KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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30 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
Despite yesterday's miserable deliver dinner, tonight I took my fate in my hands and ordered again from a previously untested restaurant.
蒜米炒牛蛙 (suàn mǐ chǎo niú wā), which is stirfried bullfrog with whole garlic cloves. The other mai ingredients were red onion, ginger, chilli, soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine
Hallelujah! It was excellent. Garlicky, spicy, and frog-sweet. A winner. Served with rice, natch.
¥42.80 / $5.86 USD
Wow! That's expensive!
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4 hours ago, mgaretz said:
They do make screw top adapters that work well. Uses a membrane that self heals, not unlike a vial used for injectables. I haven’t had an issue with aggregate corks. What it doesn’t work with is artificial corks. I had a corker left over from my winemaking days, so I use that to replace artificial corks with real corks. If you’re quick not enough air gets in to make a difference. I used to shoot some argon in after removing the artificial cork, but now I don’t bother.Thanks! I haven't really kept up with any advances or new products they came out with.
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1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:
I misspoke. The Plum also uses argon gas. There aren't any places nearby to refill the canisters. When Plum was in business, you would just send them back to the company for refills. The Coravin sounds promising as a potential replacement when the Plum inevitably stops working, so thanks for that explanation.
The Coravin uses disposable argon canisters - they look like the CO2 charges used in a whipping siphon. I forget how many glasses each canister is good for - I think 6-8 but they're not super expensive unless you plan to drink most of the bottle at once, which is not what it's really designed for. We only use the device when we want to have a glass or so of a relatively expensive wine, so the cost of the argon is little compared to teh cost of the wine consumed. I wouldn't use it with a $20 bottle.
Also, it doesn't work with screw caps or with the aggregate corks. Only real cork. It does, however, work really well on older wines - although REALLY old wines need a special super-thin needle to deal with a delicate cork.
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1 hour ago, liamsaunt said:
When I stopped drinking entirely, my husband got a similar setup for wine, called the Plum. It keeps two bottles of wine at the correct temperature, keeps it from oxidizing, and pours out measured glasses. Of course, the company went out of business last year, so the CO2 refills are a pain to come by. I don't think it can be repaired now either, so once it goes on the fritz that will be out of here too.
For wine, the best device for having a little bit at a time is the Coravin. The device is small and portable - it attaches to the top of a bottle and a needle is inserted through the cork. Argon is used rather than CO2 so it does't carbonate the wine - adding argon pushes wine out the needle into your glass. You can take 2 sips or several glasses, then remove the device keep the bottle standing up for maybe 10 minutes for the cork to heal then it can go back in your wine fridge. I've had some bottles that we've removed a glass from once a year and the bottle is still the same except for the normal aging that it would have had in that time.
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@Deephaven I'm excited for you to try it - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. To clarify, I don't divide and then freeze the rempah until after frying it. Once it's fried, it keeps well, but I don't think it would do well if frozen in its raw state. Frying the rempah takes time, so by doing it all together and then dividing, the curry is ready to go much faster. Also, nowadays, I don't bother parcooking the potatoes. Now, I just add them at the same time as I add the chicken and they wind up being done around the same time. Yes, the total rempah would be for 16 chicken thighs. As far as the size of the handfuls, hmmm.... I'd say the coriander powder would be 3-4 Tablespoons or so. For the cumin and fennel powders, maybe 2-2.5 Tablespoons. Also, now I think I'd add both the curry leaves and maybe 6-8 kaffir lime leaves.
The belacan I use is the Malaysian style, which is different from the Thai style. The Malaysian type is much more dense - rather than coming in a scoopable tub, it is sold in a brick that you can take slices from. In Malaysia/Indonesia, it's common to toast the belacan before using it - it makes it a bit milder but if you're frying the paste for a good amount of time, I don't know if it's really necessary. For this recipe I don't toast it. Maybe one day I'll try it that way to see what the difference would be. This is a common brand I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X95VKXO?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details It's a lot cheaper if I buy it locally in Chinatown.
Finally, I'm not very happy with my prata recipe. I've been doing a lot of prata research lately (or similarly, roti canai research as it's more common). Most recipes use a couple tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk. I'm trying to avoid it since I never use it otherwise, and to buy a whole can of it for a couple tablespoons seems like a waste. Also, most videos I watch now have the dough made, then wait half an hour, then kneaded and divided, then grease the balls and let rest for like 12 hours (not refrigerated). Many in Malaysia use margarine for the greasing but I'd probably use some kind of oil. Many of the grandmas and aunties who have YouTube videos say that they make the dough in the evening so it's ready to stretch in time for breakfast the next day.
I was actually planning on making more prata this weekend, but realized that I didn't have enough flour. I should be able to try it again next weekend.
Let me know if you have any more questions...
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The last of my bak kut teh...
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Pho ga using my homemade chicken stock and sawtooth and rau ram from the garden.
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First time using my new batch of curry powder. This one came out a little spicier than the last (by design). With a fast acar (pickles).
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51 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
I didn't know what I wanted tonight, but I knew what I didn't want - 中餐 (zhōng cān), Chinese food or, really anything Asian. But, not being up to cooking for myself, I only had the chance to sort out something from the least bad western places. I remembered a recently opened place that I'd ordered from before, but couldn't remember what I had eaten.
I perused their offerings looking for whatever I ate before but failed to spot it, then saw this
Normally, I stary clear of pizzas in China, but I'm a sucker for parma ham and arugula which this is offering, so I decided to risk all.
Ingredients listed are black truffle sauce, Parma ham, sauteed mushroms, onions, mozzarella, arugula etc. I knew they black truffle sauce would be tasteless; Chinese black truffles always are, Howwever, the pizza was fine, if not as good as the similar one I ate in Saigon five years ago (last time I ate pizza!); this one was a bit oversalty. Also, the arugula arrivedseparately in a plasic bag for me to scatter over the dish, presumably to wilt in the residual heat - it didn't.
It did come with a free decal for me to stick onto my cell phone though, not that I will do so.
¥40.40 = $5.54 USD
I think it was pretty thoughtful of them to pack the arugula separately - if they put it on the pizza directly while going into the box, it would be a slimy soggy mess by the time it got to you. Personally, I think arugula on a pizza shouldn't be wilted.
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Last night was the first time I felt up to doing any cooking. I had chicken thighs I had to use, so Sichuan twice cooked chicken.
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2 hours ago, weinoo said:
I've got stocks also... I think from your recommendation. I like that they're lined so it's not sweaty and sticky when wearing with bare feet like crocs usually are.
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7 hours ago, Shelby said:
Ok. So. Apparently we are going to have to restrict Ken from cooking.
Actually, apparently, I can injure myself doing practically anything. It's my super power.
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9 hours ago, heidih said:
Oh yes - looks like a car cigarette lighter burn. My old Zo had another of high shelf fall a while back so I push down on lid when steam starts to "seal". Stupidly with orm right over hole.
I've never had a cigarette lighter burn so I wouldn't know. I have had a soldering iron fall on my arm, however that burn was nowhere near as bad as this steam burn is.
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In a similar vein, I would like to advise people not to stick their bare forearm directly over the rice cooker's steam vent. Even if it doesn't look like there's any steam coming out.
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1 hour ago, Shelby said:
Summer has flown by fast
Ronnie smoked a ton of ribs to put in the freezer--will probably do some when our hunter friend is here. Kept a few out for our dinner
Strawberry/blueberry galette for dessert
First Teal of the season
Shishito peppers and smoked turkey paninni
Chicken tenders, fries, stuffed mushrooms, salad
Needed to use some tomatoes before they went bad so made sauce and meatballs
Do you ship to NY? I'm happy to trade but I don't have much... homemade curry powder, kencur plants (you can be the only one in Kansas to have it!) Ha ha.
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1 hour ago, weinoo said:
I know you use the Cameron smoker (mine is in the closet). My most recent smoking adventures have been with the Gin donabe - I think for a longer smoking time, you're better off with the Cameron, however. the Gin gets and stays pretty hot inside.
Yeah, the instructions that came with the smoker said that the inside gets to about 300F, which I figure may not be far off from what happens inside the clay/ceramic vessel traditionally.
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12 minutes ago, weinoo said:
I think the closest we can get here is probably the Muscovy hen. It's the leanest of our commercial duck, but still almost twice as large. Of course, if you can get some wild hunted teal, that might be your ticket. (Maybe @Shelby can help!)
That would be fantastic, but I don't think I could afford the shipping! I think, for a first try though, I could do a decent job using the duck legs I have in the freezer. They'll lose most of the fat either in the steaming or in the SV portion, depending on what method I use. Considering that I've never actually had it with those special ducks (us tourists just get standard duck pieces unless we're invited somewhere special), it's really the method I'm focusing on to dial in the flavor. When I had it in Bali, it wasn't smoky (they probably did it in ovens there) but I could imagine it being greatly enhanced by doing it that way so I'm curious to try it.
So, on that note, I have a quart of organic rice husks headed my way in the next day or two... I also need to procure some Balinese long pepper - hopefully Duals has it, but if not, I know that Kalustyan's has it so I can pick that up this weekend. So maybe I could be trying it out in two weeks...
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For anyone interested, here is a rather long (about 30 minutes) program about the dish and one of the famous grandmothers who makes it the traditional way. It's half in English half Bahasa/Balinese.... if you use the CC and autotranslate, it comes out fine.
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I've been having a hankering for some Balinese bebek betutu - duck cooked with tons of spices (including my stash of kencur!) typically used in Bali. Obviously, I can't completely recreate what I had there a few years ago (they have a small type of duck only about 1kg, very lean, that's unavailable here) but I'd like to do it almost as traditionally as possible as I can within the confines of my NYC apartment.
Traditionally, the duck is massaged with a whole bunch of ground herbs/spices, tied up in the leaf of a type of palm tree, then set in a hole in the ground, covered with some kind of ceramic pot which is then completely covered in rice bran husks which are set aflame and the resulting ashes cook the bird for about 12 hours. For obvious reasons, this isn't done very widely anymore - mostly for religious holidays nowadays. Restaurants in Bali more likely will do a combination of steaming and oven roasting wrapped in banana leaves.
I was thinking of doing a hybrid approach as I'd really like to get a bit of that smokiness that comes from cooking in the rice bran coals/ash. So I was thinking about either pre-steaming or SV some duck legs, followed by a little time in my Cameron's stovetop smoker, using rice bran husks as fuel.
I've never done anything using rice bran husks. I've used the smoker countless times using a variety of wood chips but never rice bran husks. I've seen organic husks sold on Amazon - nothing expensive - they're commonly used in hydroponics (I have a few issues with that, but that's another discussion), or in composting or soil amendments.
Can anyone see a problem with doing what I was thinking? Will burning the organic rice bran husks create any kind of toxic smoke I'm unaware of or have any other problems I'm not thinking about?
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This is the of my peranakan pastes for the buah keluak curry. Definitely need to make more soon....
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1 hour ago, heidih said:
Yes I started noticing that at Trader Joes a number of years ago. I think I am back in ordering mode now though I bought a favorful sausage elsewhere today so the snausages are for future WF. They have ground elk again!
They usually have ground elk. It's one of the regular things I get there.
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4 hours ago, Smithy said:
Thanks. So am I looking for a can or a carton? Where?
Be careful - not all brands are the same. Look for one that says 100% coconut milk otherwise it will have stabilizers. I like the Aroy D brand in 8.5oz cartons. I get 6x packs on Amazon - it's cheaper than my local Thai store. There are different versions - check to see 100%
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36 minutes ago, heidih said:
And if you really want to have fun (at least once) make your own coconut milk from a whole one. Crack open, pry/pop meat out with a round tip knife, and blend with hot water. Pour off and rpeat maybe 2 or 3 times. Just pour liquid off leaving solids. on round 2 or 3 do hand squeeze the solids. Yes a little of the brown "skin" stays in the flesh but no biggie.
I'm all for going to lengths to get results, but this is too far! Plus, most of the coconuts I can get here are already partially desiccated so it could never get me coconut milk like I could get in SE Asia. The UHT cartons of coconut milk that I use now are remarkably similar to fresh.
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1 hour ago, Darienne said:
@KennethT When you say inexpensive, are you saying that this light available at Canadian Tire "NOMA T5 Grow Full Spectrum LED Light Strip, 800 Lumens, 7.5W" for $29.99 might actually be worth the buying. Alas, I have to think about that aspect of it. The garden is going to cost me probably far more than the worth of what I get from it, as did my summer dirt bag garden. So I have to put a limit on what I spend. If someething this inexpensive is really not worth the buying, as say is an inexpensive Teflon coated pan, do let me know.
Thanks.
Sorry - $30 may not be enough to get an LED light that will actually do anything. And, unfortunately, plant lights really should not be rated in lumens as that's not a good indication of what the plant gets. Plants use something called PAR - which doesn't really have a conversion factor to lumens as they're measured very differently. In any case, 7.5W lets me know that this light will not give you a lot of light, unless it is focused in a tight pattern, but because it's a strip, means it won't be. It would be fine for seed starting, or growing low light things like lettuce or some less needy herbs. Basil is a light hog.
The light linked to by @chromedome looks like a decent light, but puts out a LOT more light than you would need for 1 plant. The light he linked to would be good for like a 4 foot by 4 foot area for fruiting plants- so if you wanted to have a small pepper farm, it's great! Or an even bigger area for less light intensive plants like herbs but you'd have to mount it pretty high above the plants to get that.
To do things really cheaply, you could do what I've done for a long time - use a decent power compact fluorescent bulb in one of those clamp on reflectors you can get at Home Depot or similar.
Something like this bulb might be ok for a single pepper plant or a whole bunch of herb/lettuce/bok choi type plants. It won't last as long as an LED light but then again, it's price makes it practically disposable. It should definitely last a year or two before dying completely or losing enough of its output where the plants would notice.
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Unexpected Food Gifts
in Food Traditions & Culture
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It's the United Nations of Snacks!