Food in the time of a pandemic

[Franci]

21 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Looking to up my Sichuan food game, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Mala Market grocery. I've already got some other stuff from them from a previous order.

 

Also looking to up my Thai food game...that order hasn't yet arrived.

 

 

Nice! I want to place an order too. I’ve been waiting from my order from Fly by Jing for about 2 months I believe. 

I missed your previous order. What have you liked so far? 

 

We have been thinking about fresh fish from a while, today my husband went to a new fish market. He just call me, his exact words were: now I get why Florida is so bad, I stepped one second into the place and I was out! No way I’ll buy there. He is driving to our usual market, if the situation is the same, I guess we’ll keep eating frozen fish 😒

Edited July 28, 2020 by Franci (log)

[rotuts]

@heidih 

 

my conventional oven has not worked for quite some time , 

 

as I refused to pay 200 ++ $$ to install a 24.95  ( w free shipping ! ) part

 

a friend was going to come over and do this w a part we were gong to order

 

price went up to 16.95 !  its a 10 minutes job , but id never get to extricate myself from 

 

the fix the lower oven position.   the C-19

 

I had moderate success w an Oster bread machine some time ago

 

and have been thinking uf upgrading that to one that had more flexibility :

 

rise time set by Moi , from dough retarded in the refirg

 

then its 82 F inside now , 95 F outside now w high humidity.

 

I do have my eye on that larger CSO thats bin discussed here ...

 

I have yeast   Vac'd and Fz , ' several '   I got from Amazon a while back

 

4 x 1 lbs   was cheapest method      one broke en transit , so Amazon sent more ...

 

I had no way to get them to the PO ' safety '  to others  

 

so they are still here , more or less

 

cooler weather  

 

who knows.

Edited July 28, 2020 by rotuts (log)

[Franci]

So, the husband got back, with a red snapper and 2 sea breams. In the first place, outdoor restaurant and fish place close to little Haiti. The restaurant full and nobody  wearing a mask. Indoor, in the fish market,  people wearing the mask under their nose but so, so crowed. 

Second fish place, our usual, Casablanca. There was a person at the door, letting in only 3 customers at a time,  you pick your fish an go outside to wait for the fish and the bill. Two different realities. Choice much less than normal but we got fish and we’ll go back. Yeah!  

 

 

[weinoo]

37 minutes ago, Franci said:

Nice! I want to place an order too. I’ve been waiting from my order from Fly by Jing for about 2 months I believe. 

I missed your previous order. What have you liked so far? 

 

We have been thinking about fresh fish from a while, today my husband went to a new fish market. He just call me, his exact words were: now I get why Florida is so bad, I stepped one second into the place and I was out! No way I’ll buy there. He is driving to our usual market, if the situation is the same, I guess we’ll keep eating frozen fish 😒

 

 

Hi Franci!  Thanks for the heads-up on that web site; it's always good to have multiple sources for hard-to-find stuff.  Regarding Mala Grocery, I'm pretty happy with all the stuff I've bought from them. Peppercorns, fermented black beans, chili bean paste from my first order were all high quality. I've yet to try any of the stuff in the recent purchase (which came just in the past week), but my guess is it'll be fine too.

 

Ahhh - fish.  Many a fish chef and many a fish-monger will say that with properly handled and frozen fish, the quality is going to be better than that of what your local store is selling as fresh. My fresh fish purchases are generally limited to farmer's market and stuff that was caught recently and locally. But since I am not going out shopping lately, my source for expertly frozen fish is Great Alaska Seafood. Their product arrives in pristine frozen condition (as opposed to stuff which might be on the way to thawing), and it's free overnight shipping with  a purchase of over 8 lbs. of seafood - of what I've sampled, I can highly recommend their halibut, the various salmon species (not smoked, fresh), shrimp, scallops. I have not loved (but that's just me) their tanner crab, nor their smoked salmon and black cod. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to my next order. So if you have a nice freezer (or a second freezer lucky you!), don't hesitate to stock up from them. It's my opinion that the Alaskan seafood processors have been doing it for a long time, know what they're doing (like blast freezing), and want to provide customers with excellent product; once again, just my opinion.

 

All that being said, have you ever tried Captain Jim's in Miami? Might be a place to check out.

Edited July 28, 2020 by weinoo (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Franci, a possible fresh fish solution:  I called our usual fish monger and placed an order, gave him our Visa # and picked up my order at the door an hour later.   Almost “touchless”.   

[Franci]

Thanks @weinoo, Mala market was on my list already. . I have a friend in Brooklyn, do you know him? Peter Shelsky (of Shelsky of Brooklyn and Bagels?). He is the one giving me all the tips about chinese ingredients to try 😁 Mala and Fly by Jing were on his list. 

 

I will keep Alaska sea food in mind, although Casablanca is very close to my location compared to Captain Jim, and today we saw that it was not bad, I think the trick is going Tuesday or Wednesday at early ours in the afternoon, no much people. And my husband felt comfortable  

[Franci]

5 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Franci, a possible fresh fish solution:  I called our usual fish monger and placed an order, gave him our Visa # and picked up my order at the door an hour later.   Almost “touchless”.   

 

Good, I think we might do that with Casablanca if we have a feeling it will be busier...weekends. Thanks!

[ElsieD]

@weinoo  Thanks for your reference to Great Atlantic Seafood.  I have bookmarked it.  If you buy a 10 pound box, I assume the contents are IQF?

Edited July 28, 2020 by ElsieD
fixed typo (log)

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

@weinoo  Thanks for your reference to Great Atlantic Seafood.  I have bookmarked it.  If you but a 10 pound boc, I assume the contents are IQF?

The stuff I've bought so far, but only in 1 lb. increments like scallops and shrimp, have been IQF, yes. You could always give them a call or email them to find out for sure - they've been very responsive.

 

@Franci - yes, I know Pete! Excellent bagels!

 

[JeanneCake]

This talk of fish markets makes me grateful I have a local seafood purveyor that delivers twice a week.  For 20+ years he had a fish market in town then rents got ridiculously out of hand so he started doing "shore to door".  He emails a menu twice a week and delivers twice a week; the menu is fairly consistent (calamari, arctic char, salmon, halibut, haddock, scallops, swordfish; shrimp, crabcakes, fishcakes) sometimes sea bass, striped bass, trout, sole; some years he's been able to get softshell crab. He also makes a great lobster dip (for which I have the recipe!) and every time we get it, I say to myself I should make the salmon mousse from the Silver Palate cookbook and then I don't. 

 

@Rotuts if you ever want yeast, you're close enough for me to bring it to you

 

 

[weinoo]

 

My Thai pantry/grocery delivery arrived last night. The curry pastes and the coconut milk came in quantities of 6, the noodles 3, the Sriracha 2. I have enough stuff now, between this and Mala Project, to keep me in spicy food for a while.

 

Oh, and @Franci - the Matiz sofrito is because you got me interested in the stuff with the one you bought!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

16 hours ago, JeanneCake said:

 I should make the salmon mousse from the Silver Palate cookbook and then I don't. 

 

Maybe a nudge, some years ago we were frequent hosts to a guest who had trouble chewing and swallowing..    I became an expert on soft food.   One standout, because it was unusual and quite delicious, was salmon mousse served with strawberry coulis.    Try it.   It's lovely!

[weinoo]

Oh, that salmon mousse - just be careful!!

 

 

[KennethT]

33 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

My Thai pantry/grocery delivery arrived last night. The curry pastes and the coconut milk came in quantities of 6, the noodles 3, the Sriracha 2. I have enough stuff now, between this and Mala Project, to keep me in spicy food for a while.

 

Oh, and @Franci - the Matiz sofrito is because you got me interested in the stuff with the one you bought!

I like the Aroy-D UHP coconut milk - it's much better than canned, and I think it's even better than the really expensive frozen stuff I get at the Mosco St. market.  Just make sure your is 100% coconut milk - evidently, they make different versions - some with stabilizers and some w/o.  I buy 2-3 6 packs at a time from Amazon.  I'm not a huge fan of Thai Kitchen curry pastes.  I like the canned Maesri better, and even better than that (but almost never available) the refrigerated curry paste from Nittiya.  The nice thing is that the Nittiya paste already has the shrimp paste included - but just about every other paste I've seen you have to add it separately.

[weinoo]

6 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I'm not a huge fan of Thai Kitchen curry pastes.  I like the canned Maesri better, and even better than that (but almost never available) the refrigerated curry paste from Nittiya.  The nice thing is that the Nittiya paste already has the shrimp paste included - but just about every other paste I've seen you have to add it separately.

Good to know for my next order.

[KennethT]

30 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Good to know for my next order.

btw - do you have shrimp paste?  No Thai curry will taste right with out it.  Also, what about palm sugar?  It has a totally different flavor to regular sugar and in things like som tum (any kind - doesnt' matter what vegetable you have), one of the primary flavors is that of palm sugar and tamarind.

[KennethT]

34 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Good to know for my next order.

BTW - where did you order from?

[weinoo]

10 minutes ago, KennethT said:

btw - do you have shrimp paste?  No Thai curry will taste right with out it.  Also, what about palm sugar?  It has a totally different flavor to regular sugar and in things like som tum (any kind - doesnt' matter what vegetable you have), one of the primary flavors is that of palm sugar and tamarind.

 

Now that you mention it - those did not arrive!

 

8 minutes ago, KennethT said:

BTW - where did you order from?

 

Amazon - must be coming from a different seller.

[ElsieD]

I used to use Thai Kitchen curry pastes but switched to Blue Dragon which I much prefer.

[KennethT]

18 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

Now that you mention it - those did not arrive!

 

 

Amazon - must be coming from a different seller.

hot-thai-kitchen.com has a lot of info for palm sugar - in one section, she goes into a full explanation of it, and explains the differences between different brands - how some are 100% palm sugar, some are cut with regular sugar and some aren't really palm sugar at all...

[heidih]

33 minutes ago, KennethT said:

hot-thai-kitchen.com has a lot of info for palm sugar - in one section, she goes into a full explanation of it, and explains the differences between different brands - how some are 100% palm sugar, some are cut with regular sugar and some aren't really palm sugar at all...

 

I really like Robyn Eckhardt. Her on the ground palm sugar article is a favorite.   https://eatingasia.typepad.com/eatingasia/2015/08/on-pursuing-an-obsession-and-getting-nowhere-until-you-do-me-and-palm-sugar-.html

[MokaPot]

I actually like the Thai Kitchen red curry paste. It's vegan, IIRC, no shrimp, so maybe that's why you're not a huge fan, @KennethT. I also like the Mae Ploy curry pastes in the white tub. Those do contain shrimp. Salty, though, IIRC.

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, MokaPot said:

I actually like the Thai Kitchen red curry paste. It's vegan, IIRC, no shrimp, so maybe that's why you're not a huge fan, @KennethT. I also like the Mae Ploy curry pastes in the white tub. Those do contain shrimp. Salty, though, IIRC.

I had the Thai Kitchen a long time ago, and I just thought it was relatively flavorless...  and the Mae Ploy just tastes like salt.  The Nittiya is by far the best that I've ever had, but it's become hard to come by in the last few years.  My typical Thai store has it in stock for about a day and then he's sold out.  I always wondered if that was the case why he doesn't bring in more at one time.. but that's another question.   Other than that, I find the Maesri (in the can) is the best that is always easily available, imo...

[chefmd]

Four lobster claws from Harris Teeter were surprisingly fresh and set me back about 10 dollars producing about 240 grams of meat and making a lovely lobster salad (mayo, garlic chives, lime juice).  Served with dry Hungarian Tokay.

[rotuts]

previously . I posted DintyMooreBeefStew , w wine and herb amendments .

 

as I dont have any crusty bread right now , why not the DMBS on noodles ?  add some thawed peas ?

 

mise

 

 

 

One lb of bow-ties , in water that had a little Minors lower salt beef base added first.  water adjust ted to just cover

 

this works well , but you have to stir from time to time to prevent sticking.

 

 

DMBS w amendments in different pan .  as before , Tj's Phigent wine , rosemary , thyme , garlic , onion powder   reduced the wine.

 

 

1.5 cups defrosted peas in cold water .  not cooked.  these have been in the freezer for a bit ,and I forgot to get to them first

 

to let them rehydrate.  N.B.:  most of the peas are floating.  if given time , most will sink after rehydration .  dont thick it matters in

 

the fine dish.   uncooked Fz peas give the dish a little ' snap '.

 

 

noodles done.  there was a little pasta water on the bottom of the pan when ' al dente '  I turned off the heat and mixed from time 

 

to time , and all of the pasta water was absorbed into the noodles.

 

note the pan if very very full.   I decided not to make a mess , and chose not to add one or two beaten eggs to the hot pasta.

 

I usually like to do this as it adds richness.   the eggs dont scramble , but give the pasta a light coating.

 

 

had to move to a 12 " T-Fal , from the 8 " w the DMBS.   Noodles on top , then the peas.

 

 

final dish , ready to eat 

 

 

IU put a little butter in the dish.  chose not to put it in the maid dish , leftovers.  didn't know what that would be like ' cold '

 

 

2 1/2 Quarts leftovers.

 

this was very tasty .  put my Personal Chef (  BoyAreDee ) to shame.  this was realty really good

 

all things considering .