trillium

Try reading a few good Italian cookbooks and it should become obvious. regards, trillium

I think you're being confused because Pan threw nasi lemak into the composed salad thread. In my book, it isn't one. It's not really anything like gado gado. It's a rice dish. You eat bits of coconut rice with the cucumber, or egg, or fried peanuts and ikan belis. Or put a little bit of each all on your spoon at once. The rice can be room temp in SE Asia where it's very hot and humid, but if you're not in a place that's quite warm, and quite humid, it's better if you serve it warm, not cold. Sambal tends to refer to a chilli condiment. Some are soupy like a sauce, some are thick like a jam. Some are only cooked a little time, some are fried with lots of oil. Some have dried seafood in them, some have assam (tamarind). Just about anything you can imagine can get added to a sambal. Not all have belecan (fermented shrimp paste) in them, but many do. Some are named after a dish they're used in, some refer to a specific kind of sambal (like your sambal olek or sambal belecan). I've never seen them used as a dressing in a western sense, just as a cooking ingredient or served in a little mound on your plate, or in a little dish on the table. You get to add it to whatever you want, to your taste. SE Asian food, in general, allows for a wide variety of adjustments to your dish once you have it. For most things, you get to season (chilli hotness, saltiness, sourness) to your taste while you're eating. There isn't really a good substitute for pandan, but I'm fairly certain you'll be able to find it in your Vietnamese grocery store, they use it too. Look for it in the freezer section. It is shaped like a giant blade of grass, if grass grew as long as your arm. regards, trillium

I don't see the Yank Sing dim sum cookbook mentioned. You could add it to the list. I have about half of the books listed in this thread and I still can't make a decent ha gao skin. I've given up and decided you have to learn it from someone who already knows how to do it, not from a book. Mine are always too soft or thick. regards, trillium

That's getting dangerously close to a Pegu Club! regards, trillium

What sort of nasi lemak do you want? Are you asking how to make the coconut rice or the sambal or the fish or all of it? We make ours with coconut rice, egg omlette strips, cucumber, a hae bee sambal, and fried peanuts mixed with fried ikan belis. Some of the other versions mix the ikan belis into the sambal and have tumeric fried fish or have hard boiled eggs. There are lots of variations. What are you interested in? regards, trillium

I haven't seen any for sale here in the US, but I did see some in the bigger, fancy grocery stores in Thailand! At least I guessed that was what it was, it was with all the other extracts and had pictures of basil seeds on the bottle. But mostly I was just being sarcastic about the green Hale Blue Boy syrup. regards, trillium

I bought a bottle of the dry Vya to see what all the fuss was about, and I'm not particularly keen about the strong cassia taste. Anyone else notice this? I'd be curious to know if the fancy NP has that same taste. What I like about NP is the salty, bitter quality, in addition to the aromatics. I found the Vya didn't have that at all, and tasted sweeter on my tongue, but it could just be from the "sweet" spices. I have my bottle of Vya at room temp., I go through vermouth fast enough I don't keep it in the fridge. But the cork pops rather disturbingly when I open it. That makes me wonder if I should try to find space to put it in the fridge. Anyone else notice this? regards, trillium

Really? I didn't find them very similiar at all, but I've only eaten in southern Thailand, and I've only had Singapore style CKT. The CKT I know is seasoned with a sambal made just for CKT, it has plenty of lard to fry the chillies, shallots, and a tiny bit of belecan and is kind of soupy. Then there is dark soya, yes, and bean sprouts, gau choy and sometimes a little choy of some sort, but never carrots! It should be a dark, smoky, reddish from the chilli sauce, pig fatty, eggy, heart attack on a plate with seafood and more crunchy pig fat bits. This should probably be another thread, but nearly every fried noodle dish I ate in Thailand I found disappointing. I tried to pick places that were popular with the locals, for example I ate laad naa at a place in Songkla that had people lined up and waiting, sometimes for half an hour. I tried phad thai twice and decided I just didn't like it, but there was so much other delicious food (like kanom jiin) it didn't matter too much. regards, trillium

Yum... the prep sounds divine. What exactly does the lye water do? What is it's purpose? sheetz Tried that recipe with less then optimum results. Skin does not crisp properly or consistently. ← Kan sui (peng sai) is an alkaline mixture of several salts, inlcuding potassium and sodium carbonates and hyroxides. It's what gives Chinese style noodles their elastic texture (unlike Japanese style). I'm guessing it sort of does the same for siu yuk. I've made skin-on roast pork a few times and there are a couple of things I've learned. One is that the more dry you can make the skin, the better. Once seasoned, I think you can leave it on a rack in the fridge lightly covered for 5 -7 days. It also helps to score it. The other is that it is much easier with fresh pork, not frozen. I'll have to try it with kan sui. regards, trillium

I use bourbon for my (bourbon) Manhattans. Works great. I think I used around 3 T of sugar for a pint, and used Makers and a little water, maybe 2 T. Leave the pits in, they taste better that way...and use sour cherries, not sweet! regards, trillium

I think the frozen pandan leaves from Thailand (you will find them in the herb section in the freezer) have a lot more flavor then the fresh ones from Hawaii we can buy here in the US (same for galangal). Your questions about heat and water really depend on your leaves, you know? Start by knotting up a bunch and barely covering them with water. Bring to a very low simmer, and you decide when it's done or if you need more water or more pandan. The pandan extract barely resembles its namesake in flavor (kind of like banana extract), and is usually to be avoided, unless you really love the Hale's Blue Boy green syrup flavor or green Fanta makes your heart beat faster. In that case, buy away, and throw some banana extract and fake basil seed flavor in while you're at it! The deal with gelatin is that it isn't as stable at hot temps, it melts again, while agar agar just thumbs it's nose at the heat and humidity once it has gelled. Plus gelatin is a beef product, while agar is a nice safe seaweed! regards, trillium

You usually have to pick it up at a farm. Try the Weston A. Price website. There are quite a few listings for Washington state. Just try to ignore all the food fetish/propaganda stuff. regards, trillium

I tried one that they had in that article, it was the one where you thicken the milk with cornstarch last summer. I fiddled with the recipe in Saveur and first infused the liquid with apricot stones. It turned out really well, but I havn't bothered to do it again, I've been playing around with just milk and cream mixtures (no eggs, no starch). I'm planning on trying the pistachio one soon, just as soon as berry season settles down here. I've been much too busy eating lingonberry sorbetti with rose petal gelati to get to the pistachio. Intense flavor depends on farmer's market fresh fruit, just the right amount of sweet and acid, and a light hand with the dairy to fruit ratio. Fresh milk helps too (I've been buying it from a dairy). A few drops of Kirsch helps berry flavors. I do think I've discovered a couple of tricks with regards to stretchy texture. Number one and most important, is that you can't use one of those electric churners like Krups or Cuisinart. They add way too much air. (I'm sorry guys, but I think M. Pepin is right when it comes to fruit sorbets too). You're much better off with doing it in a Donvier, where you control the amount of air that gets incorporated. The other thing is temperature. Our freezers don't store it at the right temp, the way the gelati freezers do. So you have two alternatives: eat it right away, while it's still close to the right consistancy, or let it thaw and do a fiddley stirring routine to get it to the right temp (but it's not easy because it melts too fast). I think the best thing is to just make small batches and eat them quickly. Lastly, don't forget the panna to top it all off! regards, trillium

We use black vinegar for something the S'porean just calls vegetarian beehoon. If we don't have it, we can't make the dish. In the last couple of years we've enjoyed it with stir-fried cabbage. I learned this method while talking to a co-worker from NE (?maybe) China, her favorite way to eat cabbage was stir fried with chillies and oil, and then splashed with black vinegar. We've tried it, and now it's one of our favorites too. But sometimes when I'm not looking, the partner throws ginger in, I think he can't help it, it's his Hokkien roots, but I don't think it tastes as good as just fried chillies, oil, cabbage and black vinegar. I have no comment on the chemistry of alkaline stuff in your gut, but I've learned not to question some traditions too closely and just go along with it. I drink my ching bo leung without complaining too much, always have ginger with my crab, and get used to being told I have too much wind or heat and should eat or drink X or Y. It can't hurt, right? regards, trillium

But why isn't anyone saying what "boba" originally means? Too polite? I think that makes it even more funny and fun. regards, trillium

We've been thinking about making trad pandan/lotus flavored ones... if I can only find where I packed the mold... I love the teochew ones, but don't have a recipe. If you provide one, I'll join. regards, trillium

Well. I know the distinction between Sing Chow Mai (using rice vermicelli) and Char Quay Teow (which use thick rice noodles). I think perhaps most chefs in Hong Kong interpret the Char Quay Teow the same way as they do Singapore style rice vermicelli. They do use yellow curry powder and salt to make Char Quay Teow instead of soy sauce. ← If it's got curry powder in it, it isn't char kway teow, at least according to all the Singaporean and Malaysian eaters/cooks I know! And I don't know what S'poreans you're hanging out with Tepee, but they don't sound like the ones I know.... We make char kway teow for birthday celebrations, right down to the jue yau char, in all its pungent oily goodness. (Oh, and we use dark soya too). As for curry powder, Pan, it does get used for some things by the S'porean and M'sian cooks I know. For example, the partner gets Nonya style curry powder back home that he uses, in addition to a rempah (shallots, garlic, fresh tumeric, red chillies, candlenuts and belecan), to make curry chicken and stuff like that. He uses a different version for fish curry, etc. etc. My friend's mum uses a curry powders too, but she uses ones that she buys when she is in KL. None of it is the bright yellow, heavy on the tumeric and fenugreek stuff that gets sold as Malaysian curry powder here in the US. We only use that for Cantonese dishes. I've never seen the curry powder used by S'poreans or M'sians the way HK/Cantonese cooks use it, by itself as a major seasoning, like in the so-called Singaporean style noodles (which don't exist in Singapore). It's always used along with other major seasonings. I grew up eating "sing cho mai fun" and can't give it up, so in our house we just call it trillium mee and so avoid the tender subject. And, it's my job to make it, not the S'porean's, so that way he keeps his hands clean...hee hee. regards, trillium

I didn't. We made 2 batches of beer that weekend instead (his choice). And now it seems to hot to deep fry inside. I'm afraid the burner we use for outside cooking would make the oil too hot. When I make them, I promise to take pictures and report back. We made Singapore style chicken satay last night. Tonight is fried chicken (bought) and som tom and sticky rice. Oh yeah, and I have some sweetened, salted coconut milk in the fridge to make ice cream. regards, trillium

That does sound very tasty, except I don't really like milk. How about coconut milk instead? Anyone ever used that in sorbet or gelato? -Erik ← That's all that's usually used for "ice cream" in Thailand. Very tasty. I don't see why you'd want to dilute it, but please, use real coconut milk, not Coco Loco, that stuff doesn't taste as good as coconut milk that hasn't been homogenized to death. Just warm up a can or two of Chaokoh or Mae Ploy, sweeten to taste with sugar (make it a little sweeter then you would like it to be, it will taste less sweet when it's frozen). Chill it, and then freeze. The thick coconut fat part on top of the milk will be mixed into the ice cream, not to worry. Very easy. Add in young coconut or grated coconut when it's freezing if you want to get fancy. Top with corn, roasted peanuts, hearts of palm, etc. etc. if you like. regards, trillium

No , no. I think I need to throw MINE out. It's sat in my cuboard for 7 years! I'm sure the new stuff is usable, I just wouldn't use in place of fresh in Thai food, which is what I bought it for when I didn't know any better. Some ex-pats use slices of dry rhizome in toms/soups when they can't get fresh but the whole slices dried smell and taste very different then the powder Penzey's sells. And I was thinking about Nigella seeds, thanks for pointing that out (and I'm sorry for getting the genders wrong!) regards, trillium

Don't stress out about it! People are drinking wine out of boxes and living to tell the tale, I just thought I'd throw that out for next time. If you end up using glass carboys the nuts are easier to remove if they're quartered, not halved, when you're done. We finally bottled our vin de noix from last year, and the vin d'orange we made with Seville oranges in December. They'd been in glass carboys in the cool dark basement. I am lazy and never filter them but the partner was bottling a batch of beer and took it over and filtered everything through coffee filters and I have to say it's much prettier that way. The brewery store sells those plastic and cork toppers that fit into old wine bottles for around $0.30 each. We use those when we run out of the flip top bottles. Corking is better but a big pain that we reserve for big batches of fruit wines and mead that has to age for years and years. The vin de noix has already aged in bulk, so I'm guessing we'll be drinking it up in the next year or so. The vin d'orange never lasts through summer. I'm really happy with how the vin de noix tastes, it's has Punt e Mes overtones with a nut fragrance. I'm going to have to take a bottle to the guys at the wine shop who picked out and ordered the $5/bottle red for me. It's inspired me to revist making vermouth and bitters this fall. regards, trillium

If it was me, I'd avoid prolonged contact with high ethanol content stuff and plastics, especially the thin and flimsy ones used for water. Even though those plastics are food safe, I think I can taste what they leech into the booze, and they're not really intended to be reused. You can find fairly large flip top Italian glass jars at Cost Plus (all the way down to smaller ones), but a brewery shop is a really good resource for glass carboys and they're not that expensive. I like a lot less sugar in mine, which would probably explain why I prefer it before dinner and not after. You'll probably want to consume this faster then if you hadn't used the spices, they tend to dominate the flavor after about 6 months and you can't taste the walnut as much. regards, trillium

With dried, ground up galangal? I tried the Penzey's galangal when I couldn't find fresh or frozen and it has just sat in my cupboard for 7 years, I think it's time to throw it out. The dried whole rhizome will do in a pinch, but the ground barely resembles it's namesake. Very disappointing. Kali jeera is nice in a Hyderbadi type pickle, tomato chutneys, Bengali dishes with mustard oil or in Afghani flat breads. regards, trillium

While we're talking about lignonberry syrup, it makes a much nicer cosmopolitan then cranberry juice. Don't make many cocktails with vodka as the base, but that is one we like once in a while. regards, trillium

Or Queen Anns. regards, trillium