takadi's Profile
Has anyone ever dried their own scallops before for conpoy?
Has anyone ever tried to make their own conpoy? Is there a special process involved? Can you make them from regular scallops or do they have to be a special kind of scallop? I imagine it's a similar drying process to proscuitto or something. Good conpoy is prohibitively expensive.
Learning about "Pho Stock"
Yes that sounds about right. It isn't exactly the same as the "hybrid stock" method you describe but it sounded similar enough for me to give it a mention.
Learning about "Pho Stock"
To me that sounds like how most pho restaurants make their stock. Make an initial stock with bones that simmers all day, and then preparing batches of meat with the aromatics and spices according to order, allowing for a fresher taste and intensifying the stock as the day goes on. It's not traditional in the western sense but the chinese utilize this technique with "master stocks"
the secret ingredient for pho
This is an old thread but I wanted to post the greatest kept secret ingredient to pho that has integral to Pho Bac for generations.
http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2011/02/pho-secret-ingredients-dried-earthworms-sa-sung-sipuncula.html
WORMS
Freezing garlic?
If you blanch them first, or perhaps store them in oil or puree them, will they be able to maintain at least some of their fresh flavor and texture?
Learning about "Pho Stock"
Do you simmer the bones with the aromatics and spices for the whole twelve hours? Because I find that after even a couple of hours or less, the aroma and flavors of the aromatics start to go south and begin to have a "swampy" overcooked flavor to them.
Freezing garlic?
I bought one of those giant containers of peeled garlic from the korean grocery store and after a few weeks the whole container became moldy. The container was cheap but I was so mad that I had to throw away so much good food.
Is there a way to freeze garlic properly?
Is American Kobe REAL Kobe??
This article is going viral on the internet and I think it should continue to do so.
Lao menu at Bangkok Golden in Falls Church - Report
"Ping Lin:* Grilled tongue: soft, delicious. Served with a bitter dipping sauce. Nuclear bitter. You have been warned."
I haven't tried this yet but I highly suspect that the dipping sauce might be flavored with bile
How to make tofu puffs?
How do you make those tofu puffs? Whenever I try to do this, it doesn't turn out right. The outside will be crispy or crunchy and the inside will be soft, but I can never achieve that light airy consistency. Is there a certain process to this or is it simply a matter of deep frying? Is there a specific type of tofu I must use?
Korean rice
Does anybody know what type of rice is used at korean restaurants? I know it is definitely not the same as the Jasmine rice or chinese type rices I usually eat. It's like a short grain rice that's a cross between glutinous and regular rice. I love the texture and korean food isn't the same without it. I went to my local korean grocery store and there were a million brands and types and I had no idea which one to chooose
Just got some pork snout...what do I do with it?
So I have been experimenting with charcuterie and I've been trying to procure some pork jowls/cheeks for the last few months to no avail. So I went the only place I knew that would sell every pork part known to man, my local "Great Wall" Chinese grocery store. Fortunately/unfortunately, they did not sell the jowl as a separate cut but literally the entire front of the face including the snout. It was so ridiculously cheap and grotesque I could not pass up on it.
First up, I am a little freaked out and I'm skeptical about how sanitary this piece of offal is. It didn't seem like many people buy this stuff and who knows how long it has been sitting around before they packed it. How do I prepare it or clean it? Do I need to do any presoak? I heard that parts especially from the face end of a pig can be especially dirty when it comes from sketchy sources because when they slaughter the pig, they hang them upside-down and all the nasty stuff flows down to the face.
Second, I am planning to make some guanciale with the jowls but what in the world do I do with the snout? Any have any good preparations?
Carbonara
I've made it with or without wine/garlic, and the key is to use very very little of it because you can easily overpower whatever little ingredients are in there. But I find that if you use the right amount, the balance of flavor is much better. Mixing a little bit of parmigiano with the pecorino also gives a much rounder flavor. I've experimented with using bacon, onion, cream...those three things shouldn't be in there for sure.
Carbonara
Nieman ranch has a very very good pepper bacon that is very close to pancetta and makes an excellent carbonara
America's Test Kitchen: Recipes on the show vs the cookbook?
Thanks for the replies everyone. IMHO, I think the tweaking of recipes and nitpicking is the point of ATK. They are taking everyday recipes and doing semi-scientific testing and trying out unorthodox techniques to improve on or fix well-known problems in recipes. Sure it's soul-crushing to some extent, but I personally enjoy the nerdiness and the podunkiness (by extension, you can probably conclude that I love PBS).
What I don't appreciate though is the ridiculous amount of money you have to spend and things you have to acquire just to get up to date on their best or new methods. Call it obsessive, but I paid good money (the price of the book has decreased dramatically since I last bought it though) to get a *complete* set of recipes from every show and they failed to deliver. I guess that's what happens when you run your show off of public television...you gotta get your money somehow
America's Test Kitchen: Recipes on the show vs the cookbook?
So I got the complete america's test kitchen tv show cookbook from 2001-2010. I was watching a show and they were showing this really awesome recipe for chicken and dumplings. Thinking that I would be find it in the "complete" compilation of recipes, I went to look for the recipe right after the show. Turns out the recipe was different, calling for whole milk instead of the buttermilk on the show, an addition of chicken wings, and egg whites to the buttermilk mixture. I was confused, so I looked up the recipe online and sure enough I found the "correct" one, which was called "lighter chicken and dumplings". The recipe post date was from 2009 as well so I know it couldn't have been that my book was out of date.
I've encountered this several times while trying to find recipes on the show in the book. My question is, why sell a cookbook that claims to have all the recipes from the show when you can't even find half them in it? I find myself having to look up all of them online, and most of the time, you need a subscription to even view the recipe. I feel like I got ripped off
How to control humidity in a curing chamber for charcuterie/salumi?
Interesting, but again that involves alot of drilling and high end equipment
guess I'll have to stick with the bowl of salt water
How to control humidity in a curing chamber for charcuterie/salumi?
So I was able to get a hold of a wine fridge (vinotemp 18 bottle) to use as a drying chamber for a pancetta I am currently curing. So that takes care of the temperature part, but the fridge doesn't come with any humidity control, so what are some good ways to do that? The only way I've heard of so far is to put a bowl of super-saturated salt water in it, but I am unsure of how stable the humidity would be using that method and how to adjust the humidity levels.
I am looking for ways that are the most cost-effective and low tech, so I am trying to avoid tearing apart and/or drilling into my brand new wine fridge or buying expensive equipment.
Does Kombucha necessarily have to have tea in it?
Can you make Kombucha practically out of anything that contains sugar, or is tea an essential element?
Where can I find good guanciale in Northern VA?
I'm revisiting this thread because I am starting to have a hankering for pork again. Did you ever go through with making the guanciale? I attempted to do so but I just couldn't not find a source for the jowls
Guanciale anywhere in va md or dc?
Why is it next to impossible to find decent guanciale in this area? I remember going to a small Italian deli/shop a long time ago and they seemed to be the only ones who carried guanciale. However, the guanciale seemed old and oxidized, didn't taste that great. Anyone know of any sources?
Horrible freezer odor problem
So I've got this problem where almost everything I put into my freezer will have the smell and taste of chemical/plastic on it. This odor is so powerful that I cannot freeze anything for more than a week before the flavor is completely ruined. I can't use the ice anymore either. I'm pretty sure it's freezer burn. Do you think activated carbon or baking soda will help? Do I have to empty the freezer and just clean the heck out of it? Or do you think the smell is coming from the fridge itself? I hope it is not an inherent problem within the freezer's cooling system. The problem has become so bad though that if it is the latter, I'm thinking of just scrapping the whole thing and buying a new fridge.
Red velvet cake alternative
So it's true that little to no food coloring is necessary if regular non-dutch processed cocoa is used? How red does the cocoa turn when mixed with the acidic ingredients?
24 hour or late night places in Northern Virginia
I challenge someone to find good late night cuisine on a SUNDAY.
Restaurant Week-August 2011
Oh my lord, did anyone try the lunch menu for 2941? Did someone kill the chef and replace him with some amateur from some cheesy pretentious asian fusion restaurant? The dishes I had were just plain boring. The duck was okay, but for 2941 I expected so much more. It was paired with this very frozen-foodesque wonton and put on a bed of the greasiest fried scallions I've ever eaten. The appetizer was some sort of deconstructed banh mi. I liked it, but if I wanted banh mi, I could have bought one myself for a quarter of the price and deconstructed myself. The dessert was the savior of the day, a hazelnut pastry with stewed apricot and lavender ice cream. The other dishes, like the corn risotto and the "thai" melon soup were just so unmemorable.
So very very disappointed, especially considering how amazing last years meal was.
Restaurant Week-August 2011
I went through every single review on opentable.com and the restaurants that consistently were at the top were all the steakhouses like ruth's chris, mortons, capital grille, flemings. I loaded up all the reviews based on overall score, food score, and number of reviewers, and the names that kept popping up were Rasika (especially rasika, the hype for it is amazing), 1789, Tosca, vidalia, Zaytinya, 2941, and la bergerie. Other names I saw were La chaumerie, the prime rib, filomena, passionfish, black salt, and kinkead's. I personally have reservations for filomena and 2941.
I was looking for blue duck tavern on the list and it turns out they aren't doing it this year. It explains why there were so many openings.
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Rasika Restaurant
633 D Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004
Zaytinya
701 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Restaurant Week-August 2011
When I went for restaurant week last year, I remember first and foremost the tiny tiny portions. I can understand small portions in a place like 2941 where each dish, despite being a sample, is a masterpiece but I felt like they ran out of ingredients or something and had to make do with a limited supply. The bucatini in the amatriciana was undercooked and it was the most measly dish I've ever seen. Maybe three specks of bacon and barely dressed in a tomato sauce. I think it was a meatball or a terrine dish of some kind, but it was incredibly salty and bland, as contradictory as that sounds. I think there was also some squid mousse in squash blossoms, and maybe a soup. I remember getting only two blossoms and don't remember it tasting that great at all. All I remember is that I came out of there hungry and dissatisfied, and I probably don't remember the rest mostly because of the fact that they were unmemorable.
Typical American breakfast foods you don't enjoy at breakfast?
There's a reason I don't like toast, it's because I don't like bread either, unless slathered in something delicious. I throw away all the crusts on my pizza and eat hot dogs on half a bun
