Mjx

Thanks! I'll bear that in mind next time I try one; I've heard of people salting melon to bring out the flavor, too, though I've always found that melon has a lot of flavour to begin with.

How's the flavour? I tried these once because they looked intriguing, but they tasted very weakly of cucumber and nothing else, and I wondered whether this had something to do with the degree of ripeness/shipping conditions.

I never had the opportunity to meet David in person, but his presence was such an important part of eGullet; I have no words to describe how much I'll miss his presence.

You have Serenissima and Eterna, how about Superba, Magica, Dotta/Grassa/Rossa, and Nobile?

Larb! Simple, and perfect for warm weather.

I break them down (e.g. in a food processor) and use them in place of bread crumbs.

Not clear why you'd want to use a hydrocolloid, but I suspect you will get equally good, if not better, results if you just do a dry rub with salt and perhaps a some herbs/spices for a couple of hours.

This was exactly what came to mind when I saw this topic!

@keychris I've seen various bean-to-bar options with stevia (Ethereal, Pascha) and...something else which escapes me at the moment, in health food shops, so this seems to be a possibility. This article discusses the use of stevia in chocolate: https://chocolatedisorder.com/2016/03/

@gfweb I'm partial to the guidelines suggested in Guess What Came to Dinner? It focuses on parasites, but also addresses bacterial and viral contamination, and the solutions are simple and cost-effective.

I tried to find some sort of positive takeaway from less-than-ideal baking circumstances, and focusing on the fact that it's entirely possible to make decent bread with what I regarded as sub-optimal equipment helped to minimize my pointless boohooing (the instagrammable aspect was an extra). With a bread machine one might have to watch out for inaccurate measuring yielding an amount of dough that exceeded the unit's capacity, though.

I second what Chris says, including about how forgiving bread recipes can be. I live in Denmark, which is sort of relevant, because recipes here use metric measurements (except for the not infrequent 'tea/table spoon' measurement, which means 'try to remember which actual tea/tablespoon you used last time, haha, good luck'). I tend to be extremely precise when I bake (I love my electronic scale, which was definitely a worthwhile investment), but I sometimes visit friends up north who have A) an infinite capacity and desire for bread; B) an equally infinate for actually baking bread; C) a scale that was made at least a century ago, and no, I'm not kidding: Their point is that it works, and there's no reason to get a new one (they're not luddites, they're just not very invested in their kitchen). It's solid....some sort of very heavy metal, and super instagrammable! Also, super inaccurate, given the way it reponds to the increased load (i.e. spasmodically: a century-old spring is going to be a bit arthritic). To be honest, I use it more as a gesture to the gods of baking than from any expectation of accuracy, regardless of how precise I'm being. When I first used this antique scale, I was almost in tears, because I wanted to to meet the request for lots of bread with something really good, and I was certain the loaves would be miserable failures. The loaves were fine! I was shocked. And this has happened repeatedly over the 20 years I've known them (and I continue to be surprised). By and large, bread won't let you down if your measurements are off by a bit (though the bread may be a bit different than expected, e.g. larger/smaller loaf, more/less dense, fine/coarser crumb), but in the long run, switching to metric weight measurements wiil make baking more pleasant.

In Italy, pasta tends to be a first course rather than a main one (and spaghetti isn't usually the first pasta choice with a meat ragu'), and though bread is often on the table, I can't think of any time it's been garlic bread.

As far as I can see, the orchid used for salep is endangered (e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3126047.stm), which would make selling this problematic, unethical, and possibly illegal (i.e. your concerns are well-founded). It's likely that this orchid's tubers were selected as much for their availability as anything else, so finding something that gives a similar taxture/flavour profile may not be that difficult: however, globally, orchids are having a bad time of it, so it may be necessary to consider another family of plants entirely. If there are conservation-minded Middle-Eastern ice cream producers out there, you might try getting hold of one, and asking what they use instead of the traditional orchid tuber.

There's a lot more online for the smørkage than the smørstang, but in general, they're the same thing, just different shapes. This recipe looks reasonably reliable, https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcharlotteskoekken.blogspot.com%2F2015%2F02%2Fsmrkage.html (I fed it into a translator to generate the English version). If the shape is important, then just go with an elongated rectangle, the baking time should be the same. If youøre feeling adventurous, do a search for [smørkage or smørstang + opskrift], and feed likely-looking links into the translator.

That looks amazing...is it also sweet, or is the blackcurrant jam effect mostly evident as scent/increased moistness?

I've used millet flakes (toasted, sometimes) to replace bread crumbs in a variety of things, and they work well in a panade; I use them when I make frikadeller. I know there are problems associated with heavy millet consumption, but as something used now and then it carries zero risks (unless, of course, you're allergic to millet).

I looked at the old link for the source, which is Lodge's cast iron site. I'm fairly certain it was/is their 14" cast iron baking pan; it's the only thing they have that fits.

Thanks! These are great, so many are ideas I'd not thought of, or forgotten; I tend to make the same familiar things repeatedly for myself, which was one of the things that worried me, in terms of producing something interesting. I'm really looking forward to discussing these with my friend This will be a buffet (last I heard), although not finger food. So everyone will be able to (and almost cetainly will, even if just sort of automatically) help themselves to the vegan dishes, which means making enough for the whole crowd.

I'm helping to prepare food for a party, and several of the guests are vegan, and, because I grew up in a vegetarian household, and a lot of the food we ate would have been suitable for vegans, too, I've been asked to come up with several suitable dishes. The thing is, I'd like to make some dishes that are really appealing, rather than just 'pretty decent for a vegan dish'. I can think of several possibilities, but I'd love to hear other omnivores' experiences of vegan dishes that they really enjoyed, things they'd make themselves/again, or look forward to eating if they knew it was going to be served to them. Thanks! M.

Fair point. Challenges are bit different, however, because if there's to be a decent level of participation, they do have to be relatively inclusive, which is the reason some challenges have never made an appearance.

Doesn't sound appealing, but it's amazing what breading and frying will do to improve things.

He thought it was 'fine', but a bit dull. Next time, I'm not going to listen to any concerns about my making things too weird I'm fairly certain that is correct. My original plan involved a nearly paper thin sheet of meat within a crisp golden crust, but circumstances dictated the hasty improvisation of a plan B.

I'm sneaking in at the tail end of this party. I've been visiting a friend who was initially resistant to the entire schnitzel concept. Interestingly, his objections were based on his understanding and experience of schnitzel being a clump of mince, breaded and fried (which he loathed). This barrier overcome, I had to convince him that he'd almost certainly like schitzel, although he might find it only 'acceptable'. Next, we had to sort how the schnitzel would be fried, since he does not accept any staining of his beloved steel pans; I finally suggested he do the actual cooking. Then we sampled a bunch of whiskies, to decompress from this complicated and extended negotiation. Next day, I wandered out in search of schnitzel meat and acceptable sides. I found this (pork), and came across some black chickpeas and some broccolini, which struck me as good sides. My friend was going to stick to chips and remoulade. I started the chickpeas beforehand, and left them simmering throughout the remainder of the prep and cooking. The chickpeas got a bit of toasted sesame oil, some miso, and some fresh thyme. I began my traditional appraoch by pounding the schnitzel to paper thinness with a meat hammer. Actually, that is a lie: there was no meat hammer, and no pan that would accommodate any of the pieces had they been pounded much flatter than they already were. I used a small sauce pan to kind of even out the thickness, and break down the fibres a bit. I kept the seasoning simple, as my friend prefers that things 'not get too weird', and given my experimental proclivities, I kind of see his point of view. I did add nutmeg to the wash and crumbs (yes, that's panko, and I'm trying to feel contrite about that), but did not add miso, malt syrup, harrissa, or ras el hanout, which I'd considered. I did include black pepper, thyme, celery seed, and paprika, mostly to the wash, since I'm not a fan of the smell of burning spices. I've no idea how these were cooked, because, as previously agreed, I left the kitchen while my friend carried out whatever secret rites accompanied the frying of the schnitzels (I returned briefly to steam the broccolini). The combination was quite good, although I'd have loved for the schnitzel to be more evenly golden brown.

Update: I experimented with candying mint leaves using gomme, and it works a bit better than using egg white; it dries more quickly, and there is less clumping, both when the leaves are dipped, and during the drying process, if there is any sugar lying about lose under the leaves.