What's cooking? part 4

i buy my mae ploy pastes at cub foods of all places. used to get my galanga root there, too, but they just stopped carrying it.

i think squid brand is supposedly pretty decent? i haven't tried it. so far every fish sauce brand i've picked up at whim has been a bit overly fishy...richin, um, i forget the others. i just can't bring myself to throw out my current bottle for a new one until it's gone cuz i'm weird about wasting stuff.

has anyone used golden boy fish sauce? i made a mental note about it after reading something...somewhere.

i'm lots of help.

am0n potung has maesri and i think mae ploy curry paste. i usually use maesri and most of them are good except the karee one? it's like yellow-brown and tastes like indian curry.

you can't buy golden boy fish sauce

I got Squid brand -- I think some tv chef recommended it -- and like it a lot.

I always get Three Crab Brand - it's still foul ass in a bottle because hey it's fish sauce, but it's mellower than some of the overly strong other ones I've tried. Kind of sweeter tasting.

It's labled 'nuoc mam nhi', and I've heard the 'nhi' means its the extra virgin olive oil of fish sauce - the first fermentation and supposedly better quality, that you use for sauces more than cooking.

I haven't looked through Hot Salty Sour Sweet in a long time. I've been jonesing to go through cookbooks again and find things I missed or never sounded good the last time I looked at them.

potung didn't have mae ploy last time i was there and not really into the maesri cans. they also don't have golden boy or tra chang sauces. they suck.

i've avoided 3 crabs since reading this http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/fishsauce1.html

I do not personally recommend Three Crabs Brand, which several Asian cookbook authors recommend, mainly because it does not appear to be a naturally fermented fish sauce but is, rather, a flavor-enhanced, processed food product. According to the label, hydrolyzed wheat protein and fructose are among the ingredients – both are additives that have not been adequately time-tested for their potential long-term effects on health. Their inclusion suggests that the sauce is made through the process of hydrolysis, whereby a catalyst (sometimes from chemical sources) is added to hasten fermentation, allowing the company to produce large quantities of the product in shorter periods of time than would be required in natural fermentation.

It also appears suspicious that the label states that the fish sauce is a product of Thailand but is "processed in Hong Kong," further indicating that it is more highly processed than naturally fermented fish sauce. When compared with high-quality, naturally fermented fish sauces, the additives in Three Crabs Brand, to the discerning palate, gives this fish sauce a somewhat metallic, artificial after-taste. Since there are a number of excellent natural fish sauces, produced as has been traditionally done for generations, on the market, my preference is to stay with the traditionally made and time-tested products.

Oh weird - I started buying it ages ago because I'd read some of those cookbook author recommendations and never really thought about it afterward. I don't get any weird aftertaste but maybe I'm just used to it.

But yeah, it's one of those things that really should have like two ingredients in it, I should check out others.

you can't buy golden boy fish sauce

― john water (harbl), Thursday, 4 November 2010 23:18 (Yesterday)

wait you can't? i could swear a place down the road from me has it.

anyway, http://importfood.com/satc2408.html

keeping my eye out for ^

When I went on the Chile Pepper Institute tour in September, one thing they had in the gift shop was chile powder made from a new variety they've developed, the NuMex Heritage 6-4. They claim to have bred 5x the flavor compounds into these chiles

Would be a perfect xmas present for my dad, thanks. Hope I can buy them online somewhere.

I think the Institute is the only source. I emailed them and they said they'd sell it mail order -- I guess they just haven't added it to their online shop yet. I'm going to write them for prices on 8 oz. and 1 lb.

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/

email hotchile at nmsu.edu

Tell Danise that W!ll!am Crµmp recommended their "brick-red cocaine"

I never went there the whole four years I lived in Cruces. I had friends working there and everything (who would bring me chiles, which is probably why I never felt the need to go). I should check it out next time I go visit friends there.

I also bought a pack of the Heritage 6-4 seeds, which I'm looking forward to growing next year.

Two big briskets is what's cooking

fresh spaghetti all'arrabbiata

Think I'll grill some burgers today.

Also, we're in a good stretch of high pressure/low humidity, so I can make some peanut brittle.

laurel, i am watching a cooking show right now and they just put lemon cucumber in a soup!

you can't buy golden boy fish sauce

― john water (harbl), Thursday, 4 November 2010 23:18 (Yesterday)

wait you can't? i could swear a place down the road from me has it.

anyway, http://importfood.com/satc2408.html

keeping my eye out for ^

― arby's, Friday, November 5, 2010 7:07 PM (Yesterday)

i was making a joke about a song about golden boy peanuts, arby's

Wow, tza! So I guess it's not just a one-off. Does the soup look good??

it did! it was more a bright vegetable puree soup though, served w/ actual pieces of veg. it was a show about the 'new guard' of french cooking - those throwing old french cooking rules out the window and being adventurous with new techniques and flavors.

ay amon you know that fish sauce is pretty barf-y anyway right? that usually it's when you add it to stuff that it becomes magical

made a shaved brussels sprouts & parm salad last night. forgot how delicious it is! and sooo easy!

made persian recipe for lamb meatballs, butternut squash with prunes and walnuts, and arab salad last night

from claudia roden middle east cookbook and najmieh batmanglij vegetarian cookbook

lamb shanks with three types of mushrooms, puy lentils, shallots, onions, cheap shiraz and redcurrant jelly

lamb shanks!! jealous!

Tza, what's the sprouts & parm recp? Was remembering sprouts the other day in produce sect but didn't spring for them for lack of immediate ideas.

http://www.culinate.com/user/Marissa-RD/recipes/marissas_recipes/shaved_brussels_sprouts_salad_with_pecorino_romano_and_walnuts

i have had many variations - that's the one i made last night, but did not use walnuts as boy has a violent dislike of nuts other than peanuts (boo!). i think next time i will toast walnuts on the side and throw into my serving. first had this at lupa... it's on their antipasti plate of awesomeness... along w/ roasted beets in a mustardy vinaigrette, which i also love to make now.

ay amon you know that fish sauce is pretty barf-y anyway right? that usually it's when you add it to stuff that it becomes magical

― just sayin, Saturday, November 6, 2010 1:41 PM

yes i know what fish sauce is and there are different degrees of fishiness w/ each brand, the better quality ones are supposed to be less fish-stinky.

also potung had mae ploy curry pastes in stock, why didn't harbl tell me!

minestrone soup with kale and a barley/veg casserole type thing

roasting a pork tenderloin marinated in bourbon, soy, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger... hope it turns out well! this is my first ever attempt at roasting a large piece of meat! (finally bought a meat thermometer lol)

i am roasting pork tenderloin too jinx! bought it cuz it was super cheap at fancy supermkt, like $2 a lb for organic/local/etc. anyway, laid it out and dressed w/ a mashed-up combo of garlic (lots), fresh sage & rosemary, dried thyme, salt, olive oil. (plus threw in some pan drippings from chicken breast i cooked yesterday cuz i hate to let a reduction go to waste. misguided, maybe, but we'll see.) refrigerating now to marinate, will cook late tonight, along with roast brussels sprouts. pinot grigio because i lack taste.

yr marinade sounds amazing though, theresa

i made pancetta/pea risotto for dinner
+ spinach/beet salad
+ apple/pear/thyme/cinnamon/caramel+sea salt sauce puff pastry thing for dessert

thanks, daylight savings time

so... i opened the oven when my timer went off and the meat looked raw so i thought 'hmm this oven is weird maybe it wasn't hot enough' and let it cook a bit longer. when i opened it again i noticed it was not raw at all.. the color had changed from the marinade. so... the outer ends were a dried out but the center is ok. i need a light in my oven :( had some frozen 'gravy' from the last time i cooked pork (pan stuff + apple cider + brown sugar) - defrosted and added some bourbon and simmered to make a sauce to put over the dry bits, but it is too sweet. anyway.... now i know never to trust how things look in my oven!

dang la lech that dessert sounds amazzzzzzing.

i'm telling you -- TJ's puff pastry is a gift from the gods
it can be sweet or savory, small or large
love that shit and dread the day it disappears (seasonally)

i was making a joke about a song about golden boy peanuts, arby's

― john water (harbl), Saturday, November 6, 2010 11:20 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

loloops. i even have that one.

lamb shanks!! jealous!

― just1n3, Sunday, 7 November 2010 17:43 (Yesterday)

they were great, and hardly any effort

usual extent of cooking = steak or pasta

yesterday's pork roast w/ garlic & herb pulp came out AMAZING. holy shit! was worried that the fresh herbs would be too bitter, but no, not at all, so enticing. 40-some minutes at 375 til 155 or so on thermometer, et voila. some of the most amazingly best meats i've put in my mouth in quite a while. ever so slightly soft pink in the middle, juicy as fuck, unbeatable. tonight i baked some cauliflower to go with leftover slices, last night's few brussels sprouts exhausted. was epic (again).

admit the "adding chicken pan scrapings" bit was a weird idea, but it worked awful damn well. salty, but the dressing:pork ratio was so damn low that the extra salt was a plus, really. i would proudly serve this food to any people at any time. ace+

chili!

omg jinx

using a crockpot for the ~first time ever~

not sure how it's gonna turn out :-/

amazingly

it needs something

try garam masala.

just made puttanesca for the first time - don't think i've ever eaten it before - and, wow, this is an amazing combination of flavours. i never knew!

Last night: Too much beer, dry roasted dusty pissnuts and a roll mop.

Not exactly cooking I know, but a classic of the English genre, inexplicably omitted from Jane Grigson's otherwise excellent English Food.

(making up for it tonight with pork and anchovy meatballs, fresh tagliatelle with sage and butter and courgette fritters to start).

just realized i should have thrown a little splash of fish sauce in that chili i made. it's good but not amazing. not bad for something quickly thrown together on wed night. i need a crockpot for sure.

it's good but not amazing.
i feel like this about most weeknight dinners
have been soooooooooo busy with work the last few weeks that i have been relying on dull staples (pasta, salads, meat-starch-veg)
maybe next week i can bring it to get ready for t-giving