dcarch

Percyn - Very nice Korean Style BBQ Chicken on Fried Rice. I also made sous vide ribs. Kim - I agree, I am too ready for fall. I too made a lamb stew, actually sous vide lamb stew. You should try sous vide. I think you will have a great time. You can make lamb stew tastes like rack of lamb. EatNopales - Mrs. Nopales did very well with the roasted chicken. Jmahl - lovely quails. David Ross - Oysters and Grits with Fresh Corn, very artistic plating. Dejah - Burgers made from a combination of ground pork, beef, and venison, that’s an incredible burger! Dakki – Thank you. C. sapidus – Very juicy looking pulled pork. PopsicleToze – thanks. Those are nice size blue crabs. Bigger than what we can find here in NYC. Paul Bacino - marinated wild Morning Dove, a devine looking dove indeed! Keith_W – What a Spanish themes dinner party you had. ScottyBoy - Gorgeous Gnocchi made with potatoes, parmesan and Jidori egg yolks Kayb – The sauces on the Pollock were Honey mustard, black garlic and Vodka sauce. Wonderful German food you made. Brings back good memories. I use to live around German Town here in NYC. Mgaretz - “who knows what fried rice “ would make an interesting item on a menu. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meals made the past few days. dcarch Pan fried skate wings, with Simiji mushrooms and squash blossoms in bacon jam. Bought some pre-rubbed ribs. I just sous vide the ribs in the same package. Golden squash Celery home-grown tomato salad

Thank you all. Sharing ideas is always fun. I eat a lot of mangoes, I also like making mango ice cream and dehydrated mango leather. I had to find a good way to peel and cut a mango. Prawncrackers, we (NYC) don't have the kinds of mangoes that you have. You are lucky. The mangoes we have here are all picked very green and after they are ripe, they are not perfumy at all. dcarch

Disclaimer: Please do not view the following as correct information. I am not an expert concerning the topic of anaerobic environment and botulism. You will need to do your own research. I believe (for myself only) botulism poisoning is a very serious condition, but a very rare condition. The peeled garlic is made by machine and cleaned. In making the paste, lots of salt is added. The whipping/chopping/blending of the garlic into a paste introduces a lot of air in the mixture, it is far from being anaerobic. The paste is immediately frozen. Overall, there are unlikely opportunities for the botulism microbes to grow. When I cook with garlic, I fry the garlic paste to brown it first, and that it normmally much high than 212 F degrees. I think (for myself) it is 100% safe. dcarch

As have been said, mangoes come in different sizes and shapes. Some are very ripe and some are not. I have not found a tool that can work for all. Also, the way the tools work, you waste a lot of good mango. Mangoes in many areas are expensive. I have searched the internet, youtube, etc., there are many demonstrations on how to cut and peel a mango. I have not found a way that I like. So I have developed my own way to cut and peel a mango. It works with all kind of mangoes, and this method will get the last drop of mango meat without any waste, and no messy hands either. Please, don't mangle your mango. :-) dcarch Sliced mango with mango ice cream

Thanks. It comes with an air-tight cap. No smell at all. I wish friends would stop giving me garlic presses. None of them work. dcarch

Yes, add just a little more oil, it makes it very soft in the freezer. The peeled garlic comes in a squarish container with a mouth big enough for the blender, and the shape is very compact for the freezer. No clean up, no work. Garlic paste also maximizes garlic flavor, and shortens cooking time. With chopped garlic for many recipes, I often have to caramelize the garlic first. Great for making quick garlic bread. dcarch

I do my garlic the following way: Open one container of peeled garlic, and stick a stick blender in it with salt and olive oil. A minute of blending and I will end up with a nice garlic paste. I store the paste in the freezer. Olive oil does not get frozen solid. Each time I need some I just spoon out as much as I need. What can be more convenient? dcarch

Quite an interesting question. Some initial thoughts: I think it will have to be spun at a MUCH higher rate to separate the components with various densities because dough is much much more viscous. If I do get the chance to try it out, I'll have to buy centrifuge vials rated for higher RPM. The ones I have are rated for 10,000 rpm max, and cost $120 for 6 vials. Yeah, not cheap!!!! The idea is not to separate the components. Once you mix the yeast and dough, the microbes will be digesting the starch and make CO2. 1. Under a great deal of centripetal force, will the microbes work better or not at all. 2. If CO2 is generated, it will be highly compressed, and the dough will not rise. So when the pressure is released, what will happen to the dough? dcarch

I wonder what would happen? Put some dough and yeast and spin it. Will the dough still rise? What will happen to the yeasted dough after spinning? Will it rise much more ? or not at all. dcarch

Those are extremely quiet generators. If you have a 1,000 watt generator, you can get a few old 12v car batteries hooked up in parallel. Old car batteries have a lot of power left in them. (free) Get a 2,000 watt inverter (4,000watts peak) about $150.00 Have the generator charge the batteries. You may have enough power to handle 3,000 watts for a while. dcarch

Crazy! gas engine blender! I suppose it kind of works. Electric motor operates at over 20,000 RPM, gas engine runs a around 5,000 RPM. You can run a refrigerator with an inverter off a car battery. A refrigerator once gets going actually uses very little power. You can also get a refrigerator which can run on propane, 12VDC and 110VAC. A small power generator can run many things, a 2,000 watt generator can run a toaster oven, hair dryer, microwave, etc. dcarch

For get about electrical appliances. Get propane. dcarch

Fish fat is not good. dcarch

Canned crab meat has become very good. There are many brands. They taste like freash crab meat. They are not cheap. dcarch

Due to weather and human error, recently, millions of people were cut off from electric power for a long time. There are many advices you can find on-line as to what to do with your food in the refrigerator and freezer. Basically, they advise you not to open the refrigerator door or the freezer door to keep the food cold longer. I am not so sure. Refrigerator: Air has very low specific heat, only 0.018 BTU for one degree F per cubic foot. Let’s assume there are 5 cubic feet of air in your loaded 40 F refrigerator, and your room temperature is 85 F, each time you open the door and the entire 5 cu. Ft. of air is replaced by room air, you are only loosing 4.5 BTUs. Not counting all the thermal mass of the metals, glass, food, plastic, beer, ---, if you have one gallon of water, for it to go from 40 F to 41 F, you will need 8.34 BTUs. Freezer: Not counting all the thermal mass of the metals, glass, food, plastic, -----. Assuming your freezer is 0 F. In a fully loaded freezer, let's assume you have one cu. Ft. of air in it. If you open the freezer door and that one cu. Ft. of 0 F air is replaced by 85 F air, you will be loosing 0.81 BTU, and OTOH, if you have one gallon of ice cubes, for it to go from 0 F ice to 32 F water, you will need 1,709.7 BTUs, or, open the freezer door 2,110 times. dcarch

Interesting thought... I wonder if there's evidence to support that. I feel like the US has pretty diverse eating habits. We're a wealthy nation with much available in our markets and representation in our country from other cultures all over the world. Do other cultures have considerably fewer allergy issues? The first thought that came to my mind when I read that was that most of the Asians I know have lactose intolerance. Many Asians are ideed lactose intolerant as well as alcohol intolerant. I my spending time in the Far East, I had not come across allergy issue like here in the US. I have many Asian friends, none of them has allergies, except one is allergic to shellfish. To me, the US has terrible eating habits when it comes to varieties. We are much better now. Meats, vegetibles, fish, fruits ----- there are so many things we don't have and don't eat. dcarch

Some what off-topic: It seems that cultures which have diverse eating habits have much less allergy issues. I seem to have seen a report that even children with severe peanut allergies can be treated by exposing them to progressively increasing amounts of peanuts ( Warning: Don’t try this at home!!!! Disclaimer:I am not a doctor!!!!). dcarch

It seems to me that gluten is an important part in Asian cooking/diet. I enjoy mock chicken made of gluten in Chinese shops. dcarch

There are those who really go for a polished edge that can literally split a hair (really, check youtube). Do you need that for the kitchen? Here are a few magnified views of a brand new blade for a surgeon’s scalpel. dcarch

Use a torch. You can get a lot of "outdoor" flavor using a torch. dcarch

dcarch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQNVO3STF4

There are many pre-rubbed, pre-seasoned ribs in plastic. dcarch

Stupid idea to keep your veggies green: In supermarkets veggie department, and meat department, they use special fluorescent bulbs which have special spectrums to enhance the green color and the red color. ------------ BTW, Kevin Liu has a very good point. dcarch

There must be something else you can do. I seem to think that veggies in frozen TV dinners stay green, even you cook them a long time. What have they done to the veggies? dcarch

Percyn – Interesting meal combination, Burrito with Ramen. Looks good and sounds good to me. Paul Bacino – nice presentation od Caprese Salad. mgaretz – the sous vide shrimp looks beautiful with home made fettucini. Genkinaonna – your Corn soup with bacon and cheddar fritters is so professional looking. ScottyBoy – your Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho is so artistic looking. So is the salmon. OK, you convinced me. I went out and got two pounds of squid. C. sapidus – I can’t even pronounce the names of your dishes, but I can pronunce that they look fabulous. weinoo – the roasted quails look wonderful. Two would not be enough for me. Kim – incredible array of fine dishes, again showing the wide spectrum of your cooking ability. heidih – I can see the grape leaves indeed can work very well with pork. Prawncrackers – My two thumbs up for your Squabs. SobaAddict70 – very fine-looking Ratatouille. OMG! Heirloom tomato salad, with watermelon and white peaches, that is what summer is all about ! --------------- - - - - - - - - - - -- - I am happy to see Pollock in the fish market. I don’t know why they don’t have it more often here. It is a very nice fish. dcarch