sheetz
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Having read a little more about lye water's uses in Chinese cooking, I found out that lye water will initially cause gluten strands to become stretchier, but then after about 30 min they completely stiffen up.
In recipes for hand pulled noodles using lye water you have to work very quickly so you can be finished pulling the noodles before the dough stiffens up. In contrast, recipes for mooncakes using lye water say to let the dough rest for an hour before shaping them. Based on what I've read and my own experience, I believe this helps the skin become more plastic so that the patterns molded onto the dough will hold their shape during baking.
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Reason I''m asking, have baking powder but no sodium bicarb, but have lye water I bought by mistake as in a rush and was next to rice vinegar (just that is a worry) and not reading Chinese how was I to know. Good job I read the ingredients of everything I buy and cook with.
I guess it would depend on the recipe but you can go ahead and try. The stuff you bought is food grade so it is safe to consume (in small quantities).
Re: Sodium carbonate, apparently it can be used in place of lye water for some applications. As for lye water's use in Cantonese moon cakes, I think the higher pH may cause the gluten in flour to become more elastic and make it easier to stretch the dough into a thin layer around the filling. For this reason lye water is also used in making hand pulled noodles.
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You can also try Gordon Food Service which is opening up a store in 2 weeks.
http://gfscomingsoon.com/madison.php
Garbanzo beans are on their product list
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I have hard water where I live so dried beans won't soften no matter how long I boil them. The only way to cook them is by using a pressure cooking or adding baking soda to the boiling water. That said, I prefer using dried garbanzo beans to canned because they are much cheaper at the Indian grocer, and I can also use them for falafel, which doesn't work so well with the canned beans.
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I've been to many banquets where the fried rice is more tossed than fried. I don't know if that's a function of having to prepare a large amount of fried rice at one time or rather a desire to have a more "clean" tasting rice.
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I also had some trouble stir-frying tofu. The wok in question just wouldn't stay hot with more than a few tiny pieces of tofu in it, and I don't know why. The stove in question is a big gas-burning monstrosity that appears to make a more than adequate flame, but I had a heck of a time cooking it properly. Any suggestions for crispy tofu?
I think it would easier to use a firmer type of tofu if you want it crispy--soft or silken varieties have too much water. And the tofu should be pan fried or deep fried, not stir fried.
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Yeah, if the pantry is pretty well stocked with dairy, eggs, tofu, veggies, beans, rice, pasta and flour you don't need much else to make a decent meal. I think what this boils down to is that the menu needs to be created around the pantry items with the small amount of money reserved for "flavor enhancers" like ham, bacon, butter, spices, etc.
You can make simple meals like: chili with cornbread, frittata with bean soup, mac n cheese with roasted veggies, maybe even chicken pot pie if chicken legs are cheap.
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50 cents a person is tough. How about something like pho? Use whatever cheap scraps of meat you can find for the broth and whatever vegetables on sale for topping. The noodles should be pretty cheap at the Asian grocer.
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I've looked at other recipes online and a lot of them also say to simmer the eggs in the soy sauce mixture for a couple of hours. The Saveur recipe just says to simmer for 5 min and then add ice and I wonder if that could be the difference.
And as others have said I think you should try adding some Chinese dark soy sauce to the mix. Kikkoman just isn't the same. If you can't find dark soy sauce you could try added a spoon of molasses.
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I wonder if the low sodium soy sauce is the problem. As Carolyn says the solution should be quite salty, and I think the saltiness may help the osmotic transfer of the marinade through the egg membrane.
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I've never tried making these but am tempted to do so just out of curiosity. If your technique is fine then I wonder if has to do with your ingredients, like your eggs or soy sauce, for instance.
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I don't trust cookbooks much anymore. The great thing about the internet is the explosion of cooking forums and blogs where I can almost always find a recipe that somebody has tried and that actually works. Plus it's often the case that someone is available to answer questions should any problems arise.
That's funny, I don't trust the vast majority of recipes on the internet. So much wrong "information" and how do you know whether you can trust peoples' taste? I only trust epicurious and egullet.
There's a difference between recipe sites and cooking blogs/forums. I don't generally trust recipe sites, including epicurious, but I do have more trust in actual cooking blogs and forums, of which egullet is merely one. Other good forums/blogs would include The Fresh Loaf and Real Baking with Rose. I also like a lot of the articles on Serious Eats.
As for trusting other people's tastes, that's always going to be an issue no matter where you go.
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I don't trust cookbooks much anymore. The great thing about the internet is the explosion of cooking forums and blogs where I can almost always find a recipe that somebody has tried and that actually works. Plus it's often the case that someone is available to answer questions should any problems arise.
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Thanks for the suggestions! Right now I'm learning towards the steamed custard. It hadn't occurred to me because my mom always used salted duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. I even did a search and found hzrt8w's pictorial.
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I'm trying to plan a dinner menu and a lot of recipes require the use of egg whites while on the other hand there are very few which require the use of egg yolks. Normally I would just use the yolks in a custard or lemon curd but I was hoping to maybe incorporate the yolks somewhere into the menu this time. I know they could be added to fried rice and I've seen one recipe where yolks are used in a dessert soup, but beyond that I'm sort of at a loss. What do those huge Cantonese restaurants who use gallons of egg whites every day in soups and marinades do with all the yolks?
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If that is others' reaction to your eating sensibly, it could be the biggest favor you have ever done them.In other words, don't make it appear like you're depriving yourself. People generally don't like to pig out when it seems that someone else in their group is depriving themselves.Unfortunately, what usually happens is that those who wish to indulge themselves will try to pressure the lone dissenter into conforming to their ways.
As for the idea of "splurging just for Thanksgiving," it all sounds good in theory but I've never found that to work for me because it's *NOT* just Thanksgiving we're talking about. For my friends and family that whole period of Thanksgiving to New Year's is just one mega food bonanza of rich foods and dining out, and trying to make up for almost two months of gluttony in January can be overwhelming to say the least.
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Patrick, Your ingredients look OK so I'd definitely try it again using the suggestions I gave.
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Traditionally the Chinese will deep fry the sliced eggplant before incorporating in the sauce ingredients. It soaks up more oil this way, but that's almost certainly how restaurants make it.
Edit: This youtube video perfectly illustrates how to cook Sichuan-style spicy eggplant. It's in Chinese but it should be pretty easy to get the gist of what's happening. A black bean sauce version would be almost identical except for the different sauce.
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Everything appeared to be proceeding nicely, and the dish certainly looks correct (see photo ab0ve), but I wasn't blown away by it. I greatly enjoy fat of all kinds, but it just felt a bit too fatty, and not just in the pork belly but in the sauce. Maybe I should have degreased or reduced the sauce more? And the dish felt strangely underseasoned for a Chinese dish. I THINK I've had red-braised pork in good Sichuan restaurants but perhaps not, and maybe I was expecting a more assertive flavor profile, like many other dishes from the region.
Any suggestions or advice?
I usually serve red cooked dishes the following day so the fat can solidify and be easily removed after a day in the fridge. Also, if the dish tastes underseasoned you can boil down the sauce until it's reduced enough for your tastes.
I haven't tried that recipe but usually Ms Dunlop's recipes are spot on. Could it be that you bought the wrong kind of soy sauce? Could you list the ingredients here for us to see?
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Sheetz, there is a cheat with making chicken look presentable. No matter how badly you chop the legs up, just take the breasts off the bone, remove the inner fillets, press the breast down before slicing them on a slant. Now cover up the legs with the neatly sliced breasts, hiding all the carnage underneath! But that's not what I do, of course...
Clever! Thanks for the tip!
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I agree that it's best to include a variety of foods to satisfy the preferences of both you and your guests. And if somebody bugs you for not eating enough mashed potatoes, you can say, "You know, lately I've been completely obsessed with this brussels sprouts recipe--I could just live off of them!" In other words, don't make it appear like you're depriving yourself. People generally don't like to pig out when it seems that someone else in their group is depriving themselves.
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Gorgeous banquet, Prawn! I need you to become my food stylist--I've never been able to chop chicken as beautifully as that.
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Chris, have you tried confiting the pork belly and then pan frying the rind?
http://yearoftheglutton.blogspot.com/2008/11/confit-pork-belly.html
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I did manage to try a modified version of this technique and it came out fine. Since I didn't have a stock pot large enough for the turkey I spatchcocked it and poached it in my covered oval roaster. Poached it until the turkey hit 145F and then shut off the heat. After it cooled to room temp I then removed the turkey from the poaching liquid to dry on a rack in the fridge overnight. Next day roasted it according to directions. Skin was crisp and meat juicey and tender.
Slow cooked congee
in Cooking
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Sounds way too low a temperature to me. You need a higher temperature in order to break down the rice and thicken the stock. I have a conventional slow cooker that has 3 settings: high, low, and keep warm. I normally use the low setting for congee but on a couple of occasions I've accidently switched it to 'keep warm' and all I got after hours of cooking was soupy rice.