Keith_W
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Posts posted by Keith_W
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dcarch's leftovers look more appetizing than the freshly cooked meal I made tonight. How depressing.
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It looks like South America to me. No idea who it is, though.
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Practise tossing food in your wok with a plate of peanut shells outside, or similar. That way you won't risk wasting food if you happen to toss it all over your hob.
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Do not lift your wok off the "nest" (I don't know the correct term for it either). To toss food in a wok, push it away from you then jerk it back suddenly. The food will hit the side of the pan and fly into the air. Just as you jerk it back, push it forward again to catch the food.
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I love fennel seeds!! These are some of my applications:
- sous-vide carrot with fennel seed. The fennel really adds a dimension to carrot. (As an aside, carrot is like a blank canvas if you SV it. You can do it with ginger, horseradish, cumin, and cloves. Your guests will never know what you did to your carrots).
- salt baked chicken. Sprinkle fennel on the chicken before the salt crust goes on.
- sprinkle fennel seeds on vanilla ice-cream. The Indians eat candied fennel seeds as dessert. You will be surprised how well this works.
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I know that many of us Chinese are really conservative when it comes to traditional food, but I can imagine Italians and French recoiling in horror at some of my creations. If he likes takeaway style Chinese food, then more power to him.
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dry aged pork, xo pearl barley risotto, tomato confit, kale chips, broccoli crusted quail egg
Genius! How do you make a broccoli crusted quail egg?
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mm84321 you are a brave man (or woman?) for eating wild mushrooms which you foraged yourself
Glad to see you survived to post about it. I would really miss looking at your food if something were to happen to you. Lovely looking dinner BTW -
From Harold McGee On Food and Cooking, p.617:
"... in addition to coating the flour particles with fat and making them easier to disperse in hot liquid, roux making has three other useful effects on the flour. First, it cooks out the raw cereal flavor and develops a rounded, toasty flavor that becomes more pronounced and intense as the colour darkens. Second, the color itself - the product of the same browning reactions between carbohydrates and proteins that produce the toasty flavour - can lend some depth to the colour of the sauce.
Finally, the heat causes some of the starch chains to split, and then to form new bonds with each other. This generally means that long chains and branches are broken down into smaller pieces that then form short branches on other molecules. The short, branched molecules are less efficient at thickening liquids than the long chains, but they are also slower to bond to each other and form a continuous network as the liquid cools. The sauce is therefore less prone to congeal on the plate. The darker the roux, the more starch chains are modified in this way, and so the more roux is required to create a given thickness."
Thus to answer your questions:
1. Yes.
2. The Maillard reaction
3. Probably, but I haven't tried
4. More fat lessen the thickening power of the roux. More flour might make the roux harder to dissolve.
5. No idea.
6. See McGee's answer.
(edit) I thought I should expand on the protein point a little further. Starches are polysaccharides, as opposed to proteins (which are polypeptides). According to McGee, it is the polysaccharide that provides the thickening power of a roux. I know that some proteins can form gels (e.g. gelatin is simply broken down collagen, i.e. a polypeptide) but I am not sure about the gliadin in flour. You can extract the gluten by forming a dough and then by thorough washing so that all the starch is washed away, leaving you gluten. Maybe you could try an experiment where you see if it can be used to thicken liquids.
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I'm trying to find Trisol, a wheat starch for frying. Only source is a UK company that won't ship to US (although they ship everywhere else, jerks).
Any ideas?
Any retailer that stocks the Texturas line of products should be able to get it for you. I got mine from a local retailer (Simon Johnson, for Aussies who are reading). It took 6 weeks to arrive and I could only buy it in 5kg quantities. Result: I have a massive tub of Trisol in my pantry. I have been giving it away but still have more than I know what to do with!
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What kind of noodles? There are many. Fresh? Dried?
Egg noodles? Rice noodles? Potato noodles? Mung bean noodles? Hand pulled? Cut? Extruded? Are they thin, thick, flat, long, or short?
As liuzhou says, there are thousands of "chow mein" recipes around the world. There is even a possibility that you are talking about a dish which isn't even Chinese.
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What a remarkable festival. Makes our food festivals seem puny and unimaginative by comparison. 10,000 kudos to you!
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Norm, your food and calligraphy is beautiful. I was wondering what type of pen you use?
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Self raising flour = normal flour with baking powder. I suppose you could mix some baking powder into your dough but you would need to mix it really well!
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John, which part of Australia are you in?
Supermarket only sells Zip-lock bags. Those are fairly thin, but won't melt in your SV bath (mind you, I haven't taken it above 80C). The only concern is that the bags may fail.
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See my reply in this thread, post #4. Available via mail order.
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Merkinz, it doesn't matter if the water in your pressure cooker touches the bowl or not. All that matters is that you supply enough water to enable the water vapour to reach the correct pressure, temperature, and 100% saturation. If you use less water, it reaches pressure faster.
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To avoid making a mess in your pressure cooker, place a trivet on the base and add some water. Place your food in an oven-safe bowl and on the trivet. You can buy cheap trivets in Asian grocery stores - I think mine cost less than $1.
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I second that recommendation for the Thermapen. I have one, and it is by far the best digital thermometer. Nice, big numbers and it takes readings much faster than any other thermometer on the market.
Welcome to eG, TdeV!
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I have some Airlock Vacuum Bags (note - no affiliation to the company). These have double zip-locks so they will not fail, and a port for a handheld vacuum pump. To use them, simply squeeze the air out and lock both zip-locks. Then apply the hand pump and remove as much air as possible.
The bags themselves are quite expensive - about AUD$1.20 - $2.00 per bag, but can be reused many times. In practice, I find that the bags absorb oil and oil-based flavour molecules, such that repeated washing will not remove stains or aromas. I tend to get 4-5 uses out of each bag before I have to discard it. I have had them up to 90C with no problems. Another bonus - you can seal liquids in the bags. As long as you are careful about when to stop pumping, there will be no leakage.
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Nice article on the most famous food forager in Melbourne - Ben Shewry, chef of Attica and probably the No.1 restaurant in Melbourne: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/raw-talent-20120924-26gcq.html
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Prawncrackers, your post had me drooling. What a wonderful idea! Thankfully I don't have to smoke my own eel ... I can buy it pre-smoked! Smoked eel croquettes, here I come!!
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Well I am going to give my standard answer - shred it, freeze it, then eat it with instant noodles.
However, I don't think it is highbrow enough for the eG crowd ... perhaps I should suggest that the chicken be minced, mixed with alginate, then faux noodles be made by piping it into a calcium bath, then encapsulated with chicken broth and scallions to make chicken noodle ravioli and served with foam?
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And I am totally curious about hot pots! Have only seen them on Bourdain. Again, any tips would be very appreciated!
Well, you need a hot pot set. It looks like this. That particular one is a traditional charcoal burner, which I definitely do not recommend because you can not control the heat. There are gas powered and electric alternatives - the one I have is electric. You could also use a hot plate or a portable induction cooktop - then you need a wide and shallow vessel. Something like a flat bottomed wok would do.
Suitable accompaniments are as shown in my photo. Because Chinese hot pot is so popular among Asian families (it is cheap and easy to do), there are shops that specialize in ingredients for hot pot. We typically get 3 types of vegetables, assorted tofu, shaved meat, fishballs, noodles, and eggs.
Then you have to make the broth. This is really easy - I buy a pack of chicken soup herbs from the Asian grocery, a few chicken racks, and a Chinese cabbage. Parboil the chicken racks to purge the impurities, then remove and refresh. Simmer the cleaned racks in the soup along with the herbs and half the cabbage for an hour. Season gently, and you are done.
There is a certain method to cooking and eating your food. Try it in a hot pot restaurant first before attempting it at home.
Another type of casual party I like to throw is the pizza party
I make all the bases and sauces in advance, then cook the pizzas to order. Because I have a flaming hot kamado outside, I can cook each pizza in 3 minutes. It takes longer to place the toppings than to cook the pizza. Spare dough can be turned into foccacias which the guests can take home, and spare sauce and condiments can be turned into a bastardized version of bolognaise the next day. Here is a mushroom, taleggio, and chermoula pizza:
Dinner! 2012
in Cooking
Posted
It's usually made with beef but it looks as if PatrickArmory made it with chicken.