blue_dolphin

@Dr. Teeth, you should expect intact tins. From your photos, I can’t tell for sure whether the tins are wrapped in slightly wrinkled paper or if the metal tins themselves are wrinkled. For a gift subscription, I’d find the first acceptable but not the second.

Even United always offered a mid flight noodle service in economy on flights to/from Asia. I haven’t flown in quite a while so I don’t know if that’s still the case. A number of airlines stopped offering that service but let passengers know they can come to the galley to get them. More recently, some airlines have changed their policies, citing the risk of burn injuries. Air Canada won’t serve them if the seatbelt sign is on. Korean Air has completely stopped serving them in economy.

Here's some advice from Peter Kim's recent book, Instant Ramen Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I posted a review over in the cookbooks topic. His steps are: Prep - gather ingredients, slice, measure Pre-simmer - sear, sauté, bloom spices, depending on your additions Simmer - cook noodles and ingredients Finish - mix, top & serve His recommended cook times are shorter than most package instructions, partly because he likes a bit of chew in the noodles and because the noodles continue to cook while you’re finishing, topping and plating so a shorter time gives you a little buffer before the noodles get mushy. Obviously, your taste may vary. He recommends a cook time of 2 min for thin gauge noodles like Top Ramen, Maruchan and Sapporo Ichiban, 2 min 30 sec for medium gauge noodles like Shin Raymun, Jin Raymun, Chapaghetti, and 3 min for thick gauge noodles like Neoguri and Buldak. My favorite is the Prima Taste brand Singapore Curry La Mein which has a cook time on the packet of 7 min and I aim to finish the simmer step somewhere around 5 min 30 sec. I add my veg according to how long they need to cook. Obviously, with the shorter simmer times for thin noodles, you may need to add some longer cooking veg before the noodles go in. This really depends on the brand as the packets vary in size, how much stuff you add and your appetite. The brand I mentioned says each packet makes 2 servings and that’s what I usually do. The Prima Taste noodles I mentioned come with 2 seasoning packets and I use them. It is huge amount of sodium so I try to add a ton of veg to balance it out and it’s a rare treat. I’m going to try some other brands so I can play around with ideas from the book and will probably start with using ~ 1/4 of the seasoning packet and go from there.

Savory Dutch baby with gochujang salmon from Everyday Korean. One of several variations this book has for a one-egg, single-serving Dutch baby baked in a little 6-inch cast iron skillet. Didn’t puff as much as last time but was still light and fluffy.

I got some nice sockeye salmon in my fish share this week. Here's a salmon sando made with the roasted salmon with gochujang mayo from Everyday Korean by Kim Sunee and Seung Hee Lee. The gochujang mayo is equal parts gochujang, mayo and oyster sauce with minced fresh garlic and ginger. After anointing the salmon, I added rice vinegar, a little honey and toasted sesame seeds to remaining gochujang mayo and used it to dress a quick, crunchy slaw of cabbage, sugar snap peas and scallions.

Even stringent, food service guidelines indicate food held in the “danger zone” (generally 40° - 140°F or 5° - 60°C) is still safe to consume after 4 hrs. Six hrs is starting to stretch it a little. I’d feel fine with salty meats and fatty cheeses in that range, those who prefer to go strictly by the book might include a frozen ice pack that would keep the temp down for a few hours.

Rather conventional breakfast items today. French toast sticks, sausage, yogurt and peaches (O’Henry, my fave) with a drizzle of vanilla bean-infused maple syrup. The only twist was using a split-top brioche hot dog bun to make the French toast sticks, a trick I spotted online and a good way to address odd dog/bun ratios. I tend to use sturdy, stale, sometimes VERY stale, bread that needs a good soak. This was rather the opposite and only needs a quick dunk rather than a soak but I’d do it again.

It’s well written so I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading through it, even if you purchased it as a gift!

That’s too bad. I believe the recipes are only available at that Substack link in my post but there are other ways to access the podcast. Where do you usually listen to podcasts? Here's an Apple Podcasts link to the episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/improvising-dinner-with-peter-j-kim/id1769201553?i=1000725500686 And here's a Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CA4aXZPPq4APuJcBiJkTf?si=xEVOA5KsTQSKBPfV4QZxMA

After listening to a podcast author interview, I've read Peter J Kim's first book, Instant Ramen Kitchen (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) from cover to cover and think it’s quite a clever book. Peter Kim has created something akin to an instant ramen version of Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat with enough info in the first sections of the book to enable anyone to come up with their own instant ramen variations, learning a bunch of cooking fundamentals (the value of mise en place, dealing with differing cooking times and balancing flavors for personal taste) in the process. Armed with a bunch of instant ramen packets and some pantry ingredients, a kitchen novice could learn a ton by making a bunch of these little single-serving, low cost meals, using either the recipes or the general guidelines to come up with their own combos. Up front, he breaks down the steps (prep, pre-simmer, simmer and finishing) with example timelines, reviews types of instant ramen widely available in the US and the importance of choosing the right simmer time, usually shorter than the label specs. Next, he presents a “Ramen Flavor Wheel” which serves as a guide for choosing flavors and also introduces all the ingredients used. Each of the ingredients gets a little blurb outlining how to use it. For example, spices might get bloomed in fat before simmering or be used in finishing. There are chopping and cooking time recommendations for each veg and protein. That’s followed by a section with sub recipes for toppings, a few sauces and dressings and a couple pages of quick ideas for cup noodles.. Anyone who’s taken the time to read through these sections, is set to start creating their own dishes but there are also plenty of recipes for those who’d rather skip reading the manual and get cooking. The first few are intended to make the instant packets more ramen-ish with recipes inspired by classic ramen styles. After that, caution is thrown to the wind and the flavors and ingredients are all over the map with soups, stews and sauced noodles inspired by frijoles de la olla, moqueca, shakshuka, borscht, Thai curry, Xi'an-style cumin lamb, and Mac 'n’ cheese, among others. I think the book would be a fun gift for a beginner cook, maybe with some ramen packets and a few condiments. A more experienced cook who’s frequently pressed for time might also find useful information here, as I did when I doctored up a packet of ramen the other day. I usually think I can chop and add veg while the noodles simmer but I followed his recommendation to prep everything first. I found his veg cooking times spot on and didn’t overcook the noodles while scrambling for toppings at the last minute. He doesn’t specifically address the often alarmingly high sodium levels in ramen packets but does explain the importance of proper seasoning, reducing the amount of the seasoning packet used when salty additions are included vs using more with unsalted additions so one can be judicious there. Here's a link to The Dinner Plan Podcast episode with Peter Kim discussing the book and featuring a couple of recipes from the book. I plan on trying the spinach ramen gratin, at least.

Cavatappi with a puttanesca-ish sauce with zucchini, cherry tomatoes and arugula. Meant to cook some chickpeas for this but forgot. I’ll add them to the leftovers.

You didn’t ask me but I follow the Zuni Cafe Cookbook recipe which uses ~3/4 teaspoon sea salt/pound of chicken. It goes in the fridge, loosely covered for 24 hrs-3 days. Before roasting, it’s blotted dry, but not rinsed. The upper surfaces are usually nice and dry (as is the goal) but there’s often some moisture underneath and inside that needs to be blotted off.

Prima Taste brand Singapore curry noodles with added veg & egg

Thanks for sharing that, @Maison Rustique, especially the photo. When you posted about your gift, I was very curious to understand the difference between a “meal” and a tin of seasoned fish!

Chicken sando with apple chile slaw. Sorry for the crappy photo, but it was good. Yesterday, I had fancified chicken and waffles for lunch at a local restaurant. See here. Leftover chicken came home and wanted to be used. My favorite of the fancy additions was an apple chile slaw, which was really just julienned apples that tasted to me of apple cider vinegar, cayenne and a hint of cinnamon. I thought it would be a great condiment with pork or roast chicken. I transferred the flavors to a more conventional slaw with apple, cabbage and Fresno chiles, dressed with mix of honey, apple cider vinegar, a dried chile mix, cayenne, cinnamon and just enough mayo to bind it together. Happy with the result and would make again

Please update us with your thoughts on any options you try!

I went to the waffle place again for lunch. Chicken & Waffles….But Make It Fancy Two pieces of chicken breast, covered with chili apple slaw and sweet orange marmalade, on top of a golden waffle, sitting on a bed of fresh spring mix, creamy orange ricotta, and crispy bacon bits Salmon I Used To Know A trio of savory brioche waffles topped with smoked salmon, herb caper cream cheese, and peppery arugula. Finished with roasted lemon slices and pickled onions. Hass, Queen! A savory vegan waffle topped with fresh spinach, olive tapenade, sliced red onion, and crisp cucumber. Roasted cherry tomatoes and creamy roasted red pepper hummus add depth, while a drizzle of balsamic and creamy avocado complete the dish.

Be careful you don’t make it so easy to slide that it slides right off the counter when it’s running!

Yes! It's salmon roe! I bought it for one of the previously posted waffles and then checked my cookbooks for opportunities to use it again, which led me to this delightful recipe!

I have 1, 2 and 3 qt sauciers as my workhorse saucepans. I cook mostly for myself or a few others. It’s possible a 3 qt saucier may help you out with soups, etc. It’s one of my most used pans, along with a 4 qt saucepan. I also have a 12-inch carbon steel wok, which is smaller than most recommend for a wok but I find it the perfect size for me. I see a lot of 4 and 5 qt “everything” pans on the market but they tend to be a lot heavier than my wok when it comes to tossing things about and don’t offer the benefit of starting in a small pool of oil. I do have 6 and 8 qt saucepans I use for larger volumes of soups, etc. I

Another quick pasta lunch TJ's lemon pasta, yellow summer squash, sugar snaps, red bell pepper and little tomatoes tossed with TJ’s lemon pesto. Salmon roe for a salty punch instead of feta or Parm.

Thanks, @rotuts, I remember that! Here’s a gift link to that NYT obit for non subscribers. And here’s the eG topic on her viral Olive Garden review: My two favorite bits of the NYT obit:

Today’s late lunch was a fast food burger - rather a curiosity for me. I don’t do fast food much except for road trips and airports and even then, I look for other options. But this morning, the local news informed me that today was National Cheeseburger Day. Who knew? They featured some great looking burgers. None were from spots in my area but they got me in a burger mood so after running a bunch of errands, I remembered a USA Today poll that picked a Habit Burger as the best fast food burger. A low hurdle, to be sure, but I’ve never had one and figured I might as well observe the national day so I got a double char with cheese from Habit. Two chargrilled burgers, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayo, and cheese on a toasted bun: Not bad. Too heavy on the mayo but the charred flavor is detectable. I’d prefer a bigger burger that could take more char vs the two stacked patties but I was pretty hungry and it wasn’t bad at all. Lettuce was fresh, tomato tasted like one. The most embarrassing part is that my errands included picking up my weekly fish share (live, local oysters) and the local farmers market where I chose two varieties of passion fruit to make a mignionette for the oysters and I still stopped off for a fast food burger 🙈🙈🙈

Little potatoes here, too, in this kinda artsy fartsy smoked trout, eggs & keta (salmon roe) with sour cream dressing from Simple: Effortless Food, Big Flavours by Diana Henry I thought this was just delightful in looks and taste. The potatoes, greens and trout are all dressed in a simple vinaigrette with a separate sour cream/Dijon/lemon juice dressing drizzled on top. I used a mix of little red, white and purple potatoes with more arugula and less olive oil than in the recipe.

I put yesterday’s smoked salmon and dill waffles from Waffles from Morning to Midnight by Dorie Greenspan over in the topic dedicated to that book but I’ll go ahead and add the photo here, too. The waffles have diced onion, fresh dill and smoked salmon in the waffle, topped with sour cream, salmon roe and scallions Today, I thawed and reheated one of the onion and dill waffles from yesterday. For the toppings, I stuck close to what I had at a local waffle place last week. I made whipped goat cheese with capers, fresh thyme and oregano and spread that on the waffle. Then a pile of arugula, julienne cut smoked salmon, pickled red onion, caramelized lemon and salmon roe.