OliverN

Just hit up the new momofuku today, and had the steamed shitake buns (I know the pork ones are to die for, but I wanted to branch out a little) and they were AMAZING. Does anybody have any idea what goes in these things? Is it just the hoisin sauce that's the secret ingredient or is there something else???

So much of cooking is based on the extraction of flavours from its source into a 'container' substance that we can do with as we please. 'Seasoning the oil', the staple technique found in indian and asian cuisine is based on heating the oil, adding your arromatics 'ginger, garlic, chilli, spices'. In principle, you're 'drawing' the flavours out of the arromatics and into your oil, which will then coat the ingredients you add afterwards. Making broth is all about drawing flavour out, but in this case you're doing it by simmering in water. What I'm curious about is, we use the same techniques for so many different flavours, but there must be thousands of different chemicals moving around. As one of the few things i remember from undergrad chemistry is that like dissolves like. Oil-based chemicals will happily jump out into oil and will stay huddled inside in water. Water based chemicals are vice-versa, right? So how come we use the same techniques for such a wide variety of flavours? Take Garlic for example. Classical technique is to heat the oil REALLY hot, add the garlic, stir fry for 10-20 seconds and then continue. But is that really more effective than heating the oil really low for 20 minues with the garlic... or even soaking garlic in the oil for 24 hours beforehand? Don't the specific chemicals break down at a certain temperature? So many questions... and just for garlic! How come we do the same thing for chilles, ginger, and spices?

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but, up here in quebec, there is maybe a two week window in early-mid october where 'Ontario Peaches' become soooo amazingly good. I remember eating through like 9-10 in a day! But then of course they go back to being hit or miss for the rest of the year. I'm sure there's a similar 'sweet spot' for other vegs and fruit though (mandarins, pomegranate and sweet potatos are other candidates i think)...

Personally, I always go with penicillin when curing ham.

Yes! I'll definitely try this. I've deep fried twice in the last four months, once with some cornstarch-dredged chicken pieces for an oyster-sauce stir-fry and the second time for some katsu-don. Both times I used a wok with a candy-thermometer and both times the meals tasted good at the time.... but afterwards I felt like I had a brick in my stomach! I'm assuming that's cuz the oil temperature dropped and everything got sucked in. Does anybody what the mechanism is that keeps hot oil out of foods? And also, alton brown mentioned that you should never use a cast iron pan to deep fry. Is that true???

On a more serious note though, I suppose it's a question of asking why do we saute with oil in the first place? Is it a question of heat conduction? A question of adding flavor to the dish? Or, as with eggs, to just keep the damn things from sticking? Once we've figured that out, then we can talk about which foods don't require one, or both, of the above. I suppose the obvious one, which may not even count, is 'dry'-roasting nuts. Since you're not really looking to 'cook' anything, just brown the surface a little bit, and since they don't stick, you don't need oil......

Yeah good luck with that. My wife used to try that all the time. We had a lot of bacon and toast breakfasts. ← haha. It's all a matter of how you present it: "Succulent, Fat-Free Fried Eggs with a side of Frying Pan"

Yes! This sounds familiar! My friend who cooked the great mushrooms that I talked about in the original post said that they "weren't great quality mushrooms, in fact they've been in the fridge for ages".... In the interest of science, I'm going to go out, buy a box of cremini mushrooms, throw them in the back of the fridge, and forget about them for a week, cook them with the dry-fry technique discussed above, and see what happens. Will you keep you posted! Besides, mushrooms don't really go moldy... do they? Oh and, an aside... is there any difference between the 'brown' and 'white' button mushrooms they sell at the store?

Dry-fried eggs anyone?

<p>Amaretti cookies.... in butternut squash soup?!? Wow, what a crazy idea! And somehow it could work! Here is my latest incarnation of butternut squash soup from a couple days ago. I lifted it from a Jamie Oliver recipe and, although I used to just simmer the squash, I far prefer roasting it now... This time, I roasted it up with some coriander, simmered it in some chicken broth with garlic, shallots and roasted chestnuts, and pureed the bunch and topped it with some yogurt and roasted squash seeds. Full recipe on my blog, <a href="http://chocolateshavings.ca/?p=113"> chocolateshavings.ca </a>. For some reason, though, I didn't get the vivid orange colour I was expecting... it came out more of a light beige.... maybe it was the chestnuts? </p> <p align=center> <img src="http://chocolateshavings.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/bq-bsquashsoup.jpg" width=250> </p> Cheers, Oliver

Thanks everyone for the tips! I tried the dry-fry technique in my cast-iron skillet the other day and they turned out wonderfully!

Thanks for sharing! That was really fun... Like most people, I loved ratatouille.... but was I only person to feel just a little like retching during the seen where the army of rats start cooking? Despite all the magic of pixar, I just couldn't forget that they were.... rats....

Hi everyone! This is my inaugural eGullet post, and I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm a 24 year old grad student who, evidently, loves to cook. I find that I'm a little alone in my passion amongst my friends: on a friday night, their grocery bags clink with the sounds of 6 packs of Heinekin, whereas mine clink with a bottle of Chianti and maybe San Pellegrino for the night's meal! I'm really excited to get involved in the egullet community and pick up some nuggets of culinary wisdom from all of you guys... My first question regards mushrooms... Until recently. I had always lumped mushrooms with carrots, celery and brocolli as just another vegetable. The event that changed that was a dinner at a friend of a friends house where she had made this amazining porcini mushroom pasta... The mushrooms, for some reason, just POPPED with flavour, none of the water, bland stuff that I cook up! I asked her where they were from and, to my surprise, the were the same little mushrooms that I picked from the local store. Ever since I've been trying to recreate that amazing, concentrated burst of flavour that makes mushrooms so special. So do you guys have a 'trick' to cooking mushrooms? Is it true that you shouldn't wash them? How do you know when they're done, and whats the best method for cooking them? I only have access to store-bought 'porcini', 'cremini', and 'portobello' mushrooms (which, i have a suspicion are all variations on the same tune), and the occasional oyster and shittake as well, but I feel like the answer is right in front of me.... Cheers! Oliver

Yeah, Chicken Stock is remarkably similar in consistency and nutirtional content as the media we use to grow bacteria in the lab. It's just not worth it