KennethT

This is a ridiculously old thread, but I didn't know where else to ask this: Is there a shelf life to commercially prepared Dijon mustard once the jar has been opened? I have a half used jar of Maille Dijon mustard that has been in my refrigerator (kept as cold as possible) for probably a couple years. I don't see any mold or anything growing on it. I have always use a clean/dry utensil when removing contents. It smells ok. I imagine it won't have the bite that it had when new, but I just don't want it to inadvertently kill me! There is no expiration date on the jar, but it does say that it should be used within 3 months of opening - but I imagine that's more for quality rather than safety.

This looks a lot better (to me) than what we call "chicken salad" here in the US, which is basically chicken bound together with a thick mayo glop.

Especially since California is notorious for not allowing foreign (meaning from other states) plants and plant products in! I'm part of a fruit group on FB and many mango growers are in Florida but they all say that they're not allowed to ship to CA.

The same type, but the most efficient stirrer has a raised line that runs radially in the middle. But also, for sv stuff, it spins for a lot longer than pasteurizing ice cream base.

Many years ago, I made my own sous vide bath using a 1000W heating element, PID controller, solid state relay and made my own magnetic stirrer using a muffin fan with a 3D printed magnet holder. I still use it to this day. The reason I bring it up is that my stirrer bar etched some small circles in the bottom of my All Clad LTD stockpot after just a couple of uses.... So I got a 3"x3" 1/8" thick glass plate to put under the stirrer bar which works fine in protecting the pot bottom from any further damage. BTW, I also have a type T silicone thermocouple which is very flexible so I can snake it under the standard All Clad lid with minimal gap and evaporation.... https://www.dwyeromega.com/en-us/hermetically-sealed-tip-insulated-thermocouples/p/HSTC

+1 - definitely tomato seeds can be bitter. Whenever I used to make tomato sauce, I always strained the seeds first and it made a big difference.

I would add some onion/shallot first, which would add sweetness, then sugar at the very end if it still needs it. Rather than using cooked potato for thickening, you might consider using a potato starch slurry - that would thicken better with less of it than cooked potato. In general, pepper seeds can be very bitter so I think it's important to be vigilant when eliminating them before pureeing. Edit - plus one for the tomato.... if you want to double down on the roasted flavor, you can char the onion/shallot, then rinse as much of the char off as you can... or just use some canned "fire roasted tomato"

Ah! Sorry, I had never heard of it. Actually, I'll be making an Indonesian relish... a type of sambal called sambal ijo (ijo means green) and is very common with Padang food, which is very popular in Indonesia and is the birthplace of traditional rendang.

What what?

Yes, I want the sourness of a green tomato - but it would be difficult to do 1/2 1/2 - first of all, I'm planning to use them tomorrow, so it won't be very long to begin with. I probably could have left them on the countertop and they'd be fine for that long. But they're also going to be mixed with a bunch of chillis, shallots and garlic and all mashed together so I don't think there would be much to compare.

This isn't really a preservation question but I didn't know where else to put it.... how should I keep green tomatoes to keep them green and NOT ripening? Is it ok to refrigerate for short periods (a couple days)? Usually you don't want to refrigerate tomatoes, but I don't know if that applies to green ones that you want to keep green. I also have a root cellar (wine fridge) that's kept at 55F and relatively high humidity. Tks...

I've always wondered what happens to rice paddy fish (and now rice paddy eels) when the paddies are drained? I get that the crabs can burrow into the dirt but wondered about the non air breathing stuff.

@TdeV Me too!! One way to see if it would work would be to puree one onion and see if it can fry it at medium heat with maybe 1-2T of oil until the oil separates back out. I'd love to see how much human intervention it would need to do it evenly.

How does the Corningware kettle work? My mother used a Corningware baking dish (similar, if not the same as, the one you just got) and it was oven-safe, obviously. But a kettle requires direct heat - like over a gas flame, or electric burner which are much hotter than oven temp air. Or is the kettle more of a tea pot that is meant to have boiling water poured into it?

Hmmm.... I'm definitely at least partially (if not mostly) to blame to your misunderstanding - my description was not nearly detailed enough. I should have written to slice each cheek close to, but not through, the center of the lime - like cutting the flesh of an apple off of its core. Those lime cheeks are easy to squeeze, and you can even kind of rub the two cheek halves back and forth against each other (with the flesh side inside, skin outside) to get the juice out without getting the pith too involved - sort of like rubbing your forefinger and thumb together.

Thanks, but can it stir small quantities while frying in a small amount of oil? Not a quart of soup, but stirring (and wiping the bottom so it doesn't burn) say a half cup of spice paste?

@Smithy I used to use a juice press years ago but stopped due to exactly what @Kerry Beal says - I'd squeeze so hard to get every last drop out (most probably oversqueezing) I'd also get a lot of bitterness from the pith. Doing it the SE Asian way relieves me of that problem - and since I don't usually need nearly the amount of juice you used, it's not a big deal if I don't get every last drop anymore.... I found this video which illustrates the SE Asian method - TBH, I haven't watched the whole video, but near the middle where she starts cutting looks how I do it.

Isn't that more of a blender that heats? Does it continually scrape the bottom or does it have blades that turn to stir a soup or something?

I didn't measure, but it is pretty big...

Ha! It seemed like a product sold on late night TV but it actually looked pretty solid when I unpacked it. It's a good idea - just too bad it didn't work as well as it could've! Part of me feels like I should design my own version - that could be fun.... Not of a complete cooker, but the automated stirring function...

I had high hopes for this device: https://www.amazon.com/STIRMAX-Multi-Cooker-Automatic-programmable-Simmering/dp/B0DC1T1F36/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2ALKEQSAU0MDC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KmC0Kqgeq7oXNwgT_2sw-5hsWS7uOtFbUMINaFZa8MbHNckPFfQwRRcGqfm-B8wDUueN3WoXczgWEwjDenv-KiijkLjZaBhU7nZ6rC5uMobLeusKxQ1cCOSV_7jUAs06TV-mY6hQrfhSAbWiY8I0ZY4eykebKJ-ji4uyHhzM51xWhhhxEwD3Fy01YhW8VszGuUCoYgd9hUmWvWFRqETUcUgVaObuL6G51hRqmCKt6KM.1pEqI7ArR6lICHA15thBtJeV__Md33IBL4hngdXEXZ0&dib_tag=se&keywords=power%2Bxl%2Bstir%2Bmax%2Bmulti%2Bcooker&qid=1742489461&sprefix=power%2Bxl%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1 It's designed to automatically stir foods that are cooking in it - I thought it would be a great thing to use to automate frying Malay/Indo/Nyonya curry pastes (typically fried in oil prior to adding liquids) or making long cooked (and constantly stirred) stuff like rendang. I received it the other day and finally got to try it out last night. I tested it with frying some pureed onion. Unfortunately, the stirring doesn't work nearly as well as I'd hoped it would - there's a decent sized gap between the stirring blade and the pan's bottom and there's 4 spots on the corners of the square pan where the food accumulates and A) doesn't actually cook there as there's only little heat and B) doesn't get out of there unless manually moved (which kinda defeats the purpose of an automated stirring mechanism, no?) Disappointed... and it's being returned this weekend...

How is the snail powder made?

Thanks. Did you notice if they put a moisture barrier between ingredients and bread, like sliced cheese or something?

I know this is like a year old, but when you'd order these, how did it arrive? Was the bread separate or already put together? I'm wondering how they kept the bread from either getting soggy from prolonged contact with the other ingredients or stale from being at refrig temps for a while...

I recently made a new batch of spice paste for the Nyonya buah keluak chicken, so... Now that I'm making the sauce thicker (a la Violet Oon) I think I'll cut back on the tamarind - it overshadowed everything this time.