response 1 of 47:

Mar 15 14:39 UTC 1998

Hm.  The top contenders are a meal with tofu that was made from scratch (I've
done it a few times; it's only worth doing for entertainment value; store
bought tofu tastes better), an Ethiopian feast (the batter for the Injera
(flatbread) has to sit out for 3 days, which really isn't hard, just slow;
I'd definitely do this again and again), and, the winner, sag paneer, an
Indian dish with home-made cheese that is made with a similar process to
making tofu.  Tofu is harder to make than paneer, because you start with
soybeans and make soymilk to make tofu, while for paneer you start with cow's
milk at the point where tofu would be using soymilk.  My sag paneer recipe
is an all day affair, but the resulting meal is yummy enough to be well worth
it.

Hm.  I'm sure I've made other even-more-complicated things.  Gotta think about
this.

response 3 of 47:

Mar 16 05:55 UTC 1998

We also made tofu (the fibrous leftovers, called okara, were worth it, but
the tofu was rather scanty), injera, and some sort of cheese (with vegetable
rennet made from mushrooms).  Must be something else....
Tortillas.  First go to visit friends in Indiana farm country.  Repair the
vehicle when a bolt falls into the starter.  Continue to friends' house.
(Jim, they don't want to hear the details of the bolt, torque converter and
gears, even if it did take five hours to fix, five miles from nowhere).
Borrow a bunch of ears of field corn from a neighbor, and run them through
an antique corn-shelling machine.  Sort out all the moldy kernels by hand (the
cobs had been sitting on the stalks for a while.  Store in a cool dry place
for a year while you hunt for a source of lime (CaOH).  Tour the water
treatment plant and note that they treat the water with lime.  Borrow a little
bit with promises to be careful (in contact with water it heats up and
splatters and it hot and caustic).  Put a cup or so of corn into water to
which you have carefully added as much lime as will dissolve (a teaspoon is
more than adequate) and watch it turn from red to green.  Leave to soak
overnight.  The next day boil for an hour to accelerate the chemical reaction
between the lime (originally made by Mexicans from burnt oyster shells, but
we cheated) and the corn, which not only loosens the husks but causes some
precursor of niacin (I think it is) to convert to niacin so you will not get
pellagra from eating mainly corn (like the Europeans did when they treated
it like wheat and ground the whole thing raw, without no treatment).  Rinse
many times in lots of cold water, after the first few rinses start rubbing
to remove husks, which will float away in rinse water.  Then make yourself
a metate and grindstone (or if you are very lazy use a Columbian hand-powered
flour grinder on medium setting) to smash the boiled kernels into a sort of
mush.  (If you are exceptionally lazy you can buy preprepared masa harina and
add water and get to this stage at once).  Make a ball a bit larger than a
golf ball, smash flat on a small plate, and bake on a hot stone over an open
fire (or use a frying pan with some oil in it, but be prepared to have a lot
of blackened oil on your pan).  Share with the neighbors and vow never again.
        We figured this out from reading a book on preColumbian Mexican
cooking.  There are lots more descriptions of how to prepare corn there.  The
Mexican cookbooks all said that authentic tortillas were made from masa
harina, which eliminates most of the fun.
        Ingredients:  lime, water, corn (and optional oil)

response 5 of 47:

Mar 16 17:03 UTC 1998

Eeyore, did you make sausages out of chickens and prunes?  What was the
difficult part, I am intrigued.  Do you have a surefire way to get your
popovers to pop?  Most of the time I forget to leave the lumps in, and they
become dense muffins.

Warning on the lime water - be very sure not to put your hands in it, the
stuff dissolves grease from your skin.  Rinse the boiled corn many times under
a faucet first, no touching until rinsed. (Learned from mistakes).

Anyone with difficult breads or pastries?  (I once made Danish).

response 7 of 47:

Mar 16 23:36 UTC 1998

Besides, you don't have a basement now.  Anyone ever try making sauerkraut,
which also needs a cool basement?  Or anything else fermented?

response 9 of 47:

Mar 19 20:20 UTC 1998

They used to use spits turned by little dogs on treadmills.

response 11 of 47:

Mar 20 02:20 UTC 1998

In Belgrade people would cook suckling pigs for New Year's (when the country
cousins came to visit) and take it to be baked in the bakery.

response 13 of 47:

Mar 26 15:18 UTC 1998

I tried making bagles once. They tasted right, but the texture, shape,
color, etc, were off. Not worth the hours involved.

response 15 of 47:

Mar 27 14:26 UTC 1998

Wow, sounds easy. It must have been the recipe I used. Just reading it
took an hour. Maybe I'll try again.

response 17 of 47:

Mar 28 22:48 UTC 1998

re:  7
I just brewed up a really nice Bock.  It was a subtle full bodied Bock.
Here's how I did it.
"Tasted" some Negro Mondelo I think.  Write down procedures so we don't miss
anything.
 
Called Bill.  Began primary boil at 4:28 p.m. added Munton's Extra Dark
Unhopped Spray Malt Extract (dry) 1/2 cup, one cup brown sugar, and into 3
cups of Corn Sugar, boiled in 2 gallons of water.  Stirred constantly and
watched in case of "boil over."
 
Take pot off of stove at 5:03 p.m. and added Coopers Stout Dark 1 can
(pre-hopped), Morgan's Dark Crystal Malt 1/2 can (for sweetness), Lager Malt
1/4 can, 1 cup black strap molasses (to mellow out the aftertaste of a heavy
Bock beer).  Mix thoroughly (not to burn the ingredients) and bring to a boil.
Stirred constantly and watched in case of "boil over."
 
"Tasted" Samuel Adams White Ale (ick) and Some Belgian Ale that tasted kind
of like a wine.
 
Began secondary boil at 5:13 p.m. and ended at 5:45.  Added finishing hops
(1 tablespoon of Cascade hops) at 5:40.
 
Called Bill, and Bottled after 10 days with 1/4 tablespoon of powered pure
vitamin-c (an anti-oxidant), and 3/4 cup of Corn Sugar.  We had some kind of
Voodoo ale from Florida, Some kind of Irish Stout, and Something else that
I am pretty sure tasted really good.  Managed to get a lots of water, an
aspirin and a tablet of vitamin c before I slept so the hangover was minimal.
 
The Bock was the best we ever made.

response 19 of 47:

Mar 28 23:56 UTC 1998

Historically Bock Beer was the last brew of the season when the temperature
was getting too high.  It was also where they cleaned out the barrel, used
the bottom of the barrel in the spring time.  You get whatever is left in the
vat, so it tends to be darker and ferments at a warmer temperature.

YOu are invited to the Ann Arbor Culinary Historians meeting April 19, 7 p.m.
Unitarian Church:  Beyond Budweiser:  Beer from Bablyonia to Arbor Brewing
Company.  They have talks every third Sunday.  This year we heard about
Michigan wines, and about vinegars, and last year olive oils and chocolates
and bread, etc.  There are good potlucks twice a year for members.  Nonmembers
are welcome to come to the occasional lecture.

How much beer can you drink and still read the clock and thermometer?

response 21 of 47:

Mar 31 02:27 UTC 1998

Do you know anything about 'native' cooking in Hawaii?  Or any dishes cooked
there which people here might not know about?  Somehow I had not associated
Hawaii with bock beer.  Are there other fermented drinks made there?

response 23 of 47:

Apr 1 17:54 UTC 1998

What I think is that the bought bagels did not taste like fresh ones would
have.  People get used to store-bought stuff and then try to duplicate that,
and the store-bought stuff is made for longer shelf-life, not taste, or for
manufacture with machinery.