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Personally, I just want a perfect bacon butty. Sincerely yours, here in Japan, where no such thing exsits. :o3
I must say that I'm with Willy as far as not being a big fan of almonds and frangipane, which is a filling made from or flavored with said almonds. The Gloucester tart however with the rice and raspberry jam actually sounds pretty tasty to me. I would guess almond extract is used. Okay, I'll give any aficionados of this English confection another day to comment before we move on to baklava, with a brief aside about why baking powder and soda are very important to the "science of baking".
Monday I made my buffalo chicken meatballs and bacon cheddar potato skins. I'll give out the recipe for the meatballs when we get to Buffalo wings. Then on Tuesday it was shrimp and cheesy rice finished with a Tasso ham cream sauce. Now of course the norm here is shrimp and GRITS, but much to the disappointment my Texan Pop-Pop would have felt, I have never cared for hominy grits. And it's not that I didn't try to love them. Strange because cream of wheat is basically a type of grit that I liked as a kid, provided of course it has jelly and sugar mixed in. I tried that with hominy and it didn't work. I love to mix rice with cheeses though, and needed to pair it with something, so shrimp and grits became shrimp and cheesy rice. New Orleans chef and native John Besh loves his grits with Edam and Creole cream cheese (more on those when we get to discussing cheeses of the world) and diced fresh jalapenos, which I might try next time I do grillades, but with the Cajun spiced shrimp and spicy Tasso ham giving the dish some kick to begin with, the peppers would have been way too much. Sorry folks, I didn't even make cornbread with this, I know, I am a disappointment :( However, I will say that as far as Alex and I were concerned, this came out really, really well. And, this is one of those dishes where you use BACON FAT for not just sauteing the shrimp, but many people swear by it for the cornbread as well. The shrimp had a very subtle hint of bacon flavor, which played off of the Tasso. And the cream and cheese in the rice gave the spicy parts an earthy, smooth backdrop that mellowed everything out. To put it all together, lay down the rice, put the shrimp on top, spoon lots of that Tasso ham sauce on top, mix it all up and feast. Delicious! And another keeper. We love our weekly shrimp or crawfish fix, so next week I am going to do my Sicilian style lemon shrimp scampi and see how he likes that one.
Wednesday was the Italian classic chicken cacciatore, which I had kind of forgotten about for awhile until Alex reminded me about it. Now to this I say that there is MY WAY of making this using chicken thighs and legs, the classic old country way that I learned from those wonderful old Italian grandmothers of my buddies long ago when I was a teen, and then there is the way my wife and my mother made it, with boiled and shredded chicken. Much as I tried to convey the idea, Alex said "Dad, we can do it your way some time, will you do it this time the way Mom and Mom-Mom made it? I miss Mama's cacciatore." Well, what else could I say at that point but yes to that boo boo face? With that, I made enough, too much in fact that we'd get 3 more days of meals out of it, so after tonight the rest gets frozen. I also used to eat it over pasta, but Patty and Alex like it (gulp) over french fries of all things, so I got outvoted again. I actually don't mind as much as I protest, it is still quite good for not being as authentically Italian as I'm used to, and when it comes to my children, this is a small allowance to make.
BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA- What Is The Difference?
Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents, which means they are added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to 'rise'. Baking powder contains baking soda, but the two substances are used under different conditions.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat!
Baking Powder
Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven.
How Are Recipes Determined?
Some recipes call for baking soda, while others call for baking powder. Which ingredient is used depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. The ultimate goal is to produce a tasty product with a pleasing texture. Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. You'll find baking soda in cookie recipes. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and biscuits.
Substituting in Recipes
You can substitute baking powder in place of baking soda (you'll need more baking powder and it may affect the taste), but you can't use baking soda when a recipe calls for baking powder. Baking soda by itself lacks the acidity to make a cake rise. However, you can make your own baking powder if you have baking soda and cream of tartar. Simply mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.
In my experience, bicarbonate is more commonly used in biscuits and cookies, doughs that don't need to grow that much, while baking powder is usually used in cakes, which require a more "fluffy" texture.
What do you lot think? :-)
:-O
My mate asked me the same question when I put it up on FB. It's a marmite mug, toast rack and butter dish :D
Hoping for a tea pot this year to round out the set ;-)
;)
Marmite on toast. Can't beat it! ;-)
I make do without turkey here. Maybe someday when I get an apartment with an oven, or buy a portable oven, I can cook turkey again. I do miss it at Christmas.
Murdock's Chicken, Bacon, Garlic stuffed crust pizza!
Pizza dough.
Ragu Garlic parmesan sauce
cheese
Bacon
grilled chicken cut up
diced tomatoes
finely diced onions
and mozzarella sticks (10 to 12 depending on how big your pizza is.)
First you make the dough then once it's flattened out, you place the cheese sticks around the length of the crust and wrap the dough over the cheese sticks. then you put on your ingredients and cook to your leisure.
or a secret agent!
@WillyGalore I'm afraid it's long been eaten. Hehe I was just late to post that recipe. :))
If I have any more turkey I will be forced to punch someone. You should see how much leftovers there are! No wonder I only eat the damn thing once a year.
I had so much turkey yesterday It gave me one of the greatest most interactive dreams I every had! =))
Ooh tell us al.....No scrap that. Probably best I don't ask that question. ;-)
I'll get around to it later when I finish writing down everything about it. :)
For X-mas Eve, it's Kielbasa (Fresh and Smoked), Potato/Cheese Pierogies, and Sauerkraut. It's the traditional dish for Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Polish, etc on this day, and I continue to honor that. Served with horseradish, spicy brown deli style mustard, and rum spiked egg nog spiced with a little vanilla to wash it down with. I was pleasantly blasted 12/24 :) X-mas day, we always had brown sugar glazed baked ham, roasted potatoes, and an assortment of veggies, oven baked biscuits, cookies and cakes for dessert. We only did turkey for Thanksgiving. New Year's Day, always roast pork and potatoes, sauerkraut. That's traditional German and done for good luck in the New Year.
Looks like murder. Sheer murder. And I mean that in the kindest way.
So while the holidays saw me busy, I didn't forget to continue to grow as a gourmet home cook and managed to try some new dishes I'd been meaning to.
One of my holiday gifts was Chef John Besh's "My New Orleans" cookbook. I am a big fan of Besh ever since I tried his recipe for grillades and I was thrilled to receive it from my kids. In it was his special recipe for "Louisiana Shrimp And Andouille Over Grits" that he wrote was "one of the most satisfying" shrimp dishes. And since my son and I love shrimp and new ways to try it on a weekly basis, this sounded like the perfect dish for New Year's Eve, especially considering that my brother, also an aficionado of this cuisine, would be enjoying it with us. The dish features roasted red Spanish Piquillo peppers (difficult to come by but I managed to locate a jar at a Mexican grocery) and diced tomatoes as well the featured players. Now to the grits. Well, I've noted previously that instead of grits that I've substituted corn maque choux (New Orleans' take on creamed corn) in the grillades dish and 4 cheese rice in another. But when Chef Besh suggested the white variety combining the sweet Italian cream cheese mascarpone and a little mild Edam cheese to accompany it, I gave it a shot and discovered that maybe grits weren't so bad after all. My brother commented that it smelled like New Orleans while the dish cooked, and after 3 bites or so stated that it tasted like it too. He cleaned off his plate and promptly conked out until we woke him for the countdown, and we were all well satisfied with the incredibly delicious results. Also in attendance were some Cheddar Bay biscuits to sop up that fragrant and luscious gravy filled with the ingredients and a hint of shrimp flavor from the stock I made from the shells. Oh yeah, this one will get made several times a year, no doubt about it. As a matter of fact, I think I will make this one specially for my sister @4EverBonded when she visits me one day in the future, hopefully not too many years from now :)
This weekend I was leafing through the Food Network recipe list for shrimp and found something Italian that I felt like a complete dummy for not thinking of sooner. Emeril Lagasse had a recipe for shrimp parmigiana, and having forgotten having had this once upon a time and how good it was, the shrimp saw this action. So while this dish is Italian in origin, the Creole style Essence spice of Lagasse's gave the dish a New Orleans flavor (there is a large Italian community in the city that has influenced and been influenced by the style) that was present in the flour before I bathed the shrimp in the egg wash, and again in the breading. I then deep fried the shrimp with the tail part of the shell on, then placed them on a sheet and hit them with some homemade marinara and shredded Mozzarella cheese before finishing them off into a gooey, yummy mess in the broiler. They went on top of some angel hair pasta with more marinara. My son had one bite of a shrimp with some pasta and was completely overjoyed with the result, to the point of proving that "table grunting" runs in the family, so now this has joined the menu along with the New Year's Eve dish.
I'll try to catch up with some more B's on the list that interest me, and give a brief synopsis on others now that I am back in the Forum swing.
The luggage I brought back to Germany was basically just food :D cheese, good olive oil from my family's own production, a lot of cod (really a lot), canned sardines and sticlebacks of the finest quality, East Timor coffee and Azorean green tee...
Balsamic vinegar (Italian: aceto balsamico) is a condiment originating from Italy.
The original traditional product (Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale), made from a reduction of cooked white Trebbiano grape juice and not a vinegar in the usual sense, has been made in Modena and Reggio Emilia since the Middle Ages: the production of balsamic vinegar is mentioned in a document dated 1046. During the Renaissance, it was appreciated in the House of Este. Today, the traditional balsamic vinegar is highly valued by chefs and gourmet food lovers.
There are three types of balsamic vinegar:
1. Authentic traditional artisan balsamic vinegar, the only kind that may legally be described as "Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" in the EU. True balsamic vinegar must be aged at least 12 years.
2. Commercial grade balsamic vinegars produced on an industrial scale.
3. Condimento grade products, which are often a mix of the two above.
Traditional balsamic vinegar is produced from the juice of just-harvested white grapes (typically, Trebbiano grapes) boiled down to approximately 30% of the original volume to create a concentrate or must, which is then fermented with a slow aging process which concentrates the flavours. The flavour intensifies over the years, with the vinegar being stored in wooden casks, becoming sweet, viscous and very concentrated. During this period, a portion evaporates: it is said that this is the "angels' share," a term also used in the production of bourbon whiskey, scotch whisky, wine, and other alcoholic beverages.
None of the product may be withdrawn until the end of the minimum aging period of 12 years. At the end of the aging period (12, 18, or 25 years) a small portion is drawn from the smallest cask and each cask is then topped up with the contents of the preceding (next larger) cask. Freshly reduced cooked must is added to the largest cask and in every subsequent year the drawing and topping up process is repeated.[4] This process where the product is distributed from the oldest cask and then refilled from the next oldest vintage cask is called solera or in perpetuum.
Consortium-sealed Tradizionale balsamic vinegar 100 ml bottles can cost between US$150 and $400 each.
Commercial-grade balsamic vinegar is used in salad dressings, dips, marinades, reductions and sauces.
In Emilia-Romagna, tradizionale vinegar is most often served in drops on top of chunks of Parmigiano Reggiano and mortadella as an antipasto. It is also used sparingly to enhance steaks, eggs or grilled fish, as well as on fresh fruit such as strawberries and pears and on plain crema (custard) gelato. Tradizionale vinegar may be drunk from a tiny glass to conclude a meal.
Contemporary chefs use both tradizionale and condimento vinegars sparingly in simple dishes where the balsamic vinegar's complex tastes are highlighted, using it to enhance dishes like scallops or shrimp, or on simple pastas and risottos.