Hello!  Love your website.  But I am writing mainly because I'm hoping you can help with a question.  I have a beautiful vegetarian cookbook, published in Britain.  Being American, many of the terms are different for me, but my husband and I have managed to figure out what most things are.  Now we're stumped - what is passata?  The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of it, and I think it's a liquid of some sort. I have called many friends and health food stores, and no one knows what this is!

Any thoughts on "passata?"   Thank you.

Yep.  This is the reason why, in most tomato dishes that call for canned tomatoes, I use a quality, although more expensive, brand like Contadina or Progresso, rather than the cheaper store brands.  The tomatoes, rather than being packed in rather acidic watery tomato drainings and plain water, are packed in "passata".  It's not an extravagance, as tomatoes are tops in nutrition, and those more expensive brands give you "more bang for the buck", so as to speak.

Whenever cooking with a British recipe and stumped for an explanation of a term or ingredient, a great place to look is BBC - Food:  Ask the Chef and use the search box.     Here's their explanation of "passata":  

Passata is a rough tomato sauce that you can buy in bottles or packets, with or without herbs, in most supermarkets or delicatessens.  Use as you would use tinned tomatoes, i.e. in pasta sauces, lasagna, soups and stews.  Also good to make drinks such as Bloody Mary and cold soups such as gazpacho. 

In the USA, when a recipe calls for passata, you can substitute tomato juice or canned tomato sauce.  I have even used some V-8 juice (be careful of this one), or a bottle of spaghetti sauce, but that was just because I had some open or didn't have enough of the juice or sauce on hand. 

I also pour any leftover tomato sauce, paste, soup concentrate, bottled spaghetti or pizza sauce (*NOTE) into a zip-lock freezer bag I keep in the freezer door for that purpose, and break off a chunk whenever I need to add the equivalent of passata to a recipe.

* Note:  What?  you think I spend ALL my time in the kitchen cooking my own sauces just because I have a cooking website?  I'm not at all adverse to using bottled when in the middle of a project; but my own is best for my taste when I have more time.  See Spaghetti Sauce - Sicilian Style Plus.

I understand that pot cheese is a soft, fresh cheese that is basically cottage cheese that is drained longer and therefore has a slightly drier texture.  Can pot cheese be purchased?  Do you have a recipe for making pot cheese?  Thank you for your help. 

Yes, you can buy this cheese.  It's sometimes called Farmer's cheese, which may be a little different than the pot cheese some people prefer.   Cottage cheese is similar and the names are sometimes used interchangeably.  Ricotta can be substituted in most recipes, too.  The reason I know is that we used to have a neighbor, Dorothy Heller, who on occasion when we were too busy to cook, would fix up a huge batch of either cheese blintz or pirogis for us.  We'd buy the ingredients and she'd keep about a third for herself.  Winn Dixie, one of our local supermarket chains, had farmer's cheese for the blintz, which were definitely not health food, but so good!   She always requested the farmer's cheese, preferring the texture, since cottage cheese usually has added cream, making it more liquid, and the uncreamed cottage cheese was too large curd.

Here's an easy and quick way to make pot cheese from yogurt at GiantFoods.   While they suggest cheesecloth, I usually use a coffee filter and a plastic strainer, set into a bowl and lightly covered overnight in the refrigerator.  You can select fat free or low fat yogurt according to your taste.   It will have a slightly more sour, tangy flavor than commercial pot cheese.

In the late thirties and early forties, my mother had an old wood burning cooking stove, the monster kind with a water heater attached, a huge cooking surface, and with a warming shelf overhead.  Living on a dairy farm, milk products were a large part of our diet.  Mother would make pot cheese or cottage cheese using rennet and fresh milk, partly skimmed (the heavy cream was churned into butter).    I loved to eat this fresh soft cheese when I was tiny, and you can bet I took a big interest in the preparations!  I remember how they cut the warmed coagulated fresh milk curd into small cubes, strained it through cheesecloth and set the ball in a colander on the shelf over the stove.   I could hardly wait!  This was real pot cheese.  

I also used to "help" churn the butter from the skimmed-off cream in an old wooden churn, with my Aunt Amelia Hine doing the actual labor, and help scrape the butter out of the barrel and off the paddle.  The leftover whey from both processes would go to the pigs.  Then we would spread fresh cream butter on hot, fragrant homemade bread, and eat it with a bowl of fresh pot cheese.  Heaven!  While cooking was much more labor-intensive in the USA prior to perhaps 1950, the food was often oh-so-much tastier!  

Before I was five years old, we moved into a tiny farm close to Williamsburg, New York with other family members, so the men in the family could work at the World War II aircraft production factories.   We didn't have a cow, and I certainly missed that fresh pot cheese and butter!  See More on Fats:  Remember Oleo?

The New Settlement Cook Book from 1901 gives these directions:

"Heat sour milk or buttermilk slowly until the whey rises to the top; pour off whey, put curd in a bag, and let drip for 6 hours without squeezing it.  Place curd in a bowl, and break it fine.  Season with salt.  Keep in a cool place.  It is best when fresh."

This will not work with pasteurized soured milk or cultured buttermilk from the supermarket.  To correctly make the real thing from scratch, see Geocities' directions for cottage cheese.  

If you cannot find pot cheese or farmers cheese in your supermarket, experiment with yogurt cheese, uncreamed cottage cheese (mash it a bit if it's large curd), or part-skim ricotta in your recipes.

Please can you help?  I am looking for information on the IDENTITY of "cornish game hens" everywhere.   I looked on the net and all I can find are recipes.  I want to know what this bird is.  Is it a game bird or merely an usual name for a type of domesticated fowl?  Thank you.

Renee apparently found a Tupperware® recipe for Cornish Game Hens with Rosemary Marinade.

Cornish game hens are sold in all parts of the USA.  I have no idea if they are distributed in other countries or not.  This is a  crossbreed or hybrid, invented by Donald John Tyson of the Tyson chicken people.  See the interesting history of this successful crossbreeding and subsequent marketing at About.com's page, Rock Cornish Game Hens.   This site includes history, pictures, handling instructions and a wealth of recipes for this little bird.  Because of its average size, 1 1/2 pounds, quite a bit of which is bone, it will do fine for a single serving.   It also cuts in half easily, having tender bones.  It cooks quickly because of its small size.

Tyson provides info on the various packaging types.  You can also visit their recipe site, select in the Product slot "Rock Cornish Game Hens" and you'll be presented with a mouth-watering collection of recipes especially for this little bird.

This is a great choice for a single diner- a chance to pamper yourself, or for two light diners, and wonderfully impressive for company.  

Trying to find location to buy Golden Grits for the recipe for cheesy grits.  I live in Three Rivers, Michigan. Could not find any in the state of Michigan.  My daughter sent me a couple of boxes of Quaker Quick Golden Grits from North Carolina. A friend went there to get them for me.

Personally I use Goya yellow grits, an Hispanic brand, or sometimes Diana, another ethnic brand name.   Golden or yellow grits undergo less processing and have a much better flavor, nutrition and appearance than white ones.  By the way, I recommend you avoid "Instant Grits" which lose a lot in the translation; regular or quick grits are fine.  It only takes minutes to fix grits from scratch, particularly if you use a non-stick pan.  Instant is also a very expensive way to buy them.

Quaker has a page with grocery chains that stock grits, although many may only carry Instant Grits.   In Michigan, they list Farmer Jack, Meijer and Spartan Stores.  If not available, they suggest you use NetGrocer, which, however, does not carry yellow grits!

One of our affiliates, The Peas and Corn Company, has lots of southern staples like corn meal, flour and white grits, stone ground from Falls Mill.  They do not carry yellow grits at this time, but they have lots of other great stuff.

I had no idea when I published the recipe for Cheesy Grits that they would be hard to find.  I also use them frequently for Tamal en Cazuela (Tamale in a Pot).

First, you might check your yellow pages for ethnic grocers; Jamaicans, Haitians or Hispanic. It's often called "Coarse Ground Corn Meal" in those markets, but if it's grit size, it's grits.   Note that Haitian grits are usually about twice the size and you will need to use some extra water and double the cooking time.  But they are delicious.

Second, speak to the manager of a large supermarket chain and ask that they order and stock Quaker Golden Grits; take along an empty box if possible so they can take the barcode off it.

Last, if all that fails, for those willing to go the extra mile, here's a list of mail order suppliers:

• The Old Mill, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

• Nora Mill Granary, Helen, Georgia

• Rockland Plantation Products

• The Cane Creek Grist Mill,  Hohenwald, Tennessee 

• Old Mill of Guilford, Oak Ridge, North Carolina

Incidentally, there's some beautiful pictures of old mills and scenery that makes it worth while to click on these links even if you don't need to order grits.   Hope this is a help, Ophelia.

Please be aware that Excel Mass Merchandiser is not answering their phones and no longer have an active website that we can find. I fear they are no longer in existence and would urge you to check their viability before you encourage your visitors to send them money in anticipation of samples. If you know how to get a hold of them, please let me know as we are interested in pursuing their products. Thank you!

Ann Moore of All West Container Company

No, thanks to you, Ann. I've removed their offer for a sample of shitake mushrooms.  If any of you find a bad link or unreliable supplier, please let me know; a lot of companies and websites have been going under lately. 

Another letter follows from someone unable to contact Excel.

I am trying to contact the Excel Mass Merchandiser Inc. from Hayward Ca.  The company listed the phone # has been changed.  I bought some Dried mushrooms from Costco and I have had them  for maybe 3 yrs or so and they are unopened are they still good to use.  I never opened the pkg. .but want to be sure before we eat them.  I see no shelf life date on them.. .and found your email address when trying to locate this company.   Hopefully you are affiliated with them.   The bag is plastic and it says they are Kasugal brand dried Shiitake Mushrooms.  Thanks.

According to the "Nurse-Healer" site, apparently a survivalist web site, the shelf life of freeze-dried mushrooms is 12 to 24 months.  They probably wouldn't hurt you, it they've been kept dry and cool, but they would be seriously lacking in flavor and nutrition, the two reason we eat anything.  I'd throw them in the mulch pile, myself.

For those of us who live in hurricane-prone areas, this is a good time to check for supplies and the shelf-life of items on hand.    Stock up, but plan to use those stocks from December through June of next year.  The above site will help you with this rotation principle.

I keep my dried mushrooms in my freezer, which extends the flavor and usability considerably, but try to use them during the winter in soups and things anyway on a yearly basis.  This is the advice given by a supplier, Gourmet Mushrooms & Mushroom Products of Graton, California, which also has pictures, links, recipes, instructions, explanations and much more for those who like these tasty morsels.

I want to use this sauce on a chicken-spinach pizza.... today. Can it take the oven temp of a pizza?

If I do not hear from you, I will try it anyway.... but would rather have
input from someone who knows about the chemistry of this sauce.   Thanks

I actually have no idea, but my thoughts are it would probably curdle and whey, making a mess.  I do NOT think it will melt at all, like mozzarella, if that's what you're looking for.

This is Karen Danielson's recipe, and I tried to make it twice and the brands of yogurt I have always used refused to make cheese.  I'm really teed off about it, had to give the mess to the dogs.  I have no idea what preservative or whatever they are using in the yogurt now. Guess I'll have to culture some to try it.

If I were going to do this, as a trial, I would use an extra Tbsp. of cornstarch. Let me know how it turns out.

Thank you so much for your quick reply.  I did not try the pizza last nite.... but I did make a trial run of the sauce today, using 1/3 of the recipe. To simulate pizza in an oven, I put some in a Pyrex dish in my toaster oven and baked it.  It bubbled and even browned a little... but it did not separate.  It tasted fine, much better than bechamel or other cream sauces that could be used on a white pizza.

I put some mushrooms and garlic in the rest of the sauce and had it for lunch over angel hair. It is very good, but does need garlic.  It was a little grainy, probably from the Romano cheese.  This would not matter on a pizza.

As for yogurt cheese, I have always been successful with it.  I watched this recipe made on television recently and their suggestion to wait 24 hours until a spoon stands up, is a good one.  Whey keeps showing up the whole time.  I do not have a yogurt cheese maker.. nor do I use cheese cloth. Instead, I put a coffee filter in a large strainer over a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge, pouring off the whey every once in a while. I used Stonyfield Farm plain nonfat yogurt, a brand I had never heard of before but the only kind my store, in the Chicago area, had.  I have used other brands and even my own homemade yogurt several years ago. There is a web site... http://www.stonyfield.com that would tell you what is in it and perhaps compare it to other brands.   Maybe I was just lucky to find this brand.  They have some interesting recipes on the container, one being salsa blended with yogurt as a dip. 

Incidentally, 1/3 recipe is probably enough for two people, easily, on pasta and enough for a large pizza, I am sure.  I am anxious to try it with onions, mushrooms and chicken and spinach, but my husband has turkey chili planned for tonite.

I do love the recipes on the Internet. When I lose 30 pounds I am going to try the tiramisu made with cream cheese! 

Thanks for letting me know.  I have always done the yogurt cheese the same way, with three different brands I use.  Two of the brands now taste different to me, and I couldn't find the other, and both of those brands now refuse to separate!

What's really scarier, I sometimes enjoy a bowl of Campbell's tomato soup. A few weeks ago I asked hubby to get some, but the store was out, so he got a store brand that imitates Campbell.

I keep a freezer bag in the door of the freezer and put in any leftover tomato paste, sauce, pizza or spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, etc., to use in the future.  I just dump it all in and break off a piece if I need a little for seasoning something.  I was doubtful about the store-brand soup, so I only reconstituted 1/2 of it, and it wasn't a tasty treat, no.  So I took the other half and dumped it in the tomato freezer bag. 

A couple of weeks later I took it out to jazz up some chicken soup, and to my horror, the tomato soup hadn't frozen, and had even thawed the other tomato stuff that was already in there! The whole bag was liquid!  And every package around it was frozen hard as an iceberg. What in the world do they put in it??????  My husband suggested, maybe, antifreeze?  I wouldn't want it in my stomach, so I dumped the whole thing down the potty.  

That and BOTH brands of yogurt that I have always used to make yogurt cheese now refusing to separate, in the same month, is too much.  Lord only knows what new ingredient the manufacturers are adding to our food supply.

I'll find out about the Stonyfield, but I don't think they have that brand here.  We are sort of at the end of the earth (or at least the USA) here in Miami, and lots of things are hard to find.   Thanks for the suggestion and the great link.

When I read that Carol's sauce was grainy and that it was probably from the Romano-- the only time Romano makes the sauce grainy is if you use the canned variety.  If you buy Peccorino Romano and freshly grate it yourself, it melts wonderfully.  That's what I used on the TV show she was referring to.  I even mentioned that fact on the show.

The yogurt cheese sauce will separate when you're making it by following these instructions: 

1. Don't temper the cornstarch and skim milk slurry before adding to the broth and evaporated skim milk heating in the sauce pan and,

2. Do not allow the sauce to boil. Once you notice it starting to bubble around the edges, reduce or remove from the heat and at that point, add your freshly grated Romano.

It was great to hear from you again.  I've been busy as ever. The Cookbook and TV appearances have generated a few speaking engagements so I've had to put the old thinking cap back on.   Keep in touch and I'll try to do better

How do you cook asparagus without turning it into a floppy mess. It is also tasteless.  How to flavor it without using fatty substances such as creams and butter?  In other words to make it  Fat Free. 

First, the classic way of cooking asparagus is to stand it in a coffeepot or other tall thin pot with a little water in it, cover, and steam until tender.   Frankly, only once did I have access to such a pot, and I didn't like the results.  I do, however, like asparagus.   But I hate it when those tender tips get mushy.

So this is what I do.  I take each stalk, and starting at the bottom cut little pieces until I get past the hard pithy part, which is thrown away.  If the asparagus is thick, I peel it a ways up.  Then I cut 1-1/2" pieces, sorting them into three, four or five piles, depending on the length, thickness and age of the asparagus.  In other words, young, thin, tender asparagus would require perhaps only three piles, while thicker, more mature stalks would make five.

Then I bring water to a boil in a regular pan, drop in the tougher pile first, let cook until partly done, drop in the next pile, cook some more, when everything else is almost done, I drop in those tender tips and cook just until barely done and not at all mushy.

I then drain it, and return to the pan with a teensy bit of real butter, and add some salt.    If you cannot eat salt, salt substitute is good.  You know, I am not a proponent of a fat free diet except, for example, those with pancreatitis or other severe illness that requires it..  Just a low-fat diet with the right fats.  These are pretty well accepted facts:

• People on diets to lose weight on a totally fat free diet are less successful than those with a low fat diet,

• Many people on a fat-free diet take in more calories from sugars and carbohydrates than as if they added a little fat to their diet,

• Some people who have gone on a fat free diet have experienced serious gall bladder attacks as a result,

• If you're avoiding fat to reduce cholesterol, it's the kind of fat, first, and second, exercise is more important, and third, maintaining a normal weight, and fourth, if you're producing cholesterol no matter what you eat or how much you work out, you're stuck with cholesterol-lowering drugs anyway,

• If you don't eat any fat at all, you are surely missing out on Omega 3, an essential and vitally important dietary factor,

• You're missing the flavor that accompanies a bit of fat.

The fats we personally use most are small amounts of olive oil, cooking spray, avocado, nuts, seeds such as sesame, ground flax seed, oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines, egg yolks (not a lot), small amounts of fat in very lean meats and poultry (not a staple of our diet), and Smart Balance butter substitute, both regular fat and low-fat, both non-hydrogenated, and occasionally a tiny pat of real butter.

Fats we try to avoid are fatty meats and poultry, anything hydrogenated, cottonseed oil and most other vegetable oils from grains.

I also use cold cooked asparagus (without the butter) as an addition to salads.   

The only suggestions I can make if you want it fat free is either a squeeze of lemon juice, a bit of fat free butter substitute (I'm not in favor of this) or fat free salad dressing.  If you can eat salt, a serving of asparagus with only 1/2 teaspoon of butter or virgin olive oil is a treat, however, and that's darn little fat.

For another view, see About.com's How to Cook Asparagus

The best way to cook any vegetables is to steam them.  When you boil them, all of the nutritious ingredients are left in the water.  Tupperware has 3 great products designed especially for steaming veggies in the microwave. The first is our 3-tiered cooking system called the Stack Cooker. Place veggies in the colander and put your seasonings, including butter, in the water not on the vegetables.  Less fat but the same delicious taste.  Second is our family-sized Microsteamer designed with a colander.  The third is our brand new Oval Microwave Cooker.  Not only can you tier-cook, but you can even cook bacon in the microwave in this product.

Heidi Rosen, Sunshine Enterprises, Tupperware Distributor

Hi Sneaky,

I prep the stix the same way you do ---- but here's a quick, simple method:  take 10-12 spears, wrap in moist paper towel, and microwave 60 seconds.  Check for doneness [it is in the eye of the 'beholder'!], keep "re-mic-ing" until its how you like it.

Also/maybe --- do the above, then: get slightly "underdone", to your liking, THEN hold, till you wanna' serve, then give 'em a final "blast", to serve hot.  Maybe grill 'em, a quick blanch in raging hot water, whatever.  

AND NO OIL-FAT-BLUBBER-LARD ,.......unless you chose to.  (JELLICO prefers whale grease......)

Can you freeze asparagus? If so, how is it done?

Almost all veggies can be frozen easily.  Most should be blanched first.   That is to stop the enzymes the live plant contains, in order to preserve quality.  This is done by a brief bath in boiling water.  The Ohio Extension Service has instructions and a chart for different items.  Specifically on asparagus it instructs: "Leave whole or cut into 2-inch lengths. Blanch small stalks 2 minutes; medium stalks 3 minutes;  large stalks 4 minutes. Cool promptly and drain."

Freezing, unlike canning or drying, preserves almost all the flavor and nutrients, although the texture of most veggies won't be the same.   Don't stack them deeply when you first put them in the freezer; spread them out so they freeze quickly for tastiest results.

Every time I pickle peppers and I put whole cloves of garlic in the jars with the vinegar and water, the garlic turns a blue/green color.  This has also happened when I used crushed garlic in some recipes.  I would really like to know why this happens and if the food is safe to eat.  Thank you.

That's almost never happened to me, and now I know why.  Live and learn.  See forum page on discolored garlic at What's Cooking, America.

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