Text 777, 97 rader
Skriven 2006-04-24 13:30:27 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
    Kommentar till text 677 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
Ärende: uncle repost 415
========================
Hi Carol,

 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

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

Of course!


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

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

I wish somebody else would be that practical. (G)


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

Fun!  She's probably having fun "telling on" daddy too. (G)


 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.

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

And, the way things are going, I'll probably never see it. We may take
occaisional trips to the Charleston area (low country, rice growing) but
doubt will buy any fresh rice.

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

 CS> Started with dashi (she's where I get my dashi stuff normally.  Better
 CS> the stem, ate a small bite and mimiced 'teeth working hard' then
 CS> tossed that part out.  Obviously I was to use 1/2 the leaf for the
 CS> dish and use the rest for something else.  I cut it into long
 CS> grasslike spagetti strings which came out right.

 CS> I got the fresh rice at the same place as the seaweed.  Across the
 CS> street (little more than a walkway or small alley to stateside terms)
 CS> we hit up fresh vegetable stand with 'Mister-san Ittoo' (Ittoo= 'first

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

Like "pig parts" for scrapple? (G)


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

Reminds me of a few years ago when Rachel spotted some egg scissors and
it brought back memories of Grmany & Switzerland.  Not many folks would
recognise them right off; they are a specialised thing.  I've got a set
in my kitchen, as well as regular kitchen scissors and poultry shears.
Of course my sewing room has lots more different scissors & shears,
including some duck bill scissors. (G)

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchafflyNOSPAM(at)NOSPAMearthlink(dot)net  FIDO 1:396/45.28

... Not all questions worth asking have answers...

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