Jump to content

KennethT

participating member
  • Posts

    6,605
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by KennethT

  1. @BeeZeeWe used to use FD for the vast majority of our groceries. As @weinoo said, if there's a problem, they refund promptly. For instance, this past week, I ordered some "ready to eat" avocadoes. The 2 pack came in undamaged, but one of the avocadoes was ridiculously soft - I guess good for smoothies, but not what was typical and not what I was looking for. All you need to do is send a message to them through the website - our whole avocado purchase was refunded no questions asked. That being said - it does kind of shoot any plans you may have, even if you don't have to pay for it. Nowadays, like @gfweb, I use Wild Fork for the vast majority of my meat purchases. Their quality has been great and I can't beat the prices anywhere. They're like half the price of Fresh Direct or even my least expensive local supermarket (but I'm in Manhattan, so take that with a grain of salt). I get a lot of the air chilled, antibiotic free chicken parts - sure, they're not any heritage breed, but when defrosted, there's just about no liquid weeping out. And I love that I can get a 2.5# bag of thighs which usually has 6 evenly sized thighs IQF so I can defrost as many as I need - all for like $2.40 per pound. That's like half the price of Katie's Best (the brand I used to get at FD) and I can't tell the difference - except that KB would sometimes maddeningly put 1 giant thigh with 2 moderate sized and 1 quail thigh in a vacuum sealed 4 pack. All that, and they have some specialty items I can't find locally - like ground Elk.
  2. KennethT

    Dinner 2022

    Anne Gros' website is really informative as well - she has the whole Gros geneology - as is lots of areas in Burgundy, it gets confusing!!! https://www.anne-gros.com/en/history/genealogy/
  3. KennethT

    Dinner 2022

    Nice- I love Richebourgs but I'm not sure I know that particular Gros.... We love Anne Gros (as opposed to Anne F Gros). What's a Bryan Flannery steak?
  4. Wow - that looks great! If we lived closer, I think my wife would want to be there once a week!
  5. Are the recipes in teh book for classic Viet dishes, or western dishes made using fish sauce? Personally, I have no interest in the latter, but a lot of interest in the former!
  6. I'm curious as to what you will think of the book and recipes, being that you're so close to Vietnam. Do you know if anyone in Asia uses Red Boat? I've never tried it myself - I have a hard time spending so much $ on something that I can get a very good example of cheaply.
  7. Can you reuse the chillies or would they get burnt the next time around? I understand though - my curry powder required about 150g of chillies, snipped and deseeded.
  8. I'm sure it is interchangeable. For years I've been making a Nyonya coconut milk based curry that uses it, but I've always bought premade curry powders from Kalustyans - I've tried their Malaysian powder and Indonesian powder but neither are quite right - and they don't have a Nyonya or Singapore powder. So I'm curious as to how this will come out. The restaurant Nyonya in Chinatown makes this curry with chicken but also with shrimp (shell on). Years ago, I loved a similar shrimp curry at Penang in Soho.
  9. I'd be happy to give you some - I made more than enough that I could use, but it's a very specific type of curry powder for a Nyonya chicken curry - I don't know if it's something you'd be interested in. Plus, this is my first time making/using it, so I don't even know if it's going to taste how I want it to - I'll know more in a day or two when I make the finished dish.
  10. Here it is - a couple of pounds of curry powder in the largest mixing bowl I have. Buried in it is a tablespoon sized soup spoon. For best results, fresh powder should be stored airtight - and will last longest if kept in the freezer. @weinoo is correct - once cooled (the blender really heats them up while grinding) I'm going to portion in 1 meal packages - probably about 85g each and freeze.
  11. I have made curry powders in small batches before - but never like I've been doing today. Probably over 1 kg of spices - forget my spice mill, I wound up grinding in my high powered blender - I had so much that I still had to do it in batches - probably about 2-1/2 to 3 blender jars full! Pics in a bit - the chillies weren't fully done after the low and slow, so now I'm doing just those at like 175F convection for 15 minutes, then I'll let cool and blend them in.
  12. @Laurentius - yes, even though it doesn't sit flat, it still gets hot, for sure. But, many times people do deep frying or shallow frying in a wok, or boiling in water, not just stir frying, and in those cases, having a slightly convex bottom is quite dangerous. I've managed it a couple times, but I don't want to do it too much and push my luck.
  13. Bumping this old thread to ask some advice. I have a Joyce Chen thin carbon steel flat bottomed wok, 14" that I use on my induction burner. My problem is that the flat bottom is no longer flat - it is convex, so the wok isn't stable when it rests on the induction burner. I'm debating trying to flatten it vs getting a new one. The issue is that my induction burner is very powerful, but since it's relatively inexpensive, when put in a low power setting, it just turns the high power on and off a few seconds each. Moving to a thicker carbon steel wok might keep it from warping, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of a wok - something that heats and cools quickly? Also, I've read that to keep it from warping, you shouldn't heat the wok without anything in it, but then how does one season it (not in the oven)? And I've always thought that the way to cook with a wok is to heat it empty until it smokes, then add the oil, which helps make it nonstick... Also, I usually let the wok sit on the heat after I've rinsed it and wiped it to allow the super thin left over oil turn into more seasoning - is this not a good idea?
  14. Perfect. Thank you. My spice mixture includes poppy seeds as well, but it says to leave them out; Dishoom's advice for them makes sense. I wanted to look there, but my e-book version from my library expired.
  15. Anyone have any advice on how to toast a large quantity of whole spices prior to grinding? Small quantities I've done well in a dry pan/wok... but I'm talking maybe a pound or two of spices at one time. In my Nyonya Specialties cookbook, the author instructs to "put on a tray... heat oven slightly and toast the tray for 30-45 minutes until heated through and fragrant". Any idea what "heat oven slightly" could mean, specifically? My oven doesn't have a "slightly" setting, other than keep warm, but even then, it has various keep warm temperatures starting at 150degF.
  16. KennethT

    Lunch 2021

    It's nice to have a few days off from work, even if I can't travel. Sockeye salmon (from Wild Alaskan) with black bean sauce. Somehow I managed not to overcook the last bit of sockeye we got from them. I'm going to try some of the fish from Wild Fork - so far I've been very happy with their mahi mahi. If I like the rest then I'll discontinue my membership with Wild Alaskan.
  17. We decided not to go for it. In hindsight, I'm glad because covid, specifically omicron, is going crazy in our area. The infection rate for our area is basically doubling every few days. My Pfizer booster was about 4 months ago, and the research I've read lately says that it's effectiveness with omicron fades drastically after 10 weeks. Plus, I don't want to be too far from my mother right now, who lives in the same area, just in case she gets sick herself. That makes sense.. I also think there are some good national parks up there, and some caves that may be open to tourists, but I don't know if it's a good time of year for that - you definitely don't want to go to a cave during the rainy season! Hula Hin? Is that autocorrect? Hua Hin, right? The beach resort area not far from BKK?
  18. Yay!!!! There's a lot to see and do (and eat!) in BKK. And the "new" airport in BKK is huge and was a slight nightmare long before covid - I can't imagine how long it might take to go through now - make sure you leave plenty of time. If you happen to be in the direction of this place I'd highly recommend it for an awesome seafood meal. We were taken there when we had an appointment about an hour or so outside of BKK, and we really enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd go far out of my way for it, but I'd go slightly out of my way for it. I posted some photos of it here. Also, a nice feature is that the whole restaurant was open air and tables were well spaced, even in precovid times. I'm curious as to what Pai will be like - from what I remember, a lot of people used to go there if they wanted to visit the hill tribes like the Karen and Hmong. What put it on your radar?
  19. KennethT

    Dinner 2021

    On this evening, Jews around the world partake in a sacred Christmas tradition: going out for Chinese food. Unfortunately, due to omicron going crazy in NYC, my wife and I wouldn't dream of stepping foot into a restaurant, and it's way too cold to enjoy eating outdoors - and the last time we went to Woo's Wonton King in Chinatown for peking duck, their outdoor seating area was a bit too enclosed for my tastes. So, we had to make due with my cooking.... Yunnan style elk with herbs and maitake mushrooms. 7 different herbs, 5 of which from my garden.
  20. KennethT

    Fruit

    Even though we don't celebrate it, we got some green mango as a little Christmas gift to ourselves. The seller called them "Taiwan mangoes" which I've seen them named before, but when we received the box, they actually are a product of Vietnam. And huge! Each mango is a little over 2 pounds!!!! It was fantastic with a little bit of sugar/salt/chilli but it was great on its own as well.
  21. KennethT

    Dinner 2021

    @JoNorvelleWalkerI think it looks great. Your rice looks perfect and I really like the gloss on the cabbage.
  22. I've thought about an IP for a long time, mostly for this reason... but when I make stock I make a lot in my giant, economy sized Kuhn Rikon so I don't have to do it very often. I don't think they make an IP large enough for something like that. Plus, now that I do everything on induction, even with my "cheap" induction hob, it's really easy to keep it at full pressure without going over. Once I get the really good induction unit, I imagine it will be even easier, plus since my induction unit is 240V, I can use 3000W or so and get the big pot up to pressure in very little time.
  23. KennethT

    Lunch 2021

    That's gorgeous. I definitely have to look into this for the future. Have you had any Madeiras (the wines) yet? There are a ton of excellent small producers who don't really get exported. My wife loves the sercial while I have a bit more a sweet tooth and go for the bual... although I wouldn't turn down a nice old malmsey either!
  24. KennethT

    Dinner 2021

    As opposed to the imaginary kind? 🤣
  25. KennethT

    Fruit

    I need to get me one of those. It is a real pain in the a&& going it with a knife!
×
×
  • Create New...