MokaPot

Asking for help, please, with soft-boiled eggs. My goal is runny yolks with the whites fully set. I’m not super interested in a two-step process, but would consider a really easy 2nd step. After a lot of experimentation (stovetop cook in water), I’ve been unable to achieve the runny yolk and fully set white(s). My compromise is to cook the eggs long enough to set up the whites and accept that the yolk is also set-up as well. According to my research, the yolks and whites set up at different temperatures (the yolk sets up at a lower temperature). Further, there are two parts to the egg white and, I think, those two different parts set up at different temperatures as well. I don’t have a sous vide machine. I would use sous vide mainly for eggs, so won’t get one unless I can achieve the soft yolk / set egg white. Even though the sous vide results posted above look great, I can still see that the whites are not set up. IMO, the sous vide yolk looks good even though it’s not runny. Does anybody have a one-step method (with maybe an easy 2nd step) to achieve the runny yolk and set-up white (stovetop and/or sous vide)? Thank you!

I tried the lemon Oreos for the first time, during this pandemic. They were not bad! Could have been more lemony. For a stuffed (commercial) cookie, I like these Carr's lemon ginger cookies. However, these cookies were hard to find, even before the pandemic.

Normal breakfast is steel-cut oats w/dried fruit (boring). If I don't eat a breakfast, I end up craving glazed donuts & stuff like that. For a leisurely restaurant breakfast, prefer savory to sweet, e.g., omelet or Eggs Benedict.

Did a brief Amazon search for the Ortiz tuna in the oval-shaped can. Seems like the price is around $10 to $15 per can (bought in multiples, starting at around 8 cans). Can size is around 110 grams / 3.88 oz. Can the Ortiz tuna buyers please say how much this tuna used to cost before the pandemic? I realize the price won't necessarily return to what it was, just trying to get an idea. Thanks!

Thanks so much, @Katie Meadow . I'll check out everything you listed. I wasn't expecting any of this stuff to be cheap. So, hopefully, I'll be prepared when I see the prices.

I like the Red Baron "deep dish" pepperoni pizza as well. Kind of salty, but what the hell.

Do you guys have any recommendations for canned tuna (e.g., the Italian kind)? Hopefully something you can order from Amazon. Also looking for white anchovies (canned / shelf-stable / available on Amazon). I ate them in a restaurant in France and they were really good, more like a sardine texture. Maybe it's not possible to find a good canned one, but maybe it is possible. Possibly, I should just get canned sardines. I tried the "Season" brand (Costco). It was OK, but not great. I'd appreciate any brand / product recommendations that anyone has eaten recently.

@Norm Matthews, good to know that Maangchi's recipe worked for you. I used her emergency kimchi recipe as the start of my kimchi experiments. (Her recipe worked for me as well.) Maybe I'll try another Maangchi recipe.

With russets, I often cube them and fry them in oil (just a couple of Tbsps. of oil). The russets always soften up that way. I've never had the "hard russet potato" problem with fried potatoes. Maybe just lucky all this time. Anyway, I also heard about not storing potatoes and onions together, something about the gas(es). I'll store my potatoes on the counter for now on.

Recently came across this video from Kenji Lopez-Alt / Food Lab for 3-ingredient mac & cheese using Carnation evaporated milk (like @Tri2Cook mentioned). Video is maybe hard to watch because the camera seems to be mounted on his head, seriously. But it looks easy and maybe worth a try. I've heard that citric acid mutes the flavor of the cheese, e.g., reduces sharpness of cheddar.

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the input. @heidih, I store my potatoes in the refrigerator. I had a really bad experience / experiment during school days, trying to sprout a potato with toothpicks and a jar of water. The smell was indescribably bad; hard to believe the smell was coming from a non-meat source. But maybe I'll try storing the potatoes on the counter. Correct, hard potatoes are not a consistent issue. @chromedome, I used "crushed tomatoes and puree." Ingredients list doesn't include calcium chloride, but does include "citric acid." Good idea to hold off on adding the tomato sauce. I do kind of depend on the tomato sauce for cooking liquid (for the potato), but maybe I can just add extra water. @gfweb, sounds like you really did experiment with this. Now that you mention it, one of my pre-potato ingredients was a fair amount of balsamic vinegar. I would appreciate even more input. I really like this combo of tomatoes and potatoes and will continue to cook them together. Just trying to cut out the extra step of boiling / parboiling.

Hi, hoping to get some help here, please. I'm talking about russet potatoes, not Yukon Gold. Potatoes are peeled and cut into a small-ish dice. A couple of times, when cooking the potatoes in a stew, they come out still hard. (Cooking time should have been long enough; temperature should have been hot enough.) Other times (same method), they're cooked nicely. Could it be that the canned tomatoes are sometimes preventing a good cook-through on the russet potatoes? (My stews always contain canned tomatoes.) When you guys cook stews, do you drop the potatoes in raw or do you pre-cook? I'd rather drop them in raw, but I'm thinking I need to boil them first for now on. TIA.

Cookies look really good, @weinoo. How did they taste? Was the texture crispy on the bottom?

I think it's this recipe (or a version thereof) from one of the "Modernist Cuisine" cookbooks: https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/neapolitan-pizza-dough/

Tofu salad with a sauce / dressing made of gochujang & Laoganma spicy chili crisp.

Hi @Kim Shook Could you please direct me to the recipe for this ham and fake crab salad? A friend and I have been trying to get a good recipe for "Seafood Dynamite" and I think we can adjust this ham / fake crab salad recipe to make it into Seafood Dynamite. TIA.

Hi @Raamo, I've been meaning to try making panna cotta. Yours looks good. Can you say how you made it? Thanks!

Corkscrew pasta, dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, block of feta cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

Chow mein, IMO, is a staple in American (U.S.) Chinese food. Not usually deep-fried, not usually crunchy. The thickness is approx. the same as spaghetti or ramen noodles. The shape of the noodle is like spaghetti but more irregular. Served with cut-up vegetables & meat. The product (La Choy crispy noodles) that @robirdstx posted is popular, too, but it seems more like a topping or a heavy garnish. Here is the Panda Express (American chain of Chinese takeout food) version of chow mein.

Some YouTubers list their email addresses right below the video. You can probably try to communicate by way of YouTube (posting a comment / questions). People seem the most responsive to IG, though.

Those YouTubers also have Instagram accounts where you can communicate with them. I would just ask one or more of the them, "Where can I buy this pan?" It seems like the pan is popular, so probably you can buy one, too. That pan looks kind of thick, so that might be why people like it. If your pans are "useless," maybe they're too thin and are burning stuff. There are lots of different pans that can help you get good results.

I haven't shopped (online) there since the pandemic, but I've had good experiences with Frontier brand stuff. I used to make chili a lot and got my chili powder there. You can also buy their stuff on Amazon. I just went on the Frontier website and it looks like they have things in stock.

@Kim Shook, your omelet looks really good. How many eggs do you use? How do you get it fluffy like that? Do you add anything to your eggs (e.g., water, milk, etc.)? Thank you in advance!

I do the fold-over style, too, 3 eggs per omelet. My preference is for the eggs not to be browned. I use a lid on the pan so that the eggs cook faster without getting browned anywhere. Fillings: has to have cheese (e.g., Comte cheese from Costco or cheddar). Also like cooked mushrooms.

@Porthos, glad you found fresh bulbs of garlic. Just in case, there's also pre-peeled, fresh garlic. I usually find it in the "organic" produce area. Doesn't stay fresh as long as the kind you find in bulbs, but I like it. They are packaged with approx. 2 bulbs' worth of garlic. Not sure if you have Asian markets (specifically, Korean) close by, but they also sometimes sell huge bags of pre-peeled garlic. (I haven't tried the garlic from the Asian / Korean stores.)