Chinese legume dishes?

I'm principally looking for non-meat protein within chinese cuisine. I'm already familiar with tofu and seitan, and i was interested in beans and lentils, etc.

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need ideas for authentic italian for a crowd

I thought southern italy had baked pasta?

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Room temperature hors d'œuvre ideas

My wife and I love Zaalouk. I've seen different recipes for this online, the version we're fond of (from Claudia Roden's Arabesuqes) is a dip of garlicky tomato sauce and eggplant caviar. Figure 1 large eggplant to a 16oz can of tomatoes. Prick the eggplant a bit with a fork or knife, and roast it until it collapses. Meanwhile, cook your tomatoes with minced/crushed garlic and plenty of olive oil until they are much reduced. Once the eggplant is done, scoop out the insides and add them to the tomatoes, along with some lemon juice. You'll need to break up the eggplant, either mash it with the tomatoes or chop it before you add it. A few spices finish the dish: cumin, paprika, maybe some powdered coriander seed or hot pepper. Parsley, cilantro and mint are also good.

here's an illustrated recipe: http://www.domesticdaddy.net/2010/06/22/zaalouk/

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Need help planning "BBQ" menu for a party

One thing I always make with BBQ is a little cucumber salad: white vinegar, sugar, water, onion (sweet, or not). It's good to have something light and fresh-tasting with all that heavy (delicious) BBQ fare.

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Need help planning "BBQ" menu for a party

to get smokey flavor in the oven, i think it's best to brine ahead of time with liquid smoke.

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Chinese legume dishes?

Thanks for all the replies, ppl.

scoopG: I can't really imagine cooking lentils in a chinese style, what would you do with them?

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Costco cooking - advice?

you can freeze your pesto in ice cube trays for easy portioning.

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Need help planning "BBQ" menu for a party

cook's illustrated recently had a slow-roasted pork shoulder recipe that turned out fantastic when I made it, and it was super-easy. The only catch is that you have to rub the meat a day or so in advance.

Take your pork shoulder (butt), score with a knife as niki says, and cover it with a mix of salt and brown sugar (i used a bit more sugar than salt but I think they did equal parts, about 1/2 - 1 cup total depending on taste and how much meat you've got) plus thyme (savory, marjoram, etc). The day before you cook it, rub that on the pork and stick it in the fridge. Cook it at 300-325 for several hours (4-6), basting if you have the inclination.

It makes a beatiful, tasty crust on the outside, and a lovely porky flavor inside. It is very versatile: I used it in burritos, but you can easily pull it and add bbq sauce. Usually when I do 'bbq' pork shoulder in the oven, I do it at 225 or so like Niki says, and I was surprised to find that this temperature yielded such a moist and tender roast. Might be a tiny bit firm for pulling, and if this is a concern cook it lower and longer.

That's it, though: score, rub, wait, roast. just takes time.

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Chinese legume dishes?

bean desserts are grody :)

are there soy dishes besides the plain/roasted edamame? I guess you could add soy beans to a stir fry like anything else...

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Bean Dishes Besides Stews?

Beans and greens are a classic combination. I just had some leftover lentils with chard over pasta for lunch. Here's how I made it:

Cook your lentils with peeled garlic, bay, or other spices (I used bay and cumin). When the lentils are about done, cook your chard separately - you want to undercook it so it doesn't disintegrate when you add it to the lentils. On medium-high, I sauteed my chard (cleaned and ripped - i discarded my stems but of course you can cook them too if you add them first) it with minced garlic and some chili flakes. Combine the greens and lentils. Add salt and acid to taste - I used sherry vinegar cuz i had some. As far as quantities, I had less than a half-pound of french lentils and one bunch of chard (the raw leaves nearly filled my salad spinner) and probably a total of 4 cloves of garlic.

For the pasta, I used gemelli, but any compact noodle will do (fusilli, farfalle, orrechiette). The way I did it was to boil the noodles till nearly done, then I added them to the assembled dish to finish their cooking and absorb some flavor. You can use the pasta water to adjust the soupiness. Another possibility would be a simple orzo with lemon and parsely, or rice, or whatever.

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Chinese legume dishes?

I've read that legumes are eaten in China, esp by those who can't afford much meat. Aside from tofu dishes and plain edamame, I've never seen any recipe for a Chinese dish with legumes. Do they exist?

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help me distinguish these shun knives

http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/21272-shun-classic-santoku.aspx
http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/11054-shun-classic-santoku.aspx

the prices of knives are very different, but from what i can tell, the product number of the cheaper one (DM 0717) is the same as the number for the more expensive one. a quick google search for DM 0717 will bear this out http://www.chefscatalog.com/product/21272-shun-classic-santoku.aspx .

is the cheaper knife an older line or something? it lacks the kanji that you usually see on a shun knife (which, as far as i can tell, should appear on both sides of the blade?)....

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Help with breaking bottled water habit...Safe Water Bottle?

FWIW, i keep a brita filter at home and at work, and just use cups.

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carbon steel chinese cleaver

so i think i'm about to buy the central chef one i linked to. I think it'll be a bit lighter.

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carbon steel chinese cleaver

i decided that a nakiri just isn't wide enough. I went to Korin over the weekend and tried a few out. They had 2 chinese style cleavers which i liked a lot better. The lighter one was much more to my liking.

while i was there I bought this for a friend's wedding:http://www.korin.com/product.php?pid=332&cat=54&subcat=62&subsubcat=&df=knife&catname=Western%20Style&subcatname=Tojiro&subsubcatname=&mnum=HFU-F808

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carbon steel chinese cleaver

no, i haven't used a cleaver (aside from a meat cleaver).

I think i can handle the carbon steel.

I was thinking of a nakiri as well, but i was worried about a few things. one, that it would be hard to find something decent in my budget. two, that japanese knives require special handling i'm unfamiliar with. I think a nakiri might be more familiar in my hand but i think i could learn to use the cleaver. I've been getting in to the quick knuckle-guided chop recently and I want something with a wide, flat blade.

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carbon steel chinese cleaver

i want a chinese cleaver mainly for veggies, and it seems like carbon steel would be a better bet than stainless since i want to go cheap.

Here are two items that i think look good.

http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/cleavers/vegetable-cleaver.html

and

http://www.centralchef.com/storefrontprofiles/DeluxeSFItemDetail.aspx?sid=1&sfid=123094&c=735621&i=201287896

the bottom one has full tang, which is nice.

ur thoughts? i'm happy to know about particular knives or whether you think carbon is a good idea, etc etc. I would be willing to spend up to $50.

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wide blade knife for chopping

oops, sorry, i wasn't very clear there. knives have 3 dimensions and i seem to have referred to two of them as width. length is the easy one. Then there's the small ~Xmm 'width' (how thick the metal is) and the larger ~Yinch 'width' (how deep the blade is).

I meant to say that thicker metal lasts longer, not that a deeper blade lasts longer.

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wide blade knife for chopping

ok. Good to know.

part of the reason i want a thicker knife is b/c i want it to last a long time.

btw: how can i tell if a non-full tang knife is well built? i mean,
http://www.buy4asianlife.com/eshop/ids_cate_step2.asp/id/AK0254_SR200 costs $22 bucks vs this http://www.buy4asianlife.com/eshop/ids_cate_step2.asp/id/AK0350_KK-0621 which is $10 times that, but they appear to be affixed to the handle the same way.

or http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-YAMAWAKU-chestnut-chef-knife-Santoku-houchou_W0QQitemZ190228843261QQihZ009QQcategoryZ20639QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
this looks great, but w/out full tang i don't know what to look for...

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wide blade knife for chopping

i know a deba is designed for filleting fish, but is it actually unsuitable for chopping? I want a knife with some weight to it.

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Choosing a Cheese Knife

i eat a lot of cheese and have used a variety of knives on them. The best thing i have found is to simply use cheapo pearing knives. I've got one that's got a nice wooden handle.

a knife with holes in the middle will muck up your soft or blue cheeses or the like. Even with semi-soft cheese (eg havarti, morbier, etc), i've found bits of cheese getting into the holes. Plus, the cheese still sticks to the blade half the time.

Though there will be sticking, the thin blade of a pearing knife makes it easy to remove the slices.

Seems to me the only reason to get a 'cheese knife' is for looks, which is certainly a fine reason. If looks are what you're after, i'd say get something with a shallow blade that looks nice, and skip the holes. The wide-bladed trowel type guys are best with the softer cheeses.

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