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If you plan to make BLTs with all the luscious tomatoes tomatoes available, you can't go wrong with the Green Meadow Farms product double-smoked by King's Butcher Shop in Paradise, sold at the Reading Terminal by the Fair Food Farmstand. Then again, the applewood smoked bacon available at Harry Ochs works, too. And I've got a package of Country Time's uncured bacon (also from Fair Food) sitting unopened in the fridge which I'm going to try soon. As noted in another post, Livengood's is offering fresh killed chickens at the moment. Dwain Livengood said they'd be available fresh rather than frozen at $3.80/pound whole. The birds are in the 3-4 pound range, and it's best to reserve them. I'll pick up mine this Thursday at Fairmount, but they'll also be available Tuesday afternoon at South Street and Saturday at the Reading Terminal. At the Pennsylvania Dutch Festival earlier this month, Nick Ochs got into the spirit (photo above) with some overalls and a straw hat. As usual, the festival attracted strong summertime crowds to the market, and the pony cart rarely traversed the block with an empty seat. Fishers was making donuts in center court, and I tried a hot oe as soon as I arrived about 8:30 a.m. Alas, the oil must not have been hot enough: I could have fried a flounder with all the grease this baby absorbed. Both Iovine's and OK Lee offer local produce as well as the same California, Florida and Mexican imports you'd find at a supermarket (though usually at a lower price). Jersey tomatoes and Pennsylvania corn are among Iovine's offerings, as well as local eggplants, green beans, etc. Finds from further afield recently have included raw peanuts and black figs. Plenty of local produce can also be found at L. Halteman's and Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce. Benuel Kauffman has expanded across the aisle (photo below) to some of the space formerly occupied by Dutch Country Meats. Across the aisle (between 12th Street Cantina and Martin's Meats) is the vacant space once occupied by Natural Connection and, before that, Margerum's. David Schreiber has finally got his financing in place and signed a lease, so work will begin soon on converting the spot to his Jonathan's Best grocery. "The store will carry a wide variety of gourmet groceries and packaged foods, plus pre-made sandwiches, salads and their signature line of soups to eat in or take home. Dave, a native Philadelphia, hopes to open in October," said Paul Steinke, RTM general manager.

I've been hoarding nuts like a squirrel. In my freezer: 1 1/2 cups pecans 1 cup sliced almonds 1/2 cup pinenuts 1/2 cup sesame seeds 1/3 cup black poppyseed 1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts 2 cups raw peanuts (why did I buy all those peanuts?) 1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts 2 cups pistachios (for the ice cream I never made) 2 cups raw almonds (I forget why I bought these, too) 1 cup cashews Also in my freezer and fridge: 1 Italian pork sausage 2 Chinese pork sausages 4 Chorizo sausages 3 beef hot dogs, ONE roll 1 qt homemade spaghetti sauce 1 cup sorrel puree (oops, forgot to do something with this) about 1/4 cup duck fat scraps 1 cup chicken stock 2 big bundles of raw chicken bones (I'm supposed to make stock) 2 rutabagas (leftover from my CSA order) 1 lemongrass stalk 3 oranges, 2 without zest And in my cupboard I found a treasure trove of homemade candied citrus peel, over 2 cups worth. I forgot about this!

Every winter at this time I am nuts about the food in my house ..kind of getting sick of wintery dishes ...and just knowing there are going to be fresh things around the corner ...spring mushroom season starts here soon ...salmon....Yakima asparagus....fresh eggs......it is all just about a month away for us right now ... every year at this time I demand of myself to begin to purge the larder...completely! I wonder do other people do this? It is like any other spring cleaning ...can be tedious ....but the point is ...the search for spring is just ahead! today I am going to start for myself and have a bunch of stuff going ..it is always easy the first few days because you have a lot to choose from! I use the foods in order of decline to save on waste that also limits choices ..also I dont want frozen rhubarb in my freezer when I can start picking mine next month ...I dont want frozen green beans when asparagus comes in ...and I am not into missing out on salmon season because I have something I need to use up first... I am happy to keep anyone interested posted and if there is anyone out here who wants to join in on this ...down right fun and sometimes frustrating tradition ...please do todays self challenge is: raw peanuts 6 red potatoes 1 cabbage 1 big assed winter onion a few dried porcini mushrooms a giant fresh frozen pork hock garlic rhubarb 1 open bottle of decent merlot I am not an organized person just a seasonal one

I wish I had a green house ..I would never come inside I think if I did! and a potting shed as well ...I will take pics of my garden and post it for sure and would love to see others? I am planting herbs and flowers all over that reflect the moon this year especially sage and silver thyme.....it glows a beautiful silver in the dark when the moon is full ...so pretty! I need ideas for more herbs that reflect like that what do you have growing inside? ...I have some lemon grass and ginger in pots they make wonderful house plants I also planted some raw peanuts to see what would happen ...I had a piece of taro growing for ages ..it was stunning then the root just rotted

Damn, I need to go back and retaste that. I'm posting the review I started to write because I don't know if I'll actually have time to go through every dish. Maybe the member of our group who took pictures will post them? My 1/6 of a review: Upon our late, as usual, arrival, our dinner companions were already well into their second (third?) cocktails. Having already sampled at least 12 cocktails on 4 different occasions at Tailor myself, I can’t say I blame them. The cocktails are just as good as anything being done at Death & Company or Pegu Club, but they’re pushing flavor boundaries even further. I’m loving the Lavendar Fizz, the Cascade and the Paprika Punch. Nathan or Sneakeater can talk about the cocktails, though, since they’re far more expert consumers. After our reservations snafus over the past two weeks, the service could not have been more welcoming or gracious. Throughout the evening we were served by our waiter, had the GM to explain each dish and the head bartender stopped by several times with cocktails and occasional special tastes of new beverages. I’m not personally a fan of drinking cocktails (even great ones) with dinner, so I’ll look forward a full wine list becoming available. That being said, I expect to find myself at the bar as often as in the restaurant. Because of the number of components in the dishes, sharing a Tailor dish among more than two people is somewhat untenable, so we ordered three of every dish for our table of six. The Salty I think our entire table unanimously agreed that the foie gras and peanut butter was a standout hit. Quotable quote of the night: “I’ll know I’ve found my future wife when she and I go together as well as foie gras and peanut butter.” When you taste this dish, the combo seems too obvious to be as novel as it is. The foie is 80% foie and 20% peanut butter, sprinkled in bitter chocolate with raw green peanuts and finely diced pear on the side. The raw peanuts enhance the peanut flavors while giving the dish a tiny bit of bite. I thought the dish was even better than the first time I had it, though Dave H pointed out that it was a smaller portion than the first time- not a good sign. The pork belly, miso butterscotch and artichoke was the other dish that I had eaten previously. I think this dish is absolutely fantastic. The butterscotch somehow avoids being clingly sweet, and the artichokes are the true star of the dish. The pork belly was less tenderly cooked than the last time (it’s sous vide), but it was still delicious. I hope they’ll quickly be able to improve the consistency of the dishes to turn out perfectly cooked versions of this stuff every time, because the food is too good for the cooking or ingredient quality not to stand up. There's also some sort of alcohol in the butterscotch. An aside: the bread at Tailor is fantastic. They have an olive bread and a raisin bread- top quality. The breads are served with a canelle of butter topped with thin chives. It is especially great if you steal ALL of the chives for your slice. Again, raisins and chives- why aren’t more people doing it? (And don’t tell me you’re putting chive cream cheese on your raisin bagel, because I don’t accept raisin bagels to begin with). It’s kind of hard to pick favorites from this menu, but the peeky toe crab, smoked pineapple and basil may have been my favorite of the new dishes I tasted. The menu fails to mention the delicious, preciously thin iberico ham “chip” that adds the necessary salt for this dish. Each of the three spoonfuls of peeky toe crab salad have a smear of pine nut butter beneath them, bringing a wonderful nutty woodsiness into the mix. Like many avant garde dishes, it’s best if you combine all of the elements in each bite. The crab, pine nut, microbasil, pineapple and ham all bring a necessary taste and texture element to the dish. If they sold ham chips like that in bags in our vending machine at work, I’d have a serious problem on my hands.

My wife and I went for an early dinner on Saturday, and our experience preety much mirrored Nathan's. While I won't say it's a top 5 of NYC, it's a fantastic restaurant with great service and an interesting cocktail program. (The Chanterais, made with walnut-infused cognac, was amazing. The red pepper cocktail was a little too savory, though; it would have been better as a drink amuse-bouche/small shot. It was tasty, but too big.) Favorite dishes were the foie gras with raw peanuts (they taste like sprouts - who knew) and the amazing pork belly with butterscotch. Since the butterscotch wasn't too sweet, the dish worked perfectly. I disagree on the artic char dish - I found the salting to be appropriate and the avocado ice cream to work very well with the fish and watermelon. The desserts were again very good - the panna cotta a squiggle of tasty pudding on a plate coated with coffee "crunch" or whatever it was called. It was delicious. The only disappointment was the corn sorbet - we had hoped that it was Sam's amazing cornbread ice cream from wd~50 re-purposed. Sadly, it wasn't. It was still a good dish, just not what we had hoped for. 4 cocktails, a bottle of sparking water, 4 savory dishes ($15 a pop), 3 desserts ($11 a pop) - and it came to about $190 with tax and tip. I think the menu is great and I'm hoping to see it expand some. I'd like to have some spice in the components - whether savory or sweet dishes - and I think some of the dessert options should bring a little more saltiness to the table. He's got a winner on his hands here if he keeps up the quality and service.

I got some fresh raw peanuts at the farmer's market yesterday and I would love some suggestions on what to do with them (other than roasting). I have thought about an african-style peanut soup, but I'd love other ideas. thanks!

It's pretty hard to find old fashioned, non-hybrid corn these days. But Earl Livengood has it. Priced at 50 cents an ear, the certified organic corn is "open pollinated". The kernels aren't as uniform and perfect as you'd see in a hybrid variety, but I bought a couple of ears to see if they have a "cornier" taste; I don't expect them to compete in the sweetness category with Mirai or other modern hybrids, but I'm prepared to be surprised. They'll be consumed tonight, so I'll try to post an update soon. Lots of local produce at both Iovine Brothers and OK Lee to supplement their regular fare. Iovine's comes from Shadybrook Farm near Yardley, OK Lee's from Lancaster County. Among the items: cantaloupe, wax and green beans, corn. Certainly not local, but a welcome seasonal return nonetheless at OK Lee: Cactus pears, two for a buck. Makes great magaritas. Suffering succotash! Lima beans at the height of their season. At least one of Earl Livengood's farmhands was popping them raw as a snack this morning. Also new this week: fresh, young, small celeriac. Earl's also got some additional varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Livengood's heirloom tomatoes Blackberries and peaches still going strong, of course, at Livengood's, Kaufman's and Fair Food, but also making an appearance in advance of autumn are some early pears at Kaufman's. Benuel says he expects to have Sanza apples next week. (Benuel spells the varietry with a 'z', but I've only seen it with the second 's', Sansa.) Benuel Kauman's fruit, including early pears Attention mrbigjas: raw peanuts back at Iovine's, $2.99/pound. Here's my shopping list for the week: EARL LIVENGOOD $4.95 Corn tomatoes Celeriac IOVINE $0.39 Bananas KAUFMAN'S $3.95 Cherry tomatoes GIUNTA'S PRIME SHOP $10.10 Chicken 12th STREET CANTINA $3.34 Mexican chorizo HERSHEL'S DELI $5.00 Lox

My first post here... Peanut and garlic stuffed salmon... My own creation. Crush some raw peanuts then lightly brown in a pan w/ olive oil and some garlic. Set aside. I used a salmon filet and sliced it as if to butterfly it . With the filet closed dip in egg (w/ salt and pepper) and then bread crumbs. Then drop it into a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. After it's browned on one side, flip it, open the filet and place inside the peanuts/garlic mixture. close the filet. When this side is browned lower the heat, cover and simmer til done. Fantastic just like this, but I want to try making a light, white wine cream and garlic sauce for this . I may also try it with cashews... Good luck

Thanks. You're correct. That was not the botched raw peanut batch. It was the pecan batch. I read good things about Stern's. I don't think I've ever actually seen a bottle of it though.

Success! And failure. But, success. I made two batches. The first was with pecans. It looked perfect and it tasted quite good. The second was with peanuts and it had several problems. It certainly looked much less pretty and it didn't really taste great either. I didn't get any decent pictures of the failed batch. I can speculate about several potential problems. First of all, the peanuts didn't cook sufficiently. Alton Brown's recipe calls for lightly roasted peanuts. But on his show he says that raw peanuts are traditional and that they cook in the caramel. These peanuts still tasted raw. Also, there was a lot of confusion about the target temperature. I saw 290, 293... I think my thermometer says "hard crack" is 300. The Chanterelle cookbook say 325 and I decided to follow their advice. For the first batch I panicked and took it off early. About 310? The second batch I took off even a few degrees earlier. I think I read in several recipes that you shouldn't handle the syrup. Either when it's boiling or when you're spreading it out to cool. I think I may have handled the second batch too much as I was spreading it. It looked and felt like there was a lot of crystalization. Unfortunately, I didn't get any decent pictures of the peanut batch. The first batch came out glassy smooth. Honestly, I thought I was pretty careful with both batches but I guess not. I enjoyed making mine and I'm glad someone else tried it. It seems like the stars were aligned in favor of bacon this last week. All these links are just things that I came across in my regular web surfing. I wasn't specifically looking for bacon information. Bacon toffee bacon caramel bacon baklava bacon ice cream

I don't get the corn syrup thing either, if you're ok with the cup of sugar then a half cup of corn syrup shouldn't be so frightening. I'd never try to substitute for it in say, divinity.......mmm.......divinity.....mmm Oh, pardon me! It was my intention to make a suggestion or 2 about the peanuts. Trader Joe's has a product they call 'blister peanuts'. They're roasted, no skin, and come salted or not. They have great snap and clean flavor. Something I often do to make boiled peanuts from raw peanuts in the shell is buy them from a feed store. Seems they put the better ones aside for the non-humans. (We have a large bird who is fond of his peanuts.) There is something in the fridge called gypsy bacon that is new to me and I may try it on the brittle and beat ya to it!!! It's all fun, and some is yum

Progress is slow but steady. Well, mostly slow. I think I'll leave the Chanterelle recipe for another adventure. I'm going to use the original recipe from Everything Tastes Better With Bacon with several modifications. First, I'll use real vanilla. I'll also swap out the corn syrup and use sugar. According to The Cook's Thesaurus, 1.5 cups of corn syrup = 1 cup sugar + .25 cups liquid. The Everything Tastes Better With Bacon recipe also calls for pecans. Alton Brown says that raw peanuts are traditional. So I'm torn between the various combinations: raw peanuts, lightly roasted peanuts, raw pecans, lightly roasted pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds... Currently, I'm leaning towards raw peanuts. Now I just have to figure out where to buy them. Here's another question. Alton says that peanut brittle is simple enough that you don't need a candy thermometer but that if you have one you're looking for 350F. Everything Tastes Better With Bacon says 290F. That seems like a pretty big discrepancy. Also, if I keep worrying about every little detail, my bacon brittle will be trite and overdone before I even make it. Apparently, bacon desserts are going to be big in 2007: bacon baklava.

Thanks for the suggestions, to clarify I meant a store, not a restaurant. I suppose I could succomb and buy raw peanuts and make them myself, now to find raw peanuts... In the meantime, will call the recommended shop above.

Buy boiled peanuts in New York? Just buy raw peanuts in the shell and make them yourself. The recipe is as follows: "Boil peanuts in salted water until they are done." I use a slow cooker (crock pot) but if you don't have one you can just do it on the stove top, making sure you don't them them boil dry. The cooking time will vary with how fresh and immature the peanuts are to begin with, but you needn't worry about finding particularly young peanuts, as the final product will be nice no matter what.

I was perusing the new Lee Bros. cookbook and have a sudden craving for boiled peanuts. Once, long ago, I actually ordered raw peanuts from the Lee Bros. company, before they were famous, and made a huge vat of them. Anyway, I am wondering if there is anywhere in New York that sells them (preferably homemade)?

While I find that peanut oil is more expensive than other basic oils such as corn, soy, canola etc, I do not find it overly so. Peanut oil is one of my primary oils so I buy it in bulk, I can get a 2700mL carton of peanut oil for about 15$ canadian, which I think is very reasonable. I suspect that the reason that peanut oil is more expensive is related to simple processing costs as well as supply and demand and lobbying. Nuts are expensive to grow and process, and while peanuts lie on the cheap end of the spectrum, they are still much more expensive to produce than mass grown crops like corn, soy, or canola. There are many different types of peanut oil. European/western peanut oils tend to be lighter in color and blander, with a very neutral taste. I believe this is because they are pressed at higher temperatures and go through a greater refining process than many asian peanut oils. Chinese peanut oil tends to be darker with a strong peanut taste. My favorite brand of peanut oil is Lion & Globe from hong kong, it has a rich peanutty colour and fills the kitchen with the aroma of peanuts when heated. I am curious as to anyone knows the details of processing peanut oil? It doesn't seem that some of the oils I've used could come from raw peanuts. My personal feeling is that peanut oil should taste and smell like peanuts. I prefer peanut oils that are pressed at low temperatures and refined minimally. If I don't want a peanut taste in a certain dish but am looking for a neutral oil, I tend to prefer corn or perhaps canola. In her book Classic Indian Cooking Julie Sahni talks about peanut oil in India. Apparently at one time (and perhaps still) people would bring sacks of peanuts to a specialized oil-pressing shop and have the peanuts pressed in front of them. They would then take the oil home in glazed jugs.

I was cleaning out the freezer and found that I have accumulated about five pounds of raw peanuts. General consensus is that they should be made into butter toffee peanuts, the kind that you buy that have the bumpy, uneven, crispy shell of buttery, salty goodness. I've been searching here (apologies if I missed a topic) and Googling the same search terms, but I am only finding recipes for sugared nuts (typically egg-white recipes) and hard, shiny-shelled candied nuts. Has anyone made these at home? Do I just need to adjust methods on a candied nuts recipe? Thanks, -L

My namesake, a sixteenth-century Florentine, was known not only for his painting, but also his diary. Romantics claim it as evidence for the belief that artists are weirdoes, born with souls different from the practical, straight-laced types found deep within bankers and brokers. For a period of time Pontormo recorded little more than everything he cooked and ate and everything he cooked and ate tended to be the same thing: a fried egg and bacon over greens. Sounds good to me, actually; you'll find there is a salad named after him based on this formula. In his spirit, I could post in the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner threads. Instead, I started an inventory this past weekend. Such information, like the details of our dreams, may be of interest only to ourselves. However, I thought I might post it here since I began the list before I went shopping for this week's food, replacing staples, but otherwise, purchasing only produce and dairy products, with the intention of clearing out freezer and shelves. PRODUCE: Beet greens, Butterleaf lettuce, Mesclun, Beets, Carrot, Celery, Cucumbers (2), Snap peas (ditto), Summer squash, Radishes, Scallions, Chili peppers, Ginger root, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Mint, Oregano, Tarragon. Garlic, Shallots, Vidalia onions, Russet and Yukon potatoes Apples, Orange, Banana, Blueberries, Cantaloupe, Cherries, GA Peaches, Lemons & Lime DAIRY PLUS: Milks (whole & skim), Yogurts (plain NF & 3-4 oz. Fago Total), Mozzarella (2), Parm, Romano (2), Cacio, Fiore di Sardo, Montasio, Pantaleon, Gruyere, Friulian goat cheese (hard). Butter. Eggs (6). MISC: Olives, Capers, Cornichons, Sun-dried tomatoes, Anchovies, Mustard, Ketchup, Relish, Mayo, Chili-bean paste, Vietnamese chili garlic sauce, Bean paste (sweet), Plum sauce, Fig preserves, PB, Blueberry jam, Raspberry preserves, Raw peanuts, Sesame seeds, Poppy seeds, Yeast, Miso, Whole wheat & All-purpose flour, Cornmeal, Tahini, Walnut oil, Shortening, Maple Syrup, Chili-orange oil, Apricot chutney, Pomegranate molasses, Marsala, Beer (1). FREEZER: Bacon, Cured pig jowl, Pancetta, Ground pork ( ¼ #), Ground lamb ( ¾ #), Hot dog, Chicken Marengo (1, no shrimp), Chicken stock, Ligurian artichoke, Lombardian zucca & Sardinian chard ravioli, Asian peanut sauce (for summer rolls 8/05), HD Mayan Chocolate, Chinese green noodles, Pine nuts, Sumac, Chickpea flour, Buckwheat, Whole wheat bread, Pizza dough, Rhubarb cake (1), Corn, Peas, Leek greens, Cheese rinds, Tomato paste in T globs, Pesto cubes, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Reduced cider ( ¼ cup), Cranberries, Bananas (7), Blueberries. LEFTOVERS & NEWLY PREPPED: Lentil salad, Herbed chèvres, ½ cup salsa, Rhubarb-ginger preserves, Pesto. OJ & Strawberry lemonade. ¼ red onion & lemon. Tomato sauce (1 ½ cups), roasted beet, soup. CUPBOARDS: Lentils (Le Puy, Beluga, brown & red), Chickpeas, Pintos, Black beans, Cranberry beans, Flageolet, Split peas, Navy beans, Couscous, Polenta, Bulgur (fine & coarse), Basmati, Medium grain white rice, Italian & brown short grain rice, Pearl barley, Pasta stelle, Fregule, Spaghetti, Penne etc, Rice wrappers, Rice noodles, Angel hair nests, Oatmeal, Granola, Cheerios, etc. Tangerine peel, dried Shitake, dried Porcini, Star Anise, Dried fish flakes (for miso), Various sea vegetables, Chilies, etc. Almonds, Walnuts & Pecans. Herbs, spices, baking items and more of this and that such as crystallized ginger, honey, stale Kosher miniature marshmallows, dates, raisins… Canned tomato puree, tuna packed in oil, salmon, expired crushed pineapple, Hunt's tomato sauce. Oils (olive, canola, corn, sesame, mustard), vinegars, soy sauce, etc., sugars, High Gluten, Tipo 00 & Cake flour, chocolate, Chinese rice wine, Vodka, Rum, Kahluah, Red wine (out of white & vermouth), Coffee, Seltzer (1). * * * The lentil salad and herbed chèvres were prepared from pantry items and leftovers, for tiered salad ringed by mesclun and first, with a questionable roasted beet from last week. I've just cut down this list even more after using up thyme along with a large can of Italian plum tomatoes to make Mario Batali's simple, all-purpose tomato sauce. Half of the sauce went into a (wonderful) soup incorporating very old cannelloni beans (from freezer) that I baked with leek greens, bacon and various aromatics. All but one of the summer squash were cubed, caramelized in olive oil with crushed garlic cloves, and added after a mirepoix along with stock, garlic, parsley, Parmesan rind & diced, crisp pancetta, with fava beans and snap peas to be added upon serving. The pesto in the fridge is now a pistou. I plan to make rosemary focaccia or cornbread to accompany what remains. Also depleted supply of April's ragu. And to be honest, the chèvres and half a cucumber are history as of last night. Any suggestions for things I could make exclusively—or primarily—with items on hand are welcome. The weekend's coming up, so more groceries will be added, including white wine. I still plan on continuing the pantry project, especially when it comes to fresh herbs and those jars of dried beans. I have ideas, but am open to trying alternatives that might not occur to me. Extra emoticons for anything that would contribute to Cook-Offs or other current threads

In my first batch (the recipe posted), I used 2 rounds of nam yu, each round with 3 small cubes of nam yu in the bowl and smashed them. In my second batch, I used 3 rounds of nam yu, each round with 4 small cubes of nam yu in the bowl and smashed them. So quantity wise I doubled the dosage of nam yu. (I reduced the salt amount for each round so the total salt quantity is still about 1-2 tsp for 3.5 lb of raw peanuts.) You may adjust all these for your personal taste.

Pictorial Recipe Joong/Jongzi (Sticky Rice Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves) (鹹肉粽) The fifth day of the fifth month (Lunar Calendar) is Dragon Boat Festival. The traditional treat for this festival is "Joong" [Cantonese], or "Jongzi" [Mandarin]. It is made from sticky rice and other ingredients/seasoning wrapped in a few bamboo leaves and boiled for a couple of hours. When ready to serve, simply heat up the joong and peel off the bamboo leaves. I made 40+ joongs this year. This is a series of illustrations on how to make joong (with salted pork and other ingredients (we call "liu")). The cooking part is easy. Most of the efforts goes into preparations. If you are learning how to make joong, don't need to make that many. Try making 5 or 10 to practice. Reduce the ingredient quantities proportionally. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 40 Preparations: Main ingredients: - Sticky rice (5 lb bag), use 2 1/2 bags (about 12-13 lbs) - Mung beans (12 oz package), use 3 packs - Salted eggs x 18 (3 packs, 6 eggs in each pack) or more - Dried conpoy, about 30 - Dried black mushrooms, about 30 to 40 - Pork butt or pork shoulder, about 2 lb - Raw peanuts (12 oz package), use 2 packs - Chestnuts (ready to eat, 12 oz package), use 3 packs - Dried shrimp (12 oz package), use 2 packs - Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). Use 10 (1 pack) - 1 bag of dried bamboo leaves, about 150 Qty - 1 roll of small strings to tie the joong This is a bag of sticky rice, 5 lb package. Use 2 1/2 bags. These are mung beans, 12 oz packages. Use 3 packs. These are salted eggs, 6 eggs in each package. Use 3 packs (or more). A close-up view of the salted eggs. Dried conpoy. Use about 30. Dried black mushrooms. Use about 30 to 40. Pork Butt. Use about 2 lb. Raw peanuts. 12 oz in a package. Use 2 packs would be enough. Close-up view of the raw peanut package. Chestnuts, already shelled and cooked, ready to eat. Use 3 packs. Close-up view of the chestnut package. Note: If you use raw chestnuts, you need to precook them and shell them before wrapping. Dried shrimp, 4 oz in a package. Use 2 packs. Laap Cheung (Chinese sausage). There are different flavors. I used the ones made with duck livers. There are 10 sausages in a package. Use 1 pack. Dried bamboo leaves. Depending on how you wrap your joongs, you use 2, 3 or 4 leaves to wrap each one. I used 4 because my joongs are big. You may use 3 if they are smaller. Budget about 10% extra because some leaves do break during wrapping and cannot be used. Left-over, soaked bamboo leaves can be dried and store away for next year. They are very inexpensive anyway. (US$1.50 for a bag of 150 leaves or so). Close-up view of the dried bamboo leave bundle. The preparation of making joong starts the day before because many ingredients need to be soaked in water overnight. Day 1: Soak the sticky rice. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top. Soak the mung beans. Make sure you have enough water to cover the top. They expand quite a bit. Soak the dried conpoy. Soak the black mushrooms. Soak the raw peanuts. Cut the pork butt into big pieces (1 inch by 2 inches). 1 piece of pork per joong. To marinate (for 2 lb of meat): Add 2-3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2-3 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1-2 tsp of salt, 4 tsp of Shao Hsing cooking wine, 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 3-4 tsp of five spice powder. Mix the ingredients well. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Soak the bamboo leaves overnight in a small water bin. Use something such as a soup bowl to weigh down the leaves to make sure they are all immersed in water. Day 2: (1 hour before wrapping) Soak the dried shrimp. It doesn't take long for them to become soft. Drain the water from the soaked black mushrooms. Trim ends and cut mushrooms into thin slices (or dices). Cut the Chinese sausages diagonally into 1/4 slices. Break open all salted eggs. Separate the egg white from egg yolk. (Only use the egg yolks to make joong.) I cut the yolks into halves. You may use whole ones if you like. Open the packages of the ready-to-eat chestnuts. Drain the water from the soaked dried conpoy. (You may save the soaking liquid for cooking other dishes.) Pul the conpoy into shreds by hand. Use a pan/wok. Set stove to high. Wait until pan is hot. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Drain the water from the soaked dried shrimp. Add the shrimp to the pan. Fry for a minute or two. Add the sliced black mushrooms. Mix well and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Dash in 2-3 Shao Hsing cooking wine and 3 tsp of dark soy sauce. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Drain the water from the soaking sticky rice. For each 4lb portion (there are 3 portions total), add 3-4 tsp of dark soy sauce, 1 tblsp of cooking oil and 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt. Mix the dark soy sauce, oil and salt with the stick rice well. Also, drain off the water from all other ingredients (e.g. mung beans, peanuts, etc.). Retreive the marinated pork from the refrigerator. This is how the bamboo leaves look after being soaked overnight. Drain the water from the bin. Boil one pot of water. Pour the pot of boiling water onto the bin. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) Sterilizatoin - killing off the molds that reside on the bamboo leaves. 2) Makes the leaves soft to make wrapping easier. (Note: Many recipes call for boiling the bamboo leaves in a big pot or on a wok. Chef Dejah also suggested adding a little bit of vinegar in the water to make the leaves softer.) Day 2: Wrapping of a joong There are different wrapping methods. I am showing mine which uses 3 to 4 bamboo leaves. There is an excellent web page (produced in Taiwan) that shows a video on how to wrap a joong. The page is written in Chinese. Click on the link at the upper left corner to view the video (about 7 minutes). The video was narrated in both Mandarin and English. They wrap a small joong with only 2 leaves, but form a perfect tetrahedron shape. Perhaps I should do that next year. http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/culture/chinese/cul...ml/vod14_09.htm Take one leave. Make it into a U-shape. Take a second leave. Wrap on the outside of the first leave. This extends the "wall" to surround the joong ingredients. Hold the 2 leaves in one hand. It becomes easier to hold them when you have added the ingredients onto the leaves. First add a few tblsp of sticky rice. Add the mung beans. Add the "highlight" ingredients: salted pork, salted egg yolk (half), 2 pieces of laap cheung. Add shreds of conpoy, 1 or 2 chestnuts. Add the stir-fried dried shrimp, black mushrooms and peanuts. At this stage, add a third bamboo leave to extend the "wall" to hold the ingredients. Add more mung beans. Finish off with adding more sticky rice. You may add a fourth leave to make it easier to close the joong. Just close the side and hold on to it in one hand. Start to tie the string but wrapping it around the bamboo leaves. Wrap it around by 7 to 8 times or so. Close out the bottom of the joong by folding the leave ends back up towards the center. Wrap the string around the leave ends to secure. This is how the joong looks like when the string is tied. Repeat the same process to make more joongs until the ingredients are used up. Cooking Instructions: Cooking is the easy part. Just use a big pot. Lay the joongs inside the pot. Fill the pot up with water. Boil the joongs (with lid on) for about 2 hours. Add more water once about an hour into boiling. Reduce the stove setting to medium from high after the initial boil. Remove the joongs from the pot and serve. You may need to divide the joongs into different batches and boil them one batch at a time, as most of us don't have a pot big enough to hold 40+ joongs. Joongs may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. They also survive the freezing process rather well. If you make a big batch, you may spread it out the next couple of months to enjoy. Serve each joong individually. Cut the strings and unwrap. Discard the bamboo leaves. Picture of the finished dish. Serve with some slightly sweetened dark soy sauce.

I made my entry last Saturday. I ended up making 40+ joongs. Took me 3 batches. The pot was used non-stop for 8 hours. Imagine the foggy windows at the kitchen... (sounds familiar Dejah Dai Ga Jeah? ) The liu included: - Mung beans - Pork butt marinated in five spice powder and soy sauce - Salted eggs - Laap cheung (Chinese sausage) - Chestnuts - Raw peanuts - Black mushrooms - Dried shrimp - Dried conpoy I did use a little bit of soy sauce, oil and salt to mix with the soaked sticky rice before wrapping. They didn't turn out as dark as Tepee's MIL's. I poured boiling water into the bin with bamboo leaves already soaked in water overnight to soften the leaves before wrapping. They were pretty soft and easy to work work. My MIL said I should have boiled the leaves in a pot. I don't know if that is really necessary. P.S.: I am still looking for the perfect way to wrap a joong the size that I want to make. I didn't do a very good job in forming the shape. Joong still in bamboo leave wraps. Joong ready to eat. (I broke it in two halves so everybody can see the fillings.) And a few drops of soy sauce added.

Pictorial Recipe Roasted Peanuts with Nam Yu (南乳肉花生) I grew up eating this style of roasted peanuts using Nam Yu (Fermented Red Beancurds). It is slightly sweet, slight salty and full of flavor. Occassionally I would find them in Asian grocery stores. To make this great snack at home is quite easy. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 20 Preparations: Main ingredients: - 5 packs of raw peanuts with skin, 12 oz each (total about 3.5 lb) - Nam Yu (Fermented red beancurds) It's important to use the raw peanuts with skin. Take 3 small cubes of nam yu. Place in a small bowl. Add 1/8 cup of water, 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of sugar. Smash the nam yu and mix with the salt/sugar/water well. Cooking Instructions: Start by pre-heating a wok with high stove burner setting. Add the raw peanuts. (No oil is needed. This is simply dry roasting.) Keep stirring and not let the peanuts get burnt. Pour the nam yu mixture onto the peanuts. Keep stirring and mix the nam yu flavoring in the peanuts. Dry roast using the wok for a few more minutes. Need to repeat this process. Add at least one more round of nam yu/salt/sugar mixture and roast for a few more minutes. If you have an adequate heat source, you may continue the roasting on the wok to finish. My stove burner is not strong enough. I transferred the peanuts to a baking pan and finished the roasting in the oven. Set the oven at 400'F. Roast the peanut for about 40 minutes. Every 10-15 minutes, stir the peanuts around so that the ones on the top will not get burnt. This is how they looked after 40 minutes of roasting. The snack is ready.

My final exam is just over... Perfect! May 27 Saturday is my day of making joong this year. Would have time to meet the in-laws and pass on the gifts, just before the festival on May 31. Here is what's on my shopping list: - Sticky rice - Mung beans - Fatty pork? (hmmm... not sure how to slide this under the radar) - Salted eggs - Laap cheung (Chinese sausage) - Chestnuts - Raw peanuts - Black mushrooms - Dried shrimp - Bamboo leaves - enough to make 30 joong - Strings to tie the tetrahedrons Have I forgotten something? I am wondering if there is anybody else making joong this year.

I've never had chicha de mani, but I'm glad you liked it. The peanut soup you ate can be delicious when well made, as it uses raw peanuts that are cooked and then processed with chicken broth. Plus peanuts in Bolivia are different than the ones you find in the states. As for the Italian dishes, your guess is as good as mine. However, for some reason, traditional families do it a lot of pasta dishes in Bolivia. Both my grandmothers were famous for their homemade ravioli and gnocci. Neither had Italian heritage. As for the desserts, I can't recall many that can be considered traditional. We have crepes with dulce de leche, but you can eato those pretty much all over latin america. Maybe some of the fruit that's exotic and regional, but then you wouldn't be able to find them in the states. And I forgot abour dried beef (charqui or charque... or even with a "k"). The Incas (and the Aymaras before them) learned to air dry beef and we've been eating dishes made with it ever since. In Bolivia you can still find carne seca made with horse meat and also llama meat. Both good.