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From: Tracy
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 7:20 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: cheesecake
Any help would be wonderful
This restaurant cheese cake from Mill valley California. Never had cheese cake like this from anywhere or homemade. Pudding like consistency. Can you help
Don Michele's" own secret recipe for cheesecake from:
Gira Polli of Mill Valley
590 E. Blithdale Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941
Hello Tracy,
Sorry, I had no success. It appears that they don’t give out their recipes and no one has created a copycat.
Phaed
-----Original Message-----
From: Julie
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 12:32 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Tender beef
Hi!
I am trying to find the recipe for the Shanghai Steak at Panda Express. I
have been searching the Internet, with no luck, but your name was mentioned
as the Guru of recipe finding! I don't really care about the whole recipe -
what I want to know is how they get their beef so tender. As a pretty
experienced cook, I have never been able to get steak anywhere near THAT
tender. I mean, tender is one thing, but that meat just melts in your
mouth. And it's not the typical mystery beef that you find in many Chinese
restaurants, that is pounded thin and doesn't quite taste like beef - it's
the real thing. Can you shed any light on the subject?
Thanks!
Julie
Hello Julie,
Sorry, I had no success with this. No one appears to have created a copycat
recipe. Sometimes, it just ain't out there to be found.
This beef is stir-fried, so the tenderness is probably not related to the
cooking method. It's likely due to the cut, kind, and source of beef used
and the marinade used. It's always possible that you happened in during a
time that they had some extraordinarily tender beef on hand. It may not be
quite as tender the next time. They do specify Angus steak on their menu.
There are some "Shanghai Beef" recipes on these sites that you can try:
Yummly.com
The Complete Cookbook
Food.com
I'll post this on my site. There's always a chance that a former Panda
Express employee will come though.
Phaed
Chinese Tender Beef Secrets
Timm in Oregon
Make sure the meat is thinly sliced across the grain straight down with no angle, preferably on a meat slicer.
Marinade Options:
#1 In medium size mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup corn starch to 1 cup cold water for each pound of beef; mix well to remove any lumps.
Add the sliced beef to the bowl. Toss until each piece is evenly coated with the corn starch mixture. Refrigerate and stir every few hours until ready to cook.
#2 Marinate the beef in a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 3 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon soy, 1 tablespoon cornstarch,
1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon oyster sauce for at least 30 minutes.
#3 Marinate the beef in 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon chili oil,
1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon sugar and 4 tablespoons soy for at least 30 minutes. Note: this mixture gets very foamy.
#4 Some Chinese restaurants tender beef is marinated in sugar water after cutting. Sugar water both tenderizes beef and improves its flavor.
Note: A "trade secret" used by many Chinese restaurants to give the meat a more tender texture is oil poaching, also called velveting; this seals
in the juices of the meat. After marinating, heat between 2 to 4 cups of oil in the wok to a temperature of about 325F degrees and immerse the
marinated meat in the hot oil for several seconds. Remove the meat from the wok, drain, and cook further as called for in the recipe.
From: Susan
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 7:00 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Zabar's Russian Coffee Cake
I would love to make Zabar's Russian Coffee Cake at home, as I am not able to get into NYC often.
Thanks foe your help in locating the recipe
Susan
Hello Susan,
I first searched for a copycat recipe for this coffee cake back in 2006, with no success. I’m sorry to say that six years have made no difference –
there is just not a recipe available for the product sold by Zabar’s. It appears, from the little actual information about the coffee cake that
I was able to find, that it is actually made by Delancy Dessert Company. They sell it wholesale to Zabar’s. You really don’t have to live without
it in between your trips to New York, because you can buy it online and have it shipped to you, either from Zabar’s or from Delancey’s:
Zabar's.com
Babka.com
Eli Zabar, son of the original Zabar’s founders, has his own catering business and he also makes & sells a Russian coffee cake online:
Eli Zabar
If you want to try to take another Russian Coffee Cake recipe and experiment with tweaking it to be closer to Zabar’s, then there are several recipes to get you started here:
Cooks.com
Phaed
From: Jan
Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 10:41 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Raisin Bran muffins
Hi there,
I'm looking for a recipe from around 1977 and if I remember, it was in Mother Earth News magazine.
It's a raising bran muffin made with Raisin Bran cereal, buttermilk, flour (with a sub of oatmeal 2:1 for part the flour) and honey.
You could mix this and bake fresh muffins for weeks from the resulting batter. I've found similar, but nothing that seems close to it.
Thanks a lot!
Jan
Hello Jan,
I had no success finding a bran muffin recipe with raisin bran cereal, buttermilk, flour and honey that said it was from Mother
Earth News or that mentioned substituting oatmeal 2:1 for part of the flour. I did not find any bran muffin recipe at all that
called for raisin bran cereal and said that it was from Mother Earth News. Sorry. I found similar recipes, but none that fit
your description exactly. There are lots of bran muffin recipes that use raisin bran cereal, and also many that use Kellog’s All-Bran cereal.
If you are sure that the recipe was from Mother Earth News, then you might have some success by posting your request in the Mother Earth News Forum here:
Mother Earth News Forums
If you are willing to widen your search to include recipes with one or two ingredients slightly different from your description, then I suggest you look at these:
Cooks.com
Phaed
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