Kim D

I joined as a new year's resolution January 1, 2005. I'm more of a lurker than a poster. Although I post a ton of stuff on Instagram.

Thank you so much for including traditionally frozen. I'll give that one a shot.

The Thai eggplants look great. And the mango puree made me think of freeze drying green mango to make amchoor (mango powder). I love this topic.

The Thai round eggplants I usually quarter. The long green Thai eggplants, I roll cut. That said, I have no problem with the idea of slicing. Thank you so much for testing! One of the dishes I thought of using freeze dried long Thai eggplants in is "Best Eggplant Dish Ever" from Hot Sour Salty Sweet.

Might be Pflaumenkuchen (plum tart).

I've never tried freezing eggplants. What do I have to lose? I'll try it. And now I have no reason to buy a freeze dryer. Cool.

I think that would describe me. I'm fixated. On eating as much as I can from either my garden or from farmers I know. NYC's Chinatown is 100 miles away. I don't get there often. The closest Chinese/SE Asian grocery is 50 miles away. I don't get there often, either.

If they would work well in a Thai curry, I'll need to change the plan for next year's garden. Thai eggplants have a short season and I eat as many as I can. If they freeze dry well, I'll plant even more than I do now.

This looks so interesting. I would love to know if Thai eggplants would freeze dry well. If so, I'd seriously consider getting a freeze dryer. I had been thinking about getting a second deep freeze and now I need to reconsider. Just when I thought I had every cool kitchen gadget!

I got errors yesterday because I couldn't remember my password. IIRC, the screen to retrieve my password only had a spot for my email address. Submitting that screen returned an error. I can't remember the message, it came up on a page all by itself. I can't remember what I finally did to fix that. Whatever it was, I finally got a screen to enter my email address and to type in some letters to prove that you're a real person. I believe the error before was because that box didn't show up. And, yes, I was working on an iPad. Then my mini-Mac. Then a Windows laptop. All had the same error. Good luck. Maybe this was all on purpose so that you'll feel as though you earned that 50% off.

I didn't get the email, so thank you for posting this. I just downloaded the ebook and installed the Inkling app. I was surprised that the download process was not intuitive to navigate. Had it not been for the 50% discount, I would have bailed.

Thanks. That makes my decision easier. Perhaps I'll be able to sell the Pacojet 16000 Advanced System once the Pacojet 2 makes it here. Any reason to pony up another $300 for the 16000 Super System? What is the advantage of the Gold Pacotizing Blade?

I don't have a combi-oven. I like my toys under $10k. Preferably under $5k. My current focus is on the Pacojet. Not sure what will pique my interest after that. I'm trying to make my yard full of edibles. So I need a way to preserve my harvest. This year I added lingonberries, highbush cranberries, blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, boysenberries and rhubarb. The serviceberry tree is too small to count. Last year I planted a peach tree, a bartlett pear, an Asian pear, red currants, black currants, champagne currants, strawberries and blueberries. It will take years to get a good harvest so I have time to find the right toys.

I am also looking at blast chillers. I have a thing for kitchen toys. What can I say.

I want a Pacojet and have started researching. I see that there's a new model. Does anyone know when it will come to the USA? http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/New-Products/Pacojet-2-is-launched-first-upgrade-in-25-years

I use Fuchsia Dunlop's method. A pound of chopped chilies, a quarter cup of salt, a glass jar with a tight lid. Put it all together, hide it in a cupboard for a couple of weeks (shake it once in a while), take it out and start using it.

Last year I got my seeds from Baker Creek. This year, a friend brought seeds back from Thailand. I've planted seeds from both sources this year. I am interested to see how the Thai cucumber (noticed my first flower just now) will taste.

Living out in the country, I've had to grow my own Thai ingredients. Last year I grew Thai basil, three kinds of Thai chilies, three kinds of Thai eggplants (long green, round purple, round green), lemongrass. This year I've added holy basil, pea eggplants, wing beans, drumstick, yam beans, Thai corn. I also have two kaffir lime trees. Should be a good year for Thai cooking. That said, I would love to go to pok pok on my next trip in to the city!

I made a rub with brown sugar, cumin, cayenne and a few other spices. Sous vide 48 hours at 145F. Brushed them with Hot Bone Sucking Sauce and grilled long enough to char the sugar. Best ribs I have ever had in my life. Used the liquid in the bag to make gravy for mashed potatoes.

I found an error as well and went hunting for the entry that said how to report them: It would be helpful if that posting was either a sticky or was the first entry in one or more of the "Modernist Cuisine" threads.

I just ordered the Ohaus Scout Pro SP202. What tipped the scale for me was the ability to do percent weighing. Awesome feature.

Thank you! I'm heading there now.

Duck Confit The spice/herb mix is good for 4 batches of legs. I gave the list of ingredients above. The garlic gets mashed, the star anise gets finely crushed, the peppercorns are coarsely crushed, the bay leaves are thinly sliced. I was surprised by the large amount of coriander seeds. They are not crushed. I wonder if I could have used a much small amount had they been crushed. The recipe assumes one batch is 4 legs weighing a total of 1.6 kg. Apply spice mix, vacuum seal, refrigerate 10 hours. Rinse off spices and dry completely. Vacuum seal the legs individually with 20 grams of duck fat in each bag. Sous vide 82C/180F 8 hours. When done, cool in ice bath and refrigerate. I used mine right away so it went straight in to a hot cast iron skillet to crisp up the skin. If you refrigerate yours, warm it in a 80C/176F bath for 12 minutes. Then crisp the skin in a skillet.

I thought I had all the equipment I needed to make Duck Leg Confit... PolyScience Sous Vide Professional Ary Vacmaster VP210 Soehnle scale that weighs in grams or ounces I definitely had all the ingredients on hand. What could be better? I didn't have to leave my house. And then I started weighing ingredients. And that's when I realized one piece of my equipment was not up to snuff. My scale. It had no problem weighing a kilo of kosher salt and 100 grams of toasted coriander seeds. It did ok with 11 grams of garlic, 7 grams of star anise and 5 grams of orange zest. Weighing 0.4 grams of bay leaves proved to be impossible. Ditto 0.8 grams of black peppercorns and 2 grams of thyme leaves. I just had to wing it on those. If someone could recommend a scale, I would be appreciative. Preference would be something not made in China. Even with the guessing, the duck came out great. The texture was what I always wanted in my confit. Tender yet firm. My husband said it was better than the confit we had aged for 6 months. I agree. And now I have 4 individually wrapped duck legs. Just waiting to be needed. And three packages of Confit Cure Mix. I also have a few kilos of duck legs in my freezer so all I need is a few days notice and I can make another batch. Life is good. Edited to add: Volume 2 Techniques and Equipment has the answer. Ohaus.

I made kala channa last night. My husband and I both loved it.