Katie Meadow
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Posts posted by Katie Meadow
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The NYT has a recent recipe for Alemandrados, almond-lemon macaroons. My contribution has always been charoset, but if I were given the dessert task I think I would make them.
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4 hours ago, liuzhou said:
What? I didn't make anything up. I haven't seen a direct reference to Xanthoxylon Clava-Herculis being what the OP is seeking. I merely suspect it could be, as I said.
If not directly used, it may bean ingredient in whatever is or was used.
I was kidding! I know you are a storehouse of knowledge and your explanation of Hercules is the only even half plausible one yet, except of course for mine about the lion! I don't blame anyone for making stuff.up. I have a good friend who is also a fount of information, arcane or otherwise, and gets teased about the fact that if she doesn't know the answer she tells you anyway-- ESPECIALLY when it sounds sort of good. .Have you ever played the Dictionary Game? You chose a word from the dictionary that people with you swear they don't know and you write the definition on a piece of paper.. Then everyone writes down what they think is a good definition of the word. The answers get read out loud and everyone tries to guess the real definition. Some people are really great at sounding like their absurd idea is convincing.
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5 hours ago, liuzhou said:
I rather suspect "Hercules" is Xanthoxylon Clava-Herculis, a relative of Sichuan peppercorn but native to North America, sometimes called hercules-club or the toothache tree, in reference to its mouth numbing effect.
I've had Sichuan peppercorns in cocktails in Shanghai's legendary Peace Hotel cocktail bar, so not so unlikely.
Don't quote me in court, though.
Why not? Because you made that up!
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On 7/10/2023 at 5:11 PM, Kerry Beal said:
I fried a sleeve of saltines this evening in sunflower oil with a bit of olive oil. They don't take long - so some where a bit (OK a lot) overdone.
Topped with some old cheddar and a bit of something I found in the fridge which might have been red pepper chutney.
Yes, the only challenging part to fried saltines is adjusting the heat and getting the saltines the hell out of the pan quickly. When they sit on paper towels after frying they continue to darken. We've tossed a lot of mistakes into the garbage..
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1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:
Here's a link to that 2007 discussion. If that group of peeps (including Erik Ellestad, who's @ejehere, and one of the peeps who runs savoystompflannestad.com that Kerry linked to) can't figure it out, I'm not sure what your chances are.
Seriously, best of luck. And as @TdeV said, welcome!
An aperitif with yerba mate? No wonder it wasn't a keeper. Hercules used yerba mate to kill the Nemean Lion. He didn't slay the lion; one taste of tea was enough to make the lion run for the hills.
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9 hours ago, Shel_B said:
I'm in total agreement.
Some yeas ago a woman named Alice Medrich had a business in Berkeley making exquisite chocolate desserts. I believe she was something of a pioneer in producing high-quality chocolates. She published a cookbook (Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts) that I discovered a couple of years ago, and I purchased the book. Not a single recipe included a weight of the ingredients. I was so disappointed that I gave the book to a friend ... sheesh!
That book by Alice Medrich came out a long time ago. I think more recently published books, especially baking books, are aware now that it's important to give weights along with quantities
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3 minutes ago, Shel_B said:
This question has been on my mind for a while. We so often see a recipe that calls for a small, medium, or large onion. But what does that mean? I didn't know, although I suspect that at least some here do. However, I believe that there are a lot of folks like me who couldn't say how big a described onion is.
This morning I decided to find the answer, and I found it here, at the Onion Sizing Guide:
https://owyheeproduce.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Onion-Sizing-Guide.pdf
Maybe this will help those who, like me, are clueless about this.
I do have a clue about this. You are kinda nutty. A small onion is small. A big one is big. Good morning! My only observation is this: Berkeley Bowl onions are big.
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8 hours ago, liuzhou said:
This breakfast topic has been running for years and has always been the least active of the Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner topic trilogy.
My theory is that even the most adventurous eaters tend to be most conservative at breakfast. We all tend to fall back to a handful of favourites which we repeat over and over again, perhaps due to lack of time to be more adventurous or simply a preference for familiar comforts first thing in the morning. Dinner is when I get most adventurous.
Breakfasts are said to be the meal travellers and ex-pats struggle with most. I moved from Britain to China 28 years ago and, although 90% of my meals now are Chinese, for breakfast I still tend to fall back to the old favourites – bacon, eggs, toast etc. Although, in the last couple of years, I have added congee to the rotation. I seldom post breakfast because there is seldom anything new or interesting. When in Vietnam, it’s bánh mì.
Chinese friends who have moved abroad find the same. A plate of ham ‘n’ eggs or a bowl of cornflakes is alien food which they find challenging for breakfast. They want a bowl of noodles or soy milk and deep fried dough sticks (crullers).
So the reason many of us don’t post here so much is that we’ve done so several times before. How many boiled eggs do we want to see?
My reasons for 3/4 of a century of buttered toast for breakfast is simple laziness combined with lack of interest in meat or salad before noon. If someone wants to cook something more ambitious for me I will most likely eat it. The idea of cooking in the morning makes me want to go back to bed. And yes, breakfast is often a problem when we travel. I really like old fashioned B and B's where someone actually feeds you. Going out for breakfast or brunch is not my thing either, at least not on a routine basis. If my husband is willing to bake biscuits or make me french toast I'm a happy camper. I can stay in bed eGulleting like right now, then go down for hot carbs and coffee with steamed milk. The exception is when I'm sick. I want pho for breakfast. That happens very rarely unless I have leftovers in the fridge. My husband would look at me like I was insane if I asked him to go out and get me some soup in the morning. He's much too busy being Queen Bee, doing Two Not Touch or reading the paper.
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3 hours ago, Shel_B said:
To me, the term "more forgiving" means flexible, soft, bendable. Might it be the gluten in flour tortillas that gives them those properties?
Maybe. What I was getting at was the fact that, although there's nothing like a fresh warm flour tortilla, they seem more amenable to being reheated on a comal. In NM I was surprised by how delicate the flour tortillas were. I'm so used to TJ's ones that I had forgotten that style.
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13 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:
I mostly use purchased flour tortillas for breakfast wraps and they are one of my favorite breakfasts.
Another good use would be quesadillas.
I cannot get good corn tortillas in my area as the packaged products available are pretty meh.
Maybe flour tortillas are more forgiving. Maybe corn tortillas need to be eaten hot off the press!
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@Smithy, I wondered where you were. So sorry to hear about your darling. Hope he is recovering, and that you have a safe trip home. When I was in the hospital in February with a broken hip I really resisted going into rehab and was allowed to go home after I proved I could grope my way up stairs and reassured them that my husband was up to the task. If I had suspected rehab had edible food I might have reconsidered. But the hospital food was so dreadful I assumed rehab would be the same. As it is, my husband has made more progress learning to cook in the last couple of months than he has in 40 or so years of living with me. It's so very humbling to be incapacitated.and to rely on someone else to do everything for you. Wish him well. And kudos to you. Being a caretaker is one crazy job.
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Update on my NM chiles. The mysterious bag of peppers labeled Anaheim made it back to CA in excellent health. They don't look like CA anaheims, although I don't think I've bought any anaheims here for decades. The were meaty, dark green and flat like a poblano, but longer and less triangular. We roasted them on the grill, peeled them, etc. Generally they were mild but a couple of them had more heat. The flavor is nice. I froze them in small bags. I think the best benefits will be gained by mixing them with the frozen very hot Hatch chile. My plans for the next week include making a green chile stew: pork shoulder, potatoes, light chicken broth and chiles to taste. Very traditional. If only I had some fresh warm sopaipillas and some pueblo honey to go with.
Note to @Shel_B: Our Airbnb was in Velarde, north of Santa Fe. The Ohkay Owingeh pueblo is just down the road. Our host gave us a jar of Ohkay raw honey from the pueblo called RZ's Bees. It was thick and delicious. That's local honey for you.
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For a while we tried making corn tortillas. The presses are inexpensive, so it's worth the experiment. I too have not found a source for good ones. Even making them ourselves, the best ones used fresh masa from a Mexican market rather than the powdered Masa Marina that's easy to come by.
So more often we make hybrid fish burritos, since I can get packaged flour tortillas that are pretty good. The topping is pretty much standard: a slaw of regular cabbage with the addition of cilantro and lime juice and my version of crema, which consists of creme fraiche mixed with a little Siggi's yogurt. We used to have a large Mexican supermercado that made their own crema and you could opt for salty or plain. For heat sometimes if I'm lazy I just use Tapatia in it or on the side, but in summer when there are good tomatoes I make a simple fresh salsa for a topping.
In New Orleans I was blown away by the Cajun-Viet crossovers. So for my fish or shrimp burritos I sometimes use a hot cajun blackening seasoning before frying. Or if I'm feeling more like Mexican I marinate the fish in achiote paste before sautéing in butter or oil. I like deep fried fish but I'm too lazy to bother, and now I'm happy with my version.
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4 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:
Breakfast sandwich of 2 eggs with shrimp, 2 green Thai chilis, green onion, Italian parsley and dill formed into a square omelet (squomelet?) on a ciabatta bun with spinach, tomato and pepper jack. With a mix of orange, grapefruit and strawberries.
You and @blue_dolphin make the most complex and healthy breakfasts I could ever imagine. I never cease to be amazed. Most of my breakfasts are just toast, buttered, often with our marmalade. If it weren't for my husband that would be it, with maybe some fruit. But he makes great pancakes and great biscuits and great bread,
But now I'm back from NM and the frozen green chile we brought back actually managed to stay frozen. It's a pint container, certified Hatch chile and nothing else in the ingredients. And it's hot! So breakfasts have been scrambled eggs with green chile. God, I miss NM. It was so beautiful.
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Thanks, @Shel_B for that. I grew up on the upper west side and my parents never ventured any further for Chinese food, so Tang is unknown to me. But the recipe sounds strange, to mix peanut butter with sesame paste. I've always had one or the other: sesame noodles or noodles with peanut sauce.
Regular old American peanut butter shows up in all sorts of ersatz recipes for Americanized Chinese noodle dishes. And they never specify using natural peanut butter, so I have always assumed that people used Jif or Skippy, which have lots of sugar. Maybe @liuzhou has something to say about the use of peanut butter in Chinese food. There's a man who is never at a loss for words!
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On 4/14/2024 at 12:21 PM, Shel_B said:
Thanks for all the suggestions for using this product. I never thought about adding it to oatmeal ... sounds like a great idea. I'll be picking up some of this product shortly and am looking forward to trying it.
I love spicy peanut noodles, and this certainly seems like it can somehow be used in such a dish.
If you like spicy peanut noodles you should try using Jade All Natural Sichuan Peanut Sauce. It's delicious! I make peanut noodles with it and also use it in stir-fry with chicken. It is indeed spicy. You can pick it up at the Bowl.
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We're on the road home. Today is our 37th anniversary. For lunch we stopped in Seligman AZ. Little did I know there's a stretch of road leading off the main highway that is dedicated to preserving some of the places or at least the vibe of old Route 66, parts of which run parallel to I 40. We ate at The Roadkill Cafe/OK Saloon. Another discovery: Arizona isn't noted for rest stops, so really the idea was to order something small and use the bathroom. But it was quirky and everyone was so nice we decided to have an early lunch. My husband very much liked his burger (we rarely eat beef) and for a celebratory dessert we had Key Lime Pie. There was a mile high of whipped cream on top, which I scraped off most of, and wonder of wonders the pie itself was excellent. And I'm a harsh critic when it comes to pie. There was a dazzling round glass tower displaying the pies, and there were at least ten different kinds. So, a great anniversary lunch. Oh, and of course the motto of the Roadkill Cafe is "You kill it we grill it." There was an elk burger on the menu (and the menu itself is a hilarious work of literature) but we passed on that.
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37 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
Last night a friend took me to an Oaxacan restaurant, or at least a Mexican restaurant owned by an Oaxacan. I had chile relleno. Quite good. If I had to guess I'd say the pepper was poblano. But this was in Princeton, not Puebla. Years ago the restaurant owner mentioned half the population from his small town in Oaxaca now live in Princeton. He once told me most of his supplies and ingredients came from upstate New York.
Yeah. I grew up with hot green chiles from Hatch, NY.
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The Chinese grocery store one is kinda cute. I could see losing that little detachable thing in short order. I agree that garlic presses are very annoying. Sometimes I just use the box grater instead. That's annoying too, but easier to clean.
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Time to eat humble pie, but not chile rellenos casserole. So after eating possibly the worst chile rellenos ever in Texas--the batter was more like fried chicken--and then testing chile rellenos in New Mexico at every opportunity I've learned a few things. For a splurge night we stayed in the famous hotel in Marfa, where the cast of "Giant" stayed. It's lovely, built in the thirties, beautiful tile floors, etc. They have restaurant and bar. The bar snacks were excellent. Then came the terrible chile rellenos. Texas, sit down.
In Las Cruces I had rellenos at a little place called El Jacalito. Very nice, good red sauce, hot chile, light batter. When I asked what kind of chile they used he said it was Anaheim. No CA anaheim chile tastes even remotely like that.
the second NM try was better, but not fantastic, and I didn't ask what the chiles were.
In Taos, in a lovely outdoor patio of La Cueva Cafe I ordered them again. My husband agreed these were the best of all the ones we tasted. The waiter said they were Hatch chiles. They were not like the Hatch chiles of my NM youth. These were sturdier and hot but not blisteringly so. He agreed with me that Hatch chiles seem milder than they used to be. I know the Hatch Valley is growing Big Jims, which are mild. Maybe the plants are getting hybridized?
We went to a couple of grocery stores. There were no poblanos anywhere, but there was a big of very fresh looking chiles labeled anaheim, although the market said they couldn't swear to that. We bough a bagful to take home. At another grocery store we found pint containers of Hatch chiles, roasted and frozen. At our last Airbnb we cooked up scrambled eggs with some of those. They were quite hot and tasty. So go figure. Mystery of mysteries.
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After using Le Creuset cookware for fifty years all I can say is that it doesn't stay pristine white, the way it looks on cooking shows. It definitely stains over time. Unlike seasoned cast iron, which can be handed down to the next generation, enamel coated cast iron gets pretty ugly after years of constant use. We have a couple of old darkened ones that are now dedicated for bread baking or marmalade.
Over the years I have bought cheaper brands than Le Creuset and find them adequate for many years use. A 5.5 qt. capacity Le Creuset does make a wonderful gift, though! Over the years I've found this size to be the most useful of all.
I don't really think that enamel coated cast iron that's dark or stained cooks any differently than perfect looking ones. Loaf pans and cookie sheets are another story. Dark cooks faster that light, but I think that's more related to the material than to darkness caused by use.
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4 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:
I've never had grits however I've eaten plenty of polenta (both as a base for osso bucco or lamb shanks and leftovers exactly how @Katie Meadow describes).
If anyone has had both is there a difference?
I have to admit I can't hear the word grits without bringing Joe Pesci to mind.
Definitions of grits vs polenta are ofter murky or confusing, or just wrong. I'm still not totally clear. Some say that grits are made from dent corn while polenta is made from flint corn. In my experience polenta is typically made from yellow corn and is usually a fine grind, making it smoother. Corn for grits can be white or yellow and is usually a coarser grind, giving the dish a more toothy bite. White grits are a little more delicate in taste, I think. That said I prefer the white, but my husband prefers the yellow. Actually I love them both. Get grits milled fresh as possible; my source is Marsh Hen Mill, on Edista Island on the low country. The couple who owns it inherited or acquired an old mill and ship quickly. You could certainly buy traditionally coarser grits and grind them further if you prefer a fine grind. My unverified thought is that polenta from Italy has been longer on the shelf. I wouldn't hesitate to use grits in place of an Italian dish that calls for polenta, but that's really because grits is what I stock at home. Can be kept frozen. I buy several bags and keep one in the fridge, but I don't think it hurts to be used straight from the freezer.
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Another vote for Marsh Hen Mill (aka Geechie Boy) grits. Both yellow and white are equally good; the white is a little more delicate in taste. Here's how I make my grits, and I have no idea where I got the recipe from, although I know I've tweaked it.
Bring 4.5 cups of water to a boil. Add a big pat of butter and a tsp or salt. Then incorporate one cup of grits, gradually, letting it sift through your fingers. Stir well and cook very low for about fifteen minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn't clump or stick to the bottom. Heat up a. cup of milk meanwhile. After the first fifteen minutes add 1/2 cup of the milk. Continue to cook, stirring, on very low heat, ten minutes. Then add the rest of the milk and continue cooking very slowly about 20 or 25 minutes, stirring, especially toward the end.. When done add in a knob of butter and some dairy of your choice. I like to add a dollop of creme fraiche. For cheesy grits add Oaxaca or cheddar or cheese of your choice, amount also to taste.
Eat it right away, adding more butter and salt as desired. Or pour into a mold so the grits are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and smooth the surface best as you can. This will keep refrigerated and can then be cut into slabs and sautéed in oil, butter or whatever you like.
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Yes, the last post was over four years ago. Chile Rellenos is one of my favorite foods, BUT it isn't an easy dish to make well. Until this past week the only place I ever had them was New Mexico; when they were good they were great. But here I am in southern Texas. I've never been to Texas before and really have no idea what Tex-Mex food is really like when it's good. Sadly all the so-called Mexican restaurants in Texas have been mediocre or worse, whether inexpensive or pricey, such as we had at the fancy hotel in Marfa. The batter was practically a half inch thick, crunchy, with rubbery cheese. The inexpensive one was like wet cardboard, drowned in a red sauce that tasted like it came out of a can. Every meal we have had that might be considered Tex-Mex has been bland at best. What passes for salsa tastes like Pace's or something else out of a jar. Nothing has any heat. Have we just been unlucky? I've had great Mexican food in Mexico, New Mexico, southern CA and Tucson. But Texas has been a mystery to me all my life. Now that I've been in one small corner of it, I'm still clueless.
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Browning Onions Takes Forever
in Cooking
Posted
In my experience, browning, sweating and caramelizing all require different times. Sweating I think simply means cooking on very low heat until they are very soft without letting them get any color. Caramelization can take up to a half hour on low heat, but the goal is to make them sweet and they will definitely get golden-brown. "Browning" takes the least time of the three and doesn't need to be done on super-low heat. Just my three cents about onions.