Text 3480, 109 rader
Skriven 2008-03-06 23:26:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: Re: CRAWDADS  80305
===========================
-=> Quoting Glen Jamieson to Jim Weller <=-

 JW*>They are just 1/2 inch up here which why I don't harvest them. As I

 GJ> Why not?

The inverse square law. Compared to a 2 inch crawdad, a half inch
one has 1/4 the length, 1/16 the surface area (shell) and only 1/64
the volume (and weight) of meat, making them 64 times as much work
to shell or 4 times as "shelly" if you don't bother.

 GJ> Baleen whales do it easily.

They have nothing better to do.

 FAB> Well you could always get a large fish tank and warm the water some to
 FAB> see if they will get up to eatin size.   <G>
 
 GJ> I wonder if they would, or whether your littlies are a different
 GJ> species?

I believe they are all the same species. They gradually get smaller
from Louisiana to Ontario to the arctic as the year round average
water temperature decreases.

 What is the first item in your local marine food chain?
     
Same as any place on the globe: plankton, then zoo-plankton then the
little copepods.



MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: About Five Spice Powder
Categories: Chinese, Spice, Mix, Info
  Servings: 1 text file

           Five Spice Powder

One thing I highly suggest you do is make your own Five Spice
powder.  It's so easy to do, and the result will be vastly superior
to most commercial brands available in the west, which I find too
overwhelmed with anise.  Should I want a purely anise-flavor braise
I wouldn't bother with Five Spice in the first place. I also find
that most spice blends use the cheaper and more easily available 
black peppercorns instead of the proper Sichuan peppercorns.  And if
you know anything about anything at all you'd know that those two
"peppercorns" share very little besides the misleading name. Sichuan
"peppercorns" are not even peppercorns, but dried outer pods of
prickly ash fruits. They have an acidic note and gives a tingling
sensation on the palate - both entirely absent in the ubiquitous
black peppers.

There are so many "recipes" for five spice blends on the internet,
most of which concentrate on five kinds of spice: star anise,
sichuan peppercorns, cassia (a type of Asian cinnamon, you can
substitute regular cinnamon), and fennel.  It seems that people take
the "five" in "Five Spice" to mean a blend of five different spices.
This is not entirely correct.

The "five" in Five Spice actually refers to the balance of five
basic elements: earth, fire, water, air, and metal.  The Five Spice
powder was originally used in Chinese medicine to restore the
balance of the five elements in the Chi or the life energy in our
bodies.  So, besides the five basic spices, Five Spice powder may
contain other spices such as coriander seeds, cumin or anise seeds
(instead of fennel seeds), black or green cardamom, and even nutmeg.

In my own Five Spice blend, I started out with equal amount, by
weight, of the five basic spices, though recently I've been using
cumin seeds instead fennel seeds.  I found that the mix of star
anise, cassia and fennel seeds, all providing strong anise-y notes,
became a little overpowering, so I opted for cumin seeds, which are
very similar to fennel seeds but a little less anise-y and a bit
more earthy.  I also cut down the amount of clove by half and added
coriander seeds and (sometimes) black cardamom to my blend,
following the advice of a spice maker I knew in Bangkok's Chinatown.

I recommend starting with whole spices if you can find them - ground
spices lose their potency quickly, and you never know how old
they've been loitering on the shelf. Starting with whole spices also
allow you to dry roast them for a bit before grinding, which helps
turn certain compounds in the spices more volatile, so your Five
Spice blend ends up more fragrant and flavorful.  You can easily
double or quadruple the recipe to share with friends or keep for
future use. Kept well in an airtight jar, your spice blend should
last a few months in good shape. I have a small coffee grinder I use
for grinding spices.  it's just an inexpensive Kitchenaid blade
coffee grinder you can get on amazon for not very much money. (Braun
makes one even cheaper, if a bit smaller, though I prefer mine.) I
grind my own chile blends and spice blends, so it's a very good
investment for me.  It doesn't take up much room in my crowded
cabinet either. If you don't have a spice grinder, just use a heavy
mortar and pestle - it's a bit more elbow grease but you can do it!

From: Chez Pim
 
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Cheers

YK Jim


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