![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Over the weekend, Chuckro and I hit up the Asian grocery store for supplies to tackle our first recipes out of the new Asian cookbook. I am proud to say we can now make a Thai Red Curry Beef that actually tastes like real Thai Red Curry beef. Probably because it has actual Asian ingredients instead of random American substitutions - red curry paste I can't read most of the label of, coconut milk, tamarind concentrate, etc. The only one we couldn't find was palm sugar, which the cookbook said could be replaced with brown sugar. It was delicious. I am proud.
I just attempted tempering chocolate. Unfortunately, our candy thermometer starts at 100 degrees, which is problematic when I'm supposed to cool it to 88 degrees. We'll see if the peppermint bark I just made comes out glossy and hard or if it melts if you look at it crossly like my chocolate covered strawberries always do.
In other news, I've become my mother-in-law, she of the "Beef and broccoli made with chicken and red peppers" fame. We were supposed to be having fusilli with braised fennel tomorrow night. But the food store, which has had fennel the last three times I was there, had no fennel. So we're having peppers instead, which are entirely unlike fennel. And there was no fusilli (none of the four brands of pasta they carry had any fusilli left), so we're having tri-color rotini instead. And there's no fresh tarragon or parsley, so we're using dried. Sigh.
I just attempted tempering chocolate. Unfortunately, our candy thermometer starts at 100 degrees, which is problematic when I'm supposed to cool it to 88 degrees. We'll see if the peppermint bark I just made comes out glossy and hard or if it melts if you look at it crossly like my chocolate covered strawberries always do.
In other news, I've become my mother-in-law, she of the "Beef and broccoli made with chicken and red peppers" fame. We were supposed to be having fusilli with braised fennel tomorrow night. But the food store, which has had fennel the last three times I was there, had no fennel. So we're having peppers instead, which are entirely unlike fennel. And there was no fusilli (none of the four brands of pasta they carry had any fusilli left), so we're having tri-color rotini instead. And there's no fresh tarragon or parsley, so we're using dried. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-06 01:02 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)You make me proud. It took me years to master beef and broccoli with chicken and red peppers. Just be sure that when Chuck (or anyone else, for that matter) asks you what the dish is, you give them the original name, not the actual ingredients. This baffles them in a charming way. Also say, "Be sure to eat this for beef and broccoli, not chicken and red peppers." It gets their palate ready for a taste treat. And plays with their head so well.
Seriously, some of my best recipes have been this kind of serindipity: the almond-flavored vanilla cake with peanut butter, for instance, was supposed to have fudge frosting but I was out of powdered sugar. (I once made powdered sugar from granulated sugar in the blender. It turned out fine, but I was cleaning the kitchen for months.) The reverse Toll House cookie was the same thing: I had eaten all the chocolate chips but not the white chips (I don't like white chocolate) and so I just did a reverse cookie.
I got you and Chuck a lovely surprise. It cost no money but it's really neat. I didn't make it, either. It's something unique (or "most unique," as my students say.) And I guarantee that you will save it.
xxxxxxxxxx
Happy Surprise
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-12-06 01:09 am (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
From: