Hassouni

Alert, the greatest crackers ever created, "Some Enchanted Cracker" are now back at TJ's (seen here http://exploringtraderjoes.blogspot.com/2014/11/trader-joes-some-enchanted-cracker.html )

Pho, Northern (Ha Noi) style

yeah it doesn't taste rancid at all, still very corn-y

Any thoughts on using old Maseca? And should the "comal" be so hot the seasoning vaporizes off?

Do you add the water all at once or a bit at a time? I started with equal parts water and maseca and it was kind of soupy, but adding just a bit more maseca made it really dry - i'd say in the end it was maybe 50-50

OK tortilla masters, I need your help. I'm #stayingthefuckhome during this messed up time we're in, and I've been doing more cooking on a daily basis than I have in years. I found an almost full bag of Maseca and my Victoria tortilla press in my apartment and figured screw it, let's make tortillas. I've done it before without much trouble, but this time it's really giving me a hard time. I'm mostly using the technique in the video below as well as the advice on this whole thread. I'm using the hottest tap water I can get, I'm adding enough water that it's soft but not sticky (looks like what I see in the various videos online), and letting it rest 20-30 minutes. I'm using sheets of Ziplock freezer bags on my press, and I've got a HUGE problem in peeling off the second piece of plastic. More often than not it sticks to the tortilla and ends up tearing it. The only way I get any luck is by not pressing them very thin. If I try to press thin, it absolutely sticks and there's no hope of getting the peel off, an even at "normal" commercial tortilla thickness i'm having lots of problems. Is my dough too wet? Too dry? Another issue is that my bag of Maseca is at least a few years old and is sort of clumpy in parts. I think the mixing and hydration sorts out the clumps but is old flour an issue? The other problem relates to my cooking surface. I've been using my Baking Steel Griddle on the griddle side. Last night I don't think it was hot enough, and unless I perfectly laid the tortilla down, they'd stick. Reading this thread, I saw that the surface should be very hot indeed, so I cranked up the griddle today, and the results were good, but it a) vaporized off much of the griddle's seasoning and b) the sustained high heat appears to have damaged the control panel of my oven (and now my oven won't work)! I don't mind reseasoning my griddle, I guess, but maybe an old beater cast iron pan is the way to go if it needs to be that hot?

They were chickens quite on the small side but I’ll keep that in mind @rotuts we have an instant pot at the bar and it’s great. I just don’t have space at home right now

Yes. It started as something called çağ kebabı

So, some of the bones were. My method is: Parboil whole chicken (or chicken parts, but yesterday was 3 whole chickens), dump the water out, rinse the chickens, clean the pot. Return to pot and fill with cold water to cover. Bring to boil then turn off for an hour, covered - remove poached chicken breasts and return the rest of the chicken to the pot, then add aromatics, and let simmer for several more hours. So I guess the the bones of everything except the breast were mostly still surrounded by meat, but does it make that much difference?

Mystery time: I had 3 chickens in my freezer, and since I'm stuck at home I figured might as well bust out the stockpot. In they went, covered with water, for a very long simmer (about 6-7 hours). Tasting along the way, it was super chickeny and rich. I made about 7-8 quarts, so after straining the solids out I decided to reduce it down to about 5 quarts for easier storage, in a standard sized pot. I then cooled it down in that smaller pot first by putting a ziplock full of ice and water in, and then by floating a stainless steel bowl on top with ice in it, until the liquid was cool enough to put in the fridge. Both the ziplock and the stainless bowl had quite a lot of fat solidify on them, which was then discarded/washed off. This morning, I checked the chilled stock, expecting it to be very solid and gelatinous and it wasn't! Is it possible that some of the "fat" solidified onto the bag or bowl was actually gelatin? And does gelatin rise to the top, able to be skimmed off? If anything, the reduced stock tastes LESS gelatinous than the unreduced stock did when tasted before straining. What's going on?

Doesn't seem to allow shipping to the US

Swift is good, drinks-wise, but for whatever reason it didn't jump out at me like some of the others. Did you get the milk punch at Punch Room? I could take a bath in that

Is this a whole class on shishbarak??

Well bloody hell, it's out of stock at Caynes

Follow up question for all Darto owners: Do you ever use cast iron anymore? I have a Lodge 12 inch (the Darto 35 sort of covers that), and a lovely old Griswold no. 8, which is comparable to a Darto 25 pan, and I haven't used them much since I became a Dartophile. Anyone else? Like, has anyone made cornbread in a Darto?