KennethT

Sometimes people want a dark stock. Beef stocks typically have the bones/veg roasted prior to simmering. You can also do it for a dark chicken stock.

Whoops - I misread the OP - I thought the OPer was trying to roast bones and use water in the pan (I assumed the bones were on a rack above the water) to keep the drippings from sticking to the pan...

@liuzhou Sorry for the question - I didn't realize that shepherd's purse was an ingredient! I had never heard of it before...

I agree - I think you can get good browning when roasting above a pan of water. The water won't be boiling in the oven - hot air in an oven does not have nearly good enough heat transfer capability to have a pan of water boil... it will increase the humidity in the oven though. I recently saw a video online where someone was making Char Siu in a home oven - and the pieces were being roasted on a rack over some water in the pan. The char siu got nicely browned - it looked perfect.

Your photos are fantastic - they are so good that Georgia may go on the travel list! Thanks for all this!

What's the filling in the wontons? Do you make them, or are they available for purchase (uncooked)?

It is sometimes recommended to roast things on a rack above a little water so that the drippings (mostly fat) don't burn on the sheet pan below it. I don't know how useful it would be for bones since there isn't much meat or fat on them, unless you're roasting a duck or goose carcass, or a really fatty cut of pork.

cream cheese?

Many Nyonya curries have finely ground (or pounded) nuts - specifically candlenuts, which are kind of like macadamias... they act as a thickener for the curry. One of the curries I make frequently - the Ayam Buah Keluak - uses them.

I am in Manhattan - in the Kips Bay / Murray Hill area - but you're right, I don't have an extra room... but if I was growing weed, it would certainly pay for the extra room and then some!

@Anna NIt is quite bland, that's for sure... even with the ground pork or ground chicken and the ginger, it's certainly not very flavorful!

When I fly via EVA via Taiwan, they always have congee as the choice for the Chinese breakfast. It's actually quite good - I think it's made with some stock, rather than just plain water (or maybe chicken powder?) and there is shredded ginger on top, and a package of fish floss to add as well.

crazy... Where are edibles sold? I assume you can't just buy them in the supermarket, but have to be a specialty store, like the equivalent of a liquor store? In which case, how would kids get in there to make the purchases... and if they're worried about kids eating their parents' edibles, isn't it up to the parents to make sure the kids can't get at it? Like a locked liquor cabinet....

@sartoric Interesting. In my local spice shop, they have saffron from several different regions - they also note that the Kashmiri saffron is the highest quality, and it is more expensive - interestingly enough though, it is less expensive than the saffron from Spain. Also interesting that you mentioned saffron rice cooked by dum - when I was in Singapore, we went to what was supposedly the best "dum biryani" restaurant. In SG, they use the term dum biryani even though it is redundant because there are quite a few vendors who make biryani but take the shortcut by not doing it in the dum method, so the places that do do it the traditional way have to differentiate themselves.

I have seen saffron in recipes for some Indian curries, but I don't know how authentic those recipes were...

@BonVivant Your photos are making Taiwan jump a lot closer to the top of my list!

Just did a quick check- Pyramid also makes a fingerprint based punch clock that you can export the data to Paychex et al. MSRP is $599 but I wouldn't be surprised if you could get it for much less online somewhere.

It's not a restaurant, but I have a Pyramid 4000 time clock. It uses punch cards, but automatically adds up the weekly hours. We just have a camera in the ceiling facing the time clock to keep buddy punching at bay.

Apple.... hilarious!

So I don't know if this is technically a curry, but it's cuttlefish stir fried with curry leaves, chili, and a homemade sambal. The sambal is a combination of a lot of garlic, shallots, chilies, shrimp paste, dried shrimp and tamarind. I believe that you could put that sambal on practically anything and it would taste good! Served with jasmine rice and stir fried Taiwan Bok Choi with garlic (not pictured).

I scored and cut into pcs about 1-1/2 x 2 or so. For some reason, at the last moment, I decided to toss in some flour prior to stir frying. This was a mistake. As the cuttlefish curled up, the flour on the inside of the curl just turned kind of gummy and never browned (which in hindsight would have been obvious). With all the sambal on top, it was surely edible - actually still tasty - but I wouldn't do it again - the flouring that is!

That's why I was thinking of the starch dredge and fry - maybe the coating would adhere better?

Yes, I was planning the cross-hatch then cut into roughly 1" squares. I figured the sambal would cling well to the raised edges, but didn't know if it would be better to give a light dusting with starch first. I've been debating whether to re-fry the sambal (to get it reheated) and then add the cuttlefish, or to re-fry the sambal, remove from the pan, then fry the cuttlefish by itself and then add back the sambal to incorporate.

@JAZ I have neither an electric pressure cooker or an air fryer, which is exactly why this item seemed good as it's a 2 for 1. I have a large pc that I use for making large quantities of stock, but barely use it otherwise as it is so big, and I only cook for 2 people, myself included. Can you use this item to make spring rolls? Do they come out similar to being fried? Also, when in use, does the device exhaust a lot of hot air? I live in a small apt. with an even smaller kitchen!

@Shelby Where do you get the frogs legs? Do you or Ronnie catch the frogs, then skin and butcher, or do you buy them? If you buy them, where do you get them?