp lives in the gulf versus is farmed... Are there other wild-caught or domestic shrimp I might buy that don't have that shrimp cocktailness to them?

    Drinks! (2012, part 2)

    in Spirits & Cocktails

    Posted · Edited by Emily_R (log)

    I make Brazilian limeade, but without the sweetened condensed milk. Basically this involves putting whole (cut into pieces) limes into the blender with sugar and water.... Blending them with their peels and then straining extracts the essential oils from the peels, and makes an amazing limeade! Here's a recipe with the proportions...

    1 lime, cut into eighths

    1/4 cup sugar

    1.5 cups water

    Handful of mint

    Blend together and then strain! The recipe can of course be scaled up for however big batch you want to make...

    My Leather Fetish

    in Cooking

    Posted

    We make a huge amount of fruit leather each year, mostly to help use up the huge amount of apples we get from our apple tree. I like fruit leathers best when they the pureed fruit is mixed with an applesauce base -- otherwise I find berry leathers too tart. One of our favorite is a concord grape leather. We cook the apples down into apple sauce, and towards the end of their cooking add concord grapes in until they melt into the sauce. then the whole thing gets run through the food mill. I also find that a little bit of corn syrup in the fruit puree helps keep them more pliable when dried, rather than tough / crunchy...

    What to serve with Tortilla Espanola

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Hi all --

    I'm having a dinner party for vegetarian friends tomorrow night, and am trying to figure out the menu. At the same time, I've got a glut of fresh eggs, so I thought I might make a tortilla espanola as an starter to drink with wine on the patio. But I'm trying to think of what other nibbles would be good to serve with it that are vegetarian. I figured a bowl of olives, but what else? Ideally it would be some type of finger food, but I guess I could do a salad...

    Any thoughts?

    Em

    How To Handle Excessively Loud (obnoxious) Diners at the Next Table

    in Restaurant Life

    Posted · Edited by Emily_R (log)

    Yes, DutchMuse -- as you said above, I'm confused as to why you didn't ask the staff to move you, if that group was ruining your meal. For a three hour meal, I'd think you could have asked the staff to move you at almost any point during the evening, give the truly over-the-top obnoxious behavior going on at the table next to you...

    And to me a "there's nothing we can do" response is totally inadquate. There *is* something they could have done -- moved you to another table! Or comped you part of your meal!

    Dinner! 2012

    in Cooking

    Posted

    YUM chefmd -- your potatoes and mushrooms look both simple and so savory and delicious! I would very happily eat that for dinner.

    Tonight I was dealing with a glut of garlic scapes, so I made Stir-Fried Chicken with Garlic Scapes and Asparagus. Sauce had some oyster sauce in there. Really really yummy. A nice use for the scapes, since I find them too strong in pesto...

    Recipes that Rock: 2012 and 2013

    in Cooking

    Posted

    So I've got a super simple recipe that's become a new favorite here: Swiss Chard with Ginger, Cumin, and Jalapeno. I've always thought of swiss chard with Italian flavors, never with Indian ones before... This recipe is a real treat -- more than the sum of its parts. I think I've made it three times in the last month! I serve it with rice and a fried egg, or with rice and a scrambled egg for lunch. Lately I've been using virgin coconut oil instead of the olive oil... And be sure to give it that squeeze of lemon at the end.

    http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/swiss-chard-with-ginger-and-cumin

    • Like 1

    Dill -- how do you use it?

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Oh -- I've got a good one for you, that takes a lot of dill. Reproduced from my favorite Greek restaurant in NYC. Take one or two Romaine hearts and finely cut them (basically into ribbons). Add at least half a cup if not a full cup of chopped dill. Add a full bunch or more of chopped scallions. Then take a big hunk of feta cheese and massage it into all of that, so that it is completely incorporated into the salad. Grind a bunch of fresh pepper on it, add some kosher salt, and then dress with good olive oil and a lot of lemon juice. AMAZING.

    Help for a Couple of Cocktail Novices (Part 1)

    in Spirits & Cocktails

    Posted

    Ok, so I'm hoping this thread is where cocktail novices can ask questions of cocktail experts? I was at a bar the other night and had a drink I loved -- it was called a ginger martini, and the bartender gave the recipe to me as:

    1 tsp ginger, muddled with sugar

    1 oz orange vodka

    1/4 oz apple liqueur

    1/4 oz lemon juice

    Garnish with an orange twist.

    So I made this tonight, shook it up in the cocktail shaker, but even after shaking for a while, this had a very small yield -- certainly not enough to fill a martini glass. I guess that's not surprising since an ounce is just two tablespoons. I guess I'm wondering -- how much volume am I supposed to be gaining from the melting ice when shaking? Were the amounts just too low in the recipe? Did I not shake long enough?

    Thanks for any help you can provide...

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