KennethT

Your fry method is like Dave Arnold's back in the Cooking Issues days... I did it once, and like you said, they are ridiculously fragile when taking them out of the simmering brine. I wound up with 80% mashed potato looking stuff that clogged the crap out of my drying rack and 20% amazingly awesome fries.

@weinoo if you're doing the confit SV, why not just leave the sealed bags in the fridge? That's even more convenient than the freezer, and assuming the bags haven't opened, will last a really long time assuming you keep your fridge cold.

I hate wearing shoes also, but they're going to on from now on for anything hot or knives.

It is remarkable how many shophouse/street food cooks I've seen in Asia who do deep frying or jet burner wok cooking wearing shorts and flip flops. I'm surprised more of them aren't completely scarred from the waist down.

The ER was busy - it's NYC - it's always busy but they took me in right away, seen by a nurse almost immediately and saw the doctor maybe 40 minutes later. Unfortunately no slippers because the burn is on the top of the feet, just behind the toes - so nothing that would touch the top of my feet there - which is basically nothing other than the shoes I'm going to "modify"... I am very lucky to have a wonderful wife who did all the cleanup when we got home from the ER.

Not much to do. Basically just apply an antibiotic cream to it 2x a day and keep it clean and elevated as much as possible - which will be tough at work but I'll have to do the best I can.

For years now, a lot of times I walk around the apartment and do whatever in the kitchen in a t shirt and boxers with no socks or shoes. Luckily, last night I happened to be wearing jeans and socks, otherwise my ankles would have gotten some too. Unfortunately, that's all going to change. Clothes and shoes when cooking from now on.

Yeah, while the whole ER experience was something of itself, and the fact that I won't be able to be fully functioning or wear normal shoes for 2 weeks, the worst is losing that sauce. It was fantastic and I was really looking forward to those tacos.

We need a "shocked" button!!! 😮😮😮

I was simmering a couple quarts of a really tasty red chile sauce for making red chile tacos. I had already cooked some chicken thighs in there, removed them to cool and pick the meat off the bones and was simmering the thick sauce just to thicken it further. At one point I got distracted and knocked the sauce pan handle and the pan started to slide off the stove and onto the floor. I grabbed the handle of the pot but in the process managed to dump the entire contents on my feet, floor and base cabinets.

After just returning from the ER with 2nd degree burns on the top of my feet - only narrowly missing my toes which would have landed me in the burn unit, I implore everyone to not make the same idiotic mistake I did!!!

I thought most granulated sugar was made from sugar beets as opposed to cane sugar. If it's not specific, I'd assume it was made from sugar beets.

I'm a big fan of sauteeing not so great pears in butter with a lot of black pepper, then a shot of cognac at the end to finish. If I want to be really fancy, I'll also add some tarragon.

Yup. but I think American oak gets a bad rap unnecessarily. When used properly (properly toasted, and using barrels rather than chips/shavings) it can be just as good as French oak. Personally, I think the cooper has much more influence on the outcome of the wine than the species of oak. I think American oak got a bad rap in the old days because a lot of the cooperages were inexperienced with making wine barrels (as opposed to bourbon barrels) and just over-did things. By now, they've come a long way. But, some houses like Ridge have always done a great job with it. I remember having a conversation with Anne Gros (Burgundy)'s assistant winemaker and she was walking us through their cellar tasting us out of barrel (oh that Richebourg.... drool) and explaining to us how they request different toast levels depending on the ripeness they get that year. It's not just a one size fits all decision. Nice. Years ago when we had a weekly tasting group, someone brought some '70s and early '80s Ridge and we tasted them blind next to some very nice older Bordeaux... quite interesting indeed...

Ridge ages really well. Their cabernet could pass for Bordeaux

The basil and Thai basil have sprouted. I'll thin them out to 1 plant per cube

I have a home built system that used to have circulation, but the circulator motor has long since died. But the rest of the system works fine - just like a SVS... but mine uses any standard stockpot (it's just the base) so once I'm done using it, I can dump the water out of the stockpot and put the base away easily.

The Thai Basil has been flowering like crazy so I'm letting it for a while before I chop her down.... It's just too much of a pita to keep pinching the flowers.

I also think that the food looks much better than I had expected - and the variety - who knew!?!

I always washed them with a sponge with some soap/water in the bottom of the sink. Then I put them on a rack in the oven and turned the oven on to dry them...

Those are either really big limes or really small lemons!

Algae need some kind of nutrient in order to proliferate - so, distilled water should theoretically be algae free.

Madeira goes with EVERYTHING!

Me too

wow! At what point does it stop being called a Brussels sprout and instead just called cabbage?