Kleatius

OK, so I decided to give this a shot. I've never made any japanese food, so ramen seemed like a logical place to start... First I scoured the internet to glean as much as I could. As has been noted many times in this thread there aren't really any detailed ramen recipes out there that seem authentic. Here's my shoyu version based on tidbits taken from 5-6 different websites and whatever I felt like. First I made some chicken stock. About an hour in I found some shiitake mushroom in the cupboard so I soaked them and threw the water in the pot as well. I continued to big simmer / small boil for 2.5 hours in total. In the meantime I made a liter of dashi stock using Tsuji's A Simple Art for the first time. Also while the stock was boiling I made some pork with soy. mirin and white wine to add to the ramen. This part was probably the least authentic, but it still tasted good! I briefly fried the pork slices to get some initial browning and then added the rest of the ingredients and simmered for 45-60 mins. After I started the pork simmering I realized I was out of soy sauce so I ran off the the store to fill up. Upon returning I threw some noodles on to boil. When I went to the grocery store last night I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of noodle available and had no idea what kind to use. Some chinese guy working in the aisle saw my confused expression and helped me out. I don't think the noodle he recommended was the same as what I've had in ramen shops, but it was still pretty good. He claimed that these noodles would 'make me strong'. I think he was right. When the noodles were al dente I took them off the heat. I then took a table bowl and added some chicken stock, dashi, soy and mirin (didn't have any sake). I added my noodle and threw in a boiled egg, some bean sprout, the pork and 3 pieces nori. Voila. Conclusion? Delicious!!! This was pretty close to the shoyu ramen I had in Vancouver and have been unable to find in Toronto. Any feedback is appreciated!

I wonder if there are any good recipes in Japanese cookbooks out there? Maybe something like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Morimoto-New-Art-Jap...ie=UTF8&s=books If you look through the index section some of the broths are listed. Would be great to have a detailed explanation of how to make ramen. Toronto sadly lacks any good ramen shops .

Carbon steel cookware does look like awesome stuff for a fry pan. I'll keep a look out for one I guess. I've never seen one in stores or on any of the online sites I've found that ship to Canada. Woks yes, but no fry pans that I can remember. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention...

There is a sale on Viking cookware at a local store, so I checked out the thickness of the aluminum used. Turns out the "7-ply" pots contains 2.8-3 mm of aluminum. It was funny cause when I first asked the service rep how thick the aluminum was in the pot she responded with "7-ply thickness". She had no idea about the actual thickness and said that "no one had ever asked her that before." While the sale here means relatively good prices for this line I'm gonna pass cause it's still way too pricey for 3 mm aluminum thickness.

Thanks for the response. Makes sense now why you'd want straight gauge for a fry pan. It doesn't seems like there are many available of that style that are that great. The thick copper base styles don't seem affordable. All-Clad is also fairly expensive especially for the thickness of aluminum used. Anyone know a good manufacturer of straight gauge cookware with fairly thick metal?

I'm sure I wouldn't have problems with the pot either. My 5 ft 95 lb gf might struggle though... Sorry, I'm sure you've already mentioned the reasoning behind this, but why wouldn't you want a disk bottom fry pan? If you've got a nice saucier for wet/dry applications and are just using the fry pan for browning and whatnot I don't see what the problem would be with a disk.

Hmmm.. Looks like the 11" Falk Saucier only has the one handle. Seems like it might be a pretty heavy lift full of stir fry or risotto.

Reading up on the Sitram, looks like the Catering line has a base of 2.5mm coppers sandwiched in SS. The Sitram Profiserie line has a 7mm aluminum base also sandwiched in SS. hmmm... wonder why the Catering line is so much more expensive. According to the article shouldn't the Much thicker aluminum have better thermal properties?

Has anyone had a chance to use the Sitram saute, or know the thickness of the aluminum in the bottom? I've been tempted to just go with the Falk 11" saute, but I feel like my fiancee might find the 8lb weight too heavy. I use this pot a lot so I wanna get something that I wont have to upgrade later on.

Hey, a Bimbimbap thread! Nice! Anyone know anything about the proper way to serve Gojuchang? If you eat it straight from the tub it doesn't have the same taste or consistency as when I've had it at Korean restaurants. I usually try making a sauce with Gojuchang, rice vinegar and sugar and it turns out pretty close to the real deal. Anyone have a proper recipe?

Wow, those boards look amazing! Would you need to buy two though (a separate one for cutting raw meat)?

Thanks for the replies. I looked into it a bit, and as mentioned before there are two separate Paderno brands. The Canadian one that I was looking at is much lower priced and lower quality as well. I was just talking to a Canadian Paderno rep. about the Chaudier line. Apparently it has been replaced by a line called "Chefs Choice". Sounds like the company is aiming at a lower budget market. Here is a list of Chefs Choice cookware available from their site (search for Chefs Choice): http://www.paderno.com/products/search.cfm?search=true That 3.2 Qt. sauce pan might be nice.

Hmmmm... I was just talking to a friend about Paderno cookware. His in-laws used the brand for years and bought them a set around 4 months ago. Apparently the quality of the new pots are much less than the older ones his in-laws have and they are really disappointed. His father-in-law researched it a bit and found out that around a year ago they started making the cookware in China instead of P.E.I. Anyone heard anything about this to confirm/disprove?

Thanks again slkinsey! I've been building up a small collection based on some recommendations from this article. So far I've picked up the Falk 1.4 qt. Sauciére (it looked so nice I couldn't resist!), a 12" Caphalon non-stick fry pan, and a Staub 5.8 ltr. oval oven. Next up is a decent stock pot and a 11" saute or saucier (which seems to be fairly expensive here in Canada). I notice that some ppl suggested Paderno and was wondering if this deal seems good for a stock pot: http://www.paderno.com/products/product.cfm?ID=188 I saw another deal on that site that seemed pretty ridiculous: http://www.paderno.com/products/product.cfm?ID=918 Is there something sucky about that particular line or product? Seems really cheap... A last question for any experts out there: What sort of pot is best suited for roasting something like a chicken? There are various kind of pots that I've seen advertised for this, and I've only ever used an old granite ware pot to do that myself. Some examples: http://www.paderno.com/products/product.cfm?ID=164 http://www.chefsresource.com/staub-xlarge-oval.html

Well... a great place to look is Bridge Kitchenware's What Every Kitchen Needs resource. For stovetop cookware, they suggest: - 1.5 qt saucepan - 3 qt. saucepan - Large Surface Saute Pan - Medium Saute Pan - Omelette Pan - Steamer Insert - Medium Covered Casserole - Large Covered Casserole - Pasta Pot w/colander - Non-Stick Fry Pan - S/S Double Boiler Personally, I would modify the list to this: - 1 qt. to 1.5 qt straight gauge saucepan, sauteuse evasee or curved sauteuse evasee (Amazon has a 1 qt. All-Clad MasterChef sauteuse evasee -- they call it a saucier -- for 35 bucks) - 3.5 to 4.5 disk bottom tall saucepan (Bridge Kitchenware has a 4.5 qt. Paderno Grand Gourmet tall saucepan for 78 bucks) - 11" disk bottom saute pan (Bridge Kitchenware has an 11" Sitram Profisserie saute pan for 68 bucks) - 11" straight gauge fry pan (Cookware and More has a 10" All-Clad MasterChef fry pan for 60 bucks or a 12" All-Clad MasterChef fry pan for 70 bucks) - 11" straight gauge nonstick frypan (Amazon has 11" Calphalon Commercial nonstick fry pans in occasional sales as low as 30 bucks) - 6 qt to 7 qt enameled cast iron casserole (Pans.com has a 6.75 qt Chasseur casserole for 163 bucks) - 12 qt to 18 qt disk bottom stock pot with pasta insert (Bridge Kitchenware has a 17.7 Sitram profisserie stock pot for 117 bucks) That would comprise a well-equipped battery of stovetop cookware that I think anyone would consider to be pretty kickass stuff that will last a lifetime. It is, of course, possible to get this set (or one similar) for less money if you are good at looking for things on sale. It is also possible to get even better by upgrading in a few places: go with Staub enameled cast iron in 8 quarts for around 220 bucks; go with a Falk Culinair stainless lined heavy copper sauciere in 1.4 quarts for 100 bucks (75 if you are a first-time customer) and so on. A large cast iron skillet would compliment any set of cookware. This does not include knives and that sort of thing, of course. Personally, my philosophy is to slowly build up a battery of fop-flight cookware, acquiring one or two pieces a year as you start feeling like you need them. A perfectly good starter set for someone who doesn't have much of anything and doesn't have much cooking experience would be an 11" straight gauge curved sauteuse evasee, a 12 quart stock pot (mostly for pasta, but also works for soups), an 11" nonstick fry pan, a 2 qt saucepan and a 10" chef's knife. There aren't too many things you can't make with that collection. ← Wow, nice article in general, and great post for anyone starting off a cookware collection! I'm actually moving out (currently living with parents) in a couple months, so I have to have my own collection built up before then. Anyone care to take an "updated for 2007" crack at Fat Guy's challenge? I tried looking for some of the pots that you recommended here and elsewhere in the Q&A, but either can't find many of them, or they are priced way higher than listed above. Thanks in advance!