KennethT

I grow all my herbs (and other stuff too) indoors, hydroponically. I find that most plants do very well in this situation. Check out the Gardening 2012 forum where I've put some pics of my garden... If you have no hydro experience, I've heard good things about the all-in-one hydroponic systems you can get at the big box stores - it comes self contained with reservoir, fluorescent light, pump, etc... it may even come with seeds.... Good things about hydro: no bugs/pests, faster growth, more essential oils/flavor, uses less water, pretty low maintenance...

Isomalt acts structurally like sugar, but is about 50% less sweet, so it's typically used in savory sugar glasses, caramels or other sugar substitutes.

I find it works much better to use nitrous chargers rather than CO2. It can also help to add vodka to the batter tomake it extra crisp.. And rice flour.

I used your method last week. Everything came out delicious. Thanks again. I decided that in the future i'll do either all thighs or all breasts...doing both from a whole chicken was just too much of a pain because of different temp requirements. Do you use bone in thighs or boneless? Bone-in

Just an update on my quest for Hainanese Chicken Rice in NYC... made a fast dinner last night (with some prep over the weekend) using chicken thighs. Bagged 2 skin-on thighs per bag with about a half cup of previously made broth (see older posts for method). 147F for 1.5 hours, then chilled and stored in the refrigerator until last night. Dropped the bags in a 140F bath to retherm.... results - the chicken skin was very silky and tender, although there was some unrendered fat in some pockets, most of which may have been able to be removed before cooking. The meat itself was super tender and juicy, and there was no trace of pink which can weird some people out. All in all another hit, especially useful on a busy weekday night...

Speaking of risotto, not everyone believes they should be made from a meat stock. A few years ago, the NY Times with Mark Bittman did a video with Mario Batali in the kitchen of Del Posto doing a demonstration of how they did their asparagus risotto. Batali said that they don't use chicken stock for their risotto, but instead use a garlic broth. He made quite a point of how good water can taste if properly seasoned. Ever since then, I've been doing my risottos (risotti?) usinga garlic broth and I actually agree - I like it much better. I find it is a little lighter and not as heavy in the mouth without all the gelatin. You already have that mouthfeel coming from the starch...

When you go to the market in chinatown (at least in NYC) they have different labels. In NYC (Manhattan), I think it's Hong Li meat market on Mott between Hester and Grand that I had good results in.... One chicken that's GREAT for stock is the silky - you can't miss it - it's got black skin and black meat. They're pretty scrawny, but the skin and meat are very tough and make great broths. I put in the pressure cooker for about an hour and a half to completely break it down. They also have different sections in the refrigerator with different kinds of chicken. I forget how they're labeled, but one of them has a larger comb than the rest - those are good stewing chickens as well. If all fails, try to get there when they're not jam-packed, and ask someone - when they're not too busy, I find they can be pretty helpful.

I'm having a party and one of the bites being served incorporates puffed duck skin. The problem is that I don't want to puff the skin pieces at the last minute since I'd rather not have a pot of 400 degree oil around when there are tons of people drinking and milling about, possibly milling about in my kitchen. So, I'd like to puff them in advance (maybe that afternoon) and keep them... The question is - how long will they stay brittle and crunchy? I have airtight containers, and a foodsaver canister, and many many packets of dessicant if that helps...

This is a pretty silly question... but I have to make a pretty large quantity of toast, and would like the slices to be uniformly browned. I have a gas oven where the broiler is on the floor - so not only is it inconvenient to check the browning progress, it is also not very even - the bread in the middle gets browned faster than that at the edges. Has anyone had any success in putting a bunch of slices on a baking sheet (with or without a rack) and baking to achieve a respectable level of toast without completely drying out the interior? Temperature?

Wow... Did you keep it in the paper bag?

I'm not exactly sure what a flat iron steak is - is it similar to flank steak? I commonly do flank steak at 132 for 24 hours, then a fast sear and it comes out great every time.

A couple of years ago, my wife and some friends were in the midst of Unit 3 of the WSET Diploma course.... The practical part of the exam was (IIRC) 12 wines served blind, which could come from anywhere in the world, so in preparation, for months we did weekly tastings of all the possible wine regions, and then comparitive tastings of regions that could be confused with each other. Most of the weeks were a lot of fun, and quite tasty, until we got to the wines of Eastern Europe - mostly Romania... most of them were pretty bad - definitely a result of unclean winery practices at the very least, but the one that stole the show was from Ukraine. It smelled and tasted like a dirty diaper that had been left in the sun for a few days. And the length!!! Wow, it just went on and on...

Is dry ice easily available to you? A couple of pounds will keep a decent cooler cool for two days at least... just wrap it in a sheet of paper so it doesn't come in direct contact with anything. To keep things frozen, put the dry ice on top of what you want to keep frozen. To keep cold (but not frozen) put the dry ice on the bottom.

Hmmm... I'm still confused - according to El Bulli's books, you combine 2:1:1 fondant:glucose:isomalt in pan and bring to hard crack/light caramel stage. Pour onto silpat to cool. Once cooled, add pieces to grinder and buzz to fine powder. Then, sift into desired shapes onto a clean silpat and put in hot oven just until it remelts and forms a cohesive shape. Let cool, then remove from silpat (at this point, they're very thin and brittle). Lay the the thin sheet over the item you want to encapsulate and lightly torch to resoften the sugar so it conforms to the item. So, it's not like you're making a flexible sugar blanket to wrap around the item - you're making a very brittle sheet that is heated and conforms to the item. This is why I don't understand the purpose of the fondant, since you're actually remelting it (twice). I've done experiments using the same ratios of sugar, glucose and iso both with making the fondant in advance and letting it ripen overnight, and also just putting the same ratio of ingredients all in the pot and melting - with little difference in results. Maybe the fondant one conformed a little better, maybe it was my imagination... I didn't do a true, double blind test or triangle test or anything to confirm it...

It will work, but it will be sweeter than intended. Isomalt has about half the sweetness of sugar, but melts and forms the same way - so that's why it's a common component of savory "sugar glasses"... it is used all the time in the El Bulli series as well. I still don't quite understand why the fondant is necessary - as I understand it, fondant is a super-saturated sugar/glucose solution that is worked during cooling to promote very small crystal size so that it has a creamy mouthfeel. But, if you're going to remelt it, why not just add the proper ratio of components in the beginning, rather than taking the extra (long and PITA) step of making the fondant?

What about skin side down in a pan of rendered pork fat?

To me, some of the key flavors are ginger and sesame oil. For the rice, I wash 2C jasmine rice, then soak for 10-15 min. Mince fine 2 cloves garlic, and grate 1" piece of ginger. Fry in a couple Tbs chicken fat garlic and ginger, and drained rice until fragrant. If you have a rice cooker, put everything into the rice cooker with 1 pandan leaf, bruised) and 2.5C chicken cooking broth, plus salt. When plating, place sliced chicken on top of rice mound, then pour over the top some of the chicken cooking liquid (with coagulated proteins removed) combined with toasted sesame oil. Most places' liquid was slightly thickened and light brown in color. I don't know if they added some xanthan to keep the sesame oil from separating, or maybe they thickened with cornstarch and then just kept warm/room temp. For chili sauce, I used maybe 4T jarred sambal oelek, 2 cloves garlic, a 3-4" piece ginger (grated), juice of about 1 lime, a touch of sugar, salt, 1t sesame oil, a couple Tbs hot chicken cooking broth all pureed pretty smooth. Then add sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) to taste.

let me know if you want tips on cooking the rice, or making the chili sauce...

Check out http://forums.egullet.org/topic/142266-im-going-to-beaunefor-a-month/

What about pour-over frying?

Over the last few days, I was doing an experiment to try to recreate the Hainanese Chicken Rice that I had several times while in Singapore a couple of weeks ago. It's a bit time consuming, but I think this method worked really well, and eating last night, was VERY close to the real deal. First, I was able to get a whole chicken with head, neck and feet still on. I got a pot big enough to hold the chicken and filled with water just to cover. Bring this to a boil with sliced ginger, green onion, a head of garlic, peppercorns and a few shallots. While this is heating, rub the chicken all over with salt and massage into the skin. This "exfoliates" and removes and stray feathers, and other random gunk while also helping tighten the skin. Rinse well. Once the water is up to a boil, lower in the chicken breast side down and let slowly simmer for 10-15 minutes. At this point, I'm only trying to tenderize the skin, not cook the meat itself. After the time is up, remove the chicken and put in ice bath. Now, add the cooking liquid and veg. to a pressure cooker, along with 2 cut-up silky chickens. These will be sacrificial chickens for the broth. Once cooled, cut up the whole chicken into parts and add the head, neck, wing tips, back and feet to the pressure cooker. Pressure cook for about an hour to 1.5 hours, then turn off heat and cool naturally until you can open the pot. Strain and cool the liquid, reserving the fat. Now we can get to cooking the chicken! Put each section of the now cut-up whole chicken into a bag and add some of the broth - maybe 1/2 - 3/4 cup per bag? Cook the breasts in 142F bath (140F to core) and leg/thigh in 150F bath until pasteurized. I actually gave a bit extra time to allow for any possible bacterial growth during the simmer/ice stage. Once pasteurized, chill the bags in an ice bath until you're ready to use them. You should have plenty of broth left over from the pc for cooking the rice, and you'll get more broth out of the bags once you open them - definitely don't throw that liquid out! I brought it to a boil to solidify the proteins, then strained and added back into my main broth pot to be recycled for cooking more chicken and cooking the rice. If you make this dish once in a while, the broth will get more and more concentrated chicken flavor - so I imagine you could top up with water from time to time to stretch it a bit further. The skin of the chicken done this way is soft and velvety - just like the real thing, and the meat was juicy, tender and flavorful. I will definitely do this many more times - it really took me back....

Wow!!! How did that happen!?!

I got mine from Kalustyan's also... but I live a couple of blocks away from them...

Sorry for being so vague... I do like the combination - but haven't tried it with other seafood - don't see why it wouldn't work well with lobster - like a vadouvan flavored Newburg or other seafood... I tend to make the crabcakes taste like crab, adding the vadouvan to a sauce, rather than to the crabcake itself. Basically, I'll mince a small amount of shallot, garlic and ginger (or grate) and sweat in a little oil. Add the vadouvan and sweat with the veg until fragrant. Take off the heat, deglaze with lemon juice and then whisk in creme fraiche or heavy yogurt to make a thick sauce.

When are you adding the vadouvan in your method above? Sometimes I'll do a crabcake with vadouvan sauce...