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Dave W

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Posts posted by Dave W

  1. Like Shelby I made it rain at the nursery the other day. Finally got my hot paws on some real holy basil/ocimum tenuiflorum after a couple seasons of never finding it and failing to germinate the seeds I ordered from the internet. Can't wait to make some pad kee mao.

    • Like 3
  2. It's nice to make everything from scratch as always but for a rote beginner using canned paste and coconut milk is perfectly acceptable. Look for maesri brand curry pastes and aroy-d coconut (or any coconut milk with no sodium metabisulfite preservatives)

    You can take 3 hours or 30 minutes to make a Thai curry and the results just aren't that far apart.

    Since you've got all the raw ingredients already let me give you this piece of advice: toast the shrimp paste OUTSIDE.

    • Like 1
  3. The actual process is exceedingly simple: heat plus fuel plus oxygen will produce the combustion you need. If you can limit the heat or the oxygen you can control the amount of smoke and its qualities. Unlimited inputs of the above will produce a fire which is of course undesirable.

  4. Build a smoke generator that's portable then you can use it in your chamber, in your outside smoker or in a cardboard box.

    You don't want to have the generator affixed to your curing chamber since you may need flexibility to apply smoke to something while your chamber is occupied with an unsmoked product drying.

  5. I make my toor dal pretty soupy, does that count? It's always a smash hit around my house

     

    mustard seed, cumin, fenugreek seed

     

    onion garlic ginger peeled roasted green chilis tomato paste cayenne and turmeric, fenugreek leaves

     

    water

     

    red lentils

     

    vinegar, salt

     

    Surely you can figure out the rest?

    • Like 2
  6. As a general rule of thumb I'd divide braising time by 3 to achieve the at-high-pressure cooking time.

     

    So, skinless chicken breasts can pressure cook in about 5 minutes, thighs in about 10-11 minutes, brisket/pork belly in an hour, etc etc.

     

    Better to undershoot and finish with an open pot than to cook it to death.

  7. I'm a big believer in using a pressure cooker for stock

    It's really just stupid how much easier it is in a PC. I can't believe I made open pot subboiling pots of stock for so many years.

  8. 5% salt with a pinch white pepper. Pellicle. 4-8h Cold smoke. I used apple chips in my smoke generator here because it was the only chips I had. Usually alder wood. The apple is good though.

    • Like 2
  9. I know I will be doing smoking for many years, especially cold smoking, I decided that I should put some effort into a more complicated smoke generator.

     

    Basically it is an external smoke generator made from a stainless steel cylinder. The fuel is wood chips or pellets. 

     

    The smoke is piped out thru a 24"  brass flexible accordion stove gas pipe. The smoke is cooled by the accordion brass pipe and lots of black liquid (creosol?) is condensed and collected into a bottle (cancer in a bottle?) before it enters into the smoker.

     

    The smoke is pulled by a small motorized blower with a speed control for smoke density adjustments, and blown thru a viewing window. The viewing window is lit with LED light to allow for visual view of smoke density going into the smoker without having to open the smoker.

     

    The system is very stable and economical in pellet use. I have had over 24 hour continuous  smokes with no need for supervision or adding more fuel.

     

    dcarch

     

     

    I built something very similar however not with a viewing window and powered by a large aquarium air pump and I agree, it works wonderfully.

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