weinoo

I have a green thumb! A mere 2 T of seeds has already filled up the liter jar. What the hell do I do now?

Question for @paulraphael et al. Is the sodium citrate I have in my bag of modernist pantry ingredients the same as citric acid, and if not, is it an acceptable sub?

Since I've used a Lello forever, and since I think it's gonna croak at some point, my perusing of reviews has led me to want a Whynter. Have you had a gander at those machines at a much, much lower price point?

Yeah - it's a tough pairing. Last night, I opened a Nathan K NY State riesling thinking we'd enjoy it with Thai food but didn't really work out - fortunately, most of the bottle was done before the food got served, and then I just had a beer. As my Thai ingredients treasure hunt becomes more and more successful, the Thai dishes are starting to taste like the real deal. Here, a vegetable curry, with the only thing preventing it from being a vegan dish the little addition of chicken stock along with the coconut milk. The makrut lime leaves and extra chilies really helped too - but I ate one of the red ones, and it was a burner! A first attempt at Hainanese chicken rice. And not a bad one at that. The chicken breast (from the last poulet rouge I cut up) had been salted and hung out in the fridge for a day plus. The Jasmine rice was rinsed, then rendered some chicken fat from some cut up skin (and left that in the pot), sautéed a fair amount of ginger and garlic prior to adding the rice, which was cooked in stock. The recipe I was sorta following said to put the chicken on top of the rice as it cooks, which I could see doing if I was cooking thighs; but in this case, I waited until the rice had cooked for 15 minutes, and then added the chicken breast halves for the last 5 or so minutes of cooking, which was plenty. On the side, a couple of sauces, including scallion and ginger as well as spicy oil. All in all, a quite successful endeavor. Followed by strawberry sherbet.

You know, not too hard to make that mistake. We were in Paris in February, and at one restaurant I had veal tongue for an appetizer:

Gorgeous! But talk about some expensive ice cream - must've been a full quart? I made a strawberry sherbet last night (it was like a 60's dinner party), with only $4 worth of strawberries from the guy on my corner. Half batch via Dana Cree. Base is milk, cream, sugar and glucose, with tapioca starch added after the mixture is cooked and on its way cooling. Then 125 g of strawberry purée (which I sieved after blending the strawberries) mixed with 50g of buttermilk and a little lemon (or citric acid) is all mixed with the base to chill. The strawberry comes through beautifully, and we both really enjoyed the texture - obviously lighter than ice cream, but wow - you could fool some people.

I was actually thinking of exfoliating the skin tonight. I just didn't know whether to start with Significant Eater or myself.

Yeah, the red box is the same stuff I got from Mala Grocery - good stuff!! But shit, 3 months! I was waiting with baited breath for these... If I can't travel, at least I can have the nuts they serve on AA in First Class! And this... Ordered via Amazon - surprisingly, the Thai lime leaves are really nice and fresh. Since I don't know shit about galangal, I'll say this stuff is a bit, well, maybe past its prime. But I cleaned it up real pretty (like Bruce would), sliced it, and froze like 90% of it per Hot Thai Kitchen's instructions. I'll also freeze most of the lime leaves and consider myself to have a decent supply of both. The lemongrass I actually went to Essex Market for, where I picked up Thai basil as well.

This is part of what I complain about...even after surgery on my lower back.

I complain the whole time I'm cooking, even though I secretly enjoy cooking.

200 gram is around a cup? I use weights whenever I work with the donabe, as it's around 4:3 water to rice ratio cooking in the donabe.

Hang on - that's my 10.5" paella pan and last night I used 1.25 cups of Bomba. And almost 4 cups of stock. (Actually, in this case, 3 cups of stock and a cup of water; yesterday's stock was rich). There was enough for dinner last night and I just reheated the leftovers in the CSO for us for lunch and it was enough again.

Just delivered this morning from a favorite shop, Chambers Street Wine and Spirits. Their focus is on natural, biodynamic, organic, minimal intervention, yada, yada, yada wines. Which we love - and they know their stuff. Vincendeau 16 Le Raguenet (chenin) Roche Bleue 17 Clos Molières (chenin) I'm a big fan of Loire Valley chenins, and they are a big focus at Chambers St. Nathan K. 18 Dry Riesling Frick 17 Riesling Maceration Terres Dorees 18 Beauj Blanc Previous orders included: Dreissigacker 18 Riesling Trock Melsheimer 16 Ries Handwerk Nathan K. 18 Dry Riesling Benito Santos 19 Albarino Saia Bohigas 19 Xarel-lo Lauer 19 Riesling Barrel X Espelt 18 Garnatxa Blanca Dureuil 16 Bourgogne Blanc Chidaine 18 Sauvignon Touraine ( SB from the Loire) Wiemer 18 Riesling Dry I also use Astor Place when they're running a good sale. And a few others.

Lately, I've taken to removing the skin from chicken parts, if the chicken is to be braised or otherwise cooked where the skin would end up not being as appetizing as if the bird were roasted. Hence, the legs, thighs, neck and wings (if the skin is a pain in the ass to remove, why bother I say), cut up and generously salted hours prior. The back, wing tips, drumstick knobs, gizzards, and other assorted saved parts made stock. Then, browned the chicken well, removed it and proceeded with making the sofrito. Somewhere, in some resident cookbook, it was read that scallions are sometimes used to divide up the paella, so that everyone knows where their portion starts and ends. I was always a terrible art student. But was always good at getting the biggest portion. My sisters didn't have a chance. A very tasty version.

I’m in good company. Thailand?

When I bought my Wolf range (and all the other appliances from a well-liked dealer in Newark, NJ), I got the classic set of knobs. Then I read somewhere that they (Wolf) also offer another set of knobs (that needed to be asked for) for free - I think stainless. So I wrote the dealer, and they were ordered and delivered toot sweet. But yeah - without me finding out about them, I would've never known.

If they only had ovens!

The white-cut chicken that I've partaken in (from some of the well-known Cantonese restaurants in my neighborhood) - let's just say it's not about the skin (nor is it the skin on the Hainanese chicken I've enjoyed). And unless it's a super great product to start with, it's definitely all about the sauce. My reference to removing the skin to make it wonderful was more of a little light-heartedness. And it's so much better crisped up in the oven.

Show off.

Boy, these mortar and pestles look good... https://importfood.com/products/thai-cookware/item/mortar-and-pestle-solid-thai-granite

On the second night of vanilla and chocolate, no noticeable crystals!

It's all about the sauce, anyway.

These 2 do the job for me. One on the left is granite (8 lbs) and easily handles lemongrass. I guess the small one on the right is marble - the one I use for a couple of teaspoons of whole spices. @KennethT I'm pretty sure the Mosco St. store has big Thai mortar and pestles. They weigh a friggin' ton.

Take the skin off in as big pieces as possible, and crisp them up separately in the oven?!

Of course the seeds are available! And here's the "equipment" I bought - though I will be supplying my own wide-mouth jars! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XB4F9KM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1