KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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16 hours ago, Laurentius said:
Can you please explain this? The 120v Mirage Pro cycles in all settings, but not using full power. My understanding is that is what the "G4" engines are supposed to do.
I don't have a Mirage Pro so I'm not sure what it does. I also don't know what a "G4" engine is. My experience is with 240V countertop induction. As I explained before, the inexpensive 3300W model that I have cycles the power. So, if I set it to 400W (12% power output) it puts out a short pulse of 3300W and then idles, then a short pulse, then idles, etc. With sensitive ingredients this can easily cause burning. The 2600W Vollrath unit does not cycle pulses - instead it has a variable power supply which only supplies the coil with the percentage of current that you ask of it. So if I set it at 10%, it gives 260W of power to the pan continuously - not pulses of the 2600W. See https://www.vollrathfoodservice.com/products/countertop-equipment/cooking-equipment/induction-ranges/4-series-induction-range/hpi4-2600 for more information.
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@btbyrd@pastrygirl@Deephaven@vyas
Relatively recently, I moved from an apartment with a gas range to a building which has no gas service. I do have 240V outlets in my kitchen so I got 2 240V countertop induction burners. One is a relatively inexpensive, but high powered, 3300W Chinese model. You can only control the power in 400W increments via membrane switches. I use this one basically only for boiling water which it does incredibly fast - much faster than on my "high power" gas burner on the previous range and doesn't heat up the kitchen while doing it. The other is a Vollrath HPI4-2600, 2600W. In addition to being able to control the power in 1% increments (1-100), unlike most other induction units, when used on lower power, it doesn't cycle the full power in a duty cycle but truly lowers the continuous power rating. It works so well that it can hold a subtle simmer and even melt chocolate. It can supposedly hold the pan temperature using a sensor in the ceramic top but I haven't really tested it - but it also has a probe that I use all the time which will hold the liquid to within 1 degree F consistently (you can change the mode from power level to control via temperature (F or C). Also, the power (or temperature) control is a knob with a fantastic control algorithm - twist it fast and you can go from 1 to 100 with one flick, but go slow and it's easy to change in 1% increments. It's quite pricey, but it's my go to for everything and now that I've used it for a while (there was a bit of a learning curve when switching from gas) I don't know if I could ever go back.
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39 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
All the time I couldn't cook due to my broken back, there was one dish I craved.I could have had it delivered, but restaurants never get it right (at least to my satisfaction).
So, today, I made it myself for the first time in over a year. It is also one of the simplest dishes I know.
车螺芥菜汤 (chē luó jiè cài tāng), clam and leaf mustard soup.
This is so easy. I chop two to three cloves of garlic and a fresh 'facing heaven' chilli and throw that into cold water in a pan. Add a couple of Chinese soup spoonfuls of chicken powder. This is China's secret weapon. 100 times better than any other buillion powder or cubes. Michelin starred restaurants in China use it regularly.
That, I bring to the boil then simmer for ten minutes before adding the fresh clams. As soon as these open, I fish them out and into my bowl. When all are opened and in the bowl I tear up some mustard leaf and throw that into the still simmering soup. As soon as it wilts, I pour the soup and greenery over the clams and serve. No seasoning required. It's in the chicken powder.
Sorry for the imprecision; I've been making this once a week for almost 30 years (apart from last year) and eyeball it. It's forgiving.
Don't forget your 长棍 (cháng gùn), baguette for dunking.
Not just China's secret weapon - it's widely used in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore (and my kitchen!)
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1 hour ago, liuzhou said:
First thing I noticed was the almost complete LACK of smell.
Weird! So basically, regardless of what it is, it's useless!
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2 hours ago, liuzhou said:
I've had that small húng quế in Vietnam too. Forget precisely where, though.
Anyway, I'll call the vendor tomorrow and see if they can elucidate. I've used them a lot and they're quite friendly.
Yeah, please keep us updated - I'm curious. All the perilla I've seen - the leaves are more thin and delicate than basil and the smell is totally different. I wish I could smell whatever you've got!
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7 hours ago, Dante said:
Chicken Paprikash with langos, side of pan roasted Brussels sprouts
how do you make the langos?
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1 hour ago, liuzhou said:
It's not Thai Basil. I'm very familiar with that. Also the Chinese names given are those of sweet basil.
It's hard to tell by looks alone, but from the photo, it looks like all the Thai basil I've grown - even the flowers (which I am constantly picking). But there are many different Thai basil cultivars, so I wouldn't be surprised if the one you're used to seeing looks different. In central Vietnam, I saw a lot of Thai basil being grown that only had little leaves, maybe 2cm long at the most, but I was told that it was Thai basil (hung que) and had a similar but not exactly the same flavor as what I was used to.
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13 minutes ago, Deephaven said:
Never had it...and an hour ago almost bought some, but wasn't sure how best to cook it so I didn't. Any preparation hints?
It's a little long, but this video compares the results of a couple different methods.
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After taking a nice walk in the rain, we stopped at Berlin Doner to grab some lunch to bring home.
Carving the chicken shawarma
Served on a grilled "homemade" bread. Although it looks white, it has a rye bread flavor - there might be some caraway seeds that would help with that.
Interior - doesn't look so good but it's really tasty. With garlic and herb white sauce, hot sauce and a bit of tahini.
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Went to a friend's place for dinner last night. His family is Vietnamese and he made some amazing stuff.
Dungeness crab and pork cha gio (spring rolls). His parents go crabbing near Vancouver/Seattle every year. They steam them, pick the meat then bag and freeze. They catch enough to last the year! Now I see what the fuss over dungeness crab is all about - these were amazing and the wrappers were super crispy - his parents bring home a bunch of rice papers from Vietnam every year. Dipping sauce of fish sauce and garlic.
My favorite vegetable - rau muong, morning glory.
Bo kho is a beef stew, he made with oxtail. Really good, we had it for breakfast every day in Saigon.
He also made banh mi from scratch. The inside was so soft and fluffy. Herbs from my garden.
We brought Lady Wong for dessert - this is their mango/sticky rice tart. We also brought a bunch of kuih but they were devoured before I could get photos.
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4 hours ago, weinoo said:
I think back in those days, they sharpened everything using exactly the same equipment. So your lawn mower blade, pruning shears, and fancy knives all got sharpened on an electric wheel of some sort. Or even like this...
Who had fancy knives back then? Did they even exist here in NY?
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2 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Is that shrimp in the picture? Unheard of!
The overall colour seems a bit strange, too. It's usually less brown and more red from chillies. That could be bad printing, suppose.
I'm not racing to try it... the restaurant bills itself as "Asian Fusion"... I think they saw a pack of luosifen instant noodles and said, "hey, we can make that!".
This is the restaurant:
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The kitchen basics is ok, but is definitely not the same as homemade stock. It does have a nice roasted smell, but the body is lacking - there's very little gelatin. I've used it, years ago, but now that I make a few gallons of stock at a time in the pressure cooker I don't anymore. Plus, most of what I use it for nowadays wouldn't really be so good with the roasted chicken flavor.
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1 hour ago, ElsieD said:
My SIL grows all her vegetables, including heirloom tomatoes which she grows from seed saved from the previous year. I'm going to see if I can snag a plant and try to grow it in our apartment. We face west so lots of light.
If growing indoors, you will probably need a plant light in addition to the window. I was in a southern facing window on the 21st floor (nothing blocking the sun) but the light was necessary. I used an 18/6 light cycle - heirloom tomatoes don't use the light timing to start flowering - they basically start flowering pretty soon, although I plucked the flowers until the plant made it's third truss of branches. Tomato plants need a LOT of light to fruit successfully. Also, indoors, you'll have to manually pollinate the flowers - I used an electric toothbrush. Vibrate the flower truss until you see the pollen falling out like snow.
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3 minutes ago, ElsieD said:
You grew a tomato plant in your apartment? What were the tomatoes like?
Best I've ever had. Including my father's garden when I was a kid (he grew mostly hybrids - Burpee Early Girl, etc).
Mine was an heirloom Goose Creek (start came from Laurel's) which is prized for its flavor (and rightly so).
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I passed this place by today. One day I might try it but I don't know how close it would be....
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9 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Getting away from my kitchen and city apartment kitchens I general, here is a typical countryside kitchen. This one is in a Yao ethnic minority village in the north of Liuzhou Prefecture.
This is in preparation for the Chinese New Year / Spring Festival, on Feb 10th this year. Year of the Dragon 龙年.
What's in the gas can?
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6 hours ago, liuzhou said:
手撕鸡 🐔 (shǒu sī jī) - hand torn chicken.
Is this served hot or cold? Do you have a recipe?
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1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:
Lest anyone feel that I exaggerate, I got some photos this morning of the tomato plant from hell. Not very good ones because of the sun angle but at least you can see how it is spreading.
we're going to have to start cutting it back because it has completely taken over my oregano tree.
This is the other side of the wall. The wall is about 6 ft tall and about 10 ft long and the whole plant is loaded again with green tomatoes and blooms.
that's what happened when I topped my tomato plant that was growing in the corner of our apartment. It practically took over the whole living room!!!
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19 minutes ago, Deephaven said:
Of course, picanha I can't find locally so it was going to be my first order. You think they would ask for a minimum/maximum range or let you review before shipping. I am not opposed to a delay as I wouldn't be ordering anything for "now".
From what I understand, when you place an order online, an employee walks around the store gathering your order and they seem to just take whatever package is on top and easiest to reach in the freezer. They don't go digging the way you might on your own. There's no way to put any notes or indicate preferred size range when placing an order.
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8 minutes ago, BeeZee said:
That question of packaging was actually one of the reasons I wanted to take a look in person. I didn't rummage through the piles since I wasn't intending to buy anything, but looking at the packages of fish superficially, they seemed reasonably consistent. I will take a closer look when I'm actually going to be buying some.
I've found the fish to be pretty consistent. The complaints are hear are with things like the tomahawk steak or the picanha - where the weight is a large range - you think you're going to get about 5 pounds, but instead you get not quite 2.
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4 hours ago, gfweb said:
WF is better online, where they have nice photos to look at
There ahve been reports on their FB page (for "VIP" members who pay the yearly fee for free shipping) of wildly inconsistent packaging of certain items - so some people prefer to go to the store since they can pick their own weight. I've never had an issue but then again, I always order pretty standard things - packs of their vac sealed fish, shrimp and bags of chicken parts.
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I've personally never heard the term "spicy hot" but I know exactly what it means when I see it so I think it would be the best option. In my sphere, spicy typically denotes heat from chillies and does not refer to flavors from various spices. Hot is a temperature term, although I have heard people in my mother's generation using the term hot to denote both chilli heat and temperature, which ALWAYS leads to the question - "what kind of hot is it?"
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Hunan-ish chicken with chilli
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Transition from PNG fired burners to Induction heating
in Kitchen Consumer
Posted
From what I am to understand, most units change the amount of power to the pan via duty cycle - aka short pulses. So, for example, if your cooker is 1000W and you set it for 500W (50% power), most units will turn put all 1000W to the coil for, say, 2 seconds, then off for 2 seconds, then 1000W for 2 seconds, etc. Depending on the cycle time, it may not even be noticeable that their using a duty cycle - for instance, if they use 0.5 seconds as a duty cycle, you probably wouldn't realize if it was providing 1000W for 0.25 seconds and off for 0.25 seconds. The problem comes when the total cycle time is several seconds long - then there's a noticeable on/off time.
According to the link I provided, Vollrath is the only manufacturer that doesn't use duty cycle and instead has a variable power supply - it states that their method is patented and since the unit's not that old, I assume the patent hasn't run out yet. Then again, many foreign companies dont' care about patents, especially if their sales are not going to the US.