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...tm...

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Everything posted by ...tm...

  1. I've found both the drumstick and the leaves for sale here in the Bay Area. I've gotten the leaves from farmers' markets and 99 Ranch and the pod from farmers' markets and Berkeley Bowl. Oddly, I haven't noticed fresh at the Indain groceries, though they generally carry the frozen.
  2. I'm looking for a pressure cooker to use primarily for beans/stocks but infrequently use for canning. I am single and have a standard apartments sized refrigerator/freezer, so even making 6 qt of anything is a massive quantity to me. Does anyone have a pressure canner they think would be good for this dual purpose? It seems to me from reading reviews and this thread that I want something that is stainless steel, has at least two pressure settings, and is no bigger than 12 qt. Right now this Fagor 10 qt is the leading contender. Does anyone know if it fits standard pint-sized canning jars?
  3. Back when I was in the midwest and got a bunch of different varieties of hardneck garlic from the farmer's market I tried to determine the difference in potency and flavor. I noticed right away that I could really only tell major differences between the flavor when raw. Some varieties that were so potent they made my head steam were great, but not 2-3x more potent (as they were raw) than the other varieties after being sauteed. So, it definitely depends on your usage. I also noted that these same garlic cloves, after a month or so of storage were much less potent. So, I guess the difference in potency depends on the type and age of the garlic cloves you are comparing it to. If it is those mesh sleeved softneck Chinese garlic with the roots cut so they'll last a long time, there is probably very little difference. Now that I'm in California I get bags of the peeled variety and use it in most cooked dishes, or if I need a lot of garlic, but I get cloves from the farmer's market too for when I need that extra sharp garlic flavor. Of course, most people don't like garlic as much as I do... One other random observation. The local supermarket has both organic and non-organic peeled garlic. I usually buy the organic, but have noticed it needs to be used more quickly and that the cloves start to go soft on the outside more quickly than the non-organic. I don't know if there is some unlisted treatment the non-organic cloves go through, or if it can be ascribed to quicker sales of non-organic, though at this store the prices are reasonably similar and Berkeley folks tend to prefer organics, so it remains a mystery to me.
  4. Great write up of one of my favorite meals in the Bay Area. It is nearly impossible for me to resist anytime I pass by that area.
  5. In my opinion the "bread soaked in milk" I add to meatballs gives meatballs the best texture if it is the squishy, American sort.
  6. Thanks - I never thought to bring the yogurt to room temp but that makes a lot of sense. ← And make sure there is only milk and cultures in your starting yogurt. Any pectin or inulin makes the final product stringy or slimy. I know I've used Stonyfield Farm or something that I didn't realize had a stabilizer in it until after my yogurt came out really slimy.
  7. I've never experienced this long-lasting reaction, but any time I taste pine nuts plain here in the US I detect some rancidity, and therefore make my pesto with local walnuts. I wonder if it is one of those things that depends on you individual taste receptors, like cilantro, as oxidized triglycerides in pine nuts are, in my experience, the norm rather than the exception. On a slightly different note, a friend once gave me some in the shell piñon from New Mexico which were delicious, but quite difficult to shell while leaving the seed intact. I tried the towel plus rolling pin technique and ended up pulverizing several while still leaving several whole. Anyone have any hints? The fresh seeds were so sweet and delicious that I ended up hand(or tooth) shelling most of them and eating them plain, but I'm hoping there is an easier way.
  8. ...tm...

    Easy Tofu recipes

    Broiling tofu is one of the simplest methods, plus it is a good one if an alternate veggie dish when the family is having a piece of meat as the main dish. Just marinate the tofu and broil--usually about 6 minutes or so. The first google hit is a good, standard marinade. http://www.codecooker.com/veggiewrangler/t...oiled/index.htm Any marinade used on meats mom might be making for dinner could also be used. I'm not much for recipes, but many of my favorite marinades have been miso, mustard, or thai curry based.
  9. I'm a dirty hippy, but not one that is worried, ipso facto, about "man-made" chemicals getting into my body (as I'm also a scientist), but one who abhors waste and buying things for temporary use, especially if they are extremely difficult to reuse/repurpose. The thing I dislike most about PTFE-coated pans is that the coating generally starts flaking off after a year of use or so. Even if this is because the pan was used against manufacturer's instructions, I do not keep my pans under lock and key, nor am I usually extrememely careful when cooking, and this type of thing is bound to happen. I'm wondering if anyone has tried the "Green Pan" that keeps tempting me at Target. It claims "Thermolon is high heat resistant - up to 850 F". What is Thermolon? I don't really have any idea after looking at their website http://www.green-pan.com/ and some minimal google attempts. "Thermolon is a non-stick mineral coating base on Sol-Gel technology with superior release properties but contains absolutely zero PTFE (and zero PFOA) and no silicone oil." So I guess I would like to know if the Green Pan is non-stick enough that it easily releases eggs without much oil and if there are any problems with the coating flaking off the underlying material (although it may be too early to tell, as I've only seen the pans the last several months).
  10. I've found the pickle flavor quite mysterious, myself. I've been to two airport McDonald's recently and ordered the breakfast biscuit which seemed like it had pickles on it, but no visible pickles. I figured it was probably a part of the artificial seasoning of the breading and somehow "southern-style". The weird part came on the way back when I got a salad for dinner that comes with a cut up chicken breast on it. I requested crispy and some of the strips tasted like pickle and others did not, much like if pickles were placed on then removed. If I hadn't already had the biscuit I would have thought that some employee made a mistake and that is what happened, but then it really seemed to me like the pickle flavoring was localized to the traditional pickle location on my chicken biscuit too, and I doubt anyone was accidentally putting pickles on sandwiches at 8 am. I'm not sure if my theory is that the pickle flavoring is localized in the coating or if there is some sort of pickle flavoring stamper that they hit these things with, but that's my 2p.
  11. When I gardened for a couple of years in Iowa and had an abundance (I was lucky enough to have amaranth, lambsquarters, and purslane as my 3 most common weeds) of greens, I would give a bunch the standard treatment then freeze them. Lambsquarters is generally a good substitute for spinach and is great in recipes where you wish spinach had a little more texture. My two favorites were a fish/lambsquarters soup and quiche, sometimes with mushrooms. Although from the looks of this blog, you seem to know your way around greens quite well.
  12. I've heard Sanborns described as the Mexican Denny's, but I never would have guessed which megacorporation that actually owns them. I'm really excited about this blog, as Mexican is one of my favorite cuisines.
  13. Thanks for posting these great pictures. I love small town festivals that I never would have heard of without eGullet, or being there incidentally on the exact right weekend.
  14. My parents are as Catholic as they come and we've had a tradition of takeout Chinese food on Christmas Eve for quite some time now. It makes sense, really, since there are a lot of shennanigans going on--you have to wrap the presents (or obtain them at the last minute if you are as irresponsible as some of us), dress up in ridiculous holiday sweaters, and attend an interminably long mass. Cooking would just be one more thing to do on an already busy day. Plus, the presents get opened before 1 am.
  15. I can't say that I've tried any supermarket Chinese food, but it is my impression that it is de rigeur in the states these days. Even the Iowa owned spermarket Hy-Vee has a Chinese takeout. I think people of my generation think of this supermarket-style Chinese, sushi and taqueria-style Mexican well within the bounds of "American" food. After all, pizza and pasta have been part of the lexicon since before I was born, but I have been lead to believe from friends and relatives who are over 80 that Italian was once a rarer and more "ethnic" cuisine. I can't really picture what they ate before all the cuisines I've just mentioned. Boiled cabbage 24/7?
  16. Brilliant. I knew there was something missing from my chow fun--little did I know it was the microwave. I've always softened the "fresh" rice noodles, which are often slightly dried or severely clumped together in hot water, but this leaves them too wet for dry chow fun. I can't wait to try out this high-tech microwave chow fun.
  17. My brothers and I still laugh about this one... Back when I was 12 or so and in charge of babysitting my brothers for the evening our parents had ordered pizza for us and left a check for us to pay the delivery driver with (back in the days when people used checks). Anyway, the delivery came and everything seemed normal. We were pretty excited because there was a large order of breadsticks with the pizza and the parents rarely let us get extras such as breadsticks. So of course we dug into those first. About five minutes later the delivery guy comes back and tells us that he needs the breadsticks back because they were part of someone else's order. We told him that we'd already eaten half of them, but that didn't seem to bother him a bit. He told us we hadn't paid for them and really needed them back. So we packed the remaining breadsticks up and handed them back. I still feel sorry for the people who actually ordered the breadsticks.
  18. I saw a lot of "on toast" variations, but I don't think I saw my personal favorite... Lightly mash the avocado with some pureed (or garlic pressed) garlic and salt. Simple but delicious. Sometimes i add black pepper or habanero, but most of the time the simpler the better. I also use this as a sandwich spread on a lot of sandwiches--it's especially good at keeping the bacon slices in place.
  19. Thanks for the recipe link--it looks great. I might have to substitute galangal for the kencur, but I'll definately try it out soon.
  20. Lotek looks like it would be right up my alley. Thanks for sharing the tempting pictures. Do you have a recipe? I tried googling and was only ably to come up with this. Does it seem reasonable? I have never heard of zeodary before, or seen it being sold. Is it an essential taste in the salad? I see it is described as "white tumeric". Are the flavors similar?
  21. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned to watch out for bees when picking. Whenever I've picked I've been surprised by buzzing little pollinators inside the blossoms--they fly right out if you panic and drop the blossom on the ground.
  22. I zapped them on full power for 2-4 minutes. They certainly weren't overdone. It is hard to give a definate time with different microwaves, herbs, etc. My sage leaves were definately crisp and breakable after 2 minutes, but still had quite a bit of moisture. I liked it better after 4 minutes--at that point even the stem was crisp, crumbly, and tasty. I didn't push it any farther, as my roommates are still recovering from when I microwaved a a ginger infusion (minus the water) and the ginger caught on fire. Burning ginger smells a lot more like incense than ginger.
  23. I just tried the microwave method of "frying" sage and basil and it turned out great. After my first attempt blew a hole through the Saran Wrap I decided to go with my instincts and just use paper towel to cover and prevent oil from spraying all over the microwave. I just brushed the leaves with olive oil first. This technique is pretty similar to a microwave foliage drying/pressing technique in which the flower or leaves to be pressed are sandwiched between two unglazed ceramic tiles and an absorbtive natural fiber. Anyway, it's kind of fun how the leaves came out perfectly flat--sure, the scrunched-up, deep-fried leaves elicit more questions from those who aren't expecting fried herbs, but the perfectly flat leaves also have their decorative possibilities.
  24. I had the same beef tendon dish at SpicesII recently and enjoyed it very much. It had a very good balance between the ma and la, not to mention plenty of flavoring from the aromatics. I've never found the numbing effect of sichuan peppercorns to be completely overwhelming; in my mouth it is more of a tingling than a complete numbness. As for the flavor of the sichuan peppercorn, I've always assumed that they are used primarily to add the numbing sensation, as the taste is metalic, and not really in a good way. Although they do smell pretty good when roasting I rarely detect much of this "flavor" or aroma transferred to the hot oil which is usually the vehicle used to carry the sichuan peppercorn sensation.
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