KennethT

The problem with vacuum sealing is the direct bag contact with some foods like fresh fruits and leafy greens. Using a nitrogen flush, you can use a rigid container that will not contact or squeeze the contents but also get rid of excess oxygen.

but even if duck fat is liquid at room temp, it is a thick liquid - much more viscous than a veg oil is at the same temp. While duck fat does have some unsaturated fat, there is quite a bit of saturated fat as well. I'd find it hard to believe (or it would be ridiculously expensive) if that can held duck fat from wild ducks.

We need a drool button... x2 for the blaufrankisch!

Sichuan twice cooked mahi mahi. And cucumber salad.

Great looking rendang... nice and dry! I've been itching to make rendang too... I have some goat meat in the freezer with rendang written all over it but I need a lot of time and I'm still on the hunt for some either fresh or frozen turmeric leaves, which would be a common ingredient in a traditional North Sumatran rendang. According to William Wongso, the premier Indonesian food authority, rendang originated there. He has spent years trying to bring Indonesian food outside of Indonesia and was very proud that in 2011, rendang was named the World's Most Delicious Food in a CNN article.

ha! To tell the truth, I'd do the same thing assuming I had a decent mayo in the house. But, considering I don't really eat mayo on a regular basis, I'd have to make it from scratch because I wouldn't want to buy a big jar just for that!

How else would you make it, other than making the mayo from scratch?

huh. I always thought that we were told not to eat raw cookie dough because of the raw eggs in there. I would never have imagined that the flour would be the danger!

My local stores haven't carried it for a while. I got it on Amazon. More expensive than it should be but better than nothing.

Manado (Indonesia) style ikan bakar sambal dabu dabu. 'grilled' fish (barramundi) with a raw sambal common in Manado called dabu dabu. Served with: Belacan bok choi. Unfortunately I forgot the dried shrimp until it was too late. The veggie was tasty but not nearly as good as if there were dried shrimp in there

Babi pongteh?

That's so cool. But I'm surprised the styrofoam container didn't weep water through it.

I had bo kho for breakfast practically every day while in Saigon, although there it was served with banh mi rather than rice.

What do they taste like? Do you eat them as berries au natural or put them in something?

We haven't been back to an old favorite, Fish Cheeks, for Thai seafood in a long time. Until today. Limeade and shrimp chips with nam prik pao. The npp was a lot sweeter than I remember it being. Raw shrimp in lime juice and fish sauce with chilli and mint. Fried calamari with tamarind/chilli/palm sugar syrup Fried Pak boong (water spinach aka morning glory) Grilled mackerel with green mango salad. The mackerel was fantastic but I wished they used a better variety like nam doc mai for the green mango. All in all very tasty, but their prices have certainly gone up a bit since the last time we were there.

Can you get Tokaji in your area?

Ever since the mini-heat wave we've had in NY (and our air conditioning system not working yet), it's either been no cooking here so I don't heat up the apartment even more (it's been about 84 degrees in here consistently for the last few days) or something I made last night - an Indonesian chicken stew that's basically a one pot meal. This dish pretty much unique to central Java where people like their food on the sweeter side, so it's spicy but also has a slight sweetness to it.

I'm drooling looking at all this. Your discussion of pork being the most widely eaten meat reminds me of China where the word for meat and pork are the same (pork is assumed when one says meat). But this discussion brings me to a widely debated topic and one which I'm concerned with - not necessarily obesity as I believe that can be effectively dealt with with portion control, but my concern is over the ratio of saturated fat to overall calories consumed. We in the US are led to believe that reducing the amount of saturated fat to as low as possible is considered healthy with regards to heart/vascular health. I try to not be too militant about this, but I will say that we don't eat nearly as much red meat and pork as I would like, taste wise. We basically reserve eating pork to when we're in restaurants - mostly regional Chinese or SE Asian, and I almost never cook it at home. Even while doing this, my lipid panel is at the borderline where it should be controlled by medication. I don't know if this is the right forum for it, but can you talk a bit (no specifics needed) about your thoughts on this regarding a typical German diet which is very pork heavy and (seemingly) less focused on vegetables?

Thanks, that's a great idea - I can get a stainless steel hacksaw blade. ha! Seriously, I just keep buying more fish, already portioned. When I originally bought it, I didn't realize how big it was so it's been sitting in my freezer as I procrastinate deciding what to do with it!

Bumping this very old thread.... I have a whole fillet of grouper (vacuum sealed) in my laydown freezer that's kept very cold - about -15F at the warmest. At the bottom of the freezer where this fish has lived for the past several years, it's probably closer to -20F. My problem is that I don't need a whole fillet which is probably 4-5 portions but I don't want to defrost it in order to portion it and refreeze some of it. I'm asking for suggestions on how to portion it while keeping it frozen. I have access to a band saw at work, but it's most definitely not food grade (that's a joke). Seriously, serrated knife? Other ideas?

I really think it's a function of the meat more than anything at this point. When I was young, my father used to make burgers of a similar size using 75% shoulder and 25% something leaner - sirloin maybe? He ground it himself but I don't remember what he did exactly - but I knew it was mostly shoulder (chuck, here in the US). He always made mine really rare - like 120F (probably a bit more rare than I made mine the other night) and juices literally ran down my arm and dripped off my elbow!

I cook mine rare - maybe 120-125F in the center. It's definitely red. But not really juicy like a beef burger made from shoulder would be. The meat comes preground in a vacuum pack, and when I open it, there's almost no liquid in the pack either and no diaper... I think it's a function of the meat itself.

That's one thing I miss when I make the non-beef burgers - like the elk the other night or bison. They're really lean - maybe 10% fat - but we're trying to be healthy so cutting out lots of beef fat is a priority. I try to compensate by using something else that's fatty - like the guacamole - but it's not the same, although the guac certainly does have a tendency to squish out of the bun and land on my shirt!

I have to see if I can find it. I saw the Italy ones and thought they were entertaining enough and it makes me curious to see him in Mexico. But my favorite traveling in Mexico shows are the portions of Rick Bayless's PBS show.

Not really chewy. Texture is kind of like a soft pretzel - a slight skin on top of soft. It was fine for the burger but the guac not so much. Messy but tasty.