technogypsy

My graduate student is from Thailand, north of Bangkok, and she said duck is very traditional where she comes from. She makes this lovely duck in red curry.

You could google Crazy Crow Trading - they sell supplies for crafts and powwows and are located in Texas. I know they sell a mix but as someone says it's a simple recipe. They might know if anyone in Texas sells it - they are very tied into things Indian (well at least SW type). Kevin

I only buy unslated butter and adjust salt to taste. I always ignore the salt except in cures. I double the vanilla usually in baking or replace it. I add chipolte or sesame oil to stuff on the grill in most cases. I add fish sauce to dang near every stock I make. It seems to make the flavor richer.

Never heard of it before. Now you got me interested...

Salt! Yes! Especially when I cook, I find a touch before serving makes a difference. I forgot what exactly it was that mt 17 year old made and just the dash of salt took it from eh to wow. And lime down here is used more than lemon. Or a dusting of chipolte. Kevin

I just finished my last glass of pommeau from Normandy and i will be a few months before I go back. I can feel the withdrawal starting already. Does anyone have a supplier of this stuff in the US, preferably in the Dallas-Ft Worth area or shipping to Texas? Thanks Kevin

This sounds like something to try. I make preserved lemons for tagines but always end up with some aging in the back of the frig...

Going to try making cheeses other than simple farmers... And would like to making more types of Chinese dumplings...I really only make steamed buns from scratch.. Biryani at home too. We now have take-away shops and everyone loves it.... Sadly all the Indian students I work with are veggies..

Something a student gave me called black dragon pearl. It comes as little beads. Very different from my normal pu-arh (sp) or Persian teas. Sharp tasting.. It's finally above freezing here. Texas is not supposed to be this cold.

Wow. We are making ours for New Year's this year and I've got to try that crust. I use a pretty traditional crust recipe and don't normally see any problems with color/flakiness but this is really different. I already got the venison, feral hog, and buffalo thawing and after this, I can't wait.

Sadly in the small Texas town I live in, Domino's is the best local pizza unless we make it ourselves. I think I just may cry as it sounds like they are making it worst. <sigh> I miss real pizza...(That means NY style - that stuff from Chicago is bread ) Kevin

Rabbit Okra Gumbo 4 cups rabbit or hare boned 2 cups large shelled shrimp* 1 pound sliced andouille (we make our own from venison) 1 cup ghee or oil 1 cup flour 3 cups "trinity" (egual mix of chopped bell pepper**, celery, and onions) 1/4 cup garlic minced 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1 bunch sliced scallions 3 quarts chicken stock or water 4 cups sliced gumbo 2 tbsp file (optional) 1 tbsp white pepper 1 tbsp black pepper 1 tbsp cayenne*** salt to taste Make the ghee and flour into a dark roux. Add trinity and garlic and cook until soft. Add sausage and rabbit and brown for about 10 minutes. Add mixed peppers. Add the stock and brong to a simmer for 2 hours or so. Add the okra (I use frozen 'casue I'm lazy), scallions, and parsley. Cook 5 minutes or so, add shrimp, and then salt. Adjust liquid and flavor (I normally use Tabasco for heat). Serve over steamed rice. This is actually a lot more formal than it is. We kinda use this to clean out the frig. So it varies. The constants are normally the peppers, the trinity, the okra, and some kind of sausage. * you can use oysters or fish too. Or a mix. **I mix red and green for color *** adjust pepper to taste. We use 2 tbsp cayenne and add 1 Tbsp chipolte too. Let me know if you try it, Kevin BTW you can find the sichuan rabbit here: http://blog.technogypsy.net/2008/01/03/rabbit-with-sichaun-peppercorns.aspx

Thanks all. Chris - I am curing until firm to touch, which is what worked for gammon steaks and regular bacon, so it should be. I can alway blanch it if its too salty. MEJ - I considered using the lamb equivalent of the brisket instead? Kevin

Assuming hare is the same thing as a jackrabbit, I've used the recipe for Rabbit with Sichaun Pepper from "Land of Plenty" by Dunlop with good success. I debone them and brine the meat overnight first. John Folse's "After the Hunt" is kinda a bible down here on game and he has several pages of rabbit recipes, all of which work for hares. The Spanish rabbit is really good. We often add either jackrabbit or cottontail to gumbo, and if you like okra I can post that recipe for you. Kevin

I started curing some lamb belly but its awful thin. Can I roll it or something? I wanted to try lamb bacon but it seems too thin to slice. (Since I got it from the local Islamic market, it came skinless.) Anyone have an idea? Thanks Kevin

I put everything I can into the bag but I still see some sediment. However as I am not as cultured as most here, I don't mind cloudy broth. I guess I could suck the top layers off because they do look clear. It does come out cleared this way that when I just dumped the trash from the frig into the pot and boiled it. Kevin

Scott, is there a reference for that? I thought the discoloration was caused by oxidation of fats? But I'm not a food chemist...I thought by definition Maillards require significant heat too due to the type of denaturation. I understood it to be different than that which occurs at RT althro there is considerable range. However I guess what confuses me is the 10-2 rule. For every 10 C, the rate constant normal changes doubles or halves so a Maillard's reaction that takes 5 minutes at 68 C would be half that rate at 58 C etc. At some point you fall below the activition energy too. (But I do polymers so I might be clueless - however we do a lot of kinetics) Is there a references 'cause I'd like to read more for my own knowledge as I suspect most people don't care? Thank you. On the main topic, I never skim and I use pressure cookers all the time for fish stock. One big advantage no one mentioned is in my home kitchen without a hood, I can take the pot outside to cool and open it and my house doesn't smell of fish for the next week. I do get every cat in the area coming by, to my standard's delight. The result is as good as Grandmere's was, it doesn't take all day, and the house doesn't stink. I do put a lot of stuff into a cheesecloth bag to keep it together. Lately, we have been using the burner for the turkey frier and doing it all outdoors.

Wow. That looks lovely. The batches we tried with the Ruhiman cure aren't as pretty and I only smoked for 45 minutes* 'casue I was using mesquite and sycamore, which can give a strong flavor. The sweet batch was awesome (left - use brown sugar) but the savory (right) was dang good too. I guess I just favor sweet bacon... We had it for BLTs for lunch and the boys are already thinking we need to do 20 pounds next time. I got my pork belly from the local Mexican meat-market. They had tons and even had it skinless as they fry the skin as a snack food. It was a bad place for visiting at lunch time. My diet was ruined for the day... Kevin *Lamb leg with mesquite seems to get bitter after 1 hour so I figured I'd be safe.

Not that I am a Doug, but I am a chemist and I have been working on TG-GCMS for leachables lately. It kinda all depends. I worry much much less about bags and films that solid containers. Solid containers tend to need plastizers to toughen them. I've seen some phthaltes transfer to coffee beans. However, I should point out the meat, butter, sugar, salt, etc are all chemical and just because its a chemical does not mean it is toxic. So for sous vide, I don't worry. I use the vacuum bags over Ziplock type because I have pop bones thru the latter and the vacuum bags seem tougher. Kevin

oops. Should of answered this above. I checked using a thermocouple system I use for lab-work and measures to 0.02 C and calibrates to traceable standard. The Sous Vide Magic when stabilized is within a 0.1-2 C and moist variation is near the top (well, I do have the lid off.) When you drop the bag with the food in, you can see bigger ones, but a simple stirrer fixed that. You could probably eliminate it by using the largest size bath so the thermal stability is greater. From working with PolySci Chillers in my day job, I know you can see local affects even there if the bath size is too small for the temperature difference. Your mileage may vary, Kevin

I use a Sous Vide Magic* for everything from fish to fowl to meats. Without a recirculation device, it works well for cooking times over 10 -15 minutes. It does take a couple of minutes to stabilize. It's our preferred way for most animal protein cooking. We then hit it with the burner from my forge to crisp up the outside. (see http://blog.technogypsy.net/2009/05/18/steak-sous-vide-a-la-chili-burner.aspx for our first attempt.) Under 15 minutes, I find I need a stirrer and I use a mechanical lab stirrer I got from Ebay. Set it on low and just even out the cool spots. I've tried using a recycled Polysci chiller/heater from my lab and it seems to work the same. I haven't tried any of the real demanding stuff where you keep something at 52.7 C for 30 seconds and quench cool or similar stuff. Smoking beef ribs for 2 hours, sous vide for 18-20 and then "forge crisping" works really really well. The great thing about using sous vide at home is when someone is late for dinner, the food is ready. So if the goddess gets in an hour late, we just let it sit, brown with the torch and eat late. Kevin *Full disclosure: I should note I have been very happy with the service and support on the SVM too. Very nice people. I have no financial interest in them and just bought the one unit. They have been very helpful especially in explaining some of the recipes on the site.

Lisa Thanks. Will do. Kevin

Hi Lisa Thanks for the advice. I cooked the heck out of the bacon so it was crispy and only cut up the meaty parts. I wondered about the hydroscopic nature of sugar, but based on work in my day job thought the crash cooling would cause more troubles as the sugar won't harden as well unless crystalline. I forgot how much water it sucks up as I work under N2 normally Thanks. I can use a ice bath next time and see. This is what it looks like. The chipolte powder darkens it but it did appear caramel colored before I added it. Kevin

My son and I tried making a bacon-chipolte peanut brittle yesterday and it great tasting, just gooey-er (is that a word?) than I like. I took it to 300 F making the candy part. How do I make it crispier? I figure it can be three things: 1) the fat from the half pound of bacon, the maximum temperature reached, or the fact we cooled it in the frig, as quick cooling increases the ratio of amorphous to crystalline in may cases. I don't know if that is true of candy thro. Any ideas before I make the next batch? Kevin

On bacon recipes: I did an English style bacon a bit ago from a recipe I got from a friend. We were actually trying to make gammon steaks, but as near as I can tell its the same cure. We sliced some paper thin and they were very nice. These were unsmoked the first time but we tried smoking later batches and that helped the flavor a lot. I haven't tried American style bacon, but based on this thread I need to. I get my pork belly at either Whole Foods/Central Market or from a Korean butcher shop. For the below, I used center cut pork roasts. 1/2 cup salt 3/4 cup molasses 3 TBS Cure #1 20 Juniper Berries 4 Bay leaves crushed 3 TBS Black Pepper (cracked) 1/4 tsp sodium erythorbate (iso-ascorbate) 1 tsp Mace 1 tsp liquid smoke 3 quarts water Heat the mess until boiling and let cool. We went and lifted while it can to room temperature. We injected the center of each roast with a spray injector, stuck it into a vacuum container and drowned the meat in the solution. After about 10 days, remove, dry and smoke between 130-145 F over mesquite and cedar for 90 minutes. Slice thin like lunch meat... Kevin