fifi

Welcome, Azumede. I think you must be cooking at too high a temperature but I am not sure. I do a lot of braises that develop a dark crust at the top of the liquid. A quick soak and it comes right off. I have never had to scrub hard. In fact, you need to be careful not to use agressively abrasive cleaning methods to avoid scratching the glaze. A damaged surface might lead to sticking. I don't know. Even my oldest piece, about 15 years and I use it at least once a month, is still slick. On other baked on gunk problems, like roasting pans, the new Dawn Power Dissolver is magic. (Those folks are going to owe me a commission. )

Sticky rice with coconut cream and mango is a favorite Thai dessert. I used to make it using the PITA method... Big steamer, watch the water level, spritz with water etc. etc. etc. Then my friend that is an excellent Thai cook got in a bind for time and said "what the hell". Worked like a charm. From then on I just dump in the sticky rice, we add pandanus leaves, and cook it on the sushi rice setting. (I think. I never remember and have to call her every time.) My cooker has the slow cook and steamer setting but I have never used it for that. I don't steam veggies much and if I do, that big steamer from the Asian grocery just looks more dramatic on the stove.

I also have the fuzzy logic one from Williams Sonoma, but I paid $200 for it. It was one of those things I do for myself after the holidays... go buy something just for me that is somewhat outrageous. I love the thing. I am always getting some kind of weird rice at the Asian market and it hasn't failed me yet. You can cook a batch of any size and it will be perfect. It also holds the rice at serving temperature for a really long time. A good friend of mine does Thai or Cajun cooking for a large group now and then. She has one as well and will borrow mine. The serving area will have two of these lovelies at the ready for the evening. Did I mention that it has a retractable cord? For some reason that is almost my favorite feature.

The ratio of crust to meat is the most difficult balance to achieve. And it must be pan fried in a big ol' cast iron skillet, not deep fried. It makes a difference. Sort of like chicken. (We discussed this phenomenon here.) In a commercial operation, pan frying is not convenient so finding a place that pan fries it may be difficult. (Just like chicken.)

You've got it. I have read that the "breading" shifted to flour on the cattle trails or the ranch because that is what the cook had. The next natural step was gravy made with that flour. I'm not sure if all that is true but it does make some sense.

I just drizzled a little bit over buttered baked sweet potato.

I copied this from a post I made in the GUMBO thread. Click on the link for some really cool veggie lyrics. Gonna carve a jack-o-lantern, hang the garlic high, This crop's been coming for a long, long time. Flaming red peppers will rain down from the sky, And your tap water'll turn into okra slime. Note: I have no idea who Jason Webley is. I found this by googling "okra slime" just to bug our Forum Host. This thread gives me a chance to use it again. Thank you.

No this isn't a tease. It is more like... NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH-NYAH! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

When I was a kid, we always grew them and ate them a lot. I am still here. (Much to the dissappointment of some. ) I find it interesting that lima beans are one of those things that some people absolutely HATE, sort of like cilantro. I wonder if it is one of those genetic differences in taste perception.

*drags out McGee yet another time* After discussing cyanogens in fruit pits etc., McGee goes on: That is why I mentioned the "heirloom" varieties. Sprouts are probably not a good idea either since they are usually consumed raw. I almost did that one time when I was into sprouting everything I could get my hands on. But it probably wouldn't have been that big a deal with the "commercial" limas in the bag on my grocery shelf.

Good catch Jaymes. I always forget that when this comes up. And I am the safety freak. I guess it just seems obvious to me. Duhhh. It isn't exactly all that obvious.

Ah... Favism. Tell us a story Uncle Russ. Please. Please. Please. With sugar on it?

Here is what I do... Get several cans of sweetened condensed milk. Remove the labels and scrub off the remaining glue (so you don't muck up your pot). Put a dish towel in the bottom of a big pot and put the cans in. Cover with several inches of water and simmer covered for about 4 hours. The dish towel muffles the noise from the cans bumping around. The cover keeps the water level from dropping too much. Some folks are worried about the cans exploding but I have never had that happen in 25 years of doing it.

I see no difference in the texture of the bean skin from salting. I gave up the no-salt routine many years ago. I go back to my original post about adding salty pork products anyway. I am not sure about the Old World beans. I have cooked dried garbanzos (Goya brand) in my crockpot just like I do every other bean and they were great. You do have to be careful about limas though. Some of the older varieties and fresh green ones contain enough precursors for cyanide to be a problem and should be cooked uncovered. Cases of poisoning are rare now because most varieties have been bred to reduce those precursors but if you are messing with heirlooms you might keep this in mind.

I smell a gratin coming on.

I love 'em too much. I just oil the rims.

Uh... ALL of my LC pots with the ground coat on the edge of the pot and the lid, rust.

Yeah... I agree. Grill pans are, by reason of function, subject to extremes of heat. This seems to be one of those areas where LC shouldn't have ventured into. Enameling on a grill pan makes no sense. I wonder if I can get enough credit to get something cute like this or this.

The pan is about four years old. I got it at the outlet in San Marcos TX. I have only used it maybe twice. You very well might be right about them abandoning the enamel. I would have.

My grandmother used to make me "white coffee" when I was little. This was milk diluted by about half with water with some added sugar. The diluted milk has a much different taste than heated whole milk. I just put some dulche de leche in that and it was absolutely WONDERFUL. Sort of a childhood flashback with an added layer of decadence.

This is a first on an eGullet blog. Cats conversing. Classic.

If you have some rolls of paper towels, sacrifice them and put them down on the spill area and let them do their capillary action thing overnight. That is an approach used often on industrial spills (with something somewhat like a roll of paper towels) and it slurps up an amazing amount of oil if given some time. You lay down several sheets of toweling over the whole area then lay the rolls on their sides a few inches apart and step on them to get more contact area. That is how those log things work that you might see at the base of coolers and such in grocery stores.

melkor... Where did you get the red scallions for your garden? I don't think I have ever seen them. Do they have any difference in flavor or is the red just a great visual effect. Scallions grow rather well here on the Gulf Coast and that would be a welcome addition to our gardens.

raw tomatoes turnips anything strongly fishy (that means bluefish is out) anything where you eat all its innards (oysters, clams, mussels, snails) These are things that if served to me as a guest, I will leave on my plate and not even attempt to be polite. Leaving it on my plate is more polite than throwing up on my plate.

I am thinking a good dark rum. Any suggestions for this non-expert on rum?