Okanagancook

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"

Just made the Berber Meat Tagine with Seven Vegetables. Nice flavours and very easy to make.

Eat your books changed the way I use my cookbooks. It has several excellent features which I now use. For example, if you see a recipe in one of your books that you want to make you can use the bookmark feature to keep track of these and keep track of the recipes you did make that you want to make again. I have found that I am using my books much more. My main resolution is to get my recipes more organized using the bookmarks feature. My other resolution is to cook more Mexican food and more French food.

On the topic of freezing moles and other sauces/condiments, I discovered my local Wholesale Club store sells those little plastic containers with lids that restaurants use to serve sour cream, salsa, etc. They come in various sizes: 4 oz, 2 oz, 1 oz and looks like 1/2 oz. I have been using them for individual servings of pesto, mole, sauces from MC@Home, the 4 oz ones for concentrated stocks. Very handy and less time consuming that using ice cube trays like I used to.

I tried the cornstarch thickening again being careful to bring it to a good boil and being careful with measurements of liquid to starch and it still thinned after time. On my next try I substituted 3 grams of Xantham Gum for the cornstarch. The result was excellent. Pretty close to the thickness of the corn starch thickening BUT the big difference was the flavours of the soup were more pronounced because all that starch did not dull the soup. It did not thin even after being put in the fridge overnight and reheated the next day. I'll be using Xantham Gum from now on.

We love lamb and manage to buy a free range lamb every year. The lamb is so tender and flavourful compared to what we can get in the supermarket here. We get the animal whole and cut it up into the pieces we like seeing there's usually just two of us eating. I've done different cuts sous vide but I am leaning towards roasting to get that lovely brown on the outside. Besides, I miss the smell of the lamb roasting. It's part of the whole sensory enjoyment of food...that's my kick at sous vide cooking.

Grilled lamb rack chops, glazed garden carrots and MC@H Barley with Wild Mushrooms and Red Wine.

We want a medium-rare steak-like short rib. 72 hours at 133F/56C gets us this result. To finish the pan is smoking hot with a good layer of grape seed oil to get a nice thick crust. We've done this 5 or 6 times and it works perfect for our tastes.

Thanks for that. I think I will try boiling the soup harder and longer after adding the cornstarch and also add the vinegar afterwards. According to the book I will get better gelatinization. I doubt there is enough vinegar in the soup to lower the ph enough to cause such a marked thinning of the soup.

Luang Prabang fusion salad on page 78. Fantastic! Shrimp and Rice Soup on page 95. Our Favorite Noodles with Greens and Gravy on page 116.

I have a question about cornstarch thickened soup. Specifically, I make a Chinese Hot and Sour Soup which has white vinegar added for the sour component and is thickened with cornstarch. The soup thickens nicely in the pot but after eating about 1/2 a bowl it becomes noticeably thinner. Any idea what is going on? Is it the amylase enzymes in saliva that weaken the corn starch? Could I use some modernist modified starch to prevent this?

When we butcher our lamb each year I have given up trying to get even untorn lamb chops using the hand meat saw. Instead I take the saddle and cut out the bone keeping the saddle intact...just need to be careful along the backbone. Then I trim it up and roll it; tie it up well; then cut 3 inch pieces off ensuring that there are two pieces of string holding it together. Makes for a nice presentation of boneless lamb loin.

Just tried this interesting candied popcorn, with extra spice and it's terrific. The key is to chop the peanuts very finely so they bind onto the popcorn. Yum http://foodwishes.blogspot.ca/2012/05/pad-thai-popcorn-how-five-seconds-of.html

looks like a science project!

How much fresh turmeric do you use in recipes that call for dried/powdered turmeric? Is it like fresh vs dried herbs: twice as much fresh? Now I just have to get my hands of some fresh turmeric. None in Penticton so will have to go to the East Indian stores in Kelowna. Drat.

I've never tried fresh turmeric. Can you freeze the extra?

Nice to see you using the whole animal.

In my greek salad I dice the vegetable to about 3/4 inch size and I use english cucumber, only green bell peppers, red onion, celery, red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives. I toss the vegetables except the tomatoes in olive oil with lemon juice, a little salt, and black pepper. I put the salad in the serving bowl and break the feta into large pieces over the vegetables followed by scattering the tomatoes around followed by dried oregano sprinkled on top. Sometimes I put it on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce or a whole leave of romaine.

I am trying to make pita bread. Our friend just built a brick oven and I tried pitas in it last night. White flour only. The oven was around 550 degrees. We only got two out of 7 to puff right up. The others did not puff up totally. Uneven puffing. Any thoughts on why they all didn't puff. Is it the way I rolled them out? All were around 7 inches in diameter and I am using the recipe in Flatbreads and Flavors by J. Alford and N. Duguid.

It's a great way to use up leftover dough and any kind of dahl. The dahl just has to be not too thin...I usually reduce the liquid in the saucepan before putting in the fridge overnight that way it's easier to pack into the pockets. I have also frozen extra pockets on a sheet pan in the freezer then wrapped in foil for a quick lunch. Sometimes the dahl leaks out and gets nice and crispy in the pan :-)) These are not deep fried like puri though, just in a frying pan with a nice bit of ghee to create a crispy exterior to the dough while heating the dahl inside.

We had whole urid dahl curried with plenty of ginger, chapatis, vindaloo pork, and cucumber/mint rita. The leftover dahl was sealed inside chapati dough and fried like a calzone for lunch the next day (served with lime pickle).

I have made the white and brown chicken stocks and they are both excellent stocks. As you say they are bright. .I didn't add any salt to mine, prefer to add salt when I am using the stock. Did you add any salt to yours? The veggie stock is also excellent.

My husband saw on a tv show where they used a blow torch briefly on the outside of an egg to make the shell easier to peel....just a short blast. Have to try that.

Had the Cucumber and prawn salad on page 350 the other night. Very quick to make and excellent flavours especially with the addition of the dried prawns shavings at the end. Along with that we had rice and the stir-fried beef with chillies and holy basil on page 507 seeing my grocery had some nice fresh Thai basil leaves (very rare around these parts). It was quite a strong flavoured dish as he says in the introduction..serve with plenty of rice. The basil leaves are a must here. I made too much of it and it got over powering towards the end of the meal but as a side dish it would be great. It was also quick and easy to make. Good for a meal with lots of different dishes because you can make it first and keep it warm in the oven while preparing other dishes.

MC@H barley with wild mushrooms and red wine; lamb rack chops and T. Keller's Carrot stew