Triangle Pre-Thanksgiving Get Together?

[Varmint]

Hopefully, phlawless will be able to answer your questions. The one thing that I'll add is that you need to make the fritters fresh -- thus, if you're at home, no problem. Get the oil good and hot, and fry away. But if you're at someone else's home, make sure they're comfortable with you making a nasty mess.

The goat cheese ice cream really brought this dish together in my opinion. It had a rich, earthy taste to it -- slightly salty but not to the extent that you'd say, "This is a salty ice cream." Plus, the mouth feel of the ice cream was different -- it had a bit of that somewhat chalkiness found with goat cheese, but it helped with the dish. However, eating this ice cream by itself is an endeavor that is overly rich. Having the various textures and flavors in the same dish make it much, much better.

[phlawless]

yes you can get goat's milk at Wellspring, although sometimes they only have the low-fat. Not that big of a deal if that's all there is.

The pepitas, are pretty easy, and you can make them a day ahead of time.

2 c pumpkin seeds (also found at Wellspring, in the bulk section)

1/2 c sugar

pinch salt

2 c sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t cayenne

pinch salt

mix 1/2c sugar and salt

then mix other sugar and spices and lay out evenly on a sheetpan

toast your seeds in an uncoated pan (anything but nonstick) till they start to turn golden and pop

add 1/2c sugar and salt mix and coat seeds completely

toss continually until sugar starts to caramelize, once golden, pour onto sheet pan with other sugar mix and toss till coated completely, breaking up clumps of seeds and caramel.

allow to cool and store at room temp in an airtight container.

sift extra sugar when time to serve.

[Zeb A]

muchos gracias!!

[Zeb A]

I found the tamal recipe in Bayless' Mexican Kitchen cookbook.

Did you use bannana leaves and, if so from where did you buy them?

Did you cook them in loaf pans?

Thx

[Varmint]

We didn't do the steamed, big-ass tamal. There was another recipe for a simple baked tamal. It was easy: in a pie plate, layer half the masa, then spread the filling, top with the masa and bake. Serve with kick-ass mole.