Keith_W

Thanks for the pictures, ChefCrash. I am quite excited about trying this at home now. The results look fantastic!

There are two important steps to ensure a moist breast: 1. Brined. Most of the brining suggestions posted above sound reasonable to me. Brining does change the texture of the meat. It makes it more "homogenous" and less stringy. You may or may not like it. I love it. 2. Not overcooked (i.e. do not go above 65C/170F). This means the whole breast, not just the center. If you use ANY high heat method, you WILL end up overcooking the exterior before the interior reaches the desired level of done-ness. In addition, there are a number of additional tips: 3. Cook meat on the bone wherever possible. Application of heat will cause the muscle to contract and squeeze out juices. Leaving meat on the bone minimizes muscle contraction. 4. Consider placing butter under the skin if roasting the whole bird. The butter protects the breast and crisps up the skin. Here is a turducken I made for Christmas a few weeks ago. Tunnel boned, stuffed, then slow roasted. At the end, the turkey was smoked for an hour then skin crisped up by pouring hot oil over it.

The small ones (Siu Bak Choy / Xiao Bai Cai), with "siu / xiao" meaning "small", are about one Zhong Xin Hai. Here is another one: Snow Pea Sprouts / Tao Miu (Cantonese) / Dou Miao (Pinyin) Length: 1/2 a Zhong Xin Hai As the name suggests ... these are immature sprouts of the snow pea plant. Delicious when fried with soy sauce and garlic. By the way - you should think of sauces for Asian greens the same way you think of sauces for various shapes of pasta. I choose the shape of pasta to match the sauce. Or adjust the thickness of the sauce to suit the pasta. In the same way, some Asian greens (like snow pea sprout or spinach) will fry up into a very dense texture. Even a very thin sauce will adequately coat the greens. Others, like Kai Lan, Bak Choy, or Choy Sum - do not wilt much and need to be served with a thickened sauce.

I hear many people say that they are allergic or sensitive to MSG. Most of the complaints seem to be extreme thirst (especially after eating in a Chinese restaurant), but some people describe a rash or an asthma attack. When you think about it, MSG is just a salt of an amino acid - monosodium glutamate. In other words, it is a naturally occurring product. Or put another way - your stomach digests proteins to produce glutamate. Some time in our evolution, there was enough selective pressure for us to evolve a specialized receptor for MSG - the "umami" taste receptors in the tongue. As such, I find it difficult to accept that it is possible to be allergic to MSG. I can accept that people would feel thirsty if they take too much Sodium. Eating too much salt is definitely bad for your health (so I would agree with the recommendation that people don't take too much MSG). However, glutamate ... ? I suspect that it is the "chemical sounding" name of MSG, and the "food additive" aspect of it, and not to mention the fact that it comes in little clear granules that psychologically turns people off. It's the good old placebo effect at play here - some nasty chemical food additive which are used in dodgy Chinese restaurants can't be good, right? Is there any evidence that MSG can cause allergic reactions?

Thanks for the recommendations! I live in Kew, so those places are quite close by. Will have a look tomorrow. Thanks again!

I have just moved to Melbourne, but grew up in Perth. I am looking for a fruit and veg shop like The Boat Shed in Cottesloe. For those who don't know, the fresh produce in WA is something else. The Boat Shed was where Australia II was constructed and has since been turned into a fruit and veg shop. Every time you drop in, you can find something exciting - purple, white, and green asparagus of several different types, fruits that I have only seen in Asia (starfruit, mangosteens) as well as some South American fruits, a ridiculous potato selection where you can get 8-10 varieties of potatoes. Since moving here I have not seen Royal Blue potatoes for sale anywhere for e.g. They get lettuce from the farmers that actually tastes of lettuce, and have a selection of rocket from the milder type to pungent and peppery wild rocket. There seems to be no place in Melbourne like it? I have been to the Prahran Markets, and it is not the same. I know I can get Asian fruits in Box Hill and Richmond, and sometimes in the Queen Vic markets. I am not a big fan of the Queen Vic Market though - seems as if all the vendors are competing on price and not quality. I want quality produce, and I am prepared to spend money and petrol to get it! Does anyone have any recommendations?

Umm, I usually wing it. The common ingredients used for sauces to go with veggies cooked Chinese style are: - oyster sauce - garlic - Shaoxing rice wine - chicken stock cubes - cornflour For example, to make the sauce for "spinach with century eggs", you make a cup of chicken stock with the chicken stock cubes, then add dried whitebait, goji berries, and fried garlic. I make my sauce for "stir fried spring vegetables" by adding oyster sauce to a 50/50 mix of rice wine and water, with some chicken stock cubes and cornflour as thickener. The veggies are then fried with ... garlic. You can alter the proportions of each ingredient to come up with different sauces. Or add other elements such as egg white and so on. Cooking veggies Chinese style is really simple!

Thank you everyone for the helpful information and especially dougal. Looks like that induction cooker idea has gone out the window. I have been driving myself bonkers trying to think up of a cheap SV solution. I quite like the pot within a pot idea, but it would be difficult to monitor the temp for long duration SV cooking - which is what I would like to try! Maybe I should just buy an immersion circulator and be done with it!

Sorry guys, I know there is a huge sous-vide thread here on EG but it is waaaay too long for me to browse through. I went through the first 20 out of 98 pages and it did my head in! Anyway, I have been thinking of buying a sous-vide controller from these guys: http://www.cookingsousvide.com/info/regula...king-controller ... to use it, you plug a rice cooker or a slow cooker into the controller. The controller then monitors the water temperature and turns your appliance on and off to maintain the water temp. One of the disadvantages that I see is that my rice cooker and slow cooker are pretty small. I could probably do steaks for two in my slow cooker, but forget about dinner party cooking. I was thinking that I could use a portable induction burner, and put my great big stock pot on top. My stock pot is big enough for me to open my own soup kitchen, or to make stock from the neighbour's family pet (can you tell I am Chinese ). It should be able to sous-vide steaks for 8 people quite easily. My question is: do most induction burners need to be turned on from the front panel if they have been switched off from the mains? Can anyone recommend a brand that would be suitable?

None of you guys have a garlic peeler? I have one, and it is really simple - a rubber tube. Put the clove into the tube, then rub the tube between your hands. Shake the garlic out, and it is magically peeled.

I have tried that method, it works extremely well. My pizza cooks within 90 seconds when placed on the top shelf of the oven.