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Ashen

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Everything posted by Ashen

  1. I have dipped tepin chiles in dark chocolate . I left the stem on and they looked like miniture stem on chocolate dipped cherries. So tasty.
  2. i'm trying to understand this--if the wok is nestled into the coals, aren't the coals in contact with the sides as well as the bottom? not seeing how this makes for a hotter bottom than sides? please help me understand, as i'm interested in trying this over the weekend. tia. Maybe my wording didn't convey a proper picture. I didn't mean that the wok is surrounded by coal up to the side rims.. I simply meant that the bottom rounded 1/4 to 1/3 is into the coal bed letting it sit level without the need to hold onto it. The shallower the curve of a wok the better heat control you can have as the food will be less likely to fall back down to the bottom. To exaggerate this effect you can tip the wok to one side. Alcuin's description of how fast you need to work is spot on. With the kind of heat you are dealing with, there is no room for hesitation, and you need to be prepared to move the wok off the heat if you feel things are getting out of your control. This is where thin carbon steel wok is going to perform better than a cast iron , as it will cool off faster for better heat control . Cast iron woks generally are better for use with heat sources that don't put out quite so much heat ,as they will let you cheat the heat drop that can occur when ingredients are added , with their greater thermal mass.
  3. I love that statement. I consider myself a cook, and a damn fine one ,and when people call me a chef I get irritated . A chef is a professional in charge of professional kitchen. Throwing the word chef around for anyone that so much as flips a burger gets on my nerves. I will say watching the show "Chopped" that I have better knife skills than the majority of the "Chefs " that compete. I am in awe of some of the competitors on Top chef and Iron Chef though. My wife laughs at me when I get excited and start talking about the knives and techniques they are using . lol
  4. Right on top of lump charcoal is how i stir fry.. I just get the charcoal going almost white hot using a hairdryer , then nestle the wok down into the bed of coals. I remember Martin Yan had a show where he went to china and toured around. He showed people using woks over beds of coals from a fire , and talked about how the designed of a wok is actually meant for that kind of cooking. small contact area at the bottom is hotter than the sides that curve up out of contact from the coals.
  5. When I make pizza dough, I don't bother if I am going for a long ferment in the fridge,4 to 6 days.In fact I don't even add sugar or other sweeteners. If I am wanting to use it right away I do things somwhat differently. I will bloom with sugar or honey and wait til the dough has autolyzed at least 30 mins before adding the bloomed yeast . I don't add salt , olive oil or ascorbic acid til after letting the yeast do a first rise.
  6. Ashen

    Partial Growler

    I just cap and finish mine the next day. If you really feel the need of another option, what about those glass marble/pebble wine saver things people put in half finished bottles of wine to bring the level of liquid up to the top. You could buy some for the next time , I assume there will be a next time if the beer is that good.
  7. would this kind of coating help reduce browning when cutting things like lettuce?? I have a ceramic knife I use for things like that for just that reason.
  8. Ashen

    Ribs in the oven

    Darienne- If you ever get into Oshawa Halendas Meats carries beef chuck ribs, which are even better than regular beef ribs in my opinion because they have about a 1.5 to 2 in thick layer of meat attached . We actually buy them at their outlet at the St Jacobs farmers market in Waterloo. As to oven ribs, my Dad used to do oven roasted pork ribs . It was just simply seasoned well with S+P and rosemary then roasted in the oven uncovered for a short time at fairly high heat in a single layer. . then covered with foil, heat turned down til they were cooked thru and tender. Just his straight up simple italian spin on things. very good with oven roast potatoes alongside them. Edit.. just to clarify that the ribs were on a rack while cooking to let fat drain off .
  9. fresh halibut cheeks , flour dusted and pan fried.
  10. I was just going to post the same thing.. I am fairly certain it is a cod tongue. I think they have used the word throat instead because tongue might turn people off, and it actually is the throat muscles not a tongue. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/cod-got-your-tongue/article762497/ cod tongues are actually my wifes favourite meal .. They are an aquired taste , with the texture usually being what people have issue with. I much prefer cod cheeks myself as they have less of a gelatinous texture.
  11. Ashen

    Pizza screens

    My stones are so well seasoned they are as non-stick as they need to be. That is an interesting claim.. An aluminum pizza screen used on a stone would tranfer a large amount of heat fast but without preheated stone it is at the mercy of the air temp in the oven to transfer heat . Air just doesn't conduct heat like stone can. cheaper - yes less prone to breaking. possibly although with careful use I have never found this an issue. I have two stones, one I have had for 15 yrs and the other for 10yrs with no breakage.
  12. "Botulinum toxin can be colorless, odorless, and tasteless when put in a liquid solution." http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Botulism_fact_sheet_7-22-04_162864_7.pdf I am not sure how usual this situation would be but relying on an off odor, visual cue or taste isn't exactly the best practice procedure. I personally follow the ,' if in doubt, throw it out' practice with all the canning we do, and any bought canned goods. Heat most definitely does not d ensure safety in all instances. There are spores and bacteria that produce heat resistant toxins that can get you very sick. This is why there are such strict guidelines about food holding temperatures, and also why it is not recommended to reheat leftovers repeatedly. the bacteria can be killed off with each heating but the toxins they produce while the food is in the danger zone continues to accumulate.
  13. If I am out for breakfast and want eggs, I usually go for poached(if offered) , then sunnyside up if I feel I can deal with the little bit of runny white that normally comes with that at a restaurant. At home I do them sunnyside up but separate them first and let the white go at least halfway before perching the yolks on top. towards the end you can even cover and still have bright yellow yolks without the cloudy white. I have no idea what you would call that process.
  14. IMO techniques, MC or more standard,should be used as best serves the dish, not the dish used to showcase fancy technique. As far as the MC aspect goes, I get the whole " We have a new toy , lets use it for everything vibe." Once you get past that though, there has to be thought put into the context in which it is used. If is is truely doing something for the dish, worth the effort , great. I firmly beleive that overly complicating something , whether it be using way to many ingredients, or using a technique just because you can, just ends up detracting from the quality of the end product.
  15. In Canada , as of right now, ammonia has not been approved for use in ground beef by Health Canada. No pink slime here, but I have heard from a friend that works in a Cargil plant here, that trimmings from packing plants here are sent to the USA so that they can be processed and used down there. I don't want to gross people out too much but from what I understand included in those "trimmings" is beef Anus, which would explain why they need to use the ammonia process to make it safe to eat .
  16. I am on board with most of those statements with caveats on two. In regards to pasteurization , at least in Canada , there is no choice. There are dairies, in other parts of the world, that are able to do unpasteurized but safe dairy products. Regulations and enforment(paid for by the industry producing the product) can be put in effect to make it as safe as possible. Couple this with a customer base willing to assume whatever risk and cost there is, and I am against laws that take that choice away. I also have to take exception to any remarks about my Nonna.
  17. A handle that can be weight adjusted for better balancing in different hands. Golf drivers have started to go this way as well. I think it would be fairly easy to do this on the back butt of the knife , so that it could even be hidden . If you could figure it out you might even be able to make the blade weight adjustable too.
  18. This is actually a fairly well know thing, at least in the UK. BBC link about catering food poisoning from chicken liver pate
  19. Ashen

    Salty Snacks

    If you can find someplace selling Herr's Brand potato chips , bug them to carry the Baby Back ribs, Kasas city prime or firemans BBQ Chicken flavours. The have a meaty taste for sure.
  20. Ashen

    Onion Rings

    I don't do onion rings often but I do like a tweaked batter version I do occasionally using chickpea flour(aka besam or gram flour) and beer. I was inspired by onion bhaji to use the chickpea flour for a ring instead. besam flour, , cayenne , pinch of baking powder, salt enough beer to make a fairly thick batter. I rinse the rings in a mixture of 1 beaten egg and 1 cup of water , toss in some dry chickpea flour , then dip into the batter and into the fryer. Great lightbulb moment I had was to do jalapeno rings with the same batter a couple years ago. I don't have pics of the onion rings but I did take some of the jalapeno rings.
  21. how about an indian curried lamb , or you could go lateral on that idea , and do a jamacian curry and use lamb instead of goat.( I have done this before, it doesnt' have the depth of flavour goat does but still very good eats) Both are great served with homemade roti .. basmati rice with the lamb curry and maybe rice and peas with the curried goat/lamb
  22. that is cool.. I just picked up the green leaf version on the weekend at the asian supermarket here. this one had more flavour than usual because they used coconut milk,creme in it . I actually really like the texture, but my wife is quite put off by it.
  23. Keith.. that is similar to what I think about honest, although I would disagree with a generalization about Indian cuisine. Jenni's recipe for Rajma is the very soul of "honest" food to me.. Yes there are spices ,but the focus and point of the dish is the beans , and they shine.
  24. My interpretation of the word "honest" as it relates to food, may not be what these chefs mean by it. Honest to me means that whatever method of cooking is used, traditional or modern/molecular, the chef doesn't muck up the ingredients just for the sake of mucking them up. So what is muck in my opinion? Using a technique just for the sake of its cool factor or adding ingredients just for the sake of having more ingredients. There was a recent program that was bragging about how a chef had created a new menu with over 400 ingredients in 5 dishes . I am sure at least some of those would be sous vide and or using some other modernist technique. Is it dishonest food? No , I wouldn't say that, but I don't consider it to be honest either. Does using a molecular make it less honsest? or using lots of ingredients? No, but doing it just for the sake of doing it ,without regard to what best serves to elevate the ingredients is less honest to me.
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