Darienne

Had to add a note: Candyfreak is a poorly chosen title for this book and I would encourage anyone who is interested in the history of the small family-owned candy businesses in the USA going back a few decades to read it. If you ever loved certain candies as a child and these candies no longer exist...read this book. Yes, the writer is a self-admitted 'candyfreak', but the book is well-researched and fascinating. I stumbled across it in a Utah library and read it from cover to cover.

I finally decided that I should find out what Matcha tea/powder was. When I was in Grade 9, back in 1954, before most of you were even thought of, my teacher, Miss Rorke, had just come back from Japan...a most unusual thing to do in the early 50s, and we did a special unit on Japan that year. This experience included making tea with a bright green powder. I do remember that it was lovely. And now I know that it was matcha. Thanks for bringing back that memory. Perhaps I can buy some at our local Asian market and try it again...and in ganache and ice cream.

Congratulations. I must admit that I pretty much always make my ice creams, whatever flavor, using the Philadelphia base. It's not as rich, satisfies me and the DH pretty well, and doesn't leave me with dozens of frozen egg whites in little dated containers in my freezer. I guess it works because my inclusions and flavorings are usually pretty punchy.

This is why no one candies galangal. The structure of the plant shows up so well after it is candied and dried. Why they call it Thai ginger and there is also real ginger from Thailand called, of course, Thai ginger, I could not say. It was an interesting experiment and now I'll throw it out.

Thank you, O Ginger Lady , as usual. All good stuff. I could indeed have taken them out after a couple of days, when the syrup was pungent and delicious ...and not tasting burntish...and done well. Didn't know that. They are currently drying in the dehydrator. Cut off a piece...delicious. They will do nicely in ice cream for weeks on end, just as the candied kumquats did. Probably think up some other use for them too...like in Lauren Chattman's Banana-Caramel Bread Pudding (Instant Gratification which is as it sounds) which I felt needing something punchy.

I must admit I tossed it. a) the galangal after steaming was so much less in taste as noted and b) I had used orange flavored sugar in the sugar syrup...long story that there was no point in keeping it. As I think about it...it was really the lack of 'galangal' taste that was the sticking point. The orange flavoring would not have been a large factor. I have enough ginger syrup to start a small business. The sad part there is that my DH hates ginger unless it's in Chinese food. I use it liberally in the dishes so I don't know where the disconnect is. And as noted in the Mandarin oranges thread, I threw out that syrup also. I have no idea of why this pungent yummy syrup ended up tasting almost burnt. No doubt someone will tell me. Wish I had siphoned more off after one or two days of candying. Next project is to candy some tiny hot red peppers from the Asian market. I am almost afraid to taste one...they are SO tiny and SO cute. They'll probably sear my mouth for days. But my friend Melanie will love them. She is, as Andie noted in an earlier post, a "tin-throat-chile-head".

Next the Clementines. After three days...out of the 14 prescribed days...the Clementines are almost black and taste very good but the syrup tastes almost burnt. I have taken them out and am going to dry them. They can be chopped up and used in ice cream and suchlike. I tossed the syrup. Yesterday I used it on ice cream and it was very strong and very good. Some wouldn't have like it, but I did. I obviously did something really wrong.

Report on candying galangal...to date: After steaming the properly sliced pieces for 2 1/2 hours I decided that they were about as soft as they were going to get and began candying them. Some pieces were quite palatable...some were simply fibrous and I ended up spitting out a little mess of fibers after chewing them for a while. Galangal is definitely NOT ginger. Also the hot peppery taste was much subdued...rather like the change in radishes when you cook them. Three days of candying the pieces and I just gave up and now they are in the dehydrator...our humidity is a constant 92-100%. Summer in Ontario. Nothing has changed and I suspect that they'll end up in the garbage. Well, it was a valiant try... (unless I just goofed up somewhere). My Chinese ginger is doing well in the dehydrator. And also I have two healthy sprouts up in my indoor ginger window box.

That sounds good. I made a big pot of raspberry yesterday with raspberry vodka and freeze dried raspberries with milk/whipping cream 50- 50. It is great, really creamy and soft scope straight out of the freezer. ← What more needs to be said? Mascarpone, tiramisu, mocha (chocolate & coffee) fudge, raspberries, vodka, whipping cream...

Oh, how lovely. I think my snack bracket will not support one of these for now. The bamboo steamer is much less expensive, given the CDN$ and the S&H and the potential border parcel costs which can descend at any moment.. But one day...

OK. I googled Shiapo and the best I could get is a cross between a Shiz Tzu and a Poodle. ????

Thanks both to David and Lisa for the information. I had forgotten about letting the edge of the steamer overhang the pot. And you're right...the wok does take up a great deal of room. Thanks again, Darienne

A friend and I were just looking at DL's book, drooling over the recipes. She has a troop of grandkids coming next weekend and would like to make ice cream with and for them...except for the cost. 'Could you not incorporate butter into the ice cream and thus cut down on the cost of the heavy cream. It would be much cheaper to use a lower % cream/milk and add butter somehow.' Now, if RLB can add butter to lesser % cream and make it into whipping cream, why couldn't you add butter to a lesser % cream and make it into heavy cream and from there into ice cream. So I said I would ask on my forum and let her know. She loves to experiment with everything. (She'll probably try it anyway.) I don't know. Can you? Thanks.

One look at that cake and I know I have to make it. Good going!

Seeing as I could find nothing in the archives on bamboo steamers and also woks were discussed in this forum: I gave away my bamboo steamer years ago in a former life and now want to buy a new one. I can't decide which size is the most useful: I would use it for steaming fruits and peels to be candied, Chinese food, making sponge cakes, etc. Who knows where this new life will take me? I had a charming little bamboo steamer in Moab which I gave to a friend there. Forgot that my own was no more. Now I am using a stainless double boiler steamer, but I don't really like it. Just a personal preference. The bamboo steamers come in 8", 10" and 12" from our local Asian market, 3 or 4 layers. Nothing seems to fit very well into the pans I currently own. Do most folks use the steamer over a wok? I don't cook with a wok: electric stove and the carbon steel wok is too heavy and too awkward for my hands. I use two stainless saute pans with encapsulated bottoms. There are too many choices here. What does anyone out there do? Thanks

Thanks all for all the information. I have a feeling that sour cherries are about to go to the end of the list of 'things I have to deal with in the next few weeks'. That's life sometimes. Thanks again. But...I will keep the information in mind for next year......

If you have an Indian grocery store nearby, then check there. They usually carry raw, unsalted nuts. ← We have no Indian grocery store in our nearby small city, but we do have an Asian one which carries mostly Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese/etc. Whatever Indian foods we can get will be there. I am going to check on the unsalted pistachios. It is great that the Nuts Online ships to Canada, but by the time you paid for the nuts in CDN$, and the S&H, and possible duty stuff, if they choose to nail you, you could have paved your ice cream maker in gold. I don't suppose you could get most of the salt off/out of the pistachios? Foolish question, no doubt.

I guess I should say thanks, but that is one depressing article!!!

Thanks Andie. I think I have a lot to learn about Galangal. Somehow I thought it was quite like ginger, more than just belonging to the same family. I thought ginger from Thailand was called Galangal. Obviously that was not the case. I'll go back and read about it more carefully. I noticed that it has all sorts of little side 'branches' in the rhizome which make it hard to peel. And the peel is different. So, after 2 1/2 hours of constant steaming, the slices are finally tender-ish. And the taste is less hot and less peppery, but still quite sharp and pungent. I am candying them anyway in a syrup made with orange flavored sugar (from a confused mistake). Won't hurt them I am sure. I'll get back with the results. I like the idea of candying tiny hot peppers. My friend Melanie would go wild for them. Did you do anything different that I should know about? Thanks.

Hamilton may be pretty far east, but I am further east yet. And north. I have never seen sour cherries at a farm stand in our area...we are in a different zone than Hamilton. I think that barring driving south and west, a grocery store may be my only source. And we do not have any grocery stores here like Trader Joe's or Whole Earth.

Next day: Galangal, purchased frozen, was thawed, sliced properly across the grain and after 40 minutes steaming, it was still as tough as old leather. I took a small bite of the galangal yesterday and WOW! was it hot and peppery!!! Just to make sure, I bit into the Chinese ginger also. No comparison. Perhaps it is very old and that's why it's so tough? Perhaps this is what galangal is like? Perhaps no one candies it anyway?

Thanks Kerry. If the Niagara grows sour cherries, then I find it hard to believe that you can't get them in Peterborough. Perhaps my friend is mistaken. I'll call the produce managers of some of the local grocery stores. Thanks as always.

There are all sorts of rules and regulations on both sides of the US/Canadian border. And they change. I know that it is against the law for a private car to take fruit into the USA from Canada. I don't know about the other way. What I might do is check with some of the larger grocery chains nearer to Toronto. See if anyone brings them in. As I said you can get them canned or bottled and perhaps you can get them frozen...the trouble may be getting them fresh. Thanks for the information.

Moving sideways slightly to Galangal. We can buy it only in a frozen state. I am currently defrosting my package in order to candy it. I read in another thread in the Asian cooking section that frozen galangal might well defrost to mush only. Not sure what to do now: stick it back into the freezer at once or continue defrosting and see what I get. Help!

I'll give it a try although, not being a true cherry lover, I don't think I have ever noticed fresh sour cherries for sale here. I have purchased bottled sour cherries. I'll look for them this year. Did not get around to candying rhubarb this year...but I did get my ginger planted this morning!!! And, of course, I have another batch of candying ginger under way. A woman cannot make too much candied ginger I have discovered. Thanks, as always, for your help. ← My friend, Mel, who loves sour cherries, tells me that she has never seen them for sale in our area...east central Ontario. Are they available in Toronto does anyone know?