KennethT

All of my roti research says that I'm shooting for a protein content of 10.8% in my flour It seems like all the prata guys in Singapore use the same brand of flour - which the company markets as "roti prata flour" and they say it's 10.8% protein. So I'm using a combination of King Arthur all purpose (the bag says 11.7%) and cake flour (supposedly 7%) to get 10.8% total. In addition to kneading less (or barely at all) I'm also going to add some extra water - rather than using a set measurement, I'll try doing it more by eye to get that shaggy dough mass that they all seem to get. I wish I got video (up close) of the guy who made the roti canai for breakfast in the hotel I stayed in in Penang - his dough spread so smoothly and easily - it looked like a joy to handle.

Sambal grouper

thanks - does it heat evenly or are there hot spots on induction?

For all of you with lots of pots/pans, has anyone used an All-Clad D3 or D5 6 or 8Qt stockpot on induction? They claim it's induction compatible, but with only the thin layer of stainless steel on the outside, I wonder how well it works. As most All Clad is/was, I assume it was originally designed to function on gas - indeed, my 20 year old LTD (with the anodized aluminum exterior) works great on gas, but not at all on induction.

For those who have been following my roti prata exercise in frustration, I tried this recipe today (but I wasn't sitting on the floor like she is). Total fail - I used the exact same hydration as she did but my dough barely even came together. I wound up having to add quite a bit more water - maybe a few tablespoons worth to get it to even come together at all, even after resting for 30 minutes after mixing. After resting several hours, when stretching the dough, it was like I was trying to stretch a rubber sheet - it snapped back worse than before and I have basically doubled the amount of oil from the last time. It was so bad I wound up scrapping the whole thing! To add to my frustration, I found this video: This guy uses no oil whatsoever in the dough and doesn't even measure the amount of water he's using!! And his water temperature is regular room temperature water (granted they're in India so room temp is probably like 80-90F). Plus, he is barely resting that dough compared to what I was doing. One thing I can discern is that he is kneading it a LOT less than I do. He's barely kneading it at all. Maybe that's what I'll try next....

In NY American Italian, it's common to drop the last vowel - so manicotti is manicott or even manigot. Drives me craz.

As it is forever known in my household.....

I had a question about hydration and humidity. From what I understand (I have very little experience with this stuff), it is standard practice to weigh the flour to figure the hydration of the dough. But doesn't the starting hydration of the flour matter? I'd assume that a certain amount of flour in a humid environment (say tropical - 70-80% humidity) would have less actual flour particles as the same weight of flour in a dry environment (say the Northeast in winter - 20% humidity) since there's slightly more water already in the flour in the humid environment. So, for example, in the humid environment, 500g flour with 500ml water (50% hydration) would actually have a slightly higher hydration than in the dry environment with the same ratio, right?

Kinda sorta linguini cacio e pepe with Argentine shrimp with capers from Pantelleria (a gift)

Taco Sunday... Foot burnin' red chilli chicken tacos (thigh meat) with guac, pickled shallot

That's true, but doing the seasoning step just speeds it up a bit.

This makes complete sense to me. If I saw someone making something speaking in English and it looked amazing, I'd like as much detail as possible also. And I also understand that those in the diaspora would be a little homesick watching this, and hearing the language would bring it back even more so. Yeah, I always thought it was her grandkid making the video!

The clay used for the Yixin tea pot is slightly porous, so oils and other stuff from the tea will lodge themselves in the clay. The "seasoning" process basically makes a really strong infusion and allows it to sit, soaking into the clay. As you use it, it will soak in more and more - this is why you only want to use 1 type of tea with each pot, especially when using high quality (read expensive) teas, you want to taste THAT tea, not a mixture of teas.

YouTube's closed caption translation works pretty well I've found...

I actually like that there's almost no discussion. It's so relaxing watching her cook, hearing the birds/insects in the background, her rhythmic chopping. Watching her is like a meditation.

Did you season your Yixin teapot? Also, it's typical to only use that one pot for a single kind of tea. So, if you use it for oolongs, don't also use it for green or red teas, etc.

Tikuanyin is probably the most common oolong here in the US, but it's a quite generic term. There are many grades and producers of it, and it can vary quite a bit depending on the source. I've had some super high quality tikuanyin in Singapore that was amazing- not so green so it tastes like a freshly mown lawn (I've had some Taiwanese tikuanyin that tasted that way) but not so fermented as to look black. This one tea store in Singapore probably has at least 20 different oolongs, 5 or 6 of them are called tikuanyin, of varying grades and provenances (depending on location/slope/sun exposure/picking time/etc within the Fujian province). I get a relatively inexpensive tikuanyin at McNulty's in NYC that acts as my standard weekend afternoon tea.

Long Jing (Lung Ching here in Cantonese-land) is one of my favorite green teas.

TenRen is great, but expensive. I don't understand the 'oolong black tea'. What is called black tea in English countries is typically called red tea in China, and oolongs are neither (no matter whether you call it red or black). Different oolongs have had different amounts of fermentation prior to drying, and many other differences, but I've never heard of one described as black. Do you have a link or a photo of the package?

Massaman curry made with a curry paste my friend brought back from Thailand.

It's not deja vu, I made this a week or two ago but I don't have any more homemade curry pastes right now. Peranakan ayam buah keluak.

When a specification is listed as such, it means that it has a maximum power draw FROM THE WALL OUTLET of 3000W at 220V. It's not really a measure of the power you see going into your pan.

The reason you can have an input voltage range is because the coil itself is run on high frequency, so there's a switching power supply that is powering the coil. Most switching power supplies are made to accommodate a range of input voltages - just like your phone charger can typically use between 90-255V or something like that. At low power, it's much easier to deal with a wide range of input voltages, at high power, it's still done but not with such a wide range. But 208-240 covers most country's high power circuits.

Did you get yours used? Also, the price on the Vollrath site is a LOT higher than some of their resellers.

Thanks for this. I've been seriously looking at the HPI4-2600 primarily because of the variable energy output (that's what they advertise) and because you can use it sort of like a gas range. I don't think I'd ever use the temperature control (other than with the probe to monitor oil temp when deep frying) - adjusting the power between 1 and 100% in 1% increments seems really attractive to me.