# Varieties of STUFF in your Fridge or how many vinagers do you have???



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

This is unreal....I started cleaning my cabinents and fridges out last week.....weird timing I know anyway 
16 vinegars
10 mustards
12 oils
25 varieties/shapes of pasta....
you know I normally don't count my condiments but as I was going through there were just so darn many I started counting....
AM I ALONE in having huge assortments of food products? Anyone else care to comment on whats in their drawers.......


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

I have a partridge in a pear tree. I have every hot sauce known to man/women kind








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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Chocolate! Yesterday, I bought even more. We passed a Lindt store, and I couldn't help it. Given how I love chocolate, I should be as big as a house!


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

all the lovely different things in my kitchen!
Asian sauces 11
mustards 5
peanutbutters 4
jellys 5
mayo 4
sugars 8
flours 6
tea 13

is it any wonder i have bins overflowing all over the place?
spring cleaning in DEC!


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

I know I don't I've taught in other peoples homes and they just don't have 4 kinds of salt or 5 kinds of pepper or stock or demi glaze or I hate to even bring it up but I have 1/2 a piggie in my freezer now from 2 past buys and I just bought another 1/2 to be picked up this week....Boudin Blanc to make leaf lard to render, bacon and ham to cold smoke....I asked for all 5 piggie livers
Gosh it's not the middle of Dec and I'm REALLY not doing this am I?????


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Let's see there's balsamic vinegar, red wine, white wine, rice and common vinegar. I'd like to add champagne and sherry vinegar. If I was rich would add truffle flavoured vinegar. There's a array, four, of little French sauce in small jars for fondue. But only one jar of mayo, never use it much. Ah and tomato paste in a tube. As for oil, sesame, olive and canola. I'm trying to figure what kind Shroomgirl has in her fridge to come to 16.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Marye,

You're right. You must be more awake then I am... I'd love some truffle oil. You only need a few drops at a time it taste so good.

I don't really care for walnut oil. Tasted it once and not really liked it.

You know what I'd love to have, pistachio flour. I saw it once and now I'm kicking myself for not buying it.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Marye,

I know the pistachio flour comes from California. I am sure there must be a association of pistachio grower they could probably tell you where to get some.

Should I find it, I want to make pistachio shortbread. Mind you a pistachio tart would be great. Wonder if it wouldn't be better made with pistachio reduced into a powder instead of the flour. Just like the almonds. Hmmm. Could use a chocolate crust. That would a great dessert.









The one thing I hate about pistachio is removing the skin. Always have trouble with that. I've try to do it the hazelnut and the almond way. Neither way was very successful.

I can understand why you would love pistachio & chocolate. What a great mix. Cote d'or a French chocolate co. Makes a chocolate pistachio bar. Pretty good. You should be able to find it. Or you could make some, have you ever tempered chocolate?

A bit of research and I found that pistachio flour is made by The California Press.


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Chrose,

I'd hate to see your fridge when things are not tight. Are you sure one fridge is enough?? Just kidding. I have to ask what is duck sauce? I never heard of it. Do I detect a duck fixation here?









Marye,

Tempering chocolate isn't that difficult to do. I rather enjoy making candies. I just don't like to eat it. I am not a big dessert eater either. At one point this summer I had four or five pies and tarts in the freezer. I solve my problem by giving them away, sure makes people happy.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Sisi

Duck sauce is actually a plum sauce. It's often offered in a little dish in Americanized Chinese joints, the tan sort of applesauce-looking sweet stuff with the fried noodles or the egg rolls.

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-04-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 12-04-2000).]


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Sorry MaryeO I really meant Sisi...

For some reason I cannot get the Edit function to work tonight.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

MaryeO -- sorry, I meant Sisi.

For some reason I cannot get the Edit function to work tonight. I blame a hanging chad.


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

I have gogurts,Three kinds of juice boxes,string cheese,individual portions of apple sauce,rice pudding,jello,pudding. Oh did I mention way,way back in the lower right hand side behind all the other **** . is a little bit of truffle butter left from T-day. My Daughters haven't found that yet
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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Chrose

I was vicariously browsing your pantry when I stumbled across the dried shrimp.

More than once, I've stood in the aisle at the Asian grocery and said to myself, "Bet those would be good, if I knew what the hey they use 'em for."

Could you enlighten me?


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Live_to_cook

Thanks for the info. I don't believe we have that type of sauce here, at least not under that name. We do have the orangish sauce they serve with eggrolls. Could it be like hoisin sauce?


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Sisi and Live-to -cook, you both have me confused, Chinese duck sauce in those little packets is nothing more than suger,food coloring and geliten, As for Hoison sauce no plums live in there either it is fermented soy and other flavorings. If I am off base let me know, I want to make sure I understand what you are saying
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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Well it's nice to know I'm not alone in this strange abundance....
rices: arborio (3brands)
Uncle Bens converted
Texmati
Stansells Popcorn rice
Wild Rice (counts)
sushi rice
Brown rice
Basmati brown rice
some mixed varieties from Linstroms (?)
oh man
Yep I have nut oils almond, walnut, porcini, chili, sesame,Spainish, Virgin, Extra Virgin slut, Italian, Light oliveoils Canola, 2 truffle oils (one good one not), vegtable oil
Corn oil
Viniagers....sherry (3) Balasmic (5) melon, raspberry, apple cider, white, tarragon, wine
Mustards....dry, brown whole grain, creole, yellow hot dog shtuff, poupon, another coarse grain, horseradish mustard, honey mustard....
Chocolates...Valharona, SharffB...99%, nibs, 55%, Callebaut, Lindt white, nestle choc.chips, ?Guittard white chips, El ray...
Flour, corn, cake, bread, unbleached, southern soft wheat, whole wheat, rye, buckwheat....
Nuts pecans, walnuts, almonds (3 flavored 1plain), macadamia nuts, pistachios....
Cheeses...too many if possible
Dried fruit 8 
dried shrooms....unreal 18 varieties and more arrived today.....
LETS COOK!!!!! I REALLY HATE to have to run to the store when I'm in the middle of cooking....thus


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## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Come on Shroomgirl, You have to be kidding
Does A&P have to worry about you?
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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Wow what a selection. What is popcorn rice? I've never heard of that before.


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## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Sisi, re: duck sauce -- Yep I'm talking about the orangey stuff.

Cape Chef: Like any sauce, its quality will depend on the cook/restaurant setting it before you. I've never seen real "duck sauce" in those packets, just like most often it's not real soy sauce in the other packet. Not to sound too snobby, but I would sooner ask for Hollandaise in a Denny's than eat that stuff.

Logose has got the skinny on duck sauce (see above).


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Sorry Extra Virgin and slut.....inside joke...if there is virgin and extra virgin then what do you call what's left over...slut.

I visit Whole foods throughout the US...mainly Texas, Cal anywhere I'm traveling I check out grocery stores(whole foods, Fiestas in TX,Zabars etc...) Farmer's markets,...chocolate shops, pastry shops, bakeries....DIE HARD FOODIE. I travel with maps, ice chests, empty bags and usually have to ship stuff back anyway.
This thread is what do you have in your fridge that is interesting......it amazed me to see the volumes of different varities of food products in my pantry and fridges.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Popcorn rice....also known as fragrant rice...is out of southern Louisiana....much like basmati it has a wonderful flavor and scent 
I just ordered 3

60#s 3to go in the boudin blanc I'll be making with the piggie
A&P went out of business here long ago.
Whole Foods is coming to town though!!!!!
Most of my treasures come from ethnic stores or travels....a few from UPS to restock the finds from past trips.
Got a case of various viniagars from Grapevine Co yesterday...orange muscat, raspberry champagne, pomagranite, pear lemon, fig something....it's a disease....viniageritis


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

Shroomgirl:
You must have a lot of kitchen storage space! How many pantries and fridges do you have?

We have everything to make other stuff with from scratch. Not enought space to store flavored oils, vinegars, etc. We find that infusing, making what we're going to use is enough and more fun. We do have 6 different kinds of salt and 7 different kinds of black pepper, and 10 different kinds of flour, panko, black fungus, sambal, hot bean curd paste, shrimp paste, seaweed, spring roll wraps, various rices, all your asian sauces and then some, radishes preserved in chili (ummmm!). Just made a batch of fresh chicken stock last nite. We have a ton of spices including juniper berries, cocoa balls from Grenada, and whole nutmeg from Grenada, tapioca sticks. Had fresh lychees this summer from Wal-Mart of all places. Pretty good! (been years since I had fresh ones.) Oh, yes, can't forget smelt, tamarind, and demerara sugar.

This topic sounds dangerously close to "how many kitchen appliances, gadgets, stuff do you have?" (If you want, let's do this separately.)

Live_to_cook:
You're correct. Duck sauce = plum sauce, thick, sweet-and-sour condiment is made with plums, apricots, sugar and seasonings. Plum sauce is most often served with duck, pork or spareribs. Lorraine, that's interesting, duck sauce is not traditionally used in Cha Siu. The stuff in the packets is a weaker version.

Dried shrimp? Live_to_cook, you should pick up the package and smell them first. If you don't like the smell, you're not going to like them in you home and probably dislike eating them. I've found that a majority of the time, unless you grew up with them and like them in the first place, you're not going to like them in that form, better in paste. You can find them in many asian dishes. If you want to browse recipes, look here: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dr...=Google+Search

Sisi & Cape Chef
Hoisin sauce is not like duck sauce it is a slightly sweet and garlicky bean sauce that's often used as a dipping sauce. Available in Asian markets and in many large supermarkets.

MaryeO:
"tempering" - from epicurious 
A technique by which chocolate is stabilized through a melting-and-cooling process, thereby making it more malleable and glossy. Commerically available chocolate is already tempered, but this condition changes when chocolate is melted. Tempering chocolate isn't necessary for most recipes, but is often done when the chocolate will be used for candymaking or decorations. Chocolate must be tempered because it contains COCOA BUTTER, a fat that may form crystals after chocolate is melted and cooled. If these crystals aren't stabilized through tempering, they can form dull gray streaks called BLOOM. The classic tempering method is to melt chocolate until it reaches a temperature of 115°F. Two-thirds of the melted chocolate is then spread on a marble slab and worked back and forth with a metal spatula until it becomes thick and reaches a temperature of about 80°F. This thickened chocolate is then transferred back into the remaining one-third melted chocolate and reheated to about 89°F. for semisweet chocolate, about 85°F for milk or white chocolate. The quick tempering method is to melt two-thirds of the chocolate to be tempered to a temperature of 115°F then add the remaining one-third (finely chopped) chocolate to the melted mixture, stirring until the mixture has reached 89°F and is smooth. http://www.epicurious.com/run/fooddi...entry_id=10554

MaryeO and Sisi
As far as "pistachio flour" I'm sure if you see a recipe and you combine the sugar, flour, and pistachios for the dough, you'll have something very similar. Otherwise there's always more than one source...

Sources for Pistachio Flour and Pistachio Paste

** Amoretti http://www.pastrychampionship.com/ar...i.htm#nutflour 
Blanched Almond Flour, Natural Almond Flour, Roasted Chestnut Flour, Blanched Hazelnut Flour, Natural Hazelnut Flour, Roasted Peanut Meal, Natural Pecan Flour, Pignolia Meal, Natural Pistachio Flour, Pumpkin Seed Flour, Light Walnut Meal
-----------------------------------
** The American Almond Products Company http://www.americanalmond.com/Products/nutforms.htm

If you scroll down, you'll find everything from Watermelon Extract to Saskatoon Berry Extract (sorry it's in all caps, cut and pasted)

NUT PASTES - ALMOND PASTE, ALMOND MARZIPAN, KERNEL PASTE, MACAROON PASTE, PRALINE PASTE, FILBERT PASTE, PECAN PASTE, PISTACHIO PASTE, WALNUT PASTE

NUT BUTTERS - NATURAL AND/OR ROASTED, ALMOND BUTTER, CASHEW BUTTER, FILBERT BUTTER, HAZELNUT BUTTER, NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER, PISTACHIO BUTTER, WALNUT BUTTER

NUT FLOURS - NATURAL, BLANCHED OR ROASTED, ALMOND FLOUR, CASHEW FLOUR, FILBERT FLOUR, HAZELNUT FLOUR, PEANUT FLOUR, PISTACHIO FLOUR

FILLINGS - POPPY BUTTER, BAKER'S HUNGARIAN LEKVAR, PRUNE FILING

Lemon Pistachio Gateau with Orange Coulis

1-10 inch vanilla cake
orange zest
1 recipe lemon curd
berries
Cointreau simple syrup
paté choux butterfly (optional)
orange coulis
pistachio flour

Lemon Curd
2 cups egg yolks
8 oz. butter (1 cup)
1 1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/4 cup sugar

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and cook over double boiler until firm.

Paté Choux

1 cup water
4 oz. butter (1/2 cup)
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4-5 eggs

Bring first four ingredients to a boil. Add flour and stir until ball forms. Remove
from heat and add eggs, one at a time, until smooth dough. Dough should not be
runny. Pipe out with pastry bag with #2 tip on parchment paper. Bake at 350
degrees for 2-3 minutes until light golden. Watch carefully.

Orange Coulis
2 cups orange juice
1/4 cup Cointreau
1 cup sugar
arrowroot or cornstarch

Bring orange juice, sugar and Cointreau to a boil. Thicken slightly with arrowroot
or cornstarch which has been diluted with cold water. Cook 3-4 minutes on low
heat. Cool completely.

------------------------------------------------

Pistachio Tarts

Yield: 2 eight-inch tarts

Filling:
4 ounces sugar
2 ounces almond flour
2 ounces pistachio flour
4 ounces butter (room temperature)
6 ounces eggs

Mix all the ingredients except the eggs until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time.

Tart Dough:
Yield: Makes enough dough for two tarts

8 1/3 ounces flour
2 ounces sugar
4 ounces butter
* cup milk

Garnish:
Chopped pistachios

Mix all the ingredients in a mixer with a paddle attachment or in a cuisinart and put in the refrigerator one half hour to rest.

Roll out the dough with a pin and blind bake in the oven. Once the shells have cooled, fill with the pistachio filling. Place several thinly sliced pieces of rhubarb on top. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

To serve, heat up the pistachio tart and sprinkle with some chopped pistachios.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

CChiu it is not always number but size....


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## mudbug (Dec 30, 1999)

sounds like a shroom"boy" comment!


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## isa (Apr 4, 2000)

Cchui,

WOW Thanks. If Marye is dying for the pistachio cake, for myself it's the pistachio tart. It looks so good. I'll have to try it. Do you think the filling is like a pistachio frangipane ?

As for making my own pistachio flour, do youhave any idea of the proportion I should use? Would I do it like tant pour tant?

Thanks again for the great recipes!


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## pooh (Mar 13, 2001)

I just cought onto this thread. I can't resist, I have to say:

_«YOU ARE ALL SOOOO AMAZING!!!»_

Funny thing though, I have most of the stuff you have in your fridge and pantry too!!


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## jill reichow (Mar 12, 2001)

Not into the oils much, but do have 9 different types of flour and four different cinnamons, 2 different nutmegs, 2 paprikas, all the hot sauce my hubby imagines he needs, dried habeneros plus jalepenos and whatever other kind we raised last year....I'm afraid to look in the back of my frige..........


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

This was a cool thread, thanks for bringing it back from the archives....
I now have "tada" stone ground organic flour that a farmer who wants to come to the market dropped for me to sample.... oat, winter wheat, blue, white and yellow cornmeal, buckwheat.....I love it....
Now to use it quickly. What a blast I'm having working with these farmers....now who has freezers on sale?


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## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

Cool...I hope we get to hear about what you make with them.


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## shahar (Dec 15, 1999)

I just moved in to anew appartment,and just moved in form Israel(now in philly) So I don't have much stuff yet. No Equipment. No ladles, no saute pans, no cutting board, hey not even a wooden spoon. But we're proffesional aren't we. No fire, let's make saviche.
Wll so far i got some food stuff, mostly new stuff for me from the asian markets to experiment with: candied olives, dried durian, tahini got to have some tahini i'm and addict OK, some aging beers(Samiclaus 1994 and 1997, JWLees harvest ale 1992), Twenty differnt dried lagumes and five differnt cheese(to go with my fruit lambics), Homemade raviolies in the fridge just in case, fresh tamarind, and cocunat milk.
Not exciting? Wait a few weeks till i get my "lab" set up.


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## markdchef (Jan 26, 2001)

Haven't counted but I do have the following:

Tarragon mustard and tarragon vinegar
Stone ground mustard
French coarse mustard
dijon mustard
red wine vinegar
white wine vinegar
champagne vinegar
balsamic vinegar
brown rice vinegar
blackberry vinegar (excellent with jicama)
sometimes raspberry vinegar
toasted sesame oil
chili oil
canola oil (organic expeller pressed)
Extra virgin Italian olive oil
grapeseed oil
Morrocan olive oil


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Morrocan olive oil???


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## campchef (Jan 5, 2001)

So, what's an organic expeller?


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## markdchef (Jan 26, 2001)

Morrocan olive oil is very expensive but great for drizzling on roasted vegetables, potatoes, bread. It has a peppery finish to it. Found it at Williams Sonoma.

Expeller pressed means no chemicals were used to extract the oil, only force and mechanical pressure. Similar to "Cold Pressed" which is the method for olive oil.

Organic - 3 years no chemicals, no preservatives,no gmo, and only sustainable soil practices used.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

Thank you Mark!


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## 100folds (Apr 9, 2005)

I made brioche out of pistachio flour once and it didnt work out so well. So then I made a bread pudding out of the brioche and it was amazing. I added raspberry and white choclate and served it with a creme anglaise sauce. Try it.


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## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

things have not changed alot in 4 years....I am now into popcorns, dried beans, tisanes, syrups (ie, sorghum, cane, maple, etc.....), playing with different herb pestos (homemade).....cut out buying 1/2 pigs and started buying from a good pig co-op....Market starts May 21, hard to believe. :bounce:


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