ChrisTaylor

My palate would argue you're drinking a superior beverage. The master race of Margaritas.

After-Dinner Saz with a couple modifications. Nikka from the barrel for the whisky. My homemade coffee bitters to supplement the Angostura. Workable.

From what I understand, a Hong Kong chook is a 'normal' chicken that includes some of the bits that are normally removed. Namely the head and the feet.

In my role as the President for Life, Glorious Leader and Five-Star General of the Chris Taylor Sake Appreciation Society I am fortunate to get the chance to pay for sakes and cast my untrained eye upon them to see whether they are good ... or not. This one falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. This is the entry-level model of an Australian sake I tried earlier in my career: Go-Shu. For those that know Australian geography, this sake is made in Penrith using water sourced from the Blue Mountains. For once the geography lesson on the label of a bottle of booze means something to me. On the nose, Go-Shu hits you with a whole lot of Shaoxing wine. Once it gets a bit of air--like, say, half way through the first glass--this dies off a bit. On the palate: bitter ... a bittersweet creaminess .. moving to a subtle but sharp bitterness. Hard to describe that in a way that would make sense. As in, it's got a bite to it without being overdone. Subtle--like, real subtle, to the point I wonder if I'm imagining it--juniper. A bit of boozy warmth on the faaaaaaaaar end of the tail. EDIT Still, I reckon it's superior to the higher end model. If you're going to buy a bottle of Go-Shu, go against what would ordinarily seem sensible: buy the 740mL variant that sells for, plus or minus a couple dollars, the same price as the 350mL 'blue' offering. Seriously. If you want your sake to taste of more than 'rice booze, refined' the entry-level Go-Shu is superior.

Blood sausage, potato, caramelised onion and horseradish? That's ticking the boxes of several major food groups.

Well, if I cook burgers sous vide--which I don't any more--I don't hold them. Sous vide > chill > straight on grill. Seriously. Ditch the food processor. Ask the butcher, when you buy the meat, the grind it all for you. As in, 'I want this cut, that cut and that cut ... can you mince them for me?' If they can't, well, I doubt your butcher is a monopoly.

The camera has been drinking. Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. A fillet of 'duckfish', also known as boarfish, I bought from the farmer's market this morning (trying out a stall that billed itself as selling high quality frozen seafood 'straight from the boat'). I cooked the fillet sous vide (~20 minutes, 48C), chilled it and then gave it a brief sear with some butter. The salad is a modified version of Keith_W's popcorn salad. I subbed the pickled jalapenos for my own, milder pickled green chillies and cut the lime juice with some of my pepper vin. The potatoes were cooked with diced bacon. The fishmonger mentioned duck/boarfish eats prawns and crabs and that the flesh took on their flavour. Sure enough, there was that fatty shellfish taste. As much as the article says the flavour is delicate, I found it to be very strong. I couldn't eat the full fillet (not pictured), even though it was quite small.

I use an electric kettle that, in addition to bringing water up to 100C, will bring it up to (and shut off the power/switch to 'keep warm' mode) at 80C, 85C and 90C. I take advantage of this feature once or twice a day. If you're crazy serious about Japanese teas and whatnot you might be able to find one that'll hold/shut off at lower temperatures. I mean, yeah, you could achieve the same end with a saucepan and a thermometer but ... I'm not the kind of person that is capable of such wizardry early in the morning. I bought a Sunbeam kettle, one of the costlier models, but in more recent years I've seen even cheap knock-off ones that offer this feature.

For some strange reason I decided to make fudge. And, hey, Donald Link's book was right there. Peanut butter fudge. There you go. Only I, as someone who has never made fudge, decided to make a few improvements: Took him up on his suggestion to cut back on the amount of sugar, considering I don't like really sweet desserts. A total 4 cups of sugar was scaled back to barely 3.A slug of bourbon went in because ... why not?I dusted it with a little flaky sea salt in addition to the crunched up peanuts.In addition to dusting it with crunched-up peanuts I also threw a few into the fudge mixture. Thoughts: It's still really, really, really fucking sweet. I reckon I'd die if I ate it with the original 4 cups of sugar and a sweeter, American-style peanut butter. I'd just die.The bourbon made the fudge smell awesome when it was simmering but the flavour/aroma died off during the setting stage. That's a shame. It's almost like a problem that can only be solved with more bourbon.The peanuts I bought weren't very good (local nut shop changed hands a few months ago and the quality of products and service deteriorated significantly overnight). It'd be nice to have a kick of fresh roasted peanut on top.I wonder how little sugar I can put in while still getting it to set.

I've spotted some no-name dehydrators on eBay. Cheaper than the Excalibur but still has temperature control (35C to 68C, apparently) and enough capacity to do what I'm interested in doing. There's also a somewhat pricier Sunbeam one that can go up to 70C. I want a dehydrator but cannot justify the expense (more than double the price of the Sunbeam model) of an Excalibur. Even a second-hand Excalibur is costlier than these. I hold no illusions about the build quality of these cheaper models but is anything actually 'wrong' with knock-off dehydrators so long as they have temperature control/adequate capacity?

Well, I cook every day. There are days where I'm happy to have an excuse to go somewhere. Altho', ja, Valentine's Day meals can be hit-and-miss. A few surprising misses. I mean, I 'get it'--even though I'm not happy with it--when a restaurant that's usually half-full finds the dining room packed a couple days per year. What I don't understand is when it's a restaurant that's almost full/completely full all of the time yet still somehow manages to fuck up the service, timing of dishes, etc when there are normally no such issues. Even if the head chef/owner has departed, I mean, it's not like that never happens on normal days.

.7%, per weight, is significantly less salt than you would (or should) use in sausage making so this makes sense.

Er, red wine popping up in some really odd places. Like half the online recipes for doro wat. To point it's basically coq au vin sans bacon but plus a bunch of spices.

You're a star, Anna. EDIT I also know where I'm booked in for NYE '15.

This is where I ended up. I followed the recipe Mendel C-k linked to without actually following it. The apples made their way into an apple sauce (a couple of Granny Smith apples, some sugar, some cinnamon, a pinch of salt/82C/60 minutes) and the water took the form of a superior liquid, namely beer. The sauce came out a little thick when I pureed it so, hey, that was a nice excuse to drop a glug of Laird's apple brandy in there. The carrots and beets were cooked sous vide--40 and 60 minutes respectively, both at 82C. The pickles were homemade. It took longer than the two and a half hours the recipe says--closer to three. Note that if you want to follow the recipe, there are a couple of differences between the recipe as it's written and the recipe as it appears in the video. I cranked the temperature up to 200C when I had about a hour remaining as I wasn't getting very far re: crispy skin. I think next time I'd try some of the techniques for crisp-skinned roast pork belly from that classic eG thread.

When you say 'blender' I'm assuming you mean 'a blend of cuts' rather than 'putting pieces of meat in a blender or food processor'. I usually go for a blend of skirt/flank, short rib and chuck. Roughly equal quantities. If I'm feeling dangerous I might put some marrow in there. Certainly not 1:1:1:1, though ... Also, because you're getting a blend (even if it's just extra fat and chuck) you'll need to work the mix a little with your hands to ensure even distribution of everything. Not so much you end up with sausage meat, though. I think you're cooking them too long. All of the above. No salt. Zip lock bag. One hour. Then report back.

A finer hour for CALBEE but no hot and spicy. More Grill-a-Corn. This time it's garlic bread flavour. I admire any company that produces garlic bread-flavoured anything--snack-flavoured snacks--even if I harbour a suspicion it'll taste and smell like garlic powder. Garlic powder might be an essential part of many dry rubs but it's not something you really want to eat from the tub, is it? Luckily, garlic Grill-a-Corn isn't too strong. Somewhat similar to 'chicken' Twisties without the real fake chicken part of the flavour profile. Workable.

All of that, too. And what temperature are you cooking them at/to?

Also, when you say extra fat ... are we talking trimmings or a packaged product (i.e. dripping)?

Hitting Prima Taste's Singapore Curry for breakfast because, hey, fuck cereal. They're ... good. Really good. I say this as someone that hasn't really enjoyed instant noodles as an adult. The back of the packaging claims you can add chicken, tofu, vegetables and whatnot for an 'indulgent' meal. I thought this was pish but, no, the noodles are good enough doing so would make for a completely respectable midweek meal. The seasoning came in two packages: a powder and a curry paste, the latter being no different in appearance or aroma to a decent quality store-bought paste. Far removed from the little sachet of oil jacked with shallots, garlic and mystery bits (I have to say: if you're new to noodles with a liquid- or sludge-based seasoning, you're really out of the loop--even the cheap and cheerful Indomie Mi Goreng has a kit-built approach to flavouring agents). The noodles--air-dried--have a significantly longer cook time than most instant noodles. Unsurprisingly, considering they're air-dried rather than deep-fried (i.e. pre-cooked). EDIT I should add that over the past week or so I've picked up a packet or two of most of the noodles described in this thread. Prima Taste is the only one to impress me so far, although the Myojo ones--some kind of potato flavour--weren't bad. EDIT 2 Some nice little design touches, too. Like making the cake into a circular shape that'll nicely fit into a medium-ish saucepan.

I've been scoping out local weekend markets recently and stumbled upon a place that deals in fancy pants pork. I have a piece of belly in the water bath at the moment. I'm now looking for suggestions on what to do with the hocks. I have two: one at 624g and the other just shy of 950g. I've cooked hocks, in their unsmoked form, before. My go-to recipe is the one in Keller's Bouchon. Photos of that dish can be found here. Similar recipes appear elsewhere, although unsurprisingly it's the garnish--not the construction of the 'pucks'--that changes. That is one option that has occurred to me. Another option is something like this this: I have a cold smoker and a hot smoker, so something that's lightly smoked is a possibility. I want to avoid applying a lot of smoke to it, turning it into the kind of thing you'd make red beans and rice with. Any other suggestions? Only once have I had German-style roast pork knuckle. I really, really, really liked it. I have no idea where to begin on that front, though, and whether my best bet would be slow-roasting or some kind of sous vide/roasting combo.

What cuts of meat are you using? Most beef in Australia is lean, particularly the inexpensive/readily available kind, but you can still make juicy burgers if you use the right cuts. All I'm saying is: let's try a simple solution (assuming you haven't already experimented with a variety of and blend of cuts) before a complicated one.

When did you make it? I'm under the impression it takes a couple of weeks, maybe even a month for a mustard's flavour to settle.

Venison with the cherry vinaigrette from Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey, mashed potatoes, wagyu fat-jacked carrots and pickled green chilli.

Your take on barbecue sauce seems more my style. I like vinegar-based sauces much more than the sweet ones. The majority of commercially available sauces in Australia are very sweet. An increasing number are imported from the States but they're still mostly the sweet kind: I think because that's Australians assume barbecue sauce is by default sweet, that there are no other options. The Modernist Cuisine East Texas sauce, which I served with some short ribs last night, was superior to their Kansas City one.