Darienne

Flour tortillas very available. Thanks.

How exactly do you eat these things? Does everything fall off the tostado as it breaks apart? Does it stay crunchy through the eating?

Thanks for all the ideas. Some might work for me. Some won't work (DH). Some I know about. Some I didn't. I have been following the Mexican threads lately and giving it much thought, while drowning in an overload situation. It'll come clear as I apply myself no doubt. Thanks for the information.

I'm pretty sure I can buy masa and thanks for the information.

Yes but, yes but...do they have to stay crunchy and hard? I don't like that concept. Can you soften them and then use them? Like lasagna noodles? Etc? Well, I suppose you CAN, but do folks?

Hmmm....I could ask. Also I know that things are available in and around Toronto, Hamilton, et al, but not around Peterborough. On the other hand, we don't have traffic jams...

Living in the great frozen north as we do, we are confronted with a distinct lack of ingredients for making Mexican food. No fresh peppers except Jalapenos, no tomatillos, no Mexican cheeses except for Jack, and only flour tortillas. However, we have plastic wrapped stacks of corn tostados. Hard crunchy corn discs, 6" across. Please, some ideas of what one does with them.

Good points Marmish. I would add as a proviso to beginners to make sure that the mixture is not frozen to the sides of the cannister while this extra churning is taking place. I don't know about the overrun time frame. I'll google it and see what I can find. I have seldom found the churning takes as long as the manual calls for...but then I always put my base into the freezer for a while before churning it. We live in a century farmhouse with no A/C in the kitchen, in the great frozen north's version of summer: hot and extremely humid. I think the humidity does us in.

Is this the recipe? Sounds like it. http://www.cuisinart.com/recipes/desserts/96.html Darienne, I think your first impression is correct. The recipe doesn't clearly tell you to chill the mixture in the fridge, and it should. A line is missing from the body of the instructions. The Preparation notes at the beginning of the recipe are only a synopsis. It's not supposed to substitute for the instructions. Notice how the Preparation notes are missing from the online version. Unless, of course, Cuisinart thinks that a mixture of strawberries at room temp, plus milk, sugar, and cream that have been warmed by beating with a mixer can still be frozen in this maker. I've never encountered a freezer container type maker that could do that--not without thoroughly chilling the ice cream base first. I would expect results like the OP's with this recipe. Can you believe it? The online version is even worse than the printed manual's version. As I said...I never bothered with any recipes at all after making ice cream once. My first 'real' recipe was Alton Brown's Seriously Vanilla Ice Cream which is online...and I never looked back.

After reading djyee100's post, I started to feel a tad uneasy about my remarks and went back again to re-read the recipe. OK. To be fair the 'Preparation' lines at the top of the recipe call for :"5 - 10 minutes, plus 2 hours for the strawberries to macerate. 20-25 minutes chilling time; optional 2 hours to ripen." I didn't notice that the first time around because I went straight to the direction section, which does not mention the chilling time at all and might well be confused with the prescribed 20-25 minutes in the machine. At best...just not well done at all on the part of the Cuisinart folks, particularly considering that inexperienced ice cream makers are very likely to be the purchasers of this unit. I know I was. I knew nothing about making ice cream. Made one recipe from the book and then switched to pestering eGullet folks for help and recipes. It worked!

I've looked up the recipe in my little manual and it's rather poorly written. It says nothing about chilling the mixture before pouring it into the Cuisinart bowl. That by itself would explain the problem. I always make certain the container is frozen solid. I also often put the ice cream base in the freezer for 1/2 hour or even an hour in the summer. And I have also tied onto the outside of the Cuisinart housing two of those athletic injury ice bags to make sure the entire thing stays cold enough during the machine process. Better to ask some of the eGullet experienced ice cream makers for recipes instead of using the Cuisinart ones. However, as noted, even abysmal failures taste delicious! Good luck!

OK. Looked up lambic and found that one. But I can't figure out TPS. I know it's not Toyata Production System or the Toronto Police Service... Thanks.

You can make invert sugar very easily. Here's Chef Eddy's recipe to make it.

Picadillo as dip sounds great. I would just have to make sure that the pieces of fruit were cut smaller. I am not a 'small' cutter by nature...just as Ed is not a 'large' cutter by nature. You can always tell who made the food in our house. I think it's a splendid idea. Just have to find a source of stout tortilla chips...or make them myself. Perhaps it is time.

One of my favorite things to do with extra eggplant is to make up Eggplant Cutlets and then freeze them for later use in a number of dishes. The recipe is on eG from Rachel Perlow as part of her recipe for Moussaka. Right now I am making pickled eggplant with my extra eggplants from a recipe that I downloaded from who knows where. Made them before and they were delicious.

YES!!

Sorry Cathy. No poblanos in the great frozen north. I wish we could. What would you use instead? About the closest I can come...and miles from home to buy one...assuming they even have one...is a Cubanelle. Rats.

Oddly enough, we ate Picadillo for lunch today with rice and pinto beans, salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips. The Picadillo was thawed from June's making. Yes, we are doing renovations. I've been making Picadillo for a couple of decades now from the recipes in Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, the only 'real' Mexican cookbook I owned from when I cooked under some duress. Ortiz gives two recipes: Picadillo and Picadillo de la costa with no hints about serving. Besides, I have no idea where we would get 'sturdy' tortilla chips in this neck of the great frozen north woods, short of making them. Yes, some day... Over the years I tweaked the recipe to suit us and call it Picadillo de la cabana (can't do a tilde on my machine) which means to us Picadillo in the manner of Cavan (which is where we live. I know, silly, but then I didn't get this old by not being silly sometimes). Basically it just sticks together all the ingredients from both Picadillos, plus whatever else I have on hand and want to use, and uses shredded beef. I do this with North American and European recipes...I do it with Mexican too.

Sorry, Chris, I'm not in for the doing, but I sure am in for the reading of your wonderful achievements. I don't have the book, and I don't have the time, energy, expertise, available consumers, ingredients, etc, etc.

A Head's-Up for the Young at Heart: Tuesday, July 20th, is National Lollipop Day (right in the middle of National Ice Cream month). What are you doing to celebrate?

Question: did you use the recipe in Chocolates & Confections in Greweling's at Home book or from the original larger Chocolates and Confections ? How did you find it worked out? Any problems at all?

Very nice, Tarko!

Just found this article on making home made ice cream softer by David Lebovitz. DudeI'mHungry might find this useful.

I'll try the cacao nibs next time. Sounds good. To keep the ice cream from hardening too much you can add some alcohol of your choice or substitute a dollop of corn syrup for some of the sugar .

I tend to scribble in the page margins, especially things which I have done wrong or left out. As in "DON'T FORGET THE VANILLA"!