Okanagancook

Oh this sounds familiar. Many of these things have happened to us too. We decided to moved into a condo with all new high end appliances with several pages of manuals about how the operations work. Sheesh. So much to learn. So many options! I had to make a chart for washing and drying our clothes and yes, the drum is so deep I almost need long tongs to reach the clothes out of the back of the drum.

Excellent. You will love it. Somewhere they recommend potatoes chips as an excellent pairing for champagne . The Irish lamb stew and the yellow tomato soup are excellent.

The beef dip looks better than most. Preceded by a Margarita….what could be better. we have friends in Qualicum Beach. Hope the weather is good.

I have never seen instructions to remove seeds from an eggplant. Salting it for about an hour to supposedly drawing out the bitterness is the only treatment instructions I have seen. an East Indian friend of mine said choose eggplants with a round end to get a vegetable with less seeds and I do think he is right. I always get round ended eggplants.

The judges are sometimes pretty impressive also.

I am addicted to the show. I hope it’s not rigged🤪

I had a lovage plant for about ten years. When we moved, it had reached a dizzying height of 6.5 feet. It was a beauty. Harvest young leaves and treat them as a herb. They go well with leeks, celery, onion, parsley, potato, poultry (try roasting a chicken set on a bed of lovage). It is nice torn up in salads. Taste as you go because it is quite robust. I never did cook the stems but I imagine young tender ones would work best. good luck.

Thanks @KennethT i have copied your recipe here so it is easy to find. I would like to try your stretching technique. Thank you. ”For the prata, it's actually a relatively lean dough. From research I've done, it seems like the flour all the prata guys in Singapore use have 10.8% protein, which I can't find here. So for 8 pratas (4 meals of 2 to go along with the curry) it should be 600g flour with approx 10.8% protein. I made this using 118g 7% protein cake flour and 482g of 11.7% KAF all purpose. To this about 1t salt, 1T sugar, 15ml grapeseed oil, 300ml water and 1 egg. Mixed by hand and let sit covered for about an hour or so. After that, I could actually knead it without using any extra flour. I kneaded it in several sessions of about 5 minutes each, separated by 20 min of rest. Divided into 8 balls, rolled in grapeseed oil, then sit in ramekins covered for a few hours. Then sit in the fridge overnight. Then I freeze 6 and stretched 2 a few minutes before the chicken was finished. Cooked until brown on both sides on a med-high pan with a bit of grapeseed oil. I think the key is lots of kneading interspersed with lots of rest to relax the gluten. It's really stretchy - it springs back like a rubber band. To use the frozen ones, the day I'm making the curry, I'll take them out of the freezer and leave on the countertop all day to defrost and relax. To stretch, take a large section of clean countertop and spread a thin layer of grapeseed oil and oil your hands. Take a dough ball and flatten into a disk, then, working around in a circle, lift and stretch the edge away from the center and press down on the countertop. If your countertop has too much oil it will slide, but if just a bit, it should stay there. Keep going around until you can see the countertop through the dough - it doesn't matter if a couple of holes tear into it as long as you can stretch it really thin. It should be about 2 feet in diameter (roughly). Then spread a little more grapeseed oil on the top surface and roll it into a snake, then coil the snake into a disk tucking the last end underneath. Cover and let sit and rest for a while. When ready to cook, press the disk as flat as you can and fry on a medium high heat in a bit more grapeseed oil. At this point, it's really stretchy, so when you press the disk flat, it comes back to almost its original thickness, so when it hits the hot pan, I'll press it flatter with a spatula. When justbrowned, flip it and do the same thing. When done, transfer to a clean countertop or board and with a quick motionwith your hands, clap the edges towards the center a couple times, which should help separate the layers a bit.”

This is a very good video. I have not made these but have seen this technique before. She mucks around getting the dough the right consistency until about 7 minutes into the video but from then on it is pretty good. Butter makes it better. Who knew.

Adjustable metal shelving is a must. Practical, adaptable and easy to clean.

A Matter Of Taste by Lucy Waverman is a terrific book that includes lots of information about what to drink with the recipes. https://www.amazon.ca/Matter-Taste-Lucy-Waverman/dp/0002006723/ref=asc_df_0002006723/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=335136579009&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16402966807508507690&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1002451&hvtargid=pla-690551631769&psc=1

I think tenderness is also a function of the quality of the meat. I tend to experiment. I was doing pork chops at 135 to 140 f. Then someone here said they usually use 132f and get juicy results. So I thought we’ll if it is a bit rare for me then I can always sear it a bit in a pan. I found 132 F was the right temperature and I kept the time at 90 minutes. Keep a sous vide journal and document where you bought the meat, the cut, the thickness, the temperature, the time and how it came out. Very useful.

Probably too warm and/or over whipped.

Amazing looking cake!

Very enjoyable travel blog. Thank you for all of it.

When you look at who is recommending this technique, CI……one can not be surprised. Overkill is a good way to characterize it. But if one likes to play with one’s food it has its appeal!

Cooks Illustrated claim the tendons make the bite of meat “stringy”. I see an experiment brewing.

@Keralathose look nice and plump for sure. I have googled this which turned up the Cooks Illustrated treatment….once the tendons have been cut, they instruct you to pull out the tendons using pliers. I wonder if that results in some meat being pulled out with the tendons?

That procedure seems easy. Thanks.

I missed that. Could you enlighten me please?

I guess depends a bit on how thick they are. Assuming about an inch because who would cut a ribeye any thinner. 127 F for two hours. Then sear using a probe to make sure your temp is where you want it while the crust develops. Rest for at least 10 minutes. Other thoughts?

That high a temp…I am surprised. They do look nice and pink. thank you.

How did you sous vide them? 125F for an hour is my guess? Then about four minutes a side on a hot grill? I am doing some racks tomorrow so might try this.

For stock I use Better than Bouillon.

I was just thinking about starting a thread on favourite salad dressings so good timing. To reduce the fat content of your dressing you can try substituting up to 1/3 of the oil in a recipe with a cornstarch thickened slurry which is the same consistency as oil. Play around with the quantities and also the liquid. You can use chicken stock to give it a bit more flavour.