trillium

It's more a sin of waste. Putting down a non-trivial number of dollars for what is essentially a glass of alcoholic cranberry juice. Heck, probably not even good quality cranberry juice. When I'm being particularly bad, I chalk this sort of thing up to a "stupid tax". Like the lottery is a "math tax". Does that make you feel any better? It usually works with me. regards, trillium

I think you're my dessert cookery twin. Chez Panisse Desserts is one of my most favorite resources for making sweets with fruits and herbs. That book and Baking with Julia pretty much taught me all I know about desserts! regards, trillium

The partner was just wondering what the trendy booze status symbol du jour was in Asia. One of his favorite stories is about how in S'pore back in the early 90s he insisted on drinking the XO cognac straight instead of mixing it with Coke or 7-up like any decent person would do. Quite shocking! Personally, I don't see the sin in Grey Goose and cranberry. There are so many worse crimes then adding something like cranberry juice to a liquor that is flavorless to begin with! regards, trillium edit: because I just can't type

Pearl balls have wandered in and out of quite a few threads in the Chinese forum, here is one to get you started. They get steamed all the times I've had them, but I've never had them in a Vietnamese context. If you used turkey are you sure your mix had enough fat in it? Or is fat what you're trying to avoid? regards, trillium

I think there is a rose hip preserve recipe in Mes Confitures. For raspberry and rose, I sort of just winged it from other combinations she had in her book. I did an 80% sugar to fruit ratio by weight, for 1 kg of raspberry (about 2.2 lb) I used the juice of half of a large lemon. I brought them up slowly to a simmer so the sugar could melt, and then cranked the heat up to high to boil so the pectin would set. I stirred very gently so that I didn't break up all the berries, and skimmed off the foam. I like to moniter the temp with a thermometer, instead of using the saucer in the freezer trick, and I cooked it until it reached 105 C or 221 F. I had gathered some very fragrant rose petals from the yard (you should do it in the morning when they are still fragrant and then use them pretty soon after), and blew on them to get all the bugs and stuff out, and then spread them on a sheet of wax paper and kind of tossed them around to encourage any lurking instect to crawl away. I had about 3 handfuls worth, I didn't weigh them, but they nearly filled up a pint berry box. I divided them in the bottoms of the jars (2 pints and a half pint) and when the raspberries were done and at the right temp, I skimmed them one last time and then stirred in 45 mls (1.5 US oz) of rose water. Then ladled the hot liquid over the rose petals and sealed as usual. You're supposed to gently shake the jars after they've cooled enough to handle but before the jam sets so that you distribute the petals throughout the jar. My jam was so thick by the time I tried this that I had a lot of trouble. regards, trillium

Delia Smith online has several nice gooseberry recipes. If you click here and type in gooseberry in the search box you'll pull them up. We've been discussing preserves in this thread, which I started because I made a very wonderful tasting preserve sort of following her recipe, except I used only 80% sugar by weight and fresh elderflowers instead of cordial (I followed the flower amounts/prep in Christine Ferber's book). It's a synergistic combination. regards, trillium

I hate to be totally contrary in a thread where someone is just learning to cook, but having seen this said more then once-- its just driving me crazy. Smaller really isn't better when it comes to capers. I don't know where this myth got started, but I'm willing to blame it on some devious French plot until proven otherwise. The thing to look for in a good caper is fragrance and flavor, not size. Big ones usually have a bolder flavor then small ones and salted will taste more "capery" then those preserved in vinegar. I actually prefer bigger ones packed in salt. If you live in a larger city, any decent Italian grocery store will have them, and if you're very lucky, they'll be selling them bulk, with a nice high turn-over. They're worth a taste to see how you like them compared to those preserved in vinegar. Here's a nice article on capers written by Ari Weinzweig. It goes over caper blossoms too. And RSincere, I'm loving your posts. When I was just learning to cook Usenet was in its heyday and I found the most help and advice there then out of any books. regards, trillium

It looks promising mostly to me because the ingredients are listed as weights not volume. I can't even make all the jams I want to out of the Ferber book because I'm running out of jars and eaters. Let us know how you like it and what you make so I can live vicariously through you, ok? regards, trillium

I get mine from a couple of different vendors at the farmer's market in downtown Portland. You have to watch the market like a hawk, the sour cherry season is only 3 or 4 weeks so it's easy to miss. I'm sure there must be some one selling them in Seattle...right now! And hey, if you come to Portland occasionally I'd be happy to stash some in the freezer for you, frozen work just fine in pies. Freezer jam is super, super easy. If you like that taste better, and have room in your freezer, go for it. I always followed the recipe in pectin box for freezer jam. I don't think you even cook it, just mix fruit and sugar and pectin. It gives you bright, fresh tasting jam with a softer set then if you did a cooked one with pectin. I usually picked the pectins that advertise themselves as good for lower sugar. Strawberries are tough to preserve, I tried the no-pectin route for the first time with them this year and I ended up with very lovely preserved strawberries in a nice strawberry syrup! They have so little pectin I think next year I won't go the purist route and just use pectin. I'm not that crazy about most plum jams (they seem bland and too sweet to me), but I do love infusing alcohol with plums! It extracts all that nice flavor from the skins and you can blunt the sour with as much sugar as your tastes dictate. regards, trillium

That's the nice thing about the recipes I've been using. They're for a kilogram of fruit (about 2.2 lb) and you use 80% sugar. The yield is usually around 2 and a half pints. I find that jams don't really taste as good after the first year, so I try not to make more then we can eat or give as presents to friends and family. Most of the people I know don't make jam or marmalade, so I don't have your problem. I'm envious of your glut, besides the gooseberries, fig and apricot, I'm buying all my fruit at the farmer's market. Maybe you should start some eGullet exchange, huh? Your jam for someone else's X. edit to add: I eat my preserves on steel cut oatmeal every morning all winter long. It helps me not miss the butter I wish I could drown them in and you need fruity dark flavors in the middle of winter. regards, trillium

It doesn't fall under $20, but I love my Russell Hobbs toaster so much that when I saw it for 27.99 at Costco I bought my mum one. Let's just say I paid about twice that for mine 5 years ago but I'm trying hard not to be bitter. It has really wide adjusting slots and heats up really fast so that your bread is toasted on the outside and sitll moist of the inside. My favorite trick it has is that the lever can't be pushed down when the toaster is unplugged. They need to add that feature to rice cookers! regards, trillium

I think we have more types of vinegar in our cupboard then oil. We have Swan coconut vinegar, Koon Chun Chinkiang vinegar, Chinese white rice vinegar whose brand name I'm blanking on but it's our favorite, seasoned rice vinegar for sushi rice, Aceto Cesare, Aceto di Arneis, Aceto di Barolo and Aceto di Moscato (all from Piedmont), Sanchez Romate Hnos sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar that I made + its mother, plain old white vinegar in a gallon jug, my mum's homemade blackberry vinegar, a little tiny bit of my dad's homemade raspberry vinegar, and a couple of bottles of balsamico which I was given as gifts but I haven't even opened yet because it's not my favorite kind. I heart vinegar. regards, trillium

I have been cooking apricots, for the past couple of days. I also have both my dehydrators full of split apricots. I combine apricots with rocoto (also known as Manzano) peppers. Some people think they are hotter than Habaneros, but I don't. They have an apple flavor and the ones I grow are the same color as apricots when ripe. They are the only pepper with black seeds and I leave a few seeds in the conserve to identify the hot stuff, just in case the lable falls off. Some of this I combine with red onion/garlic marmalade which makes a killer sauce for grilled chicken or pork. I also combine apricots with lime marmalade, layering it in the tall "quilted" jelly jars to make it look like a parfait. I make a jelly from an infusion of anise hyssop (the root beer plant) and mix that with apricot preserves. However, the most popular combination I make is apricot/ginger. These are some great ideas, thanks! My mum loves apricots and loves ginger, so I was playing around with the idea of making something with apricot, candied ginger, ginger juice and maybe thin lemon slices that you simmer for a while before adding them to the preserves. I'm not a huge fruit and meat in combination fan, so the apricot and habenero idea has me wondering how else we'd eat it. How do you add the ginger component? regards, trillium

Mm, that does sound good. (I seem to recall reading somewhere that the kernels of almond and peach pits contained cyanide -- presumably not much of it, but that's put me off trying to use them in food in the past.) You've got me feeling eager to branch out, quick. Yeah, they contain cyanogenetic glycosides which can be converted to cyanide when you eat them. I think it takes 60 - 70 bitter almonds (they have the highest levels) to knock off an adult. You can roast the nuts to kill the enzyme that does the converting if you worried about it, or just stick with the extract. regards, trillium

The basics would be the Ball Blue Book I think, or just the recipes from your favorite pectin box. regards, trillium (my namesake)

I really enjoy Christine Ferber's book I linked to in my first post, but she's a little demanding. I started out making jam from the recipe in the Sure-Jel box! Delia Smith has some nice English recipes online that I like. regards, trillium

Try using the nut meats from the apricot pits to give them a little almond flavor next time, it works really well and is a little more complex and herbally compared to the almond extract. I steep them in the fruit and sugar overnight in one of my Japanese tea bags. And you're right, small batches really are nice because you don't need a lot of equipment or space. I thought about lavender in the apricots but hmmm...it wasn't working for me. I wanted to accent the floral and astringent/sharpness part of a good apricot, not the mushy sweetness. As for moving it to the cooking section, that would be fine, but I put it here on purpose, I think of jams and preserves more as a pastry art then a cooking art...I guess because of the chemistry involved and the fact that it's a sweet. But by all means move it if it's supposed to be somewhere else. regards, trillium

We do indeed have fig trees here, the one in the backyard is huge and full of fruit, but I think the apricot tree is going to ripen before the fig. I'm trying to think of floral or herbal flavors that go with apricot. Thyme maybe? Or chillies, habaneros have a nice fruity flavor...hmmm. The rest of the sour cherries went into preserves I'll finish tonight, these I let steep with the cracked cherry pits to give them a nice bitter almond taste. I only made one jar of brandied cherries, and it was a pint at that. Should I be making more? I've never done that before. I did one in bourbon too, since I'm a manhattan drinker in the winter. regards, trillium

So here in the PNW it's full-on fruit time. I've become obsessed with preserving various fruits, which is kind of crazy considering the hot weather we've been having. I blame my obsession mostly on Christine Ferber's book Mes Confitures. It's given me all sorts of cool ideas for flavor combinations I might not have considered otherwise. I've made all sorts of stuff in the last few weeks but I think what I'm most looking forward to eating are the raspberry and rose, gooseberry and elderflower and black current jams. The sour cherries I brandiend and bourboned aren't far behind on the list. I'm contemplating the strawberry, red current, black pepper and fresh mint but the partner, who isn't a sweets eater, is starting to wonder who is actually going to eat all this stuff. What are some of your favorite flavor combinations for preserving summer? regards, trillium

*sigh* You won't, but that's because you're not a botanist. Anyway, when you make ais kacang with shaved ice, how finely shaved is the ice. is it powdery fine, or is it rougher? do you wait until it's a little melted or do you just eat it right away? The ice is scraped with a razor blade type deal, the fineness depends on how much pressure the ice has on it and how fast the blade is turning. At big shops they have really big powered machines, but you can buy little cheapo ice shavers at most SE Asian grocery stores in the US. It comes with little containers to freeze your water into discs that fit into the shaver and you hand crank it. I love mine during summer, we buy the chendol kits from the Vietnamese grocery stores and eat it all summer long. regards, trillium

Am I the only one who thought this thread was started for suggestions on what cocktails to serve AC/DC fans? I happen to like my drinks frothy with shards of ice, so I shake almost everything. But after our discussion here a while back I tried stirring a few times to see if I was missing out. I found, like JAZ, that cracked ice works better then cubes for stirring. I also agree that crushed ice from a hand cranked thing works the best for tall drinks you serve over ice with fizz. You can still pick them up fairly cheaply from Goodwill and garage sales and they're much sturdier then the "retro" ones for sale at kitchen places. regards, trillium

Wouldn't that be great? If you find a Nonya auntie to give you classes please let me know, cuz I would want in on it too! My own personal cursed dish is carrot cake, I can never get it right no matter what recipe I try. I'd blame it on the carrots/turnips/whatever you want to call them that we can get here, but I think it's really just me! I've had a jeen dui type thing filled with sweet lotus paste, like what you put in mooncakes from a Vietnamese shop. regards, trillium

You might want to do some reading before you totally strike coconut fats from your diet. "Is Coconut Oil Bad for you? Hardly." is a fun place to start (I heart Kasma, one of my favorite food writers). There is a similiar story for palm oil (not palm kernal oil). It's been widely used in Europe as a healthier alternative to things with a lot of trans fatty acids (like Crisco). I'm not saying they're health foods, but part of their bad reputation most certainly comes from the non-hydrogenated soybean oil lobby that had people swilling down margarine and vegetable shortenings like they were good for them. I notice the American Heart Association is still sitting on the fence on this one. regards, trillium

I would say that sambal belacan is Malaysian, but it's quite difficult to draw a hard line between Malaysia and Indonesia, given the amount of shared history and movement of people and goods throughout the region. But that's ultimately my point: Malaysia and Malaysian cuisine are a product of the meeting of diverse influences. Malaysian cuisine is an example of a spectacularly successful fusion of cuisines. And that's why Roti Canai, Hainanese Chicken Rice, and Kangkung Belacan are all Malaysian. I know a Singaporean who would argue with you over that claim... or is Singapore just getting lumped into Malaysia (hee hee)? Which of those dishes are not Malaysian, as far as a Singaporean is concerned? And since you brought it up, are there any Singaporean dishes which are uniquely Singaporean and not served in Johor? Singaporean char kuay teow is Singaporean. I don't think they serve it sweet in Johor. Is chwee kueh Singaporean as well? Hey, we may have found one! Char kway teow...now I'm hungry. A funny story about Malay vs. S'pore food. I have Mrs. Leong's Best of Singapore Cooking and really love it. When the partner went back home I asked him to pick up her Best of Malaysia Cooking because I wanted that one too. When he got back and I flipped throught the pages it was the identical cookbook, just with a different cover. Very funny. regards, trillium

Mrs. Leong's book has a recipe for onde-onde, I've never made it, but she's never steered me wrong before. Do you have that book? It's a great one. If you don't, I'll try to remember to bring it in and type out the recipe. regards, trillium