KennethT

Yes, I think Nyetimber is the best of the English sparklers. Whereas most can be thin, very acidic and linear, Nyetimber always manages to get good ripeness on the fruit which gives a great weight to the mouthfeel and it's always well balanced and rounded. I first had one maybe 10-12 years ago when a friend poured it blind for a few of us. We all thought it was a high quality Champagne.

Singapore style chicken curry with homemade roti prata... I think this has become my death row meal! Crumb shot of the prata:

I do have a large bag (although it keeps getting smaller) of MSG, and I was thinking about it, but the final dish is already extremely savory - I feel like it needs some lift. I have also considered the fact that the ground chicken rather than pork or beef could be the culprit... I told my wife, for the sake of science, that we needed to try it with ground pork from Chinatown (who will make it from fatty pork rather than lean pork like my local supermarket) instead the chicken one time... for research purposes of course...

Probably my wife's favorite dish of all time, mapo tofu.... Usually we order it in from our local Sichuan place about once a week, but today, I made this for her.... This one was made with garlic chives since I had them around, but I usually make them with leeks. It's really tasty, but never quite tastes like the ones we order in - maybe someone can help me diagnose the issue? I first make a chili oil with some dried chillies, then reserve. Add a bit more oil and some freshly ground sichuan peppercorns. Then a big handful of chopped ginger, then a big handful of chopped garlic. I add maybe 4 oz ground chicken meat (trying to be healthy) and breakup to brown, then about a small handful of chopped pixian doubanjiang and maybe 1-2 T of chopped dou chi. That's stir fried for a few minutes until I see the doubanjiang get a big darker then add 1C homemade chicken stock then simmer for a few minutes while I prep the tofu. Add cornstarch slurry to get the right consistency, plus a little extra salt and a touch of sugar. Then slide in the tofu and simmer for a few more minutes. Finally throw in the garlic chives and mix around for a little bit and plate. Am I missing anything? Or maybe it's the brand of doubanjiang I'm using?

Oh yeah... a couple months ago, when prepping for a colonoscopy, my gastro recommended having a really big greasy breakfast the morning of starting the prep. I interpreted that to mean only one thing - Popeyes! But, my local branch doesn't open until noon, and I needed to have it at like 6AM. I got it the day before and then refrigerated it. Reheated it (and the biscuits) in the CSO worked perfectly... Love this oven!

Wow, that Ruin a must have been especial! Love old Rioja!

Looks good, but keep them away from me!!!

Thanks. To be honest, we just Coravined a glass and put the rest back in the wine fridge. We tried it about a year ago and it was much more closed. I think it's starting to come into its own now but I can't wait to try it again on a few more years!

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and end to 2020!!! Duck confit and potatoes, salad with sherry vinegar and a nice Burgundy

My wife loves Mexican food - but nothing very spicy.... so I made this for her, red chile chicken tacos. Chicken was cooked in a sauce made from rehydrated ancho chiles, plus 1 or 2 dried chipotle (not in adobo) defanged, some fire roasted tomato, sweated onion/garlic, mexican oregano, cumin and chicken stock. Added bonus - I have enough sauce leftover for at least one more meal!

I've been in the mood for a good curry puff - sort of like a SE Asian samosa... then again, a good samosa would hit the spot also!

I agree - I always "toast" the tomato paste. Usually I'll saute the onions/garlic, then bank them around the sides of the pan while I toast the paste in the middle of the pan in a little oil. Once it's most of the way there, I'll mix it all together and let it go a little longer till the paste is done, then start incorporating liquids.

That's sad. I had met him once at the Big Apple BBQ (back before the lines became ridiculous, even with the Fast Pass)... he seemed like a nice guy, and he sure did know his stuff. His ribs were fantastic.

Thai shrimp stir fry, pad goong nam prik pao

This was a relative express Bolognese - tomato was in 2 forms -a little paste and then some Rao's marinara sauce...

Spaghetti with ground bison and dried porcini sauce. Kinda sorta like a Bolognese... kinda.

Can we come over? Black sesame buns are my wife's favorite dessert! Yours look great. @heidihThat choux looks really good, but not enough black sesame.... hehe

ha!! But you're right - I had forgotten how small the kitchen was - we haven't been there in quite a while...

ladybugs go where the food is. If you have plenty of aphids, just scatter around and they will find them. It's actually better to release a small amount of ladybugs every once in a while rather than waiting until you have a large amount for them to eat. By that time, it's hard for the plants to bounce back as quickly. If you take care of it early, the ladybugs will scatter and disappear once they're gone, but it's hard to take care of an infestation once it really gets going.

Like @Duvel said, I'd be surprised if they weren't cooked to order just because they cook so fast. When I've made them in the past (my cooking professor in college was German and had me make it one day just for fun), once the batter is made, you just scrape into some boiling water for a minute, then scoop out with a spider and immediately throw into the butter and saute. In a restaurant situation, I'd assume they always had some boiling water going, and they'd have a large batch of batter in the refrigerator. Really fast to cook to order.

How did reheating the spatzle work? I wonder how it didn't solidify into a giant mass before you could fry it

Over the years my approach has changed. I think most of it is scattered through the gardening thread(s).

I rarely have pests in my indoor garden. Pest control is best done preventively, rather than reactively. Gnats/fruit flies aren't problems in actively growing plants - instead, we have aphids, white fly, etc. Many of these problems are soil born (the eggs are in the soil) so growing hydroponically solves that problem. If growing in media based hydroponics, like in coco coir, one key is to not over water - soggy soil/coir is home to many pests. Keeping the top 1" of media dry solves that problem. If they pop up, issues like aphids can be taken care of with Integrated Pest Management - like using ladybugs to eat the aphids. This way you don't need any chemical pesticides or anything else to be sprayed on the leaves of the plant. But, like anything else, you need an experienced person to check things out and look for problems quite often - once a day, which is a lot of labor on a large scale. Most indoor growing facilities take big precautions in not allowing pests in - making employees cover their shoes/clothes/hair before entering the growing area, screens on all intakes/exhausts on greenhouses - or in the case of indoor facilities, having no fresh air enter the space which makes sure no pests can enter also. Having a small setup in a grocery store would be much more challenging from a pest perspective - especially if the customer is allowed close access to the plants rather than being behind a counter and having a store employee "harvest" for them.

I, too, was of the understanding that Asian noodles were not cooked in salted water. With that being said, whenever I make noodle soups using the fresh Shanxi knife peeled noodles, I cook them in salted water so that I don't have to oversalt the soup to compensate... If I don't, the soup will taste great when tasted before adding to the noodles, but soon after, it will taste flat.

https://www.producegrower.com/article/gotham-greens-2020-new-funding/