Okanagancook

Safflower oil's smoke point looks like one of the highest at 509 F Good information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

I have the Kuhn Rikon dual peeler(http://www.amazon.com/Kuhn-Rikon-Dual-Peeler-Red/dp/B0055AZ2JY/ref=sr_1_13?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1363796308&sr=1-13&keywords=kuhn+rikon+peeler) I now understand how Marcella Hazan peels peppers.

There's a set on ebay, just checked yesterday, around $300

Steve: "Here's a shot of the guanciale that finished the cure yesterday." Oh yeah, I call it "fat streaked with meat."! Which reminds me, I still have a package or two in the freezer.

The rice was nice and cheesy. We didn't put quite all of the cheese in. We served it with the slow roast chicken. It was a free range 4 lb bird which was very juicy and tender but the skin was disappointing. Not evenly browned and not all the skin got crispy. I think next time I would spatchcock it for better skin. I microwaved eggplant and then brushed it with olive oil/herbs then grilled it. It is a great way to cook eggplant....3 minutes in the mircrowave. This time I peeled it because the skin tends to get very tough when mircrowaved.

I missed that post of yours, thanks. We'll give a try with all the cheese.

I am about to make the Aroborio Rice with Caramelized Squash and Saffron on page 154 of KM. The amount of Parmesan Cheese seems like it will be way, way too much: 90 grams for 150 grams of rice. Anyone made this and can comment on the cheese? Thanks

correction, 185 F.

Well, the heart, after 8 hours in the sv rig at 180F, turned out tender. Here are some pictures. I think I'll slice it nice an thin for sandwhiches.

Excellent , thanks, i will check it out. i have ordered butchering supplies from them and had good service. My brother purchased an expensive Henkleman sealer from the states and it was not shipped correctly. FedEx rolled it around and by the time he got it the motor had broken away from it's anchors! Much heavier than the vac masters though. I was thinking of getting the vp215 with more vac power.

Brian, where in Canada did you purchase your sealer? I'm in BC. Thanks

I just put half a beef heart in the sv rig at 185 f for 8 hours per MC ( ox heart). We' ll see.

Update, must have rolled the pasta too thin because they are spontaneously breaking where they hang over the pasta tree bars. Dang it. Raining pasta.

Made squid ink pasta for the first time. Very interesting aroma. I wanted to make a sheet of plain pasta rolled with a sheet of squid ink pasta but couldn't find anything on google describing when to roll the two sheets together. So I rolled out one sheet of each until the second to last setting on the pasta roller. I did not use any flour in between rolling so the two sheets would stick together. I had to be careful to keep the sheets roughly the same size and not too wide otherwise the final sheet would be too wide for the machine. Then I placed one sheet on top of the other and rolled them together lightly with a rolling pin. Then I put them through the pasta machine twice on each of the last two settings. They stuck together nicely. I recently purchased a pasta tree (Marcato) from Creativecookware.com. Fantastic thing. There is a plastic piece that you place under the pasta roller to catch the pasta strands. Then the piece fits over the tree making it easy to hang the complete pasta. Here are some pictures.

Found a 1/4 of a fresh turkey at the store which is perfect for the two of us. Bonus, all dark meat. Presalted for a day as recommended in All About Roasting.

Tried the sous vide lamb skewers on page 86 of the kitchen manual. I cooked the lamb at 133 degrees rather than the suggested 135 degrees because I wanted them more on the rare side. The lamb really picked up the marinade flavour however we found them borderline salty. They were left in the sous vide bag with a little residual marinade on the surface for about 7 hours before being cooked which could have made them a little salty. Or too much salt in the marinade....it did seem like a lot of salt when I was mixing up the marinade. I used lamb leg and they turned out very tender.

If you're looking for free shipping and no brokerage fees try creativecookware.com. There is a min. order amount for free shipping but it's around $50 I think. Excellent service, sent via Fedex and I think their prices are quite good.

The dishes turned out very well. Everyone really liked the eggplant which is a very simple preparation. Make the spice mixture; cut a deep criss cross on the top of the mini eggplants; stuff in some of the spice mix then fry until cooked. They did take a lot longer than the 15 minutes stated in the recipe...about twice as long. No picture of finished dish. The lemon rice was a new way of making rice for me. Cooking the rice first in some turmeric and salted water then turning out on to a tray to cool and dry. When ready to serve, fry the species, add the rice and heat. Very easy and it looked good. You can use lemon or lime juice and it had just enough citrus but not over powering. The Spinach and Paneer dish was a gamble. It tasted great with the fresh spinach and garden tomatoes cooked and pureed BUT it looked like pond scum We have lots of it left. Will not make again. I like the traditional peas and paneer dish I usually make. The peas and carrots has a nice ginger flavour and everyone liked this one a lot. Pretty easy to make but the carrots took too long to cook so I would cut them smaller next time or partially cook them before adding to the dish. The peas got over cooked. The dahl was meh. Not a lot going on except for the chili heat. I would rather make the recipe from Vij which has more cumin, coriander and black mustard seeds. . The mango mousse was fantastic. Not too sweet nor too heavy after the curries. Easy to make: whip egg whites; whip cream; whip canned mango pulp; add gelatin and sugar; that's it. The star of the meal was the pork vindaloo. Not from this book though. I sous vide the cubed pork shoulder at 149 degrees F for 48 hours after browning it first. I made the vindaloo sauce and simmered for two hours. Half and hour before serving the pork went into the hot sauce to mingle. The pork was juicy and tender. The flavour was there mainly because the vindaloo spicing is quite strong and it didn't matter that the pork was not cooked in it. I'll do this again.

Many thanks for all your comments. Bruce, I have made notes of your suggestions. For my dinner I am going to cook the following from 50 Great Curries: page 170 Chana Dahl page 165 Peas & Carrots with cumin (if my local store has frozen peas...I'm in the country) page 164 Stuffed baby eggplants (managed to score some little beauties yesterday) page 161 spinach with curd cheese (I made some paneer last week and it's in the freezer) page 158 chapati page 157 Lemon Rice...that one looks wonderful in the pictures with the lovely cashew nuts page 179 Mango mousse for dessert (we got a Superstore in Penticton last month and they have a wonderful ethnic isle where I found pureed Alfonso Mango Pulp) From my all time favourite Asian book, Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook (if you don't have this book, believe me, it's the bomb...I am already on my second book seeing the first one fell apart from about 15 years of use; this new one I've had since 1997) I'm making: page 68 Eggs in Meatballs (basically an Indian scotch egg using lamb) page 41 Prawns in Coconut Milk From Time Life Foods of the World Indian Cookbook I've made the Murg Kari Chicken on page 53...it's in the freezer after having mellowed in the fridge for two day. This is one of my favourite chicken curries. From Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi (this book has wonderful soups, chutney and delicious vegetable dishes), page 345 Shredded Cucumber and mint Yogurt Other Favourite Indian Cookbooks I use routinely are: The books by Vij, Vancouver Chef The Bengal Lancers Indian Cookbook by Mohan Chablani and Brahm N. Dixit. Doubt you'll be able to find it...it's out of print. Purchased in 1980 at a used bookstore. I'll try and take pictures of the meal....if I can make it all and fit in on the table that is!

This is a new cookbook to my Indian cookbook collection. Which recipes are your favourites? I am making a dinner on Saturday and want to include a few dishes from this book.

City Chef is very good: http://www.citychef.ca/

Exactly.

Good job, Pilarindia!

Charmaine Solomon is the author of the cookbook I was referring to and in her opinion it is "the nearest substitute" for those of us who can't get Golden Mountain Sauce. So to answer torolover's question about whether to buy the European or Asian Maggi, Charmaine Solomon would recommend the European version.

I have recipes for Thai cookery that call for Golden Mountain Sauce and the book states that the nearest substitute would be "a Swiss product called Maggi Seasoning or, in Europe, Maggi Arome - a well established product of which, I do beloeve, the Golden Mountain Sauce is a copy"