KennethT

I'll second (or third or 4th) the Campari tomatoes... they're consistently decent... not like home grown, but definitely one of the best options I've found for off-season...

I have researched blossom end rot quite extensively as it is a common problem when growing tomatoes hydroponically in greenhouses. It is also quite complex.... Technically, Crepes is right - ber is caused by a calcium deficiency in the fruit - but there could be many reasons for having this defiency - only one of them being not enough calcium in the substrate (soil). Some heirloom varieties are naturally prone to it - this is because their root system is not strong enough to take up all the nutrients necessary to provide for the plant when it is growing quickly. To combat this, most professional greenhouses use hybrids, or more recently, grafting heirloom plants to hybrid rootstocks. Another issue is ventilation. Tomatoes need quite a bit of wind to allow the necessary amount of nutrient to reach the leaf tips and fruit. Wind across the leaves increase transpiration rates, which increase the amount of water intake from the soil which carries more nutrients with it. Still air in the microclimate of the leaf slows transpiration, and with no water movement there is no nutrient movement to the extremities. Another possible problem could be soil pH. This is a common problem in containers as there is typically less biological activity. One way to combat this problem is to add a good amount of healthy compost. Compost contains tons of beneficial bacteria which will help keep down the population of anaerobic bacteria which cause pH to drop significantly. Which leads to another thing - make sure the container's drainage is very good - wet feet is a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria which will rot roots (decreasing nutrient uptake) and also lower pH which decreases the availability of nutrients to the plant. Wow... sorry about this - I didn't intend for this to get so wordy!!!! I hope some of it helped...

echo the above... plus, I use mine at least once a week just for salmon. I like it rare in the middle and just flaking - so I use Sous Vide Dash to help me setting a 102F core temp with 115F bath... it's perfect every single time, completely unattended, so I can focus on side dishes while it's going. I can't imagine how I lived without it!

Very true Anna... I can still picture being in a market outside of Chiang Mai seeing a vendor surrounded by several HUGE mounds of curry paste. Her customers would come to her, she'd scoop out what looked like a good pint or so, put it in a plastic bag, and off they'd go. I was there with my cooking teacher/market guide who explained how most people do not make their own paste or make their own coconut milk - it's just too time consuming... plus, there are usually several vendors in each market that supply that stuff freshly made. When I get home tonight, I'll try to see if I can find a photo of that vendor... truly a sight for a westerner!

I will add to my previous post that you can make a very respectable curry by using practically any prepackaged curry paste and canned coconut milk. While every cookbook says to "crack" the coconut milk, I find it's almost impossible using canned milk, so instead, I buy cans and try not to move them very much before opening. I'm trying to get the contents to settle as much as possible so that the thick coconut fat rises to the top. I spoon off the thick fat (you should be able to cut it with a knife, ideally) and fry a tablespoon or two of the paste in that - be careful as it will sputter... Once it smells nicely aromatic, I dump in the rest of the can of coconut milk and whisk it in until smooth... simmer until it has the consistency you like, then add a squeeze of fish sauce and lime juice until it tastes right...

I may be in the minority here, but I think the best curry pastes cannot be done here in N. America, if you pound yourself. The problem is that the ingredients that you need are not grown locally, and by the time your store gets them, they are old, somewhat desiccated and do not have the flavor profile they did originally when very fresh. Not only that, but some ingredients are just impossible to find. Sure, we can get thai bird chilis here, but typically, curry pastes are made with chilis that are not available here fresh, and reconstituting dried ones is definitely not the same. Personally, I think I get a flavor much closer to what I got in Thailand when I use the refrigerated or frozen prepackaged pastes - specifically Nittaya brand. I find Mae Ploy to be too salty. I also have a slight issue with grating your own coconut - since most of the ones I find are not as juicy as they should be and it's a ridiculous amount of work. Again, I like to use frozen coconut milk that is 100% coconut milk (product of Thailand or Phillipines) with no additives. In a pinch, the canned cream works ok too, but just don't expect it to crack easily if ever.

I keep the fried food on a rack and use a heat lamp... it's not good for reheating, but it will keep fried foods hot while waiting for subsequent batches and will not trap the steam which leads to soggy crust.

I've never heard of a "jetlag diet"... can someone please fill me in?

I think this is a really great idea - I have never backed a kickstarter before, but today is the day I changed that! I love SV Dash, so if this product is even close to being as good, I think it would be a big hit. ETA: I think this has a much broader appeal than SV, which is still in the early adopter stage. Everyone uses their stove top to simmer, and if other people's stoves are like mine (ie inexpensive), it's almost impossible to find the exact spot on the dial to make an even simmer for a long period of time wihtout it cooling off or getting to hot from time to time. So instead, it requires constant monitoring - which is a real pain... This product would automate this... Now, if they would just make one that could survive in a pressure cooker, that would make my stock making even easier! I constantly have to check on my PC to make sure it's not cooling or overheating.....

These are becoming much more common now... they had been made for a couple years by a company called Solaire, and I gather Charbroil makes one now too...

Whenever I got to a Chinese restaurant (or any other restaurant featuring dishes meant to be shared (there are a lot of them now in NYC)), I always discuss the menu with everyone else at the table, basically saying "so, what do we want to get". That way we discuss what each person wants and doesn't want, and tailor the ordering to make everyone happy. Even though it is a group decision, we have one person do all the ordering, except for drinks. Sharing "family style" or Chinese style, or whatever you want to call it, doesn't pertain to the cleanliness "ick" factor when sharing off of individual plates. Each dish arrives with a serving utensil, so no one's dirty fork/spoon/chopsticks have to contact other people's food.

I like 150F for 4-5 hours... Very tender and juicy.

That is the question - and the answer depends on what result you want. Pressing will give more yield, but will most likely make your stock cloudy. A PC stock with slow release is typically crystal clear.

Melissa, I don't know of anything "off the shelf" to do what you'd like, but if you had a little programming experience, you could do it with a Raspberry Pi. You can get a thermocouple card for it, and then using the Pi, create a temperature log where it can log the temp once per hour or whatever. This can be stored on the main memory or SD card. The Pi has an ethernet port, and you can run a web server that can display the log, or write a script that will send you an email if a checked temp falls below (or above in this case) a certain threshold. Slightly complicated, but not impossible....

I like my salmon flaking, but rare - so when I do it SV, I set the circulator to 115F, but a target core temp of 102F. It's blasted with the torch after that. This gives me a nice rare center, but a bit of a gradient which adds a bit of texture contrast which I like with salmon. I have no idea how to calculate heat transfer in a steam environment - do you have a thin temperature probe? That way you could track the core temp as it cooks... ETA: I don't know how long it takes the oven to go from low temp to broil temp. You may need to factor that in...

I have been growing a drawf lime tree in my NYC apartment for about 10 years now. One thing I have found is that they HATE too much moisture (wet feet). In fact, I wound up killing two that were planted in pots with bagged soil and lots of cedar/redwood shavings to help drainage. When I measured with my moisture meter, it always had wet spots, and upon inspection, I would constantly have root rot issues. About 7 years ago, I started a new one in a hydroponic environment. This tree has been doing great, and I have a constant supply of limes year round. You can tell it's healthy because it's constantly putting out new growth and new leaves. My tree only gets watered once per day, but it is not planted in soil - the roots are suspended in clay pebbles which do not really hold any water. So the roots dry out a bit before the next watering.

Bun Cha was probably the highlight of my time in Hanoi (and that is saying something - I loved the time we had there!) - we almost missed our flight leaving there as we spent a little too much time exploring looking for one last Bun Cha place...

I haven't done it in a while, but I used to love to confit the thighs in rendered foie gras fat.... it helps add a bit of muskiness that is missing from the squabs I can get locally. I used to get slices of fresh foie that were not too expensive ($5 per slice) as opposed to having to buy a whole FG for like $80. Edit for clarity

I LOVE squab - it's probably my favorite meat... In the US, it is typical to process as quickly as possible after slaughter, but in France (where I've had some of the best squab I've ever had), I gather it is not uncommon to hang for 2-3 days with guts and feathers intact after slaughter to allow the meat to age. This adds a bit more gameyness which I find very appealing. To me, squab breast is best cooked medium rare - I find that if it is overcooked it tends to get a livery flavor and grainy texture. The thighs/legs need more time or temperature otherwise they come out stringy and a little tough. A short confit treatment (only an hour or so of salting) works very well for the thigh/leg section. Squab liver is also very tasty - and can make a great puree for spreading on toast, etc.

I've done it before (not with pumpkin oil, but with roasted sesame oil cut with grapeseed oil since the sesame was so strong) - it's not that difficult, but it needs some time and patience to get the viscosity of the melted sugar mixture just right by finely adjusting the temperature. I'm sure the EB guys, after doing lots of them, could tell by eye when the consistency was right.

I had the same bite at E.B. - but it wasn't blown sugar. The oil is dropped through a film of hot sugar using a small ring mold. The sugar flows around the oil and encapsulates it. The sugar is actually a combination of sugar, fondant and isomalt (according to the E.B. book). ETA: I think it was pumpkin seed oil, not pistachio - but I'd have to check the book tonight when I get home to be sure if anyone cares.

I've done this before with good results (not with mutton, but with other meats). Save the bag juices and add them to the curry. I would first briefly boil the bag juices so that the proteins coagulate - you can then strain these, or as some do, saute them in some oil till nicely browned, then deglaze and strain to get all of the flavor out.

According to SV Dash, a 2" steak cooked to 131F in a 132F bath would take 3h38m to get to core temp. It would save a little time to cook it to a core temp of 130F in a 132F bath - that's 3h7m One last possibility would be to go to 129F in a 132F bath - that's 2h49m. So, I guess the short answer is that daveb is absolutely correct - you'll need to do it for about 3 hours!!!

I think the botulism concern is over raw garlic in oil. When the garlic has been cooked for as long as that XO sauce has been, I think it would be as safe as any other ingredient.

Xanthan is a stabilizer more than a thickener. It can give a little body, but use too much and your liquid will turn to a mucous like substance. Xanthan is excellent at keeping liquids from separating, or used synergistically with other hydrocolloids (like agar). There are actually many types of Ultra-tex, which is a modified starch. There are hot-swelling versions, cold-swelling versions, some versions which require very little to thicken (very potent). The hot and cold swelling are not interchangeable. Add a cold swelling starch to hot liquid and you will have a clumpy mess. Used properly though, they're great - they impart a creamy mouthfeel and do not change the original flavor or intensity of what you're thickening. Gelatin is good for thickening liquids used cold, but when hot, it does not add much viscosity, but will add a "gelatinous" mouthfeel - sorry - I couldn't think of another word.