butterisbetter

Traditionally, I believe Mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk. I see lots of buffaloes around. Must be some milk somewhere.

They're all sick.. Didn't you know this? There's a farang run NGO trying to help their plight, but it seems never ending.

Oddly enough, I have surprisingly little contact with water buffaloes in my day-to-day existence. Almost none, in fact. I wonder if this is what makes my life feel so empty?

You really have to get out more.

Maybe you should post your inquiry here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/142-organic-farming-smallholding-and-kitchen-gardening/

Wow: all this halva banter has got to me (whoda thunk it?), so I think I'm gonna give it a try.

Halva-

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sesame seeds
• ¾ cup tahini
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• roasted pistachios +/or almonds

Preparation:

In a skillet, heat sesame seeds over medium heat until lightly toasted. Once cooled, add them to a food processor one cup at a time and blend. Add tahini, sugar, honey, pistachios/almonds, cinnamon and allspice and pulse until mixture is thick and nearly solid. Line a baking pan with parchment paper or plastic wrap and press mixture evenly into pan. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

I see a few problems with this recipe. The first is using ground sesame seeds. I've done that, and the flavor is somewhat bitter. The bitterness comes from the hulls. Which is why tahini is made from hulled sesame seeds. Also, none of the ingredients listed here are heated. In the recipes that look authoritative to me, honey is heated to the soft ball, stage (about 115-116 degrees Centigrade) and the tahini is also warmed. Once mixed, it's kneaded then left to crystallize in the fridge for about 36 hours. This crystalization gives the halva its characteristic flaky texture. I'm going to give that recipe a try as soon as I get my new instant-read thermometer. But i"d be curious to learn how yours came out. The recipe you're using looks a lot simpler.

Try Macro, I have seen them there......both the local green lemons and imported yellow meyer lemons

Actually, they're not meyer lemons. Just standard yellow lemons (as opposed to limes).

Yes, you can find halvah in Bangkok. I was just at the Chabad House in Chiangmai, and they told me that their container is being unloaded and they expect a shipment of Halvah to arrive on August 1. This means that the Chabad House in Bangkok will have it too. It's sold at the restaurant.which is located at:

Viengtai

96 Thanon Ram Butry Banglampoo

Phone: 02 629 2754

Butter is Better has great American breakfast. Build your own with pancakes, eggs, bacon, sasuage, omelette.....best freshest coffee in town. On Chang Klan south of Pantip Plaza 1 block

OP wanted it affordable, though.

Actually our prices are in line with many of the places that are repeatedly recommended in this thread. Which this poster would know if he ever actually dined at our place within the past couple of years. Instead he continues to nurse a sad and peculiar grudge against us.

Here is a link to a posting on the forum that will give you a download of a flood map that shows the various elevations of Chiang Mai City. It's at posting #74. Back in the flooding of 2011, anywhere close to the city walls or withing the walls was fine.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/487299-flood-warnings-2011/page-14

At the airport, there is a store that sells some great teas from Doi Mae Salong. They are eager to let you taste their wares. This store is actually an outlet for one of the biggest tea growers in Mae Salong. They also own Mae Salong Villa which is a hotel.

===Is there anyway someone could post the name and telephone number?===

I would like to try calling before I go.

Also, 'how great it is' that it is at the airport because you can just call an airport taxi for about 120 Baht where ever you start from in Chiang Mai city!!!

Then spend a few minutes or hours walking around the vicinity of the airport.

After sampling some good tea.

Thank you very much!

I don't have the phone number. However, if you track down the number of Mae Salong Villa, they should be able to help you ( provided you can communicate.)

The store is located in the domestic portion of the terminal on the ground floor not far from the Royal Project store.

At the airport, there is a store that sells some great teas from Doi Mae Salong. They are eager to let you taste their wares. This store is actually an outlet for one of the biggest tea growers in Mae Salong. They also own Mae Salong Villa which is a hotel.

I didn't realize that Thailand had any non grass-fed, free range cows....

Well, according to the link from Khwaibah, it looks like Farm Chokchai, has plenty of non grass fed cows. In fact, virtually all of them once they start to lactate. Allthough the company does manage to be artfully obscure about what exactly they are feeding the cattle.

Martha Stewart turned her catering business in Connecticut into a multi-billion dollar magazine and TV business. She insisted that everything be done perfectly and most often from scratch:

-- She interviewed a restaurant in Maryland famous for crab cakes: Martha Stewart(MS): Oh, do you make your own mayonnaise for the crab cakes. Restaurant guy: Nah, we tried that but we like using Hellman's better.

-- MS interviewed a restaurant in New Orleans famous for oyster dishes: MS Oh, do you shuck your own oysters? Restaurant guy: Nah, we buy them already shucked and in a bucket from the wholesaler.

-- MS interviewed a guy at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City: MS: Oh, do you grate your own horseradish? Restaurant guy: Nah, we tried that -- too strong for our customers... we just get it prepared out of the bottle.

Restaurants seem to rarely use cast iron although many restaurants in US serve breakfasts of eggs and potatoes etc. in cast iron skillets which are brought to the table. If the famous high-end restaurants thought that they could get an extra star from the New York Times or Guide Michelin or get a better review from the local newspaper by using cast iron they would do it and make sure that their kitchen staff performed accordingly, but they don't.

Another problem with using cast iron in a professional kitchen is that it's very slow to heat up. If you're on the line, you're fighting for every second. Cast iron is just too slow. Also, it's heavy and a lot harder on the wrists.

Did anyody seen any Maya plans/projects ?

Maybe they have some kind of idea how to make access road system that will not increase traffic in that area. Hard to believe that they did not think about it, and they had project approved without it. I know, this is Thailand... but as businessmen you don't want to kill your own business.

Anyway, even if this will be nightmare to get there, I think it will never be empty in that area.

Maya approached us about renting space there and showed us plans. I didn't see any proposed changes to the roads or access to them in the plans.

In Chiang Mai, we're lucky Dacheeso dairy makes genuine buttermilk. For those who might not know, buttermilk is the liquid left after the butter is churned. Most so-called buttermilk you buy nowadays at least in the USA - is actually cultured skim milk.

one wants know if that is the right vinegar ?

5% Distill Vinegar

5% is the right kind. You don't need wine vinegar which is a lot more expensive.

I 'burned the hump of the beast' yesterday afternoon!! Cut it into 2 pieces and both got a version of the marinate that Don suggested with a lot of added wine and garlic poked into holes that I stabbed into the flesh and even added some chilipotle peppers and Worcestershire but no pineapple.

It sat in the fridge overnight and I fired up my smoker to f300+ and while waiting for it to come up to heat, I wrapped one chunk in aluminum foil as suggested by a friend and left the other open to the direct heat.

When the smoker was hot, I placed both roasts in and put some lumiyai wood chips on the propane gas hob for some extra smoke flavor.....left it at high heat for about a half hr until the smoke disapated, then turned it down to f225 and let it slow cook for 2 more hrs.

End result.......medium cooked, very tasty, but lots of work to chew, so I cut it into as thin of slices as I could.....1/8th inch and wishing I had a deli type meat slicer.

Will I buy it again??/ yes and will research other methods to cook it, but in actual fact, it was just a very lean muscle of a grass fed Brahma bull and no way to make it 'cut with a fork tender'.

Lots of left overs that I'll probably to use in a beef stew and maybe cut it into tiny cubes for roast beef hash.

I did take some pics and will try to post them when I have time.

Actually, it's the pineapple that has the most tenderizing power thanks to an enzyme it contains called bromelaine. The same stuff that can make your mouth sore. While you're eating the pineapple, it's eating you.

Yes, I meant fat.

Actually, the hump of the brahma cow or steer is mostly feet. I think the beef hump is actually a piece of the chuck.

I see you have lots of questions. One good resource is the manual published by the Raintree center. It's called "Helpful Hints for Getting Settled in Chiang Mai." It has lots of useful information for farangs looking to settle in Chiang Mai. Last time I got one, it was free. I did make a donation. I don't think the manual is available online, so you'll have to wait until you get here. Here's the GPS info: 18.789033,99.00522

Here's their website: http://cmcchurch.org/wordpress/?page_id=535

Did there used to be a pizzeria where this pub is now located?

Does anyone know where to obtain Mesquite or something similar for smoking fish or chicken?

Homepro used to carry mesquite chips. Don't know if they still do.

Easy enough to do yourself in a wok with lid (or doubled up tinfoil) using tea/sugar for smoking in lieu of suitable wood shavings.

Here's a link > http://www.food.com/recipe/smoked-salmon-in-a-wok-216996

This is a hot smoke recipe. So the salmon is going to get cooked. Not sure if that's what the OP wanted.

Am I right to think the main reason for needing nitrites is to kill botulisum, and that in bacon this would be killed by cooking anyway? More necessary with salami etc

Sounds reasonable, but not the sort of thing I'm very keen on taking a chance with!

The main danger to adult humans is the toxin produced by the bacteria - not the bacteria itslef. High heat does deactivate it but as I recall, it takes about 20 minutes of heating to fully deactivate the toxin. By the way, the word "botulism" is derived from "botulus" which is latin for sausage. (Thanks, Wikipedia)

About canned lima beans--tender baby beans, no less, Nancy, Rim Ping stores have them right there alongside the other canned vegetables. It's a French product, and quite expensive at something around 110 baht a can. But some times you just gotta pay for good eating.

Which Rim Ping? They have different items at different stores.

They're at Mee Choke Plaza in San Sai.

Bonduelle-flag.JPG

Nope -- been there, done that. Those aren't lima beans, those are flageolet beans -- used commonly in French cooking. Lima beans are a New World bean with a different flavor. I've tried substituting flageolet beans, broad beans and Japanese edeame beans for lima beans in succotash and find the Japanese beans work the best.

But, I'd like to learn more about the Burmese food market in the Night Bazaar area -- when and where?

Definitely not flageolet beans. These beans looked like lima beans, came in pods that looked like lima bean pods. Completely different. Maybe they're seasonal so none available now.

Mine just died and I bought a new one at a baking supply company called Yok in Chiang Mai. The brand was Tanita so it should be widely available. And it also came with what I bet is a really useful manual: useful if you can read Japanese. As it is, all I can get the thing to do is weight stuff. There is a button in it that changes the gradations from 1 gram to 1/10 of a gram. It cost 1190 baht. There were a couple of other brands available at the local scientific supply house. One cost 3,000 baht and the other 18,000 baht.

I believe I have solved the mystery of what Mamma Mia was putting on its pizza: ricotta. And very good ricotta. It comes from a company called Da Casaro located in Hua Hin that makes real Italian style Ricotta which comes from whey. (In Italy the original ricotta came from sheep's whey but this is close enough). Because it's made from whey it's virtually fat free. Very delicate and delicious. But it really doesn't belong on a pizza.In New York, some places do sell what is called white pizza made with ricotta. I've never tried it.

Did he tell you this?

I was posting this because he didn't know what it was but his description corresponds very closely to the ricotta. Also, it's fat free. ANd I beieve that somewhere in this thread there is a mention that the maker of the cheese was located in Hua Hin (I"m not going to look for it).