Shamanarchy [RARE]

1 Food Of The Great Spirit
2 Sun Stealer
3 Seedman 2006
4 Moondust
5 Zone Traveller
6 People Of Universe
7 Lost Memories
8 Venus Encounter

Price:

Click here to buy from Amazon

Oster 5712 Electronic 2-Tier 6-Quart Food Steamer

Oster Digital Food Steamer...Instant steam allows you to start cooking immediately; LCD panel with 95-minute safety auto-off time; Automatic keep warm setting; External water fill with see through reservoir allows you to never run out of steam; Cook and steam anything with our double-tiered 6.1 quart capacity steamer: includes a large 3.8 qt., and a smaller 2.3 qt. steaming bowl; Fully collapsible steaming trays for easy cleaning; Large steaming bowl includes 8 egg holders for soft or hard cooked eggs; Large 10-cup capacity rice bowl; 12 hour delay steam feature allows you to cook when you are ready.

Price: $44.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

Well, to begin with, thank you, dear readers, for being very patient with me on this blog. I really can't believe it's been over three weeks since I've last posted. Or the fact that it's almost April. Or that I didn't even take the subway or go into Manhattan for two weeks, which, as a New Yorker, seems very strange.

What I did do was spend an sizeable portion of the month in my apartment, working on the manuscript for my cookbook for an upcoming deadline. As luck would have it, I also caught the flu from goodness knows where. It was a pretty bad one, which even DayQuil and juice and attempts at R&R couldn't do much to alleviate. So that also put a damper on any blogging plans or extra cooking.

But enough with the excuses. The good news that I'm turning in a hefty chunk of the book this week...yay for milestones! There's still some last minute editing to be done, and much more recipe-testing and writing in the coming months. But I'm considering baking a cake once I email this baby off, just because. Don't be surprised if you start seeing recipes for more desserts on this blog in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I've been perusing my cookbooks for ideas for easy side dishes to get me in the mood for warmer weather. Ideally, I could also snack on them when recipe-testing stir-fries, which I have been doing a lot of lately. Yesterday, while looking through Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, I hit jackpot on one of the last few pages. It was a recipe for sweet and sour tomatoes, an incredibly easy salad-like side dish that also seemed chocked full of flavor. The ingredients? Tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt, fish sauce. That's it. As far as I can tell, fish sauce is a fine ingredient that doesn't get used enough in salads outside Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

I made a few big changes to the book's recipe, such as significantly reducing the amount of liquid, which seemed overwhelming for the number of tomatoes. I also substituted shallots for onions because of the slightly sweeter natural flavor, and used cider vinegar instead of malt vinegar for a fruitier flavor to the sauce. There was no mint in the original recipe, but it just seemed to fit. And wow, these tomatoes turned out so well, with such a great mellow balance of sweet and sour flavors, that wedge by wedge, they slowly disappeared before my chicken stir-fry was done. 

I can't even wait to try it with the candy-like heirloom tomatoes that show up everywhere late summer. It'll be like an appetizer and dessert in one, and a perfect snack if I happen to be holed up in the apartment again, cooking and typing away.       

________________________________

Sweet and Sour Tomatoes

adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

Serves 3 or 4 as an appetizer or side dish, or 1 tomato enthusiast as an afternoon snack

1 shallot, very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
3 medium tomatoes
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon chopped mint

1. In a small bowl, toss the sliced shallots with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and a pinch of the salt. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Slice the tomatoes into wedges, removing the hard cores. 

3. In another small bowl, mix together the cider vingar and fish sauce with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar and the remaining salt. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes with the cider vinegar mixture and wilted shallots. Sprinkle the chopped mint on top and serve.

________________________________ 

More vegetarian appetizers and sides:

Pumpkin Hummus

Black Bean Quinoa Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Tomato Egg Drop Soup 

Eggplant, Cumin, and Black Bean Salad

Shandong-Style Asparagus 

Sichuan Cucumber Salad

Baked Eggs with Saffron and Cumin

View the original article here

Spring Sweet Pea/Asparagus Pickles from “Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen”

Mark my words, I am a pickle addict.  But my love of pickles wasn’t a loving  culinary journey in the beginning.

Vietnamese cuisine is a collage of  fresh vegetables, layered flavors and diversity of textures. So pickles in all forms were always a key staple at our meals. As long as I could remember Mom and Dad would grow small white eggplants, mustard greens and other vegetables and pickle them till we ran out of glass jars. Pickling was an integral part of Mom’s kitchen life and if she did it, then so did we.

As kids, we felt horribly abused and forced to the task of tending the garden and pickle duty. I hated pickle duty boot camp.

Weeding the garden wasn’t nearly as torturous as washing the vegetables and preparing the brine for Mom’s pickles. For every hour we spent in the garden, we had one less hour playing Atari Pac-Man and Frogger. Back then, Atari was the blood that ran in our childhood circles, an addiction that had to be sufficed with at least 2 hours of Frogger or Pit-fall or else we’d suffer from non-video game syndrome.

But when late Spring and Summer arrived, we were handed big colanders, a pair of clippers and our Atari was taken away. All six of us kids screamed abuse! Mutiny! Child slave labor! Then Dad would come out of his office with a loud growl. No words, just a growl. And then we’d all retreat to the garden with our tails between our legs.

If we wanted to be fed,  we had to help participate in the cooking process.

We helped Mom pick eggplant and mustard greens. And lots of it. The kitchen sink was station #1 to wash. The dinner table was spread with newspaper and cutting boards. That was station #2. The counter-top of the final station #3 for the pickling and jarring.

As the eldest child, I was the team leader and I told all my younger siblings that if we did this fast enough, there would be more Atari time for us all. That incentive was enough to get us all whistling to the seven dwarfs’ song.

Within a few hours, we all bustled from the garden to the kitchen like well trained, industrious little dwarfs. At the end of the day, the counter top was lined with jars of beautiful pickles of all shapes and colors. Mom was proud and relieved to have pickles for the next 2 months and the six of us kids were racing to see which two would get the 2 Atari joy-sticks first.

My Atari playing days are over, but ironically, my pickling days have just begun. For the last 2 years, I’ve been a manic pickler of all things crunchy. From homemade kim-chi to dill pickles to okra, I’m affectionately in love with the craft of pickling. If I have big batches of garden veggies that can’t be eaten quick enough, then guaranteed they’ll all be in a brine within a matter of hours.

All those pickling days as a kid paid off considerably. Indeed they have. Just look in our garage and you’ll see what that pickling boot camp taught me.

I’m thrilled with this particular pickling recipe from Sara Foster’s new book,  Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen. Sara has wonderful recipes and I’ve been pleased with all her recipes from her Market cookbook. Her newest book has a terrific quick pickle recipe that is so bright, fresh and balanced, it’s so probably my favorite pickling recipe so far.

Her recipe uses the juice of a whole lemon and I think that is what I’m so in love with. The bright citrus flavors really highlight my spring pickles from the garden. When Spring arrives, I love nothing more than to be able to pickle sugar snap peas from my garden and some fresh asparagus I find at the market.

The combination of Sara’s versatile pickling brine, along with Spring’s love of peas and asparagus help me celebrate the arrival of this magnificent Spring season even more.

I’m beyond excited for Spring and pickles.

Love,

-Diane

 Print This Recipe
Quick Pickling Recipe
Adapted from Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen Cookbook. This recipe is great for quickly pickling your fresh vegetables. After an hour, everything is nicely pickled, but over time the flavor intensifies. Keeps well in the refrigerator for several weeks or preserve the pickles by canning them according to manufacturer instructions to keep longer. Makes @ 1 pint.

Pickle Brine

1/3 c Distillled White Vinegar1/2 c WaterZest & Juice of 1 Lemon3 or 4 sprigs of fresh Tarragon or Dill2 T Sugar1- 1? piece of Ginger, julienned1 t Fennel Seeds1 t Dill Seeds1 t Sea Salt, or Kosher Salt1/2 t fresh cracked Black Pepperpinch crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Suggestions for Pickling

1/2 lb Sweet Peas, Asparagus, Cucumbers or other Vegetables, well cleaned1/2 medium Red Onion, thinly sliced

1. Combine pickle brine ingredients together in a medium bowl and mix well. In whatever containers you are going to pickle into, scoop out the solids from the pickle brine (ginger, seeds) and divide between your containers.

2. Arrange your pickling vegetables into your pickling containers. Then pour remainder of pickling brine over the vegetables to cover. Refrigerate for at least on hour, or can your pickles for later use.

View the original article here

Benriner Japanese Mandoline Slicer

Benriner Japanese Mandolin Slicer The Benriner Slicer is a professional piece of equipment that no chef should be without. Its sharp super high quality stainless steel blades provide a clean and sharp cut to any vegetable. It comes with 4 different blades giving you the ability to slice in many various ways. The standard flat blade cuts perfect slices which can be easily adjusted for thickness. The fine toothed blade will help you create elegant vegetable garnishes for professional looking meals. Great for carrots, radishes, or any other firm vegetable. The medium toothed blade is excellent for quick and easy uniform stir-fry pieces that will cook up in a flash. Suitable for almost any vegetable- try onions, peppers, radishes, beets, zucchini, etc. The coarse toothed blade can make chunky and crisp cuts of vegetable or fruits. Great for potatoes, onions, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, apples, peaches, etc. The slicer also comes equipped with a safety device which comes in very handy when working with small pieces of produce. Helps to make good cooks better! Features: Different stainless steel blades make the Benriner slicer great for all types of produce and various types of slices Safety device included to protect fingers from blade Double edged blade can cut in either direction Easy adjustment for thickness of cut

Price: $39.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

Portable Butane Gas Camp Stove Camping Burner Range

Stove weight 4 lbs (without fuel), dimensions 13"-W x 10"-L x 3"-H; maximum output 10,000 BTU, fuel consumption 5 oz/hr. Butane canister not included; widely available at most hardware, sporting goods and outdoor equipment stores.

Price: $41.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

Hog Wild Fish Sticks Party Set

Your little chef will never run out of ideas for meals with this huge set of pretend-play food. Serve up everything from grains to vegetables to desserts! The high-quality plastic food pieces are colorful and durable. Most pieces are actual size for more realistic play without the mess.

Assorted plastic food set comes in a plastic tub with a carrying handle for easy transport and storage. 80 pieces. Tub measures 12"L x 7"W x 12"D.

Price: $19.99

Click here to buy from Amazon