Questions about food...

[fajrdrako]

A few cooking questions:

1. What is the best way to store mushrooms?
   
2. Do you have a favourite recipe for moussaka?
   
3. Is it okay to store coconut oil at room temperature?
   
4. Where are the best places in Ottawa to buy organic food?
   

Comments

[commodorified]

1) Unwashed in a paper bag in the fridge. If they accidentally sit too long and get old that way what they will do is *dry* - and dried mushrooms are perfectly useable. At worst you won't be able to use them raw.

2) No.

3) Yes. It will tend to wander between liquid and solid though, as room temp in your apartment on the average Fannish night is above its melt point. This will not damage it, but it means you have to store it in a container that won't let it leak when it's liquid and depending on what you are using it for you may find it easier to handle if you keep it fridges.

4) When the Parkdale and Lansdowne markets are open, them. In winter, regular grocery stores, IMO. Herb and Spice is not appreciably better most weeks, their prices are notably higher, and their stuff often has two or three times as many road miles on it - one reason I've been more and more weighting local more highly than organic in making my choices in recent years: Organic apples from Chili vs - in this particular case I'm lucky cause I know the farmers to talk to, they run their own booths - Conventional but with an "only when needed" chemical approach from Halls, who are less than 25 km from us.

But whether your priorities are local, organic, enviro-friendly, fair-trade, or a balance of all three, the grocery stores have been getting better and better to the point where, yeah, there's no point going out of your way anymore for most things. I mean, places like the Wild Oat are always going to beat the instore bakery for baked goods, but if you're doing a full shop, Metro or Hartmans is going to have 95 percent of what H and S has any given week.