Thai Fish Sauce: A Quick Kosher Substitute

We're facing an already-picked stack of green papayas, and the clock is ticking...they were picked because of the freezes and now I need to use them...all!  As I don't have a pressure canner, I'm trying my hand at various green papaya recipes.

There seem to be some Asian recipes online that include green papaya.  Molly Wizenberg's recipe for Thai Green Papaya Salad did sound delicious, (there are different versions of this Thai dish, traditionally called Som Tam, all over the net).  However, I'll have to make it minus the shrimp and the bottled fish sauce.  I've been a reader of Molly's blog for a couple years now, and I trust that when she says her husband makes this and she's addicted to it, it's certainly worth a try.

In order to accomplish that, I need to find a kosher approximation of the fish sauce in order to make it.

A Mock Fish Sauce (and kosher!)
I found this 3-ingredient recipe online, and it's simplicity itself..anchovies, garlic, and soy sauce.  The reviews state that it's not got the truly authentic fish sauce taste, but that it's a satisfactory replacement. And for someone who just needs a way to present green papayas in a delicious meal form without a lot of fuss..and without shellfish...it's certainly worth a try.

I'll report back once I gather the ingredients and pull the dish together.  Anyone ever tried this?  Do you have any other uses for green papaya?

I'm a Tennessee transplant to Florida, so papaya is still new to me...  :)

Easy Homemade Mayo: Mess or Success

Once upon a time...
What do olive oil, egg, lemon, vinegar, and salt grow up to be? If you do it right, it makes great mayo!
If you don't, you fall into the category of folks like me that got downright slimed in the kitchen.  But there is hope, and I survived the learning curve and am here to tell you about the quickie 2- minute stick blender method I just tried...and found successful!

Mayo Schmayo
I grew up in a family that was highly mayonnaise-prejudiced.  My father couldn't stand anything that obviously had mayo as an ingredient.  My mother was a bit more neutral, and also necessarily bargain-conscious, so we got the store brand mayo sometimes, but the other times we purchased Hellman's.  Never has my family on either side made their own mayonnaise.  And up until today, I've been a total Hellman's snob because its texture is less smear-y and the taste is tarter than most others out there.

Hellman's vs Miracle Whip
It's a firmly divided camp.  I've found there are loyal Miracle Whip families, and staunch Hellman's folks.  in our case it was NO salad dressing or Miracle Whip.  It HAD to be Hellman's.  But, that said, I've had plenty of times I couldn't afford anything but the store brand.  I've leaned a bit farther towards liking mayonnaise in things than my father ever did, but I still am not its biggest fan until it comes to sandwiches.

Oh Brother, that Mother...
We all know the saying that necessity is the mother of invention.  Sometimes I intentionally make certain things necessary so that I have to find a better solution, as in this case.  I let myself run out of mayo, and after reading the long list of ingredients on the store jar, I knew making it myself would cut out a lot of preservatives and iffy ingredients.  And it would be cheap.  And it would be REAL.  The mayo labeled "olive oil mayo" at the store may have had some olive oil in it, but it also had soy oil and some unpronounceable additives.  And a a bigger price.

I'm making a penny scream for mercy at the checkout counter these days, and when I see store prices for things I could easily make much more economically myself, I cringe.  I almost never buy baked goods anymore from the store, or cereals. And so on.   I've been long overdue to try my hand at mayo, especially since it's something I need only in small quantities now and then.  But when you need it, there's really no substitute...say for making tuna salad, or a tomato sandwich.  So this week, I  painted myself into a corner when it came to grocery shopping and my weekly meal plan included some things requiring mayo.  It was time to learn to do it myself.

Only a few basic ingredients...
I had seen online the short list of ingredients it takes to make a basic homemade mayo, and asked myself how hard this could possibly be.  The only expensive ingredient in the basic recipe is the oil, depending on what sort is used...the other things are minimal...an egg, pinch of salt, something acidic like lemon juice or vinegar, and a bit of dry or prepared mustard.  Other spices are optional...

We can't afford the deluxe forms of oils at this point, so we keep a light olive oil on hand, one we buy in the larger bulk size at the bulk warehouse.  It doesn't have a strong flavor, so it's my go-to oil for most things.  When I saw the price of the mayo versus the price of the oil which is mayo's biggest component, it made more sense this week to try my hand at a homemade replacement.

When I got home, I was in a hurry in the kitchen, multitasking several cooking projects.  Sometimes I have great success at this, but that night was the exception, argghhh!   I was reheating some homemade chicken and dumplings and scorched the whole thing (drat!), the quickie frozen pizza I stuck in the oven as its fast replacement was...errr...left for too long and ended up becoming a smoking petrified frisbee.  I was mentally tallying the wasted grocery money as the disasters compounded, all the while chopping left over bits of this and that to put into a hasty tuna salad.

It was time to make the "easy mayo."

EPIC FAIL #1

I'll sum up.

I never realized the "slow drip oil" method was crucial to mayonnaise-making the classic way, and I never knew mayo is one of those acquired skills of a good cook.  The cookbooks I had pulled out (at this last minute) warned against curdling and separation.  Huh??  Oh dear, this was sounding touchy.   I (wrongly) deduced that maybe a better and faster way to forgo the drip method (which they said could take a long time, drip dripping oil into the other ingredients while whisking) would be to use the blender.  The REGULAR blender, the one that's big and makes smoothies in quantity.

End result?  Oh gosh...it was enough to put a person off eggs and oil for a longg time.

EPIC FAIL #2
It was a big mess, and the more I tried to salvage it, the worse it got.  There was actually a section in the Joy of Cooking cookbook instructing what to do in case of a "mayonnaise failure."   I tried their instructions, and just ended up wasting more ingredients.

And had totally slimed the kitchen in the process!

In the end, I had a sink full of oily dishes and nothing to show for the lost grocery ingredients, UGH.

But the fun continues...

Since today is a new day, and I'm not a girl who's easily vanquished in the kitchen (for the sole reason that if I accept defeat, we don't eat), today was a Do Over.  And I did what I usually do when I have to find an easier way to do something...I consult the Oracle That Is Google.

And that is how I found out a STICK BLENDER, i.e. an immersion blender, seems to be the way to go unless you are a mayonnaise snob, a French chef, or MUCH better at making saucy things than I am.

Since my standards are limited to 1.  Know the ingredients  2.  Afford the ingredients  3.  Achieve success and actually produce a real food product, I went the stick blender route.

Here's a video to show how quick and easy this is...

...(and don't think just traditional method flunkies use it -- I also saw a youtube video of Gordon Ramsay demonstrating the stick method himself)

Ingredients, thou are simplicity:
The recipes call for egg, oil, vinegar/lemon juice, often a teaspoon of spicy mustard, and salt.

Where the blender recipes vary is whether to use a whole egg, or just the yolk.  Either way produces a good mayo, though forums on the internet show debates about mayos with whole eggs (meaning including the whites, not the shells, ha) and how anything with an egg white as an ingredient isn't a true mayo.  Whatever.

Apparently the three easy tips for success with the stick blender are: 


1.  Have the egg(s) at room temp before using
2.  Do the stick blending in a narrow container such as a beaker or Mason jar (if it's much wider, it doesn't mix the same...and do not use metal containers.
3.  Position the blender stick blade all the way to the bottom, over the eggs (the other ingredients naturally will rise higher than the eggs, which are heavier, when you dump everything together before blending), and don't move the blender away from the bottom when blending, until the bottom liquid becomes thick.  THEN you move the stick up and down a few times to incorporate the rest of the oil.

NOT difficult!  And it's really good :)

Today, I did it just as the videos show and the online sites describe.  With the stick blender, it literally took two minutes!  Next time I SHALL leave the egg(s) out at room temp, as most of the instructions state.  But it still worked fine with my cold ones straight from the fridge.

The stick blender was set right at the bottom of the jar, over the eggs, and then I started blending it without moving the stick.  It started emulsifying first the eggs and I left it right there till it thickened at the bottom, then slowly moved the stick  around to incorporate the rest of the oil.  I left it in there a couple minutes.  The result was ACTUAL MAYONNAISE...hoorayyy!!!  It then went right into the fridge, and also right onto a tomato sandwich.  And it was GREAT...thick and not runny, and delicious!  (Even to a Hellman's gal)

I'm going to play with ingredients to tweak them to make my own "best" as I keep on trying this.

I went with:

1 egg plus one yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp of dijon mustard
2 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp vinegar ( used my homemade pine needled vinegar!)
few shakes of paprika
3/4 - 1 cup light olive oil


But the combinations are endless and there can be plenty of differing amounts and substitutes.

Here are some good recipes out there on the net and some blogs:

http://www.circle-b-kitchen.com/food-and-recipes/2011/8/8/stick-blender-mayonnaise.html

http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/homemade_mayonnaise_recipe.htm

http://forums.cooking.com/showthread.php?t=10699


As a final note, some pages warn that since raw eggs are an ingredient, there is a risk in using them.  Some sites online show the same stick blender method, but give instructions to first heat the eggs before using.  My Amish cookbook has recipes for "cooked salad dressings" as well.  I will personally be making very small amounts of mayo at a time and using them quickly, and not leaving it out at room temp at all, especially since we're down here in warm Florida.   Use these recipes at your own risk, if you do make the raw egg method...I'm just relaying my own experiments here, but each cook takes responsibility for the safety measures in his/her own kitchen.

Do you make your own mayo or other condiments?  If so, do you have a proven, favorite recipe?  I'd love it if you'd share!

Green Papayas as a Vegetable Dish

I've never cooked green papayas before, so I wanted to start with something really easy.  I decided to just peel, cube, and boil/simmer till cooked, about 20-30 minutes.  We have an excess of papayas right now and they have not been quick to ripen indoors, so it was time to experiment.

I chose one and peeled it easily.  There were bead-like white immature seeds inside this one, and I removed those with a spoon.  The texture of the fruit when cubed was something like a butternut squash, but easier to cut through.  The chunks were very firm, with no stringy-ness.

It cooked up really nicely, and has a mild neutral flavor leaning slightly towards a winter squash without the sweetness, and somewhat like potato but without the granular starchiness.  I served it with sauteed garlic, a pinch of sea salt, a dab of butter, and served it instead of rice as the base for some sauteed/stewed onion, thinly-sliced steak, peppers and garlic.    At least that was Jack's.  I had mine by itself with a side of greens.  The next night, it found its way into some curry, and was just as good that way, too.

Next time, maybe I'll try shredding it raw and making a kosher version of Som Tam, a Thai fresh salad, and substituting my own anchovy/garlic/soy blend for the fish sauce and omitting the shrimp.

I'm delighted to find a "veggie" use for a green fruit we can grow!

I think a lot of folks who don't exactly love the musky flavor of ripe papaya fruits would find a way to love the cooked green fruit because of its vegetable-ish attributes and its very mild and completely different (than the fruit) flavor.

Does anyone out here have any other way to use green papayas?   


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Homemade Pine Needle Vinegar: A Balsamic Vinegar Stand-In

Six weeks ago, I picked some of our treasured wild medicinal plants--Y'know, those things some folks refer to as weeds?  Included among them was a harvest of fresh pine needles.

I had read this recipe in which a pine needle vinegar is made by combining apple cider vinegar and clean chopped pine needles.

So I gathered, cleaned, and snipped enough pine needles to pack into a jar, and covered it with an equal amount of ACV per the recipe instructions.  The recipe specifies white pine needles, but its author and all the other herbal recipes I've found online say any type pine needle can be used, the flavor varying somewhat from astringent to pleasantly close to balsamic in flavor.

It was worth a try!  So it's been jarred for 6 weeks, awaiting its debut...

Tonight was the night!  I filtered it into a clean glass jar.  And I have to say, it smelled delightful!

This first batch came to a little over a quart. (I used the correct proportions based on the recipe, but not the exact recipe measurements.)  It has a very piney fragrance, and it does have a balsamic-y flavor minus the depth...it's much brighter. No, it does not taste like turpentine, ha!  Even if it had, I'd have used it as a great homemade pine cleaner, but this batch is good enough to eat.   I'm looking forward to substituting it for balsamic vinegar in some recipes.

It's so easy to make, it's definitely worth experimentation, and I will be making more!

Have you ever tried it?  What's brewing/fermenting/cooking in your kitchen?


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You Know You're in the Country When...

Seen in passing, from the car window, on one of our day-drives in more rural areas.  Due to my affliction of a wayyy too urban-based past, I have no idea what a butt pen is.

But I  know where you can get one!


And making up some possible definitions with Jack was pretty entertaining...  lol   :-D

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The Best Kind of Mail

Beautiful, and it smells as good as it looks!  There's nothing quite like receiving packages in the mail (anything but bills, right?), and today the bar of handcrafted calendula tangerine soap I won (yay!!) in the recent giveaway over at LaughingDuckFarm arrived.  Thanks, Melodie!  I'm passing along the link one more time for anyone who wants one of these fragrant and skin-nourishing bars for yourself.

Lovely, and it made my day!

Hope yours was good, too :-D

Thrifty Thangs

Thrift Store...the phrase makes me nearly as happy as the phrase Junk Store! (as in the antique store in which you can spend hours digging through dusty boxes, and most things are not overpriced)

As we've de-cluttered, I've been loathe to fill up the cleared spaces with more stuff.  However, I do have a pretty scaled-down mental wish list of a few items I look for in thrift stores.

I've hit the mother lode a few times at a local thrift store that really moves their stock quickly and keeps prices low.  Since I don't even have an "extras" budget, affordable to me means it truly needs to be necessary AND affordable.

Here are some thrift store things over the course of time I've unexpectedly found useful in our home:

1.  Flatware.  Go ahead, laugh!  but I so DO buy it at the thrift store.  I HATE running out of spoons or forks. Whatever my original set used to be, it's not a matched set any more.  But that's okay since I'm not always a matched set kind of girl.  Over the years, spoons have been taken in lunches and ended up who-knows-where, knives were used here and there and in the garden, and...well, voila!  When I found a box full of unmatched forks, knives, and spoons and saw the price, it said Buy Me.  At 93 cents for a drawer full, thrifting ROCKS :-D

2.  Bedside table.  (For my reading lamp, medical stuff, basket of books, and to set mugs of tea.) Actually, the "table" I found was an all-wood, perfect condition piano bench.  Lift the lid?  Vintage sheet music, to the top!  Half price, it was mine for $12.00.   Actually, for me that's at the top of what I'll ever pay, but this was something we'd been looking for.  I can't beat the $12.00 at any bargain store.

3.  Bed linens.  We have a queen sized bed and we use our linens the European way, with a comforter inside a duvet cover as the top cover, and a bottom sheet beneath.  This makes for a really easy mix-and-match.  Any used comforter in good condition (and washed well a couple of times in hot water if straight from the thrift store) can be the filler for the duvet, which fits like a pillow case over it.  I'm allergic to synthetics for the most part, so it's easy to find all-cotton duvets occasionally, and odd or matched pillowcases.  I've found some beautifully embroidered ones as well.  The pillowcases run 50 cents or less, and the duvets perhaps $3.00.  I like very light colored linens on our own bed, so I just buy with that in mind.  Dust ruffles are also a couple of dollars or less, so with a solid color duvet and mix-and-match pillowcases and dust ruffles, it doesn't matter which things go to the wash, there's always a way to put fresh ones on and still have some variety.  I've outfitted the guest bed in the same way.  I wish I'd thought of this system years ago!  P.S.  Yesterday I found a queen sized comforter in a beautiful pattern, Ralph Lauren brand (even though I couldn't care less about brands...just mentioning because it indicates its original cost).  Five dollars, hooray!

4.  Older kitchen items.  Casseroles, utensils, baking dishes.  It seems like the older ones are a better fit in my kitchen, and the price is right.

5.  Curtains and table linens.  I've bought these only when I see something that's a perfect fit for my preferences and if they're the right price.  In the bedroom I have understated lace panels at the windows.  I could never have afforded them from the retail store.  Total cost of these?  Four panels, 4 dollars.  I also pick up some really beautiful placemats and tablecloths this way.  Since there are just 2 of us, a couple placemats at a dime apiece is just fine, and it doesn't take much effort to add that small touch to make mealtime together even nicer.

6.  Dishes, cups, dinner plates.  We have an odd assortment, but they're ones I like.  I leave the expensive ones on the shelves but buy the "grandma-ish" loners and other mismatch china for pennies.  I also use a couple of older china dishes on my dresser to corral the girly stuff like lotion, etc.

7.  Canning and storage jars.  I love finding these, but usually someone's beat me to the punch.  Even so, I'll find the odd canning or storage jar in the older shapes and brands now and then, for a little loose change.

Sometimes we've learned the hard way that just because something's a deal, it's not ALWAYS such a deal.  Beware of stinky sofas.  A friend and I went in together on one for a young family setting up a new apartment.  What had looked great in the store was ...aromatic...in the worst sense of the word.  Not just stinky, but stanky.  I have one chair I just love from the thrift store, but most times we steer clear of upholstered things since it's hard to get them really clean if they're in bad condition.  And there are some really stinky sofas out there!

Maybe it sounds like I shop thrift stores all the time? I don't. And I don't go to any other type store without a list, because for the past few years we've needed to budget carefully (and I know myself and my tendency towards buyer's remorse.)  Those extras coins add up, so we keep a jar and collect it.  But it's nice to have the option of some quality items as real deals when we do want to carefully aquire something.

Two of my favorite finds were a 6 foot all wood buffet with drawers (in need of stripping and refinishing because someone had gone crazy with stain and polyurethane, ha) half-price at $25.00, and a circa 1970s Singer sewing machine/table with electric treadle, half-price at $12.00.

I know a lot of you guys are bargain-a-holics, so I'm among experts, ha!  


What are some of your tips for thrift stores, and what have some of your best finds been?




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