Thanks for the Crepes

kayb, I use mung beans to sprout exclusively, although there are probably other uses for them. I know I purchase glass/cellophane noodles that are made from them. I can only find the dry beans in specialty Asian or Mediterranean grocers in my area, and I'm ignorant of why they pop up in the latter. I have a special, but inexpensive jar I purchased that's a bit larger than a quart mason jar. It has a plastic screw-on-collared lid with a a fine stainless steel screen mounted into the plastic collar for draining the water easily, but you can do the same thing with a clean Mason jar or similar, a bit of cheesecloth, and a rubber band. I use a set of instructions from my old "Joy of Cooking" to do this, and it takes about 5 days from dry beans to stir-fry ready. If you don't have the "recipe" (I would't really call it one), and have any interest, I'd be glad to share further info. This post and the responses to it have been moved from the Cooking Dried Beans discussion.

I cooked the second kabocha squash of my life in the microwave in one on my treasured, old vintage, covered Corning Ware casserole dishes, as I usually do for winter squash. I really liked this one with a little butter and just salt. My first one I cooked, years ago, was dry and mealy to the point no amount of butter could save it. It must have been a bad one. So one more thing added to my repertoire of ingredients! This is why I never give up on something after the first try, and why I love eG for reminding me not to.

hummingbirdkiss, Those concord grape gumdrops look right up my alley. Rotuts would like them too, I think, as he is the one who coined the term "tart tooth", which I never knew how to describe properly before he turned me on to it. The homemade shapes are artisan, and only add value to me. I wish I could have been one of the ones enjoying them.

Norm, Your little birdies look wonderful. Yum! I also have been glazing Rock Cornish hens for as long as you or longer. The recipe I use is very delicious, well received, and I always think Cornish hens make any meal very special. "My" recipe is from the old Betty Crocker cookbook from 1976. It isn't on the Betty Crocker site proper, but this is the recipe in my book: https://deliciousdivas.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/oriental-rock-cornish-hens/ You stuff the hens with the hot stuffing, and because the hens are small, the recipe is probably safe even now, but I don't stuff inside the bird anymore because of the salmonella issue. I also never lace or truss poultry anymore. I made these many years ago verbatim from the original recipe, but now I make dressing on the side and I have varied the glaze by adding Chinese 5 spice powder, a little vinegar, and red pepper flakes sometimes, tasting and balancing. You can, and I have, subbed honey for the sugar called for; it takes a little more attention to prevent the cornstarch lumping. What I did was shake the soy sauce with the cornstarch in a jar before adding it. The original recipe is delicious, though, as written. It took me decades to realize that this delicious glaze need not be reserved for special occasions when Cornish hens were in the budget, but was equally wonderful on regular old everyday roast chicken. I usually double the glaze recipe because I love it, and there never seems to be enough.

That one exactly. Thanks! The person in the video is very skilled, but I fear for their non-knife hand.

patrickamory, I cannot stand that taste you're talking about, and I believe it comes from mature, intact adult males. I love baby lamb meat, but not mutton. Maybe you had a boar jowl? I have recommended Valbreso French "white sheeps' milk cheese" (feta) on this site, and after sampling some from my newly bought and opened can (exp. Feb. 16), I must withdraw my endorsement. This current batch has the taste you describe, so much so, that I will feed the rest of the $12 can to the coons after trying it out on my husband to see if he will eat it. This batch convinces me that their consistency does not justify the price, although I have really enjoyed this cheese for years. Just inedible, and not worth risking getting another bad can at that price. Are you reading this, hummingbirdkiss? I was serious when I said mature, intact male animals often taste so bad no one would eat them unless they were starving. Boar may be trending, but it sure beats me why.

Oh liuzhou, You have no idea how green with jealousy I am! So lucky you are. There's a video I ran across in my travail that may be something you or someone else on this site had linked to before, because I definitely remember having seen it before. Just look up "peeling water chestnuts" on Google. It's the second entry. I couldn't link to it for some reason, but I, personally, won't be chopping away at anything held in the air with my other hand with a sharp knife. It reminds me of this thread: https://forums.egullet.org/topic/28863-mongolia-seriously-escape-from-mongolia/ I thought there was a photo in there of a native Mongolian cutting stuff in the air like that, but I couldn't find it. It must have been the lasting impression of Ellen Shapiro's expressive words in my mind of how they had no clean place like a cutting board to cut up their ingredients. Sorry I couldn't find the specific example, but you know what I mean, and maybe newcomers will like to read this great thread. I enjoy re-reading it myself. I deleted my fist link that was only her first thread on Mongolia, to replace it with the existing one, because it contains links to the seven different threads she posted it in in the first post there. No wonder I couldn't find the pic I remembered. I still think there might be one, but that is not the reason to read this thread. Can't wait until I find some fresh water chestnuts. Edited trying to get a link to work which never did. Edited again because sharing the url in the post, copying and pasting into Google didn't work either.

huiray, S-Mart offers the thin slices of rib eye and pork where you can find some packages still frozen, and those are the ones I always go for. It needs to be at least partially frozen to slice or mince anyway, and once you cut meat like that it doesn't last long fresh. I just love the cut, even though I don't make pho. I like to use good meat more as a flavoring for vegetable dishes usually, and this cut is ideal for it. I asked the Asian cashier on my recent shop at S-Mart why I couldn't find chicken, and she said it was because of the "bacteria". I didn't get into it further, but I suspect that it is the salmonella problem that is tolerated by our government here. I was so hoping that she would tell me that they had some in the back to slaughter on order. I know it's illegal here, but I am a dreamer. *Sigh* I bet the folks who work there have their own chickens in the backyard for eggs and meat. That is legal here, though technically, you are not supposed to slaughter the chickens, but it's a very hard law to enforce. S-Mart does have live fish swimming in tanks that they will kill, dress and clean to order, but no live shrimp. Do you find live shrimp in Indiana? I definitely need to check out our Hispanic grocers, of which we have several. If only I could find skirt steak, one of my favorites. We also have some halal butchers I need to see about. It's lovely living in such a melting pot.

Smithy, Those ribs do indeed look perfect. Some think they should fall off the bone, but I think they should take a bit of tooth pressure, come cleanly off the bone and yet be tender. I can almost smell the fire and delicious aroma. I'm so glad you caught your sink disaster-waiting-to-happen. I have to tell you that I delight in instances where men pooh pooh women on engineering issues, and then are proved wrong. I can't tell you how many times it's happened to me. I come from an era when "women drivers" were considered vastly inferior and dangerous. We have statistics now to prove it's exactly the opposite. I'm looking forward to your further adventures and am in awe of your contributions here while putting forth a major effort in the eG software development forum as well.

Tonight I made a stir fry with some lovely vegetables flavored with pork. There was half a red bell pepper, a whole jalapeno pepper, 3 king oyster mushrooms, a little white onion, a nice juicy fat clove of garlic, grated ginger, a zucchini, 3 Roma tomatoes, a few ounces of broccoli, about a cup or so of finely shredded red cabbage and scallions for the veggies. All of this was flavored with about a half pound of finely shredded pork, soy sauce, black pepper and homemade chicken broth. I'm also not afraid of MSG, so that made an appearance too. This made 4 generous servings. I served it over thin spaghetti because I'm running low on rice. I missed the rice because it would have absorbed the sauce better, and the spaghetti was hard to get wound up on a fork with the chopped veggies. It was still very good, though. I was going to add fresh water chestnuts too, but I screwed up. I realized after looking at some YouTube videos to find an easier way to peel them that what I had actually brought home from the Asian grocery were American chestnuts, not water chestnuts. I know better than this, because I have bought fresh water chestnuts at this very store before. I could have sworn the sign said WATER chestnuts along with the price. If you ever see fresh water chestnuts, get them. They are flattened rounds with a little topknot sticking up from the top like an onion to which they are not related. I will never buy canned ones again after having them fresh. They're a pain to peel, but oh so good. I forged ahead with my error, and peeled the chestnuts with the microwave method I found on YouTube. They looked like they might have been old, but you couldn't tell it when they were inside the shells. I tasted one and didn't really care for it. I asked my husband to taste a bit, and he liked it, but then I found one that was moldy in the center, so I decided to peel the rest and give them to the coons. I won't make that mistake again.

I can't post any pictures, so I won't bore you with a long litany of mundane items I got at the groceries I visited today, but I thought I'd share some highlights, at least for me. At S-Mart, my nearby Korean-owned, pan-Asian grocer: http://www.yelp.com/biz/s-mart-cary-2 I got more of their thin sliced, almost shaved raw rib eye steak at $5.99 a pound. Mainstream grocers here used to offer rib eye at that price on sale, but without the value added prep of thin slicing for stir fry. Now it is $8.99 (or more) a pound on sale at best price at regular grocers. I also got white onions, russet potatoes (all big premium baking-sized), eggs, American sweet potatoes, kabocha squash and ginger root at vastly lower cost than regular grocers. Ethnic grocers are well worth checking out for bargains as well as exotic ingredients, of which I found some today at S-Mart. They had fresh water chestnuts and large, I assume, cultivated persimmons. I've never had the cultivated ones, but enjoyed the smaller wild ones in Tennessee while riding my horse after a good frost. I'm looking forward to both these treats. Then at A & S Market http://www.aseuromediterraneanmkt.com/ a few doors down, I got Valbreso brand imported French feta cheese, Caykur brand Turkish tea, and some really good pide bread that appeared to be homemade and very fresh. So I had a wonderful food shopping day, and I'm looking forward to cooking with the ingredients I got today. ETA: I can't believe I totally forgot about another treasure I picked up at S-Mart. King oyster mushrooms, which I've never had before, and only $4.99 a pound which is as cheap or cheaper than regular old white button mushrooms at most groceries around here.

This product looks good to me Fernwood, although I'm not a bleu cheese fan. I do not believe I could make 14 oz. of good tiropita for $4.00, so I'm going to check this product out next time I can get to TJ's. I am talking about the ingredients. Never mind the cursing that often goes on when I'm handling phyllo dough, and my time.

hummingbirdkiss, I seem not to be able to educate my palate to appreciate kimchi, but I love your exuberant reveling in it, and it almost inspires me to give it another try.

Thanks to you Alex, I have wasted many hours reading "The Awkward Yeti" and also "Barney and Clyde" I found on the same site. I appreciate you turning us all on to them.

liuzhou, Thanks for your typically intriguing contribution. Blossom's Riches: a bit taken aback for the poor ox, but you know, it might be good if we overcame our cultural aversion. Sea Cucumber dishes: for ignoramuses like me, heads up, this is an animal with a tentacled mouth like this sometimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holoturia.004_-_Aquarium_Finisterrae.JPG There are many variations, species? Wow! It seems that Chinese culinary, culture which is ancient and beloved worldwide, may also have seen mass deprivation to make some of these things popular food items. I can't imagine being the first to eat either one of these items. That is also said of oysters, which I adore. Quick Fried Pig's Ear: A few soul food restaurants in the Southern US still serve pig's ears, but they are braised and then crisp-fried. After Sherman came through after the official end of the civil war, many things that didn't seem edible before came on the menu and some stuck to this day. Some eat pig's feet here too. Interestingly, at least to me, one of the few crops Sherman's troops did not take out was okra. They did not recognize it as human or animal food.

Chinese-English translations are always good for a laugh. Chinese is such a very complex language, and many dish names are flowery, romantic and beautiful, but don't really do much to describe what's actually in the dish. I was interested in something I found out about on eG the other day, and couldn't find anything in English on it. So I ran a Portuguese language page through the translator, and to my complete amazement, it came through almost perfectly in English. I felt like I was in a sci-fi movie. The translator doesn't work nearly as well with Chinese, but I'm sure they'll get there. That is one upside to a world that is moving far too fast for this old-fashioned lady.

huiray, Very nice haul, and I adore the name "Music garlic". I consulted Mr. Google, and I will definitely keep my eye peeled for it.

chickpea, lentil or other legume salad potato salad* pasta/veggie salad* hard boiled or deviled* eggs samosas spanakopita tiropita grilled vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, peppers, onions and asparagus baba ghanoush with pita points cheese and crackers banana, cranberry or similar nut bread cheese biscuit or roll with herbs fruit or cinnamon scone vegetarian focaccia or Indian flatbread yogurt and fruit cottage cheese and fruit canned or fresh pineapple with cheddar cheese packed separately to top bean dip or salsa with tortilla chips packed separately Do you need strictly finger foods, or can you send a plastic fork or spoon? Will the foods be refrigerated? *If not, I would avoid mayo. Is it possible to heat anything?

Hi windy_city_fan, We won't think you're crazy here at all. I hope you enjoy this excellent forum as much as I do, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your food experiences and adventures.

I didn't remember the post either, but don't trust my memory as much these days, so I went back and searched this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151513-nyc-for-1st-time-chef-on-the-loose/page-4 to see if I'd missed it too. I didn't find anything.

I like both baby backs and spareribs. Baby backs cook up more quickly and, as IndyRob pointed out, have more meat, but they are also leaner, and less rich. Cook them too long and they can be dry. I prefer spareribs, but they need long, slow cooking to render their fat and collagen. If I have a full rack, I usually take off the backbone at the rib joints. I don't have access to a meat saw, and I have no way to cut through the spine. The full racks I get are cut so that the chine only extends about 11 or so inches along the rack, so I can remove it and freeze for seasoning a big pot of beans or use it for posole. It provides plenty of flavor and gelatin for a broth. Aside from the usual delicious ways most folks serve spareribs, I like to add them to bolognese sauce and Polish bigos. So to me, spareribs are more versatile than babybacks too. So often, ribs are doused with sauce and spices, but they have a lovely flavor on their own with only a little help from salt and pepper. I was quite surprised the first time I tried them like that. The extra flavor can be very good, but not really necessary. I have never been known to kick either one off the plate. Both are excellent cuts if you know how to cook them.

Here's some information on ploughing with pigs to till up and fertilize your garden. There's lots more out there for those interested: http://permaculturenews.org/2011/01/28/pig-tractors/ There's a section in the linked article about the nose rings, and I agree with the author in that it is cruel and only works for a little while. I always thought it was best to work with an animal's instinctive behavior rather than try to anthropomorphize it. That is almost always a monumental exercise in frustration for all involved. Pig ploughing is a very green way to plough and fertilize, but takes a major effort to manage effectively.

There has been some interest in non-sweet, non-spiced preparations for squash, so I will add my two cents because that's the way I prefer squash. One of the easiest, most wholesome and nutritious side dishes I can make while preparing a protein and green vegetable is to put some washed, split and cleaned butternut or acorn squash into the microwave in a covered Pyrex casserole with a tablespoon of water at the bottom. No need to peel, and I like the presentation on the plate in the natural shell. I start with 5 minutes on high for two servings as the rest of the meal nears completion of the cook, and test with a fork until the pieces are tender, but not mushy. All it needs is a little butter and salt. I like it best with pork, and it's not bad with chicken or fish. The squash can also be roasted alongside your protein if it's being done in the oven, and that will concentrate the flavor a bit more and caramelize it. I prefer it roasted, but it is very good from the microwave to me too, so I usually don't fire up the oven unless it's already on. To me, butternut is pretty interchangeable with sweet potato as a side. The texture and taste are quite similar. Peeling winter squash can be somewhat of a challenge, but I've found it unnecessary. As I said, I like serving it in the skin where it fluffs up and scoops out easily after it's cooked, but if I were going to mash or puree, I'd still cook it first in the skin. One technique I didn't see mentioned in this thread it to wash and pierce the whole squash so it won't explode and nuke it for a few minutes to soften it. Then it is much easier to cut up. I use this method with acorn, because it's a perfect two servings, but usually not with butternut since I serve the split bulb one day and the neck another. Smithy's meal-in-it's-own-bowl stuffed squash sounds very appealing, and I'm going to try it soon.

huiray, That was a very interesting article that gave us outsiders a little insight into the hustle of the day-to-day delivery of Asian food from a popular fast food chain. We don't have a Panda in Cary, but there's one in the next town over, Apex. We have all sprawled together these days, and the traffic, Oy! Do you like the food at Panda Express? I know from your dinner posts that you are most adept at preparing Asian food at home. One reason I think Cary doesn't support a Panda is that we have numerous mom and pop Asian restaurants here, like Super Wok and Banana Leaf: http://www.beyondmenu.com/39694/cary/super-wok-cary-27511.aspx?r=39694#group_1177004 http://www.beyondmenu.com/39263/cary/banana-leaf-cary-27511.aspx?r=39263 These are just two of the best (IMO) within walking distance of me, and they prepare a la minute to order, which I think is very important, especially for anything fried. I had lunch at Banana Leaf today, and they have the best crab rangoon I have ever had. I realize this is an Americanized dish, and theirs, like most is made with surimi, but WOW is it good! It also includes plenty of finely chopped scallions in the ample cream cheese filling. The wonton wrappers are thinner (possibly housemade) than any I can buy frozen. They come out screaming hot, exquisitely light and crispy, served with a small lettuce and fine spirals of carrot salad and a lovely, flavorful sauce with fresh garlic, a little red pepper, a little sweet, a little sour, lick up the last drop, kind of sauce. Just a delight for the palate and senses. Here's a picture from Yelp of the dish: http://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/VVfoY4tvpE78OgnhoUO_bw/o.jpg It takes absolutely nothing away from an obviously hardworking crew at Panda Express putting out pre-prepared Asian dishes to the masses, of course, but I would just like to know what you think of the chain if you've eaten there, with your qualified opinion. I might want to check out the Panda in Apex ... or not.

Phill Bernier, Some folks make hashbrowns by parboiling and cooling the potatoes before grating them. I like them this way. It gives a fluffier, crisper result like the double fry method for French fries. If you haven't already tried that and decided you like your method better, I would give it a shot.