Jump to content

Darienne

participating member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,218

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Darienne

    Cardamom

    in Pastry & Baking

    Posted

    I've made cardamom ice cream and got a subtle but definite flavor by steeping 8-10 pods in 2 cups of hot cream for 15 minutes or so.

    I know it's going back a bit, but I would like to know what ice cream recipe you used, please. :smile:

    also from Kerry Beal

    How about using some cardamon essential oil?

    Where would one get cardamom essential oil, please. Thanks. :smile:

    I am on a cardamom kick, so to speak. :wub:

    Bamboo steamers

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Very little sticks to the bamboo. I generally just rinse mine off with water and allow to dry. The steam kills most everything anyway. I use mine for veggies and, occasionally, steamed buns made with a lean yeast dough. But, the buns go onto parchment squares before being placed inside. Anything sticky or saucy is in a separate bowl inside the steamer, and that bowl gets washed as usual in the dishwasher.

    I like the steamer because it's easy to handle and cool to the touch, except for the metal stitches on the side.

    That's a good point, about the steam killing most everything. I think we'll still go for the stainless variety. DH will simply be happier... :cool:

    I did make a sponge cake while away in my bamboo steamer, my first steamed cake, and I was so pleased. Should never have given it to my friend, thinking I still had one at home. :raz:

    Thanks everyone for all the good advice.

    • Like 1

    Philadelphia Style Ice Cream

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Made cardamom ice cream last night, Philadelphia base, no eggs. Very nice. :smile: Could have used more cardamom. I gather from a fairly recent thread on using cardamom that it's not the most straightforward of spices to use, but I love it.

    Next time I am going to make it as Kulfi, the frozen Indian ice cream. The main difference is that one starts with a larger quantity of milk and cooks it down, as is done in so many milk-based Indian desserts. Also Kulfi is often not churned but simply poured into molds and frozen, rather like a Popsicle on a stick.

    This time I was simply not ready to do the whole procedure and so took a great shortcut and used the simplest recipe I could find.

    Bamboo steamers

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    I love the bamboo ones something fierce.

    No idea on cleaning it. I don't think I ever have, and yet, I live! :unsure::laugh:

    We too live despite my less than fanatical habits.

    Thanks. I'll get a stainless one and end the discussion with the DH. :wink:

    Eggplant Marinated in Oil

    in Cooking

    Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)

    I think the rice vinegar is an excellent idea...not as harsh as regular or wine vinegar generally is. I am not a vinegar aficionado. Prefer lemon juice for acidic needs. DH loves vinegar.

    Will get the book through Inter-library loan ASAP.

    Bamboo steamers

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    Laughed out loud :laugh: when I discovered the topic of bamboo steamers was actually started by me.

    I want to buy a bamboo steamer. DH does not want a bamboo steamer. Says they can't be cleaned properly. Wants me to buy a stainless one instead. He is more germ conscious than I am.

    What's the consensus on cleaning bamboo steamers?

    Eggplant Marinated in Oil

    in Cooking

    Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)

    Thanks to Heidi and Green Mountain for their replies.

    I nibbled another piece of the eggplant and realized that what was bothering me was not the vinegar, but the oregano. For some reason, it is not my favorite herb and using dried herbs is always a problem. I think I'll drain the oil out, save it for salads...DH loves oregano...and it can be easily modified to mask the oregano for me...and restart the eggplant process in the middle.

    Thanks. :smile:

    Forgot to ask: do you sterilize the container? I am a total novice at all of this and I sterilized the glass jar which turned out to be twice as large as needed. I'd like to love it all to a smaller glass jar. Can I? Can I put this into plastic even?

    Eggplant Marinated in Oil

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Having become enamored of a commercial salad addition, eggplant marinated in oil, I decided to make my own: less costly, better taste, better ingredients, learning experience, possible hostess type gift, etc.

    Found a recipe online which uses raw eggplant as its base. OK. Started to make it and in my usual inability to read a recipe through ahead of time properly, suddenly discovered that at one point I was supposed to add 1 tsp of vinegar to over 3 pounds of eggplant. One teaspoon to 3 pounds? Does this make sense.

    Quickly, quickly, back online and found 10 more recipes for the same dish. ALL THE SAME with the 1 tsp vinegar thingy.

    Just now I looked in Claudia Roden...where was my brain?...and found a different recipe which calls for poaching the eggplant in lots of vinegar for 5 minutes. Then drain the vinegar and add the oil. Sounds good.

    Does anyone have a recipe for this dish?

    Growing exotic ingredients at home

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    We are lucky enough to have a conservatory, so the ginger, turmeric, etc. are all in there. I would love to hear more about you calamansi. Did you get seeds from a fruit you ate, or did you buy seeds or young plants from a gardening store. Our tamarind tree was grown from seeds we got from fresh fruits, and the pineapples were grown by cutting the tops off supermarket pineapples and putting them in some soil! We also had an avocado plant grown from a stone in an avocado. We found that supermarket ones don't seem to work, but we buy lots of avocados from a Caribbean grocer near us, and they seem to work fine.

    I would love to have a conservatory. How lovely!

    My little seedlings come from my friend's 2 Calamansi trees, indoor in the winter, which have now borne a few crops. Marmalade. Yummm... :wub: Many of the harvested oranges had little seeds inside them which were already beginning to sprout, so she used them to plant. This was in May and the seedlings are now 5" at the tallest leaf.

    Surprise! What is actually in my food?

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    Very interesting job. Tell me, do you have more than the usual number of taste buds (?) on your tongue for this kind of job. I seem to recall Chloe Doutre-Roussel saying that she had more of whatever it is that does the tasting than the normal person.

    I wonder if my DH and I have the same number of tasters on our tongues. He likes more salt and more spice on things that I do. I like to taste what the vegetable or whatever tastes like. But then years of smoking changes something in the taste buds...or does it?

    Growing exotic ingredients at home

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    What on earth did we do before Google? Tulsi was a new one for me. Very interesting.

    My ginger is indoors. Are all your plants either indoors or out? Or both? How wonderful to pick your own fruits. :wub:

    I have started a few Calamansi/Kalamondin/etc plants but I suspect that I shall be a very old lady before they can bear any fruit.

    This fall I am going to plant my first indoor herb garden. You are never too old... :rolleyes:

    Growing Ginger for Fun & Profit

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)

    To round out the last section:

    Received a post from the Ginger Lady who informed me that she usually cuts the stems at 18" so that most of the plant's energy goes into the rhizomes. Of course. Thanks Ginger Lady (aka Andie)

    After the haircut.

    Tasted both the stems and the leaves. No hint of gingeriness at all.

    Surprise! What is actually in my food?

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)

    Corn.

    According to an article we read recently in one of the 'organic, green' periodicals...sorry, the name is gone...what's mostly in our food is corn. According to the author, we eat more corn than the Mexican peoples who actually "eat" corn.

    There is corn in some fashion in and on pretty much everything we eat. They can now trace the amount of corn we eat through our blood. Corn has a very special chemical composition...one extra whatever...I think some kind of carbon molecule...and it stays in the blood in some fashion.

    Sorry, the above is so lacking in precision, but the mind tends not to hold as much information as it used to. My days of the steel trap mind are long gone. The gist remained. :rolleyes:

    The Chocolate Doctor

    in Member News

    Posted

    I can echo enthusiastically what RobertM says. I joined this forum just over a year ago and have asked a lot of questions in my quest to learn how to cook and make confections. During this time, many folks have answered my questions and given generously of their time, but none to equal Kerry Beal.

    Thank you, Chocolate Doctor. :wub:

    Meatloaf

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Yummmm...meatloaf. I have been thinking about meatloaf lately. Or even little meatballs (Albondiguitas) for Albondigas soup.

    The original recipe calls for pork, veal and lamb, but I can't recall the last time I saw veal for sale locally and lamb is too costly for our budget, and therefore it's beef and pork with the usual bread, milk, egg, onion, spices and chipotle peppers. :wub:

    "The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz on ice cream

    in Pastry & Baking

    Posted

    Only problem was that my 1 1/2 quart Cuisinart ice cream processor was not happy about the stracciatella. The chocolate became one giant lump and nearly stopped the machine.

    Mine is also a 1 1/2 quart Cuisinart ice cream processor and it was not at all put out by the chocolate. We should both try it again. Maybe I was just lucky :smile: ...and maybe you were not. :sad:

    I have to learn to stop getting covered in chocolate when I work with it.

    Philadelphia Style Ice Cream

    in Cooking

    Posted · Edited by Darienne (log)

    Using a tweaking of a chocolate gelato ice cream...don't have the names at hand...I made the MOST INCREDIBLE chocolate ice cream. It has a cornstarch base.

    Some one on eG tried the recipe and then added her own touch a couple of years ago and then I added the Paulraphael hints and the results were stupendous. The most chocolatey ice cream I have ever tasted and soft enough also. If anyone wants this recipe, I'll pm it to him/her and meanwhile I'll look for the proper attribution.

    Found my post on another thread concerning constarch based ice creams & gelatos:

    ...now today I made a recipe on Epicurious for Chocolate Gelato. And just my luck, while searching to ascertain whether there was a past thread on cornstarch in ice cream, I found the Fat Guy's thread on Gelato vs Ice Cream. A post by Krazed Mom said she had made the Epicurious chocolate gelato and tweaked it with added cocoa and vanilla. And so I did. With wonderful results.

    Problems working with ginger desserts

    in Pastry & Baking

    Posted

    One thing I do know. Not all ginger is created equal. I have actually thrown a batch of ginger in the trash because it tasted so awful after candying...and it's not as if you can really get much of a sense of how it tastes by biting directly into it when it's raw.

    I would imagine that you could get a batch of more or less pungent ginger. :hmmm:

×
×
  • Create New...