Saturday, March 29, 2008

Dammit, what do you mean we're out of miyoga??

Who knew that if I run a little short on burdock down in the root cellar that I could sub in some salsify or asparagus? Or if I couldn't harvest some hijiki then I could run to the Asian market and grab a bunch of arame? Or that I could make some orange extract with a little orange zest and a bottle of vodka? I tell you, that internet has a lotta shit flying around on that information superhighway thing. I came across these pearls of culinary wisdom when I was looking for a substitute for some hard to find thai bird chilies here in PDX. I googled "thai bird chili substitution" and came across this very cool cooking reference site called The Cooks Thesaurus. It's broken down into categories like vegetables, fruits, herbs, meats, etc. and ingredients are alphabetized within each category, making searching a snap. Plus they give you suggestions on where to find certain products, and recipes of things like the orange extract above that you can make yourself. I have a feeling it's going to be a great guide for future cooking adventures when I get a little lost on the recipe path. Check it out yourself next time you find yourself without that all important bag of hazelnut flour. You can thank me later!

picture of miyoga off The Cooks Thesaurus website

1 comment:

Kathleen Bauer said...

For all kinds of flours, those in the Portland are are lucky to have the Bob's Red Mill store. And I'm talking fava bean, almond, green pea, coconut and, yes, hazelnut flour. Amazing. And most are available online as well.