Keith_W

As Pierogi said, cook to temperature, not to time. These days, every time I cook a thick chunk of meat I do it via a two stage method: - low and slow to set the proteins. This can be via a slow roast (or more commonly for me these days, via sous-vide). For beef, you want a temp of 50C (rare), 55C (medium rare), 60C (medium) or 65C (well done). I tend to go for 52C. If you decide to slow roast, set your oven as low as possible and remove when you reach the target temp. - high heat to brown the exterior. Always allow your meat to cool a little before applying the high heat method, otherwise it will cause the temp to easily overshoot your target. High heat can be: blowtorch, panfry, or grill. I prefer the grill.

For sweetbreads: - remove all gristle and soak in water for a few hours to purge all blood. - blanch the sweetbreads by starting in cold water. Once the water has reached a rolling boil, remove and shock in ice water. The purpose of this step is to disgorge more blood. - dry the sweetbreads thoroughly then press for a few hours in the fridge to get rid of excess water. This will firm up the sweetbreads and concentrate the flavour. Now prepare the sweetbreads as you like. Breadcrumbs, flour, simply panfried ... it's up to you Just remember it is very rich, and a deceptively small serving size will fill you up very quickly.

Having not watched the Harvard lecture series ... could you please share why you feel this way?

A friend of mine owns a bakery. He says: use lard or ghee as a substitute for everything! Use it as a substitute for butter. Use it to fry food. It will make everything taste better and come out with a nicer texture. The downside is that it is not very good for you ...

Hi Nick! These were deep fried at 180C. I let the oil creep up to 190C because I know they will drop 10C the moment I drop the first batch of curry puffs in BTW the pastry can be used for other things, like empanadas. I suppose that curry puff is a Malaysian empanada anyway

Hi Blether, what purpose-made bowl? If you are talking about the plastic curry puff maker, I bought it for $1 at a Chinese dollar shop. The pastry is a standard short crust pastry - for every 100gm plain flour, I used 45gm lard and 45gm water.

Here is my effort.

mm84321, all your food looks spectacular. Creative, nicely plated, original ideas, and well cooked. I only wish I could smell and taste it! Are you a chef? This wasn't for dinner ... I made it as a snack. ... Malaysian curry puffs!

Zacky, what a wonderful idea. I am sure your in-laws would love it. Your dessert doesn't sound Indian enough Why not make a lassi ice cream to go with your pudding?

egullet delivers!! I was going to post something and then saw half a dozen suggestions that were better than mine. Good luck with your first date!

Reminds me of the banquets I used to attend when I was a kid Since growing up and moving to Australia, I have had no such thing!

No oven? Perfect excuse to buy a Kamado!

The answer really depends on your fridge. If it is low and dry enough, putting wet aged beef in the fridge will dry age it. But in normal fridge conditions, chances are it will go off after a few days (I would wager 48 hours?) and start emitting smells that will contaminate everything else in your fridge. If I have wet aged beef, I pat it dry, allow it to air for an hour or so at room temperature, then cook it.

I shudder to think how powerful a durian guacamole would be! I don't think durian can be used in a salsa either - the texture of the fruit is more like a custard than like mango. An alternative would be to let the durian ferment, and then use that to flavour curries. Fermented durian is used as a condiment in South East Asian cuisine.

Durian seeds can be used for savoury courses. After they are boiled, they take on a potato like texture. Use it as a substitute for potato in curries. As for the flesh, I think it would overpower anything you pair it with Perhaps it would be best to give just a hint of durian with the dish? I would guess that meats that go well with sweet marinades (e.g. pork, chicken) would do better. You could perhaps throw the husks on the BBQ and use the smoke to smoke some pork? Durian smoked pork? Just throwing some ideas out there

Thanks for taking the trouble to type up the recipe roygon. Will give this a try!

Hi Kent, a friend of mine who owns a cake shop says that egg tarts are made with duck egg - for superior flavour and to stop the egg tarts from developing cracks when they have to sit in a display window for more than an hour. But I think you have the right idea - suggesting a custard. One of my favourite childhood foods is a savoury steamed egg custard with minced pork, salted eggs, and century eggs. I am sure the mere mention of this dish will provoke recognition amongst all those who were brought up with Cantonese cuisine among us We used to make it with whole eggs, but there is no reason why you couldn't make it with a mixture of whole eggs and egg yolks.

nickrey gorgeous food! Tell you what, i'll cook for you if you'll cook for me My food is far more humble than yours though!

Always wondered why they were called "Buffalo Wings" when they were chicken Of course, it is named after Buffalo, NY which was where they were invented. Why didn't I realize that earlier? Delicious all the same!

Dakki, very nice I love mushrooms as an accompaniment for steak. BTW, you should consider carving up your steak (like mine) before serving. For some reason, it makes it seem more tender. I had no choice but to carve mine up ... that was 800gm of beef there, no way am I going to finish it by myself!

Yeah, no juices lost The steak was rested for an hour after it came out of the SV machine, by which time it was back to room temperature. I find that if I cook the steak straight from the SV machine, it is guaranteed to overcook. When you think about it, it is obvious why - out of the SV machine, the steak is already at its optimum temperature. Adding any more heat will cause it to overshoot your ideal point of doneness and it happens very quickly. After the SV, I put the steak on the grill for 5 minutes until nicely coloured. I checked the temp of the steak at this point - 45C. I carved it straight away.

No fancy plating this time. I wanted a good dinner and couldn't be bothered making things look pretty. The look of the ribeye by itself was driving me crazy ... couldn't wait to put all the food on my plate and go for it. A beautiful Wagyu ribeye bagged with butter and a knob of blue cheese and about to go into the sous-vide machine at 52C for 3 hours. Beautiful marbling on the beef. Out of the sous-vide machine and drying on kitchen paper. Gave it a good char on the grill. Finished and resting. Sliced up and ready to serve. Perfect medium rare, so beefy, and so tender!! Served with Hasselback potatoes and Vichy carrots (not pictured).

Hi Shel, use a blender when you want a super fine chop. Blenders can liquidize carrots, the most a food processor can do is turn it into a puree. The high speed blades on a blender can break cell walls resulting in superior smoothness. However, blenders can not grate cheese, or slice veggies, or mix dough, or whisk eggs. Those jobs are for the food processor.

Here is a confit ocean trout, prepared as per the instructions for confit salmon in 5.193. The dish is an exact replica of Tetsuya Wakuda's Confit ocean trout which I sampled when I dined in his restaurant last year. ... the trout in the SV machine at 50C. I had a little accident and dropped one of the trout fillets. Here it is - you can see how moist and voluptuous it is. Plated!

Thanks Blether for the recipe I will give this a go soon! Anyway, tonight I made a confit ocean trout as per Tetsuya Wakuda, but using techniques I learnt from Modernist Cuisine. The confit was made in a sous-vide bath at 50C, and cooked for 30 minutes until a probe thermometer registered 45C in the thickest part of the trout. The trout in the SV controlled EVOO confit bath. One of the trout fell on the floor as I was transferring it from the bath ... d'oh! But you can see how moist and voluptuous it is! Here it is plated with a home-made cucumber and shallot pickle, parsley oil, and tobiko. The coating on the trout is a 1:1 mixture of wakame and nori, chopped up in a food processor. The garnish is fried trout skin. This would have been a technically difficult dish if I tried to execute it as recommended by Tetsuya Wakuda. But with the magic of my SV controller, it was brainless and easy! The dish was utterly delicious and so refined - my wife was impressed. That's all that matters.