Panaderia Canadiense

Ecuadorian name: Leona, Leonora English name: The closest I can come is a Pomfret of some description; it resembles Chinese Pomfret but that doesn't run in our waters.... Size: About 750 g, about 30 cm diameter Raw. This is one of the weirder looking fish in the market, but it's also what looked best. Cooked. It was smothered in apple pie filling and stuffed with Seville oranges Skinning/boning progression - I was surprised at how easily it divvied up. Final plating. Absolutely and hands down one of the best fish I've eaten since I started this thread. Soft and meaty without being obnoxiously fishy, slightly sweet, and with gigantic big bones that were easy to remove.

Cheesecakes and architectural jellies, here.

OMG, why do I always end up following mm84321? Beef stuff of some sort - I can't recall what exactly it was, just that it was really really tasty. A mushroom-fried take on Chicken and Taters Pomfret cooked in its own juices with applesauce and oranges, and of course the obligatory carrots And for dessert, an obscene amount of cheesecake, none of which I actually got to eat .

Turkey consomme with soup noodles and octodogs.

If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I'll consider that an invitation! And of course if you're ever in Ecuador, my charcoal UFO is your charcoal UFO!

We were 3 people with a Giant Lop bunny in the pot. There were always leftovers - not many, but usually enough to take to school on Tuesday.

It kind of forced me to adventurous, mm84321. I'm now wishing that I'd thought to take pictures last time I had grilled chontacuros (big fat yummy palm grubs) - they'd be right up this thread's new alley....

mm84321, you mean you never had a pet bunny named Hasenpfeffer when you were growing up? I did; we ate him or her every year at Easter dinner (yes, I grew up eating the Easter bunny - and then I'd take leftovers to school and everyone would want to taste them; I never let them know what it was they were trying until after they'd swallowed it.... )

Tarapaca Gran Reserva is a really yummy standalone Malbec; I'll second Alamos as well. And now the moment of truth - ice cubes, or no ice cubes?

Yup. Quite tasty, but my rodent of choice is Guanta (Agouti paca) - deee-lish, especially over hot coals. I've lived in the Northeast my entire life and have never, ever seen squirrel on a menu or in a market. I've run over a bunch of them though. Squirrel is pretty gamey - hence the Brunswick Stew application. Long cooking of gamey meats tends to reduce their funkiness somewhat. It's not my rodent of choice (see above).

That's a little one, Rotuts! (PS, that's a cuy, aka a guinea pig) Ecuador puts out 10 pounders....

It's not just the indigenous who have strange culinary habits..... Haggis, anyone? How about a roast cuy? I'm sure that somewhere, some Inuit is reading this and thinking "hamburger helper - ewww, gross!"

It's a matter of taste, Shel - what I like to do is boil fresh peanuts in shell, in a bit of salted water, then strain, pat dry, shell husk and dry roast in my cast iron pan until they're a medium brown, slightly crunchy, and smell really peanutty and yum. Not going until they're fully crunchy makes sure they still have enough oils and moisture in 'em to mash up well for paste/butter as a base for peanut sauces.

And I'd like to add to the discussion that in sauces that call for coconut milk, fresh is always going to be better than canned. If you can get a whole young coconut where you are, throw it in the blender (in small chunks) with the coconut water that's in it, and hey presto - coconut milk, which if you let sit will develop a layer of coconut cream on top.

When Mom was diagnosed with wheat sensitivity, we stopped going out entirely. Even at places where wheat isn't obviously on the menu, it pops up in the weirdest places; if you've gone gluten-free for medical reasons, about the only thing safe for you is rice, and even then you can't guarantee that there's no gluten in the sauces of the stuff the restaurant is putting over the rice....

There are also the Ecuadorian peanut sauces. Encocado is probably the best one; it's a blend of 1:3 peanut paste:coconut milk with a dash of mild yellow "curry" (the Ecuadorian curry powders are most similar to chat masala, but if you've got access to a Latin market so much the better - look for "sazonador amarillo"....) Shrimp are generally poached in this.

This is one I actually keep in my phone's memory banks to play for the annoying holier than thou vegans I encounter.

I'd like to put in a word for the Argentines and Chileans, who produce some really outstanding reds. Bear in mind that I like my wine to have quite a bit of character to it, and the South American grapes seem to provide this best. What I'm listing below are spicier and more fruity/tannin-y, which are flavours that are more likely to be pleasant to you given your like of the distilled wines. Viñalba Reserva Malbec, and Testimonio de Luigi Bosca are the best two Argentine wines at your site, for the shekels you want to spend. It's a shame that they're focussing on single-grape wines, because the Merlot-Malbecs and Malbec-Sirahs are also lovely wines, particularly for those who like sherry and port. On the Chilean side, the Medalla Real Carmenere is gorgeous. I can't help much with the rosé, as I'm not at all fond of them; I will join in with the others though and ask you to reconsider the whites.

The smashing/throwing is another way to activate the gluten, but one that allows it to form in long chains rather than short ones - this is what gives the dough its enormous elasticity. Kneading would promote short-chain gluten formation, which is not what you want in strudel dough. Doughs of this type are what I'd call milhojaldre (thousand leaf pastry) and they do belong to a very different process. Phyllo dough is produced in a similar manner. The heat is to quickly relax the gluten quickly, and it's part of what's allowing you to get the dough out so fine that it's translucent like parchment paper (something that strudel demands).

I'm very fond of rabbit marinated in white wine overnight, then brushed with aliño (a paste of garlic, red onion, shallot, cilantro, cumin, and parsley) and grilled over hot charcoal.

Dave: The other thing I've had great luck with, using UHT cream for whipping, is to scald it and then chill it back down in the fridge overnight, then stir gently before starting to whip with cold equipment (bear in mind that my kitchen is usually 30 C plus, and hotter in our summer months). Scalding brings the fat molecules out of suspension and makes whipping easier.

I'm single and live with my retired parents; we shop as a tag team. If you've been reading the grocery thread mentioned above, you'll see that in any given week we buy about 100 lbs of stuff, which would be nearly impossible for a single shopper to carry home (even with the help of kindly truck-taxi drivers). Since all three of us cook and eat in addition to working at the bakery, we're all invested in what we can find at the markets. Mitch - in my family we're all sniffing every melon (or especially the strawberries and peaches - tree-ripe fruit has a different smell from box-ripe), or rapping the squashes to gauge how thick the meat is, or other similar things that would drive your SE nuts at the store.

Here in Ecuador, I live in the city with the largest farmer's market in the country (it's something like 10 acres). It's active every day except Tuesdays and Saturdays, but the best day for it is Sunday when everything comes in fresh from everywhere. The best season is just coming in - mangoes, stone fruit, mortiños (wild andean blueberries), and the best of the Valencia and Hielo juice oranges.

What temperature is the cream at when you start whipping? I often use UHT cream at 35% for whipping, and it takes a minimum of overnight in the cool fridge for it to get to a whippable state.....

HERESY! In addition to the Yorkies, proper Scottish and Canadian fruitcakes are aged a minimum of 3 weeks, and and ideal of 3-6 months in alcohol. They're passable when fresh, but as Dave Hatfield points out, improve greatly with age. I've got the first of my (many) Christmas fruitcakes ageing in their muslins as we speak.