KennethT

If you're handy (or you want to call these guys have them do it for you) you might consider making this hydroponic option: http://www.generalhydroponics.com/blog/2010/11/03/urbanhydros-super-cropper/ I think the Urban Hydro Growers Union site is down - I haven't checked it in a while, but when I just did, the page was down. In any case, if you've got basement space, you can grow a LOT of herbs, peppers, tomatoes - practically anything.

OK - I know this is a very specific topic that is not intended to elicit a lot of discussion. But - I have become very disenchanted with the restaurant which currently supplies my delivery sushi in Murray Hill. I know there are a couple of people in these forums who either live or work in the area, so I was hoping to get a suggestion or two of their go-to places.... Thanks!

I use a torch quite frequently. But, this is because I do a lot of cooking SV, so the torch is a convenient way to brown. It takes a little practice, but once you're familiar with it, you can get great results with no fuel taste or other issues. I use a Bernzomatic hose torch - which attaches to a standard 1 liter propane tank. I find the hose torch convenient as I can hang the tank on my belt and manipulate the torch 360 degrees around without fear of it extinguishing. Sometimes, when you use a regular torch, it will extinguish if you hold it close to upside down too long (which is exactly what I do when torching food!) Plus, the hose torch has a "swirl" head which turns the flame into a sort of cyclone which is supposed to ensure more complete combustion and more heat. I don't know about the claims, but I will say that I've never experienced torch taste when using it.

It's hard for me to answer this question because I only used Mae Ploy once a long time ago. I found it ridiculously salty compared to what I had in Thailand. So I asked my Thai grocer and he recommended the Nittaya. I don't think it is incredibly hot - I find it well balanced and the most similar to what I had in Thailand. I find it better than what I can make on my own since I don't have a really good mortar/pestle and most of the ingredients I can get here in NY aren't nearly as ripe as the ones they make the paste from in Thailand. So the flavor of my own paste is not as bright. BTW, now after several trips to Thailand, all over the country (North, Central, South) I have to say that I don't think that Thai food in general is super hot. I think some dishes can be, but in general, I found the best Thai food to be spicy only to balance the other flavors, like a single color in a painting full of other colors - not a piece of modern art where the entire canvas is red! ha!

I'd love to hear your opinion on the flavor of the bread made from the starter in Paris versus those made from your standard starter. I'd assume that the natural yeasts that are colonizing your starter would be slightly different in each location, and would thus result in different flavors.

I find Mae Ploy to be pretty salty. I think the refrigerated pastes from Nittaya are harder to find, but much higher in quality.

I think it cool, but don't think it would work. UV sterilizers have problems with suspended particulates - shadows...

Rather than freeze drying, can't you just freeze the thai eggplants for consumption later in the year? I'm sure any textural changes that come about from freezing will be just as (if not more) present in the rehydrated freeze dried product, unless you were thinking of powdering it, which I just can't imagine... Sorry to derail the original topic... now back to our show...

Can you put a check valve in your hose? That should stop the back flow from getting into your flask.

I've rea studies that show the opposite (and have confirmed this with side by side steak tests) - jaccarding actually caused the meat to release less juice during cooking. The apparent cause is that by severing the muscle fibers, they can't contract as much, and squeeze out as much juice. My tests confirmed it over multiple trials - I've taken strip steak, divided them, and jaccarded one half and left the other untouched. They went into separate bags, but into the same water bath for the same amount of time. The non-jaccarded bags always had more juice in them, and back when I had time to do this stuff, the percent weight loss was also statistically significant.. - if I remember, it was about a 10% difference.

I think the brussels sprout issue is a little different - the battered whole sprout has air trapped between the interleaved leaves with no easy exit. As it gets hotter, the air between the leaves, as well as water that is turning to steam expands beneath the tempura crust and is trapped, until at some point, a weak spot in the batter breaks and all the trapped gases rapidly leave, propelling the sprout across the kitchen. Cutting the sprouts in halves or quarters not only reduces surface area, but also makes it easy for gases between the leaves to exit without building pressure. Chicken doesn't have air spaces or trapped water that easily turns to steam (the inside of the chicken meat probably never gets higher than 180F at the most), so it's only the surface water you have to worry about. Which makes sense that the chicken exploded the instant it hit the wok. The surface liquid instantly flashed to steam and rapidly expanded! Modernist Cuisine gives a whole explanation of wok cooking, and illustrates the several cooking zones present in the very hot wok. Yes, there's the conduction of the extremely hot metal, but also, just above it, is the steam zone where you have extremely hot steam present.

I know it's typical to include the starch in the marinade, but I would try doing it differently - marinate wihtout the starch, drain, then a dusting of starch just before it hits the wok...

I'd imagine it was just too wet. When a lot of liquid (trapped underneath the chicken) is rapidly heated, the steam produced can be very powerful. Next time, I'd try draining the marinade really well, then maybe a light coating of starch (rice flour, wondra, etc.) to absorb the excess liquid. I've watched a lot of cooking over those ridiculously hot woks in Thailand - the kind where there's a fan underneath the charcoal pot, and it looks like a flame thrower is underneath the wok. Most things that go in there seem pretty dry - I can't remember anything dripping wet, until the sauce goes in, but by that time, the wok is cooled by all the other ingredients already in it.

I've never been happy with SV lobster. I know restaurants do it very successfully, but I haven't found a temp/time combo to my liking. I think it may be a problem to try to boil/simmer the tails all at once - even if you have two pots. The problem is that you probably don't have enough heat, unless you plan on putting the pots on a wok burner. Dropping 15-20 lobster tails into a pot of boiling water will drop the temp considerably, and depending on how much heat you have, may take a really long time to come back to temp - during which time, you have no idea how long it's been at what temperature. I think a more realistic way to do it would be to cook them in small batches in a pot. Since your tails are small, I can't recommend timing, but guessing, I'd simmer for about 5 min. then turn off the heat and let steep (covered) for another 10. Take out the tails and let them cool in the air, during which time you can bring the pot back to a boil and do it again for the next batch. You can then refrigerate the tails (well wrapped) for a day or so, and then either reheat on the grill, or all at once in a big pot of water for a minute or two. You can do these all at once because it doesn't really matter what temp the pot drops to - you're just reheating for a few minutes anyway.

If using oil in the bag, you can also use a zip-lock bag with the displacement method - also described in depth in the sous-vide thread. Very convenient for short cooks.

I have a friend who was a food scientist. One day, years ago, I needed a small amount of fondant, so she emailed me a page out of her textbook. The textbook advises to agitate the syrup on a marble slab with a spatula as well - but not by slapping. Instead it recommended moving the spatula through the mass in a vibrating, jig-saw fashion, scraping the marble as you go. It said that that was how to get the smallest grain size for the smoothest texture.

A question for those who have one of these - how much power does it consume? Since it's plugging into a standard US outlet, I'm sure it draws less than 15A (1800W) but I was just curious. Watching this thread, plus the several other scattered posts are making me very interested... but considering that the cooking gas in my apartment is free, and I have to pay for electric, I was just wondering what it costs to operate this on a regular basis.

If it is, indeed, a pork loin, then I would go for the medium rare temp - about 135 or so, long enough to pasteurize to the core. This time is dependent on thickness. For those values, Google Douglas Baldwin Sous Vide for his informative online guide, or see the original Sous Vide post here on Egullet- in the index should be links to tables of thickness/time for different meats and temps. Or, like many of us, download the SousVide Dash app for an ipad or iphone.

From what cut is the pork roast? Is it the loin? Is "pork roast" an industry term for something specific?

As a fan of laap and of Thai food in general, I would like to recommend Andy Ricker's Pok Pok cookbook. Not only does it have extremely labor intensive recipes (he makes all of his curry pastes from scratch), but there are many stories talking about his travels around Northern Thailand and the people he knows there. It also explains how many dishes are eaten in their native area, which I have found makes for a considerable increase in my enjoyment when trying it "their way". Being in NYC, I am very lucky to have a Pok Pok restaurant relatively nearby - but, supposedly, the recipes in the book are exactly what they do in the restaurant. In the book, he gives at least two recipes for laap (there may be more, I don't remember now and don't have the book handy), and a very interesting story about his friend who makes what he considers to be the seminal version. His friend's version is standard for Northern Thailand - this version has no mint, no (or very little) lime juice and is very different from the laap that is standard in restaurants in the US (I don't know what's available in Canada, but from seeing photos of your Thai lunches in the past, it looks pretty similar to our standard fare here). It's not that spicy, but intensely funky, herbal and completely addictive. He also gives a recipe for Isaan (Northeast Thailand which is very different from Northern Thailand) laap, which is what we would typically think of - with mint, lime juice, etc. ETA - for clarity

I don't use the microwave for much - mostly defrosting - although I used to use it more than I do now. Lately I've been using the circulating water bath for defrosting meats. But my wife uses the microwave every day to defrost an english muffin. But when I rarely do chocolate work, I find the microwave and a glass bowl are great for melting the chocolate. The microwave also makes short work of making a dark roux for gumbo, although you have to be careful taking the container of hot, liquid magma in and out to stir every once in a while. It's also good for reheating rice by making an improvised steamer. Put rice on a plate, get a paper towel wet and wring out the excess moisture, then lay it over the top of the rice and microwave on full power for about a minute or so.

My parents have the exact same Cuisinart! And it still works... they probably acquired it in the early '80s. The logic back then: who needs a finger switch if there is already a switch built into the cover?

Ditto what Tri said... the point is to get the ideal creamy m&c texture, but using any cheese you'd like and having the flavor be much more intense than it would be with the standard bechamel version. BTW, the same theory can be used with fondue - just adjust the amount of liquid for the thickness you want (and moisture content of the cheese).

I'm loving this thread! Thank you so much for taking the time to document it all. I've loved going to markets on travels through Thailand and northern Vietnam, and these photos are making me very nostalgic for them. I wish we had something like that here in NY... like others have said, it is strange, from a Western point of view, to see raw meat lying around in 90degF heat with no refrigeration. I didn't notice anything in the photos - how do the vendors keep the flies away? I remember from some of the markets I have visited that most vendors would rig fans with a bunch of streamers and install them every so often over the meats.

I think it's ridiculous that they didn't mention Ottomanelli (on Bleecker).