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This installment of Extremely Labor Intensive Padang Food is one of my favorites - fried chicken. In my opinion, this, with all of the accoutrements, is vastly superior to the vaunted Thai Hat Yai fried chicken. The steps are essentially as follows - grind a spice paste out of fresh ingredients, simmer/braise the chicken in the spice paste with as much water as to partially submerge the chicken, remove the chicken once tender (traditionally, you'd use "kampung" or village chickens which tend to be quite tough) and then separately remove all of the solids from the braising liquid with a very fine mesh strainer, then shallow fry the braised chicken and then fry the solids. Serve with even more labor intensive sambals... The good thing is that it doesn't all have to be done at the same time. The sambals can be done well in advance - some people even store them at room temperature for a few weeks (I portion and freeze them as I'm not THAT confident that they won't go bad and ruin all that work as well as my evening/next day), the chicken can be braised earlier that day or a few days before and fried at the last minute and the spice paste, once fried, will keep forever as long as it is kept dry (I keep it in an airtight plastic container with paper towels above and below to absorb excess oil and I add a couple of desiccant packets between the upper paper towel and the cover). Just to make things a little more complicated, you can make variations of the serundeng (that's the fried spice paste) by varying the ratio of ingredients. Personally, my favorite is the galangal heavy version which is detailed below, but you can easily make it a candlenut heavy version by practically eliminating the galangal (just use a little bit then) and using a metric ton of candlenuts (around the same volume as the galangal would have been). Or you can make a ginger heavy version or an extra shallot-y version... It's all up to your personal preference. Usually, in a Padang restaurant, they serve only one kind which they won't tell you what it is unless you specifically ask so it's a fun surprise. Truth be told, once the frying is all done, all of the serundeng are remarkably similar tasting - the differences are there, but are much more subtle than you'd expect them to be. Yield 4-8 chicken thighs - if only 4, you'll have a LOT of extra serundeng Spice paste (bumbu): Shallots - 3 western size or 8 of the smaller Asian ones (about 150g) Galangal - about the same volume as the shallots or maybe a bit more Garlic - 6 large cloves Fresh turmeric - roughly 4" long, 3/4 - 1" diameter Ginger - about 1/4 of the shallot volume Candlenuts - 3 pieces Ground dried coriander - 1 heaping Tablespoon Ground black peppercorn = 1 teaspoon Water to almost cover the chicken 2 large daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves, very different from Turkish or California bay) 6 kaffir lime leaves 1 stalk lemongrass Seasoning: 1/2t MSG 1/2t chicken powder 1-2t salt (to taste) 1/2t sugar Grated coconut (fresh or frozen) - unsweetened - about the same volume as the shallots Oil for frying - I like peanut oil but you can use canola oil, corn oil or any relatively high temperature oil 1) Grind the spice paste (bumbu) in a blender with some water to help it blend, or if you want to make it even more labor intensive, use a mortar/pestle 2) In a cold wok or pan just large enough to hold the chicken close together, add the blended spice paste, water, leaves/lemongrass, seasoning and chicken, mixing to combine thoroughly and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally 3) Sprinkle the coconut on top and mix in thoroughly, turn the heat to low, cover and simmer until tender/cooked thoroughly, turning and stirring occasionally, scraping the bottom to make sure nothing settles/burns 4) Remove the chicken and set aside on a rack to drain well (this will minimize spattering later), also remove the lemongrass/leaves and discard 5) Using a fine mesh strainer, remove the solids from the braising liquid, then press to remove as much liquid as possible 6) In a clean wok or pot, add enough oil to shallow fry the chicken and bring to 350degF 7) Fry the chicken in batches until golden brown on both sides, then remove and drain on a rack or paper towels, removing any loose serundeng between batches to avoid burning 8 ) Bring the oil back up to temperature and add the drained solids (slowly so it doesn't explode) and stir constantly to keep from burning 9) Once golden brown, remove the fried solids with a fine mesh strainer and drain well, then spread on a couple layers of paper towel to absorb any excess oil Serve with jasmine rice, sambal ijo and sambal merah, putting a healthy pile of the serundeng on top of the chicken:

Right... but I guess my point was that the Murray's cheese sold in the NYC stores are probably still aged in-house, but who knows about the product they sell through Krogers or elsewhere in their expansion.

Yes - Kroger's was nice enough to buy it all - lock, stock and caves.

I believe the Murrays on Bleecker still does its own affinage - even though they've expanded into the space next door with their cafe.

They're only $3.50 and in stock at the San Clemente TJs. I grabbed a couple more bags today. It's the texture. Left over from one bag on the drive home, combined with their low priced impossible nuggies: 'tis a vegan alternative to McD that hit a craving. Don't judge me.

Possibly. The reason I mentioned xanthan gum is that Flaxfiber supposedly was made to be a xanthan gum replacement used in a 1:2 ratio: https://www.sosa.cat/en/producto/flaxfiber/ Given Flaxfibers fiber content, Inulin, or a mixture of inulin and xanthan gum may be a better substitute for an ice cream/sorbet base however. I guess I'll have to set up a side by side test to see how the alternatives compare to Flaxfiber.

@Duvel - Great looking karage! And your 'little one' is not looking so little anymore....wild how quickly time flies and they creeping closer to eye level!

Relaxing evening with some comfort food: family requested karaage … I made a meal out of it with some (commercial) shrimp gyoza & fries with aonori salt … Plus a variety of rice crackers, seaweed salad, menma and (Korean) yukhoe - marinated beef strips with soy sauce, honey and seamed oil, seeved with nashi pear … All enjoyed with a Bavarian beer from little one school trip location … And a Ghibli classic: Spirited Away … No complaints 🤗

Another fine blog. thank you @Shelby

Awww thanks--and thanks to everyone. I promise--barring any hail...natural disasters etc. lol--that I'll do better for deer season. I think I'll be back on my game by then

It's great that you like what you got - just know that Murray's is owned by Kroger's. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The independent cheese mongers here might need your support even more...Formaggio Kitchen/Essex. And Saxelby's, founded by the late, great Anne Saxelby.

@Ann_T Perfect looking Ham Dinner Ham requires either scalloped or au gratin potatoes ,and your version looks very tasty .

It sounds as if you may have identified the issue - in a scientific manner!

I planned to take a dough out of the fridge last night to bake early this morning, but then I saw the ham I bought the other day and decided instead to make a ham dinner for breakfast. Might as well do something when you get up early. Put the ham in the oven just before 4AM. Served with potato gratin and Southern style simmered green beans. Moe had the ham dinner for breakfast and I'm going to take the same thing to work for lunch.

Thanks so much for giving us what you could, Shelby! I admit I was thinking, isn't it Huntin' Time again??? It's always wonderful to read this thread, and I've come to rely on the regular hits of inspiration. Now all I want is giblets.

Marketing. So far as I can make out they are claiming it's specially formulated to enhance crab. It contains no crab and is just regular rice vinegar.

What is crab vinegar?

Wasn't sure whether to put this here or Non-food Funnies or Companions.

Little one came back yesterday night from a one week school trip to the Chiemsee. Arriving at 21.00h he announced that he had lunch at 12.00h and no snacks since then (which I doubt, but DW agreed he looked famished 😎) … Luckily, I had some sausages in the freezer. Made a quick curry sauce with the help of Japanese curry roux and airfried some fries. And as per request BBQ sauce on the side … Happy and slightly tired kid (and happy parents that he is back) … And a little treat from the mancave, just because … No complaints (at all !) 🥳

Another day; another lunch 大闸蟹 (dà zhá xiè), mitten crabs aka hairy crabs. With 蟹醋 (xiè cù), crab vinegar for a dip (in the bottle).

So I (semi) regularly make a roasted tomato soup for the family. It's easy, freezes well, and everyone loves it. Tomatoes are just coming into season here (South Africa), so I got a couple kg's worth and made a big batch a couple of days ago. It's very simple: I chop and roast tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, red & yellow bell pepper, and a couple of small chillies (birdseye this time) under the broiler, toss with salt & pepper and a little olive oil, then into a pot to simmer, then blend with an immersion blender. At the very end I add cultured buttermilk before we eat it. This time, for the first time ever, while simmering (after blending) I got a persistent layer of scum on the top that had to be scraped off. Similar to when you're making a stock and you have to skim it. Because the soup itself is so thick, it was quite hard to get the gunk off the top without losing a lot of the soup itself. The only difference this time: Normally, when I chop the tomatoes, I dump the insides (seeds and goo) into the trash, but this time I thought I would try to get some of that 'tomato water' so I put them into a fine sieve over a bowl while I did the rest of the prep. I ended up with about two cups of very delicious tasting juice that I added to the mixture. Could that tomato water/juice be the culprit? Or is there something else I'm missing? Thanks in advance!

They're at it again! This a screenshot of a dish sold as western food. The video is going viral here in China. Overcooked but unseared steak, some kind of spaghetti, random salad, a fried egg and a lump of cØrn. As served in every western home every day! Thankfully, the restaurant is over 1,000 miles from me.

You may have noticed that a number of the mooncakes I’ve mentioned are described as 冰皮 (bīng pí) something. This means ice skin. They are not baked like normal cakes but are fresh and are sold and stored frozen. They are not ice cream like, but are defrosted and then immediately eaten. These have been around a couple of years but have really exploded this year with lots of ‘new’ flavours turning up. These two are from the grasslands of China’s northern province, Inner Mongolia. First up is 醇厚奶香地道蒙味 (chún hòu nǎi xiāng dì dào méng wèi), full milk flavour authentic taste. Hmmmm. Next is 咖啡混合味月饼 (kā fēi hùn hé wèi yuè bǐng), coffee blend flavour mooncakes. Blended with what?

Just an update - tonight was the first time I was able to try the most ripe of the rawit chillies. It is now obvious to me that chilli plants do not require heat to make the chillies spicy - just lots of light. This one chilli was fantastic - lots of flavor but also, quite spicy. One mashed up chilli amongst a pound of smashed cucumbers definitely made itself known....

I, too, would request leftover oxtails for breakfast if only there was the slightest chance!