aznsailorboi

Hi guys, I read the book this weekend, BBA by Peter Reinhart. Now I feel so informed about bread all of a sudden. I realized what I was doing wrong before and I'm bound to make corrections as soon as I get my last "must haves" on his list which is an instant read thermometer. About the yeast, he mentioned all three types are acceptable, and the only difference is the amount to be adjusted depending on which one will be used. wild yeast is 100%, active dry yeast will be 40-50%, and instant yeast 33% (this in proportion to the total amount of Wild yeast in the ingredients ie. if the recipe calls for 3grams of wild yeast, in substitution it will be 1.2grams to 1.5grams of active dry yeast and .99grms of instant yeast) But thinking about it....I think I will still be encounerting a little problem specially when using active dry yeast, coz wild yeast and instant yeast can be directly incorporated with the dry ingredients without having to proof it. So should the amount of liquid to proof the active dry yeast come from the total amt of liquid to be used for hydrating the dry ingredients?

AZNBREWER- Did they make their own NAM ? If they do can you share the recipe? I love those things, its sweet, sour, savory and spicy. making my mouth water. but what I like more is the contrast of texture and flavor of the garlic and chili with the sticky rice(??? is it sticky rice?)

ok guys i'm a little late, but i'm back. and i got the book!!!!! it was the last one at the barnes and nobles place, i'm so lucky....so baking is so meant to be. i doubt i'd be able to bake tonight, but im shootin for sometime next week coz i have to work this weekend. in the mean time i'll start browsin through and create a storyboard in my head for my set up.

Here to help you. The best advice I can give is to get The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. If you read the intro which provides explanations on why different techniques work, then follow a recipe. I promise that you will produce great bread... to use a Brit expression, it will be 'better than shop'. I imported the book from the US, and have not regretted at all. it is a beautiful book, a pleasure to own and read. ← wow sounds like your making me buy an "addiction to be"....I will stop by barnes and nobles or borders later, as i'll be passing by the two bookstores later. thanks for your suggestion fatmat.

Hello guys, I've been lurking in this thread for a while now, and finally got the courage to join all of you. Those cakes just looks heavenly! Ling's gingercakes look fabulous even in the pan. so I've decided to join y'all and bought my ingredients earlier, and most likely find my way in the kitchen later after my lunchdate(how cheesy huh...a date at daytime....oh well lol). but i will get ready for it now...and i will update you guys arond 3 pm Chicago time. see y'all laters.

OK day off today, and I woke up early to buy the supplies...... got a baking stone i got KA unbleached bread flour. Pastry flour, just in case i needed it somewhere *shrugs* got a food scale...with oz and grams unit of measure vital wheat gluten OK i need a recipe to try.....I'll be here on egullet waiting for responses... please guide me through. and i have my digital camera on hand so i can take pics and post it as i go. any takers please feel free to jump on the thread

Ba Daek I think is the Laotian version of Belacan. Can't find a good kind thats store bought, its always thick and pasty and no whole pieces of fish and or crab. The only good kind is from a family owned Lao/Thai store in Dallas, TX, i have to ask my friend where exactly it is. This store makes their own, their sauce doesnt smell fishy at all and has whole pieces of crab or fish in it. I'm here in Chicago and there's nothing here store bought thats as good as that.

The Chinese New Year celebrations aren't done yet!!!!! I know there are some specific foods you have to eat for the next 15 days after the first day of the lunar year. I only know one....... you should eat Chong Wan I on the 9th day after the lunar year for the Lantern Festival. Chong Wan I is like Tang yuen but with roughly ground peanuts and sugar inside and cooked in a light syrup (5:1 water to sugar ratio) and fresh tangerine or orange peel.

Would you enlighten us? 411 on your yummy dinner plz? What did you have for CNY? ← Oh right, totally forgot to mention what We ate...... Eight Treasure Chicken (of course) steamed whole fish char siu cantonese roast pork cantonese roast duck jellyfish pork neck bones soup (courtesy of hzrt8w's recipe) yang chow fried rice 3 types of seafood on crispy shanghai noodles sweet taro soup with mini tapioca pearls and tang yuen the eight treasure chicken was yummy as always...although i bought a chicken with too much fat and didnt bother trimming it...so it was a little too greasy i had to skim some of it off during cooking ,i used the grease for sauteing later on...none was wasted . The steamed fish was also very delicious after everyone had their share i killed the rest of it bones, cartilage, head and all. I wasn't worried of the freshness coz i bought the fish alive, my roomate had half his eyes covered when I whacked the fish unconscious and while gutting it (kids these days...hahaha ). The Charsiu and the duck, I bought those coz I dunno how to make it....so i left it to the professionals. The roast pork I made myself according to BenHong's instructions on the "pork belly" thread. the bubbly blistered skin was fantastic! so crispy with a perfect intonation of the five spices. the jellyfish was softened according to instructions, blanched then marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, sugar,sesame oil, garlic, chili and roasted sesame seeds. the neckbone soup was good, the lotus root was so tender and flavorful, had it boiling longer than its supposed to so the meat was falling off the bone too, and the dried squid was soo tender after it was boiled for hours. the noodles were very good too, i had scallops, cuttlefish and shrimps sauteed in green onions and ginger just barely cooking the seafood, then i added veggies like mushrooms, snow peas and young corn. then a splash of vodka ( I use vodka coz it doesnt have that strong taste to it like xiaoshing ) and rich chicken stock. as soon as it starts boiling thicken with cornstarch slurry and then pour on top of the fried crispy shangai noodle nest and arrange a few pieces of blanched gai lan on top. The Fried rice was also a hit. sauteed alot of onions then added chopped lap cheung and chopped charsiu and then some salad shrimp then the cold rice. season with equal amounts of salt sugar and msg. then add maybe another tablespoon of sugar for good measure add blnched corn and green peas. push the rice on the side and scramble two eggs when almost set, mix well and serve with chopped scallions on top. and finally the dessert.. its a warm dessert perfect for the cold weather, cook the mini tapioca pearls...DONT DRAIN..and then set aside. boil some water and sugar ratio 3:1, then added the mashed cooked taro. boil till the mixture is all dissolved, then strain the mixture with a fine sieve to remove the hard chunky taro thats left behind, its usually the fibers and such, but you can leave them in there too if your not too fussy about the textures. after straining return back to pot and keep boiling. make the tang yuen 1 cup of sticky rice flour with 1/3 cup warm water, mix well to make a not too sticky dough, pinch into small marble size piece and roll into a ball with palms(cover your hands with rice flour for easier handling) then drop into another pot of boiling water and wait till all surfaces to the top, use a slotted spoon to fish them out then transfer to the boiling syrup and taro mixture, add the tapioca pearls and a can of coconut milk and make sure to stir in well, the coconut milk sometimes have cream coagulate on top of the can, enough heat will melt this, so dont worry about the blotchy white grains, they will eventually disappear. Right now is the best time for adjusting the taste, add more sugar if you want it sweeter and if you think its too soupy, add a slurry of sticky rice powder to the mixture, slowly add a little at a time, to gauge the thickness and so u dont end up with pudding. this is my CNY feast .....like i said by the time i got to dessert i was falling asleep ....too full. pics should follow soon, i think too much pics i have to do them a batch at a time, imagegullet cant handle all of em. hehehe

Ohhhh myyy gawwwwd......i'm still full from last night and its already noon here.....i'm not used to eating alot anymore. I so pigged out last night, then I was literally falling asleep trying to finish my dessert. Right now I still feel like my food is still in my throat area and won't go down all the way.

Adam- That sure is yummy! and the chicken looked exactly how it should look like perfect! The 12 lotus seeds represents the 12 months of fertility. If you notice most of the seed types that are placed in there are in pairs or even numbers, just another lucky detail to add to the dish, hey if it doesnt hurt to put that amount then do it. LOL all of my dishes are still cooking and its 5:30 PM already i got 3 more hours before the guests arrive. soo i'll keep u guys posted.

Thanks! Oh goodness. That thing's still around. Ai ya! I also met Karen as well, she and her husband were so nice and friendly! I definitely need to visit Philly again. Love that gelato. As for the lai see, it's just nice to have the good luck wishes. The amount of money in the lai see is inversely proportional to your age. HA! Did you really think I was being serious that lai sees are the reason I'm not getting married anytime soon? YOU BETCHA! (Wait, but you do get to wear the pretty cheongsam like Karen did...ah, phooey, gimme the dress and the cake, forget the rest!) ← I have to agree with you on the angpao/laisee theory, although my siblings and I were told not to spend the money, my mom says its all for good luck. But you get quite a collection of them from aunts and uncles, sums up to at least a couple of hundred...c'mon would you really let a couple of hundred bucks rot in a red envelope and keep it as a good luck charm??? the only ones we keep are the ones from mom and dad.....its been 12 dollars since I can remember how to count money.... until present time sailorboi I never got a raise . ......I'd wear a cheongsam. BUT ONLY IF THERE'S ANGPAO/LAISEE INVOLVED!!!!!! BWAHAHHAHHAHHAH

I agree. I used to travel for work and was very happy when I was in an area with a Chick Fil A. This summer I finally managed to get a Culver's Butterburger after I had heard so much about it. ← oh man thank g*d somebody agreed with me.....i thought i'm the only one who doesn't despise fastfood. Is there Chik Fil A in chicago? I know about those Culver's Butterburger and they are pretty good.... I live close to a Culvers..

Hi Gastro, I've read so much about you from the CNY 2005 thread, that was a funny thread....and you've finally met up with herbacidal.

"Taiwanese"" are Chinese, so the usual rules apply. ← Thank you for responding. An old friend is, in fact, a sinologist who has lived in Taiwan for a number of years. However, here in the U.S., a very limited number of people know that you're supposed to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's and others gulp oysters. I thought there might be something idiosyncratic, local...a regional specialty.... ← Pineapple is the regional specialty. "Ong-Lai" is Taiwanese for pineapple which rhymes with "great fortune". ← LOTS of pineapples.....the devotees(lots of Taiwanese) at the Temple that we go to when I was a kid love to bring these as offering for CNY, and they make paper foldings stuck together to make hundreds of different sized joss paper pineapples to be burned for the CNY celebration. It was just so wonderful seeing all those joss papers folded and then formed into sculptures ie. pineapple, horses, dragons, cars and so on.....but in the end they get burned.

I remember when my youngest aunt got married, all the angpaos they gave out the following Chinese New Year were indeed double, one coming from her and another one from her husband, but we're not Cantonese...so I guess that rule goes with us (Hokkien) too.

my family goes by that rule, too. i'm getting married this summer, so this is the last year i'll be receiving angbaos. i'll have to start giving them out next year! ← KYONG HEE! KYONG HEE! (Congratulations!) Is it going to be an all out chinese wedding?

I think I'm gonna make another asian noodle soup tonight.... this I haven't tried yet, Its Gari Ga, its Vietnamese chicken curry soup with bun, I got the recipe from my roomate's mom when I went home with him for Thanksgiving.....but I also want to make something I havn't heard of yet.

I LIKE FAT!!!!! ok marbled is good too, i think thinly sliced marbled meat would be perfect...thats how i choose meat for pho. lean beef slices are just too healthy for me.... but kidding aside, IMO lean beef slices would still be tender as long as its thinly sliced, and since its only being blanched I doubt the scalding soup can overcook it.

I start with my wet ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and add my flour gradually, stirring with a wooden spoon until it becomes the consistency of something less wet than mucilage and is dry enough to handle in a cohesive ball without too much mess. By estimate, I'm guessing that I've added about half my required amount of flour at this point. I then dump the dough ball out onto the floured countertop and continue to knead while gradually adding in flour. With this method, you should use up most, if not all, of the flour that's called for in your recipe. ←

Chris---that eye of round is beautiful!!! so red......looks so fresh, and the bowl of the finish product was fabulous!

Toche Tepee, of course for the wiser! I'm not married but I don't know if my family abide by that rule though. BUT if that was the case.......I'd be sure to hint them about that rule

so should it feel like young breasteses? hehehe ....soweeee I just had to respond to it. in actuallity the first one I made felt like muscled pecs.....then the second one was soft and would'nt hold its shape...I'll let you guys decide what to reference it to

I eat at fast food places, I really don't mind. What's wrong with fast food anyway? its food..... granted its not your ideal type its still edible and some of em taste pretty darn good!

I turned 22 last friday.....I'm hoping I'm still entitled to ang paos from my aunts and uncles........ ughhhhh I'm getting old ..... and now I have too many nephews and nieces, that I have to use half the packet of ang paos for them...I'm obliged by my mother! oh well I guess I'll just disappear from the clubs for a month....then I'll come back fresh like the new year