KennethT

Sichuan style twice cooked mahi mahi. With a piece of kuih for dessert

I'm always weary of ordering fish/seafood for delivery as I'm worried it gets overcooked while sitting around. I'm glad yours didn't have that problem! Then again, it's practically impossible to overcook catfish (which isn't commonly offered here) so that works in your favor.

Spatchcocked and grilled with a sherry vinaigrette. Stuffed with foie gras and wrapped in puff pastry.... Two ends of the spectrum

Slightly more helpful - I wouldn't be surprised if they use a range of modernist thickeners and/or modified starches to give it that mouthfeel. But traditionally, rbar is made with pork fat.

Interesting. I hadn't heard that they switched to veg oil. Doesn't help your quest though!

A long time ago, I saw an interview with Popeye's CEO - there was a recent trans-fat ban in NYC and he was being interviewed to ask how the ban would affect them. He answered simply "it doesn't - we've never used trans-fats, we've always fried our chicken in lard"... which is one of the reasons why it is so tasty!!!!

I'm not quite sure what you're looking to do - traditionally, you would mix the paste with a small amount of coconut milk and boil/fry until you start to see some of the oil come out. Once that's done, you would add the rest of the coconut milk or stock or both and simmer just long enough to cook whatever you're putting in there and to make it the consistency you want. You can bake curries - I've seen it done with rendang, since usually rendang has to be cooked for many hours, so a cheat would be to put it in a low oven (275-300F) for a couple hours - but rendang is usually cooked until dry, so it takes a long time to evaporate out all that liquid. Thai curries don't usually cook for very long, so I don't know why anyone would want to bake it.

Not chicken drippings... pork fat.

I wonder how many Chinese nationals order their steak on the rare side when they visit these restaurants. Surely ones who have traveled extensively to western countries, but I had assume that culturally, rare meat was not something to be found often.

I've often wondered how the various fish/eels originally made their way to these rice paddies? Were they originally stocked there by people or some natural means?

You know you're old school when you don't even have an area code for your phone number posted on the window!

@weinooknows me all too well or I'm just predictable. Yes it's Jasmine rice - Wangderm brand new crop available in 25 pound sacks. I use a 16 year old rice cooker - actually it's a Braun combi slow cooker/rice cooker/steamer. I think I've used the slow cooker function 3 times, maybe. But several times a week as a rice cooker. The key is not using too much water. Jasmine rice needs to be steamed - you only need to use enough water to hydrate but not boil. Also wash your rice thoroughly! ETA: One other thing that improves the texture is to let it sit, untouched, once the rice cooker switches to keep warm mode. I let it sit for at least a half hour - although this could be machine specific...

Massaman curry with chicken

Has anyone steamed potatoes in teh CSO? I've been looking to replicate a boiled potato but thought it would be convenient to do the CSO instead. I was thinking super steam at like 250F or so. Thoughts?

I saw those glass yogurt jars all over Beijing, but never stopped to sample one.

I made the mistake of putting one strip in the wrong location... needless to say, when I finally was able to peel it off, it wound up taking the paint with it - so the paint adhesion to the beam failed before the strip adhesive.

We renovated our entire apartment before moving in, and I outfitted everything using LEDs from https://www.superbrightleds.com/ In the kitchen, we have exposed C beams so I used lengths of https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-strips-and-bars/24-volt-led-strip-lights/5m-white-led-strip-light-eco-series-tape-light-dual-row-24v-ip20 on the inside of each beam facing upwards to provide the ambient lighting. It basically seems like the ceiling glows and you can't see where the light comes from. They come on a reel with a self adhesive backing that once it goes on, it is NOT coming off! Ask me how I know..... I really like it. For undercounter lights, I used these IP67 rated https://www.superbrightleds.com/led-strips-and-bars/24-volt-led-strip-lights/5m-white-led-strip-light-highlight-series-tape-light-12-24v-ip67-waterproof All of the lights are dimmable - but really, most LEDS are dimmable by nature - it's the power supply that needs to be adjustable. I use my own type of power supply - I have a central control box in a closet running an arduino and a bunch of high current transistors - I use an adjustable PWM output of the arduino to trigger the transistors which switch the power from a large redundant industrial 24V power supply also in the control box.

I make large batches of most of the meals we eat on a regular basis (other than stir fries). I make a large pressure cooker full of stock, then freeze in portions. For instance, for pork stock, I freeze 1/2C portions which are used for one Nyonya curry I make (the curry paste is also made in bulk, then portioned into 100g portions and froze) and some is made into Bak Kut Teh (a soup) then frozen in 3-1/2C portions which is perfect for my wife and me. I used to freeze the stock in zip lock bags, but here and there some will leak while being defrosted, so I've switched up to 1C and 1Quart plastic containers like you'd get from takeout places. I do the same thing with chicken stock, but that is frozen into 1C portions and 3-1/2C portions to be used in various recipes and soups respectively. I like to make large batches of pretty much anything that is time consuming and will respond well to it. So I have several different curry bases in the freezer, portioned to make 1 meal. Come dinner time, I'll heat some stock or coconut milk or whatever the base is, add the frozen rempah (curry paste) and seasonings and go on from there.

I finally got around to making a bunch of soto ayam paste..... Javanese chicken soup This is probably my favorite soup ever. So aromatic and flavorful. With some kuih

They will need to be watered more frequently than clay or plastic. I grow hydroponically with coco coir and the rule of thumb in watering with that is to water once you get to the midway point between the saturation point and wilt point by weight. So you just lift it up once in a while and give it a feel. The watering frequency is more dependent on plant type - some plants like citrus like their roots to dry out a bit before watering so I'll take it a little further. It also depends on soil type and how free draining it is. I've been using them for years and have never had a problem with holes or anything.

Sambal grouper.... Singapore Old Lai Huat style

At least most of your options seem pretty good. Looks like only a couple clunkers so far - so I'm not worried about you withering away!

Yeah, I figured but I just threw it out there. Thinking a little more though, sitting wouldn't really work for any kind of stir fry, not to mention doing the prep beforehand - washing/cutting/chopping is hard to do sitting down - especially whne you can't do it all in one place.

Does anyone deliver a bar stool? That should be about the right height next to teh stove top. I was considering getting one for when I made rendang.. haha

Yeah, I had a couple small tomatoes, so I halved them and threw them in.