Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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Any ideas? We have a glut this year, done the pies, tarts, crumbles, charlottes etc. Am trying to come up with a different, slightly, take on the Bramley apple. Nothing too avant guard - this is Scotland!!
Had thought of a toffee apple crumble topped pie but too boring. Needs to be able to be reheated or easy assemble. Sort of thinking along sticky gingerbread lines with apple in the mix and a sharp apple/cream mix over the top. Weather is turning here so fireside puds are the order of the day.
All ideas very gratefully received.
Had to Wiki Bramley just to find out what they are. They sound a bit like our Northern Spies, not a very common apple anymore, but great for pies.
The Wiki article suggests cider. That would certainly use up a lot of them.
(I'm in east central Ontario...we're not too exciting either
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I've experimented pretty extensively with savory-style frozen items. Some successful, some shameful. It's something I'll continue to work on whether it remains "cool" or not because I enjoy it. As far as recipes go, there are several that are good starting points in Migoya's Frozen Desserts. I visit his blog frequently and bother him with questions all of the time so I'll ask if he minds if I share a recipe or three from the book just to get you started. Maybe it will spark some more interest in the book for him as well. I've already done many of the recipes from the book and none have disappointed.
There's a fun (and tasty) savory recipe here. The agave can be replaced with honey or dark corn syrup (or glucose or light corn syrup for that matter) if necessary without harming the result.
Thanks for the help. Potato ice cream...fair to boggles the mind.
Do you have some kind of reading list for the history of various foods? I have read the history of chocolate by the Coes, and some histories of coffee and sugar...as much as I could bear...their histories are so grim, but do you have some titles of interest?
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This looks like a good site for vegan ice cream: http://veganicecream.blogspot.com/
I made her Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream and it was divine.
Carrot cake ice cream? Sounds interesting. Thanks for the link.
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I decided that if folks also admitted to having messy plastic-bag filled cupboards, then I could have the courage to post a photo of my little spice cabinet which Ed built for me between two studs on a little side kitchen wall. I have other spices and stuff in my larger cabinets.
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I can easily spend that much on pepper.
Check Pepper-Passion.com for some unique peppermills as well as some extremely interesting varieties of pepper.
I recently ordered some Talamanca Del Caribe and it is everything they describe and more.
Quoting from Andie's website given:
f. Talamanca Del Caribe: is a variety we discovered that is largely unknown to the average chef. This is a pepper grown in small quantities in Ecuador and certified as organic. It has a robust flavor and pungent aroma that will likely surpass anything you have experienced before. Tasting Talamanca can be a life-changing event. This is the boldest flavored black pepper we know of.Andie. I am not sure I am up to such a pepper. I have always been a pepper love, albeit a very unsophisticated one. I found that making and eating DL's Orange-Szechwan Pepper ice cream to be pretty significant in my pepper life. I didn't really know anything about the range of peppers available. Talamanca sounds incredible. Thanks for telling me about it.
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Hi chappie,
The recipe is in David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. so of course I cannot put it online. If you don't have the book, you could always get it from your local library or even order it on Inter-Library Loan.
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ohhh, i have this book. i made the blueberry ice cream and it was wonderful! most of the recipes are coconut milk and soymilk based which i like since it has less fat. i am planning on trying some more soon.
Please do report on the recipes as you make them.
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I've had trouble with eggs as a separate item to eat since an unfortunate childhood incident.
But then I made my own scrambled eggs and loved them. And my own Egg Foo Yong and really loved it. And I can eat my DH's easy over fried eggs...most of the time.
Perhaps it's time to try a fried egg sandwich.
I'll still never even try a soft or hard boiled egg.
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I am dipping into two food history books right now. One is A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century. Interesting life if you were the mistress of the manor...not so good for the servants.
One thing which has always intrigued me is the fact that a number of confections seem to have been the result of accidents.
However, about savory ice creams. I have yet to try one and am working up to it. Barring 180 year-old recipes, can you recommend one?
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Darienne, what's DH stand for -- Designated Hitter? Dumber Half? Dearest Hubby?
Fooey, that pepper mill is beautiful. Where did you get it and what's it made of?
Hi Peter,
I am not particularly up on computer lingo, but on chat lists DH is generally Dear Husband.
(I googled it just for fun and did come up with some interesting and politically incorrect terms
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One of our church members passed away and I offered to bake cookies and brownies for the funeral... we're expecting about 150 people and that's a LOT of people to bake for! Various friends are bringing sandwiches etc. I'm going to make sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, my deluxe chocolate brownies... and I need a few more cookies or slices. Any ideas? And how many cookies do you think I need to bake for 150 people?
My current favorite is Viennese Crescents. Very short. I make them with ground pecans instead of ground almonds. Easy to make, yummy to snitch cookie dough. People LOVE them! My recipe comes from an old Fanny Farmer cookbook but I expect you could find the recipe anywhere pretty much.
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Shalmanese's excellent topic on what we are the most and least excessive about, I kept thinking about obsessive...what am I the most and least obsessive about and decided that this topic might go in 'consumer' better.
I share the cooking with my DH, but I am still obsessive about MY Paderno pots and pans. No one uses them
but me and they don't go into the dishwasher either. When we had company last week and they had to help with the cooking, I simply took all MY pots and pans and hid them away. I also hate it when Ed adds something to my sauces or interferes in anything I am making unless I ask his opinion. But then I am a home cook and professionals would never do that anyway...would they?
I am very casual about cooking neatly and make the most gawdawful mess as I go. I am very neat about the rest of my life, but can't seem to cook without mucking up everything. My DH is appalled by my cooking habits.
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These are my essential spices and herbs. This was an impossible list to edit! There are so many flavors to savor!
In addition to the requisite course sea salt and black/green/pink pepper corns, mixed blend...
Fresh in season, then dried whole leaves for use in winter:
1. Thyme
2. Oregano
3. Basil
4. Rosemary
5. Tarragon
6. Sage
Plus...
7. Fresh cilantro in season
8. Fennel seeds
9. Cumin seeds and powder
10. Smoked Paprika
11. Cinnamon
12. Red Pepper Flakes
Honorable mention...
13. Szechuan Peppercorns
I also use a lot of lemon and other citrus juice and zests and vinegars to brighten flavors.
I forgot Szechwan peppercorns on my list. You can't make Orange-Szechwan Pepper ice cream without 'em.
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No one favorite....
These are all in the cabinet above the stove--not the coolest spot in the kitchen, but in my house without a/c, there is no cool dry place besides the refrigerator, grouped by how I use them and how many fit into each basket:
top left basket is larger volume spices, e.g., ground cinnamon, black peppercorns, bay leaves
next are the smaller volume powdered mostly sweet spices e.g., ginger, cardamom, coriander, cloves
middle right dried herbs, eg, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory
top right extracts & food colors
Bottom left savory seeds etc--cumin, celery, mustard, fenugreek
middle left sweet whole spices--cardamom, mace, nutmegs, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cubebs
middle right ground chilies and a few other bulky things
far right misc savory things like asafoetida, long peppers, szechuan pepper
Very nice. If my cupboard weren't such a mess I would post of photo of it. The one my DH inserted in between the wall studs.
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It's not that the typical US supermarket garlic isn't sufficiently fresh, but that it isn't particularly flavorful, like a lot of typical US supermarket produce. It's as if the scientists who have figured out how to cultivate the cosmetically perfect, absolutely flavorless Red Delicious apple have gone to work on garlic and produced something with a similar flavor profile.
Now that is an excellent point!
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The dog people and their dogs are gone.
Report on ice creams: favorite: DL's Orange Szechwan Ice Cream...gone, gone, gone
2nd: tie between the chocolate (cornstarch base) and the vanilla (Philadelphia type).
Last was the raspberry made with coconut cream. Was too much like a sherbet.
Best sauce: DL's 'The Best Chocolate Sauce Recipe' from 2005. Also made DL's butterscotch sauce and my own raspberry sauce which is heavily Chambord (what's not to like?)
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I don't know anything about making ice cream, but had a small portion of Full Tilt's (Seattle) vanilla vegan. Made with coconut milk. Tasted like coconut cream to me - off texture - smooth but sticky? Think I'll stick with their ice cream (local blackberry cinnamon (not local) this time.)
Hi tsquare,
I've really only tasted my raspberry-coconut gelato so I can't give you a full report. However, the doggy crowd starts to descend upon us today for the weekend...weekend?...and I'll get back about this ice cream after the weekend.
Post weekend: The raspberry ice cream was the least popular of the offering. The consensus was that you could taste the coconut milk in it and that it made a nice sherbet type dessert, but definitely NOT ice cream. So, tsquare, you were correct!
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I agree with the concensus that behind the stovetop may not be the best place for the spices... I also keep my spices in the magnetic canisters - but I bought a 24 x 36" white board from staples and hung it on a wall in the corner... that way, I put just about all of my spices in there and i don't have to make choices! One thing I find about the canisters is that they tend to get a little sticky and hard to open sometimes...
If you own your abode and you or your DH is handy, you can make an excellent spice cupboard right in your wall. Open up the wall between two sets of studs and you have a space which is perfect for spices and other little thingies. A small door hides it all from view. Perfect.
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You have to love those second hand stores. Took a visiting friend into Value Village to show her the tan slacks available for her daughter and just took a quick peek at the cookbooks. Someone was getting rid of some goodies.
Mark Bittman. How to Cook Everything.
Christian Teubner. The Chocolate Bible.
Practical Cookery. Chocolate. (lots of yummy photos and I'm also impressed by books with the English 'cookery' in them. The colonial in me, no doubt)
Roz Denny. Rice & Risotto. (don't know how 'good' it is, but it certainly is timely)
Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen. Step-by-Step Irresistible Chocolate. (Wow! $.22 on Amazon.com. My friend wanted it and then left it here by accident. It was free. Buy 4, get one free.)
That's 5 more for me.
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I can't live without Thyme and Cardamom.
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But you can heat up a tart on a skillet or griddle right before serving; it warms the tart, adds more browning to the bottom, and brings back any crispness it might have lost from sitting around. No mess. No more of that mushy pastry on the bottom that most people take for granted.
Brilliant! Never thought of that.
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It may be heresy to some but my mom freezes her peeled cloves of garlic. This is garlic that will eventually go into baked or cooked dishes so it doesn't matter that the freezing will make them a little mushy when thawed.
But that does pose a question for those who purchase the mega jars of peeled garlic from Costco-type stores...how long do they last in the refrigerator? Are they treated with something to allow them to keep or are you running against the clock and an expiration date once you open the jar?
I haven't done a double-blind test on the subject, but a friend once gave me two ginormous bottles of garlic from Costco. I think it was two years before the second one was completely used up...what with roasted garlic and fresh garlic and such...and I kept wondering about the food poisoning issue. Maybe we were just lucky.
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Perhaps not to have as the 'only' cake cookbook, but a very useful cake cookbook, is One Cake, One Hundred Desserts by Greg Case and Keri Fisher.
It does exactly what it says it does: takes one basic cake recipe, with very detailed and very easy to follow directions, and turns it into 100 different cakes, pudding, bombes, etc. The "Double Chocolate Mousse Bombe" is a family special occasion favorite. I have worked 5 different chocolates into it now.
I love RLB's Cake Bible
, but agree with your reservations for a first time baker. Oh, but how wonderful to have such interesting and useful explanations of why and how. -
Darienne
They will gladly put you on the mailing list. Go to leevalley.com. Great company and great service. When Leonard Lee got the Order of Canada I sent him a congratulatory email. I said the only way I could feed my wife was to leave my wallet in the car when I went into his store. He replied thanking me for paying for the rent on his tuxedo.
Cheers
Malcolm
Gotcha. Thanks. All I have to do now is to make sure that my chum pays for my stuff on my account instead of hers.
Summer salads for a horde
in Cooking
Posted
I was standing in the kitchen just now, staring at a container of grape tomatoes purchased for a tabouli salad which never got made over the mad, mad weekend.
Suddenly out of the blue came the memory of a salad which I used to love and had forgotten all about: Chick pea and tomato salad. Now it's for supper tonight. It used to be a favorite for a group gathering.
Canned chickpeas, halved grape tomatoes, green onions, sliced black olives, with a lemon & olive oil dressing, lots of mint and parsley and then some chili powder liberally sprinkled over everything. Yum.