Panaderia Canadiense

My current gas oven, which is hardly a middle-of-the line (we got it in a package deal with the fridge) goes down to 140 F without any issues at all. My old electric one went down to I think around 120 F on its lowest setting. What's going on with North American ovens, that they no longer have a "slow" setting?

Ah, don't toss it. Place it on the mantelpiece and call it a modern art celebration of the kitchen aesthetic. As for the Oster, I would never use it on ice - that's what a proper standing blender is for! The stick-processor is meant for veggies, shallots, and chopping softer nuts (walnuts and macadamias, for example, but not almonds). Used in that manner, its performance is stellar. As a stick mixer, I have yet to find a better thing for mayonnaise. I'm now itchingly curious as to how the 1-star reviewers were using it?

No photo, but breakfast today was a sandwich consisting of red banana, peanut butter, manjar de leche, and chocolate syrup on whole wheat. Lordy it was good. And why don't we have a licking-lips smiley?

That only works if the tomatoes are the only veggie in the larder. The minute you also store avocadoes (another NEVER IN THE FRIDGE thing), apples, bananas, or really any other fruit or veggie besides carrots, beets, or potatoes, in there with them, you'll see spoilage in the tomatoes. I know this from experience, unfortunately. This said, I live in a tropical country and my kitchen routinely tops out about 45 C on sunny days even if I avoid cooking in it. My tomatoes live in a nice wire basket on the countertop in the shadiest location possible - I grow quite a few heirlooms and I'd never even consider fridging them. I only put tomatoes in the fridge if I'm using them for a long-cooked sauce or some similar thing, where the texture isn't so important. And those are normally market-bought tomatoes, which are indifferent to begin with.

The Oster 2-speed hand blender with processor attachment is similar to the Bamix but much less expensive (about $40 US down here, likely less up there). I have this one, and never use it as a stick blender - it's exclusively my small-size food processor. I actually have a lot of Oster stuff and I've never had it break down on me. Or there's the Cuisinart mini option. Or, you can check and see if your current large blender has a base that fits onto a mason jar - then just chop in that.

Certainly that's true here in Ecuador, Jenni. Most people, even in Ambato which is famed for wheat breads, can take or leave it, but threaten to take away the Quimbolitos (a quinua-based steamed bread) or Humitas (the same thing, with corn instead) and they'll weep inconsolably. Other great gluten alternatives (also, incidentally, staples here in Ecuador) include Plantain, Achira (canna rhizome) and Taro (and by extension Pelma, Sigueme, and other Aroid tubers).

I was more pointing out that a year's aging does both bacalao and cafe verde a great deal of good. I also agree that it's very easy to keep small lots of green or even freshly-roasted coffee in near-fresh condition (which is why I buy my beans the way I do.) I don't have much opportunity to sample the Central American coffees, but I will say that if anybody up there in the great cold North gets a chance at coffee from Ecuador's Cariamanga, Vilcabamba, or El Oro regions, it's truly excellent. These are high-altitude plantations of Arabica beans that are extremely well cared for from cherry to final product.

The pan of water will work fairly well so long as you're not cooking in a gas oven - those typically have vents for safety that also allow the humidity to escape (a fact I learned much to my chagrin when adapting my bread recipes for gas ovens from electrics, which generally have a much tighter seal in the oven chamber... ) If you're cooking in a gas oven, the best method I've found is to actually open the oven door a crack and spray the oven walls with water - you get a nice humidity rise that way with very little trouble. Again, this is a breadmaking trick, and you won't get a whole lot of humidity from it. So the Dutch Oven is probably the best idea, now that I've waffled on.

The same can be said of salt cod.... I used to live and work (for a plantation, no less) in the heart of Ecuadorian coffee country - one of the areas that produces beans that retail in the US for upwards of $20 a pound, so I know from high end green beans and proper processing methods. I do believe that upthread I reccomended getting a good grinder and coffeepot, and then spending the rest on great coffee beans.... I still search out the beans from the cooperative I worked for (Gremio de Cariamanga), even now that I live some half the country north of there - it's worth the extra 50 cents a pound to me because I know how those particular beans have been handled, and I know that the quality is as high as I can afford while still buying local (which is a big thing for me - I prefer to support my adopted country.)

Both are products with a definite, and short, shelf life once exposed to air?

Weighing in from coffee country (I can get a myriad pick of excellent beans in anything from still-in-the-cherry to freshly-roasted while I wait), I'd say that your best bet is a good burr-style grinder and a Moka pot with the little steamer-attachment-thingie that screws into the vent (a grand attachment for things like steamed milk). You'll be well under budget and have money left over for good beans.

Yorkshire pudds must be done fresh, preferably in the drippings of the roast, but they're far less tricky than you think. They only become complicated if you're committed to making them in individual ramekins for each guest - if you do that, you'll find that the first ones into the cups are far superior to the last ones simply because the soda reaction will have had more time to take place by the time you get the last ones into the cups. However, if you treat the pudds as though it's a single souffle, it will do just fine and be very tasty - it slices nicely when hot. For a potato dish that will stand being kept warm, try scalloped potatoes. They're absurdly easy to make ahead of time and then can simply be held in a warm oven or chafer for extended periods of time (my record is 5 hours at minimum in the oven, silly late guests) without damaging the flavour or texture of the dish any. However, given that you're already serving Mac and Cheese and Yorkshire Pudds, I'd almost consider this to be a starchy overload. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's not balanced either. In terms of a veg or legume dish, consider chilled ones like what my family calls Roman Beans (green beans in dill vinagrette, preferably with balsamic vinegar), or perhaps chilled asparagus spears in a 5-cheese cream sauce (the sauce can be held warm for long periods in a small crock pot, and the asparagus can be prepared ahead of time). Or, as somebody suggested ever so astutely, a nice assertive green salad. Best of luck - I'm sure that whatever you end up doing will be a big hit with your guests! Edit - a good spellar is me!

I'm battling a head cold, which means extra horchata for me.

Four years, and I'm not leaving any time soon. I asked because I'm in a country that produces some of the world's finest cacao, and even I had a difficult time finding natural unalkalized cocoa - I source mine from a bakery supply shop as well.

Where is "here," if you don't mind my asking?

If you've ever visited Edmonton in the winter, it's quite apt. In the summer, however, we put that nasty nickname to shame.

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.

Is there not a chemical supply house where you live? They will either have food-grade lye or be able to source it for you.

I'd have to beg to differ. I grew up in Edmonton (nickname - Deadmonton), which is hardly a multicultural mecca, but there is a tremendous "foreign" cuisine scene there, as well as ethnic markets that I still miss. And according to Mom, it was that way from at least the 70's when my folks moved out there. Perhaps it's a Peterpatch thing? This said: Guests over? The quickest meal I know is to premarinade chunks of turkey or chicken, freeze 'em, and then just pull them, completely frozen, into a hot pan with fresh chopped veggies. They thaw as they cook, and voila! Instant stirfry. If you've got no-carbers, simply don't serve them the glass noodles (ping or bean thread are my faves - and they're good for the no-gluten crowd since they're not technically made using grain. They're also wicked-fast cookers and can be done while you're tossing the stirfry). And, me being me, I always have at least cinnamon buns or cookies in the house for dessert. No carbers (there are very few here) get chopped fresh papaya or whatever fruit I have on hand. If they spring a visit on me on a Sunday, that's a banana on the edge of skankiness, but hey - my friends know they should give me a day's notice before coming for dinner!

Dutch process cocoa is alkaline, so I'm not sure that adding acid to the recipe would produce anything by way of colour reaction - if I recall my chemistry correctly you'd end up with a saltier tasting final product (due to a neutralization reaction between the soda and acid) but you wouldn't get the red-brown colour you're after. That comes from a particular reaction of untreated cacao, which is mildly acidic and which behaves very differently in recipes. This said, I'd encourage you to give it a shot in your kitchen - scale your recipe back as far as possible (to 1 egg, usually), then try the Dutch process cacao with, say, the juice of a lime added at the butter-sugar stage. If it works without skewing the flavour of the cake, fab. If not, you don't have so many muffins/so much cake that it's a moral problem binning or composting it.

The trick to tender calamari in ceviche is to pound the ever loving snot out of it before it goes into the acid bath. I mean get out your nice wooden tenderizing hammer and take out all of your frustrations on the squid using the flat side for at least 10 minutes. Then it comes out of the cure as pure, buttery goodness.

If you go with coconut milk, add it after the fish has cured in the lime/fish-sauce, not before. It's quite alkaline, and will retard the curing process.

And I entirely forgot the largest food event in my city! (insert forehead slap here). Late January right up to the day of Lent - Festival of Fruit and Flowers, Ambato, Ecuador. Specific days within this festival celebrate the harvest of the best of the black Claudias, Duraznos, Guaytambos, Naranjillas, Ambato Red Pears, Tisaleo Gold Apples. Near the middle is the Festival of Bread, celebrating the best in the traditional Ambato breads (we're known for having the best bread in the country), the Chocolate Festival, and sometimes (alternate years) the Cuy Festival. There are also typically about 5 times the number of street food vendors during this two month festival period.

Ecuador Dorado de Tisaleo

Durazno is difficult to describe. It's a stonefruit native to Ecuador, somewhere between a peach and an apricot, with a round, distinctive flavour that's slightly more peach when fresh and slightly more apricot when dry. It's typically added to fresh tea blends to provide just a hint of sweetness without bothering the nice round tannin bitterness; with the Sangay plantation teas it's there to help bring out a particular bitter chocolate basenote in the flavour.