How can I roast melon seeds, without oven or too much oil? My mom lives Hong Kong when Toronto's cold. Here are strictures:

Healthy frying is OK. But NO deep-frying.
Her HK flat doesn't have a convection oven. She never bought microwave oven.
She could buy a counter-top convection toaster oven, but she feels it's too eco-unfriendly and waste of money. Let's rule it out for now.
If nobody comes up  anything, she will reconsider.  She has a rice cooker. Her kitchen looks like

This Salon.com article recommends roasting honeydew and cantaloupe seeds. My mom wants to roast seeds in pricey Japanese melons.

I've sometimes toasted pumpkin seeds (very similar) in an enamelled cast iron frying pan. I don't add oil to the pan, but the seeds are better if you mix a little oil with them, especially if you want spices to stick. In that case stir about a teaspoon of oil (olive, sunflower etc.) into a generous handful of seeds, add any spices/salt, put into a preheated pan, and stir frequently until they're done.

I wouldn't use non stick for this because a dry pan can get very hot in places, perhaps too hot, but bare stainless steel  also works.

This stove top method is quicker than an oven especially if you only want a small batch, but it's more important to start with the seeds nicely dry than if you're using an oven. It probably uses more electricity than a toaster oven though.


Ratios of flour-egg-chicken? Simple breading If I am making 1lb of chicken, how much flour, and how much breading mixture, should I lay out to use?

The answer will differ depending on how thick you want the coatings of course, but what's a fair or solid amount?

I'm trying to make breaded chicken strips, but have no idea if I need to use the whole breading box, half the box, etc.

Measurements in grams preferred (I'm using a scale). For the eggs, they're Large AA iirc aka 70cal size.

I'm not sure that's the answer you were looking for but maybe it'll be helpful:

Most cooks don't find a reason to measure breading ingredients.

A bowl of eggwash will give you the same coating wether two or twenty eggs are beaten in it. Two beaten eggs and two tablespoons of water go a long way and are usually enough. And the same goes for flour and breadcrumbs: The amount in the bowl doesn't determine the thickness of the coating. It's your hands that do it.

If you're just talking about economy, then allow me to suggest a trick I've seen in restaurants' kitchens: Use more flour and crumbs than you need, and after you're done strain them through a sieve. Pieces touched by eggs will clump and be strained out, and clean flour and crumbs will return to the fridge.


What international cooking terms sound similar but have different meanings? I am not the only international user here, and I bet that others are just as confused as I am when we read something on an American-centric resource and the corresponding translation in our language turns out to mean something entirely different.

There are also examples in the other direction, with English speakers reacting with amusement to terms like quark (a cheese) and dickmilch (a fermented milk product).

Some of these items are already present in the question: Translating cooking terms between US / UK / AU / CA / NZ - which are more properly discussed here, because they occur between languages and not within English only.

What are the false friends that we need to be aware of when reading or contributing to international cooking content?

Please add to the existing answer, following the current format. Do not add entirely new answers or change the format for new items.

Noodles, pasta and dumplings
Polish pierogi and Russian pirozhki (пирожки)
Despite having the same Slavic root meaning "pie", the Polish pierogi are unleavened dough dumplings stuffed with various fillings, most commonly boiled or fried. On the other hand, Russian pirozhki are usually fried (but sometimes baked) buns stuffed with similar fillings. The primary difference is that pirozhki are based on a yeast dough and are egg-washed, whereas pierogi are unleavened. Complicating matters, Russian/Soviet cuisine has a separate name for what the Polish call pierogi, namely varenyky (вареники). This word is derived from a root meaning "to cook" or "boil", emphasizing the fact that varenyky are usually boiled while pirozhki are fried.
Turkish Yufka and Bulgarian (also Bosnian) юфка (yufka)
Originally, the word yufka comes from Turkey. It is an unleavened flatbread, rather dry and crispy. In Bulgaria, юфка is a type of pasta prepared by sun-drying paper-thin phyllo dough until it cracks and falls apart, and boiling the resulting pieces. The name can also (rarely) refer to the non-dried phyllo sheets used for baking.
Italian maccheroni, Enghish and other languages macaroni and French (also English and other languages) macaron
Macaroni, the English spelling of the Italian word maccheroni, is an umbrella term for hardwheat noodles produced through extruding through a machine, rather than rolling and cutting the dough. In some countries (e.g. The Netherlands, cf. this episode of an investigative TV show about food), though, the term 'macaroni' is used to indicate a specific type of noodles, shaped as narrow curved tubes. A macaron is a small baked good based on a meringue mixed with a nut flour.
Baking
Most English dialects barm and Irish and Northwest England's barm
In Ireland and Northwestern England, barm is a word for a bread roll, a very small loaf of bread. In standard culinary lingo, barm indicates a specific type of preferment, usually a stage in making sourdough.
English hard wheat and German Hartweizen
In English, there is a difference between durum wheat (glassy endosperm, used for noodles), hard wheat (used for bread flour) and soft wheat (low protein content, used for cake flour). In German, durum wheat is called Hartweizen (literally: hard wheat) and soft wheat is called Weichweizen (literally: soft wheat). Specialists know the American hard wheat as Manitobaweizen (literally: wheat from Manitoba), but it isn't imported, so it is very hard to meet somebody who has heard of it.
English bread flour and German Brotmehl
In English, bread flour is a flour with a low mineral and high protein content used for white yeast bread. It is made from hard wheat. In German, the term Brotmehl (literally: bread flour) isn't widely used, but if mentioned, is assumed to mean a flour mix suited for the average German bread, made from ca. 80% wheat flour with high mineral and moderate protein content, and 20% rye flour. It is made from soft wheat, with a high proportion of the bran milled in (but not enough to consider it whole wheat flour).
English biscuit, German Biskuit, Dutch Beschuit and Italian biscotti
In English, biscuit refers to any sweet, dry baked confection, which would be referred to as a cookie in the US (UK usage) or a product similar to scones (US usage). In German, Biskuitboden (literally: biscuit layer) is a sponge cake layer, and Biskuitteig (literally: biscuit dough) is sponge cake batter. The word isn't used alone as a countable noun. The English biscuits are likely to be called "Kekse" in German (especially the digestive crackers). There isn't a special word for scones in German, so the catchall term "Kleingebäck" can also be used. Biskuit is not to be confused with German "Zwieback" - it has the same word root, but today, nobody would recognize a piece of German Zwieback or Dutch beschuit as related to any of the products named "biscuit" or similar in the languages mentioned above. The Italian word biscotti has yet a different usage, covering roughly the same things as "Kekse" in German - this includes cookies, petite beurres, sweet crackers and other small hard backed goods.
English brown sugar and German brauner Zucker, also Belgian Dutch Cassonade
In English-speaking countries, recipes which specify brown sugar assume wet light brown sugar. In continental Europe, this kind of sugar is generally not available. The local terms for brown sugar are used to denote crystal sugar with some molasses content, known in the US as raw sugar. The difference is that this type of sugar is dry, and does not give the same texture to baked goods, e.g. chewy cookies. An acceptable substitute is to wet white crystal sugar with molasses or another syrup and mix well, preferably in a food processor.
Cassonade aka candi sugar is caramelized sugar crystals and has a deeper flavor than the american 'raw' sugar.
Belgian Dutch speculoos and Netherlands Dutch speculaas
Both cookies are traditionally eaten for St. Nicholas day. In English, they seem to be both translated as spekulatius. The Belgian version is a simple shortbread cookie. The Dutch version includes a special speculaas spice mix, which contains cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cloves, coriander seeds and cardamom, giving it a very different flavor.  Speculaas is traditionally decorated by pressing it into a carved wooden block or using a carved wooden rolling pin.
Belgian speculoos cookies are similarly flavored to what's sold as bastogne in the Netherlands, and maybe called biscoff in other places
German Tarte vs. French tarte vs. American tart vs Dutch taart
In French, a tarte is a pie in general. In German usage, Tarte implies a savory pie.  In the US, tart is a shallow pie crust that may be filled with jelly, custard, fruit, or a combination of those three.  In the Netherlands, a taart may be a pie or a cake.
Dutch cake vs English cake
In Dutch, cake means one type of cake only: Pound Cake. Both round, glazed cakes, and sweet pies are called taart in Dutch.
German Kuchen vs US kuchen
"Kuchen" means all kinds of cake and pie in German, however using it for a round layer cake would be colloquial, that is properly called a "Torte". In English, several specific desserts are labelled "kuchen", but it is not a broad term applicable to all cakes.
Polish czerstwy and Czech čerstvý
Practically the same word used to describe a bread freshness. In Polish 'czerstwy chleb' means 'stale bread', in Czech 'čerstvý chléb' means 'fresh bread' – the quite opposite.
Confectionery
English (also French, Spanish, Turkish and other languages) Nougat and German Nougat
In most countries, nougat is a word for a confectionery made with dried whipped egg whites and nuts and/or dried fruit. It is also sometimes called turron. When a German says "Nougat", he or she is probably thinking of gianduja, which is a mix of chocolate and hazelnut paste (Nutella is considered a kind of nougat in Germany). Turron is referred to as "white nougat" in Germany, but isn't very widespread. The other name for it is türkischer Honig (literally: Turkish honey), not to be confused with Lokum, which is called Turkish delight in English.
Drinks
UK English black beer and German Schwarzbier
In the UK, black beer is a fortified wine flavored with dark malt. In Germany, Schwarzbier (literally: black beer) is a very dark lager beer brewed in some regions of Germany. It seems that US usage is consistent with German usage, using "black beer" for the dark lager. There is no definite German term for the fortified wine, but a best deskriptive term would probably be "Malzlikör".
Hindi (also Urdu, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and other languages) chai and US English chai
In many languages the word chai (or the basic root cha) is a generic word for tea.  In the United States, however, the word chai specifically refers to masala chai (spiced tea).  In Hebrew, chai is the romanization for the word "חי", which is a symbolic word meaning "living".
English latte, German Latte and Italian latte
In Italian, the word latte simply means milk. In the US, it is used as a contraction of caffelatte, which is a drink made with steamed milk poured into espresso, often including latte art. In Germany, it is a contraction of Latte macchiato, which is (in its Germanized form) a beverage made from a layer of milk, a layer of espresso, and a layer of milk foam in a tall, transparent glass, often garnished on top with cocoa powder or other spices.
Dairy
Greek (also English, German, probably other languages) Feta and Danish (also Bulgarian, Russian, probably other languages) Feta
The original Greek feta cheese is a semihard brined cheese from sheep's milk. Today, it has a protected designation of origin status, and only cheese produced in Greece may be called feta. However, many similar cheeses exist on the Balkans, and they are marketed as feta-style or balkan cheese. In their country of origin, they are usually called just the local word for "cheese" (Bulgarian: сирене Serbian: сир), with every other type of cheese needing a qualifier (Bulgarian: сирене чедър for cheddar), and the official designation is "white brine cheese" (Bulgarian: бяло саламурено сирене).
Before the designation was legally established, Denmark produced a different type of cheese called Feta. It was a type of bryndza - a spreadable white cheese from cow milk, not closely related to Greek feta. The name is also widely known in countries which imported this version and use the term "white brine cheese" for Greek-type feta. I couldn't find information on the new name of the Danish "Feta".
English Quark and German Quark, Dutch Kwark
In English, a quark is a subatomic particle. In German and Dutch, it is a kind of cheese not widely known in English speaking countries. It is a type of cream cheese made from the curds of fermented milk (buttermilk). It has a lower fat content than cream cheese, and a ricotta-like texture. The term Topfen is the Austrian word for exactly the same cheese. Other countries have very similar cheeses which can be substituted with excellent results, for example Russian творог (tvorog), Hungarian turo and Bulgarian извара (izvara). Ricotta is acceptable if no better substitute is available, but will change the taste. The subatomic particle is also called a Quark in German, as a homonym to the cheese.
Meat
US English wiener, Germany German Wiener Wurst and Austrian German Wiener Wurst
The English words for these are (1) wiener for a small smooth canned sausage in gut casing made from a blend of meats including poultry, (2) hot dog for a longer sausage with similar consistency to 1, made from a beef-pork blend, and (3) an Austrian sausage which doesn't have a special name in English. The American wiener (1) is called Mini Würstchen in Germany. (3) doesn't have a special name, but is considered a type of Schnittwurst. In Austria, (2) is called Frankfurter Wurst. Also, the English word hot dog is used in Germany for the complete sandwich made with (2), a short baguette, and mustard.
German Frikadelle, Dutch frikandel
In Germany, a Frikadelle is a squished meatball made from seasoned ground meat, often with addition of egg and soaked bread. It is shallow fried in a pan. In Dutch, a frikandel is also made from ground meat, but it is rod-shaped, and it is deep-fried instead of pan-fried.
French Filet mignon, US English Filet mignon
Filet mignon in French is usually pork tenderloin and so a relatively casual piece whereas in the US, filet mignon is one of the most tender beef cut, and represent just one steak slice of the beef tenderloin. The French filet mignon usually means the whole pork tenderloin.
Fruit and vegetables
'raw' in Indian english usage, vs British or American english 'raw'
In Br/AmE, a 'raw' fruit or vegetable is one which has not been processed with heat.
If an Indian recipe is for a dish made of raw mango or raw papaya or other raw fruit, then confusingly tells you to cook it, it means to use an unripe fruit, not to refrain from cooking it.
English (and German, also other languages) endive and Belgian Dutch (also other languages) chicory
There is some confusion if these terms are the same or if they refer to related plants of the same family, or to different parts of the same plant. For details, see this answer.
English marmalade and German Marmelade
In English-speaking countries, marmalade is a fruit preserve made with citrus fruit, such as bitter orange marmalade. Similar preserves made with fruit other than citrus are called jam. In modern EU-conform German legislation, Marmelade is consistent with this use, so officially only citrus-containing preserves use the word. However, historically Marmelade is a German word used for all types of fruit preserves, such as "Erdbeermarmelade" for strawberry jam. This usage is still popular among hobby cooks, so it is common to find recipes which use the word Marmelade for any type of jam.
Italian peperoni and pepperoncini, English pepperoni, and German pfefferoni
In Italian, peperoni means pepper, the fruit of the plant capsicum. In English, it is used for a type of salami, which contains paprika (dried pepper powder). The salami has Italian origin, but is produced mainly in the USA by immigrants. In German, pfefferoni is normally used for a type of pepper (thin, long and green), especially pickled, which are often known as pepperoncini in the US, but are more correctly called frigatelli. In Italy, pepperoncini is a relatively generic term for hot chili peppers.
French and English compote and Slavic languages kompot
These are similar, but not equivalent. The compote is a preserve of fruit pieces covered in a thick sugar syrup. The kompot is a drink (frequently also preserved) made from boiling fresh fruit and sugar in water, with a very different water and sugar ratio than the compote. The main part of it is the watery liquid (although the fruit is also eaten), and the sweetness is low enough to quench thirst.
Salads
French (also English and other languages) vinaigrette and Russian винегрет (винегрет)
In many languages, vinaigrette (of French origins) refers to an emulsion of oil and vinegar, often used to dress salads. In Russian cuisine, however, the term (винегрет) refers to a specific style of salad that is made with the dressing. The salad usually contains beet root, pickled cucumber, boiled potatoes, carrot, and cucumber.
German -salat as a noun ending and Polish sałata vs English salad
In English, a salad is a dish made usually from uncooked vegetables, although versions with preserved or cooked vegetables exist, as well as ones which include food other than vegetables. In Germany, "ein Salat" as a noun on its own means the dish. However, a word ending in -salat is typically used to mean some kinds of green leafy vegetables as an ingredient, not just a salad made from them. Eisbergsalat,Kopfsalat,Romanasalat are types of lettuce, not salads made from these. There are exceptions, a Fleischsalat will be a certain type of meat salad, not a lettuce.
In Polish, "sałata" is for the green leafy veggies, while "sałatka" is for the salads.
Herbs and spices
English cumin, Swedish kummin, Finnish kumina, Polish kminek, German "Kümmel"
In English, cumin is the name of the seeds of the plant Cuminum cyminum, used as a spice. Many other languages have a similar word for this. However, the Swedish word kummin and Finnish word kumina, as well as German "Kümmel", are used for the seeds of the plant Carum carvi, which is called caraway in English. The appearance is similar, but the aroma of both spices is different. The Finnish and Swedish names for cumin are juustokumina and spiskummin, respectively. In Polish, kminek is the word for caraway, while cumin is called kmin rzymski.
German "Kreuzkümmel" or "Kumin" is Cumin indeed. "Schwarzkümmel" shares the ambiguity of "black cumin", in that it can mean either Nigella or Shah Jeera. Königskümmel is Carom. Most times, confusing any of these has disastrous results.
Bengali kalo jeere, Hindi/Urdu kala jeera, English black cumin
In English, "black cumin" is used for both bunium bulbocastanum and nigella sativa, two unrelated spices. Only the former is actually related to cumin. In Hindi, the literal translation of black cumin is "kala jeera": kala is black and "jeera" cumin. This term refers exclusively to bunium bulbocastanum, never to nigella; nigella is "kalonji".  Bunium bulbocastanum is also called "shahi jeera" (imperial cumin) or "syahi jeera" (dark cumin) in Hindi. The literal translation of black cumin into Bengali is "kalo jeere". However, the spice thus referred to is always nigella, never bunium. Nigella is very common in Bengali cuisine. Any online Bengali recipe that lists "black cumin" among the ingredients invariably means nigella. Bunium bulbocastanum is not used in Bengali food. On the rare occasion that a Bengali cook needs to refer to it (for example, when discussing a recipe from elsewhere in India), it is called "shyahi jeere". Using bunium in place of nigella or vice-versa will yield suboptimal results, disastrously so for Bengali food.
American chili powder, Indian chilli powder
In the USA, "chili powder" refers to a blend of ground chili peppers with other spices such as cumin, oregano, garlic, and salt. In India, "chilli powder" refers exclusively to ground red  chili peppers.
German Pfeffer, EnglishPepper
In English, the term is ambiguous and can be either the spice (the seeds of Piper nigrum), or the vegetable (the fruits of Capsicum annum). The word is seldom used alone, and an adjective usually makes it clear which it is, such as "bell pepper", which is a variety of the vegetable.
In German, "Pfeffer" without any qualification unambigously means black/white/green/red ground or whole peppercorn, never any kind of capsicum (unless used in a very informal context), unless the terms "spanischer Pfeffer", "Pfefferschote" are used. Other members of the piper family and sometimes entirely different plants can have "Pfeffer" in their name, but do not refer either to the spice or to the vegetable: Szechuanpfeffer (Zanthoxylum piperitum), Langer Pfeffer (Piper longum), Kubebenpfeffer (Piper cubeba). In very traditional contexts, "Pfeffer" might mean strong spices in general, which may or may not include peppercorn, as in "Pfefferkuchen" (gingerbread).
German Paprika, English paprika
The spice is named the same, BUT a Paprika is also the proper german name for a bell pepper, which is NEVER called any kind of Pfeffer.
English piment, German Piment, Spanish pimento, Portuguese 'pimento', Finnish pimento
In English, German and some other languages, the word piment refers to allspice, the seed of the plant Pimenta officinalis (this is quite rare in English). In Spanish, it means pepper, the seed of the plant Piper nigrum. They are similar in appearance, but differ in taste and aroma. The Spanish use pimienta de Jamaica for the P. officinalis version. In Portuguese, pimento is the name of the bell pepper, the fruit of the plant Capsicum annum, while pimenta-da-jamaica is the name of allspice.  In AmE a “pimento” is a small, thin strip of canned sweet red bell pepper; they are stuffed into olives and used in other dishes.  In Finnish, the word pimento has no culinary meaning, it is a homonym meaning dark. The Finnish word for allspice is maustepippuri.
Diet
English diet, German Diät
In German a Diät is Dieting (the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake). In English a diet can also mean the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group. The German  translation of this sense of the word would be Ernährung or Ernährungsweise.
Taste/Texture
English bland, Spanish Blando
In English bland food is one that doesn't have much taste, and bland diet is a "soft, not very spicy, and low in fiber" one.
In Spanish blando means soft or tender. However the existing term dieta blanda means something close to a bland diet, so it might be a poorly traslated term; probably dieta suave would fit better with the English bland diet term.
Weight/measurement
English pound/ounce, Dutch pond/ons
Dutch speakers use grams and kilograms, but often also "pond", 500 grams, which sounds like "pound" and is fairly close (1 pound is 454 gram), and also "ons" 100 grams, which sounds like "ounce" but is way off (1 ounce is 28 gram). Be careful using English recipes if you're Dutch (and vice versa)!
Cookware, Tableware and Tools
German Esslöffel, Teelöffel, Tasse vs. English tablespoon, teaspoon and cup, as well as the literal translations into many other European languages
In the imperial measuring system, these terms refer to a volumetric measurement. The exact value differs somewhat between countries (e.g. a tablespoon in the US is 15 ml but in Australia it is 20 ml), but they are defined within their system, and many cooks in formerly British territories routinely buy and use volumetric "measuring cups" labelled in whole or partial teaspoons, tablespoons and cups.
Cup and spoon measurements in baking are uncommon enough in continental Europe that many home cooks will not be aware that these words refer to a defined unit of measurement in a recipe. The words are only used for the serving utensils (e.g. a "Tasse" in Germany is the cup you drink tea out of, never a measurement cup). Dedicated dry measuring cups are not found in the average supermarket. An European cook encountering a recipe saying "two cups of flour" is likely to pick the nearest drinking cup from the cupboard and use it for measurement, assuming that it is just an imprecise way of stating the recipe.
German Kasserole, English casserole
In German, Kasserole is sometimes used to mean a saucepan, sometimes a casserole dish. Any food baked in a similar pan in the oven is called an Auflauf, so the American casserole translates to Auflauf, but note that an Auflauf can also mean a flan.
German Mixer, Indian English usage mixie, British and American English 'mixer'
German "Mixer" can be either a BE/AmE mixer (a machine with one or two rotating hooks which quirls batter, whips cream or kneads dough) or quite commonly a BE/AmE blender, a machine with a rotating blade which purees semi-solid food to turn it into a mash. Indian Mixie seems to always mean a BE/AmE blender.
In (American?) English, 'mixer' may also refer to something that's intended to be mixed with alcohol.
Methods
fry in British English vs fry in Indian English
"Fry" seems to NEVER "accidentally" means sauté, always means deep fry or shallow fry in Indian recipes that are written in English.
Dutch bak vs. English bake.
In English, "bake" is a type of dry cooking in a heated oven.  In Dutch, it could be any type of cooking.  (ref
Meal Courses
entrée in French vs entrée in US English
In the USA and English parts of Canada, "entrée" refers to the main course of the meal, while generally in French and for most other English-speaking locations, it refers to the appetizer, hors d'oeuvre or starter, although historically it has been used for various different courses and may still be used as such in certain regions.


What is the purpose of oiling a wooden chopping board? I recently bought a wooden chopping board to replace my plastic one. In the course of my research I read that it's important to regularly rub mineral oil in (some people say once a week, some say once a month). It's said that it "protects" it and makes it last longer, but what is the oil actually doing?

The oil is not actually doing anything to protect the wood - the idea that it does so is a very widespread myth. This is the conclusion of the guy who wrote the book on wood finishing, and I can confirm it from personal experience. You can continue using it for cosmetic reasons, I am personally partial to the look given by flax oil - although there are people who prefer the opposite, because cuts are much less noticeable on unoiled wood.
To get real protection on an wooden item, you have to apply a layer that actually seals the wood. The substances which do this well are shellac, nitro lacquers, acrylic finishes and alkydic finishes.
While you could use a safe-in-trace-amounts finish on a chopping board, the mechanical action of a knife will soon damage such a layer to a point where it becomes useless. Most people are just not interested in refinishing their chopping board a couple of times per week.
As for the source of the myth: Long before good finishes were discovered, people tried protecting wood. Since it was known that wood is most damaged by moisture, they used all kinds of water-repelling substances, such as different oils and waxes, sometimes also natural resins. The protection afforded by those is minimal, but it was all they had - and to the naked eye, it does look like a great protection, since oiled wood has an entirely different appearance, and water droplets pearl on it instead of visibly wetting it.
This is a concept that is known in science as "face validity" - you look at an approach and your intuition tells you that it must be working, so you are likely to conclude that it works. Scientists try to prove that methods work independently of their face validity, but cooks and woodworkers rarely do so :) And since there is a tradition, which convincingly does something, people continue applying it and promoting it.


How to sharpen knife with chunk missing? Is it better to grind off the whole blade or should I find someone to add metal and then sharpen it again?

Grinding the blade down that much would potentially change the shape of the blade. Due to the full depth bolster you would have to either try to reshape the bolster as well or create a blade that tapered very differently.
The knife is an Oxo Good Grips 8” chefs knife which sells for around £20. It’s difficult to see that either of your options would be as effective as replacing the knife, unless it has sentimental value.


Can durian be used as a cocktail ingredient? I saw that a local Asian supermarket sells durian, so I picked one up, and was thinking that making an alcoholic drink for Christmas would be a great idea, but what kind of drinks could I make?

It seems to be difficult to find recipes. For example, searching for "durian cocktail recipes" has a couple recipes but most results aren't actually cocktails. There are even a couple results talking about whether it's even safe to mix with alcohol.

So, are there any cocktails which use durian? If yes, how do I find the recipes?

There are even a couple results talking about whether it's even safe to mix with alcohol.

I think this is the interesting part of this question: you obviously can use durian in a cocktail, but should you?

As you point out, there's a question of safety. There are at least two reasons to believe that mixing durian and alcohol might not be entirely safe:

One study suggests that a component of durian can interfere with alcohol metabolism.
There's evidence that eating durian can increase blood pressure.

For most healthy people, the risk associated with drinking a durian cocktail might not be all that great. On the other hand, sharing a cocktail with friends and family should be a safe, enjoyable activity that doesn't require interviews about the imbibers' medical conditions and the signing of waivers.

The last thing you want to do as a host is to offer your guests something that you don't know to be safe. There are hundreds of other fruits available for use in cocktails, so I'd steer clear of durian until more is known about its interaction with alcohol metabolism and blood pressure.


Why is my homemade bread molding after 2 days? I sell bread at farmers markets. It gets moldy very fast. How can I get them to last longer?

Without preservatives in the bread your bread won't last as long as store-bought, but there are some things you can do to make it last longer:

Proof the bread longer, thus creating more acid in the bread. This
will help preserve it.
Make sure it is fully baked and a little drier. Cool it fully on a rack before storing, allowing more steam to exit the loaf
Store it in a cool, dry, dark place.
A little extra salt in the recipe may help.
If you live in a humid area, try some kind of desiccant or dehumidifier.


Does dry frying tofu really cause tofu to better soak up a marinade? Does dry frying tofu really cause tofu to better soak up a marinade?

Source: http://melissaraydavis.hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros

Pretty much anything that removes a substantial amount of water from tofu will help it soak up marinades and sauces. Both are essentially flavorful water, and if the tofu is already full of water, the flavor has to very, very slowly diffuse into the tofu, while if the tofu has been dried out somewhat, the sauce or marinade can simply soak directly in. Dry frying is one method for getting a lot of water out; baking is also pretty effective.

Pressing the tofu is also a good idea: place slices between two flat things with a decent amount of weight on top, tilt it so the water can drain, and leave it for a bit. It's an easy way to get some water out of it; it'll make any subsequent cooking step easier by reducing the amount of time the tofu boils and steams as the water escapes. And it does make some room for flavor to work its way in, though of course not nearly as much as mostly drying out the tofu by baking or dry-frying.

As for your request for empirical evidence... just try it. It's an extremely obvious difference.


What is the shelf life of homemade peanut butter in winters and summers? Assumptions:

The peanut butter contains ONLY peanuts and peanut oil.
The peanut butter contains ONLY peanuts, peanut oil, honey, and salt.
Winter room temperature can be between 16 to 20 degree Celsius.
Summer room temperature can go up to to 45 degree Celsius.

Per Pick your own (emphasis added):

  Store it in the refrigerator until you use it.  It should keep for a month or two. You can also freeze it.  It will keep indefinitely in the freezer. In both cases, you may need to stir the peanut butter to mix the oils back in (the oil tends to separate over time). And no, you cannot "can" the peanut butter - it is too low acid to safely can with home equipment.

I could not find a single government or university sponsored publication that discussed how to can homemade peanut butter.  If you stumble upon a certain link that does not eschew this practice, and recommends boiling temperature canning, consider them fraudulent.

According to Does it go bad:

  If you make your own peanut butter and you don’t use any stabilizers, you should keep it in the fridge. .... Your homemade peanut butter should be of best quality for at least half a year.

Note that all of the even semi-credible sources I could find indicate refrigeration is required.

At ambient temperature, especially in summer, it is going to have a much shorter shelf life, but I could not find any authoritative information.  You should probably prepare it in small batches that you can eat within a week, maybe two at the maximum  (in winter) if it will be stored without refrigeration.

You also want to store the peanut butter so that the oil (which will probably separate) on top will protect the peanut solids, since it is more difficult for microfauna to gain a foothold in the oil.  Keep an air tight lid on it whenever you are not using the contents of the jar, to oxygen contact, and thus hold of rancidity.

Homemade peanut butter will have mostly unsaturated fats (one reason the oil in your peanut butter is liquid at room premature), which are susceptible to rancidity.  You will want to discard the peanut butter if it develops rancid flavors as they are highly unpleasant.  If you see signs of mold or bubbles or sour or off smells, discard it immediately.

I suggest contacting your local universities, who may have programs or services to provide this type of information for your area and constraints (which I infer includes no refrigeration).

To the enumerated questions:

Sources seem to assume the basic peanut-only recipe.
There will be no significant difference for small amounts of additions of honey, sugar, or salt.  The amounts are too small.  Honey balances anti-bacterial effects, with adding moisture.  The amount of salt is just too small to matter.
See discussion above, there is no credible data that I could find for ambient temperature storage of homemade peanut butter.
See 3, only worse.  Those are incubation temperatures.  And how do you stand summers like that?


Storing dry yeast in freezer? Is it true that storing dry active yeast in the freezer helps to retain its lifting power? How long can it be stored this way?

Forever?

Years, anyway.

I bought 2 pounds of yeast at Sam's Club about 3 years ago and it still works great.

Just make sure you keep it very dry and very cold.


Which speed setting of a mixer-grinder should be used for which purpose? Slow, fast, medium are the speed settings in those appliances, for example this mixer-grinder.

Why are there 3 settings, why not only fast? Which setting should be used in which case?

This is for mixer.

At the low speed you have stir / mix.  At the high speed you have whip.

You would stir eggs to make scrambled eggs.  And you would whip cream to make whipped cream.


Chicken enchiladas still safe to eat I cooked chicken and made up enchilada with sour cream and the green sauce and made extra.
How many days can I keep them in the refrigerator before reheating?

I would heat within 3 days.  From that point on, first flavor will decay, then quality of tortillas...then, say after about a week, they will get progressively nasty.


Does polenta 'go off'? I have some polenta in the cupboard that I can only assume is a family heirloom.  The best before date has long since perished but the contents look okay.

Does polenta ever stop tasting of polenta?

Yes, it can go bad.

It's pretty much the same as the way flour can go bad: the fats can go rancid. Grains are mostly starch, but they contain enough fat for rancidity to be a noticeable problem. There's a huge amount of variability in how long that takes, though. If it's airtight and kept in a cool, dark place, it'll last much longer than the best before date. But if it's been exposed to air, light, or heat, it can go pretty fast, perhaps even before the best before date.

So, smell it. If you detect any unpleasant smells, you probably don't want to eat it. Even if you don't smell anything obvious, it could still be subtly rancid, so if you're planning on serving it to anyone, you might want to cook a small bit to test.


How do I convert a British biscuit recipe to a moister American style cookie? I've got a triple choc biscuit recipe from my British mother. She's noted that it's a dry biscuit as it's meant to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.
My partner enjoys American style moist cookies. She prefers the gooey texture it provides.
I was wondering how I would convert the recipe to make my dry biscuits into gooey cookies?
The dry ingredients are cocoa, Sr flour, sugar, choc chips.
The wet ones are eggs, vanilla extract, butter, cooking chocolate melted.

You will need to make some experiments if you need to add something or to change an igredients.

Cookies are chewy because they are moist. Easiest trick in the book - bake the cake for the first 1/10 of cooking time with temp 20% higher than in recipe WITH a bowl of water.

Other methods:

split sugar into two types. White and brown sugar. Let say
50/50.  Brown sugar have molasses so it have more water in it.
Try adding soda. What you wrote down is very similar to
black cake I made with the change of oil for butter and few tbs of
soda. Mine is not very chewy but I prefer to add more cocoa than
chocolate.  Soda help keep the moisture in.
lower the amount of flour or/and let the dough rest for a
bit to develop gluten.
add wetness - so add extra egg white, or a spoon of
yoghurt, or some water.


Japanese knives for someone who can't sharpen freehand? Long story short: I horribly suck at sharpening the traditional way, so I got a Lansky sharpening sytem and I'm very pleased at the results. Now I want good knives, and a friend of mine is traveling to Japan soon and I'd like to give him a shopping list.

As far as I read, Japanese knives are typically sharpened in the 10-15 degrees range, sometimes on a single side, but the Lansky system won't do below 17 degrees.

So is there a 'compromise' kind of Japanese knife that has super good steel, a sharp edge, and yet that is sharpenable in a Lanksy system?

You can sharpen the Japanese knife to 17 degrees.  It won't be ruined or anything.  I'm sure I just horrified some people, but I accidentally did this for years, sharpening my Victorinox knives at 22 degrees (because they're European, so obviously they're 22 degrees, right?) when they're factory sharpened to 17 degrees, so I've got real-world experience here even if I shouldn't admit it. :)

Otherwise, check out a sharpener built for Japanese knives instead.  I've had fantastic results with this model from Chef's Choice:
https://www.amazon.com/Choice-Trizor-EdgeSelect-Electric-Sharpener/dp/B0018RSEMU/


Cooking Ramen noodles in broth or not? I was wondering if there’s a downside in cooking ramen noodles directly in the broth it will served in. From the recipes I see, ramen noodles are cooked in slightly salted water and then incorporated into the hot broth.

With instant ramen noodle, cooking directly in the broth seems more common.

Any advice? Thanks a lot.

Usually it's best to cook dried noodles in boiling water, and drain and rinse them in cold water when they are done. This does a couple of things:

helps ensure that the noodle is equally cooked all the way through (instead of getting overcooked on the outside by the time the centre is cooked).
by using separate water, you don't fill your broth with starch, which would adversely affect the taste, colour and consistency.

If you want to add the noodles directly to the broth, I would recommend rinsing them in cold water first (like you would with rice) until the water runs clear. This will prevent excess starch from being added to your dish.

You could also try adding a stock cube to the water that you boil the noodles in, if your goal is simply to make the noodles more flavourful.


Smoothie amount decreases If I dont drink my smoothie straight away the amount of smoothie in my bottle seems to decrease by almost half. I normally make the smoothie in the morning and have it for my lunch at work.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

When you blitz your smoothie in the blender a certain amount of air is incorporated. This will naturally make its way back out over time, decreasing the volume of the overall mix.


How to create kebabs that taste Greek I'm planning to do a Barbeque at the end of the month and I'd like to serve a variety of different 'Greek' style kebabs. I'm not looking for recipies, but what is the essence of creating grilled / barbeque food that tastes Greek. Whenever I have kebabs in Greece or in a Greek restaurant they taste different to kebabs I have had elsewhere but it's really difficult to tell what the difference is. One issue I think that might be important is the particualr mix of aromatic herbs such as Greek Basil. Does anyone else have any ideas what I can do?

The primary flavors of Greek meats are lemon, oregano, and olive oil. Typically either (or both) thyme and mint are present as well. I'd start with the following base for a marinade:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice (2-ish lemons)
2 Tbsp oregano
1.5 tsp thyme
1.5 tsp mint

I'd also suggest adding some garlic and onion to this. Maybe 1/2 an onion and 4 cloves of garlic. Adding a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of red wine could add some depth as well (I'm assuming lamb or steak, use white for pork or chicken).

A good soak in this overnight, perhaps with some tweaks, should equate to Greek kebabs.

Other herbs & spices common in Greek cuisine include: marjoram, paprika (sweet & hot), and pepper. You can also find, in small quantities:  cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, anise, coriander, fennel, and allspice.


What is the name of this eggplant dish that is similar to lasagna? When I was at school I made an dish that was like a lasagna but replaced the pastry with Eggplant. It also had sliced bocconcini (I think) and was tomato based.

Just wondering if anyone knows the name of this dish? Is it just an Eggplant lasagna?

In Italian we call it parmigiana.

Wikipedia says:

  Parmigiana or eggplant parmigiana (Italian: melanzane alla parmigiana or parmigiana di melanzane) is a Southern Italian dish made with shallow fried eggplant slices layered with cheese and tomato sauce, then baked. Variations made with breaded meat cutlets, such as veal and chicken parmigiana, have been developed in other countries, usually in areas of Italian immigration.

In Italy, you can find the variation with meatballs, but the original recipe (being from Southern Italy) doesn't include meat.


How to preserve scallions? My green scallions go dehydrated and become no longer fresh after they are placed in the fridge for a few days. The white part usually stays good for longer, but the green leaves go dry easily. Is there any good way to keep scallions, especially the green leafy part, fresh, for a longer time?

Scallions are very touchy. You don't want them to dry out, and yet you don't want them too wet or they will get slimy and disgusting.

What works best for me is remove any binding holding them together (e.g. rubber band or twisty-tie), (and certainly trim off any parts of the scallions that are already damaged and/or slimy), don't wash until you are ready to use them, wrap the bunch of scallions loosely (but completely covered) in a paper towel, and then store that wrapped bundle in a flimsy plastic bag (maybe the one you brought them home from the supermarket in) in your refrigerator.

Sounds "fussy" when you lay out all the steps like that, but really, it's not a whole lot of work. Removing the rubber band etc. prevents damage where it would cut into the veg. flesh, paper towel absorbs condensation & liquid water which will rot the scallions (paper towel will prob. become slightly damp after a while in the fridge, but this is OK), plastic bag prevents evaporation of moist air.

I find this works well for lots of greens, esp. cilantro - the worst offender in the demanding vegetables category.

P.S. If you aren't too squeamish, you can even remove the very outermost layer of a scallion which has begun to "slime-out", wash the remainder right before using - & it's fine!


Best method of cooking an Almond PearTart decoration/top layer I followed this recipe yesterday because I made an pear tart for today. I still have some time to do the top layer but the recipe did not explain anything after that (or I missed it): Pears, milk, flour, almond, sugar, eggs and salt AND 2 PEARS FOR THE TOP LAYER (If you want the quantity in grams, I can also put it). The texture of it before baking was very similar to a cheese cake (and so does now after baking). It doesn't have any kind of crust underneath it.
This is how the top layer and cake should look like (The source is the recipe, a screenshot, I'm sorry I cannot do more).

Only two things come to mind, by seeing in the ingredients 2 pears for decorating:

Decorating regularly adding on top honey or sugar/cinnamon and burn it a little bit
Doing an pear compote (might be too sweet for the smooth sweet taste of this almond/peartart?)

The top layer of my cake looks brownish, so that might be the brownish color of the recipe picture... But I'm really not sure.
EDIT:
RECIPE::

500g peeled and cored pears
250g whole or semi milk
200g all purpose flour
100g ground almonds
180g sugar
3 large eggs
2 big pears for decorating
a pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients in a blender until the batter is homogenic and pour it in a 23cm springform mould. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius with top and bottom heat. If it is a bit raw (check with a toothpick as usual) you can leave it outside, so the residual heat will finish it

Personally, I would prepare it by slicing the pears and placing them decoratively on top of the batter in some pattern. Then I would add an egg wash to help it brown nicely during the bake. A pear compote would, in my opinion, not add enough texture to the finished product. If you use whole pear slices, you will get a bit of a contrast between the smooth custard of the tart and the (hopefully) slightly firm pear slices on top.


When i marinate pork with spices and vinegar , can i also add the sauted onion paste overnight with it? When making pork vindaloo the recipe says to marinate the pork OVERNIGHT with a mix of spices ( fried and made into a paste with a tablespoon Vinegar ) , the second part is to saute onions till they are golden brown and the add the pork. My doubt is , can i saute the onions and make it into a paste and add it with the overnight marination , will it spoil the taste or will it better it ? Thank you ! You guys are awesome !

The separation of the processes is about the chemical reaction between the spices and the pork first. The onions add a different set of chemicals and oils that are unwanted during the marination process. So, no, the taste will probably be different as the onions will change texture overnight, and the addition of the chemicals and flavors from the onions will change the flavors that are absorbed into the meat.


Is Tassimo's caramel creamer suppose to be chunky? I got some Tassimos caramel creamer, the t-disc style, and I was wondering if anyone knows if it is suppose to be chunky?

If it's the one for caramel latte, or similar, then no. It can go wrong without smelling wrong and the date (which is a best before date anyway) is on the outer packaging which you've probably discarded. It's not my sort of drink but I had some for others, which meant it was hanging around too long.

If there were lumps of caramel in there they'd melt as soon as they got in a hot drink.


How can I reduce the salt in oversalted potatoes? Let's just say I was experimenting, and now I have a pan full of diced carrots and potatoes that have been boiled and way, way over-brined. They taste like... salt. It's very bad.

Basically dilution is the key, though a rinse and a short soak in fresh water will help a bit.

You could freeze them in small quantities and use them up in vegetable soup a little at a time. Don't forget that commercial stock has quite a lot of salt in, so reduce that accordingly.

Some thick stews could tolerate some mashed veg in them, again in fairly small quantities.

By mixing with completely unsalted veg you could make a form of bubble and squeak, but you'd have to mash/mix it more than normal to avoid having locally salty bits.


Can I use the same board for meat and vegetables? I've heard that it's not good to use the same board for vegetables and meat, not only when you are making a salad but in general. Something about the bacteria in dirt and the bacteria in the meat is a bad mix.

But I'm wondering if you are making a stew of some sort, where you need to boil both meat and vegetables together, can I safely use the same board for both?

I'm thinking since it will be cooked together anyways, what danger can there be?

I understand the intent of the advice to always keep meat and vegetable preparation tools and areas separate is to establish a habit, to avoid the possibility of cross contamination in cases where you are not going to be cooking the vegetables as much or at all; and similarly in a catering environment to be able to visibly demonstrate that working practices are such that cross contamination cannot occur.


How to fix a bitter jam? (Or use it?) I had the ill thought of adding raw lemon to my apples jam (half for ~2.5lt, in other words half for blender load), it tastes inhumanly bitter. Apart from the level of acidity which can be fixed with soda I don't know how to fix the bitterness, the lemon peel nearly causes me nausea.

Is It fixable?

If not, how can I reuse it? Chutney?

What's the mininum number of ingredients for chutney?

Do you eat marmalade? If so be inspired by that and cook further.  This will give you the opportunity to adjust sugar levels as well as cooking out some of the bitterness.  You may want to use a food processor if the chunks are too big.

Chutneys  (of the keeping kind) are usually based on vinegar and some brown sugar, with plenty of onion.  I often make an apple/onion chutney, but I don't think I've ever used lemon in one, though it should be possible from a pH point of view to preserve this way.  Starting from where you are this could be hard to reach without adding a lot, as you were making a sugar-based preserve.

You don't say when you made this or how you have stored or plan to store it but a mix of cooked and raw ingredients in a preserve isn't a very good idea fom a spoilage and food safety point of view.  I won't go into detail here without knowing that, and as it's been covered many times before, just note that you need to be careful.


What is this citrus fruit? I had this delicious citrus fruit today that I'm having trouble identifying. I think it might be a tangelo, but I'm not sure. It was seedless and had a tangy/sour taste. Unlike a clementine, it did not peel very easily. It came with a delivery of other assorted fruits, so I don't know its geographical origin. In terms of size, it was about as big as a lime (too small to be a regular orange).

It looks like a honeybell. Also known as a tangelo.


Skillet cooking Medovik (Russian Honey Cake)? Medovik traditionally calls for baking individual pancake shaped layers in the oven. Would frying in a skillet be a workable alternative?

Apparently, yes.  What you'll end up with will be a somewhat different texture than traditional medovik, but I bet it'll still be delicious.


How do I cut savoriness of a dish? I had an interesting sandwich the other day. It was tuna spinach wrap but mixed with a mustard blend with a smidgen of capers. Needless to say, it was quite savory. Was there anything I could have told the chef to add (rather than remove) to reduce the savoriness of the dish?

Savory usually means spicy & salty.

If you wanted to cut the sharp salty taste of the mustard & capers you could have used a 'sweet mustard' preparation.

I'm not sure if the spinach in the 'tuna spinach wrap' was actually leaf spinach or one of those green 'wraps' like a tortilla?
Spinach has a bit of a metallic taste that some people find sharp.
Switch to a mild lettuce like Romaine or even ice berg to offset such strong flavors as tina, mustard, & capers.

A bland cheese or mayonnaise can also help balance too much sharpness or 'tang' also.


Why does my homemade mustard thicken only some of the time? For the first time in many years, there are enough red bell peppers in the harvest for me to make this recipe for roasted red pepper mustard, which I have made off and on for 20 years or so.

It's been a long time since I've made it, and there's one aspect that didn't always work.

As you can see, the recipe involves

A) mixing .75c dry Colman's mustard (or equivalent) with 2.5c water+vinegar. let it sit.

B) boil 1 1/6c sherry+wine for 7 min (reduces it some, but not a whole lot)

C) mix A+B, cook in double-boiler until thick.

D) stir in red pepper puree.

My memory is that sometimes step A thickened up while it was resting, and sometimes it didn't. When it didn't, no later step ever really got thick enough. And that was a pity, because the mustard is incredibly delicious, kind of pricey to make, but makes a super gift if it sets properly.

Could the difference be that sometimes I substitute Penzey's regular mustard powder for the Colman's? Would Oriental mustard powder do instead? Or do I need to just resign myself to buying Colman's in bulk? I like to make a lot of this stuff.

Could the problem possibly be due to the variation in the amount of starch in the mustard used from batch to batch of your own making, so its thickening quality varies each time? Or could it be stale stock?

According to their website, Colman's mustard is made from 60% locally sourced yellow mustard seed and quality controlled, so it is fairly constant from year to year and has been since 1814. At least we presume it has remained so the whole time since Unilever took over in 1995 and was the case beforehand.

Working on that presumption, using the other brands or types of mustard (such as black, brown or oriental) could be the issue for you. Or have Unilever decreased the English yellow mustard content to 60% so there have been inconsistencies since 1995? I guess you would have to ask them directly to eliminate that as a possible cause.

According to Canadien researchers, yellow mustard seed contains 20% to 30% protein, 24% to 35% oil, 6% to 12% lipids and 12% to 18% carbohydrates, but according to this source the starch content is fairly minimal at only 0.6 g per ounce. Although that seems a slight amount and small variation range respectively, it may still influence your mustard making. If this proves to be the problem, you could add and cook off plain flour to cure "thin" mustard or increase the mustard powder content.

I hear what you say about the cost of good imported English mustard. Have you considered sourcing whole English yellow mustard seeds and grinding them yourself? I was considering that myself, after I looked everywhere for Colman's this summer, but 113 g / 4 oz containers are the biggest on supermarket shelves and even then they are only rarely in the larger stores. I hate the tiny (relatively expensive) tins, so it looks like I'll have to buy via the internet or visit the Colman's shop in Norwich to finally get a pound sized tin. Still a visit to a museum is always interesting. Especially when food-related. I'll be needing a bulk supply, with winter coming soon...

«John Hassall (1868–1948): Colman’s Mustard Advert, 1899»


Is there a way to lessen the unpleasant smell of steamed broccoli? I really enjoy snacking on steamed vegetables lightly sprinkled with some salt and pepper, especially broccoli. However I find that steamed fresh broccoli has a slightly sulfuric smell that smells a little bit like fart. I was wondering if there is anything I can do to lessen that smell.

Cook it less, if you can. The more you cook it, the more you get that smell. Perhaps you are just more sensitive to it than most; I don't generally notice it until it's overcooked by my standards.

Along with this, cook it as fast as you can. The flavor you don't like is produced by enzymes converting precursor molecules into those with the flavor. From On Food and Cooking:

  Heating cabbages and their friends has two different effects. Initially the temperature rise...speeds the enzyme activity and flavor generation, with maximum activity around 140F/60C. The enzymes stop working altogether somewhere short of the boiling point. If the enzymes are quickly inactivated by plunging the vegetables into abundant boiling water, then many of the flavor precursor molecules will be left intact. ... If the cooking period is prolonged, then the constant heat gradually transforms the flavor molecules. Eventually the sulfur compounds end up forming trisulfides, which accumulate and are mainly responsible for the strong and lingering smell of overcooked cabbage.

So as suggested by others, boiling instead of steaming to reduce cooking time helps. So does cooling quickly, with cold or ice water. Boiling in excess water will also leach some out, but you might also lose flavor you like.

A couple other thoughts, also from On Food and Cooking. Cabbage family vegetables grown in the summer, and under drought stress, produce more of the flavor precursors, and those grown in the autumn and winter with less light and more water have less. They're also more concentrated in the core of the vegetables. And for cabbage, you can remove a lot of them by chopping and soaking in cold water; conceivably the same could work for broccoli, but again perhaps at the cost of desirable flavor.


Freezing a meringue? Can a meringue ever be frozen?  I want to make a meringue topped dessert for Easter and don't want to leave my guests while I add the meringue and torch it.  Ideas?

I am inferring that this is a soft meringue, not a dried one.

These do not freeze well as the ice crystals forming will disrupt the foam, and they will weep and deflate.

This sort of meringue really does need to be done at the moment of service.


When trying to infuse spices into an oil, why is it important not to cook the spice? I read that one there are different ways to infuse a spice into oil including leaving in oil for an extended period of time or if you want quick resuls, low temp heating for about 2 hours.

In the case of the latter, the article said you should be careful not to cook the spice which I think means high temp.  What exactly happens to the spice during cooking that wouldn't happen during low temp infusio.  For example does it destroy the flavours, reduce compounds such as peperine etc?

When making a curry, I notice people just put all spices in and cook it, I guess this would mean infusion isn't happening in a typical curry?

Cooking and infusing are different processes.

When cooking with a spice you want it to release flavor and aroma into the food you're cooking with it, and usually you also enhance the flavor of the spice by frying / roasting it.

For infusing you want to be more gentle so you don't add bitterness and don't destroy subtle flavors. You want to slowly release the flavors and aromas and preserve them into the oil.


How is mass egg-frying performed? I'm currently at a hotel in Spain. We are having a buffet breakfast and one of the meals are sunny-side-up fried eggs. I estimate they probably fry several hundred eggs per breakfast. I wondered how they pull it off in the kitchen, especially the "breaking eggs" part.

I can imagine two extremes:

A cook is breaking eggs manually, taking extra care not to put any shell onto the frying pan.
Some kind of automated process takes place, e.g. eggs are put in some foamy container, the top is cut off and then the whole lot is flipped over the pan.

The truth is probably somewhere in between. Anyone with mass-kitchen experience, care to enlighten me?

Chefs are really fast at cooking.  It's what they do.  A chef can almost effortlessly crack an egg with one-hand in about a second.  Scrambled eggs would be pre-cracked and beaten prior to the cooking-shift.


How to keep squid soft and fluffy? For preparing squid , with traditonal masala type receipe , it was kept for 1 steam in pressure cooker. But squid got hardened after making the dish. Is there a way to keep it soft with preparation? Squid roast

The recipe in the video appears to cook the squid entirely, then mix it into the rest of the dish, then continue to cook the entire dish. (I suspect the recipe's creator has different expectations regarding the final texture of cooked squid)

Overcooked squid will be tough or rubbery whenever over cooked, whether too hot, too long, or both (which will happen in a pressure cooker, unless cooked so long that it breaks down.)

Sous vide is ideal for precisely cooking proteins, squid included. Most recipes call for around 60c for 1-2 hours.

Pan frying is also effective, as it gives much more visibility and chance to stop cooking at the right time. Many squid recipes call for 2-3 minutes saute.

In any case, cook the squid to preferred doneness in parallel to preparing the masala, then remove both from heat and combine. The intention should be to stop applying additional heat to the squid once it is cooked.


Order of combining wet and dry ingredients when baking I've always learnt that you add the wet ingredients to the dry ones.

Looking at some recipes:

"Combine the dry ingredients, the flour ... Add the other wet ingredients, melted butter ..."

"Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined"

"Mix dry ingredients together, Mix wet ingredients together, and Combine wet and dry together and bake!"

"Make a well in the dry ingredients and then pour the wet ingredients into the well and mix"

Is there a reason to always add wet to dry and not the other way around?

Are there any types of recipes that , in fact, reverse the order?

The dry ingredients are lighter, less dense, and less viscous than the wet, which means they'll have a tendency to float on top of the wet. The dry ingredients that come in contact with the wet will form a sort-of skin, preventing the wet from distributing throughout the dry. You end up with clumps of dry, unmixed, and (ultimately) uncooked dry ingredients.

Pouring wet into dry forces agitation and more uniform distribution.


What seasonings give ranch dressing its distinctive flavor? I've always wondered this. Is there a collective set of seasonings that equal "ranch"?

I always thought it was the combination of mayonnaise and sour cream (or something like buttermilk) that gives ranch dressing that ever so slightly tang to it.

Then add in the seasonings like dill, pepper, and garlic and onion and you've got yourself something delicious.


Marinating beef with lime juice for someone with dietary restrictions A little background - I am cooking for a person who has a specific diet after gallbladder removal. Lots of spices are a no-go, as is onion, any type of hot pepper, tomatoes, etc. Any citrus also causes this person pain.

If I marinate beef in something like an olive oil and lime juice mix, will any of the citrus / acidity remain once the meat has been cooked (assuming it has been marinated for 24 hours)?

As a general rule when cooking for other people, if an ingredient is not allowed, or off the list, it should simply not be used.  There should be no consideration given to whether or not the impact of the ingredient remains after preparation.  It should just be avoided.  Taken to the extreme, the potential is death to the consumer.  I emphasize the extreme simply to make the point.  There are plenty of ways to overcome the restriction of ingredients.  In fact, these restrictions often provide the motivation for new and interesting techniques and flavors.  So, skip the citrus, and any other ingredient your guest can't consumer, and find a work-around.


How to make Coconut/Chili Sauce (based on Photos) This is a Vietnamese dish described in the menu as "Scampi with Coconut/Chili Sauce". Can anyone tell me what ingredients I would need to make this sauce at home?

I enclose two different variants from two related restaurants, where the sauce varies slightly. The one above which is thicker tastes better.

UPDATE:

OK, I made my version of the sauce twice, I learned a little bit from my first attempt, so I'm going to walk you through my second. Although the ingredients in the stir-fry are vastly different (I had some left over chicken and I have a thing for frozen peas), I think the ingredients and technique I'm demonstrating here will work fine for you as far as copying the sauce. In the technique, I borrowed heavily from the traditions of other cultures, but the ingredients are all Vietnamese staples.

Weapons of Destruction

Notice what you don't see here? There is no soy sauce here. The Vietnamese do not use a lot of what westerners think of as soy sauce.

From Wiki:

  In Vietnam, Chinese-style soy sauce is called xì dầu (derived from the Cantonese name 豉油) or nước tương. The term "soy sauce" could also imply other condiments and soy bean paste with thick consistency known as tương. Both are used mostly as a seasoning or dipping sauce for a number of dishes. Vietnamese cuisine itself favors fish sauce in cooking but nước tương has a clear presence in vegetarian cooking.

Fish Sauce

This is a very highly regarded brand of Vietnamese style fish sauce (nuoc mam). Even though it is made in Hong Kong, it is authentically Vietnamese and easily found in the US. It's commonly referred to as Three Crabs. It is the preferred brand of one of my favorite food bloggers, the one who taught me everything I know about Vietnamese cuisine, so I'll take her advice and I do very much like the sauce.

Coconut Milk

I highly recommend this brand. It won the America's Test Kitchen tasting of coconut milk, and it separates readily. That will become important later. Whatever brand you choose be sure that it contains no added emulsifiers, and that it is a full-fat (not light) version.

Chili Sauce

These are all the same brand. They're made in the US in the Vietnamese way; the founder of the company got his start in Vietnam selling hot sauces. This brand is ubiquitous in the US. The sriracha can be added at the end if you think the sauce still needs more punch. The chili sauce and the Sambal Oelek are identical products except that the Sambal Oelek does not contain garlic, the chili sauce does. So choose one or the other. I used Sambal Oelek simply because I have a lot of garlic that needs to be used.

The Broth

The broth in the lower right is just low sodium chicken broth I kept at the ready in case I felt that the sauce needed to be thinned. I didn't use it, but I did mix it with the sauce I had left over to make a soup for another day.

The other broth is a flavor bomb! This particular one has a chicken broth base. If you're making the recipe with shrimp, making the broth is a good way to use use the shells. You could also add some clam juice or even bonito flakes (yes, wrong culture) to amp up the seafood flavor.  A key to the success of this sauce is that this broth should be very potent, and deliciously addictive on it's own. I started with 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth (use seafood broth if making it with shrimp), threw in the bones from the leftover chicken I used, a golf ball sized piece of ginger (roughly chopped), the zest of an entire lemon, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a healthy shot of fish sauce. If I had been able to get lemongrass and/or kaffir lime leaf, this is where I would have used them (and I would have skipped the lemon zest). I reduced the broth down to half the original volume, and strained.

Even though I used ginger, fish sauce and garlic later in the recipe, I used them here too because these ingredients are all subtly different after long cooking. It's a fancy-pants flavor layering thing.

The Stir-Fry

Whatever floats your boat will work here; get the ingredients just to your preferred level of doneness. Since mushrooms are such flavor sponges I sauteed some garlic and ginger before I started them, and stir fried them with little slices of red jalapeno (that's the red in the picture). Since I prefer mushrooms fairly well-done, I sauteed for a while before I added onions. The onions went for a while, then the zucchini and leftover chicken only briefly. I only added the thawed peas after taking the pan off the heat. The whole thing will be just heated through in the sauce when it's done.

The Seasonings

Minced Garlic
Ginger (it's micro-planed, so it looks like less than it is, plus there is a lot of ginger in the broth)
Dark Brown Sugar
Cilantro (this is just how I keep cilantro in my fridge, I make an all-purpose condiment when I bring it home fresh.
Missing I wish I could have gotten my hands on some Thai Basil. I would have chiffonaded 3 or 4 leaves and added them with the cilantro.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Cracking the Cream

This is actually a technique seen often in Thai curries. I don't know if it's seen often in Vietnamese cuisine, but it makes for a thicker sauce which I know you want.

Hopefully you've allowed your coconut milk to stand undisturbed in the can for at least several days, it contains no emulsifiers, and it is a full-fat (not light) variety.  If so, when you open the can, the top portion of the milk should be significantly thicker than the bottom. It's very much like how dairy milk separates if it hasn't been homogenized. Like dairy milk, the fat rises to the top. That's what we're taking advantage of here.

Scoop out the thick "cream" (the top third or so of the can) and put it in your skillet, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until you start to see the oil separate out. That's pure coconut oil. It may take several minutes for the oil to separate out. If it just looks like it isn't going to happen, add a teaspoon of neutral oil (or better yet, coconut oil) to the pan and pretend that it worked.

Saute your garlic, ginger, and chile paste or Sambal Oelek in that oil.

That's half the jar of Sambal Oelek, BTW. This is not for the weak of heart.

Reduce, Thicken and Simmer

In goes the brown sugar.

Cook it down over medium heat, stirring frequently, until you're left with an almost dry, thick paste.

Add your rich broth and the rest of the can of coconut milk.

Simmer that (stirring frequently) until it is as thick as you want. Taste for fish sauce, add as much more as you care too.

Add your stir-fry and fresh herbs and heat through. Taste for seasonings, I added sriracha. Now you're ready to plate.

EDIT: It bugged me that my sauce looked chunkier and less silky than the one in your picture, so the next day I strained the leftover sauce that had a little extra broth. That required just a bit of thickening with a cornstarch slurry to be thick enough, but now it looks just right. Both versions of the sauce are equally delicious.

Here's one more shot. The picture had been briefly lost. This is my first attempt at the sauce. It was delicious, but like my second attempt, perhaps it would have benefited from a bit more broth, possibly straining (if you really don't like chunks), and a touch of cornstarch slurry. It's less red because I wasn't in such a hot and spicy mood:

Just a couple of final notes:

If you make this with shrimp, I recommend that you don't stir-fry it. Velvet it instead. Velveting is discussed here: How does velveting work? and it makes for a lovely piece of tender, flavorful shrimp, perfect for this recipe.

This shrimp has been velveted. If you treat slices of chicken breast the same way, you can see a hint of a batter. You can't see that with shrimp, but the technique still "works".

If you follow the instructions in the link provided on that question, the shrimp will end up just shy of perfectly done, so they'll be perfect after being heated in the sauce.

As a matter of fact, I would recommend velveting any meat that you might use in this sauce.

Velveting is a Chinese technique, but I won't tell anyone if you don't.

Lastly, the formed mound of rice on the side is definitely the way to plate this instead of with the stir-fry over rice. There was something very nice about getting a bite with some just pure white rice and some stir-fry with sauce.

That's it. Let me know how it goes.


How long is marinated raw chicken breast good for after it's been vacuum sealed? I have been marinating a large batch of chicken breast in eggs and spices. I'm going to put bread crumbs on them before cooking. I'm wondering, if I were to bread them and then seal them in vacuum sealer bags, how long would the uncooked meat be safe in the fridge after it has been vacuum sealed?

I think vacuum sealed raw chicken breasts in the fridge behave like not-vacuum-sealed chicken breast in the fridge because the meat is neither sterile nor less contaminated with bacteria than the non-vacuumed meat and there are surely bacteria that grow under anaerobic conditions. The meat will be safe for 2 days.


What does it mean to place a "piece of parchment paper and an inverted lid of foil" to cover I'm working with a dutch oven, and i'm braising short ribs. I'm assuming the idea to place  a "piece of parchment paper and an inverted lid of foil" to cover means to seal the pot further so no liquid evaporates in the process.

But I'm not sure how to seal it by that statement. Does it mean the aluminum foil covers the pot, then place parchment paper on top, then close it with the lid?

Maybe cut the paper in a circle and put directly over the meat in the pot.

After that you put the foil over the pot and then the lid ?

this:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/04/how-to-make-a-parchment-paper-lid.html

and this:

http://www.thekitchn.com/culinary-school-tip-braise-wit-43041


Energy bar is too soft I'm trying to make a recipe for an energy bar that can keep it's form, doesn't melt in above-average temperature, and doesn't stick to the teeth.

I want to use a minimum amount of ingredients. For nutritional profile I have settled with roasted peanuts and sesame seeds. I use dates to bind them, and coco powder or freeze-dried fruit powder for flavor, for example banana.

I have tried all kinds of date pastes, some are definitely hold form better than others, but the bar still bends in middle under its own weight when holding up it in the air.

What other natural ingredient (no chemical preservatives or sugar powders) I can introduce into the recipe to make the bar dense but soft, and not too gooey?

It sounds like what you need is a powder, you could try a protein powder, or you could use peanut butter powder, which is a good thickener. Chia powder is also a great binder.

Another option would be a gum like xanthan or guar gum.

Heat is another option if you aren't baking these already, heat will drive out moisture and help the mix crystallize.


Boiling lentils in chicken stock? I have some decent chicken stock that needs using and I am making a takka dhal tonight. I preboil my lentils, and was wondering if I boiled them in the chicken stock, whether or not they would soak up the flavour at all? Or would it just be a waste?

Advice would be welcome!

Thanks.

Yes, they will take up some of the flavor of the stock.  However:

1) the flavor will be subtle and hard to detect, especially if you are spicing the dal heavily (as you usually do with Indian food)

2) it's not that authentic, since Indian food is often vegetarian.

Personally, I'd freeze the chicken stock and use it for something else.  Or make Turkish lentil soup, which does call for a stock base.


Should I buy a used flat griddle? Hi there I am opening a hot dog joint where we will also sell hamburgers and I am trying to decide whether I should buy a new or used grill. I spoke with a salesman at an equipment store and he told me if I buy a used grill it can be trouble if it has many scratches and deep nicks. He told me the food will not cook as well and also will get a different taste. The problem is when I went to look at used grills they mostly all have scratches and nicks all over the surface. Can someone help me out and let me know if what the salesman said has any merit?

If we are talking about the cook surface then my money tends to go towards a used one, as long as it has been properly cleaned over time and taken care of ( i.e. few scratches, dings or buildup). That being said a used one that has been taken care of will also work better for cooking because of the oils that are already seasoned into it. The thing to watch for in buying used would be the underneath, make sure the lines are good and that the underneath is well maintained. Buying used will not only save you some money but also some time and frustration from dealing with "sticking" issues which can come from using a new flat-top. Plus "used" adds character, but that's just my opinion.


Conservation of ground beef We planned to eat hamburgers tonight, so I bought 1.5 Kg of fresh ground beef at my store, at 3 PM.
But then, we decided to postpone that to tomorrow night.

Ground beef can be kept for at most 24 hours in a fridge right ?
It is not vacuum sealed, the butcher packed it in front of me.

So what should I do ? (it is 5:30 PM now)

Leave in the fridge and cook the meat before 3 PM tomorrow (and reheat at dinner time)
Freeze the meat as-is (in the store-sealed package)
Prepare the patties and freeze them now
Other ?

I don't have a microwave, I would defrost it in the fridge (I heard room temperature isn't appropriate, especially for ground meat in which micro-organisms develop quickly).

If I choose to freeze the meat as-is, I guess I would have to defrost it at least a bit to form patties. But if I freeze the patties, can I pan-fry them right away ?

Freezing should be safe, even though a friend of mine once tried to cook ground meat he had put in the freezer a few days before (right after buying it, he said) ; and it seemed not to be good anymore (rotten or something) ; so I'm not sure.

Thanks in advance, I'd rather not poison everyone tomorrow :)

EDIT : The hamburgers were fine — I lowered a bit my fridge temperature overnight, just to be sure, and cooked it well before serving.

Per the FDA, you can hold the ground beef, refrigerated, for one to two days.

Assuming you have:

Bought the meat from a reputable source (you seem to have if you watched them wrap it)
Have kept it well refrigerated since buying it, and will do so until cooking it

I would just cook and eat it as normal at dinner time tomorrow, since it has been refrigerated the entire time.  24 hours is not a magic number.  26 or 28 hours is not that different.

Now, several days extra time before cooking would be a big difference compared to several hours.


Cooking vegetables with butter and water I have been cooking vegetables, such as pea, green beans, broccoli, etc, and even eggs, by placing some butter and water in a fry pan, then cooking the food with a lid on to steam until the water evaporates.

Is there a term that describes this kind of cooking?

The word you are looking for is glazing.

Quote from source:

  Glazing, a technique taught in culinary schools but underutilized in home kitchens, quickly renders root vegetables (like the yellow beets and carrots pictured) sweet, tender, and glossy. Start by cutting vegetables into uniform pieces and arrange them in a single layer in a sauté pan. Add a few tablespoons of butter, a dash each of salt and pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Add water to nearly cover the vegetables; lay a piece of parchment paper on top; and simmer. As the water cooks off, fat from the butter combines with the vegetables' starches and sugars to form a rich glaze; a shake of the pan distributes it throughout, transforming humble vegetables into elegant side dishes.


Raised brown spots on garlic Occasionally I'll get a clove of garlic that has small brown spots on it.  When there are a couple spots, I cut them off and use the rest of the garlic.  Sometimes there will be A LOT of spots and clustered together.  Those will get thrown away.  The garlic will look and feel fine until I remove the white "skin."  It really looks like the garlic has eczema or measles.  Does anyone know what these spots are?   Is this a form of garlic mold?

The brown spots can be a bruise from handling or a bruise caused by heavy soil.  We learned the hard way to avoid planting in heavy clay.  Loads of brown spots from cloves trying to swell against hard soil, or a rock or buried root etc. The bacteria get into the bruised clove and quickly discolour it.

We added lots of compost and tried to make our garlic patch soil the lightest, fluffiest texture possible.  The softest soil produced the cleanest bulbs.  Also far less bruising from harvesting since they pull so easily out of the ground.


Chiquapin Chocolate? I ran across this historic reference to making chocolate out of Chinquapin (which I assume to be a type of Chesnut) nuts.

I have turned the internet upside down looking for information on this.

I found one tiny reference to Chinquapin as a substitute for coco.

How are Chinqupin nuts made into chocolate? Is it identical to how regular chocolate is made from cocao?

Hello JoeHobbit,
I have got two possible explanations for the connection between the word Chinquapin and chocolate.
First of all, the way I read your question; making chocolate out of Chinquapin, you are asking about a possible substitute; called Chinquapin, for cocoa mass, chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, and/or cocoa butter, to make a confectionary similar to chocolate.
The historic source you are referring to in your question describes the primitive and colonial history of South Carolina. And as most of us know, South Carolina is located in the Southeastern United States.
This point is important, as the first explanation I’m going to propose, originates from the food traditions of Native Americans in the Southeastern United States.
The second explanation I will propose, takes as its starting point your suggestion that the word Chinquapin refers to some species of Chestnut.
The First Alternative
The first alternative is the seeds of a plant native to Southeastern United States. The seeds are brown when ripe, and have a sweet taste.
The use of this plant as a source of food is ancient, and stems from the time when hunter-gatherer or forage societies were prevalent. This plant also has an Asian sibling, which similarly has been used as a source of food since ancient times, and still is a very popular treat.
The flowers, seeds, young leaves, and tubers (rhizome, root) of this plant are edible. The plant, especially its seeds, was a popular and extensively used source of food among Native Americans who eat almost every part of the plant (Carqué 1923:251; Cutler 2002:55; Moerman 2010:161; Newcomb 1961:324; Saunders 1976:35). According to Charles Francis Saunders, the ripened seeds, either roasted or boiled, are palatable and nutritious (Saunders 1976:35).
In the context of the question asked, only the seeds of this plant are of interest, so we’ll focus on them for the reminding part.
Similarity to Cocoa
What’s especially interesting from the point of view of your question, apart from the fact that the seeds are brown, is that one of the methods used to turn the seeds of this plant into an edible substance, is somewhat similar to the method used to turn the seeds of the cacao tree into cocoa mass.
The method I’m referring to was used by Native Americans in Arkansas. They soaked the seeds in water before dry-roasting them, then they deshelled them and grounded them into sweet meal (Fernald & Kinsey 1996:200; Moerman 2010:161).
The similarity to the preparation of cacao seeds should be obvious, but I’ll include a short description for those not familiar with the process. Cacao seeds in their natural form have an intense bitter taste, which makes the inedible. The method used to turn them into an edible substance is as follows: fermentation, drying, deshelling, and then grounding into cocoa mass.
Another point that makes the seeds I’m referring to interesting, from the point of view of making a chocolate substitute, is that these seeds have a natural sweet taste, whereas cocoa has a bitter taste. In other words, to turn these seeds into a confectionary would require less sugar then one would use when making chocolate from cocoa.
How to make it into Chocolate
I’m not an expert on confectionaries or chocolate production. Therefore, I would like to invite someone who is, to help us explain how we should go about making chocolate from the sweet meal of these dry-roasted seeds.
The plant
The plant I have been referring to in this first explanation, is Nelumboa lutea; commonly known as Water-Chinquapin, American lotus, water- nut, duck acorn, nelumbo, pond nuts, wonkapin, yanquapin, and yellow nulmbo (Allen 2007:302; Davidson 2006; Hanelt 2001:141).
There is a link between Water-Chinquapin and Chestnuts. Otto Carqué claims that the Water-Chinquapin frequently is referred to as water chestnut, whereas other authors claim that the name; Water-Chinquapin, originates from the taste of the seeds, which some sources say have a chestnut like taste (Carqué 1923:251; Bailey 1948:209; BTBC 1895:120).
The Second Alternative
The second explanation I will propose, has as mentioned above, its root in the chestnut theory put forward by JoeHobbit.
There is in fact a type of chestnut that was widely hailed as a sweet and edible nut, and used as a coffee and chocolate substitute by early settlers and Native Americans (Brown & Brown 1972; Duke 2001:88; Payne et al.  1994:62).
Moreover, early explorers in Carolina claimed that chocolate made from this nut was not much inferior to that made from cacao (Fernald 1996:26). Fernald also points out that there are only three plants in North America that are known to be used as chocolate substitutes. The first of these is Basswood; or Linden, of which the young fruit has a chocolate like odour and flavour when mashed. The second one is the root of Purple Avens, from which can be made a chocolate like drink. The third one is the nut we are currently discussing here (Fernald 1996:25-26).
The nut in question was well known to the first English settlers in North America. As early as 1612, Captain John Smith; one of the founders of Jamestown, described this nut as the great dainty (Sargent 1891-1902:18).
Charles Sprague Sargent (1891-1902:18) noted several historical references to this nut:
"They have a small fruict growing in little trees, husked like a chestnut, but the fruict most like a very small acron, this they call chechinquamins, and these, with chestnutts, they boile four or five houres, of which they make both broth and bread, for their chief men, or at their greatest feasts." (Strachey, Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, ed. Major, 118.)
"The Chincopin Tree bears a Nut not unlike the Hade, the Shell is softer: Of the Kernel is made Chocolate, not much inferior to that made of the Cacoa." (Thomas Ashe, Carolina or a Description of the Present State of that Country, 7.)
The plant
The nuts in question, are the fruits of the plant Castanea pumila, commonly known as the Allegheny chinquapin, American chinquapin, dwarf or bush chestnuts, or just Chinquapin. The plant is a shrub, or a small tree, commonly found throughout the East, South, and Southeast United States.
Conclusion
Based on the literature I have gone through, it seems clear that the chocolate substitute you are looking for is the nuts of the American chinquapin. Although I also find the Water-Chinquapin as an interesting alternative.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any description of how you can turn the chinquapin nuts into chocolate. The only thing I have found out about consumption is that it was sometimes used to make a chocolate tasting drink. If it ever was made confectionary out of these nuts is unknown. The only thing I can say about the subject, is that the sources I have found do not mention confectionary in connection with chinquapin nuts.
This is perhaps not the answer you were looking for. Nevertheless, it should give you some pointers to where you can begin your search. The references below might reveal more clues than what I have been able to discover.
References
Books
Allen, Gary (2007): The herbalist in the kitchen, University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Bailey, Robeson (1948): The Field and stream game bag, Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Brown, Russell G. & Brown, Melvin L. (1972): Woody plants of Maryland, University of Maryland Book Center, Port City Press, Baltimore. Library of Congress
BTBC (1895): Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Volume 22, Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y.
Hathi Trust - Library of Congress
Carqué, Otto (1923): Rational diet; an advanced treatise on the food question, Times-Mirror Press,     Los Angeles, Reprinted 1971, Health Research, Pomeroy, WA.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Cutler, Charles L. (2002): Tracks that speak: the legacy of Native American words in North American culture, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Google Books - Library of Congress
Davidson, Alan (2006): The Oxford companion to food, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York.  Library of Congress
Duke, James A. (2001): Handbook of nuts CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Fernald, Merritt Lyndon and Kinsey, Alfred Charles (1996): Edible wild plants of eastern North America, revised by Reed C. Collins, Dover Publications, New York. Google Books - Library of Congress
Hanelt, Peter (2001): Mansfeld’s encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops, Editor: Peter Hanelt, Springer Verlag, Berlin & New York.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Moerman, Daniel E. (2010): The herbalist in the kitchen, Timber Press, Portland.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Newcomb, William W. (1961): The Indians of Texas, from prehistoric to modern times. With drawings by Hal M. Story., Reprinted 2002, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Google Books - Library of Congress
Sargent, Charles Sprague (1891-1902): The Silva of North America; a description of the trees which grow naturally in North America exclusive of Mexico - Volume 9 Houghton, Mifflin and company, Boston, New York. Hathi Trust - Library of Congress
Saunders, Charles Francis (1976): Edible and useful wild plants of the United States and Canada, First printed 1934, Dover Publications, New York. Google Books - Library of Congress
Payne et. al (1994): Castanea pumila (L.) Mill.: An Underused Native Nut Tree Jerry A. Payne, Gregory Miller, George P. Johnson, and Samuel D. Senter, in HortScience February 1994 29:62-131. HortScience Online
Websites
Chinkapin: Potential New Crop for the South
Flora of North America: Nelumbo lutea
Texas Beyond History: Water Chinquapin
Wikipedia: Castanea pumila
Wikipedia: Lotus seed
Wikipedia: Nelumbo lutea
Wikipedia: Nelumbo nucifera


Why does the beef in Goulash need to be floured and brown before cooking? In most recipes example from BBC, in making a Goulash, a step is to brown/fry lightly the beef in flour before the stewing steps. Why is this done?

Since the beef will be in a liquid it can't be to prevent drying. Is it to keep the form and texture of the beef?

If you fry without the flour what difference is made?

Flouring the beef does two things:

It facilitates the development of a crust on the outside of the meat that is brown and flavorful;
It contributes to the development of the sauce, as the starch will dissolve off of the meat into the sauce, where it will swell at about 180 F, helping to thicken the sauce.

In this particular recipe, the flour is the only source of thickening, so it is being used for both purposes, but mostly for the second, where it is essentially creating a roux as your brown the beef, because you are also cooking the flour in the olive oil.  In this recipe, omitting it would give you a much thinner sauce.


Can you cook chicken breasts frozen on the George Foreman Grill? Can you cook chicken breasts frozen on the George Foreman Grill? Is it safe? Will it work well?

You can cook chicken breasts from frozen and it is safe, but the quality is arguable.

It would be unsafe if the middle is not fully cooked, or if the cooking process takes over two hours. These two conditions are not hard to meet, but doing so can result that the outer part is dried out. This is no safety concert, but a quality/flavour issue.

To circumvent this, let the breasts thaw in the fridge. Then cook them fully.


Yorkshire puddings in a fan assisted oven Which shelf in a fan assisted oven is the best to use for making Yorkshire puddings?

I've always done them on the top shelf - leaving enough room for them to rise, if you use small tins.

I started before we had fan ovens & never changed the method when they were introduced.

The 'golden rule' has always been "as hot as you can get it", though you have to open the door at some point to pour the batter, so that also becomes, "as fast as you can do it [without burning yourself]".

I'm pretty sure this is going to be similar to many many other 'old but simple' recipes - there are no two people do it quite the same.


Second quesadilla made on my panini press is not as crispy as the first I like to make quesadillas on my panini press. I typically make two for a meal.

Here is what I do:

Preheat the panini press to medium-high.
While heating, assemble the quesadillas.

I typically add cheese, shredded chicken, bacon bits, and onions. All ingredients are cold, straight out of the refrigerator. The tortilla shells themselves are the only room temperature ingredients, stored in whatever air-tight plastic bag they came in.

Once the press reports it is heated up, I cook the first quesadilla.
I remove the quesadilla when:

The cheese is visibly gooey and just starting to ooze out.
The top of the quesadilla has dark brown grill marks.

I then quickly wipe up any food particles with a dry paper towel (surface is non-stick).
Wait for the press to heat back up, give it an extra 30 seconds or so to be sure it is nice and hot.
Repeat for the second quesadilla.

What I have found is the first one I make has a nice and semi-crispy tortilla shell: it is hard and flaky, and the ends sag slightly when I pick it up in the middle.

However, the second one will have cheese oozing out and sizzling on the press, but the shell will be soft and droopy. I prefer the texture the other way.

I have tried altering the quantity of cheese, temperature, waiting longer to start cooking the second quesadilla, etc. but it does not matter. No matter what I do, the second quesadilla does not have the same exterior texture of the first one that I like.

I suspect this has something to do with either the moisture content of the tortilla shells, residual moisture on the panini press grates, or the cooking temperature. However, my experimentation has thus far not yielded any answers.

What changes do I need to make to my cooking routine so the second quesadilla comes out with a semi-crispy, hard and flaky exterior?

Probably its a panini-press-not-heated-enough issue, but with a caveat. I dont know about the inner wokings of the press, but it sounds like this: the thermometer that decides if the light for "ready" sign goes green is situated in a place that gets heated early, gives green, and cuts off the heat production (while the rest of the press is was still gathering heat.)

I am inclined to say that this is a not-hot-enough issues as, if you think about it, every new quesadilla you cook is actually a "second quesadilla", just with enough time lapse between the last quesadilla and this quesadilla.