Dejah

Hope it works for you, Anna. BTW...who has the Big Easy? You or Kerry Beal?

Made Guisado de Pollo (Chicken and Potato Stew) from July 2012 issue of Saveur. I get these emails from the mag and get inspired to try something new every so often. The recipe called for boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I used both breasts and thighs. It also called for shredding the meat after the browning, then adding the shredded meat to the sauce for the final simmer. I am not a great one for shredded meat in sauce, so I opted to leave the meat in chunks. Hindsight, I think the meat would have picked up more of the flavour if shredded, but it was still delicious. I could just eat the sauce!

I think your topic title says it clearly: A year of DINING... I am envious and want to work at YOUR kind of business, basquecook! Loved all the dinners you posted. Really gives me another perspective of the China I left as a toddler. More, please, Sir?

The insert canister is metal, and comes with a separate fitted lid in addition to the screw-on lid on the crock pot, which is plastic and has a handle. I use it most days, and will more now that "winter" is settling in.

I love both the Hong Kong egg tarts and English custard tarts...way too much. There is, however, a difference between them to my taste. The English one is denser? Creamier? More like the texture of creme brulee, as one blogger suggested. I think the non-homogenized milk in England made the difference when we ate them there. Vive la différence, I say!

This is the same as my recipe except for 1/2 cup of mashed potato. This addition gave it a bit of a chew texture. My potter friend told me about this addition. She uses a large unglazed bowl that nicely fits into her oven to make naan. The bowl is heat to 500F and the dough is slapped onto the sides. The clay bowl retains the heat better when the dough is added. I am patiently waiting for her to try her hand at making a liner for my Big Easy!

If you can afford the custom tandoori oven, you should! This, however, is working well for me as I can cook other foods in it. I can see where YOU would get a lot of use from a custom one, percyn. I encourage you to invest in one so we can all see the wonderful food you would turn out from the oven!

jsager01: Thanks for the suggestion on "denature". I will try that next time. Could find maltose in any of our stores, so I sprinkled sugar on them, as one recipe suggested. The next batch - which won't be for some time, will be with maltose. I like your process and will definitely try it for comparison.

Paul: The ice bath makes the feet puff up, wrinkled and bloated. I think the contrast in temperature "pulls" the skin and tendon away from the bone? I drained the feet from the ice water, then simmered them in a pot of fresh water with star anise and ginger. That's all the recipe called for, but I added Thai chili peppers, a couple tbsp soy sauce, and some whole fermented black beans. I really wanted the flavour to go thru' the feet. Then the feet were drained and covered with a marinade for overnight. They were spicy, garlicky, black bean saucy, but not as much chew as I would have liked. The smaller bones were quite edible, but I generally spit them out - part of the fun!

Thanks, andiesenji!

I haven't made these for a long time, but a friend just gave me 10 lbs of cleaned plump chicken feet. Cantonese dim sum style Golden Phoenix Palms is not easy to come by in our small city. I love these and decided I needed to make a pile and have ready in the freezer for a treat anytime! The set up for deep frying outside. Once brown and crispy, the feet were tossed into a pot of ice water. Sizzling in the wok of hot oil. I had the flame on high. There was a lot of splattering, but I didn't care - nothing to clean up in the house and I stayed far away after I first put them in: The feet were simmered for 1.5 hours The simmered feet were drained, cooled then coated with a marinade to sit overnight. Steamed for 15 minutes and ready to enjoy!

Picked up a slab of "country cut ribs" for $5.99. I brushed on some commercial BBQ sauce and suspended it full length into the Big Easy. Full heat for 1 hour and it was just done. Not as much char as I'd like, but was running late. The meat was tender and juicy. The little knobs of rib bone was charred and tasty chewy bits. I forgot to take a picture of the slab as it was pulled from the BE, but here it is, half of it cut up. Pretty cheap meat for a couple of meals.

Dang me, Bruce! You've got such a knack of getting that beautiful char on all your chicken dishes!

Thanks, ermintrude. I should plan on making lemon meringue pie on the same day to use up the egg whites!

Thanks, Ann:-)

The memory of silky English egg custard tarts linger forever from our trips to England. I have tried my hand at these, but they never seem satisfactory. Some questions: Is regular pie pastry used? My recipe calls for lard and butter, and always turns out flaky for other pies and tarts. Should the pastry be baked half thru' before the custard is added? The recipe I used last night said to brush the shell with beaten egg then baked at 375 for 20 minutes before adding the filling. Can whole milk be used for half of the full cream a recipe calls for? I used half whole milk and it appears to have "separated" - a layer of beautiful smooth custard and one that looks more like steam eggs... The recipe calls for grated nutmeg from TWO whole nutmeg. I only used half of what I collected and found it to still be too much. Would any other spice work in this sweet treat? Does anyone have a traditional recipe to share? Please feed my craving!

Ann_T: That looks like a fabulous griddle! I have a paella pan of the same material and am amazed at it's versatility. I was wondering if you'd be able to serve the fixings right from the griddle - that is, placing the griddle on the table while it is still sizzling. I was just thinking of the sizzling hot plates restaurants use when serving fajita.

I love chicken feet dim sum style. A friend just dropped off 10 lbs of clean frozen feet. Any ideas for these other than as stock and braised dim sum style would be appreciated. A manicure will be needed before any recipe!

Ann_T: I dread it every time you have a post with halibut. Drives me crazy with WANT...We do get it once in a while "fresh" as opposed to frozen. I never seem to be able to keep it from drying out a bit. Any guidance on cooking juicy halibut?

I noticed Ann_T's mention of Sterling Silver beef and wondered if it's a Canadian store grading. - Sobeys. They have a great beef sale on this week - SS prime rib roast @6.99 / lb, usually about 3 - 4 dollars more per lb. I bought the whole trimmed 7-rib chunk still in cryovac. Hope that'll keep well in the freezer for a month or so. Should I wrap it in butcher paper as well? I also picked up a package of 2 Sterling Silver chuck roasts. It's a blustery night, so I made Chinese Beef Stew. The kitchen smelled wonderful with star anise and cloves. The recipe was for ox tails, but I prefer less work in eating. The recipe included fresh lemongrass, which I have never seen in a Chinese recipe. Anyone know if this is common? I really didn't notice any difference from the lemongrass. Eaten with Jasmine rice:

Had made a huge pot of Hot 'n' Sour soup for friends who are under the weather - great cold / virus medicine. After all the tasting and a small bowl for supper, I didn't want to cook supper. So, it was fried rice with ground chicken, bits of diced vegetables, bean sprouts, ginger, and egg. Very satisfying! Condiments: Saigon Chili Oil and Fu Yu.

It was a rib roast on sale at 5.99 / lb. so cheap enough for me to experiment with. I ran a thick skewer thru' the centre, and it was suspended about half way up the basket that came with the unit. The skewers were hanging from the rungs, close to the heat. Pulled the peppers when they were ready - that is - charred!

Onto beef in the Big Easy. Couldn't really tell the time as my propane tank ran out 25 minutes into the cooking. Probably because of the 2 chickens I did just before that for a couple of our wonderful neighbors. Made a run to Walmart down the street and picked up the second tank I had been planning to do. Forever the procrastinator, but I'll never change. So, I think I pulled the roast at 140F on the instant read, but it was already 7:45 pm, and it was dark. The meat smelled wonderful as it was cooking, with only Montreal Steak Spice coating the roast. Also did some skewers of mini-bell peppers and potatoes. All turned out well! Made green peppercorn gravy with some of the dripping and a package mix but with fresh green peppercorns. Didn't really need the gravy. Saved most of it for the leftovers tomorrow.

My mini-crock pot shirataki noodle soup lunch today Pictures are from this morning when I put the lunch together. With the slow and low cooking, the Romaine lettuce was done just right - still a bit of crunch to each stalk.

Not sure if you know what I mean when I saw Haw Flakes - a Chinese candy made from Haw, sold in stacks. My kids loved them when they were young and will still devour them when they find a stash. Are these Haw Flakes made from Hawthorn berries?