Chris Amirault

Can you take a photo of the burner so I can see its design? Off is fine.

Now that's a Big Kahuna you got there! The flame distribution looks excellent, better than the rig I have. Do you have an infrared gun thermometer so you can tell us what the temp is on that wok when you're ready to cook?

Snooped through a few cookbooks today and made a few changes. The two books I relied upon the most for ideas this time around were Grace Young's Breath of the Wok and especially Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty. I'll be turning elsewhere for reminders on other items. Decided against the roast bird, added an app, cleaned up the mains, and added some more vegetable sides. There are a lot of do-ahead dishes now as well. As for amounts, I subscribe to the Arab concept that your guests should be overwhelmed by your generosity and never feel that they are eating too much. starters shrimp & pork dumplings nam yu peanuts ma la wei dried beef (Dunlop) mains braised lu shui pork with water chestnuts, tofu sticks, and black mushrooms steamed whole fish steamed scallops with tofu in black bean sauce red oil chicken (Dunlop) sides sweet & sour red bell peppers (combo of Dunlop and Young methods) stir-fried mushrooms (Young) pickled string beans with ground pork (Dunlop) spicy cucumber salad (Dunlop) stir-fried greens noodles & rice steamed rice naw mai fon dan dan noodles "kid noodles" I'll be making punch or toddies or something for the arrival warm-up. Still figuring that out, though I'm leaning toward this rum punch, which has a prominent ginger note that would work well with the appetizers. What kind of soup are you making, Erin?

Tis the season: a mug of David Embury's grog, with three rums (Myers's, Cruzan blackstrap, Lemon Hart 151) and demerara, is chasing the cold. You?

Full disclosure: my meal is not designed with any fealty to aesthetic or culinary integrity. I have to accommodate a bunch of different people who like certain things and dislike others. No real goal to be authentic regarding, for example, a New Years feast, but if things fit together that way, that's fine. Not sure about the dumplings, but probably gau ji with different fillings, if I'm up to making them. The peanuts are a big hit in our house. That's a big favorite of my wife, and since I'm able to make fresh rice noodles it'll be a treat. I wasn't sure if the noodle made it a noodle or the meat made it a main, but no matter to me. Yes, I agree. Probably the scallop -- another big hit in the group. Hoping for decent pea pod leaves too, but they've looked tough lately.... Lap cheung and, of course, homemade lop yuk.

A few of us are making Chinese food for Christmas. What are you making this year?

Great topic -- very interested to read more. I'm wondering, for example, about different degrees of "broiling." In my home broiler, the food heats up more and to a greater depth than it would in an uber-powerful salamander, which I have long coveted but will likely never own. However, I have never seen the need for a home blowtorch, which would produce an even thinner layer of browning and much less general product heating (since ambient is room temp, as opposed to a 500F oven or more with a salamander).

Looks great. And you're right about the fat: a lean, tangy peperone is a revelation, isn't it? You happy with the bottom round? I had used chuck before, and also had great results.

Yeah, I've gotta cut back some. I think I'll steam the dumplings; that can be round one of the steaming.

I've often wondered if there was a relationship between the perceived saltiness of certain foods and their age, or perhaps level of preparedness. I'm a bit sick and foggy, so let me try to explain. When I make, say, a curry, soup, or pasta sauce and have leftovers, I've noticed that the second reheating requires additional salt. Given that the sodium level remains the same from stove to fridge back to stove, this change in saltiness has made me wonder whether or not the sodium is somehow "absorbed" or something. If that's the case, then prepared foods might require higher levels of sodium to achieve a the same level of saltiness. Is this just a bunch of malarkey, or does someone else have this sense too?

Steaming is easy bc I can bring out my wok burner and have the steamer on the porch; it won't get cold out there the way that stir fry would. Thought about soup, but I've found that this crowd avoids the soup unless you do a separate course, and then they get a bit crabby waiting for the other stuff....

Well how about that! I've just decided to go full-on Chinese for this Xmas dinner as well. I'll have ten folks, including three kids. I also have some time evenings this week for prep, and the full day before dinner. I can do a bit of stir frying as long as I have everything else set and the mise prepped. So Erin and Susan, I'm excited to plan and execute along with you! I hope you'll also document, and I'll try to do the same. Here's my first draft of a menu; a lot will depend on what's looking good at the store(s). starters shrimp & pork dumplings nam yu peanuts mains braised lu shui beef with water chestnuts (fresh??), tofu sticks, and black mushrooms steamed whole fish of some sort steamed scallops with tofu in black bean sauce steamed rice noodles with char siu roasted chicken or duck? salt & pepper shrimp? clams with black beans? sides pickles string beans with minced pork whatever greens I can find that are fresh noodles & rice steamed rice naw mai fon dan dan noodles "kid noodles" The kids will go nuts for the rice, noodles, and dumplings, so I have leeway with the other items. I grabbed a few cookbooks before coming into work for ideas, but I'd be interested to know what people think.

Along with a new curing chamber for charcuterie, I just got me one of the ThermoWorks infrared point-n-shoot thermometers. Looking forward to finding out just how warm my fridge is.

Haven't posted in a while but the lu shui is part of our regular dinner repertoire, particularly now that the weather is cold. Perk up the lu with new aromatics if needed, choose your protein (chicken, pork, or beef), add some tofu sticks, mushrooms, onions, water chestnuts, and any other good braising elements, and cook it low & slow in the clay pot. Making it this week for Christmas, in fact.

Has anyone made this ginger rum punch from Rumdood's website? I'm going to be serving Chinese food for Christmas dinner and have been trying to find something suitable for the premeal noshes.

Interesting. What does the apple do to the scotch?

Fiddling around with the rye/cognac combo and came up with this thing, which chef Matt Jennings (Society's stinkycheeseman) named The Bitter Yak: 1 1/2 oz rye 1 1/2 oz cognac 1/2 oz Fernet 3/4 oz Benedictine <1/2 oz demerara syrup stir; strain; orange twist or horse's neck I used Landy VS cognac but think something fruitier and better would be a nice foil for my standard Rittenhouse BIB rye. But this is a tasty drink, and has a terrific mouthfeel after a good long stir.

Given the issues I just raised, I guess I'd hold someone tossing the word "science" around to a higher standard.

Toby Maloney's Sloe Gin Sour last night with really fresh egg whites: nearly perfect.

Wow. This is some paragraph: I don't know if this is a joke or not, but I don't think "well chilled" is a very useful measure of temperature, particularly given the crucial relationship temp has to the bind. In addition, temp during grinding is the crucial variable to the bind, not temp at patty formation. Where's Thomas Dolby ("Science!") when you need him?

If you go to the top of this topic, you'll see my first "curing chamber," a big plastic box with dowels and string and... well, and it sucked. I've since been using the basement as a curing chamber, which presents a wide array of problems: controlling temperature and humidity, dealing with light, bumping into hanging pancetta in the dark, etc. When my coonhound last month decided to initiate a Battle of the Scents in the basement and peed all over the floor, well, I decided enough was enough. Since Chris Hennes hasn't steered me wrong before, I am going with the wine cooler set-up. Turns out that a seller on eBay has "scratch n dent" Vinotemp 58-bottle cellars for about 60% off retail. Since I will soon scratch and dent it on my own, this is perfect for me. Updates when I get it going.

Maybe they just get depressed from being dumped into too many watery Manhattans.

Doh! I'd try to save face with banana scallops, but... Damn. This IS hard!

There are lots of resources around here, most notably the Pictorial Guide to Chinese Ingredients topic, to which many here will gladly contribute their expertise. There's also The Asian Grocery Store Demystified, which is a decent introduction to some basic categories. To build your pantry, why not choose 10-20 recipes and see what's in there? "Asia" is more of a Western concept collecting a gazillion cuisines than a specific one, so it's best to drive your shopping based on what you're interested in, I'd say.

Start with a scallop or non-codfish ceviche with some lime -- no cilantro.