pinkbites's Profile

What you made is essentialy farofa, a staple in Brazilain cuisine (although it originally was made with manioc flour). Brazilians top beans with it to absorb the liquid. Try it out as a side, a few spoonfulls over beans, lentisl, or anything moist really. I like to mixed it with collards, making another typical Brazilian dish (collards farofa): http://www.pinkbites.com/2009/06/sauteed-collard-greens-with-panko-and.html

Now, on the topic of pasta topping/cheese substitute, I just recently read on The Trhive Diet book an idea of grinding nutritional yeast with sesame seeds in a coffe grinder. I am curious to try that.

Besides lasgna,already mentioned here, I like to make gnocci and tarts ingeneral, including quiches. For a show stopper, I like tgis fried rice in the pinneaple shell: http://www.pinkbites.com/2009/04/minty-pineapple-fried-rice.html

I have a couple of questions:

If using a ceramic plate to hold the ramekins, do you put water in it to make a sort of microwave water bath?
Also, is it 2 minutes and then check every 30 seconds, or start checking at 30 seconds, up to 2 minutes?

Thanks for the help, I would like to try that, I like the portion controlling idea....

Brazilian food. I moved to the US 2 years ago and try my best to still cook as much Brazilian food as I can.

I made a Hungarian version for my husband, it is a lot of work, but tasty...

http://www.pinkbites.com/2008/08/hungarian-plum-dumplins-and-things-we.html

I like this smoothie:banana, dates, buttermilk and ice. The dates make it super sweet so there is no added sugar in it.

http://www.pinkbites.com/2008/10/banana-date-smoothie.html

Cheers

I am also Brazilian and love cheese bread, we actually make panini with them. Oversized pao de queijos with fillings (sweet or savoury) and pressed on the panini maker, yum!

My tip for making them really puff and gain as much volum eas possible in the oven is to knead a lot, the longer you knead the dough the nicer, softer they will be.
I sometimes add dried herbs like oregano to the dough for a change. Whenever I make them at home (here in the US) they quickly vanish.
There is a Brazilian brand called Yoki that sells a mix for making cheese bread just by adding eggs and water. It is available in many latin food stores all over the US, here is the link to the mix:

http://yoki.com.br/nossas_marcas_2.asp?ac=Categoria&idMarca=1&idCat=17

I like the addition of corn, although my husband wouldn't touch it...:(
I make mine with a bit of cinnamon

http://www.pinkbites.com/2009/02/chilli-con-carne.html

I love this cake, I am planning on making it for my husband's birthday (April). The Daring Bakers made it last year so there are lots of good tips on the DB's blogs.
The Fratelli Bakery in Vancouver BC makes a great one.

I am lucky to live in Seattle so it's quite easy to find most of what I need (....want) for cooking. It is always nice to explore new products though. I haven't heard of foodzie before, it looks nice, but still quite small. I hope they expand a lot more. Thanks for sharing.