KennethT

Wow... that's a great looking schnitzel-fry as I've ever seen!

If adding some kind of cream, maybe try some coconut milk - I love the combination of coconut milk and mango.

I salted/seasoned and sat the fridge for about 5 hours prior to cooking. If I do decide to do in teh oven again, I might try it with steam rather than just convection. But the SV is just so easy - I usually put 4 legs in the bath at one time, and once done, they'll keep in my refrigerator for months ready for whatever I want to do with them.

2 for $5 at the farmer's market... I think this is the last pack in my freezer - but since I've got so much in there now, there could be another package or so buried at the bottom.

I finally had time this weekend to make another batch of Teochew style Bak Kut Teh. It's basically a pork broth with lots of garlic and, depending on which school you come from, either lots of white pepper or black pepper. At one point, I had read that a famous place in Singapore (where I fell in love with this dish) uses a special black pepper from Malaysia which has a rounder flavor than most other peppercorns - so I was able to find a Sumatran black peppercorn which is quite similar. Since I cooked the crap out of the pork ribs in the pressure cooker to extract every last bit of flavor and gelatin I could (the bones collapsed almost under their own weight), the ribs then went in the garbage as they tasted of nothing and were really dried out. So I like to make this a healthy version (with shrimp) in the defatted broth. To give it a bit more bulk, I added a knife cut noodle that I get at H-Mart. What better pre-Rosh Hashanah meal could there be - both pork and shrimp!

Duck legs cooked in the cazuela on top of potatoes and garlic. Chanterelles were cooked separately with some butter and shallot (in the wok). While the duck skin and potatoes were amazing, I was less than impressed with the duck meat. The legs were cooked at 275 for about 2 hours - at which time they were just cooked. Legs removed and the oven temp increased to 400 for 10 min to attempt to brown the potatoes a bit (fail) - moved to the broiler for another 5 (a bit better). Duck legs back in for about 5 minutes to crisp the skin a bit more. The duck meat was dry and still a little tough. Next time I'll go back to my SV method. The glass of burgundy was quite nice - it was hard to believe it was an '05 - it was still so fresh!

What type of rice did you use for the pilaf?

I started it in a cold oven set to 275 with a tablespoon of reserved duck fat in teh bottom. Once preheated was finished, I took it out, spread around the duck fat, then added cut up potatoes and duck legs on top, then back in at 275 for the foreseeable future.

But if the whole thing is glazed (bottom also) how will any water get in other than through the two miniscule (by percentage of surface area) circular ribs?

I received this cazuela many years ago as a gift. As you can see, the bottom is glazed also, except for the 2 rims it sits on. I've never actually used this for cooking in all the years I've had it - I've only put a towel in it and used it to keep tortillas warm (I preheated it in a 150F oven for a while first). Everything I've found discussing curing a cazuela before use talks about ones with unglazed bottoms - soak it for 12 hours, drain, rub it with garlic and then bake or put on a flame tamer or something. But what about a fully glazed bottom? Does this need soaking and curing if I actually wanted to use it in a 300F oven? Since it's almost fully glazed, I can't imagine what soaking would do for it. Plus it does say that it's oven safe - unfortunately I don't have the packaging or documentation that came with it so I don't know if they recommend some sort of curing process first - and I can't find it on Sur la table's website. I guess it's been discontinued. Any help would be appreciated!

Excellent. Thank you!

Thanks. Do you know the root of boeuf (or porc for that matter) in the French? Is there a reason why the French created words to differentiate between animal and meat?

Why is it that we call cow meat "beef"? Pork meat is "pork". Chicken meat is "chicken". Beef is the only example I can think of where the name of the meat is different than the name of the animal. What is the origin of this? @liuzhou - any thoughts? I would assume that "beef" comes from the Latin/Romance root - but, say, in French beouf is not vache, so it's the same issue.

Bumping (I didn't know exactly where to put this comment) I just defrosted (in the sink) a 5# rack of pork spare ribs and pork feet from Wild Fork to make pork stock and Bak Kut Teh. I am really impressed - the ribs were really plump and meaty and there was very little liquid in the bag. Plus, you can't beat the prices - $2.48 per pound for the ribs and $2.88 per pound for the feet. I don't think I could get much cheaper even by going to Chinatown, and it's certainly a lot more convenient.

@Anna N and @ElsieD That's what I was thinking!!!

And arm strength/stamina!

Very close! And thanks for the recap. The enameled pot will hold much more than 2 portions, but it's the 12" saute pan (on another burner) that I use to cook the pasta in the sauce that only comfortably holds 2 portions. Technically it could hold more, but I'm sure there would be a lot of stuff flying out while flipping/stirring if I tried it. I guess I could cook all 4 portions together - then, rather than using a saute pan, I could do the final minute or so in a large saucepan/stockpot. At that point, I could use @Margaret Pilgrim's idea and reserve some pasta liquid and then drain everything into a colander. It would also save time since I wouldn't need to do it in 2 batches. Food for thought.... thanks all for your replies and ideas

I don't dump the pasta into a colander because many times I make a few (sometimes 4) portions at a time, but the pan that I use to cook the pasta in the sauce at the end only holds 2 portions comfortably. So I remove the pasta with a spider (see link above) to keep the starchy water in the pan for A) using to add to the sauce and B) cooking the next batch. When using said spider, I would ideally like to see the pasta because otherwise it's like fishing in the black lagoon. It seems like there's always an errant few pieces laying at the bottom once I'm ready to clean everything up and I do wind up pouring out the water. One might say "what's the matter with leaving a few pieces behind?" but that would be the topic of another post entirely.

I had that happen when I first started it - it goes really fast! I find just an inch of water (to make sure all the stem bottoms are in if they're not all the same height) and making sure no leaves are in the water are the key. That and changing the water every day or two.

What language is this? 🤣

I knew someone was going to say this!!!

A spider... something like https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwit1tHZkeHyAhWKnLMKHb64ASIYABAFGgJxbg&sig=AOD64_1bRlVOr0BeK0NhfssfkMNUdggM0Q&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwiYy8LZkeHyAhVFhuAKHavtCX4Q9aACegQIARBC&adurl=

Before I moved to a new apartment, I would cook pasta in my All-Clad LTD pot with stainless interior. Even when the water became cloudy from the starch, it was still easy to see the pasta (let's say a penne shape) against the stainless background to fish it out with a spider. The new apartment has no gas service (to the entire building) and I'm now cooking on induction, so the LTD pot is out. And being that I'd rather not spend more money right now (I will eventually get a proper induction compatible stainless pot), for now, I'm boiling the pasta in a Le Creuset enameled cast iron dutch oven. I have no complaints about the boiling - the induction gets that water to a boil in the amount of time that I'd still be able to bathe in the gas heated pot, but since the enameled interior is a cream type color, it's practically impossible to see an errant few pieces of pasta swimming around unless they're right near the surface. Any ideas, other than "just get a new pot already!"?

This is fascinating. How I would love that system!!!

@weinoo I have a drawer in the new fridge (actually it's an old fridge in the new apartment) that has a drawer with a lever where you can adjust temperature - colder to warmer. I've kept ripe mangoes in there (in the warmer setting) very successfully for a couple weeks (until they were all eaten). My crisper drawers also have a lever which you can use to adjust humidity.