Keith_W

It is in fact really easy. The traditional way has you steep the chicken in broth for 30 minutes followed by a refresh in cold water. However I prefer to sous-vide the chicken. It is more reliable and gives more consistent results.

That's amazing, Baselerd.

I have been following SobaAddict's posts in that dinner thread for a very long time. Yet I can not recall him ever making Soba. So, I will nominate Soba. Made with these ingredients: cremini mushrooms oyster mushrooms shiitake mushrooms portobello mushrooms pea shoots Can't wait for another foodblog

Hi Rozin, I suppose it is possible to remove every single bone, but then the bird would end up looking rather deflated. I chose to leave the drumstick in although I did remove the thigh bone. I left the entire wing joint in. I wanted the end result to still look like a bird, and not a bag made of meat ... which is what would happen if you removed all the bones BTW a Poussin is a funny sized bird. Mine were 500gm each with bones in. Once you debone and stuff them, each Poussin is only slightly larger than what you can eat. We ate 1.5 Poussins between my wife and I and packed the rest for lunch. I am still looking for the perfect single serve bird. Quails are too small, poussins are too large, and pigeons are rare around here. Mr Holloway I bought some mince today with the intention of making bolognaise. I think you may have changed my mind. Ann T everything looks great but I must single out the steak and those fries. You left the skin on before you cut the fries? I wish more people would do that ... they have so much more flavour. mm84321 more details on that asparagus and macaroni gratin, please? That looks like a single, very long piece of macaroni. How did you make it? Did you extrude it yourself?

Two poussins, tunnel boned (i.e. remove the skeleton whilst keeping the bird intact). It sometimes helps to be a doctor. The birds were stuffed with mushroom duxelles, ham, and Emmental cheese, then sutured closed with 3-0 silk. They were then rubbed in truffle oil and salt, then baked over indirect heat at 250C. Like my neat sutures? Served with vegetables and chicken jus. Once the birds are roasted, the sutures (which are as fine as human hair) are indistinguishable. Cut in half to show that they were really tunnel boned

It's OK, so do I. I have found a little trick though. I cook up enough food for us to eat. Then I plate up a dainty little portion, because they look nicer. Once the photo is taken, I pile on the food and eat!

I was chatting to a colleague today about someone we mutually admire - the bioethicist Peter Singer. He told me about Singer's argument that factory farmed chickens should be genetically engineered so that they do not feel pain. I was intrigued and did some googling when I came home. I found a link where the thesis is expanded upon and discussed - here. What do you think? Would you buy and eat such a chicken, or does the thought of it give you the heebie-jeebies?

Aw, thanks Mr. Holloway SobaAddict that omelette looks perfect, I have a hankering to make myself one right now!! Oh yeah, where was I. Dinners! Last night's dinner. Panfried John Dory with a lemon-caper sauce with salad. Some of the salad was used as garnish, the rest was plunked into a big ugly bowl Tonight's dinner. Duck breast with duck skin wafer, sauce Perigeux, mashed potato, and vegetables. Duck breast: injected with a brine made from milk and apple juice, then sous-vide at 60C for 2 hours. Duck skin wafer: stitched to a rack then brushed with soy sauce, paprika, and sugar. Allowed to dry in the fridge for 24 hours, then roasted at 180C for 30 minutes. Sauce perigeux: madeira and truffle oil was added to beef stock, then reduced and thickened with a roux. Yes I know it is missing the foie gras, but I didn't have any. And I had to use truffle oil instead of truffles as well. Not truffle season yet! Mashed potato: as per my "ultimate mashed potato" recipe Vegetables: microwaved. You will be surprised how good this simple cooking method is.

It's my favourite thread on eG! I come here to perve at food porn and get ideas for what to cook next! Certainly some very interesting meals, e.g. Callinectes sapidus' green chile and the rice with the chilli, cheese and corn mixed through it. Intriguing.

Eggs, perhaps? Were they in the belly of the shrimp?

mm84321: amazing looking dinner as always. Franci: do you eat that baby prawns raw??? dcarch: love your plating as always Cookalong: hey, your dinner looks like mine! Steak, asparagus, and sauce bearnaise! This was dinner. I did a steak tasting menu: Steak tasting menu (L-R): Hopkins River Black Angus ribeye, cryovac 5 weeks; Wagyu Heifer Robbins Island, dry aged 5 weeks; Came Grim Black Angus, dry aged 120 days. Steak tasting menu (L-R): Wagyu, 120 day dry aged Cape Grim Black Angus x2, Hopkins River cryovac. All cooked the same way - sous-vide at 57C for 1 hour, followed by 1 hour oven dry, followed by high temperature sear over charcoal. The charcoal sear was done in two stages so as not to heat up the meat too much - 2 minute sear on each side, then rested 10 minutes, then 2 minute sear again. This was what it looked like after the first sear. Steak tasting menu (L-R): Wagyu, 120 day dry aged, Cryovac. Served with Bearnaise sauce, Chanterey carrots, Asparagus, and Brussel Sprouts. Consensus was: Wagyu was the best. I thought the 120 day dry aged ribeye was noticably better than the Cryovac, but some disagreed! By the way, the brussel sprouts were incredible. My grocer said that they are very soft and subtle tasting. He didn't have a name for them. Indeed, these things tasted like lettuce - sweet and with a hint of bitterness. Nothing like brussel sprouts. I cooked them in the microwave.

OK it worked Thanks Chris!

I just noticed that each post now has a "Like" button. I tried to press it but it said "You have reached your quota of positive votes for today" even though I haven't clicked on the button ever before! Is this a known bug? There is a gorgeous plate of food in another thread which I want to "like"

I just noticed that each post now has a "Like" button. I tried to press it but it said "You have reached your quota of positive votes for today" even though I haven't clicked on the button ever before! Is this a known bug? There is a gorgeous plate of food in another thread which I want to "like"

Suggest you read this article on Cooking Issues. Sounds exactly like what you need. Unfortunately you can not simply buy that gadget ... you have to make your own.

Well, I am going to take that he asked "what is your favourite fish" in which case I have to admit I have a liking for oily white fleshed fish, like Cod or Patagonian Toothfish (Chilean Sea Bass for North Americans). Patagonian toothfish was almost unheard of in Australia until the 1990's, when there was a diplomatic incident between Australia and Argentina. An Argentinian trawler was found fishing in our waters, and the Australian navy chased them halfway around the world before catching them and towing the boat back to Australia. (You see, that's about the only thing our navy is good for. They probably couldn't even fight off an armed rowboat from Fiji). The boat and the catch were confiscated and the crew deported. It was all over the papers, and suddenly the markets were flooded with Patagonian toothfish from the catch. Most of us tried it out of curiosity, and from then I was hooked. I agree that "what is the best fish" has no answer, given that even the same fish may not taste the same in different countries or continents. For example, there are about 10 (maybe more?) species of salmon and they taste different, so you can't just say "I like salmon". Remember, this is an international forum

Lia, I understand that it is your lemon filling which is breaking down. However, it is probably breaking down because the filling is losing moisture - and this is because the moisture is being absorbed by the pastry. And don't worry, there is nothing wrong with your English Here is another trick for you - try using duck eggs instead of chicken eggs. The guy who told me about the lemon tarts is a former professional pastry chef who specialized in egg tarts He said that duck eggs are much less likely to split, but he never did explain why or how. In any case, they taste better!

Franci, thanks for alerting me to Food Canon's version of HCR. I also checked out the SV char siew that he made. What a coincidence, someone else who thinks like me! My chicken recipe is quite different from his though. Where he poaches a whole chicken in a pot (at 76C!!!) I use skinless fillets and cook in a bag at 62C for 90 minutes. It could perhaps be removed at 60 minutes, but I wanted insurance that anything pathogenic in there was really dead. I also include NO salt in my SV bag - I have found that salt + sous-vide = loss of LOTS of juice. I wonder why he chooses to cook his chicken at such a high temperature. He doesn't say what the final interior temperature is after 60 minutes. Perhaps it might work with Singaporean chickens - those are smaller than big breasted Aussie chickens. The char siew recipe is also different. Again he poaches pork strips in a pot, whereas mine is done in a bag. This time, the addition of fermented soy paste means that salt is inevitable. As expected - after 18 hours in the SV machine quite a lot of juice had leaked out, such that the liquid was too thin to baste with. This is why I had to reduce the liquid to make it thick and sticky - perfect basting consistency.

RRO looks like both of us had similar looking pork for dinner Dinner tonight was chicken rice with char siew. This is a pretty traditional Cantonese meal, but I used unusual cooking methods to update it to the 21st century (I can already hear the groans from the other Chinese people on this thread). Condiments and spices for char siew. The fermented soybean paste is not traditional. I wanted to boost the soybean flavour so I used more soybean paste in lieu of soy sauce. There was also much more ginger than traditionally called for. I like ginger! Ingredients: Japanese soy sauce (3T), oyster sauce (5T), sesame oil (1t), soybean paste (3T), honey (3T), malt extract (3T), five spice powder (1T), white pepper (1T), Xiaoxing wine (5T), ginger (3cm, minced), garlic cloves (4, minced), pork neck (2kg). The pork was cut into strips and packed with the marinade into a sous-vide bag and left to marinade overnight. I then sous-vided it at 62C for 18 hours. Rationale for sous-vide: traditional char siew calls for pork belly. It needs all that fat to cut through the dryness of the pork. I suspected that sous-vide would allow me to use a leaner cut of meat (in this case, pork neck) because the prolonged cooking time would make the meat tender. Also, careful temperature control would stop me from overcooking the meat, which should make it tender. I am pleased to report that I was right - sous-vide'd char siew is less fatty, more moist, and more packed with flavour than traditional char siew. The charcoal grill was then fired up. In the meantime, all the liquid was drained from the SV bag and reduced until thick and sticky. The pork was then returned to the marinade and liberally basted on the charcoal BBQ. Once little burnt bits started to develop, I took it off the heat. Modernist chicken rice with char siew and choy sum. The chicken thigh fillets were also sous-vided at 62C for 90 minutes. Last night I popped the chicken fillets into the bag along with traditional ingredients (ginger, pandan, Hsiaoxing wine, white pepper). Nobody that I know of has ever made a sous-vide chicken for Hainanese chicken rice. I believe this method to be much superior. The traditional way of poaching the whole chicken leaches chicken flavour into the stock. Sous-vide'ing chicken this way uses MUCH less water. As a result, both the chicken and the stock are far more intense. I still had enough stock left over to make the accompanying soup, even after using some to cook the rice. Both the rice and choy sum were cooked the traditional way.

Sole meuniere.

Lia, the butter helps seal the pores of the pastry - in effect making it more waterproof.

I was once told that the tarts crack because they lose moisture. They then sink and crack. Check that you have blind baked your pastry enough - this helps stop it absorbing moisture from the filling. Also, try brushing the pastry with butter before you put the filling in.

Hi Simon, I saw your thread about duck confit a little too late. I would have told you to cure it for one hour only, instead of 12. Well, even if it was too salty it looks good on the plate!

Pizza cooked in a Kamado. Preheated to about 450C (i.e. REALLY HOT!!!) and cooked on a pizza stone. Bottom burnt. Top barely cooked. Interior still doughy. Never again!

I did say in an earlier post that I can not take the credit for the white chicken jus. I stole the idea from MC@H. Wow, wow, and just wow! I can just imagine the crunch of the crust giving way to the tender oyster inside and served in a soft bun. It sounds so good, I am totally going to try that! Hmm, I might put some Nori flakes through the crust and make a sweet chilli mayo to go with it. I'm feeling hungry dreaming about it already, and I just ate!