Panaderia Canadiense

Here's yesterday's haul; it's the last I'll see out of that garden since I'm moving. I'll try to take as many of the plants with me as I can, but the ají pepper bush is too large to move ( )

In my book, that's either a quick bread or a coffee cake, depending on how sweet it is and how fine the crumb turns out. Coarser crumb and less sweet are quick breads, while finer crumb and sweeter are coffee cakes. I'd actually suggest that it's a quick bread, since it's meant to be served while still warm from the oven. Most coffee cakes take a glaze or wash of some sort, and are therefore served cool (because oven heat interferes with glaze setting, obviously.)

I have mine custom-made by a bespoke chef's tailor down here (although for reasons other than yours - I'm simply much longer of arm in proportion to the chest measurement than most Ecuadorians, and finding something off-the-rack that fit me was impossible). You might want to investigate having a jacket custom made, if you're not adverse to spending a tidge more on your presentation jackets.

LIa, have you experimented with mandioca / tapioca as a gelling agent? I'm not sure how it works syneresis wise, but it would certainly be worth a shot. It might also be worthwhile to investigate Konjac (Glucomanan), which should also be available in Brazil (at least, it is here in Ecuador, and we're a much smaller market!)

I do; they end up much more like Scottish shortbreads, though - hand-held heart failures, every one of them. They're completely buttery.

Ok then. I asked because I've got about a dozen Arrowroot recipes, and I was trying to narrow them down. If you're going for a lower-fat version, here's the best one: 150g plain flour 60g arrowroot flour 65g icing sugar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar 55g neutral-flavoured oil (I like sunflower, other options include corn or canola) 30g thickened cream --- Heat the oven to 180C/350F. (no such thing as preheating - it's hot, or it's not.) Place the flours, icing sugar, baking soda and cream of tartar in a bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined. With a whisk, slowly add in the cream, working the flour slightly. Add the oil to bring the mixture together. The dough should be slightly crumbly (like shortcrust pastry), but when pinched together, hold its shape. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured bench top and roll out to 1/8 inch. Using a cookie cutter of your choice, cut out shapes from your dough and transfer to a lined baking sheet. You do not have to leave space between biscuits as the dough should not spread during baking. Bake the biscuits for around 8 minutes or until they begin to slightly turn in colour. Alternately, if you like bar-type biscuits, you can roll out whole sheets and then cut with your favourite pastry wheel (these will be similar to the British-style biscuits sold in the Caribbean).

OK, next question: fully GF, or are you amenable to the inclusion of other flours in the recipe?

Do you have a reliable source for Arrowroot flour? If you don't, then any recipes we can give you will be more or less useless....

Rose, once my life settles down a bit I'll also take a crack at those (I may alter the recipe a little for my altitude, but I'll tell you what I did). Proper croissants are completely unheard of in Ecuador, and I'm craving!

Something like this, perhaps? Or more like this one? (Unfortunately, I'm not sure if Cristar is sold north of Colombia....)

That's the right techique alright! I've never tried with a hot water dough; with my experience with cold-water doughs I've always been able to get a very fine product - it's part of what the slice'n'roll technique does.

Do you have a good recipe for them? I'm still on the hunt for anything as good as I used to eat at Ying Chow in Adelaide 8 C unbleached white flour 4 C cold cold cold water 1 bunch scallions 1 small red onion pinch of salt pinch of 5-spice powder oil for frying. Chop the scallions and onion very finely, sautee in a bit of oil with a pinch of salt and 5-spice powder until the onions are just browned and tender. Set aside to cool. Prepare the dough by adding the water to the flour gradually (you may need more or less water depending on your flour). What you want is a smooth, strong dough. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 24 x 30 inches and 3/8" thick. Sprinkle with the scallions and oil, then dust with a bit more 5-spice powder. Roll the dough into a log from the wide end. Cut 2" sections (these are your pancakes). Twist each section into a ball (forming layers of dough and scallion), then roll out into flatter rounds, 8-10" across. Fry in hot oil about 5 minutes to a side or until they start to brown up, flipping only once (but keep 'em moving in the oil so that they don't stick.) Serve with ginger soy and chili dipping sauce.

Mine were unfortunately lost in a computer crash (argh!) but I'll be making more of them in June and July (wedding cakes) along with the more realistic gum-paste ones. I'll have pics then.

I think the key to keeping it from looking like playdoh is to examine an actual Calla carefully to see how the green meets the white, and then keep the stem shortish....

When it's available down here (and therefore very fresh, as the producers are about 10 km from me), I like to use it with potatoes - cut very thinly most of the way through, drizzled with avocado oil, then sprinkled with cinnamon and cloves and baked. Very tasty.

Right on, Scotty! I'll fight for my right to eat Marmite/Vegemite, especially with sharp cheddar cheese. However, something I think should be banned are premade Empanadas de Verde. Never. Again.

Scallion pancakes, obviously! And also scallion-mushroom-tofu momo.

Well, because Mother's Day is normally complete he** around here (as a cakemaker I work hardest when the rest of the world is relaxing), we celebrated last Sunday. Dinner was a mushroom and green pepper risotto, shrimp sauteed in drawn butter with aliño, steamed asparagus, and a green salad (not pictured.) Mom gave it rave reviews. (edited for my atrocious spelling and grammar. "picture" should only have one t and one e in it....)

Minas, if you want a stem to the Calla, try rolling it out and attaching it to the spadix (the yellow portion of the "flower), the wrapping the spathe (the "petal") in such a way that it hides the joint. I have a little wire doohickey that I made for the purpose of allowing pastillage flowers with stems to dry properly; it hangs on the rim of my tall glasses allowing the stem to sort of dangle free, while at the same time preventing the flower from collapsing.

<p>Heidi, that was a really, really devious way of saying it's either Toronto or Montreal. I'm going to go (with fingers crossed) with Kerry Beal.

As far north as Vancouver?

(Nitpicker hat on) I'm really sorry, but coming from a botanical standpoint all eggplants, everywhere, are female. They're the swollen ovaries of the plant, and it depends on the cultivar whether they're very seedy or barely at all. There's no such thing as a "male" eggplant. (Nitpicker hat off, sorry 'bout that.) I'm actually going to make one of my fave eggplant dishes tonight. I've got one leftover from my earlier-in-the-week ratatouille (which I love), and I've also got a block of queso fresco that needs using. What does this mean, you ask? Why, Berenjena Saldeada con Queso of course! This is cubes of eggplant sauteed in olive oil with aliño, and cubes of QF tossed in right at the end to heat up and crumble just a but (QF doesn't really melt, kind of like feta in that way.) I'll come back with photos later.

I'm quite fond of them for Juleps and other drinks that I'd normally serve in chilled steel cups - for those I use simple steel straws. Also, like KC, I've got a set of spoon/straws which I love for things like Caipirinhas and other muddled citrus drinks, which allow me to a) muddle as I'm drinking to modulate the amount of lime/orange/whatever in each sip, and b) receive that sip biting cold, since I can pre-chill the straws the same way I'd prechill a Julep cup. (Although not too chilled, or you end up with your lips stuck to them, like licking a lamppost in the wintertime.... ) If you're worried about chipping a tooth or whatever on steel, have you ever considered glass straws (ie large-bore pipettes, hollow stirring rods, or similar)? These also look very classy, but are less likely to cause physical damage.

Darienne, spring onions are a type of young green onions (incidentally, down here we'd call them cebolla blanca) - you use the leaf/scape part, cut into narrowish ribbons. They're a traditional tamal tie in Ecuador, when the tamales are savoury. The leaves are remarkably fibrous, but very soft when young and quite excellent for this sort of thing.

They're incredibly easy to make, Kim - just butter and aliño, which is similar to chimichurri. The kind I use is a paste of red onion, shallot, garlic, cilantro, parsely, basil, and cumin. Hot pan and olive oil, toss in the aliño, then the shrimp, and cook until they're just pink and curled up.