KennethT

For the past few years, I've been watching a lot of Indonesian/Malaysian YouTube videos of people making various dishes. Most of these dishes are some form of braise, starting with frying a spice paste in oil over relatively low heat, then adding a liquid to the braise. Every single video has them cooking in some kind of wok - and like you say, most of those woks are lined with a non-stick material. For that type of cooking, I don't think the non-stick is much of an issue because it doesn't use high heat that can damage the coating. I used to do my braising in a standard 8qt sauce pan (looks like a mini stock pot), but lately, I've moved to a small, cheap stainless steel wok I got off Amazon and found that it works much better. Even making a small quantity, I don't need a lot of liquid to cover, and it's easier to stir things around, especially when there's large chunks in there. And it's vastly superior to the standard sauce pan when you need to reduce the liquid.

Sorry, I just saw the Viet on the bag!

Vietnamese jasmine rice?!? I need to resupply my jasmine rice - last time, I bought a 25 pound bag from Weee (new crop from Thailand). It was basically the same price as I can get in Chinatown, but it gets delivered so I don't have to schlep the 25# sack.

That sucks. In the future, another option may be to get them from Lady Wong, the NYC Nyonya/Malaysian bakery - you can get their moon cakes (and other desserts but I don't think their full catalog) on GoldBelly.

Singapore style headless fish head curry (mahi mahi) with masala potatoes.

Here in the US, instructional cooking shows on the Food Network have gone the way of music videos on MTV. It's all competition shows now. There may be some "dump and stir" shows still on during daytime on weekdays, but definitely not primetime for a longtime. I think PBS still shows some instructional shows - or at least they used to the last time I watched broadcast TV - but who knows long PBS will last for nowadays...

I get them at my local H-Mart which calls them "Korean Leeks"

@Duvel I have very little biology knowledge (aka squishy stuff) so I was wondering - is it even possible for mold to grow on a piece of dried kombu? I always thought that mold needed a certain amount of water to grow, but the dried kombu I have is like thin slices of wood and really brittle which makes me think that the water activity is very low.

Also, I've never done anything with the marrow - I just squeeze the bone as a test to see if I've extracted as much as I can. I don't add marrow to the stock as it makes it cloudy. But also, there isn't enough in there to try to actively remove to eat and would probably require a dentist's pick to do so.

@rotuts I don't use the Ipot, but a regular Kuhn-Rikon pressure stockpot. After an hour at full pressure, the bones are soft but still brittle. You can squeeze the bone between thumb and forefinger and the bone will splinter and break.

What's the reddish-orange drizzle over the rice with the tuna?

As if we needed another reason to make food from scratch!!!! https://scitechdaily.com/ultra-processed-foods-add-fat-without-extra-calories-and-disrupt-hormones/

It definitely was delicious - more so than the versions we had in the food court of the mall in Jakarta - so much more complex. I imagine that industrially produced sambal hitam exists (as well as lots of other time consuming favorites) and is slathered on by most people other than me, in my quest to become a SE Asian grandmother....

It constantly amazes me how much time and effort traditionally made Indonesian dishes can be. This past Labor Day weekend, I wanted to experiment in making a dish called sambal hitam - or black chilli sauce - from the small island of Madura which is just off the coast of the large city of Surabaya, in East Java. We had it several times while in Jakarta a couple months ago and really enjoyed it. After watching maybe 10 different recipe videos, it seems that, while none of them are the same, they fall into two groups - those that use kluwek (aka keluak, aka buah keluak, aka black nuts) and those that don't. I was hoping to get to make both versions to compare - spoiler alert, I only had time to make one and that was pushing it! Anyway, you make a spice paste with chillies (I used two different types - the large red chillies I can buy at HMart, and the curly red chillies that I grow using seeds that came back with me), shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves (the first time I've ever seen them blended in the paste), candlenuts and coriander powder. The spice paste is mixed with enough water to submerge the protein of choice - typically either duck or chicken - and simmered until the poultry is tender. The poultry is then removed and the spice laden liquid is then reduced to a thick paste, and then, in another wok, fried in some oil until it is a dark dark dark brown - just about black (hence the name). The poultry is then deep fried for a short while to brown, then drained and the black paste is spread on top. From start to finish, it probably took me about 4 hours!!!!! So, I definitely didn't have time to make both versions..... With some stir fried bok choy

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