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KennethT

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Posts posted by KennethT

  1. PXL_20231022_172051238.PORTRAIT.thumb.jpg.61e2c52c9c008d46c3bee29b9ac540e9.jpg

     

    First time cooking in about a week. Every day has been crazy traffic getting home from work. So I really missed home cooking.  Sichuan twice cooked mahi mahi with mushrooms and stir fried baby bok choi with garlic.

    • Like 9
    • Delicious 1
  2. 2 hours ago, Duvel said:

    … we stopped at a nearby vineyard, got a 2L refill of our trusted plastic canister and enjoyed freshly made Zwiebelkuchen & new wine at home, chased by some caraway Schnaps to calm down our very active bellies 🤭

     

     

    What is the difference between zwiebelkuchen and flammkuchen?

  3. 17 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

     

    Lettuce, cucumber, red onion, red and yellow bell pepper and, bizarrely, mango and dragon fruit. All with a sweet and sour sauce dressing..

    I thought I saw mango and dragon fruit.  Weird.

    • Like 1
  4. 1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

    Bánh Mì and Chả chay (Vietnamese vegetable rolls).

     

    Saigon.thumb.jpg.7f4e8d1607cd92420b048cb7b9ad7e51.jpg

     

     

    What was the filling in the spring rolls - it looks like various fruit.

    • Like 1
  5. 45 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

    Tonight, I decided on trying a local Thai restaurant and went for their classic Pad Thai (ดไทย). Bizarrely, the Chinese for Pad Thai is 炒金邊粉 (chǎo jīn biān fěn), which literally means ‘Fried Phnom Penh Noodles’. They name it after the capital of a totally different country? Then the restaurant lists the main ingredients as rice noodles ✔ and then veers off to yet another country, Vietnam with phở . Oh well.

     

    It was good, but I’m not convinced it was Pad Thai, a dish I’ve eaten many times in Thailand, but never in Cambodia or Vietnam!

     

    padthai.thumb.jpg.29057868a066be7426dfeff7f8de105f.jpg

     

     

     

    For a second, I thought they had put a bunch of the dreaded c0rn on top, until I realized they were peanuts!!!

    • Like 1
    • Haha 3
  6. 11 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

     

    Yes. The only reason I didn't immediately bin it was that I remembered you saying before that your plant was indestructible.

     

     

    If the main stems are old and rather woody, it may have more trouble coming back.

     

    In any case, I would pick maybe 5 of the best looking sprigs that have growing tips and cut them off and root them separately - just as insurance.  If the main plant fails, you can have a veritable rau ram farm from those 5 sprigs in a month or two.

    • Thanks 1
  7. I usually don't post photos of takeout and/or delivery meals but I'm making an exception. Tacos from Electric Burrito. A bunch of shrimp (always perfectly cooked) and one chicken. Due to the time it takes to make them, I'm under the impression that they cook at least the shrimp to order - it's not sitting in a steam table.

     

    PXL_20231015_173841363.thumb.jpg.ca518c44f46226224d09501cc01207b0.jpg

     

    PXL_20231015_173854112.thumb.jpg.9376fec095decb500d5581c12462b773.jpg

    • Like 5
    • Delicious 1
  8. 4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

      

     

    My search for rau răm has been a frustrating waste of time. I have ordered it now from three different suppliers advertising it on Taobao. One said it would take five weeks to arrive from a place I can get to in three hours), another said they were out of stock then deleted their listing and the third said they were ony testing to see if there is any demand and may, or may not, have it at some unknown point in the future!

    So, I gave up and ordered a plant rather than just the leaves. It arrived today. Half dead and the surviving half dried out and yellowing. It was also seriously potbound. I have re-potted it and will see if it revives, but I'm not hopeful. I might just have to move to Vietnam.

     

    plant.thumb.jpg.cdb79a362e053f86b1cfa826d18f1f7b.jpg

     

    plant2.thumb.jpg.cba44833ec3dba17d3e381737be0554d.jpg

    Overhead shot.

     

     

    I've found that rau ram is almost impossible to kill. And it ALWAYS gets rootbound given any kind of time - it grows roots from anywhere where there's humidity.  When my plant was first growing, it started growing roots from the stem that was 1-2 inches out of the "soil" - and not just a couple roots, a veritable root forest. It is more invasive than mint.

     

    You could practically hard prune it down to the heavier stems and I think it would most probably still survive.

     

    If you're nervous, take a couple of the better looking stems and cut them about 5 inches from the growing tip.  Remove all leaves except for maybe the tip leaves.  Put the stem standing up in a glass of water - water level up to about an inch below the growing tip.  It'll sprout new roots probably within a day.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  9. 3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

     

    The Northern Thai version came from Laos, carrried by refugees in the 60s. There is stiil a large Laotian population in the north. 

    I first ate rau răm in Laos where it is usually served with the "Vietnamese" herbs including rau răm.

     

     

    This makes sense.  I know almost nothing about Laotian food, or Burmese food for that matter, which I also gather is similar to northern Thai food.  One of my favorite northern Thai foods was a pork curry made without coconut milk but using dried spices - gaeng hung leh - which I gather is Burmese in origin.

    • Like 1
  10. 1 hour ago, Smithy said:

     

    Good point about the strong flavors. Since the other member of my household flinches at the thought of deer meat, larb seems to be indicated! 🙂

     

    What's the difference between the Northern Thai version and the Isaan version? Got recipes, or proportions?

    Northern Thai laap is a totally different thing.  It really should have a different name, but the name laap is a designation for the use of chopped meat (or ground, but traditional is hand chopped).  According to Andy Ricker (of Pok Pok), laap is named from the sound the knife makes when hitting the cutting board full of meat while chopping it.  Anyway, the Northern Thai version has no lime juice and is, instead quite herbal - almost medicinal.  It's typically served with a whole bush of various herbs - kind of like what you see in Vietnam.  Actually, the first time I ever had the herb rau ram was in the Pok Pok in NYC (now closed) that was served alongside this laap.  I have Ricker's Pok Pok book at home which has a recipe for it but you can also find it here: https://www.austinbushphotography.com/blog/blog/pok-pok-preview-3-laap-meuang.html Some of the ingredients are hard to find, but now that a friend has brought some makhwen home from Chiang Mai, I realize that you could sub Sichuan peppercorns and get pretty close.  Also, the traditional recipe uses a LOT of offal, but you could definitely do it with plain ground venison.  It won't be the same, texture-wise, but many of those offal textures are a little off-putting to most Westerners, so omitting it might not necessarily be a bad thing.

    • Thanks 2
  11. eG has definitely lost a bit of its heart. @Kerry Beal - what a beautiful way to remember your friend.  While we here will miss her interactions with us greatly, I can't imagine what you're going through, losing such a wonderful friend, and her family losing who I'm sure was a dearly loved mother/grandmother.

    • Like 12
  12. 12 hours ago, Ann_T said:
    We were having halibut tonight and I went looking for a recipe that sounded good and I could make with "lower sodium".
    Pan-SearedAlaskaHalibutwithRedCurryandBasmatiRiceOctober11th2023.thumb.jpg.6f59f52a1cf59be51dc4ab75f983e725.jpg
    Found a recipe for halibut with a red curry coconut milk sauce with mushrooms and zucchini.
     
    Not something I would have normally have done with halibut. But it was very good.

    Do you make your own red curry paste?  Most packaged pastes have a good amount of sodium in them.

  13. 1 hour ago, weinoo said:

     

    Channeling the classic roast chicken with a salad dressed in those juices, made popular by Judy Rogers at Zuni Cafe!

    Maybe subconsciously? I had never been there or even heard of that salad!  But it's not just salad - the rau ram has a really strong flavor of its own - plus its texture holds up to wilting underneath the hot chicken.  I first had this in Saigon back in 2015.

    • Like 1
  14. 10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

     

    Happy me!

     

    After reading your post and twitching with envy and frustration, I decided to search just once more for rau răm on my purchasing options. My usual one hour later delivery people deny all knowledge, but on Taobao, the main Amazon-like shopping portal I hit gold!

     

    I can buy 250 g, 500 g or a full kilo and it will take, at best, until tomorrow to get here. Probably two days.

    I can also order potted plants and set up in business myself!

     

    So glad you posted your meal. It gave me good kick up the posterior! Thanks.

    I don't think you even need to order the potted plant (unless you don't already have potting soil and pot) since it roots so easily.  Take practically any branch, pick the leaves off (except for  the top two or so) and plunk it in a glass of water.  You'll see roots probably by the next day!

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  15. 5 hours ago, Kerala said:

    How did you grow this? I've been thinking about just trying rooting powder on some fresh stalks from the Indian market.

    I bought a start from a nursery a couple years ago.... I don't think you can root a thin branch - maybe one of the larger branches but I don't know if they'd have them in the market.

    • Thanks 1
  16. PXL_20231008_233147757.PORTRAIT.thumb.jpg.344f880f0809d531f793fce44be499e3.jpg

     

    Vietnamese grilled (baked/broiled) chicken on a bed of rau ram. I swear, if I had a restaurant, I'd made rau ram soaked in chicken juices either an appetizer or a side dish!

    • Like 14
    • Delicious 3
  17. 17 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

     

    Here's a link to the recipe! 

    Interesting... it's like an Indian version of Tom Kha.  BTW, I think your photo is a LOT better than theirs!

    • Like 1
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