Popcorn

not sure of the spelling on this one, but: Conternal Kucky's chicken

Wendy, I'm going to try your whipping trick this weekend making ganache. I hope it will get me closer to my goal, a largish truffle with a firm yet tender/almost crumbly texture, that is solid at room temperature but due to (hopefully) whipped in air melts quickly in the mouth. two quick questions: if I''m going to do this from scratch, is there an ideal chocolate/cream ratio, or would I use a standard ganache recipe? Do I whip the ganache while it's still warm or let it cool completely? okay I lied, third question: If I whipped the ganache til firm, could I use a melon baller to scoop out round truffles, or would I need to pipe them out? Many thanks.

So for a holiday party I am responsible for putting together a fairly massive cookie tray. I'd like to add something savory as well and have sort of settled on spiced pecans. But I don't have a recipe... I've looked around on the web and found a bunch of different options, but I thought I'd check here first and see if anyone has a tried and true recipe that they can recommend. many thanks

I'm quite a fan of chinese roast pork or roast duck with pancakes. as well I grew up with creamed chicken and/or cream chip beef on various breakfast bread products. One of my unfulfilled goals in life is eating generic ground beef (a la old el paso seasoning mix) for tacos in a thin pancake. someday. I always stay away from sweet with my pancakes, and like to cook them in a pan in which I've cooked bacon, to de-sweetify the pancakes a bit.

I'll give that a try next time. I used honeycrisp, as they were the best looking apples I could find, and at least one source I read through recommended them. Presumably the fact that the apples don't cook down as much is the reason less flour is needed?

So this weekend I began learning how to make a decent apple pie. My end goal is approximating my grandmother's, as I have inherited her wonderful ceramic pie pan. I have a long way to go. I used the all butter crust recipe from land'o'lakes website, the the filling was from Tyler Florence's "traditional apple pie" recipe located here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_21944,00.html A myriad of problems ensued. Firstly, I did the two knife method to cut the butter into the flour. This was taking an awfully long time, so I would periodically place the bowl in the fridge to stay cool. I never really got it to a place I was happy with. I have a food processor so if I need to, I can use that, but I would like to get the feel for doing it by hand if possible. My wife objects to crisco so that's out, though if there's a *healthy* alternative I'm open to suggestions. Lard is out, as I'm not making it myself and the lard I get around here is either nasty or only suitable for savory purposes. Then I'm supposed to add 4-5 tablespoons of water. enough so I can squeeze together a lump of dough and it will stick. This took more like 9 tablespoons of (ice) water. The dough chilled for awhile, but when it came time to roll it out, it would not stay together. I tried rolling it out on a cutting board, that didn't work. I tried the two pieces of plastic wrap, that didn't work. I wound up dumping the crumbs in the pan and pressing them down to make the bottom crust. Somehow the top crust worked a little better. The filling turned out pretty good actually, I varied the apple slices so they had differing textural qualities. The down side to the filling is there was a ton of liquid still in the pie at the end. so this morning when I had my apple pie breakfast the bottom crust was in the process of disappearing. Tastewise I'm happy with the filling, but the crust is tough (from too much water I imagine) and the pie is ugly looking. My pie pan was my grandmother's , it's a thick dark ceramic glazed pie pan and it's a little smaller than 9 inches (say 8.5 maybe?) and a little shallower than most. I don't know how much of a difference that could have made, other than less surface area to evaporate the liquid during cooking. I'd like to not have to use tapioca or cornstarch in the pie filling. If I have to I will, but it seems like I should be able to get away with not using either of these. I've though maybe I should cook the filling separately first, but then I think it would be overcooked in the pie baking process. Any thoughts?

so I recently was gifted with a largish hunk of Neal's backyard cheddar, a first for me, and something of an awakening. It's a little moldy in spots, but transcendent tastewise. (and I have no idea if the mold is meant to be there or not) So eating it, it occurred to me that I don't know a whole lot about the cheeses available in the area, what's good, and where to get it. I generally get my cheese at Southern Season or the Durham Wholefoods, and typically stick to gorgonzola dolce, comte, and reblochon (sp?). I'm wondering if people can recommend favorite cheeses available in the area. I'm not a huge goat fan but otherwise I'm pretty much willing to try anything. I'm looking for the absolutely brilliant top rate cheeses... any serving suggestions would be appreciated as well.

Peanut Chews. I think they are made in baltimore or Philly.

Report on my first attempt at indian cookery: As mentioned, I started with browned cabbage and onions, from a very old madhur jaffrey book. Roughly the recipe calls for heating some whole spices in oil, adding sliced onions, cooking 3 minutes, adding the sliced cabbage, cooking an additional 30-45 minutes, meanwhile making a garlic ginger tomato paste - which is fried in oil and added to the cabbage for the last 5 minutes of cooking. My thoughts - I was surprised that the recipe called for heating the spices first and then keeping them in the pan through the entire cooking. They didn't get bitter, but they did get awfully black during the cooking of the onion. Is this typical? How dark are the onions supposed to get? 3 minutes barely made them translucent - I like well caramelized onions so let them go for a good 15 minutes. did I break any rules here? The cabbage was straightforward. The tomato garlic ginger paste was somewhat rough. The cookbook suggests using a blender. Mine would definitely not do the trick. I wound up mincing the ingredients, adding some salt to act as a kind of sandpaper, and using the flat of my knife to make a rough paste. Frying this mix was a wonderful experience, flavorful smelling, fresh, and the mix almost seemed designed to develop a fond (bunhao?). The final dish was good. The one issue that I had with it was the last minute addition of lemon juice, which I found really distracting and not harmonious with the rest of the dish. I'm looking forward to picking out some new dishes to try. I found this dish at least to be very sanguine with my ideas about cooking. I love the fact that at its base, this dish seemed like it was all about cooking the water out of a variety of ingredients in different ways. Onions and spices in the beginning, tomato and more onion later on. The twin indicators that the cooking is nearing an end being the development of the fonde and the decrease in the amount of steam coming out of the pan. That may seem abstract but it's good way for me to understand this stuff.

I'm getting a good picture of how this is going to work. I'll stay away from naan (for now). a few last simple questions: "wet" dishes refer to dishes in which sauce plays a major role right? This isn't some ayurvedic term? (Getting the terms "hot" and "cold" straight in chinese cooking was tough) If appetizers don't play a role, in what context are things like samosas or dosai served? between a large decent wok or a largish castiron skillet, which would be preferable for this type of cooking?

Thank you all so much! I went yesterday for my initial foray and picked up a decent representative of the suggestions on this thread. The dry spices were pretty straightforward, and ducksredux, I do in fact now have plenty of kalonji. No luck on the amchur nor the tamarind paste - though that was more a byproduct of my being in slightly more of a hurry than I had realized. I picked up a variety of pickles (pickle?) and am looking forward to busting into them hopefully tonight. Also picked up pappadum. So now the next question (I hope you don't mind all these - I could read a book but I really prefer the flexibility and direct knowledge of y'all) Is there a standard structure to an Indian meal? For instance when I was learning to cook Chinese food there was a rough ratio of number of dishes to number of diners, and a logic to how dishes were chosen. Is this true with Indian dining? Also is there a logic to when ghee is used and when oil? Can anyone recommend a recipe for naan? My goal for friday is a complete meal with several dishes and naan, but since both my cookbooks are british the baking measurements will be off... One last question I'd like to throw open to everyone. Are there any particular dishes I should try making which would give me insight into important techniques of Indian cookery? For instance I am planning (from a madhur jaffrey book) on making "Bhuni Band Gobi" for my first dish, as I truly love cabbage. This looks promising as it has several techniques I'm unfamiliar with, making a "tarka", the inclusion of spices at different times for different results, and making a paste of onion tomato ginger and garlic.

Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what type I'm going to be cooking. I have two old madhur jaffrey books, "illustrated indian cookery" and "spice kitchen" which I will start with, and I will move on from there. Knowing how my taste in Indian restaurants goes, I'm more inclined towards south Indian. A few questions: Is there a difference between black and brown mustard seed? rough idea of what that difference is? The block of tamarind - will it be in the freezer or on the shelf? Assume I'll be going to an Indian market for this stuff. turmeric - fresh or the powder? I understand the need for ghee, is there a default cooking oil as well? are canned beans okay to use? frowned upon? indian pickles - As with the tamarind, will this be in a jar on a shelf or in the refrigerator? I'm not familiar with indian pickles as of right now. I'd also appreciate hearing more about the lentils. I know there are red lentils, and I've seen yellow split peas. what other types should I be looking out for? Does Indian cooking include green lentils? Many many many thanks,

So due to a variety of factors I have decided to cook Indian for the next 3 months. Pursuant to that I purchased the other day a coffee grinder for spice-related grinding. Today and tomorrow I will be stocking the pantry with whatever other hardware and software is necessary. So I'm interested in hearing what are the staples of the Indian pantry. wet ingredients, dry ingredients, canned stuff, whatnot. So far on the list: Spices peppercorns fenugreek cumin kalonji cloves cinnamon Other dry: basmati rice chick peas wet onion garlic ginger I know I can gather a list like this by making a bunch of indian dishes and seeing what spices they need, but I'm looking to get a ready to go pantry so that when I get ready to cook I already have some of the shopping done. Many thanks, Ben

Thanks all. Jaymes, It's always nice to read your responses (I've happily made several of your recipes posted on egullet, always with success). Talking to the elderly grandparents is somewhat out of the question as the parents have decided that this will be a surprise visit (which seems questionable, but they're my wife's parents so it's actually not questionable if you get my drift). Good to hear that about the grapefruit, I'll try to find out what type of medication they're on and go from there. Thanks again everyone. I think risotto is out due to the fat content. I'm thinking a casserole and a soup is the way to go. since the soup will be chicken soup, any suggestions for a pork or beef casserole?

So my wife's Grandmother was just in the hospital for a serious bout of pneumonia. She's doing better but needs a lot of rest. We're going up to visit this weekend and are planning on doing a bunch of cooking and freezing of meals for the grandparents. They're very old school eaters (lots of meatloaf, pot roast, "spaghetti night", and the like) so nothing with fennel pollen. Oh and there have been some medication based hydration issues as well so one of the foods we'll make will be some kind of soup. Looking for suggestions from anyone who's been cooking in a similar situation. We're looking for foods which are easily digestible, and easily reheatable/portioned. We were initially thinking about making "upscale mac and cheese", which has spinach and sun dried tomatoes in it but we were worried it might be a little too rich. many thanks, Ben

Hey Anzu, I may try this recipe out this weekend. My only reservation is whether the indian part of the jewish/indian cookbook will mess with my happily nostalgic memory of halva. It doesn't sound like it though. Pam, the halva cake with ganache sounds fabulous to me. any more details on the production of said? Thanks, Ben

This is just a shot in the dark... as a child I was madly in love with the Halva I'd get from various jewish delis in baltimore. marbled, chocolate, plain(?), with nuts or without, I loved it all. I haven't had halva in years and it occurred to me to see if anyone here makes it themselves and has a recipe worth sharing. I know I could google recipes but I have learned to trust the excellent palate's of the egullet bakers... In addition to the recipe I'd love to hear if halva is shippable in cold weather as I'm thinking ahead to the Christmas gift making season. Many thanks! Ben

okay, catering/restaurant sounds like the way to go. Thanks all for the advice... I'm still not totally giving up the idea of trying something like this. But it's probably best to try it out a few times on willing friends before an undertaking like this.

to follow up, one question I specifically have is on the number of dishes. If this were an american dinner party I might make a roast or what have you, and mammoth portions of a vegetable or two and a starch or two. Does this follow for chinese food? Should I shoot for a large quantity of two or three recipes or a smaller amount of, let's say, 7-10 recipes? Thanks!

So this is I imagine a somewhat unique question. I am going to responsible for throwing a dinner party for my tai chi instructor's tai chi instructor's tai chi instructor in a couple of months. This person speaks no English and only rarely comes to the U.S. and *really* prefers Chinese food (or at least has always chosen to eat in Chinese restaurants when I've been around). In the past I've seen him eat plenty of steamed fish w/matchsticked ginger and some kind of sauce on it, ma po tofu (with pork), and sea cucumber, so I know he's not a vegetarian, but he obviously values healthy eating... So I'm trying to figure out a menu that will be both impressive and feasible, for somewhere between 8-12 people. With essentially one worthwhile burner with regard to wok cooking. I have the Land of Plenty cookbook, a fair amount of experience cooking from it, and access to a decent asian grocery. What I don't know is how a dinner like this is structured/served, nor how to go about cooking it (timing wise). Nor how to choose complementary courses. Nor... just about anything else it would seem. Any suggestions?

You could always try the thoracic cake. http://www.theyrecoming.com/extras/pumpkinfest03/

If you don't want a response, maybe you should stop asking the question. Or at least not be surprised when customers respond to it.

So last night my wife and I tried to make the chocolate covered hazelnut cookies from the Pierre Herme chocolate cookbook with mixed (yet still delicious) results. I'm wondering if someone here can point me towards what I might have done wrong. The recipe calls for cooking a mixture of hazelnuts, powdered sugar, and egg whites (and some coffee) on the stove to a temp between I believe 130-140 degrees, laying it out in a pan to cool, de-panning the block of hazelnut mixture, cutting it into squares, baking the squares, then dipping them in chocolate. Ours never solidified enough upon cooling to de-pan the mixture. When I picked it up it began fracturing and the sugar mixture between the nuts was still somewhat soft. I would have needed a spoon to portion it out as is, so I stuck it in the fridge for a while to firm it up. An hour or so later I cut it into squares and laid the cookies out. I let them come to room temperature and then baked them off. The hazelnut part of the cookies stayed in it's square shape, while the sugar mixture spread, leaving a small mountain of cookie surrounded by a large circle of flat sugary goodness. In order to maintain their cookie-ness I've cut off the large circles, leaving only the cookie mountain. The cookies are plenty good, and since I've never had them prepared I can pretend that this is what's supposed to happen. But I was wondering if anyone here had an idea what I might have done wrong? Here are my deviations from the recipe: The recipe calls for a stovetop temp between 130-140 "as read by an instant read thermometer". We don't have one, we have an old school candy thermometer. It read 137 when we took the mixture off the stove. I don't know if the thermometer could be off, or if the type of thermometer made a difference The recipe calls for 1 T of instant coffee dissolved in 1 T of boiling water. We don't have instant coffee so I used a little bit less than 2 T (let's say 1 3/4 T) of strongly brewed coffee. I've never checked whether our oven temp is accurate - however I've never had a problem before with it and this problem seemed to initiate pre-baking. Lastly I put the cookie mixture in the fridge for a while. I have no idea how (other than temp) this could affect it. Any thoughts? Thanks, Ben

Chipotle's barbacoa is the best food in the world. okay maybe not, but surprisingly good for what it is. I've tried replicating it to no avail and really hope you come up with something (and post it here). I know the meat is marinated with (among other things) juniper berries, and I think there might be a tiny bit of cinnamon as well. Other than that....? Every time I go to Cleveland I make straight for the Chipotle's. sadly in N.C. we are stuck with baja fresh and qdoba.

Thanks everybody, amaretti looks like the answer. How about a cookie (similar pedigree) with pistachios/a pistachio flavor? I'm going out to the library to check out the Malgieri book this weekend. ben