Will
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Posts posted by Will
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Presumably, the same place that carry The Yamazaki will also carry this one. It's pretty widely available.
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I think more soaking time is fine. If you're soaking them for that long, I would suggest using cool water, though.
Dried porcini always have a weird texture to me, but of course, it's usually difficult to get fresh ones. There are definitely some brands that seem to be a bit better than others. In any event, the flavor from the soaking liquid should be a great addition.
I have also made a powder of dried porcini once, for a recipe, and that worked fairly well for a little extra umami kick.
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I like castelvetranos quite a bit.
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Soaking time will depend whether you use hot, warm, or cold water. Rinse the dried mushrooms quickly first, then soak in a decent amount of water (the amount doesn't really matter; just leave room for expansion). Once you're ready to use the mushrooms, use a coffee strainer or wet paper towel to strain the soaking liquid before use, and rinse off the mushrooms again / pat dry. I would tend to soak for at least several hours, ideally longer. You can mix in some of the mushroom soaking liquid with your stock, or heat / add it separately.
Also, I assume you know this, but cook the mushrooms separately, then add to the risotto for the last 10 minutes of cooking. You can add some cultivated mushrooms (like cremini, maitake, oyster whatever) in addition to fresh wild mushrooms or dried mushrooms. If fresh chanterelles are available, and they often are, at least where I live, you may want to consider using some of those instead of only dried wild mushrooms.
I usually use a roasted vegetable / mushroom stock (preferably homemade) for my risotto, but that's probably because I'm vegetarian. I reduce it down quite a bit for convenience, but I do thin it back down later.
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I don't know about nationwide, but online there are some good sources. The Schott Zwiesel ones (I think maybe the Paris line) are ~ 5 oz and available individually or in sets of 6 on Amazon for a fairly reasonable price. I have a couple of these, and they're quite nice quality. If you're really averse to buying online, it's possible that stores like Crate and Barrel or Sur La Table which carry their other products could special order them.
Boston Shaker also sells a few types around that size:
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Heat retention and the speed of the pour are the two biggest variables. Heat retention can be noticed especially -- but you can kind of correct for a really heavy brewing vessel by using slightly cooler water or by pouring from higher in a thin stream. For certain types of teas, especially more delicate or aromatic ones, I personally get the best results from a very thin-walled gaiwan.
The type of material may also have some effect. For example, high-fired stoneware and porcelain are said to be more neutral, and to bring out more of a tea's bright notes, whereas stoneware, especially lower-fired and more porous stoneware, can sometimes take off a tea's rough edges. But these kinds of differences are pretty subtle.
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Has anyone tasted distilled water?
100% pure distilled water tastes very funny.
Yeah - distilled and RO water have an unpleasant taste (or lack of taste, really), and I find them a little rough on the throat. For most tea brewing, a spring water with low TDS is ideal, or water filtered with a good multistage carbon filter. You need some mineral content, but not too much.
However, I think minerals will be more concentrated, rather than less, when boiling water for a long time.
I don't know what causes water that's been boiled for a long time to be a bit more "flat", but it's a very subtle difference at any rate. I wouldn't think additional scale would make the water or tea more flat - in fact, in some cases, it's desirable.
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I know folks on both sides of this camp. I think it's also different if the kettle shuts off just at the moment it hits a boil vs. if you're leaving it at a boil for minutes at a time. A lot of people do feel that letting the water boil too long takes out too much oxygen; I'm not enough of a scientist to prove or disprove that claim. I try to split the difference - I'll reboil (just the the boil) 1-2 times with the same water, and then I'll usually top it off with fresh water.
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I'm pleased that someone posted a link to the actual bill, since it appears nowhere in the original article that started this discussion. I am also not surprised to learn that the bill was not put to a vote, but rather signed into law by the then governor.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the legislature had to vote on it before the governor could sign the bill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_foie_gras_law
You can see the bill's full history here:
http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/03-04/bill/sen/sb_1501-1550/sb_1520_bill_20040929_history.html
California does have a process where the public votes directly on certain bills, but for the most part, legislation here works roughly the same way as in other states or in the federal government -- legislators introduce bills, the legislature votes on them, and at some point, the governor signs / or vetoes them.
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Read the Bourdain article, where he describes a friend who had his business vandalized, his car doused with acid, and had video of his wife and children at home (along with a threatening message) sent to him, then tell me that they're not terrorists.
There may be some militant organizations, but that doesn't mean that the organizations who worked to push forward this legislation (whether or not you agree with it) are terrorists. If you have specific documentation that the groups that proposed this legislation to the state senator who sponsored the bill (Viva!USA, Farm Sanctuary, Los Angeles Lawyers for Animals, and Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, according to Wikipedia) are terrorists, I'd be interested to hear about it. While you may not agree with the stance of radical environmental or animal rights groups, it's still unfair to characterize all of them as terrorists based on the activities of a few. Most people interested in AR got that way because they don't like violence.
Also, while plenty of individuals in California disagree with the ban, the ban was proposed and accepted by the elected representatives of the residents of California.
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driving underground will (in the same way as drugs) can only increase cruelty
That I'm not so sure about -- there are very few producers of foie gras in the US already (mostly in upstate NY, if memory serves). While I am sure that foie will be brought from out of state into California in defiance of the ban, I'm less worried that you'd see unlicensed producers of foie operating within the state. California is already an expensive place to do business - it would be easier for such an operator to start a new operation in a different state.
Now the operation in another state might be more cruel than the operations which currently exist in California, but that wouldn't be due to being driven underground, since the operation would be legal in another state.
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I think animal rights groups are mostly pragmatic, and I don't think even the most fervent AR group thinks that they'll be able to outlaw meat consumption entirely. And while many of the groups may have a stated goal of everyone being vegetarian, not only do they understand that this is unlikely to happen in the near future. But, as pragmatists, of course they do focus on practices that are both cruel and seen as elitist (fur, foie gras being two obvious examples). Yes, on an absolute level, there are other practices that may be as cruel or more cruel, but these ones are easy targets because they're seen as things which are enjoyed by a very small percentage of the population. At the same time, these groups usually spend quite a bit of time advocating for smaller changes to the standard of living for larger numbers of industrially "farmed" animals (and it's worth keeping in mind that California also recently passed Prop 2, so I think there is interest by voters in the welfare of other types of animals). PETA is purposely extreme to provoke reactions, and that's part of their strategy; while I'm not a card-carrying member, I really don't think they deserve all the ire directed at them, and they have done quite a bit to improve the lot of animals in the US and worldwide.
I really enjoyed Mark Caro's The Foie Gras Wars -- while I don't agree with all of his conclusions, I think he does do his best to portray both sides of a very contentious issue fairly. I think it's worth a read, regardless of your stance on this particular issue. I definitely agree with him that an egg-laying hen in a modern industrial factory farm is probably subjected to more cruelty (over the course of its lifetime) than ducks subject to gavage.
I do think it's quite different for a state to ban production and sale of foie gras vs. a city -- there is at least slightly more control of food products traveling interstate, and it's a lot farther for most of us to drive to a neighboring state - as someone said above, CA has several states bordering it, but it is also a huge state -- I don't think many folks are going to be driving to Vegas or Arizona just to get their foie fix.
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A usual marinade for this is something along the lines of liquid smoke, soy sauce or braggs, vegetable oil, toasted sesame oil, and some sugar or maple syrup to taste. I would not add cumin (which I've had in tempeh bacon at one place by here, and it's awful). Obviously if you're smoking it yourself, no need to add the liquid smoke. Adding nutritional yeast is an old cheat to give it a more savory flavor.
A bunch of recipes online if you do a search.
No matter how much oil you use, I don't think you'll be able to make tempeh that "fatty". Tofu based "bacon" actually sometimes manages to convey the fatty / chewy texture a bit better, though it's harder to work with and harder to slice thin. You can use the same marinade, and then cook in the oven in a roasting pan. A restaurant here in LA (BLD) does a house-smoked tofu "bacon" which is really delicious.
For tofu, I use a modified version of the one from the Breitenbush cookbook.
* 1/4 C oil
* 1/4 C tamari[1]
* 2 Tbsp water
* 1 tsp garlic powder
* 1 tsp onion powder
* 1 tsp poultry seasoning
* 1/2 tsp black pepper
* Dash hickory smoke flavoring[2]
* 1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
* 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
* 1/2 tsp curry powder
slice thin, marinate for 30+ minutes, bake at 450-500. Something along these lines should work for tempeh too.
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However in the picture I only spot 中国, so can the last symbol (の) be occasionally dropped from "China" as well?
Right. 中国, or 中國 (simplified vs. traditional characters) is "China" (zhōngguó in pinyin) in Chinese.
I think in the US, country of origin is supposed to be specified somewhere on the product (in English). The label with English language ingredients is usually applied by the importer, not the shop, so it's possible that the shop is acting as an importer in this context.
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On both such ranges that I've owned -- my old DCS and my current Bertazzoni -- the grates have been unfinished cast iron. I wonder if I need to season them.
You might also have a look at this thread:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg091903501041.html
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Mine (Capital Culinarian) are not porcelainized, though they have been pre-seasoned. I try to not ever use soap on them, just an occasional cleaning with a wok brush and very hot water. Then I dry them off with a paper towel and heat the stove up enough to evaporate any extra moisture. So far, no major rust.
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Lye properly should be sodium hydroxide, nothing else. And I'd be quite reluctant to cook with Red Devil or other hardware-store or soapmaker's lye.
Wikipedia claims it was historically potassium hydroxide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye
I get the impression that your statement is correct w/r/t lye available today.
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I have heard folks say that there's really no difference between so-called "food grade" lye and Red Devil. That said, I'd probably personally be hesitant to cook with something from the hardware store.
The alkaline solutions sold at the Chinese market may or may not be lye. Jianshui / kanshui should be potassium and/or sodium carbonate; penghui (mugwort potash, which contains potassium carbonate) is also used sometimes for noodle making. I believe lye should be sodium / potatssium hydroxide.
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I had a corn husk broth recently at Gather in Berkeley, CA. I thought it was interesting, though the soup seemed to have a little too much other seasoning in it (braggs or soy sauce, probably) which made it hard to taste the flavor. Still, an interesting soup idea, and I imagine the flavors could be good if well executed.
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The newer pour-over style setup is fairly simple and cost-effective (though you need a kettle with good control of the pour, even if it's not one of the fancy constricted spout ones). To me, the results are outstanding. I am mostly a tea drinker, but I very much prefer the results when made this way - the nuances and more delicate flavors of the coffee come out better, and that's true even with sub-standard coffee. It should be a pour-over filter holder like the Hario or Chemex with no constriction at the base (anyone tried the Kalita pourover filter?).
Nthing a burr grinder... the Hario hand grinder takes a little bit of elbow grease, but is a fair amount cheaper than most other burr grinders. Getting the exact size of ground that works best for the style of coffee you're making is also important.
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If you decide to make your tea with distilled water, you'll never have this problem again. Tap water builds up deposits in appliances like steam irons and the makers recommend using distilled water only.
One difference is that you don't drink the water from your steam iron.
I do not recommend making tea with distilled water, or reverse-osmosis processed water. Tea generally prefers a water with some mineral content, but not too much (certain types of tea may be better with softer or harder waters). Water is known as the "mother of tea" for a reason - it's most of what you're drinking when you drink tea. Tea made with water that's too devoid of mineral content will be flat and lifeless.
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It's just scale; won't cause a problem. However, you might want to invest in a filter to dechlorinate the water, even if the tap water in your area tastes good.
Apple Crisp
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
My mom's just has apples (and maybe a bit of lemon) on the bottom, and crumb topping on top. The crumb topping is butter (or other solid fat), brown sugar, white sugar, and a little flour and cinnamon, pulsed together in the food processor. I usually add a pinch of salt and some other spices to the crumb topping, and occasionally oats.