montecoretiger's Profile
are asian places in SF open new year's day?
wondering about: chinatown / little saigon / japantown -- will they be open tomorrow on new year's day? searching yields general threads about SF new year's day open restaurants, but of the fancy / opentable kind and i'm wondering about little noodle and vietnamese sandwich shops and such. does anyone know?
two year old home-canned jelly... ok to use??
dilemma! i have several jars of home-made home-processed green apple jelly (from christine ferber's recipe... this is what she adds to low-pectin fruit jams to help with set). i am making her pear jam today, and the recipe calls for adding green apple jelly... and suddenly i am paranoid that i can't use my stash of green apple jelly any more. help me decide!
it was properly water-bath canned for the correct amount of time when i made it two years ago. it's been mostly stored in a dark cupboard. the jar and seal did not seem at all bulgy or distorted, i needed a can opener to break the seal today, and i heard a pop as the seal came undone. the jelly looks totally clear, amber color, no visible mold or anything else. it smells fine.
but... i am worried. i do not want to make poisonous or lethal pear jam. the internet seems to say that jams should be used within a year. but then elsewhere it says that if there's no visible bulging or mold and it was correctly canned, it should be ok longer. which is correct?
Trip from Kansas City to Sioux Falls, SD..need help please!!
just want to chime and say thank you for the sanaa's recommendation. this place was an oasis in the land of mediocre family-style restaurants and steak on my cross country (CA to boston) epic road trip. truthfully sanaa's is just a solid run of the mill middle eastern place (it's perfectly nice, but i can think of dozens of similarly good middle eastern places in nyc), but it is a gem when you are craving light, healthy summer fare in the middle of the steak states. thank you!
1.5-2 days in los angeles - where to eat?
thank you all. we'll maybe try jitlada today -- to those who know, how does it compare to sripraphai in nyc? we ended up at aoc yesterday b/c it's right down the street from where we're staying. maybe should have looked for animal, because i found aoc disappointing -- showy arrangements, but muddy-tasting and nothing special for that price point. a couple of things were delicious, but others were just okay. though we did have a lovely chocolate souffle after at that french bistro-looking place down the street.
hunting for cheaper ethnic fare today after the not-so-great aoc dinner.
1.5-2 days in los angeles - where to eat?
anything else?
(and not really interested in the beach.... we have plenty of nice beaches near me)
1.5-2 days in los angeles - where to eat?
i have a couple of days coming up in los angeles and would love suggestions about where / what to eat. i am an adventurous eater, love ethnic food (miss queens dearly... used to live in jackson heights), and love fancy food too, especially of the seasonal / local persuasion. i can probably afford one meal somewhere fancy-ish (like $25- 30 entree type of place) and other meals somewhat more modest-budget. am open to a range of low-to-high cuisine (like your favorite taco cart is great too). am open to a range of neighborhoods (though will be staying in west hollywood). i'll have one dinner (but it may be late by the time we finally get into town the first night... maybe not too far from west hollywood for dinner #1), a second dinner, and two lunch /brunch possibilities. oh -- and anywhere with delicious drinks / specialty cocktails would also be of interest. i'm pretty open to all ideas so long as they are delicious.
also, i am driving to L.A. from norcal, so any suggestions for road food en route are appreciated as well.
thank you!
chez panisse cafe vs. downstairs?
i've been hoarding a gift certificate to chez panisse for the past two years waiting for the right time (i live about 2 hours away from berkeley so it's taken some planning). i need to be in berkeley for another reason sometime soon, for an evening commitment starting at 7:30, so i thought it would work out perfectly to have an early dinner beforehand and finally use my gift certificate / try chez panisse. but it turns out we can't eat downstairs at the restaurant because they seat at 6 - 6:30 for a 2 - 2.5 hour dinner. so that would end too late for my 7:30 appointment. so i made a reservation for the cafe instead, where we could eat an early dinner at 5:30 and be done in time. but now i am worried that i am missing out on the real chez panisse experience -- can anyone comment on the difference between upstairs and downstairs? thanks!
need a good / foolproof scone recipe
does anyone have a trusty favorite? i like my scones on the dry / crumbly / flaky side... not too muffin-like.
i've been looking around at recipes on food blogs and in my cookbooks and they all seem to be so different so i can't figure out which one to try! alice waters has one with cream and no butter at all! others have 6 TB butter. others have 1-2 sticks of butter. some have buttermilk. some cream. how do i choose?
christine ferber and green apple jelly (how to find green apples?)
i've been on a tear with my christine ferber book and have been having a really fun time making jams. but i'm reaching the point where a lot of the recipes i'd like to try call for the addition of homemeade green apple jelly pectin (made -- as per the very exacting mme CF -- from unripened green apples plucked in early july). so it's not early july, i don't have an apple orchard, and i doubt my local farmer's market sells unripe fruit. can i substitute something else? like very tart granny smith apples? any advice?
canning tomatoes -- pressure canner or waterbath?
i'd like to start trying out some canning. i've been making lots of small batches of jam, but not actually sealing and canning it. i'm thinking it's time to get a canner, since i'm making more jam than i can eat. i imagine canning jam, maybe preserved lemons, pickles and definitely tomatoes. not especially interested in things like beans and other non-acidic veggies.
so... do i need a pressure canner for the items listed above?or will a waterbath do? tomatoes seem to be on the bordeline, so am i safer using a pressure canner? or is that overly paranoid?
wny does my jam never sheet?
i love her ideas for combinations of fruits and spices. i tend to use slightly less sugar and more lemon in all her recipes (but only slightly less sugar or it doesn't set). her instructions are very, very minimal though. it's kind of more of an advanced jam book (or a recipe idea book more than a book about technique). i tend to consult the blue ball book for details about how to deal with jam (like set tests). but everything i've made is super delicious.
wny does my jam never sheet?
i've been making lots of jam lately -- mostly using christine ferber's book, which i love (but which is sort of scant on detailed directions). her jams don't use pectin, so you need to check the set to see when it's ready. i keep trying to do that sheet test with a spoon, but my jam thickens but never sheets. recently i made a batch of plum-vanilla and kept testing with a spoon and no sheeting until the point when i started to smell caramelizing at the bottom -- definitely too much cooking -- so i quickly took it off the stove. it set just fine when cool despite no sheeting. the next batch also never sheeted off a spoon, but i had a hunch it might be ready and had been cooking long enough, so i took it off, and it also set perfectly. the thing is i'd rather not rely on my hunches, since i'm not the most experienced jam maker yet. a foolproof test would be much more comforting. what gives -- why no sheeting? is my spoon not cold enough? something else? can someone walk me through what needs to be done exactly?
adulterating a basic fudge recipe
i made my first batch of fudge yesterday to give out as gifts. it came out perfectly! i used the basic joy of cooking recipe and nice sharffen berger chocolate and it set up just right and has a wonderful creamy texture. i'm very happy with it, even though the recipe was intimidating for a first-timer with no candy experience (heating to soft ball stage, cooling, then beating out the glossiness).
i want to try another kind of fudge, but i can't find any good recipes. i was thinking bourbon-brown sugar sounded really nice. but i'm not confident enough about how the basic candy chemistry works to figure out how to modify my basic chocolate fudge recipe (the original recipe is cream, half and half, corn syrup, chocolate, a little bit of butter and vanilla). so theoretically i could put in some bourbon, less half and half, no chocolate, and brown sugar and use the same process. but i'm nervous about tampering with ratios... and also worried that adding a bunch of alcohol will change some basic properties of how it sets up.
the only bourbon fudge recipes i'm finding online seem to use cheap ingredients and are quick fudges -- my understanding is that the quick fudges that don't use all the steps my recipe used, and use condensed milk and / or marshmallow cream to give it a fudgy consistency -- as far as i understand, that makes an inferior /grainier fudge.
any tips or good links for high quality old-fashioned bourbon fudge?
What do Romanian People Eat?
cooking the eggplant salad is really similar to baba ganoush. my mom taught me to make it by roasting eggplants first -- i put them straight onto the fire on my gas burner to get a bit of smokey taste and rotate them around on the fire until all the skin is charred and black. then peel off the skin with my hands (i keep a bowl of cold water on hand so my fingers don't get burned), then put the eggplants on a cutting board on an incline and let them drip for 20-30 minutes, then chop them into smooth mushy puree (using a wooden eggplant axe -- never metal and don't use a food processor), and add lots of olive oil, lots of salt and minced onions to taste. the key really is a lot of oil and salt, much more than you would think since it all gets absorbed. i keep adding and tasting until it's delicious. sometimes my mom will use part yogurt and part olive oil for a lighter / healthier version (maybe you would want to do this since you said the meals are supposed to be healthy). onion is optional but nice. garnish with tomato slices.
romanian cucumber salad is really very simple -- just mandolined thin cucumber rounds, lots of dill, some chopped garlic or onion slices and a simple vinaigrette, i think. i'll ask my mom if anything else goes in it.
What do Romanian People Eat?
i am romanian. i second polenta (mamaliga to romanians) as extremely typical (served with sour cream and cheese for sure).
sanda marin is the go-to cookbook author for romanians, kind of the romanian joy of cooking. every household has a copy. here's a link to the english translated version:
http://www.amazon.com/Sanda-Marins-Traditional-Romanian-Cooking/dp/0967169208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217446097&sr=8-1
goulash is something i think of as more hungarian (my transylvanian aunt makes it, btu not so much my mom who is from bucharest), though i'm happy to share her family goulash recipe if you'd like it. it's certainly authentic. though it's not very summery... it seems like an odd choice for a summer romanian menu.
besides polenta, the other national dish is sarmale, sour cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice, stewed with tomatoes and served (of course) with sour cream.
for summer i would suggest a cucumber / dill salad, an eggplant salad (similar to baba ganoush without the tahini -- also EXTREMELY common and typical and very tasty), and mititei (grilled meat dish -- great to order at parks in the summer, served with mustard... mititei are kind of like longish grilled meatballs, but there is a bit of baking soda added to the ground meat mixture so that they are lighter and fluffier than a hamburger might be.
clatite (pretty much like crepes ) with homemade jam (apricot or sour cherry) is a pretty typical and summery dessert.
i'm happy to give more details about some of these recipes if you're interested. make sure you get lots of dill, parsely and lovage.
July-August DESSERT COTM THE PERFECT SCOOP - Ice Creams
PEACH ICE CREAM (p. 89)
after my basil ice cream fiasco, i decided to go with a very traditional second effort, so i made the peach ice cream. i tweaked the recipe a touch since it sounded a bit too mild and sweet. i like my fruit desserts to be pretty tart and zippy. so i added much more lemon juice than suggested -- the recipe calls for a few drops, i squeezed in 1 1/2 lemons. i also added 2 T of brandy to the peaches when they were simmering in water just for a little extra something. and i reduced the amount of sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2, because i thought the basil ice cream, which used the same amount of sugar, was a bit too sweet. i think all of my changes were good ones. i tasted the ice cream base before and after the addition of all the extra lemon juice and to my taste it needed the touch of extra sourness.
this is not a custard-based ice cream and the cooking process was very easy, much easier than the basil ice cream. i chopped the peaches up into smaller pieces rather than halving them as the recipe says to do (because i could not get my ripe, soft peaches to pull into neat halves). it came out very well -- it's not a showstopper ice cream, but it's very tasty, creamy and has a very nice note of tart / sour. the recipe calls for sour cream as well as regular cream, which i think also helps temper the sweet peaches-and-cream thing. this was a perfect use of the 4 peaches i got in my CSA this week. i'm bringing it to a dinner party with a ginger cake and some chopped candied ginger.
gluten free ginger cake
never mind, i found this -- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/dining/143frex.html
and with a bunch of modifications (different flour mix, more spices, no honey, more molasses, white sugar) it came out really nicely.
gluten free ginger cake
does anyone have a good recipe for a ginger cake that is gluten free?
July-August DESSERT COTM THE PERFECT SCOOP - Ice Creams
i tried to give my basil ice cream another chance this evening. the book suggests pairing with strawberries in lemon juice, and the idea of using the basil ice cream as a grassy note in a tart berry dessert seemed like a better idea than trying to eat a whole bowl of it straight up. so i served it to my dinner guest with a raspberry-blackberry lemon juice compote. it was nicer with berries but to be honest i think that's because the berries masked the uncanny taste of pesto. i should disclose that my friend loved it and thought it was delicious, but this friend is known for liking unusual food combinations -- i pretty much figured if anyone would rave about basil ice cream she would. me... i give up trying to pretend i don't think it's simply gross. i'm going to throw the rest away and try another recipe.
nutella ice cream
i just got an ice cream maker and think this will be my new favorite food ever as soon as i make it. i've found a few recipes on the internet and am curious if anyone has a favorite. custard base or no custard base? other thoughts?
July-August DESSERT COTM THE PERFECT SCOOP - Ice Creams
BASIL ICE CREAM!
so by total coincidence i just received this very book and my first ice cream maker for my birthday. i've never made ice cream before and decided to jump in boldly and start off straight away with one of the more unusual / adventurous ice creams -- why not? basil sounded both exciting and a perfect way to use up a huge bunch of basil i already had in my fridge. i was thinking i would make pesto, but why not ice cream instead?
the recipe seemed very promising and the process was clearly described through the custard-making and various stages of cooling, heating, and mixing. when i first tasted the basil / sugar / cream puree in the food processor i thought it tasted delicious and zingy and very promising. but subsequent tastings during the making process made me more and more worried that my ice cream was tasting suspiciously similar to... well.. pesto. creamy sweet pesto, but definitely pesto.
and indeed, it tastes like pesto ice cream. i'm unconvinced. its ice-cream like qualities all seem very good (good texture and creaminess etc). but ultimately maybe i am not bold enough to truly enjoy pesto ice cream.
csa doldrums
i'm on week 5 of beets, zucchinis and swiss chard. i need new ideas badly!
with beets i've done chilled beet soup, grated raw beet salad with mint and feta, roasted beet salad with walnuts and goat cheese.
i've made zucchini fritters, slow cooked zucchini with pasta a la nigella, raw mandolined zucchini salad.
i've done a zillion frittata wilted pasta with greens things.
i need new creative ideas for this week!
Pork belly recipes?
i know some have mixed feelings about jamie oliver . but his pork belly with fennel is the most delicious thing i've cooked all year. from cook with jamie.
Mango or Avocado Shake Recipes?
this one isn't the healthiest, but this summer i'm pretty obsessed with es pokat, the indonesian shaved ice avocado shake made with condensed milk and chocolate syrup. so delicious.
here's a link to the saveur version:
http://www.saveur.com/article/food/Avocado-Shake-
i haven't tried the recipe -- i get this at my local indonesian restaurant -- but it sounds like a good approximation of it.
chilled beet soup
what's your favorite chilled beet soup recipe? i'm getting more beets in my CSA this week and it's supposed to be in the 90s all weekend, and this sounds like the right idea -- any inspired versions?
Too much watermelon!
i just tried out nigella lawson's watermelon salad recipe (has feta and black olives and red onion) and thought it was amazing. was skeptical about savory watermelon, but it was really tasty and refreshing. there are other threads about this salad if you do a search.
homemade baby food
i had big plans to make baby food purees, but, like other posters, mine hated baby food (jarred or homemade) and hated my puree efforts. it got demoralizing to spend all the time making these purees for him only to have him reject them. but, it turned out that he just hates baby food and loves my grownup cooking. one day i was cooking split pea soup with white wine and bacon and black pepper and gave him a little bite just to see what would happen and he LOVED it. it's been grownup foodie food for him every since. he likes spicy indian curries, rich wine sauces, etc. i don't think there's anything wrong with giving your baby regular food if he / she is old enough to digest it (eight months should be fine for most stuff IMO), so why not get your baby used to nice real foods?
beijing street snack - da bing?
i lived in beijing 10 years ago and more than any of the lavish, rich and delicious restaurant foods i loved buying snack foods from street vendors. some of these snacks are up there with my best food memories ever. i never thought of trying to replicate these snacks myself, but the other day, my husband (who makes a mean crepe) served me a savory crepe with a fried egg instead of the usual lemon and sugar. this gave me an instant flashback to one of my beloved street snacks. i'm pretty sure it was called da bing (big pancake?) and that i used to buy it around xizhimen where i would regularly transfer from a minibus to the subway. this snack involved a crepe-like pancake. an egg would be cracked onto the pancake, then if memory serves scallions and hot sauce were added and then a mysterious savory crunchy wafer-like thing. served up it was a delicious eggy, slightly spicy, crunchy pancake snack. does anyone know what i'm talking about?
on the topic, my other favorite was one that i used to buy way up near the fourth ring road (i fact for a while i ate it for lunch every day). i think my friends called it rou jia mo (maybe? it was a long time ago) and joked that it was like a chinese hamburger. but it was not like a chinese hamburger, it was delicious. some sort meat (pork? it tasted sort of fatty like mexican carnitas), tons of cilantro, maybe scallion (not sure) sandwiched in some sort of floury roll. yum. that one is probably labor intensive for making at home. but a homemade big pancake would be amazing! any ideas? what's that mystery wafer? am i remembering the basic recipe right?
