• 880 spiced coffee & wine

    From MICHAEL LOO@1:123/140 to JIM WELLER on Tuesday, January 29, 2019 14:46:40
    It should be like foreshots and
    feints, with the more volatile and soluble
    things going first, so you get a progressively
    darker spice taste.
    If the spices are soaked too long, nasty dark and bitter elements
    emerge. Same as with mulled wine in that respect.

    So the first brewing should have shorter
    contact with the spice, and the last as well.

    Title: MULLED WINE
    1 tb Whole star anise
    We tried that recently. I thought it was a nice touch, but Roslind,
    ever the traditionalist, disagreed. So we won't be doing that again.

    My partiality to star anise is in savory
    things and not too much of it. Yesterday
    I tried a Wild Card Absinthe Truffle from
    Moonstruck Chocolates. The first whiff was
    positively appalling. I admit it almost
    ended up growing on me, but I ended up
    giving away half of it.

    1 lg Granny Smith apple

    I sometimes use apple, while Roslind prefers an orange.

    My general preference is for orange as well.

    I came across a new melon recently. Now that the Loblaws store is a
    franchise operation, owned and run by a local guy, instead of a
    company manager on a salary, we're getting a lot of new products in
    on a trial basis. It's a Spanish melon called piel de sapo.
    Apparently a lot of Spanish growers run a second operation in Brazil
    so the seasonal fruit is available just about year round. It tasted
    very much like honeydew and so nice but not really worth paying a
    premium for when honeydews are readily available.

    I'd not heard of this and looked it up;
    disappointingly, it's merely Cucumis melo Santa
    Claus, which along with its kissing cousin the
    canary melon, has long been available down here
    as a slightly more expensive and supposedly
    sweeter (not true in my experience) alternative
    to the honeydew.

    Since I had good luck making my own curry powder, garam masala,
    mitmita, ras-el-hanout and Lebanese seven spice blend I tried to
    whip up a batch of hung liu, a Vietnamese spice mix which is
    basically Chinese five spice plus mandarin orange zest. Once again
    I changed the proportions from the recipes I found online to suit
    my own tastes (more pepper, fewer cloves and star anise).

    That's the best way for someone with a
    modicum of skill, a big spice shelf, and
    well-defined taste preferences. What I
    usually do is take commercial stuff and
    doctor it with whatever I can find to
    make it conform to my preferences (which
    usually means fewer anisey things and
    more peppery things).

    Hung liu - Vietnamese spice mix
    Chinese cinnamon
    Star anise
    Thao qua
    Clove
    Optional:
    sweet basil seeds
    nutmeg
    Szechuan pepper
    Zest of willowleaf Mandarin orange
    Ngo gai seeds (culantro)

    I had to sub ginger and black cardamom for Thao qua, white pepper
    for Szechuan pepper, and coriander seed for culantro seed. I have

    Yes, no way, probably okay.

    no idea what particular cultivar of Mandarin orange we had on hand.
    Rather than fresh zest, I used powdered, dried peel that had had the
    white pith sliced off.

    Dried should do better in a powdered or
    fine mixture anyway.

    ... Decaf coffee is like sex without the sex

    Francaise Four-Play
    category: booze, risque
    serving: 1

    1/2 oz Louis Royer Force 53 VSOP cognac
    1/2 oz Lillet Blanc
    1/2 oz Bonal Gentiane Quina
    1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
    1 ds simple syrup
    6 dr Bittermens Hellfire Shrub
    1 oz soda water

    Combine everything but the soda water in an
    old fashioned glass and stir to combine. Add
    2 or 3 cubes of ice, depending on their size,
    and top with soda water. Stir to combine.

    Avery Glasser, Bittermens, Inc. and Amor y Amargo
    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
    * Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)
  • From JIM WELLER@1:123/140 to MICHAEL LOO on Saturday, February 02, 2019 23:36:00

    Quoting Michael Loo to Jim Weller <=-

    If the spices are soaked too long, nasty dark and bitter elements
    emerge. Same as with mulled wine in that respect.

    So the first brewing should have shorter
    contact with the spice, and the last as well.

    For the third and last brewing the spices are in the pot not the
    filter basket so they can benefit from 10 or 20 minutes contact
    with the coffee instead of 3 or 4.

    The dark and bitter taste came out once in some mulled wine where
    the spices were in the wine over a week and the batch was reheated
    more than once.

    Spanish melon called piel de sapo
    very much like honeydew

    kissing cousin the canary melon

    Yes, all three are very similar, so in future I'll have reduced
    expectations and be guided by price.

    Hung liu - Vietnamese spice mix
    Szechuan pepper
    I had to sub [...] white pepper for Szechuan pepper

    no way

    I had no choice. Szechuan pepper isn't available locally and I
    haven't been shopping in Edmonton for quite a while. I guess if I
    wanted some bad enough I could hit Amazon or send Neekha to
    Edmonton's Chinatown but she lives in Spruce Grove 30 km away and
    doesn't have her own car.

    Raisins and olives in a meat dish again ,,,

    MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

    Title: Empanadas - Cuban Meat and Vegetable Patties
    Categories: Caribbean, Groundmeat, Beef, Filling, Pastry
    Yield: 4 Servings

    PASTRY:
    450 g Plain flour
    2 ts Baking flour
    1 ts Salt
    75 g Lard and butter; mixed
    FILLING:
    2 md Onions; chop fine
    2 Potatoes; dice fine
    450 g Beef mince; lean
    3 tb Beef stock
    1 Eggs; beaten with
    1/2 ts Milk
    1 Tomatoes; chop
    1 tb Raisins
    1 tb Olives- green; chopped
    1/2 tb Capers
    1 Eggs- hard-boiled; chopped
    1/2 ts Chilli powder
    1/2 ts Cumin seeds; mixed
    150 ml Dry sherry
    1 ts Soft brown sugar
    25 g Butter

    Make a firm pastry with the first set of ingredients.. Chill for 1
    hour. Set aside tomatoes, onion, potatoes and meat. Mix rest of
    filling ingredients in large bowl. Melt cooking butter in pan. Add
    onion and tomato and cook for 5 minutes. Add mince and potatoes,
    and cook f or a further 5 minutes. Add rest of ingredients, reduce
    heat, cook for 10 minute s then cool. Set mixture aside. Roll out
    the pastry to 4 mm thickness. Using a pastry cutter, cut out as
    many 15 cm rounds of pastry as possible. Place a small heap of
    filling in each of the rounds. Coat edges of pastry with water,
    and seal by pressing together.

    Place empanadas on baking dish and bake for 15 minutes in hot
    oven.

    Turn heat down to 110 C (250 F) and bake for another 30-40
    minutes. Serve when golden brown.

    From: CLASSIC CUBAN COOKERY By: ANDY GRAVETTE
    Scanned by: KEVIN JCJD SYMONS, NOVEMBER 2006

    MMMMM



    Cheers

    Jim


    ... A dependable accountant eats bran for breakfast.

    ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
    --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
    * Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)