Beebs

I should ask Mom how long she simmers for & to what done-ness before soaking. Her chicken is a bit more done than the way restaurants & BBQ joints do it, but definitely not overcooked. I might have a go at it this weekend, if I can get my act together.

Soy Sauce Chicken is one of my favourite chicken dishes! My mom makes it every now and then, but I haven't attempted it - because I know it won't be as delicious as Mom's. Professional Hobbit's link looks about what she does. Slow simmer, then let sit in the cooling liquid. I suspect the silky smooth breast meat is because it's juuuuust shy of being cooked all the way through. Similar to white poached chicken or Hainan chicken. I can assure you there is no cornstarch or velveting technique used and no sous vide. It's possible the restaurants might tenderize the bird with baking soda, which should give it the soft texture, but sacrifices flavour. Some places do that with stir-fry meat or chicken, which I find makes it bland and a bit mushy. Mom doesn't do this. Also, I have seen some Hainan chicken techniques where the whole bird is exfoliated with kosher salt so the skin is nice and smooth, and get all the crud off. I don't know if that makes any difference to the actual meat itself, but it might improve the appearance of the final dish. Oh yeah. Now I desperately want Soy Sauce Chicken.

CBC aired a season of the Great British Baking Show in the weeks leading up to the Great Canadian Baking Show as well. I am rather enjoying the GCBS, it's a fun show to watch. I was pleasantly surprised they're doing quite a bit of traditional British baking, too. Hopefully it'll be renewed! (...and the only real butter tarts have raisins in them!)

Catching up now - what an exciting trip! I'd like to know more about the oil tea and how it's made. Is there any actual tea in there, or just oil? Is the mouthfeel greasy at all?

Anyone have a good pfeffernusse recipe recommendation? I normally make molasses ginger cookies, but would like to change it up. I prefer a softer, cakier pfeffernusse.

I made one a few weeks ago - pecans, dried fig, brown sugar. Doused in rum & set on fire - watch the eyebrows! For lazy baked brie, I like sundried tomato pesto, tapenade, or spicy pepper jelly. Also really like puff pastry-wrapped brie.

I would like some spring rolls, please. Just send 'em on over. Thank you.

That's too bad, @Anna N. It does look like it should be far more delicious than it actually is. I would really like to try @Mmmpomps method, but maybe with a sirloin roast?? @rotuts, beef up here in Canada (or at least Vancouver....) has gotten redonkulously $$$, even for blah cuts like eye and ground. DH & I are eating way less beef at home than we used to, maybe once a month at most for something nice like steak. I wonder how this method would hold up for a pork roast? I dislike grey, over cooked pork roast. Maybe an extra minute on the pressure??

Stumbled upon this recipe for pressure cooker Christmas Pudding on the Hip Pressure Cooking website. Intrigued! I have never made a Christmas pudding in my life, although at glance this recipe looks simple enough. Has any tried to pressure cook a Christmas pudding? Also, how would ceramic bowls hold up under pressure? I don't relish the idea of picking bits of bowl out my pudding. Although I do have a stainless steel mixing bowl that should fit in the IP.

Give in to the dark side...just get it. You know you want to.

Whoaaa nice eye of round! How big was the roast? Hmmmm...this would be a good candidate for that reverse sear method. Putting this on my list!

There's a great recipe hereabouts in the China cooking forum from former-poster hzrt8w for soy sauce chicken using Coca-cola as part of the braising liquid. Hmmm...having some trouble finding it, though. Can't recall if it was a separate post on its own or part of a different thread. Anyway, it's really delicious, although it's been awhile since I've made it. ETA: Nevermind! Found it!

We had hot mulled wine for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Actually, only me & mom drank it. Polished off a litre bottle's worth. Heh.

Me too! DH has been requesting lasagna - this will be my weekend project. I really like a spinach-ricotta layer, with a bit of nutmeg grated in. I think it lightens up an otherwise heavy lasagna. So I can eat more of it. And not to hijack this thread - I've never used no-boil noodles. How much more watery does the sauce have to be to cook the no-boil noodles? Any tips to using them or just chuck 'em in?

Food requiring utensils served on slate. Sure, it looks pretty, but....the scrape of a knife & fork on slate...*shudder*.

Thai/Vietnamese fish sauce. A couple generous splashes gives meat sauce some umami.

Palm hearts? Bamboo shoots? These both come in cans or frozen.

An entire warehouse shelf of fois gras!! Who knew such things existed!! How did you resist spending an entire month's paycheque in there? Or did you?!?!

Hmmm... my pork wasn't juicy for sure, not in the way that grilling that same shoulder (actually, blade steak) would be juicy. But it also wasn't sawdust-dry in my mouth either. I'd say as far as tenderness goes, it's comparable to a braise, but lacking a bit of that something-something braising gives the meat - a certain "mouth feel" I guess? Or maybe I'm braising wrong??? I have definitely over-stewed meat on the stove before, and it did turn out objectively dry (hasn't happened with oven-braising, that I recall). It's interesting how Weedy's results are so different, given similar cuts of meat and IP cooking methods. Or maybe our benchmarks for "dry" is really different.....

Definitely not tough & hard. Was it as unctuous as slow braising? Probably not. But it certainly wasn't dried out, not by a long shot. In fact, it could probably do with a shorter cook time, as some of the smaller pieces were falling apart more than I would like. IIRC, it was a 25 min cook time, and a 20 min slow release.

I've been eyeing the pressure cooker Pho Ga (chicken) recipe on Serious Eats. It's going on this week's cooking list! I recently made pork goulash which turned out only ok - but I think it was a recipe thing rather than a pressure cooker issue. I was aiming for a Czech style goulash, like what I had in Prague earlier this year. Anyway, the pork shoulder turned out great.

Loved getting Glosettes chocolate raisins! Despised the peanut ones. Actually anything with whole peanuts. Except peanut M&Ms. Loved little boxes of raisins, too. Yeah, I was a weird kid. Never got apples or popcorn balls. When I was growing up, no parent in their right mind would let their kid eat them anyway - fear of hidden razor blades or rat poison. And really, unless one is a dentist, there is s special place in hell reserved just for people giving out toothbrushes!

I've had candy corn for the first time as an adult. I'd heard about them as a kid, and had imagined they would be crunchy, kind of like corn nuts, but sweet. Sadly disappointed. Worst candy - Rockets. I believe they're called Smarties in the US. Powdery rolls of ick. Avoid the houses giving out Rockets. (Real Smarties in Canada, on the other hand, are delicious candy coated buttons of chocolate - eat the red ones last! They're naturally coloured now, but I rather miss the bright artificial colours.) Twizzlers - close 2nd for grossness. Also those orange wax paper-wrapped toffee things that are supposed to be soft, but never are, and only get stuck in your back teeth. I like Tootsie Rolls. Best treat - full-sized bar of Coffee Crisp!

Poached eggs. I attempt poached eggs when I have a hankering for scrambled egg soup. Cutting up a whole chicken into parts. Chicken looks abused. Mind you, these are techniques I can probably improve with a lot of practice...but I just don't want to.

Coincidentally, my mom just emailed me at work that a raccoon ate their fairly large kabocha pumpkin off the vine, leaving nothing but a pile of seeds, guts, and a bit of rind. Must be one happy, very fat trash panda.