KennethT

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.... thank you for this!!!! Do you know why they call the spatula section the "Equalizer"?

Is this pork neck or a different cut?

@weinooI think the top one looks just about perfect. For neapolitan style, I don't like any browning on the cheese. I also like the center a bit juicy... knife and fork!

I've seen (as I'm sure you have too @liuzhou) scissors used to cut food all over SE Asia. In Vietnam cutting fried spring rolls!

My bamboo flooring had to sit even longer than that!

Insert joke about how many electricians it takes to change a.....

exactly. After we purchased our place, I asked the super to give me some names of contractors who worked in the building. His name was first, along with a couple others. I've met a bunch of his guys who work in there - they've all worked for him for a long time. They like working for him because he always has work for them!

Exactly. My building is a lot smaller than yours, but my contractor had already renovated at least 5 apartments in the building just in the last few years.

Pre-pandemic, I used to get these all the time at their location near me...

Wow, that is crazy. I knew this went on to some degree, but that much!?!

Busy day today so not much time for cooking. I was talking about one of my current favorite Thai restaurants, Fish Cheeks, and conveniently enough, they deliver. My wife is addicted to their shrimp chips with nam prik pao - it's really shrimpy (shrimp paste). One nice thing is that they change up their menu from time to time. Haven't seen this before: One of my favorite stir fries - grachai (finger root), fresh peppercorns and Thai basil made with trout which was completely boneless. It also amazes me how this can arrive still nice and warm but the fish was perfectly cooked and it took the delivery guy 20-30 minutes to get here. An old favorite - branzino coated in red curry paste, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled. This fish was also perfectly cooked and had a great charred aroma throughout. I did have time to make a veggie stir fry while we were waiting for the delivery...

How was it?

Comparable use? Well, at least they're both red...

Once toasted, do you pound all of the dried spices in a mortar or do you use an electric spice grinder? Also, are you toasting them all at once?

I am dying for a good crawfish boil right around now....

Well, with the Cameron smoker, when the wood chips smolder they create this black gunk that flows all along the whole bottom. When I cleaned it, I didn't do a job like I do with my normal pans, but I got the brunt of the gunk off, probably because they told me to in the instructions and I didn't think much of it.

When I used to use my Cameron's stovetop smoker (I haven't used it in a while), I lined the bottom with foil, but the wood chips on top of that, then another piece of foil, then the drip tray they use (which presses the foils into a tight sandwich around the chips) and I get a good amount of smoke and it definitely makes clean up easier. BUT, the Cameron is a closed device which traps the smoke - I don't know how smoky it would get if the cover was left off - plus, using the drip tray to weight down the chips only lets the smoke past the edges/corners, which works fine in an enclosed box, but wouldn't work in your setup. Maybe you can get a piece of screen with a metal or stone weight on top to press the wood chips into the bottom of the donabe?

Panang curry made with kaffir lime leaves from the garden

Thanks. That producer is among our favorites in Burgundy (of which there are quite a few!)

no shot of the main event?

these grow really easily if you have that greenhouse thingy I think i remember you talking about. Just as long as it doesn't get that hot in there!

Thai stir fry with nam prik pao and Thai basil. This really reminded me of simple stir fries I've had in Thailand. I need to do more stuff like this - it's delicious but quick and easy.

I think the 10 hr boil also helps the broth emulsify the fat - I don't know how well that would work in the pc

ETA - I've changed my recipe a bit since this original post... I like this version a lot better and it's healthier as well. The rempah stays the same, but I add about an inch of galangal and a few kaffir lime leaves and don't add the coconut cream. Also, I just add some water to help it blend - I don't use the 3/4C grapeseed oil anymore. I add a few glugs of grapeseed oil that I preheat before adding the paste and frying. The oil quickly integrates into the paste but separates out again, which is when you know the paste is done. Also, to save freezer space, I don't add any liquid before freezing the individual portions - I just cool the paste, portion it out and freeze. When it's time to cook, I'll take 1C of my homemade chicken stock in a saucepan large enough to contain the chicken, add the frozen paste and bring to a simmer (covered) to defrost. After a few minutes, I'll just take a whisk or spoon and integrate the paste into the stock. Bring to a boil, season with salt/sugar/MSG (Makes Stuff taste Great), add the chicken, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. Once done, I'll add 1/2C coconut milk, bring back to a simmer, taste for seasoning and done. It's a lot healthier and just as tasty, if not tastier - I find that cooking the coconut milk for long periods of time make it lose that freshness that makes coconut milk so tasty! Also, I'm going to add what I do for the prata here since it's hard to find it hiding amongst the Dinner 2000 thread posts... For the prata, it's actually a relatively lean dough. From research I've done, it seems like the flour all the prata guys in Singapore use have 10.8% protein, which I can't find here. So for 8 pratas (4 meals of 2 to go along with the curry) it should be 600g flour with approx 10.8% protein. I made this using 118g 7% protein cake flour and 482g of 11.7% KAF all purpose. To this about 1t salt, 1T sugar, 15ml grapeseed oil, 300ml water and 1 egg. Mixed by hand and let sit covered for about an hour or so. After that, I could actually knead it without using any extra flour. I kneaded it in several sessions of about 5 minutes each, separated by 20 min of rest. Divided into 8 balls, rolled in grapeseed oil, then sit in ramekins covered for a few hours. Then sit in the fridge overnight. Then I freeze 6 and stretched 2 a few minutes before the chicken was finished. Cooked until brown on both sides on a med-high pan with a bit of grapeseed oil. I think the key is lots of kneading interspersed with lots of rest to relax the gluten. It's really stretchy - it springs back like a rubber band. To use the frozen ones, the day I'm making the curry, I'll take them out of the freezer and leave on the countertop all day to defrost and relax. To stretch, take a large section of clean countertop and spread a thin layer of grapeseed oil and oil your hands. Take a dough ball and flatten into a disk, then, working around in a circle, lift and stretch the edge away from the center and press down on the countertop. If your countertop has too much oil it will slide, but if just a bit, it should stay there. Keep going around until you can see the countertop through the dough - it doesn't matter if a couple of holes tear into it as long as you can stretch it really thin. It should be about 2 feet in diameter (roughly). Then spread a little more grapeseed oil on the top surface and roll it into a snake, then coil the snake into a disk tucking the last end underneath. Cover and let sit and rest for a while. When ready to cook, press the disk as flat as you can and fry on a medium high heat in a bit more grapeseed oil. At this point, it's really stretchy, so when you press the disk flat, it comes back to almost its original thickness, so when it hits the hot pan, I'll press it flatter with a spatula. When just browned, flip it and do the same thing. When done, transfer to a clean countertop or board and with a quick motion with your hands, clap the edges towards the center a couple times, which should help separate the layers a bit.

Do you know the reason the mushrooms got that name?