Gabriel Lewis

I'm trying to figure out what causes those little puffy air bubbles in fried doughs. My last batch of samosas had very bubbly dough, and this hasn't happened before. I've tried google, searches, and Mcgee and not come up with anything. Anyone? (Scientific answers are a bonus!)

Takadi: Bummer man, I guess thats the danger of ordering unknown brands online. I know the appeal though, it's tough on a limited budget. I sent an e-mail to eastman outdoors asking about their burner, and apparently it is adjustable but only up to 10psi. I think this will probably be hot enough still, but I am wondering if I'll be able to switch it out with a 20psi max regulator if I want to? They just ignored this question. I'll report back if I do get it. Oh and I found out there is a version with detachable legs. Even the version out seems more versatile to me than normal burners that come with nothing...

Anne: I'm a gardening newbie, and so probably not the best person to ask. I had hoped to get a spot in the community garden this year, only to find out that there is a 5 year waiting list. My recommendations were based on the ones I like, not that I know how to grow. Your tomato collection sounds glorious, I am hoping I may have some luck with potted tomatoes this year. I am determined to get atleast a few glorious tomatoes; planning on scouring harder; trips to extended farms, tracking down hard to find vendors etc. That said, black krim, purple cherokee, green zebra, brandywine, are all grown and sold here (though mostly not grown very well). Also, there is another egullet, identifiler, who lives in montreal and has reported growing krims, cherokees, and zebras for years with success. Peppers is the other major thing I want to grow. I haven't even looked into that yet.

So many eh? I'm try to decide on some to get too. I'd second the recommendation for Black Krim; they are amazing. I'd also highly recommend green zebra, they are interesting as they are green even qhen fully ripe but still have a very "tomatoey" flavor. I didn't read through all of them, but they seem to have some plum/italian/roma tomato types. They are optimum for salsa imo as they don't have a lot of water. They also preserve well. "La roma" is one near the bottom of the list. It is unfortunate they have become something of an afterthought; good tomatoes are especially hard to find, but I have found good roma's to be near impossible.

I understand the idea behind using crushed/bruised ingredients like fruits and herbs etc. I just don't see the point of a seperate tool. I'm guessing you don't work the ingredients too vigorously if they are being crushed in a glass. What I'm asking is: why the seperate tool. Wouldn't it be easier to just bruise the ingredients in a mortar and pestle? You could do large quantities for multiple drinks and you wouldn't have to worry about breaking the glass. It might be little harder to clean or avoid cross contamination though. It is just a case of seperate evolution for the bar? I don't really know anything about bartending, so maybe I'm just missing something.

I had to look up the definition of muddler, and now that I know what it is, I'm still not sure I understand what they exist. What are the specific reasons for, or advantages of, bruising/crushing ingredients in the serving vessel?

So, to ask the question, which method (mincing, slicing, using a press, etc.) would be (in general) best for which basic sauces/dishes? LaurieB ← I'm no expert by any means, but I'll take a shot at this. Hopefully other more knowledgeable people can weigh in too. As with anything in cooking, the method you select will reflect your desired outcome for a particular dish. I keep two main principles in mind. They are somewhat similar; the first relates specifically to garlic and aliums, while the second more is more general. 1. The more you smash up the garlic, the more enzymes and precursors are going to mix, and the more pungent/"hot" garlic flavor you are going to get. The molecules generated by these enzymes are pungent defensive sulfur compounds, evolutionarly designed to make garlic distasteful to predators. In aioli for example, this is considered a good thing and is sought after, but it may not be what you are after in a salad dressing. Maybe you just want some of that meat/savory garlic flavor, but not too much "hotness", and so you opt to mince the garlic. These differences are greatest I think, in methods in which the garlic is used raw/lightly cooked. Heat deactivates the enzymes, and destroys or changes a lot of the molecules that give raw garlic its pungent/"hot" flavor. 2. How you manipulate the garlic physically determines how it will react in specific situations. Take whole cloves as an example, this leaves the cells relatively intact, and little mixing between enzymes and precursors should occur. This also means enzymes are deactivated by heat before they have a chance to act. This is also more or less the case for precisely minced garlic, where only minimal cell damage occurs. What's the difference between a saute with minced garlic and one with crushed garlic? This I don't know; I'm hoping to do a little experimentation soon and maybe that will reveal something. At any rate, I'm willing to bet the difference is fairly subtle, and, as purplewiz indicated, the two may be interchangeable for certain applications. The second thing to keep in mind is how much surface area is exposed to the cooking medium. In whole cloves, a limited surface area of the garlic is exposed to the environment, and so not you aren't going to get as much garlic flavor into your food. You get more of a light garlic flavor and perfume I find. Minced/crushed garlic on the other hand, has nearly maximal surface area exposed to the environment. Bits of minced garlic are small enough that effectively all of the garlic can participate in diffusion. When you tossed some minced garlic into hot oil, you are extracting most of the fat soluble flavor compounds out of the garlic and into the oil. Slivers of garlic might be considered an intermediate. They have more surface area than whole, but less than minced, and are large enough to provided noticable "bursts" of garlic flavor when chewed. They might be ideal lightly sauteed and tossed with fresh herbs and pasta for example. I hope this helps. This is the way I like to approach cooking, and this sort of approach is what I think this thread is about. I don't think it makes sense to have hard/fast rules like minced garlic for dish x and whole for dish y. I'm guessing you feel the same way though, and just needed a way to phrase your question.

There's nothing wrong with using a garlic press, provided crushed garlic is what you want. Alliums take up sulfur from the soil and incorporate it into chemical precursors. When acted upon by certain enzymes, these precursors produce the compounds that comprise the characteristic raw allium pungency/flavor. In whole cells the precursors float freely in the cell fluid, whereas the enzymes are stored in storage vacuoles. When allium cells are damaged, the two are mixed and the enzymes break up the precursor molecules, creating "irritating, strong-smelling sulfurous molecules" (Mcgee 311). What this all means is that the extent to which the tissue is damaged stipulates the degree to which enzymes and precursors mix. Hence mincing, pulverizing, slicing thinly, whole cloves, etc all have different effect. This is especially true of garlic as it has a "hundredfold higher concentration of initial reaction products" (Mcgee 311). My theory is that the convenience of garlic presses led some people to start using exclusively crushed garlic. This produced a backlash against them, as others knew pulverized garlic produces a specific effect.

I don't know if it'll be any help to you at this point, but I was planning on getting this. I've been researching a wok burner as well, and this seemed like the best option for me as it is also available through home depot, and shipping to Canada is complicated. The adjustable legs look nice, and from the reviews I gather the heat would be more than sufficient.

I looked over Mcgee a bit, but didn't find too much on the specific flavor compounds of butter. The olive oil analogy doesn't make a lot of sense to me though, as the two are processed and used differently. The vast majority of butter is pasteurised, and when using butter, one usually heats it in some form. This isn't the case for high quality olive oils which are cold pressed and used "raw". I don't think you need super high-end butter for clarifying unless you are planning to use it for something where its delicate and subtle qualities will be an asset. But I don't think one should settle for just any old butter either. In my experience, the clarifying process actually enhances the aroma and flavor of the butter. Thinking on it, I'd bet the "natural flavors" are just lactic acid and flavour compounds (probably gained as by products from other dairy processes). These are often added to butters that aren't fermented at any stage with bacterial cultures. If the natural flavors were related to the fermentation that produces cultured better, I'm guessing they would advertise this. I'm a bit puzzled at why one would want a neutrally flavored clarified butter. Its higher percentage of saturated fats might make it fry better. The fact that it has already been heated might also do this. Most fats fry better after they have been used a bit, thought I can't remember why. (Incidentally I've been trying to remember where I read it ever since, any ideas anyone?) But it seems like one gains little advantage over using a high smoke point oil with a good proportion of saturated fat. If i'm going to bother clarifying butter so I can fry specifically with it, it's going to be for the flavor.

Helen's suggestion seems like a possibility, but if it were a starter added to purposely culture the butter wouldn't the manufacturer go to the trouble of advertising this? Although the linked website doesn't seem to indicate this explicitly; perhaps it is some byproduct of another dairy process added in quantities to enhance the flavor. Clarified butter will keep for a few months at room temperature, but as DCP's link indicated only if it is thoroughly clarified. If you are going to be keeping it for a while I would suggest keeping it in an airtight opaque container in the fridge. Some high end ghees are aged for months to years at cool temperatures though. What leads you to believe that cheap better is best for clarifying? It depends on what you're using it for, and if you are happy with what you've got, then great. But, better butter makes better clarified better (or ghee). The best ghees I am told, are made from extraordinary butter that is the product of a laborious and somewhat complicated process.

Thanks for the heads up Franois. Do you know if they is anywhere one can get Ferme aux Saveurs chickens in Montreal? I looked at the list of producers on the site, but I couldn't find any that weren't in or around Gatineau.

Congratulations Chad, looks like your going to do a great job. It seems like you would know about all the various internet knife forums, but your Tojiro DP comments made me wonder. Are you familiar with Fred's Cutlery Forum? A ton of knowledgeable and helpful people on there; they've been pushing the Tojiro DP series for years, and recommend DP to anyone on a budget. Some of them might take you up on it being better than Misono UX-10 though. A forum member there also recommended the misono molybdenum series as a great value.

Bruce: Great looking curry. It's probably good that you used your own paste; the recipe you linked to looks pretty light on seasoning to me. I haven't had much time to cook lately, but a few days ago I made Chicken Satay with Kasma's Nam Jim Tua (peanut sauce): Not strictly Thai, but they are quite popular in Thailand, and on this side of the pond in Thai restaurants. I had been wanting to try Kasma's sauce for a while, and one of Austin's recent posts on Satay provided the impetus. It was very good, rich and creamy with a good amount of peanut flavor and nice and spicy. I used chile de arbol for the dried red chiles. As is it is still crab season here in Quebec, I picked up another snow crab and made kao pat buu (crab fried rice): This was quite good also, and I look forward to using the rest of my crab.

As Slkinsey has pointed out before, it's stovetop braising where the heavy cast iron vessels like LC and Staub really shine. I think that the thermal properties of the lid are probably moot in the higher ambient temperature of the oven, but on the stovetop they help maintain the really even heat thats great for braising. I don't have a LC so I can't compare, but the the lid for my 8qt Staub Cocotte is massive; it probablys weighs about 5 pounds. It can maintain a low simmer for quite a long time after I turn the heat off, and it also has "braising spikes" on top of the lid that aid in getting the condensation to drip back down on whatever's braising. You could probably make a glass lid with these spikes too, or even a fairly heavy one, but that'd be a lot of extra work. I really like the visibilty glass lids provide too, but I think they aren't optimal for stovetop braising.

Does she eat pork? There are lot of great stews and crockpot dishes you can make with pork, particular mexican ones such as chile verde or chile colorado. Another good idea would be Indian or thai curries. There are a lot of these you could leave simmering in the crockpot that involve chicken, seafood, or in some cases pork (pork vindaloo for example). If they were going to simmer too long you could simply prep the base and let that simmer, and have her add the fish/meat when she got home and simply continue to simmer till ready. Or you just just as easily cook it ahead of time and have it easy for her to reheat. Many of these things improve with age. Other ideas that come to mind are ratatouille, coq au vin, moroccan style stews (chicken with olives). Perhaps some of the braises from the Braising with Molly book? There are plenty of braises that don't involve red meat. Soups might be another idea, plenty of great veggie, seafood, or poultry based soups that are delicious and tasty, and would only require reheating.

Pan: yes, thanks for the heads up. It was in the foreign curries section so I really should have picked up on that. Looking back on it I realize Austin's curry was a Malay curry too, which is not really suprising since the recipes are nearly identical. You are very right that it's hard labor, bloody hard labor at that. I have great respect for those expert old women, who I am sure would make a mockery of me. Truth be told, the first few pastes were pretty brutal. I honestly wondered if I was ever going to get those damned bits of dried chiles and lemongrass to resemble anything close to a paste. It gets easier every time though (mostly), and the results are unquestionable. Additionally, it is just the sort of thing that appeals to me. If it is feasible for me to do it from scratch, and I think it will produce a better result, I'll make it from scratch. I get great pleasure from "having made everything with my own two hands", and I feel much more connected to the whole process. To me, the transformation of the beginning ingredients to a smooth and pungent paste is quite dramatic, and in doing it I feel like I'm really learning something. On a related note, I bought a new mortar and pestle the other day: This is a big improvement. I especially like the depth, as this helps with ingredients flying out, and the bigger size leaves much less room for the unpulverized bits to hide. That said though, even with this bigger one I still found it easier to take out some of the ingredients as I went along. I think I am now convinced that the best way to go about making the paste is incrementally. For the tough ingredients add a small amount (say 1-2 tbsp) of chopped ingredient, smash to a paste, remove said paste to a bowl, and proceed with the next batch until all of an ingredient is used up. Leave a small amount of the last ingredient in the mortar before proceeding to the next, and incorporate each ingredient into the original paste as you go along. This isn't really necessary for soft ingredients like garlic or shallots, but when you have a couple tablespoons of lemongrass or dried chiles this seems to be the way to go. He was very tasty too. And quite sedate I might add; the crack in the board is the result of attempting to use gravity to unbend it at one point. I would appreciate any tips on how to fix it. I'm glad you like the pictures, I actually have a lot more I could post if you'd like. Given that we seem to think similarily in a lot of ways, I would highly recommend Thompson's book. It is a tome, and his recipes are "cheflike" (he is a chef), but to me these are not bad things (I like a lot of detail, can you tell?). Based on people's comments, one impression I have is that people aren't paying attention to his sections on technique and ingredients. He goes into great detail on all the basic techniques and ingredients of thai cooking, which I find very helpful. Not all of his recipes are accessible in terms of ingredients or technical difficulty, but there are so many recipes and there are lots of simpler ones too, and the more complex ones make for great projects. To date, I don't think I have been disappointed with a single recipe (at this point I've probably made atleast 30 or so of his recipes). Bruce: Yes I am a huge fan of chicken thighs too. Breasts are good for certain applications, but little to say for themselves in my opinion. As for caramelizing, thank Thompson not me. Vietnamese caramel sauce might work well for some of the darker, spice laden curries, but I don't think I'd use it for every curry (It is my understanding that caramel sauce is a very darkly caramelized). I usually just let the sugar melt and wait for it to bubble up/darken (see thompson's section on frying the paste for more detail). I have been using the delicious Ataulfo mangoes for my sticky rice (and just eating), which are all over the markets right now. I didn't actually remember to ask what sort of crab it was, but looking at some old threads I am pretty sure it was snow crab. They are from the gaspe region of Quebec.

You can certainly do this, but it is a personal choice. Fats actually deep fry best after they have been broken down a bit. For this reason, most restauarants add some old oil to the fresh batch of new oil. With each use they will breakdown a bit more and the smoke point will be lowered, and eventually they will have to be thrown out. Also, when broken down they accumulate more potentially harmful compounds through interactions of the hot fat with oxygen in the air. You can minimize this by using a "tall, narrow pan and so reducing the area of contact between fat and the atmosphere" (Mcgee 803). Animal fats are actually better in this respect, as they usually contain more saturated fats which are more resistant to this than unsaturated fats. If you are particularly concerned about this you may want to start with fresh fat each time. Personally I reuse my fats and oils a few times before throwing them away.

You are definitely not alone. I often make dinner at other peoples houses, usually involving extensive prepwork and hauling of large quanitities of esoteric ingredients. I have (and still am) learned the hard way not to do too much. I consistently find myself turning around in circles, remember what it is I had planned to do next. In the meanwhile, my gracious hosts are unhelpfully asking how they can help. Of course, one can improve though. For the elaborate dinners I now try to write out a list of all the equipment I will need. I often ask about specific things, and if feasible bring my own equipment (which nearly always includes my knives, a small whisk, and favorite stirfrying implement). When I get there I try to familiarize myself with the kitchen, and learn where all the specific things I need are stored. I have been learning about the psychology of attention recently, and there is a lot of mention of how learning goes through stages. Initially something new and unfamiliar takes up a lot of conscious attention and mental power, but as it is practiced more and more it progresses towards being almost fully automatic and using up little resources. I think all of us who cook a lot have automatic processes that are fine tuned to our own kitchens. Take us out of our environment into a place where the detailed settings don't apply anymore, and it is going to take some time to adjust.

Bruce: I didn't know about Mrs. C's preference, so I gather your chicken was just fine. I was amazed at the difference myself initially. It makes so much sense now that bite size chicken needs only a minute or two in the hot curry paste, and then 3-4 minutes at a low simmer. I had never even considered this before I knew how to cook meat; little did I realize that chicken could be so tender. I also struggle with getting the right amount of doneness in my curries, especially as I never eat them all in one sitting. I fret particularly about seafood, as I know tommorow's leftovers are overcooking while I sit down to enjoy my meal. I have resorted to cooking a meals worth of meat initially and parcooking the rest, or submerging the pot in a sink of cold water. I will have to try playing with some of these souring agents. Lime juice in any coconut based curry doesn't strike me as traditional either, but I have hardly seen everything. I wouldn't say chinkiang vinegar is much more untraditional; Thompson has a number of recipes with it, and it seems to be an ingredient picked up from the chinese. I'd particularly recommend Stir-fried banana chiles (pg 465) with it. Another thing you might try is tamarind, which is typical of southern curries. I also have been trying to nail the seasoning with my curries. I think it's rare that a coconut milk curry doesn't require atleast a little sugar to pull together and soften the flavors. Although, after reading Thompson's comments on sugar in green curries, I have been limiting my sugar with them to a teaspoon or less; I think I agree with him thus far. I think no perceptible sweetness for some curries is good, but not necessarily so for other ones. I have had to learn to restrain myself though, as sometimes the sugar doesn't seem to have the desired effect, or I don't perceive it, and I end up with an overly sweet curry. Do you follow his suggestion of briefly caramelizing the palm sugar for fried curries? I hadn't encountered this before from other authors, and am particularly fond of it now. The preethi grinder sounds great, I think I will add it to the "list" (which is unfortunately, far too long already). I have heard great things about it for grinding idli and dosa batters as well. Unfortunately, your jealousy is unmerited; I am in the same boat as you. Kasma is my hero, and probably my favorite thai cookery author. I think I've read every printed word on her site, and cooked about half its recipes. I hope to get the cookbooks someday when I am richer. In the meantime I scour used bookstores (I have heard of some people getting lucky), and I am planning on buying the e-book for Dancing Shrimp. Today I made Geng guwa malayu (Southern-style curry of mud crab, T-323). Here is the prepared paste: The curry was very good. I didn't realize it at first, but I think this is more or less the exact same curry as Austin's earlier one, but with crab instead of mussels. They are southern style curries: seasoned with tamarind and coconut based, but are enriched with coconut cream at the end rather than fried. Thompson's recipe called for Mud Crab, but I substitued this guy: They were offering live crabs at the market, and I couldn't resist. This was my first time dealing with live crab, and I managed ok, a lot of work though. Thompson's directions said to break open the shell (after killing of course) and cut the crab meat into chunks. My guy seemed to be a bit too small for this, so I settled for parcooking him and scraping the meat out afterwards. I think next time I will try making crab balls, as the shredded crab meat was still very tasty, but somewhat diffuse when mixed into the curry. Here is the finished product: I also made Kao Niaow Ma- Muang (Coconut flavored sticky rice with mangoes, and in my case, strawberries). Sticky rice with mangoes is a favorite of mine. Most recipes, including Kasma's, recommend letting the rice rest for a bit after adding the sweetened coconut milk, so as to let it soak up the flavors. The flavors do seem to permeate more this way, but I really like the texture of just mixed hot sticky rice fresh coated in sweet, salty coconut milk. The strawberries aren't traditional of course, but I had some on hand and thought I'd try them. Not sure how I feel about them yet, I think the mango is a better pairing though.

Shalmanese: Your method sounds like an excellent one, I will have to try it. I had been toying with the idea of a long of a low temp, long roasting time for brown stocks. I may try something extreme like many hours at 225-250 or so sometime; I am curious to see if this can build complexity, as the slow/low formula does in so many other applications. Your method also seems to suggest that there is an exchange going on between the fat and water, and that early defatting is not a good idea. A few questions for you: - This is with chicken stocks? I see you mentioned roasts, but I don't see why one would trim the fat for roasting a chicken. Are you mixing animals for your stock? - Do you cut the bones up at all? With chicken bones it seems like 2 hours might be enough to fully extract the flavor, but not necessarily so for some of the pork or beef bones I use for some stocks. - This brings me to my next point. Are you doing failry small quantities? I can't imagine trying to brown whole chicken bones in my 20qt stockpot. I think it could be adapated roasting them seperately in a roasting pan though. I also use the double stock vegetable bit which I prefer for the reasons you stated. I typically limit it to onions though, as I think these are "integral" and round out the stock. Carrots I leave out as I cook mostly asian food, and they aren't a flavor I necessarily want. I typically introduce other flavors or aromatics seperately for a specific application, as I make large quanitities and store long term, and I feel they fade quickly (even bay leaves) or reduce versatility. Your comments have me thinking in general that the quickest extraction yielding the maximum flavor is the best way to go for stock. Frying/roasting in fat first as you have, and cutting up the bones beforehand seem like the best way to go about this. Oh and thanks for the explanation on the reduction trick, makes perfect sense. With this logic it seems it would be even better to reduce your stocks in a wide shallow pan like a saute evasee. I have to wonder whats going on here though. It seems like any volatile/aromatic compound is going to go away with the reduction, so what is it about prolonged heating that is detrimental to the stock? I've looked through Mcgee a bit and haven't found any insight.

Lesley: Thanks for that, good to know. As I said, I haven't actually sampled the charlevoix chicken, and was only guessing based on reputation. I am actually happy to hear that exceldor is better; I am pretty sure this is the one I buy (usually for 6$/kilo). This way I don't have to worry about "not having the best chicken" and convincing myself to shell out that extra buck. It is a bit sad to hear that though, I would happily shell out 30$ for special occasions if it was a level above.

Compliment accepeted. Given that, would you help a stock nerd out with his burning quest for knowledge with respect to Nathan's reducing trick? This one really interests me, and anything you could do to address my original questions would be great!

I would suggest les fermes biologique de charlevoix. The list of their distributors is on site, although I haven't seen them readily at all the places on the list. You should be able to get them readily at either of the organic butchers at JTM or atwater, or at Latina on st. viateur. I haven't tried them myself yet, but I've heard great things about their products. I find the price a little prohibitive though, at 25-30$ for a whole chicken. Second to that I've had luck with les fermes voltigeurs, whose chicken are grain fred and air dried, and I think pretty good.

Robyn: Yes I'm sure the stuff I get doesn't hold a candle to the artisanal local stuff, but I'm just happy to be getting it at all! I just tried my Indonesian palm sugar, and I am really impressed. It is very dark and moist; sticky enough to smear. It also has the best flavor of any palm sugar I've tried so far. Very strong flavor, and it has an earthy richness to it that reminds me of chocolate. Not sure I'll use this for my lighter palm sugar applications, but it seems like it'll be perfect for red curries and the like. No chemical taste whatsoever, not that I have ever encountered one before in any palm sugar. But if this is only the name brand stuff, I can only imagine what the small producer stuff you're getting is like. Would you be willing to elaborate a bit on the different types of trees? I was only aware of the different types such as coconut palm versus date palm versus sugar palm. What are some of the different types, and what are the differences between them? From what I'd read, I was aware that sugar palms were supposed to produce the better sugar. Kasma Loha Unchit'sKasma Loha-Unchits article on thai palm sugar is excellent. I didn't know that most thai palm sugar was actually coconut sugar though. Where are you getting this from? Kent: I think I agree, but why would you say it costs next to nothing? Most of these sugars are quite a bit more expensive than refined, and could easily add up especially with wastage. It also seems like something that would be limited to specialty places; I can think of a number of people and their reactions to that degree of choice. That said I have noticed some local cafes carrying packets of raw turbinado style sugar alongside their regular ones. Nduran: Where are you getting your palm sugar? All the stuff I've found is fairly cheap, but gram per gram still way more expensive than refined sugar. I often subsitute palm sugar for piloncillo, or jaggery for palm or the like when I'm out of a particular type, as they can be fairly similar. It seems a lot of us are in the know on these specialty sugars. Obviously there's a lot more to sugar than just sugar. It still strikes me though that all of these sugars are so much more expensive than refined sugar, yet they are processed less. Is it just marketing I wonder? It seems like the moister sugars would be more difficult to handle, store, and ship, but not to the extent that they are differentially priced.