Chatterbox

[Pampy Profile]

Has anyone heard from Binky lately? Hope she's doing ok.

[Sakkarin Profile]

Let's hope so

[scullion Profile]

yes, hope she's doing ok.
not quite satay sauce but a friend gave me a block of sambal pecel on a trip 'home' years ago. i used it like a satay sauce, we all loved it, and asked him how it was made - so he asked his mother in law.
there was a long, involved recipe which included taking out the 'germ' of each peanut (in the kilo that was needed for the recipe), pound the peanuts in a pestle and mortar - and then all the preparation of the chillies etc. i decided to cheat and used peanut butter and sambal oelek, as the ingredients seemed to be roughly similar. it worked for us and tasted very similar to the block - life's too short to stick to the traditional recipe sometimes.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I make a lot of Thai and Burmese recipes that are supposed to be finished with “unsalted roasted peanuts”

I’ve tried roasting my own but it’s a faff, they don’t come out very evenly tanned, and I usually only only need 50g or so

My local Indian shops sell beautifully roasted very lightly salted peanuts, I use those and make sure the rest of the dish is not overly salty

[Sakkarin Profile]

I've found the best peanuts for all peanutty applications were Tesco's roasted monkey nuts, £1.20 for 300g, but they must have changed their supplier as they are now all tiny wizened things where they used to be huge plump ones in the past. They still taste better than the usual oily "roasted salted" or DIY home-roasted raw peanuts.

The problem with the monkey nuts is I can't stop, so the pack doesn't long enough even for the meal I've planned the nuts to be for. That happened last week, Kung Po chicken planned, but I ate the lot before I got round to it.

[Lusciouslush Profile]

I have been wondering how Binky is too - she's not around, I really hope she's doing good.

Kung Po chicken planned, but I ate the lot before I got round to it.

Oink Oink............!!

I buy a 1kg bag of unsalted roasted peanuts - lasts ages.

[Amber Profile]

I’ve no idea, but is it possible to soak peanuts to plump them up a bit?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Peanuts, being not proper nuts but legumes (pulses) when not roasted can be soaked and stewed like beans and peas - mainly a West African thing I think, I made a recipe like that once out of curiosity but not keen

But I think if you soak roasted nuts you will just end up with wet snacks, I suppose you could quickly rinse the salt off if necessary

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Peanuts, being not proper nuts but legumes (pulses) when not roasted can be soaked and stewed like beans and peas -

Although I knew that, seeing it written down has prompted me to wonder why, those with a peanut allergy, can't also eat eat nuts but can eat other legumes/pulses.

I look forward to your explanation Sue

[Badger's Mate Profile]

those with a peanut allergy, can't also eat eat nuts but can eat other legumes/pulses.

That's always puzzled me too; botanically they're different from other nuts yet the allergy goes hand in hand. Our younger niece, who is most definitely allergic to peanuts, tested positive for a (less severe) reaction to all but one of the other types of nuts tried on her. She shies away from peas and pulses but I don't think she reacts to them (at least not in an immunological sense). Interestingly, with an increasing awareness of allergy, she is now able to eat Chinese food. The local takeaway seems to be geared up to deal with the issues.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I honestly don’t know - the common name for the other nuts is “tree nuts” to distinguish them from “ground nuts”

I do know that some people are allergic to peanuts but not tree nuts and vice versa, possibly people allergic to both are just allergy sensitive?

Peanuts do have a similar taste and texture to tree nuts so presumably they contain chemically similar substances

Found two nice clear NHS allergy leaflets, apparently people with peanut allergy do often need to be careful with legumes

Peanut allergy
https://allergynorthwest.nhs.uk/resourc ... t-allergy/

Tree nuts
https://allergynorthwest.nhs.uk/resourc ... t-allergy/

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Well, if you don't know Sue, then what hope is there for the rest of us ?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

It’s really not my speciality!

But I thought it interesting that peanut allergy sufferers may in fact have issues with other legumes, we’d just never needed to know

[aero280 Profile]

I have also wondered about the peanut/nut allergy link.

I also mentioned ages ago on Wildfood about people including eggs as “dairy products”. We had a summer event at work and one lady, who said she was allergic to dairy products, got quite cross when I offered her an omelette. “Didn’t you hear what I said? I’m allergic to dairy!”...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Dennispc and I discussed this not long ago

To me as someone who has a background in a biological field, dairy would be anything made from the mammary secretions of a ruminant - cow, goat, sheep, water buffalo etc and people are often only allergic to the products of one species

BUT I do understand that in terms of food eggs are traditionally sold in dairies and delivered by milkmen, and also lumped into one food group with dairy in school nutrition lessons

There’s no reason that I know of why someone allergic to milk would also be allergic to eggs unless they are have tended to develop allergies to foods they were exposed to in infancy

And I suppose if you are seriously allergic to milk, an omelette cooked in a traditionally unwashed omelette pan where omelettes have been made using butter and cheese might be risky - I don’t think I’d trusted a restaurant omelette to be 100% free of butter

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I do know that some people are allergic to peanuts but not tree nuts and vice versa, possibly people allergic to both are just allergy sensitive?

Our niece is definitely allergic to peanuts, has had a very bad reaction and carries an epipen. When she went to the doctor and was tested, there was a strong reaction to peanut, less strong to most tree nuts and no reaction to one of pistachio or macadamia - neither of us can remember which. She has no problem whatsoever with other known allergens, other than not liking some of them.

I wonder though, if somebody with no allergy or intolerance would test mildly positive for some foodstuffs, but because they haven't had any symptoms, would never get tested? According to York Test, who make testing kits and therefore are not disinterested, 45% of people are dairy intolerant. This doesn't chime with my everyday experience.

Allergies are an immune response, generally to a protein, which tends to make them quite specific. Something like 2% of people are allergic to cows' milk as infants but most grow out of it. It's quite rare therefore and sufferers would have a clear idea of what they need to avoid. Their case is not helped though by a significant number of people who claim to have these sort of problems when a brief conversation about their diet clearly demonstrates they haven't.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I suspect anyone who claims to be allergic to “dairy”rather than to cow’s milk or goat’s milk is not repeating the results of clinical testing, though of course they may just be using general language not wanting to sound too technical or hijack the discussion

There’s the confounding factor with dairy of lactose intolerance, which is not allergy, just an inability to digest a component of some dairy products (a sugar called lactose) but many people lump all intolerances into allergy

[Suffs Profile]

There's so much chatter and misinformation on t'internet about allergies and intolerances ... I came across someone who had put her toddler on a gluten free diet ... 'just in case' ............. fortunately after a lot of talking and explanations from both me and a paediatrician she saw sense.

[aero280 Profile]

Our grandson had problems with both milk and soya. He’s coming up to two years old now and recent tests show that he’s no longer allergic or intolerant to those. The only problem he has now is his size. He’s quite large for his age. Very tall and not spindly. He’s wearing clothes for a three year old. I’m 6‘-1”. My son is a couple of inches taller. Grandson is in the 98 percentile for height...

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Our grandson had problems with both milk and soya. He’s coming up to two years old now and recent tests show that he’s no longer allergic or intolerant to those. The only problem he has now is his size. He’s quite large for his age. Very tall and not spindly. He’s wearing clothes for a three year old. I’m 6‘-1”. My son is a couple of inches taller. Grandson is in the 98 percentile for height...

There is a certain age at which if you double their current height, this will give you their height when fully grown .. I think it is 2 years