A cooking question

[culloden]

Bump!

Ok, I've another question. Besides a side dip, I'm looking for other ways to use tamarind chutney. I originally bought it as an accompaniment to samosas, but now that they are gone it's been sitting in my fridge and I don't want it to go to waste. I tried googling "uses for tamarind chutney" and "recipes using tamarind chutney" but only got recipes on how to make it. So, any of my fellow cooks have any ideas or recommendations?

Thanks!

Just make up some nan and dip it in the chutney. Nothing is better than nan...

 

[MsGoodBody]

.....

 

[bailadora]

Just make up some nan and dip it in the chutney. Nothing is better than nan...

I LOVE naan! But...I've not quite got the hang of bread making yet, so I'd have to go out and purchase it. I guess I was hoping it could be used as a marinade or topping with something else. Or perhaps as an ingredient in a stir-fry sauce. It's mostly sweet, but slightly spicy, so I'm not sure what foods would pair well with it.

 

[culloden]

I LOVE naan! But...I've not quite got the hang of bread making yet, so I'd have to go out and purchase it. I guess I was hoping it could be used as a marinade or topping with something else. Or perhaps as an ingredient in a stir-fry sauce. It's mostly sweet, but slightly spicy, so I'm not sure what foods would pair well with it.

Naan is easy (thanks for the spelling correction). We've done it with the box mix from the supermarket. It's just a matter of mixing, rolling, and throwing it in a hot, oiled pan. You can do it.

A friend has a backyard tandoor, and he literally slaps the rolled out dough on the side of the tandoor for maybe 30 seconds. Done and delicious.

 

[bailadora]

Naan is easy (thanks for the spelling correction). We've done it with the box mix from the supermarket. It's just a matter of mixing, rolling, and throwing it in a hot, oiled pan. You can do it.

A friend has a backyard tandoor, and he literally slaps the rolled out dough on the side of the tandoor for maybe 30 seconds. Done and delicious.

Interesting. I've never seen the mix in my grocery store, but we've a few specialty shops across town, so maybe I'll find it there. The outdoor tandoor sounds like it would be fun to work with. If I had gobs to spend, I'd have a tandoor, wood burning bread/ pizza oven/horno, a bbq pit and a wok in my outdoor kitchen.

 

[bailadora]

Bump!

Another couple of cooking questions.

I'm making Salmon Cakes with Artichoke Tartar Sauce this week, but I cannot, for the life of me, find canned, skinless, boneless salmon. I've been to Super Target, Walmart, and Publix. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And since I didn't want to have deal with picking all that stuff out, I picked up canned tuna just in case I can't make the salmon work.

That said, I'd really like to go with salmon, if I can. I do have skinless salmon fillets in my freezer. I'm wondering if I can just thaw them, finely dice the fillet (rarely have I encountered a fish bone in these), and then go from there. Thoughts on how well this might work?

Another recipe I'm making this week is Polenta bake with feta, tomatoes, and mushrooms. My only issue is that since the measurments are in UK terms, I'm having to do a bit of converting. Not a huge problem, but in trying to convert grams to cups, someone mentioned that grams is a measurement of weight, while cups is one of volume, so it's not an exact conversion.

I'm thinking this is probably more crucial when it comes to baking, but I've never worked with polenta before, and I don't have a feel for it's expansion ratio in comparison to something like quinoa or couscous. The best I can determine, 150 g of polenta is a bit over half a cup. I guess my real question is how much of a fudge factor do I have here? I don't have a food scale and I'm not particularly interested in aquiring one at the moment.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Bump!

Another couple of cooking questions.

I'm making Salmon Cakes with Artichoke Tartar Sauce this week, but I cannot, for the life of me, find canned, skinless, boneless salmon. I've been to Super Target, Walmart, and Publix. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And since I didn't want to have deal with picking all that stuff out, I picked up canned tuna just in case I can't make the salmon work.

That said, I'd really like to go with salmon, if I can. I do have skinless salmon fillets in my freezer. I'm wondering if I can just thaw them, finely dice the fillet (rarely have I encountered a fish bone in these), and then go from there. Thoughts on how well this might work?

Another recipe I'm making this week is Polenta bake with feta, tomatoes, and mushrooms. My only issue is that since the measurments are in UK terms, I'm having to do a bit of converting. Not a huge problem, but in trying to convert grams to cups, someone mentioned that grams is a measurement of weight, while cups is one of volume, so it's not an exact conversion.

I'm thinking this is probably more crucial when it comes to baking, but I've never worked with polenta before, and I don't have a feel for it's expansion ratio in comparison to something like quinoa or couscous. The best I can determine, 150 g of polenta is a bit over half a cup. I guess my real question is how much of a fudge factor do I have here? I don't have a food scale and I'm not particularly interested in aquiring one at the moment.

For your salmon cakes, I would think that substituting fresh (frozen) is not only ok, but preferred. The only thing you might watch out for is dryness. Because canned salmon is packed in oil or water, you might have to add a little liquid or fat to your recipe. You can mix it up, fry a small one and see if you need to make adjustments before you do them all up.

For your polenta, I found this converter online. It's ingredient specific!! And while it didn't have the ingredient "polenta" in the drop down box as a choice, it did have cornmeal, which should work just fine. I also don't have a scale, but I did find a cool pint sized drinking glass that also has dry measurements of different ingredients marked on the side. It shows sugar, flour, etc etc. very handy, and I paid just a few dollars for it. You might be able to find a cheap one with an Internet search, but I think I actually bought mine at the dollar store...

Good luck! Thanks for bumping this thread to a place where I would find, I didn't know about it

 

[Saucyminx]

Interesting. I've never seen the mix in my grocery store, but we've a few specialty shops across town, so maybe I'll find it there. The outdoor tandoor sounds like it would be fun to work with. If I had gobs to spend, I'd have a tandoor, wood burning bread/ pizza oven/horno, a bbq pit and a wok in my outdoor kitchen.

Hi lovely, I can't help with the salmon cake question but here is a quick recipe for homemade naan from The Bread Book by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake. I've had this book for like 25 years and it's one of my go to's when I need bread advice. I love the naan recipe and make it every time I do my lamb and red lentil curry, and apple chutney. YUM!

Naan
1 1/2 cups self rising white flour
2 Tbsp plain yogurt with active cultures
1 tsp kosher salt or flaked sea salt
about 1/2 cup lukewarm water (95 - 105 degrees)

Combine the flour, yogurt and salt in a large bowl. Add the water 1 Tbsp at a time, working it into the flour mixture with your fingers and bringing the flakes of dough together. Add just enough water to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.

Knead in the bowl for a couple of seconds, then cover with a damp towel and let stand in a warm spot so the dough ferments, about 1 hour. During the last 15 min of standing time, heat your broiler, and preheat the broiler pan.

Dust your fingers with flour and pull off walnut sized pieces of dough. Form into a ball between your palms, then roll out on an unfloured surface to between 8 - 9 inch ovals, about 1/3 inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough to make 8 naan.

Put one naan on the hot broiler pan and broil, 3-4 inches from the heat source until it puffs up and is speckled with brown spots. They cook in about 30 seconds so keep an eye on them. Turn over, and broil 30 more seconds. Repeat with remaining naan.

Someday I will have my own tandoor! Ha, probably not, but would love to have one.

 

[fire_breeze]

Bump!

Another couple of cooking questions.

I'm making Salmon Cakes with Artichoke Tartar Sauce this week, but I cannot, for the life of me, find canned, skinless, boneless salmon. I've been to Super Target, Walmart, and Publix. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And since I didn't want to have deal with picking all that stuff out, I picked up canned tuna just in case I can't make the salmon work.

That said, I'd really like to go with salmon, if I can. I do have skinless salmon fillets in my freezer. I'm wondering if I can just thaw them, finely dice the fillet (rarely have I encountered a fish bone in these), and then go from there. Thoughts on how well this might work?

Another recipe I'm making this week is Polenta bake with feta, tomatoes, and mushrooms. My only issue is that since the measurments are in UK terms, I'm having to do a bit of converting. Not a huge problem, but in trying to convert grams to cups, someone mentioned that grams is a measurement of weight, while cups is one of volume, so it's not an exact conversion.

I'm thinking this is probably more crucial when it comes to baking, but I've never worked with polenta before, and I don't have a feel for it's expansion ratio in comparison to something like quinoa or couscous. The best I can determine, 150 g of polenta is a bit over half a cup. I guess my real question is how much of a fudge factor do I have here? I don't have a food scale and I'm not particularly interested in aquiring one at the moment.

For the canned salmon, I can't help you there as it's readily available here. I did google it and found the chickenofthesea.com where you can also find a store. But that said, I cannot vouch for the company. It doesn't exist where I live.

I can definitely help you with the grammes, though, which your acquaintance mentioned is based on weight and not volume. So the equivalent of 150g in polenta will not be the same as 150g of cheese and its equivalent or even flour.

Aside from a kitchen scale, you'd need to get a good converter. I sometimes use this and this (that one might be the most useful for you, as it does have polenta and such in it) when I don't want to be bothered with the scale. The best way is to individually google the ingredients and find the equivalents in other recipes:

150g of polenta: a little less than 1 cup
50g butter: 3.5 tablespoon
750 mL hot vegetable stock: 3 cups
60g parmesan cheese, finely grated: 2 oz/.25 cups
100g mushrooms, thinly sliced: 1.5 cups
150g cherry tomatoes, some halved, some not: 1 cup (ish)
100g feta cheese, crumbled: a little over 3oz

Happy cooking! They look delicious. And pics or it didn't happen

 

[Bottomlover]

That said, I'd really like to go with salmon, if I can. I do have skinless salmon fillets in my freezer. I'm wondering if I can just thaw them, finely dice the fillet (rarely have I encountered a fish bone in these), and then go from there. Thoughts on how well this might work?

I think it will work just fine. You may have to adjust the recipe a little to get the right moisture content to make patties, but that should be easy.

Another recipe I'm making this week is Polenta bake with feta, tomatoes, and mushrooms. My only issue is that since the measurments are in UK terms, I'm having to do a bit of converting. Not a huge problem, but in trying to convert grams to cups, someone mentioned that grams is a measurement of weight, while cups is one of volume, so it's not an exact conversion.

Grams is actually a unit of mass, not weight, but that is a whole other discussion. Try here for conversions: http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-weight-to-volume You can convert grams to cups or whatever you want.

For the mushrooms, I would just use a 4 oz package - close enough.

I'm thinking this is probably more crucial when it comes to baking, but I've never worked with polenta before, and I don't have a feel for it's expansion ratio in comparison to something like quinoa or couscous. The best I can determine, 150 g of polenta is a bit over half a cup. I guess my real question is how much of a fudge factor do I have here? I don't have a food scale and I'm not particularly interested in aquiring one at the moment.

150g of polenta (corn meal, also called grits) is about .58 cups. It's pretty forgiving. A half cup should be fine. If it gets too thick and still isn't the tenderness you want, you can just add a little more liquid so it cooks a little longer. The ratios are more about cooking time than expansion.

That polenta recipe looks yummy; I might give it a try.

 

[bailadora]

For your salmon cakes, I would think that substituting fresh (frozen) is not only ok, but preferred. The only thing you might watch out for is dryness. Because canned salmon is packed in oil or water, you might have to add a little liquid or fat to your recipe. You can mix it up, fry a small one and see if you need to make adjustments before you do them all up.

I think it will work just fine. You may have to adjust the recipe a little to get the right moisture content to make patties, but that should be easy.

Good points. I also cross posted this question over in the What's cookin', good lookin' thread, and someone brought up the fact that since canned salmon is precooked, my cooking times will likely be off if I go fresh.

The recipe calls for a total of 8 min cooking time using canned salmon, but what's confusing to me is that when I make salmon fillets, that's roughly about the same amount of time to cook. So I'm not really seeing much of a time differential here. But I don't experiment with fish often, so I could be missing something. I'd love input on this.

150g of polenta (corn meal, also called grits) is about .58 cups. It's pretty forgiving. A half cup should be fine. If it gets too thick and still isn't the tenderness you want, you can just add a little more liquid so it cooks a little longer. The ratios are more about cooking time than expansion.

That polenta recipe looks yummy; I might give it a try.

I wasn't aware polenta was related to cornmeal or grits, so that's good to know! And thanks for the cooking tip, I'll be sure to watch out for that. If you make the recipe, please let me know how you liked it. It's on the menu for tonight.

Grams is actually a unit of mass, not weight, but that is a whole other discussion. Try here for conversions: http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-weight-to-volume You can convert grams to cups or whatever you want.

Aside from a kitchen scale, you'd need to get a good converter. I sometimes use this and this (that one might be the most useful for you, as it does have polenta and such in it) when I don't want to be bothered with the scale.

For your polenta, I found this converter online. It's ingredient specific!! And while it didn't have the ingredient "polenta" in the drop down box as a choice, it did have cornmeal, which should work just fine. I also don't have a scale, but I did find a cool pint sized drinking glass that also has dry measurements of different ingredients marked on the side. It shows sugar, flour, etc etc. very handy, and I paid just a few dollars for it. You might be able to find a cheap one with an Internet search, but I think I actually bought mine at the dollar store...

Good luck! Thanks for bumping this thread to a place where I would find, I didn't know about it

You're welcome, CnC! And thanks for chiming in! My liquid measuring cups do have ml marked on one side, but it's the dry ingredients that give me fits. That pint glass sounds really neat and I'll definitely look for it!

Thanks for all the conversion sites, ya'll! I've bookmarked them for future reference.

For the canned salmon, I can't help you there as it's readily available here. I did google it and found the chickenofthesea.com where you can also find a store. But that said, I cannot vouch for the company. It doesn't exist where I live.

I recognize the brand, but the stores didn't have the canned version, just vacuum packed. Which, at $2.50 for 2 to 3 oz, is crazy cost prohibitive for this recipe!

But the manager at Publix is pretty good about ordering stuff in upon request, so I think I'll have a chat with him the next time I'm there.

The best way is to individually google the ingredients and find the equivalents in other recipes:

150g of polenta: a little less than 1 cup
50g butter: 3.5 tablespoon
750 mL hot vegetable stock: 3 cups
60g parmesan cheese, finely grated: 2 oz/.25 cups
100g mushrooms, thinly sliced: 1.5 cups
150g cherry tomatoes, some halved, some not: 1 cup (ish)
100g feta cheese, crumbled: a little over 3oz

Happy cooking! They look delicious. And pics or it didn't happen

And thank you for doing all the hard work for me, my friend!

Hi lovely, I can't help with the salmon cake question but here is a quick recipe for homemade naan from The Bread Book by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake. I've had this book for like 25 years and it's one of my go to's when I need bread advice. I love the naan recipe and make it every time I do my lamb and red lentil curry, and apple chutney. YUM!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?

 

[Saucyminx]

Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?

Yep but you can never hear that too much. How did your dinner come out? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[midwestyankee]

I've been reading about salmon cakes for two days. When's dinner, Baila?

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

The recipe calls for a total of 8 min cooking time using canned salmon, but what's confusing to me is that when I make salmon fillets, that's roughly about the same amount of time to cook. So I'm not really seeing much of a time differential here. But I don't experiment with fish often, so I could be missing something. I'd love input on this.

Well the other ingredients have to cook as well, so the density is different than cooking straight fish for one. And when you have a patty, the bits that don't have any exposure to the outside edge won't cook the same (think about mixing raw bacon pieces in with a hamburger) so I can see where you should cook the salmon first.
All that said, if there is enough liquid and the cake is loose enough, the fish could steam cook. And salmon doesn't have to be overly done, so I guess you could go either way. Personally I agree that you should cook it first though.
I bet they turn out perfect!!

 

[bailadora]

Yep but you can never hear that too much. How did your dinner come out? Inquiring minds want to know!

Dinner last night was chicken parmesan soup, and that came out great!

I've been reading about salmon cakes for two days. When's dinner, Baila?

The salmon cakes aren't on the menu until tomorrow night, MWY, but if you're in the mood for polenta you're welcome to join us this evening. That is, if you can stand the hullabaloo of three kids squabbling, me fussing at them to finish the homework, and all the family noise that accompanies kids in general.

Well the other ingredients have to cook as well, so the density is different than cooking straight fish for one. And when you have a patty, the bits that don't have any exposure to the outside edge won't cook the same (think about mixing raw bacon pieces in with a hamburger) so I can see where you should cook the salmon first.
All that said, if there is enough liquid and the cake is loose enough, the fish could steam cook. And salmon doesn't have to be overly done, so I guess you could go either way. Personally I agree that you should cook it first though.
I bet they turn out perfect!!

Ok, ya'll (including input from Meeks and Seela in the other thread) have me convinced. I think I am going to cook the salmon first, and then proceed. I'm hoping I don't fudge them up, despite all the wonderful help I've been given!

 

[midwestyankee]

The salmon cakes aren't on the menu until tomorrow night, MWY, but if you're in the mood for polenta you're welcome to join us this evening. That is, if you can stand the hullabaloo of three kids squabbling, me fussing at them to finish the homework, and all the family noise that accompanies kids in general.

This is tempting, and I have many years of experience with that sort of hullabaloo. It WILL get better, though when exactly is sort of a mystery. The wifely one has some kind of WASPy bias against polenta so that adds to the temptation. I think I'll stick with my crude beef stew, though, thanks.

 

[Saucyminx]

Dinner last night was chicken parmesan soup, and that came out great!

Well that sounds pretty yummy too. And my lil old ex-librarian self couldn't help it, I found a recipe for Salmon cakes using fresh salmon by Ina Garten. You may want to use it as a blueprint. I'm not a big fan of hers, but I do respect her. The lady has been a successful caterer for years and knows her business.

 

[bailadora]

Well that sounds pretty yummy too. And my lil old ex-librarian self couldn't help it, I found a recipe for Salmon cakes using fresh salmon by Ina Garten. You may want to use it as a blueprint. I'm not a big fan of hers, but I do respect her. The lady has been a successful caterer for years and knows her business.

Sweet! Thank you! Ina has a homemade marmalade recipe I've been dying to make, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. A link for a link: Chicken Parmesan Soup. I did mine stove top, but you could also do it in a slow cooker.

This is tempting, and I have many years of experience with that sort of hullabaloo. It WILL get better, though when exactly is sort of a mystery. The wifely one has some kind of WASPy bias against polenta so that adds to the temptation. I think I'll stick with my crude beef stew, though, thanks.

Several years back, Trace Adkins put out a song called "You're Gonna Miss This", the chorus of which is as follows:

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this​

When I'm convinced they're jumping on my very last nerve, I try to remember this. I'm not always successful.