KennethT

Due to a blood test tomorrow (including the lipid panel), I've been trying to keep things on the healthy side.... what's healthier than Vietnamese (other than that deep fried pork bread)? Bun tôm with 5 kinds of herbs (3 from the garden). Pickled daikon/carrot courtesy of my local H-Mart...

Pull scale? It's slightly more labor intensive.. hehe....

Pressure gauge?

I've been considering growing them indoors in my apartment - can you tell me, how often did it fruit? Did you have a continuous supply or did it create a flush of fruits, then nothing, then another flush, etc?

Thanks. Personally, I haven't seen any of them in stores in NYC - and D & D is definitely not the store they used to be back then! And at $3 a branch, I don't think it's worth it for me personally.

I'd have no idea what they're getting. Restaurants often have access to things that we consumers don't. I had a beloved Thai place make a dish with green peppercorns and they were much more pungent than the brined ones - and also a deeper green color - so I would assume that they were not brined... but who knows where they sourced it from. So it's certainly possible that your restaurant gets fresh ones too. The brined ones aren't near as pungent as the fresh, and they also are a dull, light green color as opposed to a darker, more forest green color of the fresh ones.

Unfortunately, they're the brined ones in a jar I got at a store in Chinatown that specializes in SE Asian stuff. But they're not nearly as good as fresh ones - but those are basically impossible to find around here.

huh - no, I usually just toss them out. But I thought they were pretty for the photo.

When you're Thai basil is flowering, make pad cha!!! This is the mis... Made with the frozen Pacific halibut and some maitake. It came out great and was devoured before I remembered to get a photo. Kaffir lime leaves are new growth and really tender - no need to pick them out

I'm sure this has been asked before, but when doing the SV fried chicken, do you find the batter comes right off when you bite into it? If not, what's your secret to getting it to stick?

ha! that's what I said...

Somehow, Facebook has my advertising down pat... this is the newest thing to pop up on my feed: https://mmmediterranean.com/ which is in addition to the now 3 different brands of 'grow-your-own-mushrooms-on-the-countertop' that I keep seeing.

What are "tested quality donuts"? Is there a USDA (or other governmental standards agency) set of standards to test them to?

I like to halve figs (from stem to blossom end), brush with olive oil and grill face down, then drizzle with aged balsamic

Those aren't cukes.. it's stir fried yu choi (similar to bok choi but skinnier stalks)

wow... for a first run, your results are really impressive!!!

ping gnob sockeye salmon - coated in a red curry paste, wrapped in a banana leaf and "grilled" under the broiler in the CSO

I saw them on the dinner thread - they look great! They must have been nice and dry in order to get that kind of color on them. How did you defrost them?

@donk79Interesting - thanks. Personally, I don't see the purpose of battering then trying to get them to stay on the nori but that's just me... 😁 I didn't see any major explosions, but I did hear him warn the camera guy to stay back a bit because it's a possibility. Good to know.

I took it seriously because I once had a small grease fire on my stove top... luckily I was able to put it out easily with a small puff of compressed CO2.

Thanks. I'm actually not too worried about fire since I'll be doing it on induction, so there's no open flame for ignition. I thought of thinking of it like a frozen squid ring or croquette - but then I thought that the moisture content of a whole crab could be much higher. A battered piece of protein has most of its water in the batter (external to the meat and in direct contact with the hot oil), whereas a whole crab dusted in flour has most of the water frozen inside the shell. I was concerned about a pocket of water in the crab turning to steam and bursting, blowing hot oil all over the place. I'd worry even more about doing it covered as the steam leaving the oil would condense on the cover and drip back into the hot oil. I was thinking of doing the frying in my carbon steel wok (with a really powerful induction hob to bring back to temp quickly) - that way, there's lots of room for oil expansion.

I guess the main reason I posted my question is that I'm concerned about explosions of hot oil from the fryer as the frozen crabs defrost and let out water. I'd rather not experiment wearing a hazmat suit or get oil all over my kitchen. But yes, I also thought that if defrosted, the starch coating would get gloppy...

naked

I saw these boxes of frozen crabs in my local H-mart today... This one, the crabs seem pretty small and are already coated in starch: This one is just crabs, no starch: How do you cook these? The first one says "Just Fry - 3 min" but doesn't have any other instructions on the box. Do you defrost them first or fry from frozen? I sense a catastrophe waiting to happen. But, the first one looks more attractive to me as I'd love to replicate this - one of the best airport snacks anywhere... Bangkok, circa 2006... These crabs were fried whole with just a thin dusting of starch, and eaten as is, shell and all. They were amazing and I've been looking for something similar for a long time. The sauce is true Sriracha, not at all like the Rooster brand, ever-present in the US.

A little of both