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takadi

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Everything posted by takadi

  1. I don't personally have this information but I did try doing some google searches and came up with this blog that did some experimentation on using koon chun lye water and adjusting measurements to make ramen noodles. http://norecipes.com/blog/homemade-ramen-noodle-recipe/ If you go to the preview pictures for modernist cuisine on amazon and look at the picture for pasta, you can see for ramen that 0.1% potassium carbonate and 0.9% sodium carbonate are "suggested" measurements (percentage of total weight of flour used). You could make a leap of faith and extrapolate from this that whatever the "correct" amount of lye water for ramen contains .9 % and .1% of total weight of flour of sodium and potassium carbonate respectively I was unable to find the concentrations of potassium carbonate or sodium carbonate on Koon Chun's site, which is a little disconcerting.
  2. Has anyone had any experience with vacuum sealer guns, the Waring Pro Pistol Vac in particular? It looks like a much better alternative than the food saver not to mention that the bags are reusable
  3. Reminds me of why I love Chinese food so much. The mushroom hunting scene reminds me of something straight from Lord of the Rings
  4. If you are going for the screaming hot rocket fueled wok hei, the key is the mise en place...all the ingredients should be precoooked so that when you put all the ingredients in the pan at the same time and just let it go for a few minutes, everything should be cooked perfectly. Velvet the meat, boil/steam/deep-fry the veggies, soak the noodles, and add everything in at the same time. I actually add the meat just a smidge earlier to get an extra sear on it
  5. Okay I got the new safety valve today and tested it out with a couple inches of water. While the safety valve did contribute to the hissing and venting while heating up, it was mostly a stiff spring and a leaky o ring that was the cause. When it got to pressure, the o ring continued to spurt and vent. I tightened the valve and while it helped quite a bit, although it's relatively quiet at the first mark, at the second mark it still hisses considerably. I'll probably try getting a new o-ring as well, luckily those are much cheaper than the safety valve
  6. My grandmother makes these all the time and they keep forever. I have no idea what she uses for the brine, but it seems like it's some mixture of fish sauce, salt, sugar, and vinegar, with a few chili peppers thrown in
  7. Thanks for the reply. I actually read through the entire pressure cooker thread after posting this and it was very educational, especially your posts. It seems that some hissing while under pressure is normal, which is sort of disappointing to me since I expected practically zero venting and smells (smells to me indicate escaping of volatiles and therefore flavor). I have no comparison but it just seems like it's hissing more than it should be. I will be receiving the new safety valve tonight, so I will rule out whether it will make a difference. I didn't remove the valve housing and check (didn't know you could remove it until after cooking was done) but most of the steam venting off during pressurization was coming from a small area, which makes me suspect that the safety valve is faulty...if it was coming from the main valve, I think it would have been coming out from all directions, yes? I think I saw your post that Fisslers apparently have the least venting of all "non-venting" pressure cookers? Unfortunately, they are the most expensive out there. Referring to the interchangeability of the valves, I was actually referring to the main socket valve, not the safety valve. According to the site, there seems to be an old model and a new model. I have a supposed new model, a 3344, but the valve it came with is an old model. I wasn't sure if there was a performance difference between the old and new model or if it was just cosmetic and the two valves are interchangeable along with their indicator stems. If it's the former, I'm wondering if it is hindering the performance of the cooker and not the safety valve.
  8. I got a used 7 L Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker (the one with the long handle) from ebay, and knowing very little about Kuhn Rikon in general, I need to know if this guy ripped me off or not. First, when I tried cooking stock with it for the first time today, it sputtered and vented quite a lot when heating it up. The instruction manual says that when its coming up to pressure it should push out air then the stem should rise and seal it. So I'm not sure if this is what's supposed to happen. It took quite a long time for the stem to even rise and seal up (some 15-20 minutes on medium heat) and I had to help it up a little by pulling up on it. When it reached the first red mark, the venting and sputtering died down, but it was still hissing. I thought one of the main features of kuhn rikon was that it was enclosed and didn't vent. Do Kuhn Rikons still vent but just vent *less*? Or do I have a defective valve? I bought a new SI (UL) valve and a new stem spring just in case and I'm going to test out to see if it makes any difference. Also, upon doing a little research and shopping for a new SI valve, I noticed that although I have a 3344 model, the main valve I have right now does not match the model. http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/replacement_parts_kuhn_rikon_pressure_cookers.aspx According to that site, the current valve I have is for the older models. Also, the instruction manual that came with it shows pictures of the older valve model...which makes me suspect he either switched up the parts and sold me old parts, or he sold me a very old model with a new valve housing...or that website could be wrong. Anyway, I digress...my other question is, is there any performance difference between the old valve and the new valve? If so I'm wondering if this is the reason it's not working as well as it should. Perhaps the valve stem is for the newer model and doesn't match the older valve I have?
  9. No wonder...I got some black cardamom from the mother of an Indian friend of mine and I noticed the pods were smaller than I was used to seeing black cardamom. I wonder if there are any flavor differences...I myself didn't eally notice anything different. Black Cardamom is pretty important to the flavor of pho though, especially northern style pho
  10. Since my first post my views towards MSG have changed dramatically. Umami does tend to be that "it" factor that separates restaurant pho from conventional homemade recipes, and no amount of fish sauce can make up for that in the end. It explains why so many people including myself always end up with a broth that tastes bland. However, I do find that when MSG is used as a primary flavoring ingredient, through powders/bullion/ajinomoto like in the vast majority of pho restaurants, it makes the broth very unremarkable, flat, and one note, although they still have that telltale "lipsmacking" MSG tastiness. And although I have no real evidence, I am still convinced that *overconsumption* of MSG as opposed to the mere consumption of it can lead to those tell-tale symptoms of thirst, numbness, etc. Most restaurants especially where I live also make little to no emphasis on the spices, which in my opinion is the most important aspect of the broth. Nowadays, it's not that I'm spending countless hours making pho, something I can easily get at a restaurant for 7 bucks, because I'm some masochistic snob (although that could have been a perfectly plausible explanation a few years back). It's simply because almost every pho restaurant I go to nowadays really don't give a crap about their food anymore. If they manage to make really good pho one day, it's rare and very inconsistent. Most of the time it's just sipping on overly sweet MSG laden water downed broth. They all lack depth and taste cheap. It's upsetting to me sometimes because it's as if that's what they think customers expect, and to some extent I think it's true. It's as if they realize customers just drown everything in sriracha and hoisin sauce anyway and throw away the broth at the end, so it's probably not worth it to them to spend that extra time making really good broth with lots of bones and plenty of spice. I'm at a point where I feel restaurants simply don't deliver anymore and it becomes worth it to slave away in the kitchen just to get my pho fix. So my goal isn't just to re-create restaurant quality pho anymore (which just means crap quality pho to me now), it's really to make something that I can deem worthy and be proud of. And I think I'm getting really close. I will probably post a new recipe sometime in the near future, as I'm still trying to figure out good ingredient proportions. Haha, sorry I get a little emotional when it comes to pho.... Most pho cooks these days, though they won't tell you, will use some kind of umami enhancing ingredient in their pho. It's always their secret or special ingredient, whether it be sa sung from the old days, dried shrimps cuttlefish or scallops, powders, or just straight up MSG. My grandma uses dried shrimps sometimes but her favorite ingredient is that wonton soup powder from Dynasty. In my experiments, I've found that the only way around adding flavor enhancers that makes for a decent broth is to brown/roast the bones beforehand, use lots of meat to flavor the broth, and salt well throughout the cooking process, especially at the beginning.
  11. I think you may be onto something. At least in consommes, the scum from ground meat combined with the albumin from egg whites help clarify a stock later on. Perhaps the scum is left on will do a semi decent job clarifying, though I'm not sure if it's any better than parboiling the bones first. I personally parboil bones not just to clarify the stock but partly due to my own compulsiveness and not ever being 100 percent sure about the source of the beef. It's a ritual I perform to "cleanse" the meat of any off flavors (especially if they've been in the freezer for a while), however fallacious that might be
  12. Hi, I am the original poster of an old thread of me going through a similiarly infuriating journey. It has been many years since my first post and my point of view towards MSG has changed. The last reply on that thread had me thinking : what if the secret ingredient really is that umami factor? I was talking to my grandmother about a secret long forgotten ingredient that was used often in the North during the birth of pho call "sa sung". It is basically a type of sea worm-like invertabrate that is dried and then simmered along with the broth. It is supposedly the thing that gives it that "pho" essence, that aroma and sweetness. My grandmother would describe toasting it a little, and the moment it was put into the broth, the intensity of the aroma would increase many-fold. With easeness of use, chepness, and availability of MSG I suspect that's why no one knows about it anymore. There is actually an article about it you can read http://www.vietworld...-sipuncula.html Anyway this story reminds me of a common vietnamese habit of using dried seafood to add umami and depth to otherwise non-seafood broths like Bun Thang. I decided to try my recipe again but this time I added whole dried cuttlefish. I tasted it and I was definitely on to something - some gap was filled that was missing in all my other usages of pho, very reminsicent of restaurant pho. There were definitely some issues with the broth due to some problems in my technique (do NOT use beef neck bones) but the umami/glutamate element seems to be that "it" factor that restaurants are getting but home cooks are not. The article above suggests using conpoy or dried scallops, which is a commonly used technique in chinese cooking to enhance chicken stocks, but they tend to get expensive and their quality can vary.
  13. Yes their Bun mam is my favorite. They tend to be very inconsistent though. The last time I had it, it was incredibly salty and inedible. I went to Viet Taste again and got the same dish and I was very disappointed. It was bland, and undercooked, and lukewarm. I think it being lukewarm was the most disappointing aspect. It's a shame because I have been missing that dish ever since Viet Bistro discontinued it for some reason
  14. Oh man I'm so glad I made that choice. I had the Ca Um with tofu claypot. This used to be my regular at Viet Bistro before they totally went downhill. It wasn't the best I've ever had but it was pretty close.
  15. Yea I somewhat agree, so I was a little hesitant to go there but it turned out to be really really great. At least the stuff I tried...they seem to specialize in their soup dishes. Their Bun Rieu was incredible the first few times I ate it. Last few times were just really off, tasted almost like they put worcestershire sauce in it. But I think you're gonna have to get used to the whole fancy schmancy thing, I have a feeling that Eden center is trying to gentrify itself. I've heard rumors that the rents have been jacked up and alot of places have been closing down and being replaced by these scaled up "classy" places.
  16. This thread is giving me an idea of how my friends feel like when I talk to them about food.
  17. I know this is two years too late, but what he actually wrote was "hồi". Vietnamese people often write that downward slashing diacritical mark as a horizontal line. Hồi is star anise, and it is strange that he has decided to omit it from pho.
  18. Has anyone been to the new place Rice Paper? The few times I went there I had the most incredible Bun Oc, Bun Mam, and Bun Rieu but they are incredibly inconsistent. Lately, they have been changing their recipes drastically so I haven't been able to enjoy my experience like before.
  19. Wow, I have not been on this forum, much less this thread, in many many years. But alas I am on that pho kick again and my obsession has returned. I decided to try my hand at making pho for the last month and I suddenly remembered this thread and my old attempts. I have definitely tweaked the recipe and my way of thinking about pho and I think I'm heading in the right direction. It is not quite there though I added 2 or 3 pounds of beef knuckle and marrow bones along with some whole chicken wings that I put slits in and split the bones open, and a few large oxtails. I parboiled those for 10 minutes and then drained and throughly washed everything. Then I rubbed everything all the bones in salt and put them in cold water, which I brought up to a simmer. I simmer those for about an hour. During that time, I charred over open flame a three inch knob of peeled ginger and two large onions, and wash the excess burnt parts away. After the hour simmer, I added the rest of the ingredients including the spices. For the spices, I used 4-5 whole star anise, 10 cloves, 6 pieces of cassia bark, half of a black cardamom pod (thao qua), a half teaspoon of coriander and a half teaspoon of whole black pepper. I simmered for about another two hours, adding small amounts of salt in small increments along the way. Added fish sauce and rock candy sugar at the end The verdict: I shouldn't have added any sugar, as the charring of the onions added more than enough sweetness to the stock. So it ended up being almost cloyingly sweet which just ruined everything. Extremely disappointed. Besides the sweetness, I found the aroma of the star anise was a little overpowering, so I am going to push it down a notch next time. The broth was also on the bland side, and as I had done before in the past years, I think I have waterlogged my stock again. So next time I will use significantly less water. Also the oxtail was still tough, so I suspect that not only had too much water contributed to not enough flavor, but I don't think I cooked it for nearly as long as I should have or on a temperature that was high enough. I kept it at an extremely low simmer the entire time. I'm thinking next time I will add more oxtail or perhaps some meat to up the intensity as well. So why did I simmer the bones an extra hour before I added everything else? In past attempts, I've noticed that when I added the aromatics and spices in the beginning and simmered for the entire duration, the stock acquired a sort of "muddy" overcooked taste that was extremely unpleasant. I suspected that the flavor is that of overcooked onions, so I've decided that the onions and ginger get at most two hours of simmer time. This paranoia was sort of in the back of my mind when I was making this soup. For some reason I thought reducing simmering time of the bones and meat and simmering more gently would result in a "fresher" tasting broth. I've concluded that it takes way more time for the collagen and flavors to be extracted with beef bones so I think I will take it further next time and simmer the beef bones for wayyy longer before I add everything else On the up side, the ginger flavor complemented the broth nicely. In the past I've made the mistake of adding way to much ginger, and I've learned that ginger comes through VERY strongly. So be very cautious with it. Another mistake I've made in the past was adding too much fish sauce to make up for the lack of seasoning and flavor. Once you go overboard with fish sauce, your soup will be completely ruined. It will taste like a salty garbage can As a side note, in attempt to "fix" the overly sweet broth, I decided that I would dilute the stock with more water and fish stock and simmer it for another hour or two. At the end I noticed the flavor had slightly improve and had acquired a very subtle beefy flavor that I could barely detect before but now had the broth tasting a little more normal. I also have a theory that simmering the bones with the seasonings and salt might form new flavor compounds as it cooks away, perhaps even forming natural "MSG" when the sodium combines with dissolved proteins in the water. Just a half assed guess, but it was the reason why I added salt to the bones at the very beginning I will rework my recipe when I get the chance and get back to it Until next time
  20. Yea, you're right, I think ketchup tastes better
  21. takadi

    Bare Minimum

    A wok, a knife, and a giant spork. Seriously
  22. I've heard the cook's illustrated version is pretty authentic...unfortunately I haven't been able to find it
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