radtek

I built something along the lines of this: http://www.smoker-cooking.com/build-a-cold-smoker.html and it only cost $4 for the soldering iron. With some care one could cold-smoke in a cardboard box.

I found this website to be of immense help. Here is a link to "smokehouse plans"... http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/smokehouse-plans My recommendation is to read everything under the smoke-houses link for starters. IIRC they discuss humidity in several areas and it led me to believe it was more important when smoking for extended time-periods and that fluctuations weren't critical.

Golden Mountain Sauce is in my pantry. And it is the least expensive at the market but the best nonetheless. And holds some significant real estate on the shelf. They stock the Maggi along side the soy sauce products IIRC. One more condiment won't hurt... will it?

I had a Vietnamese-American friend call it Mah-Ghee. Or Maggy... It has to be the Umami factor- sort of a Vegemite crossed with soy sauce and fish-sauce.

Okay kids. Diplomacy aside. I hate tipping bad service (incompetence) but having worked and relied on tips myself it is hard not to leave something (10%) even in the worst of situations. The going rate here for wait-staff is still $2.13/hr so to make any decent cash a server or bartender has to hustle. To me it's a skilled profession that many don't take seriously while employed in the industry. I made good money with my best effort even though I couldn't hold a candle to the naturals who raked in the cash. And at one joint I had to tip out up to 52% of my tips to the cooks and bartender. Anyway... Skills earned as a waiter and bartender flung into the weeds- such as keeping calm, situationally aware and steady in a combat-like chaos prepared me for my current profession. So I don't feel bad about my sliding scale of tippage. Shining in a bad situation might get a better tip than being bubbly and cute when it is slow.

I make my own sausage. Ruhlman's garlic sausage was my first try at SV with them. They were held at 150F for about 2.5 hours then seared quickly in a pan. I thought they were a little dry. The third attempt was my hot tomato sausage held at 130F for 2 hours and then I raised the temp to 150- whereupon I fell asleep on the couch... So the sausages were at 150 fro the extent of my hour nap. Turned out sort of rubbery... The second go at sausage SV was some Vietnamese garlic-ginger sausage right in the sealed pack they were sold in. Turned out excellent when done at 150 for 2.5 hours and then quickly chilled. It's great approach for commercial packs of hot-dogs etc where one can just drop the sealed pack in the hot water and when ready disgorge from the packaging and serve. No mess.

You can't beat a French-press for speed and quality- especially if making coffee for 1-2 people.

Poach in a garlic herb infused wine. Serve with compound butter.

Is this a medium for growing mushrooms? Cause there looks like some sort of dirt on that plate there... Maybe modernist cusine?

I've been making a lot of pasta lately- primarily ramen noodles but whipped up some egg-based pasta as well for a comparison. My method is the 100g per egg of either bread or all-purpose flour. My research leads me to believe this is durum wheat anyway, so to buy semolina to be "authentic" is perhaps a waste of time. However, I do happen to buy s coarser version of semolina. It is used the same way but to get rid of the coarseness or grittiness an overnight rest in the fridge is usually required. I actually prefer to use less liquid in each batch to get a crumbly dough that just comes together short of plasticity. It gets formed it into a ball, wrapped in cling-wrap and stored in the fridge overnight. I then pull it out and divide into individual servings and re-wrap. This dough will keep all week or longer especially if it contains no egg. The rest allows for the moisture to proliferate and the dough becomes plastic but short of being sticky. I can then run the dough sheets through the cutter and have little fear of it sticking together and no extra flour is needed. I can roll them out as needed or these noodles can be stored in the fridge for quite some time without becoming gooey. I lay the cut pasta in plastic containers and they go straight from the fridge to the boiling water. Cooking time is about one minute longer. I can't help but laugh thinking about the time corn-meal was used by mistake instead of the coarse semolina. A mix up with the bulk bags. This resulted in what seemed like normal pasta dough. Once cooked it was significantly different in color and taste which alerted me to my error but was actually a decent pasta- which may be helpful to those with gluten allergies.

Went for the cheapest in the case: $0.72- sausage and gravy pot-pie! Did it in the toaster oven. Some sort of meat product vaguely reminiscent of breakfast sausage. Needed lots of hot-sauce.

Less than three bucks: Needed salt. A lot more salt but otherwise pretty tasty and only a few minutes in the micro. The cheese was surprisingly meaty and satisfying. The Basmati rice was sprinkled with mustard seeds. I might actually try the Chana Masala and the various curries offered.

Not sure but mine Is in a 2 pound yellow bag called 'Golden Star' prime grade Thai Hom Mali product of Thailand. Paid $2.39...

Haha I love the freezer frostsicles! Might join in with a few picks. Marie Callenders makes some calorie laden but wonderful meals. The pot-pie is wonderful. I liked the Swedish meatballs. Lean Cuisine puts forth a decent effort. Aware that I can put out better results I usually assemble my own meals from leftovers and eat them at work. Saved me a bunch of money.

The rice I remember was fluffy, distinct and perfectly steamed above the massive layer of crunchy grains nearing a golden translucency. I'm thinking the key is to carefully fry a layer of par cooked rice rice then mound the rest of the rice to steam on top. It is quite easy to scorch when trying for tadiq but even then I like it. I just bought some Thai jasmine rice. It was only slightly more expensive than the US grown. The basmati was too expensive so I'll try for tadiq this evening.

One needs to parboil the rice for 6 minutes and then drain and rinse. Use a heavy bottomed pot- I used a dutch-oven. Mainly I think it is an oil quantity issue that relates to the thickness. I am going to experiment with mixing a bottom layer in the oil then mounding the rest of the rice on top. Cover with double towel-wrapped lid. Cook low and slow for about and hour. I've achieved close to half an inch with just mounding and plenty of oil. A simply amazing delicacy!

I simply rinse the rice by swirling in the saucepan with several changes of water- until it begins to run clear. The sprayer attachment makes this quite easy. A sieve fine enough ought to work as well. Rinsing gets rid of any talc or loose starch, plus the odd weevil or two; around 2008-2009 it seemed a lot of grains and legumes had weevils and particulate. Probably due to decreased demand and a oversupply of product that had the opportunity to sit for longer than intended. When we lived in Iran my mother learned how to make tadiq from the women that would come in to help with house-parties. It was simply amazing: a golden crunchy layer almost an inch thick topped with perfectly steamed fragrant rice... She was sorta cagey about the process and went to the grave with it. However this past year I have been experimenting with it and believe the process and results are now within my grasp. As far as brown rice goes I use the same amount of water and heat but just extend the cooking time to 45 minutes. Turns out great with distinct grains and not a gummy mess.

I like them all... Flirted with long-grain brown rice this summer and am interested in short-grain brown rice now. I seem to go in cycles between polished short, medium and long-grain varieties. Right now I want sticky clumpy rice- so it's sushi-rice in the freezer awaiting steaming... Also, mostly what's available is US grown- for example, the Nishiki premium short-grain I got at the Korean market was grown in California. My understanding is that the States exports a lot of rice to the Middle East and Asia since they cannot keep up with their own demand. I learned rinsing my rice form a Cambodian friend of mine. It certainly makes for better end results IMO. I've skipped buying a rice-cooker and steam my rice in a sauce-pan. Over the past 20 years I've figured out how to do it easily and get the same results.

I'm really enjoying my SideKIC. It was less than $200 and holds within a tenth of a degree verified by my Thermapen.

Hey you stole my answer! My fingertips will be ragged from tearing open the shells and eating an entire bag. I have little restraint when it comes to pistachios. I almost fear them. Thankfully they have become outrageously expensive and splurging on the little buggers is kept to "treat" experiences. OK so they are binge experiences. Semantics...

Ragout?

I don't see why you couldn't use rice in place of grits.

I love me some shrimp and grits! And so very easy to prepare. There are some roasted Hatch Chiles in the freezer just waiting to liven up this preparation... And there is no shame in using minute grits. I've never seen the difference.

I was wondering if it was frozen or fresh?

I went and had Turkish food today for the first time. I gobbled down a whole plate of baba ghanoush before I got my doner kebab and it was smokily delicious despite there being eggplant in the dish. So maybe it just has to be hidden well enough and the eater hungry.