Chris Amirault

Let me be the first of many to say: yee-haw! Thanks to all who worked hard to get this back up!!

Here's a request!

← Hmmm..... Well, the "vodka martini drinkers" I know just want to make sure that they can't actually taste any of the vodka behind the Godiva, blue curacao, or kahlua, so, I guess this computerized hooch should work out fine.

I have no idea of the temp... I just heated the oil until it sent up bubbles when I put the chopsticks into the pan..... I cooked them for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, I don't pay attention to time either.... One was a little red close to the bone but the others were perfect. ← Ahh.... The mystery of the perfect temperature eludes us still!

Wendy, that looks great! And Kristin, can you tell us the temperature at which you fried the chicken? Yours is lighter than mine turned out (i.e., it isn't burned!!). How was it on the inside?

Still on my drive to get you to use Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. If you follow this link, you'll see a fantastic and simple pomelo salad from that cookbook that I posted on the pad thai cook-off.

Well, I think that mizducky and I can compare notes! I made the David Thompson recipe in Thai Food, adding some minced garlic with the shallots, tossing in some sauteed chicken slices, substituting scallions for the chives, and leaving out the radish (which I couldn't find at the store today). What I did find, however, was something I'd never seen before and is pretty interesting. I bought a package of fresh noodles vacuum-sealed in this package (sorry, I thought to take the photo after I opened them to start soaking: I soaked them only an hour in room temp water, and they turned out just the right texture. Here's what the final dish looked like. The dried shrimp and ground chilis are off to the side; Andrea hates the shrimp and I like to add more chili than she in this dish. It was FANTASTIC, the best pad thai I've ever made. I really think that the Thompson recipe is great. He's big on shallots, which provide a good foundation, and the balance of flavors is spot on. (I should say that I always add a full dose of chili, which makes for a different balance than, say, mizducky would get.) Also, I have been working very hard to develop my wok's patina, and the wok hei is excellent. I usually use a propane wok cooker that I adore, but we had a rain storm warning while I was doing meez, so I used it on my stove for the first time. It worked out really well: the vegetables sauteed well, and by the time everything was waiting for the noodles, the wok was very hot. That meant that the noodles picked up a lot of color and hei. Following Thompson's advice, I really pressed the noodles into the wok for a while before adding the sauce, and some of them darkened nicely. It's worth it to get a good wok and treat it like a member of the family, I'm telling you.... I also served a tom yum soup -- -- and a fantastic pomelo salad -- -- both of which are from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet and both of which were also excellent. I do want to go back and find that salted radish, though, and see if I can tweak this.

Can I make a pitch for folks roasting their own chili powder? Over medium heat, you toss a bunch of bird's eye or other red chilis in a skillet for a few minutes until they are changing color and starting to get that toasty smell. Dump them into a bowl to cool, and then grind them to a coarse powder. To me, this makes or breaks good pad thai. Hoping to make it this weekend!

Yeesh! That does sound scary.... I'm glad that you reacted so quickly and well. Good luck with the stove; I can sympathize.

Another parsley salad: shaved fennel bulb on the plate, then whole parsley leaves on top, then shaved parmigiano reggiano, then EVOO, lemon, salt, and pepper. Poifect. One other thing. Fergus Henderson encourages us to revisit curly parsley, which he believes has a stronger flavor. Bad rap from too many garnishes....

What about fresh tamarind? I can find it here sometimes, but I've never used it and don't know how.

Fifi, we need to meet this Aunt Minnie, or, if not possible, read a long, loving tribute to her! I'm eager to meet her!

Another fan of chicken feet in stock. It transforms the mouth feel of the stock. In addition, it seems to me that the feet add an almost sweet, umami-like underpinning that the other chicken bones don't add. Anyone else feel that way, or am I off my nut?

I noticed a lot of brown rice for sale at the Korean market that got me jonesing, but I don't have any recipes for it. I used some leftover brown rice for a quick leftover bibimbap at lunch today and it seemed to work well. What are some recipes that use brown rice?

I gotta say, I agree. I also think that pan-frying, with very few exceptions, seems to create what I consider to be excessive browning on the part of the chicken that rests on the pan. It certainly happened to me, and from the looks of people photos it happened to them, too....

I'd like to make a pitch for Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. There are several outstanding recipes in that book (larb, tom kar gai, a great pomelo salad, lots and lots more) that are pretty straightforward. Everything I've made in it has been outstanding. Give it a try! Are there any other books listed here that you have used happily? What recipes?

I'm another home cook who is obsessive about his knives. As usual, Andiesenji is talking sense: Maybe that's a solution: wrap up a few Ginsu knives in a towel and bring them along to work. $15 for a set of ten!!

Well, yes, at least for me, the meanings of words are indeed often hard to comprehend in the context of head-banging and fucking-banshee-screaming.

And that house pad thai recipe is...?

Looks great -- and thanks for that dough recipe!

I cannot imagine that I'm alone in submitting The French Laundry Cookbook for consideration.

A thought. Maybe you should scrunch some aluminum foil around the handle before you put it in, so that you'll pause before you grab it.

Well, at least you can be glad that you didn't mistake it for toothpaste!

If the reason you're skipping is the peanuts, I do hope, Wendy, that you'll reconsider. I'm certainly not going to debate whether or not peanuts are essential to an authentic pad thai; instead, I'm going to assert that authenticity isn't the only goal here. Check the previous cook-offs: while there are surely many utterly authentic gumbos and cassoulets with bonafide experts on the subject, there are also rouxs made with carb-free flours and cassoulets with ersatz beans. The cook-offs have been big tents, wherein people can debate not only truly authentic versions of dishes but also can share ideas for how to make approximations of the dish that teach them new techniques, learn from others, and have a good time. So, Wendy, grind up a few macadamia nuts -- or, hell, mince and fry up some tofu for texture instead -- and please stay with us! We like having you around!

That second sentence would make a great signature quotation!