Amanita's Profile
Tips and Tricks for Cooking Corn on the Cob?
You are all going to make me regret living in Paris. Nostalgic for corn straight from the Pennsylvania field. Back in those pre-grilling days, we boiled it two or three minutes, then devoured with butter. Must visit the US next summer.
Buttermilk cole slaw recipe needed for tonight
ooooh that looks really good. Have been looking for good coleslaw recipes for some time and this looks like a winner.
hound help! sweet potato crisis!
Sorry, I have a no-nuke kitchen. But I often steam or pressure-cook my sweet taters. Men don't object to the mashed purée flavored with bourbon.
Cooking Jerusalem Artichokes [split from What's My Craving]
Funny, I never noticed the gas. The English Wikipedia entry mentions it, but the French one ("topinambour") does not. May be a matter of Anglo fastidiousness. It's a good thing I didn't read Wikipedia before I made them for the first time the other day. They were delicious!
pasta as pie weights.
French people use dried beans. Being delightfully thrifty, they keep them to use over and over as pie weights.
I'd be scared to use pennies, unless wrapped. Copper is a toxin!
My friend Madeleine tells about making a pie during the war, when country people used pebbles as pie weights. Her husband (usually oblivious to the kitchen, of course, such things being women's work) took one look at it before it went into the oven and said, "On mange des tartes aux cailloux maintenant?"
Artichokes the proper way to make them?
I'm a pressure-cooker of artichokes, too. 20 minutes for the big guys, 10 for the small "poivrade" chokes. We enjoy them with garlic-lemon vinaigrette (being somewhat cholesterol conscious).
Leftover lamb leg roast - ideas?
wow, I think my whole leg of lamb, frozen New Zealand, weighed about 3 lbs.! I have some leftovers, too. I usually just shave the meat off and sauté it with garlic and peppers for kebab sandwiches, but it is so cold here in Europa I may go for a chorba-style soup seasoned with cumin and quatre-épices.
Too spicy?
Fromage blanc (smooth cottage cheese) or sour cream on top would cool it off, but the bake-off judges might not approve.
My first attempt at tiramisu...please help!!
One kilo is two pounds. A liter is a bit less than a quart - but that quantity isn't as critical as the Mascarpone. It sounds like a great recipe.
Who Stayed In and What Did You Make For NYE?
Fun topic! We had a friend over for
stuffed mushrooms (homemade),
snails (from frozen food aisle - this is France),
smoked peppered mackerel (from supermarket),
salad with melted goat cheese, (oh! I forgot the pignoli! I can have that tomorrow!)
cheese platter with the expensive aged Comté, roquefort, Saint-Marcellin, and an olive-flavored goat cheese specialty,
chestnut spice cake I invented, which is a bit heavy, and a
bûche from the baker's -
all washed down with lots and lots of champagne.
Bonne année!
First Thanksgiving Dinner
I've been doing Thanksgiving in France for several years, where most non-professional kitchens are too small to have double ovens. I just do some stuff (pies, cranberry sauce, a sweet potato casserole one year) ahead of time. On turkey day, I baste my Dinde with pan juices every quarter hour. Of course, it's not usually a monster - about 16 lbs. is the biggest one I've ever roasted, and they're usually more like 12..
What is this brining thing? Doesn't it add too much salt to the meat? Or are you all counting on taking blood-pressure medicine when push comes to shove?
homemade gnocchi
Wow, I never thought of using instant mashed potatoes. Must have overdosed on them as a child. I made spinach gnocchi once but only once because it's so time-consuming when you cooked and riced real potatoes. Still, you might consider adding something green to the allrecipes link below.
What did you cook today, and was it good?
I made a violin out of chocolate cake. I had to make the body and neck separately (4/4 violin). The body is an excellent recipe raised only by egg whites beaten stiff. But starting the neck this morning, I got yolk into every single white (full moon?), so I knew they wouldn't beat up into peaks. I put in some baking powder and everything is fine. I know chocolate cake is pretty banal, but I'm excited about my violin and will be putting the candles where the strings belong.
Sweet Treats For Holiday Gift Giving? Need help with ideas...
Lebkuchen would be a good choice, and you'd even be able to fulfill the requirement of leaving them in a tin for two weeks before serving. My recipe calls for a cup of chopped blanched almonds, 1/3 cup of candied orange peel, the finely grated rind of a half lemon, the crushed seeds of three cardamom pods, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 1/4 c flour, and 1/2 tsp baking powder. Caution: bake on parchment paper and allow to cool for a few minutes before detaching them. Traditionally, they are baked on rice paper, but I don't know where to get this (Chinatown?)
Surplus of fresh eggs
The first thing that came to my mind is soft-boiled eggs. The second is chocolate mousse - a soufflé minus the cooking. It takes about six eggs for 200 g of semisweet chocolate. I suppose you could make an interesting chocolate and orange marbled mousse if you follow Claudia Roden's orange-cake lead (my latest delight): Cook two oranges, peels and all (they have to be organic) in the pressure cooker for a half hour, allow to cool, remove seeds, and puree in the blender. You'd then beat the yolks with the pureed orange, beat the whites into peaks, and fold in. Chocolate mousse is just as simple - melt your chocolate, allow to cool, beat in yolks, beat whites stiff separately, and fold in. If the chocolate is uncooperative and thickens, thin it with a little milk or cream.
Cooking with fresh ginger
I am a ginger-and-garlic fiend. Ginger is wonderful associated with garlic in curries, which are Asian but not really Chinese. I also put fresh grated ginger into my pumpkin soups, which are seasoned a bit like pumpkin pies without the sugar (with cinnamon, cloves, and cumin). Recently, I recovered quickly from a nasty cold that was going around by fortifying myself with ginger tea (peel and slice a generous hunk of the root, and boil it for about ten minutes, until the water is pale brown). When you add honey to this, it is almost as delicious as candied ginger, something I love but which is too fattening for me.
I suppose by "Chinese" you mean the wonderful combinations of ginger-soy sauce -garlic and chili pepper (my version of Szechwan). Delightful with bland eggplant. I make the same sauce and add ground-up peanuts for a sort of salad of roasted eggplant, roasted peeled red bell peppers, and snow peas. However, it's too salty if you use tamari soy and salted peanuts, so I usually either wash the salt off the peanuts or tone it down with some water.
Happy gingering! Don't use it gingerly!
CHALLENGE - Baking without an oven
At the home of some ovenless friends a couple days ago, I was browsing a "steaming" cookbook, and there were a couple steamed cakes. I guess they're puddings. Dutch oven or pressure cooker sound like the ticket. You can live without pizza and cookies till the oven door is fixed. After all, some people live on raw foods.
BEETS!! beets?
Save a couple raw and grate them onto a salad! Thrilling color, great earthy taste.
How long is Peach Cobbler good for?
I would imagine. Any eggs are cooked, there's plenty of sugar, which preserves things, and no cream. Your class is lucky!
The Secret of French Fries?
This reminds me of a silly joke the French tell: What's Belgian fondue? French fries dipped in mashed potatoes.
Thanksgiving duck
You'd get the rich taste but not that spectacular Thanksgiving vision of a roasted fowl. I always make turkey on Thanksgiving because it's that New World native - and it's cheap and delicious! I'd save duck for intimate dinners.
Frozen Butternut Squash? tasty and easy?
I'm a major fan of pureed thick squash and pumpkin soups. Dice and saute onion, add squash and a small amount of water, season with cinnamon, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, perhaps add chestnuts or an apple, allow to simmer, puree in food processor, perhaps add sour cream or a nice sharp cheese at the end.
What is your favorite kind of old fashioned cake?
Are there denture issues? If so, avoid nuts.
Favourite pizza topping combos?
Classicism and simplicity: onions, green or red bell peppers, tomato sauce, parmesan, mozzarella, oregano, and olive oil.
Matsutake Tokusen - best way to prepare?
The August 20 issue of the New Yorker magazine had a fascinating in-depth investigation of matsutake picking in Oregon, by Burkhardt Bilger. I recall some discussion of cooking techniques among the pickers, but the abstract doesn't seem to mention that detail:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_bilger
yogurt covered goji berries?
This morning, I tasted my first, a gift from New York to Paris, plain. I think they're delicious. Plenty sweet enough without coatings. I doubt if they'll make me live forever, but they do taste good.
Your fav Chicken Curry recipe?
This sounds fabulous. I can't wait to try it. Hooray for Ginger and Garlic!
Popping your own popcorn
Interesting subject. I have never owned or operated either a microwave or a popcorn popper. Don't make popcorn so often anymore now that child has grown, but we always had fun shakin' it up in our huge heavy-bottomed, well-lidded soup pot (cf. Violabratsche below) in safflower oil.
Eggplant for those who don't like it?
I really like Szechwan Eggplant made by brushing slices of eggplant with oil, grilling for five minutes on each side, and then tossing quickly in the wok with minced fresh ginger and garlic, hot pepper of some sort, tamari soy sauce, and possibly a little water to keep everything from being overpowering. Garnish with scallions, fresh basil, and sesame seeds serve with brown rice. (Apparently eggplant has very little nutritional value.)
Cabbage: favorite ways to cook?
What kind of cabbage? The green leafy? The white? I like those two (or brussels sprouts) sliced and stir fried till tender in olive oil and Dijon mustard with a sprinkle of caraway seeds at the end. I love raw red cabbage sliced thin in a salad with roquefort, walnuts, and brown rice or Ebly instant wheat berries (do you have that in the States? they cook in five minutes)..
