Text 677, 95 rader
Skriven 2006-04-23 12:23:27 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
     Kommentar till en text av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
Ärende: Re: uncle repost 415
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*** Quoting Ruth Haffly from a message to MICHAEL LOO ***

 RH> rather lean for us so I experimented with a lot of alternatives to meat
 RH> sources of protein.

 ML> Funny thing is that the tables have turned, and many of the
 ML> traditional meat substitutes are cheaper than meat itself

Yup!  I've noticed that.  Selling hype mostly.

RH> But more expensive in others.  The imitation crab is just as pricy as
RH> the real thing, or more so, in some areas.  I've not tried, nor do I

But easier to manage to get 'chunks' of which suits me well enough for my
simple needs.

(in the background, Don is making up his sloppy joes, blender going in little
spurts.  Charlotte is peeking and passing me the list of what he's putting in
it so I can MM it later.  Yes, I'm cheating.  Charlotte gets to play on the
computer later and doesnt know she's learning cooking skills right now which
suits us both fine! <eg>.


 ML> Arg, 2 to 1 is closer to the right proportion. With fresh
 ML> rice, closer to 1.5 to 1.

RH> I've never bought (nor seen) fresh rice; mine has always been bought
RH> from a store, co-op or other source.

I've seen it and tried it out here.  It's a different cooking technique and I
ended up making 'rice porridge' (congee/juk).  It was a little better tasting
with fresh (undried) rice but not a substancial difference.  Not enough to be
worth the cost of buying local rice.  Dunno how long it would store either.  I
only got about a cup worth so had used it all.

That was some time ago but was one of my earlier 'congee' attempts and was very
very much a mix of local foods.  In fact, it was all based on local stuff
except for the black peppercorns.  One of the local mama-san's helped me pick
out things for a 'rice porridge'.  Of what I can recall:

Started with dashi (she's where I get my dashi stuff normally.  Better grade of
dried fish shreds but her neighbor stall has the best seaweed selections.  She
only sells the packaged stuff which he doesnt so they work in cahoots).  She
helped me find another version of my favorite, that doesnt have sea salt
component.  A small shift we had to make for Don's diet and now we add the
merest pinch of MSG for the same effect.  She picked out little palmfuls of 3
seaweeds to do with the congee.  One a fine hair looking type, very fresh, one
a largish brown shred (dried) and one a fat whole leaf about 5 inches across
and 7-8 inches long with a thick center stem.  She tore that in half, then
tore out the stem, ate a small bite and mimiced 'teeth working hard' then
tossed that part out.  Obviously I was to use 1/2 the leaf for the dish and
use the rest for something else.  I cut it into long grasslike spagetti
strings which came out right.

I got the fresh rice at the same place as the seaweed.  Across the street
(little more than a walkway or small alley to stateside terms) we hit up fresh
vegetable stand with 'Mister-san Ittoo' (Ittoo= 'first class'  'eee toe') for
fresh soybeans (2 full palms worth) and edame beans (shelled, 3 full palms I
think there?), garlic cloves preshelled (1/4 cup or so? about 1 head), 1
carrot, 1 large green onion (almost a leek, possibly a baby leek), 1 medium
'other veggie' I have no good name for but it tastes a bit like waterchestnut
and cooks like it and she clearly showed to use about a 3/4 cup? and I had
cabbage (nappa and bok choy) in my cart already so she just smiled and said
'use lots'.  Next to there, we got straw mushrooms and bean thread sprouts.

Back next to her, we picked out various fish/seafood bits.  Mostly clams and
squid and as we looked at my dwindling yen, a fast conversation in japanese
yielded 'fish parts' of an indiscriminate type (the saved cuttings when making
nice steaks and such, white fleshed variety pack of about 1 cup?)

As you can guess, we had more than the rice amount supported so when making it
all up, I added some extra dried to the fresh (about another 1/3 cup).

I've since MM'ed a few of my 'rice porridge' dishes for all but largely MM'ed
the ones with easy to find ingredients.  This one, never MM'ed uses as it's
star component, yet another 'what the heck is that' vegetable <g> in 4 places
which are 5 if 'straw mushrooms' arent available where you are!  Oh and the
bean thread sprouts?  They are not the little green things but a bigger fatter
product by far.  About as thick as the thicker yarn sold for knitting and
about 6-7 inches long with a definate 'leaf' top of 3-4 leaves.  Probably an
older version of something others can get but definately still tender crunchy
level.

Result?  Lots of fun and learned some new seaweeds (the leaf) and started
experimenting with them a bit more.  I even learned about 'kitchen scizzors'
and why they are used.  They are used at the table!  They are for cutting the
seaweed to chopstick eating portions as they are esthetically more pleasing to
present in larger pieces.  Treated like communal serving utensils.  They are
also used to chop glass noodle bunches in a communal dish to a smaller segment
to place on your own bowl.

                                       xxcarol

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