pufin3

Your pan doesn't look very 'seasoned'. Anything you put in a cast iron pan that contains ANY form of acid is going to remove the carbon 'seasoning'. Like tomatoes, vinegar etc.

I bought the book when it first came out. Followed some of h recipes to the letter. The rabbit dish was terrible IMO. The 'BB' was WAY too complicated IMO. ATK has a far superior recipe for making 'frites'. Tony's fiction books are really good reads. 'Bobby Gold', Bone In The Throat' etc. All worth the time.

A Heston Blumenthal states most of the flavor of a potato is in the skin. Taste tests have shown this to be so. If you put some potato skins in the milk to be heated and added to the mashed potato you will taste more 'potato' in the final dish. Obviously the skins are removed from the hot milk before the hot milk is added to the potatoes. LOL I wash four large russets well and pat dry. I rub duck fat on them. Poke a couple of tiny holes in the skin. Into the oven at about 375 F until they are VERY soft inside. Using an oven mitt to hold them I slice them in half. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Add about twelve roasted mashed garlic cloves. Tiny pinch of fresh nutmeg. Mash thoroughly and add just enough whole milk to obtain a smooth puree. Season to taste. Spoon the puree into the potato skin halves. Sprinkle with very fine chopped pinch of fresh flat leaf parsley. Pro tip: When you scoop out the flesh you don't need to scoop out so much it makes the skin too thin. Leave about 1/16th-1/8 inch of the flesh on the skin.

Franci your pasta looks excellent! Would you mind putting up the recipe/measurements. I have dozen of hand made egg noodle pasta recipes. Some I've tried are pretty 'out there'. LOL

I'm guessing ramen noodles have been made "by hand" for quite a while LOL I think you could quickly 'pulse' your blender to get the ingredients to essentially come together. After they do you'd probably want to finish kneading by hand. I get a bunch little pieces about the size of small dried lentils. They don't look like they will form a ball by some hand kneading but they do. Try the recipe sometime when you are in the mood. I'd like to read your feedback.

No I haven't had any store bought fresh ramen noodles. Never seen them in the stores where I live nearby. I'm sure they are tastier than the .25 cent packages available.

This is the one I've had for a few years:

Originally ramen noodles were made using the water from a lake that had a high soda content. I make my own ramen noodles. They are night and day better than the little packaged ones. Here's recipe that results in excellent ramen noodles: Into 100 ml warm water add 1 1/2 t ‘baked soda’. (Google how to make 'baked soda'. I make enough to last me six months. I keep it in an airtight container.) Stir to dissolve. Into food processor add 2 C All Purpose flour. Set speed to low. Slowly pour in the soda water. In a minute the flour/water will form into small balls. Remove from processor and knead into a large ball. You don’t need to rest the dough like the Italian pasta. Form the dough into golf balls. Press into discs and like with the Italian pasta make thin sheets then run them through the ‘spaghetti’ cutters. I lightly dredge the noodles with All Purpose flour. As with the Italian pasta I put the noodles into lots of lightly salted boiling water. The noodles only take a minute to cook, if that. Some people advise rinsing the ramen noodles in cold water then adding to the hot soup. I don’t bother if I’m using them right away. If I’m putting some in the fridge for later I do give the noodles a cold water rinse and then drain.

ATK did a segment a few years ago based on this method: Large pot halfway filled with 'neutral' tasting high heat room temp. oil. Put in McDonald size raw room temp potatoes. NO lid! Bring to boil. Turn down heat to keep hard boil but not boil oil over. Fries turn golden brown as the last water evaporates from the fries. Crisp golden.

I make chicken stock about four times a year. Full disclosure: Around here I can pick up any number of old roosters which people list on sites like Kijiji for free. They are live. Some are old 'pets' which have outlived their welcome. So I'll pick up four old roosters. Take them to a friend who has a machine which removes all the feathers. Cleaned well washed chilled 'parted'. Parts Into a large commercial size stock pot. Covered with cold water. About five pounds of fresh pork bones. A large handful of leeks. No onions. No other veg. No salt. Bring just to a boil. Low simmer for a couple of hours only. Remove all pork bones and chicken parts and leeks and discard. Back to a very low simmer to reduce by at least half. This can take at least a day. Make a 'raft'. Cool and carefully ladle out the clear stock. Into fridge over night. Remove any fat on the surface. Into Ziploc bags. This 'mother stock' is then used every which way. Herbs/seasonings added as needed.

We had a deliciou green salad in Diez once. The chef gave men the recipe for the salad dressing in return for me sending him a cowboy hat later. He stressed the to oil/acid ratio was most important: 3 T walnut oil 1 T rice wine vinegar 1/2 t honey 1/4 t fine mustard 1/2 T fine chopped watercress Pinch of flaked salt He did not shake the dressing to emulsify it. A light stir to dissolve the honey. He said the salad dressing ingredients should be able to be tasted separately. When watercress isn't in season I have used other fine chopped light tasting herbs.

Thanks for the replies. I put 6 C AP flour in a large glass lasagna dish and put it in the oven set at 200 F for an hour. The flour did not 'brown'. It turned very slightly a light golden color. Barely different from the flour color in the bag. Today I'm dextrinizing 6 C 'bread flour' and will make Italian spaghetti tonight. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've recently started making fresh pasta/ramen noodles using a pasta machine. Lots of recipes out there. I always use 'dextrinized' AP flour to make rouxs. The result is a very smooth silky sauce/gravy. I just made spaghetti using Thomas Keller's recipe using dextrinized AP flour. The result was excellent. Has anyone experimented using various flours which you have dextrinized first? Like 'bread flour' for instance? Or Durum Semolina?

A few years ago I was watching an episode of ATK. The host said: "There's a saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Well that theory is disproven today. We have always used the deep fry then remove and drain then increase the oil temp then deep fry the potatoes a second time. We have discovered a 'new trick' which makes fries even better". Here's the method, which I have since used dozens of times with excellent results: Large heavy pot with room temperature deep frying oil of your choice obviously only about half full. Yukon Gold or other waxy potatoes cut into your basic McDonalds size pieces. As you cut up the potatoes just drop them into the room temp. oil. Obviously you don't overfill the pot. Put the pot on the stove top. Turn on heat to high. When the oil comes to a rolling boil turn down the heat a little to maintain the boil but not to risk the oil from spilling over. As long as the oil is bubbling away that means the water in/on the potatoes is getting removed. After about ten minutes you will see the oil stop boiling at the same time as the fries are turning a nice golden brown. Don't let them get too dark. Remove with a 'spider'. Into a bowl with paper towels in the bottom. Add whatever vinegar/seasoning you like. Shake the fries. Eat delicious crispy fries. Made some last night. I use refined coconut oil. After it's cooled I refrigerate it. It can be used many times as long as I only use it for fries.

Ghee/clarified butter has no milk solids. It's the milk solids that cause the scorching. Think putting some cheese into a screaming hot pan with a steak in it.