Hard News: The Social Retail
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What, has she time-travelled to 1947 England?
My mother used to get oranges for Christmas. In the 50s! It was in Invercargill though. (AKA Scurvytown. ;) )
I've only ever found canned tomatillos, Carol... but if you're going to do that, you might as well just buy the salsa verde in a tin from the same place and save yourself the bother.
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Amy Gale -ah hah! Just like fish names, different areas call the same foods different names...you are describing (I think!) the classic scone mix(we rub the butter in, rather than cut it),
It's closely related, which I suppose is why the names are related, but a drop scone mix is way, way wetter - you end up splatting (ok, fine, drop ping) spoonfuls of it onto the tray, and they cook into shallow nubbly domes.
I really like them. I'll dig out my recipe and post it next week.
They tend to be plain, cheese, herbed or -and this is the major sweet one - date.
In my memory of scone days when I was a kid, there were always both cheese and date scones to choose from. Quite often the date ones were made with wholemeal. And my mum never went in for this grating nonsense, it was good chunks of cheese from the kilo in the fridge. I really only make cheese ones these days, but I can never quite shake the feeling that I'm leaving the job half done.
(Is it possible that I will now spend all weekend making scone variants? I think it is.)
And I loved your popcorn soundscape! And realised why mine is so different - I've never cooked popcorn in a pot!
Aw, thanks!
I went home and made popcorn in a pot that very night. I'm going through a phase of rillyrilly liking what Americans call "kettle corn", which grabs you right in the salty-sweet pleasure center and doesn't let go:
1) Put a bit of oil in the bottom of a big pot that has a lid, heat on high.
(If you are used to making popcorn in a pot, put in a bit more oil than you usually do. If you're not, try 2 tablespoons the first time and refine later.)2) Add popcorn to make a single layer on the bottom.
(Even if you usually add more, don't for this recipe. Too many of the unpopped kernels get glued to popped ones and carried to the top of the pot.)3) When it sizzles, add 1/4 cup of sugar. Put lid on. Turn heat down to medium.
4) Shake through popping sequence. Pippity Bippity.
5) Pour out into a bowl, sprinkle with salt (I like to grind mine extra fine w/ mortar and pestle but appreciate that this is not considered normal behavior).
The pot will be somewhere between dirty and cataclysmically filthy. Do not fear. Run a couple of inches of water into it, put the lid back on, bring to the boil on the stove, then leave to soak. If your stove element retains enough heat you won't even need to turn it back on, and then you can go off and start eating straight away.
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I'm glad to hear that the wheels are finallystarting to turn for Auckland to get a farmers' market of its own. It's really taken long enough for a city of that size, and in a location that is surrounded by producers galore.
Oh it's got a few already - Parnell, Britomart, La Cigale, Alexandra Racecourse, so the wheels are turning to get them into other suburbs where one would be much appreciated, like Point Chevalier.
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I've only ever found canned tomatillos, Carol
I bought some fresh ones earlier in the summer at .. Moore Wilsons (where else?). They weren't particularly expensive so I guess that means they were grown here rather than imported. But no luck since.
I'm so looking forward to your drop scone recipe, Amy.
In her book 'Feast', Nigella lawson waxes enthusiastic (even more than usual) about something called Hachapuri, which is a Georgian cheesebread with feta, ricotta and mozzarella. She tried it in St Petersburg, had many attempts to replicate the recipe at home, and finally had a Proustian moment at a Georgian cafe in Hackney (and got the recipe).
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so the wheels are turning to get them into other suburbs where one would be much appreciated, like Point Chevalier.
There is a market on May Rd Mt Roskill, but I think it's Friday mornings, possibly Tuesday mornings as well, but I know it's local 'fresh fruit and veg cos I've eaten the evidence. :)
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(Dunedin, for the geographically challenged)
Now, that would be a good bumper sticker. ;-)
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they cook into shallow nubbly domes.
Yes! That sounds just like the cheese puffs I like so much.
I really like them. I'll dig out my recipe and post it next week.
Please do. I have made polite enquiries and been rebuffed.
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(Dunedin, for the geographically challenged)
Now, that would be a good bumper sticker. ;-)
That comma needs to be a colon, though.
And people say punctuation doesn't matter.
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That comma needs to be a colon, though.
What's wrong with a semi-colon and a bag?
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What's wrong with a semi-colon and a bag?
Dude, if you have to ask...
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Dude, if you have to ask...
Well, it could come in handy for long distance driving.
I think I'd better stop now, the visuals are getting mucky.
Speshly for the driver behind me. -
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Playtime, so I've spent it further looking at drop scones (Google, the 1892 Young Ladies' Cookery( Dunedin), my Nanna's cooking notebook,
Tui's 3rd Cookery book, and Aunt Daisy's Cooking & Household Hints.)Ta dah! We're into name-territory again.
Almost all sources give 'drop scones' as 'Scottish/Scots pancakes' aka
pikelets. Almost all sources include quite a bit of sugar and specify them as girdle/griddle cooked (the only one that doesnt is 'sunflower dropscones' - distinctly savoury, butter *cut in* & ovenbaked.)I was taught, very early on, how to make scones - which were *always* girdle or oven-baked; potato cakes (which are *not* potato scones!) and pikelets - my mother's side of the family is Orkney Scots (o, and Kai Tahu, but that's another matter), and have strong links to Edinburgh. These, along with potatoes (kumara were rare & sought after) and porridge, were our basic starch...you had to know how to make & bake 'em.
I really look forward to your drop scone receit Amy!
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O, I should've added to the family cheesy receit - we cook these in the oven on a greased tray-
fried breads can just get so hazardous late at night!
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This is the entirety of the recipe that I scrawled into the front of one of my cookbooks (this is my standard way of storing incoming recipes that I expect to see repeat use - saves maintaining my "own" book, but means it's sometimes hard to remember where a given recipe is). Notes follow.
Cheese Drop Scones
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2c flour
1T sugar
1T baking powder
1/2c cubed butter
1c shredded cheese
300mL milk1) cut in butter method
2) 1/4 c mounds
3) 15-17 min@425FNotes
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* T == tablespoon* I always, always put cayenne in anything with cheese, including these - it's just not in my notes. Also add a pinch of salt if your butter is unsalted, and pepper if you like pepper in your baked goods.
* if there isn't enough milk, I sometimes use plain yogurt or yogurt mixed with water.
* Cut in butter method means: sift dry things together. Cut or rub in butter till it looks like soft breadcrumbs. Stir in cheese. Make a well in middle, pour in milk, stir to combine.
* The 1/4 cup mounds should be fairly far apart on a cold baking sheet that is either well greased or lined with parchment/a silpat. I get about 8 mounds per baking sheet.
* cups are a ridiculous measure for butter, but very typical in the US. The standard conversion is 2 cups butter/pound, so 1/2 cup is 1/4 pound or about 115g. In the olden days before I learned this I used to measure butter for US recipes by immersing chunks of butter in water in the measuring cup.
* 425F assumes convection bake. You might want to try 450 in a non-convection oven
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Curses! My oven doesn't heat up to Fahrenheit, it does Celsius only...
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Curses! My oven doesn't heat up to Fahrenheit, it does Celsius only...
Most cookbooks have a conversion scale and there is doubtless conversions sites on the www (like the currency ones). I think you need to be a little cautious about cup sizes re the US and the ROTW.I suspect that US cup sizes are bigger.
Good cooking!
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The standard conversion is 2 cups butter/pound, so 1/2 cup is 1/4 pound or about 115g.
Bless you, Amy, I've always mildly wanted to know that. I've always found the American practice of measuring butter in cups kind of nauseating. Nice hot cup of lard, anyone?
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Oh, and something I learned measuring gelatine for what turned out to be a delicious but overly liquid dessert. A NZ tablespoon is 15mL. An Australian tablespoon is 20.
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Ah well, in that case perhaps it's worth mentioning that US eggs (according to my sister) are very small, a bit smaller than our size 6 in fact, so you have to be careful not to over-egg your American baking.
Thanks for the recipe Amy!
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The US tablespoon is also a little bigger than ours, for recipe conversion purposes. And 'confectioner's sugar' is icing sugar. There are other terminology differences which have all dribbled out of my head now... apart from cilantro/coriander. That took me months to work out. I'm quite slow on the uptake. :)
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U.S. Gallons are also different from those used by civilised countries.
Equal to .8 of a real gallon the U.S. Gallon is used to make Americans think they are driving gas guzzling monster trucks when they are, in fact, driving merely gas gulping monster trucks.
The U.S. liquid gallon is legally defined as 231 cubic inches, and is equal to exactly 3.785 411 784 litres (1 L = 10−3 m3) or 0.133 680 555… cubic feet.
Had Abraham Lincoln been a raving Hetro all American units would have been metric as God intended.
As you know, its Knowledge Bro. -
I did not know that.
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Handy hint: Google can do a lot of conversions for you.
eg "convert 2 cups to mL" (473 and change)
or "450F to C" (232 and a bit)NZ cup _is_ bigger than US one, I'd forgotten that. Ours is a quarter of a litre and theirs is a quarter of a quart. Obviously it's virtuous to do the conversions properly, but my tendency would be just to undermeasure a little and call it good.
Also, you know those big conical metal measuring cups you get that have all the clever little calibration columns so you can measure out 100g sugar or 50g flour without a scale? They have an a"American" column.
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Most cookbooks have a conversion scale and there is doubtless conversions sites on the www (like the currency ones).
That was the sound of another one of my jokes bombing.
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That was the sound of another one of my jokes bombing.
I got it Gio. :)
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