Ingredients Substitutes

[Jet Gorgon]

Like Tutsi, I had trouble finding many farang ingredients to make some western dishes, but after hit and miss, could often find a reasonable replacement.

Your suggestions already include:

almonds or pistachios for pine nuts in pesto

Any others?

I used to use cream cheese and manao juice instead of fresh cream for alfredo sauce.

[jazzbo]

Hello Jet -- Pickling salt -- courtesy of the Cook's Thesaurus:

"pickling salt = This is similar to table salt, but lacks the iodine and anti-caking additives that turn pickles dark and the pickling liquid cloudy. Pickles made with table salt would still be good to eat, but they wouldn't look as appetizing..."

The way to get pickling salt in Thailand is to ask for the salt they use for grilled salt-encrusted fish which I called 'Kleua Blah Pao'. I bought 2 kilos in the local market for 5 baht...worked great when I mad Kim Chee.

I believe you were the one that made those beautiful looking cheesecakes.

Cheesecake -- REAL cheese cake -- is not made with Philadelphia-style cream cheese but with 'baker's cheese'. Baker's cheese is not available at retail in the USA -- only to commercial bakers thus the cream cheese hoax perpetrated by Kraft.

While I have not tried it, apparently it is not too difficult to make the baker's cheese. I have never made baker's cheese or a cheesecake but I HAVE made cheese from rennet and culture (long story). I'm going to buy rennet and assorted cultures next time I am stateside. See this page:

http://schmidling.com/cres.htm#baker

[sheepshank]

Hey Jet,

You don't need to go to the expense of buying almonds or pistachios as a substitute for pinoli in make-it-youself pesto. Up here in the boonies we whiz up some cashew nuts in our Moulinex's, which together with v. cheap locally grown basil/garlic, and all the other stuff (olive oyl, Parmesan etc) goes luvverly with the old spag bol! Maybe, my knackered old taste buds can't tell the difference, BUT my wallet can! Rgds Bob

[Jet Gorgon]

Thanks for that tip, Jazzbo! Will try that for pickles.

Sheepshank, that's a great idea! We had a huge cashew tree in our lane, and everyone was allowed to take their pick. Sadly, one of the dumbf** brothers decided to chop it down to build a new house. Cashews in the shop are quite expensive -- about Bt200 for a small bag.

[Totster]

Found a good link here for substitutions

Substitutions

totster

[tutsiwarrior]

Hey Jet,

You don't need to go to the expense of buying almonds or pistachios as a substitute for pinoli in make-it-youself pesto. Up here in the boonies we whiz up some cashew nuts in our Moulinex's, which together with v. cheap locally grown basil/garlic, and all the other stuff (olive oyl, Parmesan etc) goes luvverly with the old spag bol! Maybe, my knackered old taste buds can't tell the difference, BUT my wallet can! Rgds Bob

ah...now if we only find a substitute for parmesan...never seen none at de suphan tescos...

Thanks for that tip, Jazzbo! Will try that for pickles.

Sheepshank, that's a great idea! We had a huge cashew tree in our lane, and everyone was allowed to take their pick. Sadly, one of the dumbf** brothers decided to chop it down to build a new house. Cashews in the shop are quite expensive -- about Bt200 for a small bag.

ms JG...look for raw cashews rather than the roasted ones...quite a bit cheaper (at tescos, anyway), and better for cooking purposes...

[sbk]

Thanks for that tip, Jazzbo! Will try that for pickles.

Sheepshank, that's a great idea! We had a huge cashew tree in our lane, and everyone was allowed to take their pick. Sadly, one of the dumbf** brothers decided to chop it down to build a new house. Cashews in the shop are quite expensive -- about Bt200 for a small bag.

They grow like weeds, just find a fruit that is ripe, drop it on the ground where you want it to grow and the seed will sprout. Fairly fast growing, 3-4 years to fruit.

But, then again, you could just go buy a bag