KennethT

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

Mapo Pacific cod. I defrosted the fillet pieces in a large bath of cool water - took about 20-30 minutes. Then removed from the bath and patted dry, then put on a rack over a plate, covered with plastic and in the fridge until I was ready for it. Perfect texture - no mealiness at all.

A few weeks ago, my wife attended a work event that had a really nice gift bag... So, what better holiday lunch would there be? The toasts on the left were a little gross so we got a nice locally made baguette and a few other things to supplement it:

Peking-ish duck noodles with a gorgeous dry 1996 Wachau Riesling. The duck was duck legs cooked SV - 180F for about 10-11 hours. And $5 for the pair of duck legs! What a steal! It's Peking-ish because the sauce was made with some of my duck stock that I made from the carcass of a Peking Duck we had in Chinatown.

Now I feel like I should've held out longer when considering joining!

@ElsieDtook the word right out of my mouth!!! That water is so clear...

I've never seen pickles on a standard American-Chinese restaurant.... however, every Sichuan restaurant here offers at least one kind of pickle. The Hunan restaurant around the corner from me liberally uses pickled mustard greens as a condiment.

As I'm sure you know, lots of deep water fish are frozen whole on the boat since the boat stays out at sea for days or weeks at a time. When frozen properly, there is no additional water added - the fish's skin keeps the water out. In my part of the USA, I don't think it's possible to find truly fresh shrimp/prawns. I think what we see in stores here that looks like fresh is really just already thawed. Much of the fresh fish we get is a over a day old - at best it was caught the day before, at worst, I don't want to know! When improperly (too slowly) frozen, ice crystals form in the meat's intracellular fluid, breaking cell walls. Once thawed, the punctured cell walls lose their fluid, which results in the weight loss you describe - I don't think the higher frozen weight is because of water added. Modern blast freezing or super cold brine freezing solves this problem by minimizing or eliminating crystalization - so cell walls don't get punctured and you don't lose fluid once defrosted. And buying live fish in the USA? Good luck, other than in Chinatown. Unfortunately, most Americans have an aversion to buying their meat live, with lobster being the only exception I can think of. And most unfortunately, many of the Chinatown fish stores with live fish are notorious for using low quality fish. Definitely not wild, line caught. With all this being said, I still haven't had a chance to try any of the frozen fish I received lately - but that should change this weekend, and I'll report back. I do know that the spot prawns I had last weekend were fantastic - just as good as the prawns I had in Roses, Spain where the restaurant has personal relationships with the local fishermen and what is served is usually only out of the water for an hour or two.