Blogs

UK users: Amazon.co.uk has these too

Every now and then we come across a piece of (food) writing so delightful that it deserves front-page attention here even though it's not strictly European in nature.

Follow the link for a common-sense dissertation on the delicate art of using the rice cooker for nearly everything, from a man plainly more interested in watching and critiquing movies than in spending a second more than necessary in the kitchen.

One commenter to the original post remarks:

The New York Times has just come out with initial news on the high-end recipe site Cookstr.

Although the Internet is already flooded with recipes, Will Schwalbe, who stepped down as editor in chief of Hyperion Books in January, is starting Cookstr to showcase the recipes of star chefs like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Mario Batali, as well as those of less-well-known but highly regarded cookbook writers. The idea, ultimately, is to sell copies of these authors’ books.

On the site, www.cookstr.com, which goes live this month, each recipe will appear on a page with a prominently placed picture of the source cookbook’s cover, as well as a link to one of four online retailers selling the book.

...

...Mr. Schwalbe — along with more than a dozen publishers and 100 cookbook authors who have signed up to contribute recipes to the site — believes that a carefully chosen selection of recipes will whet the appetites of prospective cookbook buyers.

It'll be interesting to see what this looks like as it gets going. But there are a lot of good recipes out there in cookbooks that people don't see (and their authors don't make any money out of): maybe this will change that a little...

A lot of people are nervous about a possible connection between aluminum / aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. While nothing about the connection has been conclusively proven as yet, there seems to be no harm in eliminating aluminum from places where it doesn't really need to be... like baking. (Except maybe in the baking pan or tin on the outside: and again, that should be your call.)

Many commercial double-acting baking powders in the US contain small amounts of aluminum. (The "double action" comes from the addition of sodium aluminum sulfate, which causes the powder to react more slowly to heat, as in the oven.) With this in mind, why not try making your own baking powder at home, from scratch? This home-made single-acting baking powder won't behave much differently in your baking than the double-acting type does.

Additionally, homemade baking powder gets around one of the main problems with the storebought stuff: it stops working over time. When you make your own from scratch, in small batches, you know it's going to work right every time.

The method is simple. To make the one teaspoon of commercial baking powder, mix together:

• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch (cornflour, for UK bakers)

That's all there is to it. To make larger quantities, just increase the amounts in proportion.

Please note that there are also aluminum-free commercial baking powders on the market: one of them (in North America) is Rumford. Check the labels of your local brands to see what secondary raising agents they add.

(By the way, here's a way to test whether your baking powder is still good: Boil half a cup of water and add half a teaspoon of the baking powder to it. If it fizzes and froths up energetically, it's fine. If it doesn't react, or reacts weakly, get rid of it: it's no good and your baking will come out flat.)

EuroCuisineLady had the good luck to be passing through Munich on business last week when the weather was particularly fine. Her schedule left her just enough time to make a fast pass through the Viktualienmarkt or Grocery Market, probably Munich's most famous open-air food market.

The place is a feast for the eye and nose any time of the year, but in the summertime, the market and the beer garden at its heart come into their own. There are something like a hundred and forty stalls and shops (the butchers tend for the most part to be located in a block of regular buildings near the west side of the market). Every kind of fresh food you can imagine is to be found here, as well as spices, flowers and plants, woodwork, knives, kitchen utensils, you name it. At the heart of it all is a small handsome beer garden shaded by the traditional chestnut trees, so that after your shopping's done you can sit down and have a beer or a coffee and a good gossip with your neighbors.

Click on "read more" for more pictures. (If you're a Flickr user, you can also click here for the whole photoset, where you can get at the full-size images and read the stalls' signs.)