When you want to burn a cookbook! GRRRRRR

[Kerry Beal]

On 5/4/2017 at 6:04 PM, Anna N said:

Given that A. Wong  serves Chinese food (or claims to) I wondered if it was in fact sea cucumber. However I was unable to determine if sea cucumbers have hearts but perhaps that's where you are getting your spleens from?  

Funny you should mention sea cucs - lookie what I saw at SIAL the other day.

 

 

 

Never did go back for the tasting because I got distracted.

[liuzhou]

6 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

Never did go back for the tasting because I got distracted.

 

You didn't miss anything. They have no taste.

[Kerry Beal]

6 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

You didn't miss anything. They have no taste.

When I asked about flavour - they did suggest that like tofu they take on the flavour of what you are cooking them with. Not a rousing recommendation I'd say!

[JohnT]

On 05 May 2017 at 11:23 PM, MelissaH said:

. . . . And I see that the blogger whose recipe post I linked to thinks the same as I did.) The recipe specifies to press the dough into a parchment-lined 20 cm by 30 cm (8 by 12 in) baking pan. I don't think I've ever seen a pan in those dimensions, at least in this country. I have a pan that's 7 by 11, and another that's 9 by 13. I wound up using the larger of the two, and I'll just plan to check my scones a tad earlier than the recipe says because I know they'll be a titch thinner than the recipe intends.

 

Those of you in the UK or continental Europe or somewhere else: is a 20 cm by 30 cm pan a normal thing, where you live?

 

In a large part of the metricated world, a full size oven pan is 40 x 60cm. Therefore, a half pan is 40 x 30cm and a quarter pan is 20 x 30cm. The thing is that I have never seen a quarter size metric pan sold anywhere - that means from the industrial baking supply houses to the retailers. I think where a recipe in a book (or web site) calls for this sized pan , it has been scaled down from a commercial bulk metric recipe - maybe a full pan or half pan.

 

It is similar to me finding a US recipe which calls for 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour - it is obviously taken from a metric recipe and converted for the US market as your cup is about two tablespoons smaller than a metric cup.

[Tri2Cook]

12 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

When I asked about flavour - they did suggest that like tofu they take on the flavour of what you are cooking them with. Not a rousing recommendation I'd say!

My only experience with sea cucumber was at a Korean restaurant (actually a restaurant divided down the middle by a wall that served Korean on one side and Chinese on the other) when I was a teenager. Went with my parents and we were encouraged to try the sea cucumber by the server. I don't remember much about flavor but I never forgot the texture which was something akin to what I would imagine it would be like to eat a cut up used tire that had been warmed in a sauce. I'm not claiming this was a fair representative of what sea cucumber can be but it was enough that I haven't been too curious about it since.

[Kerry Beal]

8 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

My only experience with sea cucumber was at a Korean restaurant (actually a restaurant divided down the middle by a wall that served Korean on one side and Chinese on the other) when I was a teenager. Went with my parents and we were encouraged to try the sea cucumber by the server. I don't remember much about flavor but I never forgot the texture which was something akin to what I would imagine it would be like to eat a cut up used tire that had been warmed in a sauce. I'm not claiming this was a fair representative of what sea cucumber can be but it was enough that I haven't been too curious about it since.

Yes - they also said it required a fair bit of cooking and would have the texture of calamari (and I suspect they meant the calamari you get that is little rubber bands) - perhaps a place for pressure cooking!

[andiesenji]

On 5/5/2017 at 2:23 PM, MelissaH said:

And I see that the blogger whose recipe post I linked to thinks the same as I did.) The recipe specifies to press the dough into a parchment-lined 20 cm by 30 cm (8 by 12 in) baking pan. I don't think I've ever seen a pan in those dimensions, at least in this country. I have a pan that's 7 by 11, and another that's 9 by 13. I wound up using the larger of the two, and I'll just plan to check my scones a tad earlier than the recipe says because I know they'll be a titch thinner than the recipe intends.

 

Those of you in the UK or continental Europe or somewhere else: is a 20 cm by 30 cm pan a normal thing, where you live?

I have a 12 x 8 x 3 cake pan(acutally 2).  I got them a few years ago for baking some specialty thing and I only used them a couple of times.  I thought they were made by Fat Daddio(I have one of their "stax" pans)  but it seems the two pans are Ateco.  

The Fat Daddio's is pricy but if you need odd sized pans, it is a gem.   I use it to make Battenberg cakes.

[Anna N]

32 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

I have a 12 x 8 x 3 cake pan(acutally 2).  I got them a few years ago for baking some specialty thing and I only used them a couple of times.  I thought they were made by Fat Daddio(I have one of their "stax" pans)  but it seems the two pans are Ateco.  

The Fat Daddio's is pricy but if you need odd sized pans, it is a gem.   I use it to make Battenberg cakes.

I have a fair number of British cookbooks and the 12 x 8 x 3 is an extremely popular size for a baking pan both for sweets and savoury.   For the most part, as most of us have figured out, it's not difficult to get around the difference but I am keeping my eyes open in thrift stores. 

[liuzhou]

9 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Yes - they also said it required a fair bit of cooking and would have the texture of calamari (and I suspect they meant the calamari you get that is little rubber bands) - perhaps a place for pressure cooking!

 

Nothing is going to get rid of that rubber texture. They are prized in Chinese cuisine precisely for that reason. Another of those rubbery or gelatinous but tasteless things many Chinese people like to test their dentures on.

 

I wouldn't say they "take on" the taste of what they are cooked with the way tofu does. The other ingredients may mask the cucumber's lack of taste, but that's not the same.

[andiesenji]

22 hours ago, Anna N said:

I have a fair number of British cookbooks and the 12 x 8 x 3 is an extremely popular size for a baking pan both for sweets and savoury.   For the most part, as most of us have figured out, it's not difficult to get around the difference but I am keeping my eyes open in thrift stores. 

The Ateco pans are distinctive in that the square and rectangular pans have the wide 'lip" on the top edge.  

I used to have a bunch of their pans but I gave most of them to a friend who owns a bakery/café when I was no longer baking.

Most were 3" deep and I had one 12 x 18 x 3 that I used for baking fruitcake - that I would cut into 12 x 3 individual cakes and some of those into 6 x 3.   This is a photo of the 12 x 8 x 3 so you will know what to look for.

[Anna N]

4 minutes ago, andiesenji said:

The Ateco pans are distinctive in that the square and rectangular pans have the wide 'lip" on the top edge.  

I used to have a bunch of their pans but I gave most of them to a friend who owns a bakery/café when I was no longer baking.

Most were 3" deep and I had one 12 x 18 x 3 that I used for baking fruitcake - that I would cut into 12 x 3 individual cakes and some of those into 6 x 3.   This is a photo of the 12 x 8 x 3 so you will know what to look for.

Thank you!   I suspect I have seen them or something similar in thrift shops in the past.   But it really does help to know what it is I'm looking for.

[olofliddin]

You can always change cook book, don't stress your self with that one.

One of the good ingredient of cooking is being happy.

[SJMitch]

On 5/4/2017 at 6:54 AM, Anna N said:

 So the frustration with A. Wong  continues. 

 One recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of diced cucumber hearts!   Even Google came up with a blank on this one. 

  Does such a thing actually exist? And if it does surely a pointer to where to obtain it would not be asking too much.

 

A month late, but I did find a couple relevant things on Google:

 

Looks like it is indeed just the inner part of bigger cucumber.  Video of Ashley Palmer-Watts mentioning and cooking with "cucumber hearts"

 

And in a review of A. Wong restaurant , a photo where the cucumber 'heart' is carefully cut in a circle around the seedy center.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, SJMitch said:

 

A month late, but I did find a couple relevant things on Google:

 

Looks like it is indeed just the inner part of bigger cucumber.  Video of Ashley Palmer-Watts mentioning and cooking with "cucumber hearts"

 

And in a review of A. Wong restaurant , a photo where the cucumber 'heart' is carefully cut in a circle around the seedy center.

Fascinating.  Thank you!