huiray

Thanks for the Crepes, here are some recent examples I've posted of fried rice noodles that I made. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/150604-dinner-2015-part-1/page-13?p=2009872#entry2009872 http://forums.egullet.org/topic/150604-dinner-2015-part-1/page-16?p=2010443#entry2010443 http://forums.egullet.org/topic/150922-dinner-2015-part-2/page-7?p=2013788#entry2013788 (scroll down) http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151304-dinner-2015-part-3/page-19?p=2021761#entry2021761 http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151304-dinner-2015-part-3/page-18?p=2021417#entry2021417 (scroll down) ETA2: If you have ever had "pan-fried mei fun" in a sort of Cantonese-like (for example) dish with various ingredients and an underlying layer of sauce you have also had "fried rice noodles".

Couple of meals. Fuzzy gourd (a.k.a. Hairy gourd/melon, chit-kua, mou-kua, etc) with garlic, oil, (pre-soaked) dried shrimp (har mai), fresh wood-ear fungus, cellophane noodles (mung bean noodles), chicken stock; cooked down. Cantonese roast duck [via Asia Mart] & Chinese sausages (lap cheong) steamed with/cooked with white rice (stove top), drizzled w/ double-fermented soy sauce & a few spoonfuls of taucheo (without the marinating liquid) after absorption of the cooking water. Scallions. Peppermint Swiss chard simmered in chicken stock w/ a bit of oil added in.

Interview with Mei Lin. http://www.eater.com/2015/6/25/8838015/mei-lin-top-chef-new-restaurant-los-angeles

Today – Dietz & Watson natural casing beef dogs, "dirty water" style; brioche buns slathered on each side with coarse-ground mustard containing jalapeños, dog nestled in bun, topped w/ Kühne Barrel Sauerkraut straight from the bottle (with juices). Pickled scallion bulbs (rakkyo) (Allium chinense) [Nishimoto Trading], trimmed standard green onions/scallions .

Duck soup. Water, three duck legs cut up (skin & fat retained), dried Angelica sinensis root slices, dried Polygonatum odoratum rhizome slices, dried Dioscorea polystachya tuber slices, dried Codonopsis pilosula root sections, dried longan flesh, dried "black" Ziziphus jujuba fruits, dried Lycium barbarum fruits, salt. Simmer till done, several hours. Kai-lan. Trimmed "hearts" blanched in oiled simmering water, drizzled w/ diluted oyster sauce & dusted w/ black pepper. White rice.

Baby zucchini w/ blossoms; stuffed w/ ricotta + chopped chives, salted; very light rice/GP flour batter coating; deep-fried. Sliced Persian cucumber.

Then try some fresh wood-ear mushrooms next time! Crunch, crunch. With or without other fungi. I suppose I would skip the porcini if I were to use wood-ears, though. :-) Chanterelles would be both lost in this dish and conflict with the basic characteristic and would be a waste of the mushroom. ETA: I might also drizzle in some beaten egg white...maybe. (NOT beaten whole egg)

The pan needs to be hot enough. If one objects to "smells" being released/produced and therefore turns the heat down then that may be a problem.

Hmm. I do my fried rice in my SS pans without issue, if I use the usual 1-2 day-old relatively dry rice &etc with the usual full heat on and enough (not too much!) oil. I've done it for yonks. REHEATING fried rice (with some added liquid) is when the sticking occurs, but I personally don't mind scraping it off the pan surface.

Thanks! Appreciated. I'd like to riff on this, if you don't mind. Morels are no longer in season around here but some other suitable mushrooms (or almost any other mushrooms) would do fine, I would think. In fact, a Chinese mushroom (shiitake) and shrimp and tofu dish of this sort would not be out of place even on a traditional "Chinese" table, IMO, and something not dissimilar is around, depending on one's ideas of comparability. Porcini or black trumpets might be nice...hmm, I still have some dried porcinis --- hmm. Making a stock with dried matsutake (if one does not have the fresh) and using that as well might be excellent, and I still have some (old) dried ones. Pan-fried thinly-sliced king oysters as an underlayer on the plate, with the pan residues deglazed and used for the rest of the dish is another idea...

I like this. Some details, please?

Some miscellaneous recent meals and from yesterday. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Remainder of the canh đậu hủ hẹ from here with maitake mushrooms added in, eaten w/ a bundle of very thin min6 sin3 (this one) softened in situ** into the hot soup in the bowl. Dressed w/ scallions & coriander leaves. ** I remember a discussion last year about using these in "home-assembled glass jars of 'instant noodles' with fixings". I looked around and found it - here and the surrounding posts. Anna N, did any of it pan out? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday dim sum at Lucky Lou Seafood Restaurant in Indy (no pics, sorry) (next to Saraga International Market): Shrimp dumplings (har gow); Pork dumplings (siu mai); "Pan fried shrimp roll" (their description, heh!), actually stuffed bean curd skin (fu pei kuen); Chicken feet (fung jao); Pig intestine with black bean sauce (see chap tai cheong); Shrimp crepe (seen har cheong fun); Deep-fried taro ball, pork filling (wu tau kok). Chrysanthemum flowers & pu-erh tea (kook-pou). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Balance of the Kai Tom Khamin (ไก่ต้มขมิ้น) from here, re-simmered w/ more chopped-up chicken thighs, seasoning adjusted a bit, fresh trimmed scallions added in at the end & dressed w/ coriander leaves. With rice added in – ------------------------------------------------------------------ Freshly made chicken stock (portion) simmered with red-skinned carrots & regular orange carrots, celery stalks, and leaves (added last). ------------------------------------------------------------------- Spaghetti [Garofalo] with Hazan tomato sauce (fresh tomatoes) & grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Adjust to make a broth, add noodles of your choice, some leafy greens or whatnot, maybe some of that shredded beef back on top, some scallions, maybe even a hard-boiled egg ---- and there's a nice bowl or two of spicy soupy noodles.

caroled, Thanks for the response! Well, Claus' one day, then... :-) NOTE: The retail area is not a big place, so please don't expect a humongous display of food. Rather, it just has a whole bunch of nice stuff available, including stuff that one asks for. Regarding Mississippi Belle - if ever you find yourself in that area of town one day, consider dropping by. They have other nice stuff as well besides their pan-fried chicken & hot water corn bread --- like nice pulled pork, or fried catfish (Fridays). Caution: CASH ONLY. And, if you are still hungry afterwards, walk over to the Pawn Shop Pub for one of the better Indiana Pork Tenderloin sandwiches around (and nice onion rings). :-)

My understanding is that *that* may be expected consistently with hard-necks – but not with soft-necks, if at all. (Badly stressing soft-necks is reported to tend to produce either some scapes, or bulbils just above ground in the stem, depending on the type) So both your actually-grown garlic and the volunteer-garlic are hard-necks, I imagine.

I assume fresh spinach is available in the GTA, though. Trim the plants under a low-flowing tap and put them into a fairly large tub of water (or a big pot of water). Swish around, let soak in the water, swish around. Remove to a colander, shaking the plants in the water as you take them out. Repeat w/ a fresh tub of water. Done. Only if absolutely needed, a third tub of water and another repeat. This is what I do, no issues with grit and sand and only the very occasional extra protein (very rarely) gets through. I happen to have fresh spinach readily available to me fairly frequently at the places I shop, including at the Chinese/Vietnamese supermarkets/groceries. Certainly at the Farmers' Markets in spring & early summer, and then at periods during winter when the spinach is especially nice because they get stouter and sweeter. I can't remember the last time I bought and used frozen spinach, although that is good too IIRC but not suitable for the sorts of things I like to do with spinach. Another cleaning method I am aware of but which I have not used is to put the plants into a tub with a sealable cover with enough water (leave some air in), close it then shake the whole shebang. (Take into both hands, lift into the air, shake with inversion of contents etc) Repeat with fresh water. I guess one needs upper body strength to do this with more than just a few plants and more than a relatively small volume of water.

• Kai Tom Khamin (ไก่ต้มขมิ้น) (Southern Thai Hot & Sour Chicken Turmeric Soup). Based on the recipe on pg 92 of Leela Punyaratabhandu's book. Ingredients include: Chicken stock, fresh turmeric; lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves (all fresh), salt; chopped chicken thighs, scallions, Thai chillies, fresh lime juice. • Pak Bung Fai Daeng (ผักบุ้งไฟแดง) ("Red Fire Water Convolvulus"; water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) stir-fried w/ taucheo & chillies). Really, really hot pan, hot/almost smoking oil; water spinach (kangkong, ong choy), smashed garlic, taucheo (salted bean paste/sauce, oyster sauce, smashed hot red chillies. • Thai Hom Mali rice.

Saturday's haul (2015-0627).

Saturday 2015-0627. BRFM: Red carrots, Shishito peppers, new Red Gold potatoes, basil, English peas, green garlic, baby zucchini w/ blossoms, Peppermint Swiss chard. CFM: Music garlic (new harvest), green zucchini, tomatoes. The Fresh Market: Freshly ground peanut butter, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, pine nuts, brioche hot dog buns.

Potato Wurst [Claus'], browned then simmered w/ browned shallots, remainder of the chanterelles, a few stray straw mushrooms, baby carrots, new Red Gold potatoes, salt, water, dried thyme. Eaten w/ peas from the Farmers' Market, cooked the way Josh71 did in his post.

Yes. I use stainless steel cookware. No non-stick stuff, but not because I have any HANG-UPS about the teflon coating, unlike some posters here. One just has to have the pan/pot/whatever hot enough, then one has to "walk away" and leave the stuff alone in the pan until it releases by itself. Occasionally a slight nudge with a spatula is not amiss, but for the most part one simply has to have a certain amount of patience and a "watching what happens" sensibility.

Soup. Straw mushrooms (canned), asparagus, enoki mushrooms in chicken broth. Fried shallots & scallions. Cantonese roast duck [via Asia Mart], skinny wonton noodles tossed w/ the duck-bean sauce incld w/ the duck, blanched kai-lan. Dressed w/ oyster sauce – black sesame oil – bulldog tonkatsu sauce – fried shallots slurried together; plus chopped scallions. Fresh lychees.

Kuay Tiao Pad Kee Mao chez huiray tonight.

Well, Indiana Pork Tenderloin sandwiches have certainly been described here on eG in the past - both by myself and by others. Fine dining in Indy has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade or so, but I suppose you do not know (or care?) about that. Other stuff (so many) such as probably the last place (commercially) where Fried Chicken is done by frying in pure lard is found in Indy. (See: Hollyhock Hill; which also provides an "escape" into a world of what your granny may have experienced) (Or what some has said to be the best "Southern syle" pan-fried chicken in the area - plus wonderful hot water corn bread - at Mississippi Belle) And so on, even if one ignores the "ethnic scene" which in Indy has become quite, quite broad. ;-)

Which Shapiro's did you go to? You don't show a wide-enough establishing shot to be sure but the tables look more like the downtown one on S Meridian St. I suspect you did not go to the new one at Keystone - or am I mistaken? (I believe caroled lives in that area) (The Shapiro's on S Rangeline in Carmel has closed) Personally I find Shapiro's nice but not a place to go out of one's way for. Come to think of it there was one time I had a Reuben at the S Meridian St one and they forgot the sauerkraut. I firmly requested some and they brought me some ... cold tasteless sauerkraut on a plate. Thinking about your comments about the rye bread at Shapiro's - if you were at the S Meridian location did you and company consider a swing by Amelia's (still currently operating out of Bluebeard) (which is not far away) to pick up some nice bread? I assume you knew you could get Skyline Chili in Indy. (There's one not far from the Keystone area, on 82nd & Craig, in the Castleton Mall area) :-) Regarding the peppered beef - it's too late for you now, but caroled might like to know (if she doesn't already) that one can also get it, housemade, at Claus' German Sausage & Meat. I wonder if Shapiro's makes theirs in-house.