HKDave
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Ah, glad someone is still reading this thread! Any ideas what that ham terrine dish is properly called HKDave?
"Cured Ham Zhejiang Style".
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I've been a twice-a-week regular at the Harbour City Crystal Jade since they opened, but recently have stopped going there as much because the service can be absurdly random (like waiting 40 minutes for food to hit the table while everyone around me, who got seated after me, gets their orders, finishes eating them, and departs...). Can't argue about the food, though; good value and sometimes surprisingly good quality. Their dan dan mein is excellent, my favorite in HK.
They are a chain, from Singapore, but not all branches specialize in the same styles of food. Most of the branches in HK are the "Crystal Jade La Mein Xiu Long Bau" variety, same as the TST one.
Better xiu long bau can be found across the street at Xin Tai Fung, in Silvercord.
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I think that you mean this vegetable turner shredder, actually. Made by Benriner but not a "Benriner" -- aka a Japanese mandoline. Michel Richard uses them a lot in Happy in the Kitchen.
And the inevitable Chinese knock-off, at 1/2 the price...
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/21056179...ING_SLICER.html
It's actually not a bad unit; cheap enough that I'm tempted to get one...
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There is a local area butcher in Plano that claims to do 6 week dry aged prime beef. I wonder if I should suck up the cost and buy one or two steaks to try it out.
Do you cook a dry aged steak that differently than a "conventional" steak? I have never cooked a dry aged steak like that before.
Nope, same way as normal. Dry-aged has less moisture, but it doesn't affect the process that much.
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I make chicken liver pate the same way I make duck liver pate, and its almost as good.
There's an interesting recipe for chicken "Faux Gras" in Martin Richard's "Happy in the Kitchen" that uses 1 part butter to 2 parts chix liver.
One of my favorite things to do with chicken liver is a variation on the bacon and onions thing: pancetta and sage leaves, with a little bit of a sweet wine pan sauce. I got fed this many years ago, and it's the dish that made me decide to become a cook.
Chicken liver is also great on crostini, either roughly mashed with cognac, cream and a little carmelized onion, or in the more traditional Italian version (Google "crostini di fegato" for recipes).
Sadistick, here's a reliable recipe for that pasta-sauce-that-includes-liver (a.k.a. ragu di fegato) you were looking for: http://www.saveur.com/article/Food/Ragu-En...-Chicken-Livers
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With dry aging, does more equal better, or is there a "sweet spot" where the flavor and texture peak?
This is a question of perception, so the sweet spot will differ according to taste (some people like funky cheese; some don't). But many studies I've seen say that for typical consumers, it's around 14-28 days - which, unsurprisingly, was what a lot of good beef was aged for before the era of the vac-bag. Beyond that, you're getting slower change and are appealing to a smaller group of consumers who are after a specialty product.
The "number of days" thing has become an end in itself. "More days dry-aged = better" is now upscale steakhouse marketing gospel, so the focus is on aging as long as the customer wants with the least weight loss, rather than focusing on the result.
That's not to say that there's not great long-dry-aged beef; but that there's probably also less-aged stuff that would do as good in a blind test. I once did a small blind taste test (wet vs dry vs minimal age) with some very high-quality beef, and the results were surprisingly inconclusive. I'd like to try that again on a bigger sample.
Those of you who want to read further may find this summary from the US National Cattleman's Ass'n a good starting point; it cites many of the studies done recently:
http://www.beefresearch.org/CMDocs/BeefRes...20of%20Beef.pdf
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David Burke ages beef up to 80 days in a specially constructed room made out of Himalayan salt blocks.
This might be a trend... there's a photo of another pink-Himalayan-salt-block dry-aging room at the Council Oak restaurant in Tampa in this article: http://www.fesmag.com/article/CA6549987.html
Salt makes some sense because not many bacteria are going to live on it... but the pink Himalayan thing is a bit silly.
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How the heck did I make that mistake? Now lemmie see if I can get the thread title changed...
Anyway, here's how they selected the list, according to the South China Morning Post:
"The guide's system for ranking restaurants is complicated. First, 84 food critics from 16 countries and regions were asked to name their 20 best restaurants. After that, 1,500 industry professionals and well-known diners cast their votes, then the opinions of 15,000 registered voters were canvassed. A team of undercover reviewers were sent to the top restaurants to reach the final verdict. "
Link (maybe): http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menui...ong+Kong&s=News
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Could be... or mild white turnip like daikon, or potato, which would probably taste better with the carrot and mushroom. Here's a photo of an even cleaner presentation of the same dish from the chef's home restaurant website:
http://www.floconsdesel.com/galeriefds01plat01.htm
You don't need to use the exact same ingredients as Chef Renaut; try something different and see what you like (unless you're the entremet at Goodwood Park and you have to cook this exact dish from the photo!)
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Holy wow, 60 and 72 days. I've never heard of anything like that. I wonder if they have to do anything special (control the temperature differently, age only whole primals, etc. etc.)
You usually get less dehydration and trim loss percent using larger pieces. The longer the aging time, the greater this benefit would be. But despite this, most dry-aging these days is sub-primal, probably for ease of handling.
Other than that, the process is pretty much standard no matter how long you dry-age: 32-36F, around 80-90% humidity (aging does work at lower humidity, but your weight loss would be appalling over a long aging time), lots of air flow and careful bacteria control (UV light is your friend).
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I'm putting this in the China forum because HK got 7 of the 20, more than anywhere else... but the top 20 list as a whole is just strange.
1 Iggy's, Singapore
2 L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Hong Kong
3 Les Amis, Singapore
4 Gunther's, Singapore
5 Mozaic, Bali
6 Robuchon a Galera, Macau
7 Garibaldi, Singapore
8 Yung Kee, Hong Kong
9 Hutong, Hong Kong
10 Antonio's Fine Dining, Tagaytay, Philippines
11 Caprice, Hong Kong
12 Zuma, Hong Kong
13 L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, Tokyo
14 Bukhara, New Delhi
15 Grissini, Hong Kong
16 Nobu, Hong Kong
17 M on the Bund, Shanghai
18 Fook Lam Moon, Hong Kong
19 Zanotti II Ristorante Italiano, Bangkok
20 Kyubey, Tokyo
Huh?
The best restaurant in Japan (and the only one that makes the top 20!) is a Robuchon?
The best restaurant in Thailand is... Italian?
The best restaurant in China is... vaguely Australian?
The best Chinese restaurant in Asia is... Yung Kee? I like Yung Kee a lot, but to call it the best Chinese restaurant in Asia (or even Hong Kong) is absurd.
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There are two dishes that use this name...
The first is a savory version of the dessert mille-feuille:
Bake until brown 3 or 4 pieces of puff pastry serving size (maybe 4cm x 9cm), set aside.
Roast thin slices of vegetables, set aside.
Layer puff, veggies, puff, veggies etc, top with puff. Just like a dessert mille-feuille.
Re-heat for a couple of minutes before service.
You can glaze/garnish one of the pieces of puff at first baking for presentation (sesame seeds, parmesan - whatever's appropriate to your fillings and menu)
The other version doesn't use puff pastry; it's just stacked slices of veggies, sometimes with cheese or meat, but roughly the same size as above. This isn't really a mille-feuille, it's just a small stack of thin sliced whatever, but I've seen this called mille-feuille a few times. Here's an example: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-...cipe/index.html
Is that what you're looking for?
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Just a quick report that Aidell's hunter sausage is a keeper: 2# pork and 1# bacon plus spices, ginger, garlic, mustard. I do think that it would have benefited from more fat -- it's quite lean even with the bacon ground in.
Indeed, I'm finding consistently that I should be adding more fat than I get from a typical Coleman shoulder or butt. They trim off too much....
Full recipe for Aidells hunter sausage here: http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2002/0502/hunters.html
I'm with you on the need to add fat. Lots of sausage recipes, especially older ones, assume you can grind shoulder and you'll get a good lean/fat ratio. That was marginally true back in the days when a whole shoulder was around 25-30% fat. These days, thanks to tighter trimming and decades of lean breeding, most pork shoulder is down to around 15-18% fat, and we've got to compensate for that.
As a rule, I assume trimmed commercial shoulder is 15% and add fat to hit 35-40%. If you're over by 5% on the fat, it's pretty much unnoticeable; but if you're too low, you can end up with dry product.
In the Aidells hunter recipe, assuming that you had 2# shoulder @15% fat, and 1# bacon @50%, you would have been roughly 27% fat. That's at the low end for juicy sausage. Get that up to 35% and I bet those will be even tastier puppies...
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If I were to improvise, then I might:
Let the shrimp thaw. Peel the shrimp. Set the shrimp aside in the refrigerator. Put the shells and legs in a pot, add shallots, garlic, thyme (my herb garden has plenty), a bay leaf, some dried parsley, liquid from some canned sliced mushrooms, cover with Chardonnay, simmer, strain, and call the result a stock.
I'd skip the canned mushroom liquid (shudder), and would add a couple slices of lemon and some whole peppercorns, and some white mirepoix (diced onion/celery/leek).
Save most of the wine; cold water's fine for making stock. And fresh parsley would be much better than dried.
For me, shrimp stock says "jambalaya"...
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Halved squash should take roughly the same time as the chicken, assuming they're both fairly normal size. Throw them both in at the same time, and take each out when it's done. One or the other can rest a few minutes without difficulty.
I'd skip the stovetop start but I'd bring the (pre-spatchcocked, pre-seasoned, on a rack) chix and the squash out of the fridge maybe 45min before cooking.
Fingerlings... about 25 min at 425f convection.
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I remember being able to buy 750ml. bottles of Fernet Branca from Scardillo Grocery on E. Hastings for about $8. when I picked up my fresh mozzarrella. Sadly, no more Scardillo, no more un tax gouged Fernet.
Good times, good times....sob!
Scardillo lives! (sort of)
After they closed Hastings, they opened a shop at the cheese factory in Burnaby. It's not as good as the old Hastings shop, but if you're in the neighbourhood (Lake City) and need bocconcini...
Flamingo Foods (Scardillo Cheese) 7865 Venture St Bby, Tel 604-420-9892
Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=...330386472555172
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I just got the latest Gourmet Warehouse newsletter and noticed that they are selling Fees bitters.The Vancouver Sun's been running a series on bitters for cocktails and lamenting the fact that only Angostura bitters are widely available in Vancouver.
But has anyone found other bitters (Peychaud's, Regan, etc) anywhere in the Lower Mainland? Are the bars & lounges special-ordering them?
I think the closest place to buy Regan's and Peychaud's is in Seattle. I know a few bartenders in town have been picking them up here... http://www.delaurenti.com/
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You can also immerse it in oil and bake for several hours to create 'roasted' garlic, and then freeze it, which many people seem to think retains its quality pretty decently. You also have roasted garlic oil to use for a few days.
Preserving garlic is, as I understand it, risky for botulism growth. It wouldn't hurt to do some research if you decide to go this direction.
This is the only thing I do with pre-peeled garlic. It takes an hour in oil in the oven. I always cover the roasting pan (actually, I use a big ramiken) with foil, which reduces the chance of spillage of hot oil. Never tried freezing it; we use it up too fast for that to be needed. At work we used to strain and puree the cooked garlic and it was a standard mise-en-place item. The remaining garlic oil is great in salad dressings, mash spuds, sauces...
There have been outbreaks of botulism linked to (usually chopped fresh) garlic in oil, but every one I've read about has been caused by people not following the "Keep Refrigerated" on the label. This applies to most non-acidic or non-salted things in oil, including infused oils; the oil provides the anerobic environment needed for botulism to multiply.
More info from some North America governments:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/food-...lic-ail-eng.php
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00523.html
The 1st article says it's good for a week in the fridge but I've had no issues keeping 'roast' (confit) garlic in oil for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. Just don't leave it on the counter and you'll be fine.
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Think of how little grain-finished beef is able to meet Choice (maybe 2%?)
I think around 2% are graded prime ... is that what you mean?
Yup, that should read Prime. Now corrected in the original post. Thanks for catching that.
Also, it's less than 2% of all US beef that's graded Prime, not 2% of grain-finished.
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Is it always true that grass fed beef is leaner? Is it possible to raise beef entirely on grass and hay and develop marbling that would earn a USDA prime grade? And if so, is anyone doing this? And can I get some in NYC??
Grass fed beef is leaner, and the fat that is does have is supposedly healthier. It's very difficult to achieve high levels of marbling without grain. At the extreme, Wagyu spends 8-16 months on grain to get that marbling.
It is supposedly possible to hit USDA Prime with 100% grass-fed, but it would be very difficult. Think of how little grain-finished beef is able to meet Prime (maybe 2%?) These guys claim to sell it
http://www.rockymountaingourmetsteaks.com/filet-mignon.htm
but I have doubts... I've never seen verifiably 100% grass-fed that was close to Choice. There's no standard for what "100% grass fed" means, and it's almost impossible to get snow-white fat in truly grass-fed beef... hmmm.
A more practical product - that is available at retail in NYC in USDA Prime grade - is 100% pasture-raised cattle that have had their diet supplemented with grain.
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On Oct 15 2008, 08:47 PM, Chris Hennes said:On Oct 15 2008, 04:14 AM, HKDave said:
Has anyone noticed that there are 2 different versions of the hot dog recipe (page 164) in 'Charcuterie'?
Yes - According to Ruhlman (original post here):
On Sep 7 2006, 02:21 PM, ruhlman said:
Thanks, Chris. Now that I think about it, if I had looked up 'Hot Dog' in your index to the old thread instead of Google, it probably would have taken me to the answer... (I just checked, and indeed it does).
I'm going to have to set aside a few days and read that entire 98-page thread.
Are there any other recipe changes in later printings? -
Has anyone noticed that there are 2 different versions of the hot dog recipe (page 164) in 'Charcuterie'?
My copy at home calls the recipe "Chicago-Style All-Beef Hot Dogs", and it calls for a mix of lean beef and suet, and cold-smoking at 90F/32C (sic) then poaching to 140F/60C internal, then chilling.
But the copy at work just calls the recipe "Hot Dogs" and calls for beef short ribs, and hot-smoking to 140F/60C internal, then chilling.
They appear to be the same (First) edition, but not same printing (mine's earlier)... anyone know what's up with this? Are there any other recipes that got changed? I did some Googling to see if this had come up anywhere before but couldn't find anything.
For the record, I've done hot-dogs both ways, but lately it's hot-smoked.
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The D'Artangnan recipe is from their 1999 game cookbook, and the version there differs slightly from the website. The cookbook is more liberal with the truffles and duck fat, and less concerned about refrigeration.
http://www.the-golden-egg.com/dir_rec/rec_dgg_0008.html
The method looks interesting (it's similar to techniques used in cooking chickens here) but I'm wondering how long you would have to leave the bird in the oven to bring it from fridge temperature to serving temp. The D'Artagnan recipe is unclear on this; they just say turn the heat off after 30 min and leave the bird in the oven.
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I could be wrong, but from reading about it, I think Lactic acid is produced by the Acidophilus.
A side by side comparison of the Acidophilus and Bactoferm, by measuring the PH after incubation and final taste and mold growth in two identical batches of salami, might be in order.
Yup, Lactobacillus Acidophilus does produce lactic acid. But I'm sure there are other variables, so I'd be diligent about checking that post-incubation pH to make sure you got a fast enough drop to a safe (botulism-controlling) acidity.
Given that we know that L. Acidophilus likes lactose, I'd be tempted to have some non-fat milk powder as well as dextrose in the test batch.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes.
The 42 day dry aged experience
in Cooking
Posted
Reasonably well-marbled (by US standards) primals or sub-primals suitable for grilling benefit the most from aging. In the US, that means Choice and Prime grade strip loins and ribs. Lamb also benefits.
Very lean beef (including filet) and primals that usually need to be moist-cooked (like chuck) don't benefit as much and are rarely dry-aged.
While feed and breed influence flavour, the benefits of aging would be similar for all.
There isn't much point in prolonged dry-aging extremely well-marbled Japanese-style beef because it's already very tender, and given how expensive it is, the cost of losing 25% of it to dehydration and trim would be severe. Another reason this doesn't happen might be that Japanese prefer 'fresher' tasting beef as opposed to the somewhat 'high' aroma of dry-aged (most Americans probably feel the same way these days), and this stuff is mainly sold to the Japanese market.