kbjesq
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Posts posted by kbjesq
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u know what would be sweet that i always adore when i eat it - caramelized blue cheese with figs (or dates, plums, rhubarb, something along those lines). just coat the cheese with sugar and torch it lightly. man i love that dish.
That sounds good and do-able. I forgot to mention, I'm just a home cook. Not a professional by any means! I wouldn't have the fridge space to do aspic ahead of time nor could I transport. I need something that I can assemble on-site at the event.
I could do the carmelized cheese, garnish with a spiced walnut perhaps? And/or a a dab of chutney?
I like this idea - I will experiment this weekend to make sure that the spoons don't melt under the torch.
I like the ideas, keep them coming, thanks so much!
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I won an ebay auction for 500 disposable Asian soup spoons. Since I'm volunteering to serve appetizers at a non-profit fundraiser next month, I thought that I could use these spoons to serve some of the appetizers. I'm looking for suggestions on what I can serve using these spoons.
Cost is definitely an issue as this is a fundraiser - also I need something that I can serve (safely) at room temperature. I will be doing all the prep at home and then staging the appetizers at the event. I will have helpers (but not necessarily experienced cooks) to help with the staging. We expect 100+/- people to attend. Another volunteer is doing 3 individual apps, plus we will have a cheese board, so I am responsible for only 3-4 apps. All the food must be able to be eaten standing up and the patrons are generally not known for being adventurous eaters.
The them is loosely related to English food, to be put on platters (with card descriptions of food item) and served by students mingling with the patrons. My ideas so far:
"Beef Wellington" -- bite size pastry shell filled with a mushroom pate and topped with a small slice of beef tenderloin
"Fish and Chips" -- bite size slice of roasted potato with a dab of dill/horseradish/cream sauce and topped with a small piece of smoked salmon
"Pea Soup" -- green pea/mint mousse served on individual (disposable) white Chinese soup spoons ??? Not sure about this at all
I was thinking of some kind of chopped salad with pears and stilton for the spoons? Not sure how this would hold up during transport and service (approx. length of event is 1.5 hours) or crumbled blue w/a dab of chutney?
Any ideas, suggestions or constructive criticism would be warmly welcomed!!!
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I've been following this thread for ages and I cannot believe the grief these people give you. Your food looks healthy and flavorful. It's amazing what you are able to create considering the extremely limited budget you have to work with. I hope you find another position soon where your talents are appreciated.
I COULD NOT AGREE MORE - WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? I THINK THAT THEY ARE NUTS, PERSONALLY.
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Last week I had a flyer in my newspaper for Two Way Pizza, which doesn't even deliver to my neighborhood so I am unsure as to why I even recieved it. Their special summer pizza is the Loco Moco pizza, take a look here (you may have to scroll down), with onion, tomato, demi glace hamburger patty, demi glace mayo, as well as a soft boiled egg and lettuce that you add before eating.
As I have never eaten from this place I am not sure but it says the the sauce base is a margarine sauce.
Other pizzas list pizza sauce as the base so I am really unclear as to what a margarine sauce is...Until the end of September there is a coupon for half off the loco moco pizza so the large pizza is only 2050 yen ($19) instead of 4100 yen ($38).
Wow, with a description like that (
) and a 50 percent-off coupon, I would order one just for the adventure!I have to admit that the odd variations of Japanese pizza have caused me to change my thoughts on pizza toppings. Tonight it was ricotta, roasted garlic, a ton of fresh oregano, mozzarella and feta cheese, cooked and then topped with a cold tossed salad and ranch dressing. Strange but delicious! (My daughter asked me to duplicate something that she had at camp called a "greek salad pizza" and this was the best that I could do with ingredients at hand).
Also I made the crust last night in my Zo bread machine, using the recipe that comes with it for "flat beer pizza crust". I put the dough in the fridge overnight, and then rolled it out tonight and let it rise. Cooked at 485F on a stone using parchment. So easy, and so good!
Also I have to confess to putting Kewpie on pizza from time to time. I just love that stuff . . . .
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I'm intrigued by how incredibly simple Thomas Keller's chicken recipe is - this would be perfect for a weeknight dinner. I looked at some of the reviews in the linked recipe and it seems that the high roasting heat produces a lot of smoke. How much smoke are we talking about? I live in an apartment and I'm not particularly keen about having it fill up with smoke!
I can't speak for Thomas Keller's recipe, but when I tried the Cook's Illustrated recipe for high-heat roast chicken (the one that is spatch-cocked, I forget the exact name of the recipe), not only did it totally fill up my house with smoke, but the inside of my oven looked like a bomb of chicken fat had gone off. And I had just cleaned my oven the previous week . . . .
On the plus side, the chicken was really, really good and it was done quickly enough for an easy weeknight meal.
Now, I wait until my oven is already dirty, then I prepare that recipe, knowing that I'm going to have to clean the oven anyway.
PS I think if you live in an apartment, you will find the smoke level objectionable unless you have a lot of windows open and some fans going (or a very powerful exhaust fan).
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How much is a subscription to CI a year? And, do they send a bunch of crap--i.e. hardcover cookbooks to review and buy etc.?
I bought the August issue that was on the newsstand a few days ago. I also bought the country version...I forget the name. I actually liked the country one better than the regular one recipe wise.
Shelby, I had subscriptions to both CI and Cook's Country, plus an online subscription for awhile. I had nothing but TROUBLE when I tried to cancel/not-renew my subscriptions. A quick internet search will reveal that my experience is pretty common. It took me months and I still dispute that they gave me a proper credit/refund. On top of that, some of my issues were never received. (Even on the CI bulletin board there are threads about the abysmal customer service).
I think the regular subscription price is around $26/yr, but it is only 6 issues.
My suggestion is rather than getting tangled in that mess, go on Amazon and buy copies of the annual recipes books. I bought the 2006 CI Annual for .01 plus shipping! I just did a quick look and there seem to be plenty for sale for less than $10.
Just my .02, but I think that you will find a lot of people who agree with me!
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Sandra Lee's "kwanzaa cake" takes the cake for me in that department.
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Hey, if you don't want to take pictures of your food, don't. I have no problem with that.
But I take a lot of pictures of food (mostly of food that I cook at home). In fact, on my computer, I have a picture folder named "Memorable Meals".
I sometimes spend weeks or longer planning menus, table decor, shopping and preparing meals, especially for large family gatherings. I like to take photos to memorialize all that hard work. Sometimes, I look through the folder to be sure that I'm not serving the same meal to the same people, and sometimes I look there for inspiration - remembering an event that went particularly well, for example.
Recently, a family member passed away and I was able to better enjoy her memory by looking through the memorable meals folder and remembering the wonderful meals that we shared.
So I'm definitely biased in favor of photographing food, but I respect the rights of others not to do so. And if I'm in a restaurant that doesn't allow photos, I'm fine with that.
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Egullet member Nickart is an expert on Mexico City dining - and has just published a book on that subject to high acclaim - see Good Food in Mexico City. Also check his website (click here) for information about any restaurants that have closed, as well as new additions that did not make it into the book. He updates it very regularly! Happy eating!
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I love the little, multi-colored fingerling potatoes . . . and they taste good, too.
However, IMHO there is nothing cuter than baby beets - all varieties!
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They look great K!!!
What brand of veggie sausage did you use?
Hey Randi! Wish I could share some with you . . . the phony sausage was just whatever brand that Publix sells. As you know, choices are limited around here!
Do you think the seniors would like joong??
Seriously, even though this was my first taste, I definitely consider this some serious comfort food. It was really, really good. I wasn't sure that I would like the texture of the rice because I don't normally like soft rice at all, but the flavors melded (sp?) together so well that it was just a unique experience. And very yummy.
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Your first attempt looks delicious! I love how the ingredients look juicy and melding into the rice. The chorizo would add a nice spicy flavour.
If you don't eat pork, you might try a Malaysian version with beef rendang that Tepee suggested many posts ago. The recipe can be found thru' google, but I used the one from Cradle of Flavour.
If you've never eaten joong before, then the rendang wouldn't confuse you the way it did with my family who are used the traditional version I usually make. It didn't stop them from devouring all the packets tho'!
Thank you so much for the compliment! Can I ask how "joong" is pronounced? I am embarrassed to say that I don't know (although mine may not technically be "joong" since they have a phony filling
)I actually don't eat any meat, except for chicken, but others in my family do eat meat, so the next time that I make these, I think I will make several different fillings. It seems like a versatile technique and I just cannot get over how much flavor the bamboo leaves imparted to the contents!
ETA: My local market did not have any salted eggs, but they did have some eggs that were labeled "preserved" and they were solid black (both the yolks and the egg white). I did not purchase these as they did not look like the ones shown above in the pictorial. Would the preserved eggs have been a good addition? To be honest, they were not visually appealing but I do not know how they would taste. The shop owner just shook his head at me when I picked up the package!
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Those are beautiful!! And they are very easy to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and late snack.
Thanks for your kind comment, and I agree completely, these can be eaten at any time of day.
I forgot to mention how much we both liked the aroma exuded while the packages were boiling - a very grassy, almost tea-like scent that filled the kitchen. I will definitely make these again!
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My teenager and I made these yesterday. Forgive us, but we could not find some of the ingredients (we do not have any decent Asian markets in our area
) and also we do not eat pork, so we made some adjustments to your recipe. Also, we never had these before so we weren't sure what to expect. Right or wrong - we were very, very happy with the results and they were delicious!!! We had the laptop on the kitchen counter and we followed your pictorial in assembling and making our packages. Thank you for posting the pictorial. The instructions are clear and easy to follow - even for someone like me, who has never eaten joong/jongzti before. (I don't even know how to pronounce it)The ingredients that we used: Chinese sweet rice seasoned as recommended, green mung beans (yellow could not be found!), dried shrimp (could not find conpoy), dried mushroom, vegetarian chorizo-style sausage, and peanuts. We sauteed the veggie sausage and mushrooms together. Ingredients (after soaking) ready for assembly:
We made about 25 packages (two pots full). Our wrapping is inartful but they held together!
After we boiled them for 2 hours, we removed the wrappers and found extreme yumminess inside! The bamboo leaves imparted the most delicious flavor and scent to the rice and filling. I could definitely get addicted to these.
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I get so tired of people trying to be clever or cute when it comes to these things, "Total Pig" being the perfect example of what I don't like. There is a local paper here with a column titled, "Romancing the Stove . . . by the Granny Guru". Arghhhhh.
I much prefer simple, direct titles. In your case, since your subjects are so varied, I would title it something plain like: "About Food". Not witty or confusing, just straight out telling me that this column is going to contain an article dealing with food. A restaurant review, a recipe, shopping tips or something about the food industry? I'll just have to read it to find out.
Simple is best, IMHO.
And good luck, it sounds like fun!
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I had to make 60 lbs of potato salad a few months ago, and not wanting to peel or boil 60 lbs. of potatoes, I decided to bake them. I found several recipes for "baked potato salad" (similar to this one). I combined ingredients from a few different recipes. (I omitted the cheese referenced in several of the recipes as another person was bringing macaroni and cheese).
I have to say, baking the potatoes definitely imparted a more intense, and distinct potato flavor than traditional boiling or steaming methods.
The recipe included bacon bits, sour cream, chives, mayo, fresh parsley and ranch dressing. All 60 lbs were gone in no time!
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I saw an ad for these wrap dispensers that are supposed to work with either plastic or foil wrap. The idea is that you put the roll inside, pull out what you need, and pull down the cover which holds the cutter bar. The reviews are good, but I'm still skeptical that there is any effective solution for dealing with plastic wrap.
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I've never heard of Cain's. Is it a New England product? I've never seen it in Canada.
OMG, Randi, if you and Peter eat lobster rolls with Cain's mayo on a toasted, split-top bun, I'm going to cry.
As has been correctly stated, a lobster roll should have lobster, mayo, S & P. Nothing else. Bun should be split-top, buttered on the outside only, then toasted on both sides. The filling should be chilled, and have a mix of large and smaller chunks of lobster, and contain both tail and claw meat.
Anything else is a lobster salad sandwich, not a lobster roll.
I am sooooooo jealous!
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The Cook's Illustrated method for high-temp, butterflied chicken results in a very crispy skin. It's fast and easy. You can watch the test kitchen preparing the recipe
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How do they compare to simply keeping a paper towel in with the produce, to absorb the extra moisture? I was looking at these, but there's a lot of negative reviews on amazon, including ones saying that the food looks good but is still rotten on the inside?!
Works better than the paper towel technique, IMHO, although I do sometimes use a paper towel inside the green bag if the produce is extremely wet.
I've never had any food become "rotten on the inside" but if I don't adequately dry my produce before putting in the bag, it doesn't last nearly as long. It states right on the green bag packaging that all produce must be dried before storage. Why don't you buy a set and see if you like them? You can buy a set of 10 bags for around $4-5, I think. I'm very confident that I have saved way more than the cost of these bags in the amount of produce that I have not had to throw out.
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I've seen these commercials too. A better question to me is, does anyone really want to keep fresh produce in their refrigerator for 18 days?
I have been using these bags for more than a year and they are great. Even if you don't plan to keep your produce for 18 days, the produce remains in remarkably fresh condition until you do use it. For example, there was a big sale on strawberries and although it took me nearly 2 weeks to eat through the huge quantity that I purchased, the last one was a fresh as the first one. Also, I was constantly throwing away cilantro because it would get slimy after just a couple of days in the fridge. No more!
They seem expensive until you realize that you can re-use them (for several months). Also, when they start to lose their effectiveness, I double them up and get another month or two of use out of them.
I think that there is already a thread on these under the topic "green bags".
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My brother just left Japan after visiting us for almost 2 weeks and he couldn't get enough of the 100 yen shops. We were at a different one almost everyday!
The best thing he found were some Crate & Barrel dishes (made in Japan), we looked them up online and the dinner plates go for $18.95 in the US! He bought 8 of each of the dinner plates, salad plates, shallow bowls, bowls and mugs, a $600 value for just 4000 yen ($37.50)
We could only find them at the chain of 100yen shops called Lemon, they have about 40 shops around Japan.
I am really going to start paying more attention to the dishes!!
How did he get them back to the US?
Probably had to do what I had to do when I visited a Daiso store in California last year - buy another suitcase! I bought some lovely little square and rectangular ceramic plates, and soup bowls, which I still use nearly every day. Also tons of bento supplies, several plastic graters similar to the one that Hiroyuki bought, packs of writing paper, small teapots and cups, stainless steel strainers for loose tea, sesame seed grinder, chopsticks, and other stuff! I love that store, but my carry-on bag was very heavy!
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When I cook for vegetarian friends, I usually lean on dishes that take time to develop the sorts of full, savory flavors that I miss when sacrificing meat and seafood, long-simmered curries and tomato sauces in particular. However, I'm often in the bind I'm in today: I've got a pal coming over at 7p for dinner tomorrow but will have only an hour or so to prep.
Right now I'm thinking about grilled vegetables over couscous. You got anything better?
If you have time tonight, you could prepare a veggie loaf (similar to this recipe for carrot-mushroom loaf from Mollie Katzen) and then just reheat it tomorrow night. Actually, making it a day ahead enhances the flavor. Add some garlic-smashed potatoes and quick-sauteed greens (kale, swiss chard, or similar). A festive presentation for these veggie-loaf recipes is to bake and serve in a hollowed-out squash or even eggplant. They also take very well to sauces - mushroom gravy, quick tomato, bechamel, etc.
Not that there is anything wrong with grilled veggies, but you did ask for alternatives.
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Here's the situation.
There's a Japanese restaurant near us called Koto. Apparently it's one of a small chain.
They serve a sauce there that my wife and I find absolutely sublime. My wife, in fact, would use it every day if she could. So I've been trying to duplicate it.
I've identified most of the ingredients: a mayonnaise base (likely Kewpie), grated onion, horseradish, mustard (probably Dijon), soy sauce. But I'm pretty positive there are one or two other things, too.
I have tried offering to pay the chef for the recipe. I've tried approaching him through the manager. I've tried reconstructing the recipe at home...I don't know how many times I've attempted that, but I know I've gone through several bottles of horseradish and mayo and mustard.
At this point, I'm getting way frustrated. I've heard of labs analyzing food, but I'm skeptical that this can be done for an actual recipe...and even more skeptical that this can be done for a reasonable cost.
I'm looking for creative solutions to duplicating (or acquiring) the recipe. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be delighted to hear them.
--Josh
What is the name of the sauce and how is it served? It seems like there are a lot of people out there trying to find recipes for white sauce/yum-yum sauce/shrimp sauce as served in American Japanese Steakhouses (I'm doubting that these same sauces would actually be served in Japan). For example: http://japanese-steakhouse-white-sauce.com/
Appetizers that can be served on spoons
in Cooking
Posted
Dear YPants, your ideas are wonderful but way out of my league! I don't have any way to foam anything. I'm just a home cook, despite what Randi says. What I need are simple ideas (I'm sure considered boring by many egulleters' standards) that can be prepared by me at home (I won't have any prep help) and then plated at the event. The attendees are mostly fairly bland folks . . . I live in a small town in FL and "sushi" is considered exotic by quite a few folks around here.
Nonetheless, keep the ideas coming because I have 500 spoons to use! (No, I don't expect to use them all at this event but we do have several events during the year and I will keep a list of the ideas and use them later in the year)