Panaderia Canadiense

OMG, the minute I find pecans I'm totally making that, but with strawberries. Quito markets, don't let me down! Ack, Kerry, you're a horrible enabler of sweet things, you know? On my end, it's coconut-plantain 2-layer torte, filled with raspberry compote, glazed in honey sauce, and decorated with whatever fruit was good at the market yesterday - so in this case, nectarines, black grapes, strawberries, carambola, and a cherry on top!

What was that, fish sauce?

Baking powder can go off if you're in a very high-humidity place and it's not sealed in an airtight vessel. I'm not sure exactly what happens with it (since it's basically baking soda plus adjuncts; soda, although it will clump, doesn't go off), but it loses its power to leaven in the presence of high humidity and heat (I learned this the hard way baking in the Amazon). So the question becomes: whereabouts in Australia are you? If you're somewhere humid, like Darwin, you'll need to seal your powder and probably also keep it in the fridge. The other thing is that if at any time in the cooking process of the dumplings you open the lid to check on them, it's the equivalent of opening the oven in the middle of baking a cake - you're letting heat out, and in the case of the dumplings also steam. That's bound to interfere with the cooking process - it would make the cake fall, and it will definitely make the dumplings heavy and perhaps even increase their cooking time.

The recipe I use is adapted from my Gran's 1923 Purity cookbook; it produces dumplings that are fluffy, light, and always cooked through (so long as I don't peek at them!) 2 C flour (I usually blend 1.5 C white and .5 C quinua for flavour) 3 TSP baking powder 1.5 TSP salt 7/8 C milk (more or less - this depends on your altitude and relative humidity) Butter the size of a walnut (about 2 oz by my reckoning). Cut the butter into the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the milk, mixing just until you've got a stiff but moist batter. Drop into the stew by spoonfuls, put on the lid, and don't peek for about 20 minutes (25-30 at sea level.) I have notes in my gran's spidery handwriting saying that if one peeks, it toughens the dumplings and prevents them from rising properly.

I miss Canada's plethora of flavoured chips! Ketchup and Salt n Vinegar particularly, but I was also quite fond of Bacon, and also Dill Pickle (they're really good!) Although down here, I can often get Mayonnaise and Roast Chicken flavoured chips, and I've had some really good Creamy Mushroom ones that came with little packets of sauce inside....

I'd also add the massive, mulitauthour Cocina del Ecuador. Not only do the authors assume that you know your way around the ingredients, but that your kitchen is equipped with a number of tools that are definitely non-standard for westerners (ie - how many of you have hand-cranked mills for grinding fresh corn kernels? And if you do, do you also have the myriad hand tools for processing manioc roots?)

And another thing to add - you've come a great step, inspiration wise, by joining us here at the eGullet! I am consistently amazed and awed by some of the things members here do with food (the Dinner thread is a great example of this) - and it actually pushes me to be less lazy in the entree-kitchen, where I'm always tempted to go with tried-n-true plates.

$3.95 for a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese with nothing at all special about it.

I'll throw in my 2 cents as well - if you've got a good program available at your local arts college, I'd take that over one of the "fancier" schools. What you're looking for out of the school program is a good foundation in the basics and the techniques applicable to all types of cookery (for example, knowing at what internal temperature a steak hits "medium rare" is applicable across all forms of cooking that steak, except perhaps Sous-Vide). You're not necessarily looking for the piece of paper they give you at the end of it. I'd also second strongly Nick's reccomendation that you experiment outside of just main-course stuff - generalization is often very helpful once you're out there looking for a job. In my opinion (biased though it is, since I'm a professional baker and pastry chef) it is invaluable to know how to make at least shortcrust pastry, and it's a good idea to know your way around basic yeast doughs as well. And yes - read read read! A hearty 3rd or 4th or nth for Pepin, and I'd also start borrowing any cookbook at your local library that looks even vaguely interesting and trying out any recipe that catches your fancy. Becoming a cook (and ultimately, being a cook or chef or whatever you want to call it) isn't something that you get from the culinary school - it's a lifelong process of learning and refining techniques. I started with bread and pastries as soon as I was old enough to light the gas oven on my own, and I figure I'll still be learning and expanding my library of techniques and recipes when I hit 90 (I'm 30 now, and have been baking professionally for about 5 years.)

I never thought I'd say it, but Tuna Paté as a dip for Corn Chips has become a hit here.....

Whereabouts are you located, sweetmemories? If you're anywhere that shipping from South America is feasable, then Hornos Andino are definitely worth a look. When I upgrade my ovens, I'm switching to their 10-tray convections, which are lovely compact ovens and very efficient as well. No steam feature, but both I and other bakers down here do the tray of water on the lower deck thing, and that works admirably well.

Now that I'm getting some actual summery-type weather here, it's time to make Horchata the way that Lojanas intend it to be made: strong and cold! I'll post back with pictures; my tea caraffe is nothing much, but the contents!

Are you tied to it being a yeast-leavened loaf? If not, I've got a load of GF recipes for quinua than can easily be adapted for millet. It might be an idea to look for breads where (if they were made with wheat) the gluten development wouldn't be a factor in the bread's texture.

I buy fresh local mangrove shrimp from farmers that are doing it sustainably and without too much by way of antibiotics / other nasties, and also farming in such a way that it doesn't affect the mangrove ecosystems. They're of fabulous quality, and I can choose head on or head off (depending on what I'll use them for, and on the size of the shrimp. Some are clearly prawn-sized and those are always head-ons)

Principally in the crust, I think - it's thicker than a Chicago-style pizza, but properly cooked - my guess is it's probably blind-baked before it's filled. The approach to cheese is different as well - strong-flavoured ones, like Angochagua, feature in a middle layer, and the top is fresh mozza with something quite sharp, like Manchego.

Agua de Sandía (as detailed by Dakki above) and Jugo de Sandía (using the reddest and sweetest of the flesh - pulsed in the blender with a tiny amount of water, then strained, and otherwise not adulterated or sweetened at all) all the way here, then watermelon rind pickles for the remainders. Watermelons are insanely cheap down here (I pay $3 for 10-pounders) and they're the best ever summer juice. I've never thought to saute the flesh - I'll have to try that!

Here in Ecuador we've got exactly four pizza chains on a national level - Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Domino's, and Ch'Farina, all of which suck. Even if it was reasonably good pizza (and it's not), I also boycot Pizza Hut, as they burned down a landmark theatre and then had the guts to say "wasn't us!" even though it was clearly a grease fire due to poor kitchen practices. I am a great patron, however, of the regional chains El Hornero (excellent Uruguayan-style deep dish pizzas, real pizza sauce), and Ali's (excellent NY-style thin-crust pizzas, real pizza sauce). When I don't have the time or energy to make my own pizzas, I go to one or the other of them for something that, while not gourmet, is not gawdawful either. Although sometimes the topping choices throw me - at El Hornero, for example, it's possible to order a pizza that comes with sliced green olives and choclos (white corn) on top. (It's their vegetarian, which is actually an awesome pizza - along with the green olives and corn, it also has artichoke hearts, caramelized red onions, and more mushrooms than you can shake a stick at.) ETA - And if any of you are wondering why I cite "real pizza sauce" as a concern, please consider that at least three of the big four down here use this sweetened, runny stuff that may have once been shown a tomato and perhaps had some herbs waved in it general direction, and have the temerity to call that pizza sauce. The two regionals use thick, well-spiced, tangy tomato sauces, which are worthy of the name.

Extract into neutral spirits (high proof) and then use as a base note in perfumes (if you're so inclined). Otherwise, infuse infuse infuse! I may end up getting an SV rig specifically to produce shelf-stable infused oils. Oh, and rosemary with raspberry infused in red wine vinegar is the stuff of the gods. I could drink it straight (and often do).

PC, that's exactly what I've been doing for years. I just violently object to having to copy (either by hand or by typing out) a recipe that's already in an electronic format that cannot easily be printed, such as Kindle! MelissaH See, and I've also been doing it for years (even before ebooks came around) simply because I can note my tweaks to the recipe on the handwritten copy, which saves me from writing in the actual cookbook (something that I violently object to in most cases).

Melissa - the easy solution to this (and incidentally the one I use) is to write out the recipe I want to test on a piece of A5 paper and magnet it onto a convenient surface. That way it a) doesn't get gooey (well, not usually anyhoo) and b) avoids me having to try and print it or barring that get my computer gooey. (This has happened to me - it's why I no longer have a Kindle Fire.)

I'm another one of the high-scoring MMPI psychopathology testers, and like Mmmfood I tend not to feel guilty about much of anything. Particularly food! I just don't see the why of it - I have to eat, so I might as well enjoy myself while doing so, yes? Then again, I'm the kind of person who will gleefully suck peanut butter straight out of the squeeze-pack; I'm not adverse to a spoonfull of Nutella or similar chocolate-nut-butters. I'm also partial to starch sandwiches, particularly spanish rice on sourdough. Perhaps, though, my worst offence (if you want to call it that) is raw cookie dough.

Speaking as somebody who hauled about 3 tons of books halfway across the planet, I'd have to say that there is a definite advantage to digital editions.... This said, I do love the feel and smell and general haul-into-the-kitchen-and-get-messy-and-stained-ness of actual physical books. (I hauled some generationally handed-down cookbooks with me, and I can tell which recipes gran and great-gran used to use because those pages are the ones with grease spatters and smears of cocoa on 'em). There's something very special about the bookness of books, and I think that's probably what keeps print alive these days. Nowadays, I generally go the eCookbook route while I'm in the testing phase, and then take the tested eCookbook on a disc to my local printer and have it printed out (in b/w), coil bound, and given a plastic cover, if I'm in love with it enough to want to repeat recipes. I'm also very big on finding the PayPal information of cookbook authors and making donations when I print their eCookbooks.

Thanks for the years (I didn't realize it was a decade!) of hard work. Please don't be a stranger - we'll miss you terribly if you do!

Chris, first of all let me say that I'm assuming you're making pain au chocolat by first making croissant-style dough and then wrapping it around your baton. If you're using brioche-style dough, you should ignore me all together, because that's a completely different creature. For the melted chocolate technique, you melt the chocolate (obviously) with a bit of butter to help keep it softer, then allow it to cool slowly to the consistency of warm butter (I couldn't tell you what temperature that was if I wanted to - I've always just done it by eyeballing it). Then on the last layer of your pastry, you spread it as you would the final butter layer of a croissant, fold the dough over the last time to seal it (as you would for a regular croissant), then cut and form the rolls immediately - you can't refrigerate the last layer, as it will become too stiff to roll properly. I've been able to interleave up to 3 spreadings of chocolate without losing the loft that comes from the butter leafing, but for bite-size rolls I think that a single layer is probably more than sufficient. I would also experiment with rolling the dough as thinly as you can without rupturing it - that way you'll get more layers in the mini-rolls, which is always desireable (at least, for me it is. If I'm going through all the trouble to make pain au chocolat this way, I want them to be stupendously fantastic.) ETA - if you're feeling very lazy, Nutella or similar would probably work wonderfully in this application.... Equally, you could do nut-butter filled breads in the same manner.

Gee, and here I was expecting pictures of Mamey or Zapote Naranja (which are the usual sapotes in my part of the world). Yours look like white sapotes, which can be ripened exactly as Andie suggests. After that, I like sapote smoothies - cut the fruit in half, pick out the seeds (they're quite large) and scoop the flesh into the blender with a little vanilla yoghurt and milk. They've got very little fibre so you don't even have to do the extra step of liquifying with water and straining for pulp. Of course, they're also great out of hand....