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ChiFlyer

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31 minutes ago, Derek Dangleberries said:

That egg looks perfect!

How did you get it like that !!!!???

Agreed, it does look spot on.

But it would look even better with 2 or 3 more next to it !!

Mr, Still, Krapow normally has a load of garlic in it, so whenever i order it i have to ask for it without garlic, it's very refreshing to see you make the dish without that most foul ingredient mate.....

Edited by SteveBC
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3 hours ago, SteveBC said:

Agreed, it does look spot on.

But it would look even better with 2 or 3 more next to it !!

Mr, Still, Krapow normally has a load of garlic in it, so whenever i order it i have to ask for it without garlic, it's very refreshing to see you make the dish without that most foul ingredient mate.....

He should have put some garlic in it. 🙂That egg does look excellent indeed. I think I have seen Ming Tsai (well known cooking TV guy) do that as well.

Edited by ChiFlyer
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Chicken Parm

The America's Test Kitchen (ATK) recipe for this item is worth reading. It explains why many home cooked versions of this dish get messed up.

Chicken Parm.pdf

The use of fresh Basil in this recipe is critical.

I follow this recipe exactly, well almost. I cut the chicken breasts according to a method that ATK published a few years after they published this recipe. Cut the breast in half across the middle. The fat end can now be butterflied into two pieces. One can then pound each of the three pieces accordingly. Some of the three may require no pounding. For pounding (not that kind you dirty birds 🙂), I place two pieces of chicken on some plastic warp. Fold more of the same sheet of plastic wrap over (start with about a 12" piece of plastic wrap) and gently pound the chicken with a mallet to the desired thickness.  

I have received many compliments on this dish. It is filling, so I do not serve a pasta with it. For this reason, I make only half of the sauce. Instead of a pasta, I make what one might call toasted bruschetta. The recipe for that is something I came up with based on a few other items that I had read about. I will detail that recipe in front of the pic.

Pics

The Chicken Parm

Chicken Parm - A.jpg

The Toasted Bruschetta

This is actually pretty simple and quick, but I often get more compliments from this than I do the Chicken Parm. Take about a 12" baguette and cut it on the bias into 1.5" or so slices. The 1.5" size is an upper limit. I usually try and go a little smaller.

Cut a garlic clove in half and scrape it against the baguette pieces. Put a little olive oil on the slices (just a little) put some cheese on top leftover from the Parm, and broil it for about 2 minutes. It is done just when the cheese shows some initial browning spots.

Pull the baking sheet from the oven. Use the leftover sauce from the Parm to top the baguette pieces. Then top the baguette pieces with fresh Basil.

Chicken Parm - B.jpg 

Edited by ChiFlyer
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35 minutes ago, john luke said:

133EAFC6-20F4-408F-938E-947423D75CC0.jpeg
Perhaps cheating but I am a fan of these bread buns that you buy and cook in the oven.  

As long as you like them John it doesn't matter whether you think it's cheating or not, but have you tried baking your own buns, it works out at a fraction of the price and fresh too.

These worked out about 40 baht for the lot and they freeze very easily too.

 

IMG_20201125_121744.jpg

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On 6/19/2022 at 1:30 AM, ChiFlyer said:

Chicken Parm

The America's Test Kitchen (ATK) recipe for this item is worth reading. It explains why many home cooked versions of this dish get messed up.

Chicken Parm.pdf 195.62 kB · 1 download

The use of fresh Basil in this recipe is critical.

I follow this recipe exactly, well almost. I cut the chicken breasts according to a method that ATK published a few years after they published this recipe. Cut the breast in half across the middle. The fat end can now be butterflied into two pieces. One can then pound each of the three pieces accordingly. Some of the three may require no pounding. For pounding (not that kind you dirty birds 🙂), I place two pieces of chicken on some plastic warp. Fold more of the same sheet of plastic wrap over (start with about a 12" piece of plastic wrap) and gently pound the chicken with a mallet to the desired thickness.  

I have received many compliments on this dish. It is filling, so I do not serve a pasta with it. For this reason, I make only half of the sauce. Instead of a pasta, I make what one might call toasted bruschetta. The recipe for that is something I came up with based on a few other items that I had read about. I will detail that recipe in front of the pic.

Pics

The Chicken Parm

Chicken Parm - A.jpg

The Toasted Bruschetta

This is actually pretty simple and quick, but I often get more compliments from this than I do the Chicken Parm. Take about a 12" baguette and cut it on the bias into 1.5" or so slices. The 1.5" size is an upper limit. I usually try and go a little smaller.

Cut a garlic clove in half and scrape it against the baguette pieces. Put a little olive oil on the slices (just a little) put some cheese on top leftover from the Parm, and broil it for about 2 minutes. It is done just when the cheese shows some initial browning spots.

Pull the baking sheet from the oven. Use the leftover sauce from the Parm to top the baguette pieces. Then top the baguette pieces with fresh Basil.

Chicken Parm - B.jpg 

I forgot to mention something about the cheese in the original post. The recipe calls for a cheese blend of Mozzarella and Fontina. I have never been able to find Fontina in the Pattaya area. I started using Gruyere as a substitute after doing some internet searches looking for substitutes for Fontina. Works well enough.

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hmmm - New guy with a question here.

I just noticed that the pdf file for the Chicken Parm recipe can not be opened. It throws an error saying that I do not have permission to share the file on 24x7.

Can someone explain why I do not have permission to share a pdf file? Not bitchin about it, just trying to understand if the problem is me or something else.

In the mean time one can find the Chicken Parm recipe at the following link:

https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/atk-best-chicken-parmesan/1493322

ATK has stopped sharing their recipes unless one signs up for some kind of membership. They used to be pretty open about this, but after the break up of the shows founders they became painful to deal with in this manner. The good news is that if one does a Google search on "America's Test Kitchen + recipe name", one can usually find the full recipe that someone copied into a link.

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1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said:

hmmm - New guy with a question here.

I just noticed that the pdf file for the Chicken Parm recipe can not be opened. It throws an error saying that I do not have permission to share the file on 24x7.

Can someone explain why I do not have permission to share a pdf file? Not bitchin about it, just trying to understand if the problem is me or something else.

In the mean time one can find the Chicken Parm recipe at the following link:

https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/atk-best-chicken-parmesan/1493322

ATK has stopped sharing their recipes unless one signs up for some kind of membership. They used to be pretty open about this, but after the break up of the shows founders they became painful to deal with in this manner. The good news is that if one does a Google search on "America's Test Kitchen + recipe name", one can usually find the full recipe that someone copied into a link.

It's not a permission issue, just that the forum software can't display the contents of a pdf so BM's would have to download the pdf file to view. Best to upload as a jpg which the forum software can display.

I used this online converter (link) to convert the recipe to jpg.

0001.jpg

0002.jpg

0003.jpg

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On 6/17/2022 at 2:55 AM, ChiFlyer said:

I have never seen Chives in the greater Pattaya area. I substitute the top ends of fresh scallions for the 2 TBSP of chives in the dumpling section.

You may be able to get garlic stems, sometimes called garlic chives in western stores. They are the flower stems from the garlic plant and are more robust than European chives.. They have a garlic flavour and cook like chives when cut fine. They are popular with Chinese cooks.

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I cook at home all the time, but I don't generally venture into the realm of Thai food. After all, why bother when you have experts on every street corner who know exactly what they're doing. If I want Thai food, I go out to eat it. One recent exception was a dish I made on the weekend, prawns with some stir-fried vegetables in holy basil sauce. Delicious, even if I say it myself.

HB1.jpg

Holy basil is, of course, is the herb that gives the famous Thai kra pao dishes their characteristic flavour. I saw this ready-made sauce in Big C Extra (Friendship has it too) and it's very simple and easy to use.

HB2.jpg

All you do is stir fry the meat or fish and vegetables of your choice. and when they're done just add the sauce and mix everything well together. Have a side of rice or noodles, and you've got a quick and tasty meal. Of course, being an ignorant foreign devil, I preferred to have fries with salad rather than rice, but that's just me, lol.

HB3.jpg

One tip is that sautéed mushrooms work wonderfully with this particular sauce, I'm going to do the same thing this weekend for the GF to try, but with far more mushrooms this time. The sauce is also a bit spicy, but we like very spicy so I'll add some chopped birds eye chillies too.

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9 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

It's not a permission issue, just that the forum software can't display the contents of a pdf so BM's would have to download the pdf file to view. Best to upload as a jpg which the forum software can display.

I used this online converter (link) to convert the recipe to jpg.

0001.jpg

0002.jpg

0003.jpg

Thanks - I am now able to directly display the pdf file here at 24x7. I have no idea why.

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15 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

hmmm - New guy with a question here.

I just noticed that the pdf file for the Chicken Parm recipe can not be opened. It throws an error saying that I do not have permission to share the file on 24x7.

Can someone explain why I do not have permission to share a pdf file? Not bitchin about it, just trying to understand if the problem is me or something else.

In the mean time one can find the Chicken Parm recipe at the following link:

https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/atk-best-chicken-parmesan/1493322

ATK has stopped sharing their recipes unless one signs up for some kind of membership. They used to be pretty open about this, but after the break up of the shows founders they became painful to deal with in this manner. The good news is that if one does a Google search on "America's Test Kitchen + recipe name", one can usually find the full recipe that someone copied into a link.

@tommy dee  Can you assist please?  

I am able to view said PDF file.

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17 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

 

Interesting as I still see it as a link requiring a download to view.

image.png

I am sorry. I did not express myself very well. Before it threw an error if one tried to download it. Now it can be downloaded. I misspoke when I said directly viewed.

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Gnocchi with Roasted Summer Vegetables

On a lighter side of the news as compared to the Roe v Wade discussion.

The GF really likes this dish, which surprised me.

https://www.simplyscratch.com/sheet-pan-gnocchi-with-summer-vegetables

I pretty much followed the recipe, but I mixed each part of the pasta and veg in a separate bowl with the EVOO and salt and pepper before adding to the baking sheet. I line the baking sheet with aluminum foil instead of parchment paper.

I buy freshly packaged Gnocchi from Lazada using the DeCeeco label. I like the taste.

Because Western ovens are smaller in Thailand than they are in the US, I use smaller baking sheets and split the ingredients across the two sheets. I recommend placing the Gnocchi and tomatoes on the same sheet as the flavors blend well together.

I like this recipe in that it only takes one hour to make and has minimal cleanup time, so that the GF does not start to hate me.

https://www.simplyscratch.com/sheet-pan-gnocchi-with-summer-vegetables

A few pics:

Coming out of the oven

 

Gnocchi and Veg 2 - A.jpg

PGnocchi and Veg 2 - C.jpgGnocchi and Veg 2 - B.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chinese Chicken Wraps

I have made a dish based upon this recipe a dozen or so times over the years.

https://myyearwithchris.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/chinese-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

The link is a review of an America's Test Kitchen (ATK) recipe by the same name. The ATK version is no longer available for free on the internet.

I have made a fair number of changes to this recipe. These are:

  • I no longer make the lettuce wrap version. I have made these and they are good in their own right. The lettuce wraps version is healthier (lettuce vs rice), but they were always falling apart and I really like the way the sauce tastes over some Jasmine Rice.
  • For the sauce I use only 50% of the soy sauce and replace the reduction with fish sauce.
  • For the sauce I use a tsp of Sambal Olek (red chili garlic sauce) instead of the red pepper flakes.
  • I double the garlic in the stir fry portion.
  • I do not use water chestnuts in the stir fry portion. I do not like them all that much. I increase the celery a little to maintain the crunch factor.

A few things to note.

  • The author of the article in the link above said that the recipe tasted a little bland, but that may have been due to his being out of Hoisen Sauce. The Hoisen Sauce indeed is a critical ingredient. It's flavor greatly heightens the other subtler seasonings.
  • In order to make this recipe, I use a high end Kitchen Aid food processor to grind the chicken. This is an expensive piece of equipment. There are smaller much less expensive ones available from Lazada (1200 THB I think). If you use one of the less expensive ones, you will need to process more than 2 batches of chicken and also scrape down the sides of the grinder after every few (3 or 4) pulses.
  • The GF really likes this dish as well.

A few pics:

In the pan

Chinese Chicken - A.jpg

Plated

Chinese Chicken - B.jpg

Edited by ChiFlyer
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Beef Bourguignon

This write-up was started in Word. When I brought it into 24x7, a few formatting errors showed up that I could not edit out. It looks a little sloppy in a few places, but I think that the overall content does not suffer.  

I always liked this dish. It is a fair amount of work, so I only prepare it once or twice a year. My preparation is based on Ina Garten’s version of the recipe, which is much easier than some others that I have tried.

https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/beef-bourguignon-ina-garten-39-on-gourmets-list-of-women-game-changers/#recipe

I had a prolonged exchange with one of the guys over at PA who is a retired chef. Claims he hates cooking now and goes out most of the time. However, he offered some experienced advice and I incorporated his suggestions into the version of the recipe in the link above.

If you do not want to go through this effort, L’Auberge over on third road (about 1 km South of Pattaya Tai) makes a very good version of this dish. If you visit L’Auberge, be sure to try his Potatoes Au Gratin as a side dish.

If you make the full version of the recipe, you will easily have enough food for 6 people. I only had 2 people, so I cut everything in half. I still had plenty of leftovers.

The changes from the recipe in the link are as follows:

  • Soak the cut-up Beef pieces in red wine for two hours before beginning. Since I am using a lesser amount of Beef, I only used 1/2 a bottle of wine. I do this in a sealed plastic bag that I put into the fridge. \
  • Drain the wine but save it for later in the overall process. Pat the beef with paper towels and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then lightly coat the beef with flour before browning the beef. Tossing each of 3 batches of beef each with 1 TBSP of the flour in a plastic bag works well for me.
  • I remove the veggies from the pot before flambeing the Cognac. Also, move the pot to an open area before the flambe.  
  • Otherwise I follow the recipe.

    A few tips to keep in mind are:

u

·        Cut up your veggies (mirepoix) to a moderate size. This is a French country stew.

      Do NOT drown the stew in wine. The beef pieces should show above the liquid when it goes into the oven.

·        This is a lengthy overall process, so I break it into many steps. As an example, I prepare the ingredients a little at a time throughout the day. Things you can do like this are cut-up the beef, slice the mushrooms, cut-up the bacon lardons, cut up the veggies, and get your cooking gear and non-frigerated ingredients on the counter ready to go. Do not get yourself to the dining table all worn out. It detracts from enjoying time with your guests.

·        Do NOT put the cooked bacon and even more so the browned beef on paper towels. You want those liquids in the stew.

    Overall this turned out really well. The GF loved it. The only disappointment was the pearl onions. If one can find frozen pearl onions in the Pattaya area, you are doing better than me. I tried some cocktail onions that I bought from Lazada. They were just wrong. The good news was that the taste did not really get into the stew and I just pushed them to the side of the plate. The GF seemed to like them.

       in any case I can get around the pearl onion problem with the following recipe.

          https://www.finecooking.com/ingredient/pearl-onions?

T    This is once again a little more labor, but could be done the day before. I have used this method before and it works well enough.

 

A few pics

The Flambe

Beef Bourguignon - A.jpg

 

Ready to go into the oven. Notice that the beef tops are above the liquid for the most part.

Beef Bourguignon - B.jpg

 

Ready to eat

Beef Bourguignon - C.jpg

 

I made egg noodles from the US as a side fish. I brought back a few packages of these late last year.

Beef Bourguignon - D.jpg

 

Plated

Beef Bourguignon - E.jpg

 

Edited by ChiFlyer
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Schezwan Beef

I tried a new recipe at home tonight. It turned out well, but needs a few adjustments and improvements.

https://www.lovefood.com/recipes/58323/low-fat-sichuan-beef-recipe

What I noticed just from reading through the recipe was that IMO it needed a little more punch to be called a Schezwan recipe, which are known for being spicy and flavorful. I did the following:

  • I cut the marinade by 1 TBSP of Soy Sauce and replaced that with 1 TBSP of Fish Sauce.
  • I went a little heavier (not much) on the ingredients of Ginger, Garlic, Schezwan Peppercorns, and 5 Spice Chinese seasoning. Be careful not to get too heavy with the Schezwan Pepercorns. They do carry.
  • I added 1/2 tsp of Sambal Olak (Thai Red Chili Paste) to the marinade after the beef was removed.

The recipe turned out very well. Both the GF and I really liked it except that the beef was a little too chewy. I used a decent Flat Iron cut from Sloane's. It needed to be tenderized before adding to the marinade. I usually do this by using an America's Test Kitchen (ATK ) method of placing the beef in a bath of 1 TBSP of water and 1 TSP of Baking Soda for 10 minutes and then rinsing before adding to the marinade I will do next time and report back.

In any case a few pics.

Finished Cooking

Sicuan Beef -A.jpg

 

Plated

Sicuan Beef -B.jpg 

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Moroccan Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup

Usually, going into the weekend I make a pot of soup and then work my way through it for lunches during the week. This weekend I made the title recipe and it turned out very good.

https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/251278/moroccan-chicken-sweet-potato-soup/

I did change up just a little a few things in the recipe.

  • I thought the cooking times were a little too brief. The author seemed to be going for healthier under cooked vegetables. Me I like a little softer veg product, certainly not mushy.
  • I did not add the garlic to the first pass and instead cooked the onions for 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes.
  • I added the garlic (doubling the stated amount) with the spices and cooked that for less than a minute more. I also increased the amount of Cayenne Pepper for 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp.
  • I extended some of the remaining cooking times by a few minutes in the remainder of the steps.

A key to this and any soup recipe is the quality of the broth that is used. I have found the canned broths available in the greater Pattaya area to be a little short of terrible. They are fatty and loaded with salt. I choose to make my own broth. Once or twice a month I make about 1.5 quarts, freezing what is not soon to be used.

The recipe I use is from Alton Brown.

https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/alton-brown/chicken-soup-la-pressure-reloaded-8750044

This recipe requires a 6 qt or plus pressure cooker, not an inexpensive piece of kitchen gear. I think I paid about 15,000 for mine at Lazada. I use it frequently.

If one does not want to take the plunge on a piece of equipment like this, one could make chicken broth via a different method. I did this for years back in the US. This method is an all day affair, but with minimal labor IMO.

Also from Alton Brown.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/chicken-stock-recipe-1914051

An improvement to the second method is to brown the chicken in the oven at about 375 F for 30 minutes. This reduces the amount of fat that one has to eliminate later on in the process.

Anyway, getting back finally to the topic, here is a pic of the title soup. It was delicious.

Moroccan Sweet Potato and Chicken Soup.jpg

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New Mexico Chile Rubbed Steak

In the US I enjoyed preparing both Latin and Southwestern US dishes. It is difficult to find some of the ingredients for these dishes in Thailand. The primary problem is the savory peppers (Poblano, Ancho, New Mexico) that are central to Latin recipes. Thailand most certainly has a complete arsenal of hot peppers, but nothing that I have been able to find in the way of savory Chiles. When I was in the US late last Fall, I brought back large bags of Anchos and New Mexico Chiles. Had to cry a little today, as I opened the cabinet to discover that my Anchos had gotten moldy.

I have tried growing Poblanos on the balcony of my condo with no success. I am on the shady side of the building and on a higher floor that causes problems where the wind prevents the buds from forming. Any pepper needs plenty of sunshine and also must be out of the range of high winds. The high winds knock the flowers off of the plant before they can form a pepper.

The good news was that I was looking for the New Mexico Chiles in the cabinet in order to make this dish.

New Mexico Rubbed Steak.pdf

I hope the pdf format is acceptable to those who might have interest. This recipe was originally published by America's Test Kitchen (ATK), but they have gone through some ownership changes so that their recipes are no longer available for free on the net. This is a write-up from some other guys and as near as I can tell is the same as the ATK recipe.

The recipe turned out well and the GF gave me a thumbs up on it. I used Hangar Steak, which is an imperfect choice for this recipe. Strip (close to Hangar) or a thick Sirloin (could not find) are better choices. I had to play with the cooking times for the steak a little as I had a thinner cut of meat than what the recipe was written for.

Obviously, I do not have a Weber living on an upper floor of a Jomtien condo. I think the neighbors might take issue with me if I drifted hot sparks their way. I use a Lodge Grill Pan on the stove top and that works reasonably well.

A few pics.

Cooking on the grill

New Mexico Pepper Rubbed Steaks - A.jpg

 

Off of the grill

New Mexico Pepper Rubbed Steaks - B.jpg

 

For a side dish I made what I call Spicy-Cheesy Potatoes. This is something I came up with myself

  • Cut up a few Red Potatoes into 1.5 " pieces.
  • Place within a large enough piece of aluminum foil to wrap them up with a seal and season with Salt, Black Pepper, Red Pepper Flakes, and Celery Salt.
  • Roast in the oven at 375 F for one hour. Everyone's oven is different. Mine runs cool because it is older.
  • Let it cool a little and then garnish with Sharp Cheddar Cheese.
  • Re-wrap loosely and return to the oven at 200 F, until ready to serve.

New Mexico Pepper Rubbed Steaks - C.jpg  

Edited by ChiFlyer
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Chicken Scarpiello

This is a favorite recipe of mine to make at home a few times a year. The ingredients (chicken, mushrooms, bell pepper, garlic, capers, pepperochinos) can be cut up ahead of time and added as needed. I would treat this as a stir fry recipe where one has all ingredients ready to go before starting the cooking. The temp control is critical before putting into the oven.

https://thisishowicook.com/chicken-scarpariello/

A few pics:

Out of the the oven:
Chicken Scarpiello - A.jpg

 

Side dish of some Sea Shell Pasta (Conchiglie, Orecchiette works as well).
Chicken Scarpiello - B.jpg

 

Plated
Chicken Scarpiello - C.jpg

Edited by ChiFlyer
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