Calling all cooks

At Hallmark Magazine I had a great group of home cooks who signed on to be a recipe test panel. Every month or so I sent a handful of recipes to them for testing, and they would write back with their thoughts and suggestions.

The object of the exercise was 1) to create a community of cooks, but 2) to find out how people put their personal spins on food. Even those cooks who claim to slavishly follow recipes will usually say "Oh, well I added just a bit more cinnamon" or "I didn't have any pears around so I used apples." or "I'm not a fan of thyme so I used tarragon."

I'm a big believer in personal spin.

So I am going to continue this tradition. If you are at all interested in participating in this just shoot me an email with TEST PANEL in the subject line. I'll add you to the mailing list.

The way it will work is this: I'll email 2 or 3 recipes with proposed posting dates (though this will have to be flexible). Then when I'm ready to post the recipe, I'll let the Test Panel know the day before so that anyone who has tried the recipe can come here and add his/her two cents.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Belonging to the Test Panel in no way obligates you to test anything. You only do so if you like the recipe and are in the mood.

Ginger-Brown Sugar Custard

I am fond of culinary mash-ups. That is to say, I like to hook together the flavors of one cuisine with a technique or traditional dish from another cuisine. Examples: Mexican lasagna, Italian stir-fry, Indian tamales.

So this custard recipe is a fairly classic Western-style baked dessert custard (though much lighter on the egg yolks) sweetened with brown sugar and perfumed with fresh ginger for an Eastern connection.

I chose to make it in a single baking container because I get a little peevish dealing with all those little custard cups (especially in a water bath), but it would work just fine that way, too.

Ginger-Brown Sugar Custard
The combination of whole eggs and egg whites makes a custard that is lower in cholesterol but still very tender.

3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
2-1/2 cups milk
3 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar, water and ginger. Over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, bring to a simmer and cook until it starts to foam up. Immediately remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Place an 8-inch square baking dish in a larger pan (like a small roasting pan).
3. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk over low heat until bubbles form around the edge and a bit of steam comes off the surface, about 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg whites and salt until well combined. Strain the cooled ginger syrup into the eggs and mix well.
5. Pouring slowly but whisking quickly, add the hot milk to the egg mixture. Stir in the vanilla.
6. Pour the custard into the baking dish. Place the roasting pan on the pulled-out oven rack and pour very hot tap water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
7. Remove from the water bath and let cool, then refrigerate until chilled, about 4 hours.

Makes 6 servings

An a-peeling gadget

An orange monkey to peel your potatoes. Yes.

You can buy this guy for $8.19 in Target stores or online. Animal House, the company that makes this peeler, also makes a piranha pizza cutter (???) and a parakeet garlic press.

The world's hottest chili pepper

New Mexico has a huge chili pepper industry, so I guess it's not unusual that New Mexico State University would devote itself to the search for the world's hottest chili pepper. In 2007, scientists at NMSU announced that they had found a chili pepper in northeastern India that claims the title. It is a pepper called Bhut Jolokia, which translates as ghost chili.

The heat in any chili pepper is measured by something called a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU). It is an index that measures the amount of capsaicin (the substance that makes chilies taste hot) in a pepper.

• At the low end are cherry peppers (500 SHU), poblano (1,500) and pasilla (2,500).
• In the middle range are jalapeños (10,000), cayenne peppers (50,000) and tabasco peppers (75,000).
• Chilies with very high SHU scores include Thai chilies (100,000), habaneros (300,000) and red Savina (500,000).

The Bhut Jokolia pepper weighs in at over 1 million SHU!!!!

If you're actually crazy enough to want to eat one, you can grow your own bhut jokolia peppers from seeds sold by NMSU's Chili Pepper Institute Chile Shop. A packet of 10-15 seeds costs $5.

What do you do when life gives you lemons?

You make a giant statue of a deity, of course.

In the city of Menton, on the French Riviera, La Fête du Citron (Lemon Festival) is celebrated every winter with Mardi Gras-style parades and floats made of lemons and oranges (the area is a huge producer of citrus fruits). If you hurry, you can just catch the tail end of it the day after tomorrow.

But if you can't make it, then celebrate the lemon French-style with a citron pressé, the French word for lemonade. (If you order limonade in France you'll get something more like Sprite or 7-Up.)

If you've ever had a lemonade in a cafe in France, then you know what the drill is. The waiter brings you a tumbler with a couple of inches of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Then he plunks down a carafe of cold water and hands you a bowl of sugar. The rest is up to you (and I could never get the dang sugar to completely dissolve). Only the French....

Couscous Salad with Dates & Almonds

I don't know about the rest of you, but I grew up with date-nut bread spread with cream cheese. It's a flavor combination that rockets me right back to my childhood. But much as I actually like their wonderful, smokey-sweet flavor, I've never bought dates just to have around the house, because they always seemed like little pellets of pure sugar.

Well, here's the good news. Dates are actually very high in antioxidants. In fact, they are high in some of the same compounds that are found in red wine. A group of scientists at the Agricultural Research Service and UC Davis ran antioxidant tests on the 6 types of dates grown in California. The antioxidant winner was the Deglet Noor date, which is the most common type found in supermarkets.

So this inspired me to make a couscous salad with dates--they're from the same part of the world after all. I also went for whole wheat couscous, which I had not noticed before at the market. At first I thought it might be just hype, the way food manufacturers are tacking "whole grain" and "wheat" onto everything in sight. But when I compared the nutrition for regular couscous versus whole wheat, I was pleasantly surprised. The whole wheat version has almost 4 times the fiber.

Couscous Salad with Dates & Almonds
When you cut sticky dried fruit, like dates, you should lightly oil the knife to make cutting easier. For a main course, add 2 cups chopped cooked meat or cubed tofu.

2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon + 1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups (10 ounces) whole wheat couscous
1 navel orange
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup chopped pitted dates (6 large, 4-1/2 ounces unpitted)
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1/2 cup minced scallions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to a boil. Stir in the couscous, remove from the heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and fluff with a fork. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, grate the orange to get 1 teaspoon of zest and place in a small bowl. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl. Peel and chop the remaining orange half and set aside.
3. To the bowl with the orange juice, whisk in the oil, lemon juice, pepper, cumin and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Drizzle the dressing over the couscous and toss well with a fork.
4. Add the chopped orange, dates, almonds, cilantro and scallions, and toss well. Let stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Makes 6 servings