Darienne

I have been making nut brittles lately using piloncillo /panela / palm sugar and having a good time. PanaCan gave me a lovely recipe from Ecuador which calls for 1 cup shredded ginger to 4 cups of sugar. I loved it. Dawn, who is helping with the renovations, thought it needed more ginger. Ed, the DH, said...way too much ginger. OK. So I thought...what about orange flavor? lemon or lime flavor? high contrast to sweet sugar flavors? Found some fairly anemic recipes online and thought I would turn to eG for advice. Who has some lovely tasty answers for me, please?

Major problem here. Quickly. Package it all up and tie ribbons around the boxes!!! How do you manage not to eat any/all/some of your gorgeous production?

Very crafty, eGulleters are. Well done, lights19. I tried to read the boards but don't have good enough photo equipment (or eyes these days).

Busy afternoon. Everything I could lay my hands on got dipped in bittersweet chocolate: Indian brittle, Ecuadorian brittle and a bunch of peanut butter balls which had to be double-dipped. Left the ginger for another day...running out of dipping energy. Lovely. Lots of goodies to give away now. Some of the production:

Made the palanquetas a second time, but this time made them with an 'Indian' touch, using pistachios in the mix and ground cardamom. I adore cardamom in desserts. My Indian dentist loved them. Today I went a step further. PanaCan who lives in Ecuador and just finished her wonderful blog, sent me a recipe for an Ecuadorian candy made with panela called Dulce de Mani. As usual, making something for the first time, I screwed it up. Cooked it too long, thinking I was making a brittle...which I wasn't...and then after forming them into the called for balls, realized you could break your teeth almost chomping through the thickness of said balls. So put the balls into the microwave and flattened them all into patties which is fine for brittle. I think what I'll do in future is use a brittle recipe, with the Ecuadorian additions: roasted peanuts, lime juice and lots of finely shredded ginger. The ginger is amazing! Thanks PanaCan.

I would think that having young children would make this sort of eating life very difficult. However, kids who love broccoli. They are keepers for sure. Broccoli is one of my favorites. We have a favorite broccoli and cauliflower salad which uses the florets. Then I use the stalks to make soup. Yumm. Fifteen pounds off is a goodly amount. Good for you.

Ditto for me. I've only seen the holder types.

Congrats on the warrior wound! How was the Cochinita versus your prior attempts? I have to admit I liked mine better. Mine was the Robert Rodriguez recipe. I don't know where hers came from. (Not suggesting that his is authentic or that he is a chef or anything.) Mine was nippier. And lime. She used vinegar. Mine had more ingredients and was slow cooked. Hers was not. But then I always tend to like my own food better. What the hey! I like what I like. Thanks for the information about the flour tortillas.

This is a very old lady talking: buy one of those "guillotine bagel cutters available, but I just can't bring myself to use one" things.

Thought I must have misspelled the word and then looked both up and found not only is it rapadura and raspadur, but also 'raspada' and'rasgadura'. And, no doubt, a dozen other things. Thanks, PanaCan.

As for low carb baked goods...fuggadaboutit. (don't know how to spell that one.) As for when the relatives visit...it simply doesn't count. Eat whatever you need to eat to make the visit flow nicely...and then go back to your diet as soon as they leave. Oh, that's my mantra. lol.

Found the Chocolate Molasses Chews and they seem just the thing to make this weekend when a young friend comes to visit. (Not THAT young...in her 40s) The fact that they keep for a month is a telling point. Also just recalled that the jaggery/panela sugar is called Rapadura in Brazil and the peanut brittle is Pé-de-moleque. Fascinating.

Note for Canadians in Ontario at least. Piloncillo is now being carried in FreshCo (was Price Chopper and several things before that). Keep in mind that there are both Mexican and separate Latin American sections.

Made another batch of Palanquetas (Mexico)/ Chikki (Indian) / Nut brittle yesterday, only this time in the more Indian style with cardamom and pistachios added to the mixture of nuts and seeds. What puts this brittle apart from the regular North American variety is the sugar; jaggery (Indian) or piloncillo or panela (Mexican). (But then most of you probably already knew that: it's new to me.) Incredible and wicked. And best of all, Monday I found Panela in my very own area, Peterpatch. First time ever. We have a 'new' chain in town, FreshCo and they are suddenly carrying more stuff than I have ever seen in this small provincial city. No more hoarding of Panela from far-away places!!!

I think part of the answer is to do whatever will work for you. And if it's unconventional...well, go for it. The accepted ways of eating are just the ones which are accepted today. Who knows about tomorrow? I remember years ago seeing a nutritionist who could not work organic peanut butter or nuts into a diet plan...this was not for weight, but for sugar intolerance. Gave up on "nutritionists" that day. Oh, and we were at the time long time vegetarians and she didn't approve of that either. As for cabbage being yummy as a substitute for pasta. Well. No. It's acceptable. Different but OK. Chinese foods are a good way in this family. (I don't really know Thai at all, I'm sorry to say.) Speaking of Hot and Sour Soup...I made a humongous batch of it yesterday...it sort of 'grew' as I went along. Delicious. And now I have 11 2-portion containers of it in the freezer. It's a perfect supper for us. And if I eat more than I need...well what does it matter? I'll start the hot water routine today. To me, almost all herbal teas taste like hot water anyway, so why bother? I'll just add lemon or lime juice to the glass and all will be well. I agree with Mjx...low carb substitutions are depressing, but there are so many delicious low-carb dishes out there in which you are not subbing anything. There is nothing worse than low-carb bread. Now that to me is an abomination. Many years ago I did make a sprouted grain bread which I think was called Essene bread. Can't even remember why. Think I'll Google it.

Following this thread with interest... One trick a friend showed me was using cabbage: shredded for spaghetti and in leaves for lasagna. Believe it or not, it worked quite well. Good luck with your diet, Dejah. I'll look up your link. ps. Thanks for the tip about drinking hot water. I hate drinking cold water, but hot or warm water I could manage! Never thought of that.

Perhaps you could try flour tortillas. They are authentic in the areas of Mexico where they grow flour, mainly in the state of Sonora. Then you could get on to the main dishes, etc.

I'm with ElaineK on the yogurt switch. It's still full fat, but it's not sour cream. And I'm with her on the 'it depends' angle too. Somethings I pare down...others I do without until I feel I can afford the break. And still others I simply take a tiny portion. And still others I just ban from the house. We have one tradition in our family which I love. One night ever couple of weeks, we have Dessert as Dinner night. Rather than dessert being an add-on, after you are already sated; dessert is dinner. Of course I am not talking about chocolate cake, but rather a dessert which takes in eggs, dairy, fruit, nuts, and grains. But a real dessert...not a pared down one. Well, except for subbing yogurt for whipped cream sometimes.

I have no idea at this point. It's up to the teaching chef I guess. I wrote to her that I had some panela...you can't get it here...but in her reply she didn't mention that. What is your favorite kind? Or favorites? And do you make it usually? Any tips to give me???? Yesterday I made the Mexican equivalent of chikki using a very dark panela (the same pretty much as jaggery) called palanquetas. I added pepitas, almonds, pine nuts and sesame seeds. Delicious. Monday I am going to take some to my dentist who is from India and longs for homemade goodies. (I have this awful suspicion that the chef's chikki is going to call for white sugar. She sort of hemmed and hawed when I asked her today in person.) Using jaggery (or in your case panela) gives a flavour profile that cannot be had by using white sugar. Chikkis are simply awesome. Sometimes in India you can get good rose petal and pistachio chikkis which are also very good. -- Sent from my HP TouchPad using Communities Pistachios. Will get some today. Thanks. And I think I have some rosewater. Would you use both at once? Thanks.

We made both.

Welcome, Lior, to this great topic and forum. There are so many excellent mentors here and you'll find what you need from at least one of them. Can you get chile peppers in Israel? Other Mexican type ingredients? I can't get much of anything where I live, but then Toronto has everything we need. All we have to do is grit our teeth and go to Toronto.

Don't leave us PanaCan. This is way too much fun to read and dream about. If only...if only...I would love to visit you in Ecuador. If there are places I like, they are high upland deserts with mountains. And you have it in spades. And all that wonderful food! The stuff you make and the stuff you can buy!!! Oh my. Never heard of Horchata tea so I will have to look it up on the other thread. Yesterday I made my first Horchata. I had had it only once before in a small Mexican restaurant in Utah and thought it was dreadful. This stuff, under the watchful eye of a Jalisco chef, was wonderful!!! But tea??? ps. Looked at your tea recipe. Not in east central Ontario you don't. Mind-numbing.

Good stuff that. I have all the ingredients set to go for a huge batch too but lack the tofu which we'll pick up in the city tomorrow. Your soup is much paler than our recipe. I'd be interested in your recipe. Manitoba. Hmmm....No snow here in our corner of Ontario. Please. Please. Please.

This wasn't quite at home, but it was at a friend's house. A local Mexican restaurant owner came and gave a hands-on class in making a variety of the less complicated Mexican dishes. She is from Guadalajara originally but now cooks for small town Canadians. (just to give it all some perspective) It was a wonderful day for me. Made my first corn tortillas. Managed to burn my finger also. A warrior's wound. We made the following: * Tilapia ceviche with tostadas * Ensalada de nopal * Cochinita pibil * Hand-made Corn tortillas/tostadas * Sopes/Chalupas * Flan de caramelo * Horchata I made some palanquetas to bring for a little gift and they were well and enthusiastically received. Also brought home some 'doggy' containers for DH's supper.

Made my very first corn tortillas today at my Mexican cooking class. Also made sopas and tostadas. Also burnt my finger on the comal. Great fun.