Hassouni

Done

Liquor stores here are fairly well stocked, but we're having lots of trouble with this, as a bar. I suppose they're not quite as dependent on specific products as a boutique cocktail bar - For example, if our house bourbon is out, they can fill the gap with 20 other brands. For us: Shipping delays, product shortages, delivery issues, you name it. Our house cognac was discontinued, and now the replacement we chose for it is out of stock until god knows when. Our house gin (Hayman's) was held up making it across the pond. Don't even ask about Chartreuse - whether you want Green or Yellow, you can't have it depending on when you place your order. Special rum that we were getting allocated is taking MONTHS longer to arrive - partially hindered by the fact that a certain rum from Jamaica has to go to the West Coast before it comes to DC. Numerous products are just sitting in containers on the docks waiting to be loaded on to a ship. Meanwhile, the country's largest liquor distributor, Southern Glazer's routinely misses 1, 2, or even 3 weeks of orders.

It didn't come in a can, it came in vacuum sealed bag - and I would describe it as curdled rather than split, once heated

I bought some frozen coconut milk, the very minimally processed stuff made in Thailand sold at many East Asian supermarkets. It's 100% coconut milk, and the idea was to avoid the stabilizers etc added to pretty much all the canned brands. I tried cooking with it and it curdled. Is that normal? Any tricks I should know of?

As someone who used to shit on DDL for dosing all their rums, I'm VERY happy to report that they reformulated their recipes quite recently and removed most if not all the sugar. The new 15 year is fantastic and a bargain for what it is, and the 21 is delightful. The 12, which was the most heavily sugared, falls kind of flat, and I see why they added so much sugar to it in the past! Also they have a series of single still bottles that as far as I can tell are bone dry. I just wish they were higher than 40% ABV. Bottom line, Demerara Distillers/El Dorado is actually listening to the rum critics out there

@liuzhou, you're correct, the green ones are definitely more rare outside China, at least in the US. I only started seeing them recently and not frequently, which is a shame because I really like them! From what I remember eating around Chengdu a year and a half ago, mapodoufu and similar dishes (such as shuizhu niurou, "water-boiled" beef) used the red Sichuan pepper, whereas primarily seafood used green, but I'm sure it's more subtle than that.

Sort of - but the belly was taller than the pan it was in, so it was only somewhat immersed in lard. I feel like I spent more pork fat than I got out of it...very strange, I'd have expected a net surplus. Can't argue with the results though! I wish I had a photo

So after 3 hours on Steam Bake at 225, an overnight cool down, and about 20 mins on Conv. Bake at 475 and another 10 on broil, I got a true Chef John "fork don't lie" moment, with ridiculously crisp/crunchy skin and very tender, juicy belly meat. Success!

I use a wok spatula I've had for years, but almost every professional Chinese cooking video I've seen, they're using the ladle, so wondering what the major differences are apart from the obvious (that the ladle can hold liquid)

https://www.seriouseats.com/tacos-de-castacan-con-queso-pork-belly-cheese-tacos-recipe That's the recipe I'm after - Kenji says he roasts it at high heat (admittedly in a standard oven) for only 15-20 minutes to get crispy skin. Wondering if the 60 min steam roast that @Edward Dekker did at 350 will work for the first part - or maybe a lower temp for a bit longer? I just don't really have 7+ hours of free time before the event where I'm serving this

I'm getting ready to roast some pork belly and was wondering if anyone else had done it? Wondering also if the instructions above will yield a good result assuming a fatty enough belly?

Slices is right! Stiffer than Jell-o. I haven't used it in baking, think it'd complement coconut flour?

I'm also grain (and many other things) free now - last time I made gumbo, I just browned the trinity until it was very deep brown, not quite burnt but almost - then thickened a bit with glucomannan powder (aka konnyaku) - be advised a little goes a VERY VERY long way, a mere pinch mixed with water first will thicken as much as any roux. I also am a big okra fan so that helped to thicken the gumbo too. Results: not quite like a chocolate roux, but pretty delicious:

Yup, same thing

Thanks for the replies - will steam bake still get me the crispy crust?