Thanks for the Crepes

The name "fish amok" brought a smile to my face. I believe the other night I served chicken amok, but it turned out well anyways after a comedy of errors. Seriously, this is what wiki has to say about fish amok, and from some of the images on Google, my guess is that the white cylindrical container in @StephanieGodfrey's photo might be a carved coconut? If so, very cool way to present a dish.

PanaCan, Iceberg hasn't disappeared or diminished up here in NA at all. It's still cheap and ubiquitous everywhere, but it has fallen out of favor among those with "sophisticated palates". I still love it and will be using it tomorrow for dinner. I didn't get a chance to thank you before they locked your last wonderful food blog, so thank you so much for putting forth the time and effort to take us along on your amazing food adventures last week!

Hi Jason, Welcome to eG! Is your business food related? What kind of amazing food do you like? Do you cook, or eat out mostly? I'm looking forward to your contributions about your food life here.

We had country ham from SunCrest Farms in Wilkesboro, NC tonight. It was served with fried eggs and melted American cheese on homemade biscuits. The sides were diced mango, sliced banana and sliced strawberries along with grits with red eye gravy. The SunCrest ham was fine, but I sure miss the Stadler's from Elon, NC that I used to be able to get. The Stadler ham was much better. Virgil Stadler sold out to Smithfield and retired a few years ago. I'm happy that he has a comfortable and deserved retirement, but I sure will miss his wonderful country ham. *Sigh* It was a good dinner, but with Stadler's it could have been a great dinner. I always soak the ham for a few minutes in warm water to remove some of the salt cure. This ham tonight had 54% of the daily sodium allotment in a mere 2 ounces, before soaking. I put 4 ounces (before cooking, so probably closer to 3) on each biscuit, and we each have a leftover one for lunch.

The stars finally aligned, and I had a whole chicken in the house and the weather cooperated. I also had the critical element of motivation to cook the chicken outside over fire. I was really looking forward to cooking over mesquite wood that @Smithytalked about when she was in Texas sampling their great barbecue. I think it was winter before last, so you can see how long I have been looking forward to this. I just wish I had a better report instead of a cautionary tale on how not to do a cookout. I started at 6:00 PM, knowing that sunset comes around 8:00 here, and confident that it would give me plenty of time for everything. I cleaned out the grill, and laid a fire with Kingsford charcoal in a layer on the bottom, mesquite chunks in the middle of the pyramid and more charcoal at the apex. Then I started it as usual with lighter fluid and went in to scrub and pierce a couple baking potatoes, and make a salad. All I had to do was mix up Sadaf pomegranate molasses, white vinegar, canola oil, soy sauce and a little sesame oil for the dressing. Then I cleaned, capped and sliced some strawberries to macerate in the dressing in the fridge while I went on with prep. Well, by the time I had washed, split and dug the kidneys out of the chicken and seasoned it, and was ready to grill, my mesquite and most of the charcoal was too far gone to have enough heat left to cook a raw chicken, I thought. It was now 7:00 PM. What could I do but put on more charcoal and let it catch and go ashy? While this was happening, I put the chicken halves on a large glass serving platter and nuked them at intervals on 40% power to get them going while the fire came back up to speed. At 7:30, the chicken was beginning to exude juices and had warmed up, but the platter was still not too hot to carry outside with bare hands. So out I went and plunked her on the grill where the added charcoal was ready to cook. It has been many years since I cooked a chicken over fire, and it was immediately obvious I needed a squirt bottle to put out flare-ups, so went in and rinsed one out and filled it with fresh cold water. I cooked the chicken for twenty minutes on the bone side and ten on the skin side, and lost my daylight. By flashlight it was obvious that I was burning my chicken and it was not cooking evenly. Maybe I would have been better off just going with my initial fire I thought was too far gone? I pulled the chicken off onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven for another thirty minutes. Chicken cooked three ways anyone? It came out better than I expected, and was much more than edible, but made me remember why I haven't cooked chicken over fire in long time. You pretty much have to babysit it every single minute. You could definitely tell there was mesquite in the fire, and it was a good flavor. I liked it a lot better than my attempts to smoke with soaked chunks of this wood. The salad dressing was my first attempt with pomegranate molasses and it was a hit. There's citric acid in it which is a very nice balance to the sweetness from the real sugar. Oh, after I came in, I added spinach to the macerated strawberries and tossed just before plating. The husband was pleased and asked to take a chicken leg and half of one of the huge potatoes I baked for lunch tomorrow, so that's a good thing. He really liked the salad too, so that dressing is definitely a keeper, but I will probably add grated ginger next time, and maybe a little scallion or garlic. I wanted a simpler dressing this time so I could see how the pomegranate molasses did, as it was my first time working with this ingredient.

Several people have mentioned leaving the microwave open, but when mine is open even a crack, the latch which turns off the light bulb in there holds the door open and the light stays on. Wouldn't be a big deal, except there is no access panel to replace the bulb. I would hate to lose that helpful feature, and so I try to keep it closed. If I could replace the bulb without paying a repairman, I would go for that approach. I haven't had a problem with odors, and the exhaust fan system is really good on my Sharp Carousel unit. You should be able to feel a strong stream of air coming into the room when the oven is operating. I imagine if the fan were to quit, or the intake or output vents were restricted that could contribute to odors building up.

I would give a lot for a taste of @huiray's ramen. That sounds so delicious, and so much time and effort into the stock! Beautiful effort.

I'm lucky enough to have a Wagner Ware 10-1/2" cast iron skillet. It has a smooth well-seasoned finish, and never a problem with anything sticking to it. I use it for cooking fresh ground med rare hamburgers inside in bad weather. I just don't like to waste expensive good steaks by cooking them indoors, although I've done it in the Wagner when my plans got rained out. I know I'm committing GRITS sacrilege, but I prefer my cornbread cooked in a heavy WearEver cake pan. Combined with my 70's super scorcher electric stove, even good cast iron seems to not be a good fit for me and my way of cooking. It's just too easy to burn stuff, and even if you remove it to a heat sink like the stainless steel kitchen sink or the thick enameled steel burner covers I have for the stove, there is just no heat control. It's heavy too, which used to not be an issue, but is becoming one more every day. CI might make fine Dutch ovens, but I've got a Club aluminum one that doesn't make me want to investigate further. Now if I cooked in campfires more often, the Wagner might well get more use.

Ham boat?

My little 6 oz. bottle of toasted sesame oil is Yissine brand from Rhee Bros. Inc., Korean Farm, Inc. and is a product of Taiwan. It makes sense because the pan Asian market where I buy it is Korean owned. The English nutrition label is kind of a hoot, because it says the calories per 1/12 bottle serving are 130 (about right), but that calories from fat are only 20. There's nothing in it except the roasted sesame oil. The bottle is covered in characters I cannot read, but I don't let any of that stuff worry me a bit. I love the stuff. It goes a looong way, and that little bottle lasts me for years in the fridge, but what delicious nutty flavor for a finishing oil. Now I wish I could find miso in the market. Anyone have suggestions where to look? The employees are usually quite unhelpful unless I catch the lady owner/manager? who is always very kind to me when she's there.

*Sigh* I just paid that for ground chuck today, but glad to hear that beef prices will be coming down. Prime rib/rib eye is my most favorite meat of all, and it looks like Kerry scored some glorious specimens. And, yes, I also abhor over trimming of this cut. Sacrilege.

The way I keep bad smells out of the microwave is by a thorough cleaning if I even suspect the husband has used it. I would be afraid that the corrosive properties of vinegar steam might get to some contacts or fan bearings or something. First I clean up any obvious spills or splatters. Then I put a pint Pyrex measuring cup full of water in there and bring it to a boil and let it sit until it has condensed on all the surfaces and then clean it again, including under the turntable. No chemicals or acids involved, and my microwave looks and smells like new inside although it's many years old. The easiest way is to cover every single thing except water or coffee you put in there. It will concentrate the steam that's trying to escape and carry odors with it, heat your food faster and contain splatters. I try to convince my husband of this fact, but I catch him all the time putting stuff in there uncovered. I can always tell, even hours later. I've taken to putting leftovers in recycled containers from the smothered burritos he loves from Taco Bell, which have a snap-on cover. That has worked pretty well so far. I have microwave cover lids for dinner plates, but apparently that is too much bother, but if the lid is already snapped in place, he'll put it in there that way. The Taco Bell oval containers take up less space in the fridge, but can hold as much food as a dinner plate because they are deeper and have a domed lid that's flat on top. You can even stack lighter stuff on top of them. I might worry about the health implications of reheating in No. 5 PP plastic if this guy didn't reheat stuff in stryrofoam, which I have repeatedly begged him not to do. With him, it's whatever is easiest for him, so this solution works for both of us. It's actually easier (less mess) to melt butter on the stove. At least with my microwave, it burns holes through it like a laser gun and splatters like crazy even at reduced power, and the clean up just isn't worth it to me. Whatever you do, don't ignore even small splatters. They will get cooked again into something that is impossible to remove.

@liuzhouI don't think I will ever tire of it. Duck egg on homemade bread. Yes! Congratulations on your foray into homemade yeast bread. I used to make all the bread served in my home, but when, after some years hiatus, I went back to my old reliable recipe for yeast milk bread, I was disappointed with the results and let it discourage me. That recipe never failed before. Not even from the first time when I was in my teens and comparatively ignorant in the kitchen. I just hate failure. Good for you for getting back on the horse. You are inspiring me to get back up there too.

Yes, and isn't it lovely that all the good stuff is spreading now at an exponential rate? Some mourn the loss of authentic and isolated cuisines. I celebrate that it's so easy to share good foodstuffs and methods of cooking. It's too bad that McDonald's and ilk are spreading at that rate too.

@Darienne, I don't know if the pannukakku rises better in metal or not, because you recommended here to do it in Pyrex, and I've not tried the recipe again since following yours. I did screw it up by using the huge and fabulous fresh blueberries from Chile that were the first of the season for me, and doubling the amount called for. I do know that when I make popovers or Yorkshire pudding (similar), I always do it in metal, and it was lighter and rose higher than my results from the recipe you linked from Ontario Magazine. My recipes for Yorkies only contain half as many eggs for the same milk and flour, though. It's amazing to me that you can get a batter to rise and be so delicious with no yeast or baking powder, no leavening at all except the "incredible edible egg". There's a thread here on popovers, with many tips, and some of them include refrigerating the batter overnight, but then it must be brought out early enough to come to room temp on the counter before the bake. Your metal pans, BTW, look like my one beloved 9 x 11 aluminum roaster pan that I used to cook fish in tonight. Steel ones usually get darker than that over years of use. Yours have some polymerized oil brown streaks and spots, and to get to that point, steel pans would be darker overall, I think.

I buy TJ's butter too, and it's cheaper and better than other sources around my neck of the woods. I have had TJ's employees comment on my purchases too, but it has always seemed genuine to me. Maybe I am just socially naive, but I have always enjoyed my engagements with TJ's employees in my local store much, much more than anywhere else I shop, and that includes most of my beloved local mom and pop ethnic markets where my contact with employees is very hit or miss. Did you stop to consider that maybe your cashier really does like the olive oil or chips? After all, it's too late at that point for an upsell, and many of the products are very good. Stop and smell the few roses that we still have left, maybe?

@paul o' vendange, I'm a housewife who loves to cook and eat, so I have no professional advice either. I've only worked professionally front of house, and from that perspective, as well as an avid eater's, can say that your photos of dishes are very appealing. I do admire your spirit for trying to overcome such a terrific setback, and wish you godspeed on your journey back to mastering your passion.

I thawed the Atlantic croakers I bought at Today Asia Market the other day last night in the fridge. They still were slightly frozen when I got ready to cook tonight, but that is what I like to do with fish, and finish thawing while washing in water right before cooking. I roasted them whole in a hot oven with olive oil, thinly sliced onion, crushed garlic massaged in and then just salt, pepper and parsley. This was served with an antipasto salad with spring mix, tomatoes, onion, calamata olives, pepperoncini peppers, ham, salami, and hard boiled egg. I also heated some Turkish pide bread and served with butter. I had not had ocean croakers before, and the fish monger assured me that they were bony but very tasty like the fresh water croaker I used to catch. I agree, but I think the fresh water ones, while even bonier (and this is quite a feat), are even tastier. If you have some patience, either variety of croaker is a delicious fish choice.

Yeah, collard greens are known as a southern dish (soul food) although they like cooler weather like kale. If I were growing my own, I might be able to pick them younger and like them better than the mature ones available commercially here. I used to grow my own kale and loved it cooked like spinach. It was mild and tender. I don't have much use for commercially available kale or collards. I don't like long-boiled veggies, and to get any tenderness out of either vegetable, this is necessary. I have found a way to make commercial kale delicious though, and that's to toss it with a little oil, salt and pepper, and roast until crispy like chips. That's delicious. I'm even more intrigued by a popular appetizer that appears on the menu of the Chef and the Farmer restaurant in Kinston, NC. It's run by Vivian Howard and her husband, Benjamin Knight. Kinston is just a town with less than 22,000 population, but they have managed to turn The Chef and the Farmer into sort of a destination restaurant, and it's expensive. Vivian flash fries collards, and people rave about them. She's a finalist this year for a James Beard award, I think for her appearances on PBS's "A Chef's Life". I wonder if this would work with the roasting technique, and I'm going to try it next time I run across collards. They are cheap here, if overgrown, IMO. They are de rigueur at holiday meals in many North Carolina families white or black.

Those look great @Darienne. I had thought about eliminating the blueberries from my first attempt at the recipe because they seemed to inhibit the rise, and now you have reinforced that idea.

My leek root end that I cut off too close to the roots right before thinking of planting it is coming up! I discovered a squirrel or something had dug it up the next day, but fortunately decided it wasn't good to eat, so I just replanted it, and now it has leaves popping up. Kind of weird and creepy to think that something is watching you bury something in a container on your deck, and then comes to steal it. That had to be what happened, I think, because if the would be thief had found it by scent, they should have known they wouldn't like to eat it. Thanks again, @dcarchfor the idea of planting scallion root trimmings. Fresh food from trash. I it.

I made ramen noodle soup tonight with the duck broth from the freezer and dried ramen noodles from the pantry. I only added regular button mushrooms and garnished with freshly picked sliced scallions and hard boiled eggs. It was very good with some Turkish sesame pide bread from the Mediterranean shop and some very mushroomy-flavored melted brie.

Yeah, I haven't bought any silicone bakeware because of negative stories I've read on eG. I'm glad you were able to salvage the corn @Darienne, and the your Southwest potatoes came out well. I don't have an 8 x 8 metal pan either because I have a vintage Corning ware one when it was still made in NY, USA. I'd go with metal too, if I had to buy one now. Mine is currently occupied by the last two slices of a lightly sweet yellow cake with dark chocolate butter cream frosting I made the other day. Bonus, I sent an extra slice with the husband's lunch today for his favorite man who works for him, and husband came home tonight saying how much Donnie appreciated it because it was his birthday! Neither my husband nor I had any idea, and the reason I sent it was because I did know his wife, who's the cook in the family, is out of town. I also sent my meatloaf recipe yesterday, because he asked for it after tasting a piece of my husband's lunch sandwich. He's making it tonight. This guy did the heavy lifting helping us older folks bury our beloved cat, so as far as I'm concerned, he can have any dang recipe he wants. Fortunately, *fingers crossed* I do not have a kitchen misadventure of my own to report just now, but unfortunately, I'm sure that I will be adding to the discussion in the future.

Like Chris Hennes said, I've never heard of adding additional cream of tarter to a baking powder recipe. Baking powder is just baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) with cream of tarter (potassium bitartrate) already mixed in an appropriate ratio. I would also echo what Lisa Shock said about using butter instead of shortening, not only for health, but taste. I also agree with the White Lily flour reccos, if you can find it. It's made from finely ground 100% white winter wheat, and specially formulated for biscuits. Buttermilk or sweet milk soured for 5 minutes with a Tablespoon of white vinegar always gives me a higher rise in baking powder biscuits or pancakes. I also agree with the light handling and folding technique for your dough, and the straight down, no twisting advice. I like and usually make drop biscuits, slightly flattened by hand, but for cut out biscuits, the square, knife cut ones are the way to go. They eliminate the waste of the round ones. You can reknead the dough and cut again, but these orphan biscuits will never rise as high or be as tender as the first cut ones. You also want to mix quickly once you add the milk, and just until the flour is wet. Don't be tempted to try to stir or beat it smooth. You want small lumps of butter in your dough. They melt in the heat of baking and the steam from the water causes rise while it expands. I like to start the oven before I start mixing the biscuits, form them, and lay them out on the baking pan, and let the double-action baking powder do it's first action thing on the counter for a while during the time I clean up the mess and get the rest of the meal going so the biscuits, which only take about 10-12 minutes (or maybe a little longer if you're baking them touching in cake pans) to cook will be hot and ready at the same time as everything else. Also, make sure that your oven is thoroughly preheated, and if you have any doubt about your oven's thermostat, get a cheap oven thermometer. That high oven temp=high rise biscuits. I also do not add sugar to biscuits, because we like them in mostly savory applications. I really don't think I would even for biscuits with jam or honey. You don't need it to help browning if your oven's hot enough.

@Paul Bacino, that is some gorgeous meat you got there. Rib eye is my favorite meat, and those look truly exceptional! @HungryChris, thanks for reminding me to get myself to the seafood shop for some more oysters while the getting is good. The last time, my husband went without me, and brought back fried oysters. I forgot how much I really don't like them fried. It totally changes the flavor to me. I haven't had any in at least the seventeen years my husband and I have been together. Why he thought I meant fried when all I ever get is live ones is a mystery? I made sort of a fall/winter meal as it has turned pretty chilly here again for the first day of Spring. I cut celery, white onion, a Russet potato, butternut squash and a McIntosh apple into rustic chunks and placed in my 3 qt. French white Corning Ware casserole. Drizzled with a cup of chicken stock and sprinkled salt and pepper and tossed. Placed a halved Cornish hen seasoned with chicken salt and pepper on top and dotted with butter. Baked covered for a half hour, then uncovered and baked another half hour. This made a good and pretty healthy dinner. Served with some warmed ciabatta for sopping the juices.