Cooking at Home

[Aqualung]

Since my local Cantonese restaurant closed I'm missing their mini salt and pepper spare ribs. Best I ever had. 

I used to order them with extra chopped chillies, chopped spring onions and ginger. Never found out what oil they were cooked in but it was extremely tasty. I used to love mixing my ribs and the rest into a special fried rice. 

 

[ChiFlyer]

12 minutes ago, Aqualung said:

Since my local Cantonese restaurant closed I'm missing their mini salt and pepper spare ribs. Best I ever had. 

I used to order them with extra chopped chillies, chopped spring onions and ginger. Never found out what oil they were cooked in but it was extremely tasty. I used to love mixing my ribs and the rest into a special fried rice. 

 

There is a fair chance that the oil was Peanut Oil. It is used frequently in Asian cooking and adds flavor. It has a high smoke point meaning it does not burn easily.

[Yesitisdakid]

10 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

I usually make this dish with Flat Iron Beef (need to order from Sloane's or Passion)

I get nice flat irons from friendship they also have nice tri tips

[forcebwithu]

14 minutes ago, Yesitisdakid said:

I get nice flat irons from friendship they also have nice tri tips

I've found the Kitchenware store next to Foodland on Klang a good source for quality pots and pans.

[Yesitisdakid]

12 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

I've found the Kitchenware store next to Foodland on Klang a good source for quality pots and pans.

This is the flat irons i was referring to 

 

[forcebwithu]

6 minutes ago, Yesitisdakid said:

This is the flat irons i was referring to 

 

Doh. 

[ChiFlyer]

11 hours ago, Yesitisdakid said:

I get nice flat irons from friendship they also have nice tri tips

Excellent info. Do you know if they also carry Flank and Skirt?

[Yesitisdakid]

4 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

Excellent info. Do you know if they also carry Flank and Skirt?

Have seen flank but not skirt

[Glasseye]

On 2/7/2023 at 12:32 PM, Yesitisdakid said:

This is the flat irons i was referring to 

 

 

Seems like the place to go for meat in Patts.

 

Do you marinate those babies ?

Edited February 8, 2023 by Glasseye

[Yesitisdakid]

11 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

Seems like the place to go for meat in Patts.

 

Do you marinate those babies ?

They seem to have a butcher that knows what they are doing. No marinating for me 

[Glasseye]

7 hours ago, Yesitisdakid said:

They seem to have a butcher that knows what they are doing. No marinating for me 

 

Cool. I tend to like to taste meat without sauce, but with salt.

 

Occasionally a good marinate can be enjoyable. I also like horseradish with roast beef sometimes.

[KWA]

Chicken, mushrooms, onion, carrot in a sauce of chicken cup-a-soup.

In the pot.

 

Plated.

[ChiFlyer]

Coq au Riesling

This is a slight variation on Coq au Vin (Chicken in Wine Sauce). The difference being that Riesling Wine is used for the sauce. This is an ATK recipe, so no direct recipe link, just a PDF file.

Coq au Riesling.pdf

This is a little more serious of an effort at about 2.5 hours. Read the comments in the recipe about the type of Riesling to buy. Basically, you want a dry one (higher alcohol content). The dish is best served IMO with egg noodles. I used De Cecco Pappardelle Pasta. It was ok, but I will go with a little less broad type of pasta next time, probably Tagliatelle.

The GF fiancee very much enjoyed the chicken, but wasn't too wild about the noodles. I think moving to Tagliatelle will take care of that.

Rough chop all of the mirepoix ingredients, as you will discard these near the end.

A few pics.

In the pot ready to serve.

 

Plated.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[ChiFlyer]

General Tsao's Chicken

There is a story that goes with this dish. General Tsao was an iron man with not much of a sense of humor. He told his chef that he wanted a tasty chicken dinner. If General Tsao did not like the offering, the chef would be executed. The highly motivated and genuinely inspired chef came up with this dish. The chef lived to talk about it or so the story goes. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso's_chicken 

I like this dish. It is savory, a little sweet, and also spicy. It is also on the table in a little over an hour. The only drawback is the cleanup is a bit messy due to flash frying the chicken, the use of cornstarch, and the thickness of the sauce. I would call this Chinese-American cuisine. 

When I was a working IT roadie, I used to pick up an order on the way back to the hotel a couple of times a month. After I retired, it became a regular item on my home cooking lineup. I use this recipe as a base, but tweak it somewhat. My rendition has earned a "seal of approval" from my Thai lady partner. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/91499/general-tsaos-chicken-ii/

The tweaks are:

• Cut the soy sauce by 1 TBSP and replace that with 1 TBSP fish sauce
• Add 1 TBSP Sambal Oelek (Red Chili Garlic sauce).
• Cut the sugar way back. The written recipe calls for 1/2 cup (way too sweet for me). I use 3 TBSP.
• Up the amount of cornstarch in the slurry just a bit to make up for the reduced caramelization due to the lesser amount of sugar being used. Don't go too nuts with the cornstarch, or you will end up with General Tsao's Chicken Paste. The general will execute you for that. 🙂

Ready to serve.

Plated

Edited February 17, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[Glasseye]

Going to pick up a roast today at Rimping Market and bake it in my new Toshiba toaster oven. It will be the first roast I've done in over a year.

I'll fry some taters and steam some green beans or broccoli.

 

Pics later....

[Glasseye]

On 2/18/2023 at 12:10 AM, ChiFlyer said:

General Tsao's Chicken

There is a story that goes with this dish. General Tsao was an iron man with not much of a sense of humor. He told his chef that he wanted a tasty chicken dinner. If General Tsao did not like the offering, the chef would be executed. The highly motivated and genuinely inspired chef came up with this dish. The chef lived to talk about it or so the story goes. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso's_chicken 

I like this dish. It is savory, a little sweet, and also spicy. It is also on the table in a little over an hour. The only drawback is the cleanup is a bit messy due to flash frying the chicken, the use of cornstarch, and the thickness of the sauce. I would call this Chinese-American cuisine. 

When I was a working IT roadie, I used to pick up an order on the way back to the hotel a couple of times a month. After I retired, it became a regular item on my home cooking lineup. I use this recipe as a base, but tweak it somewhat. My rendition has earned a "seal of approval" from my Thai lady partner. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/91499/general-tsaos-chicken-ii/

The tweaks are:

• Cut the soy sauce by 1 TBSP and replace that with 1 TBSP fish sauce
• Add 1 TBSP Sambal Oelek (Red Chili Garlic sauce).
• Cut the sugar way back. The written recipe calls for 1/2 cup (way too sweet for me). I use 3 TBSP.
• Up the amount of cornstarch in the slurry just a bit to make up for the reduced caramelization due to the lesser amount of sugar being used. Don't go too nuts with the cornstarch, or you will end up with General Tsao's Chicken Paste. The general will execute you for that. 🙂

Ready to serve.

Plated

 

I think half the guys in here have those same place mats.... lol

 

 

 

[ChiFlyer]

40 Cloves Chicken

I am a fan of this recipe. There are countless versions available, but I prefer the one by Ina Garten for being very good and at the same time not all that complicated. Moving at a casual pace this recipe takes a little under 2 hours. Try and get garlic bulbs with bigger cloves, as these are easier to work with. The lady in the middle of the second row at the Rompho market has excellent garlic bulbs and most of the rest of her fresh produce is very good as well. For garlic and shallots we shop exclusively with her. 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-with-forty-cloves-of-garlic-recipe-1944216

I use all bone-in chicken thighs, as it is my preferred piece of the bird. I prefer to serve the dish with a side of couscous. Couscous is very easy to make and on the table in under 15 minutes.

https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/couscous.html

I like to pimp up my couscous a little by:

• Using homemade chicken broth instead of water
• Bloom a goodly pinch of saffron in the hot chicken broth
• Add raisins to the couscous
• Add chopped pecans to the couscous

In the foto below there are no pecans, as the ones I had were getting a little long in the tooth so I tossed them.

The Couscous

 

The 40 Cloves Chicken

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[Felix]

On 9/17/2022 at 8:27 AM, fforest said:

I love this salt for cooking..  Himalayan black salt....It adds a great flavor to everything....

Get in on Lazada....

 

I bought some also, but the "bad egg" smell put me off.

[ChiFlyer]

3 hours ago, Felix said:

I bought some also, but the "bad egg" smell put me off.

My preferred salt is "Morton's Coarse Kosher Salt", which I have not found available here in Thailand. I brought back several kilos on my last trip from the US in 2021, but was running low. I bought 3 lbs from a delivery service, but the price was hideous. Will not do again.

I have found a few substitutes available here in Thailand, but one needs to be careful with using them as they tend to carry a much stronger salt taste. I ruined a meal while up in Kohn Kean. It was a 5 hour preparation of Shrimp Gumbo, so that hurt. If using the local coarse salt ingredients, I would say cut your salt in half and do NOT salt fried food that requires further processing. 

[Nightcrawler]

4 hours ago, Felix said:

I bought some also, but the "bad egg" smell put me off.

That's due to its sulphur content. 

[ChiFlyer]

Sesame Ginger Chicken

I tend to like Kelsey Nixon's recipes, despite her too cute at times persona. She is direct and explains things well. I did learn a few more intermediate level cooking techniques by watching her shows. I make this Chinese-American recipe a few times a year.

https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/kelsey-nixon/sesame-ginger-chicken-2126061

I change nothing in this recipe. It is on the table in about 2 hours, but a significant part of that is a one hour marinading step. It is a little messy for cleanup due to the flash fry step and also the overall use of Corn Starch.

She does use much of the Asian Spice cabinet in this one, but the taste is very good as judged by my Thai fiancee.

A few pics:

Ready to serve

 

Plated

 

[ChiFlyer]

Pasta Norcina

This is an ATK recipe, so only a pdf file is available. Despite ATK being a significant influence on my becoming a decent home cook, I no longer watch the show due to their becoming a money grabbing outfit after Kimball and Bishop split. Anyway here is the recipe.

Pasta alla Norcina.pdf

This is about a 2 hour effort and one is on their feet for much of that. This is Northern Italian food. If you are counting calories at this time, this may not be for you. It is pasta in a cream sauce. I used Shells instead of Orecchiette for the pasta just because that is what I had on hand. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

A few pics

Ready to serve

Plated

      

[ChiFlyer]

Steak au Poivre

This is a favorite "making something fancy" recipe of mine.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/steak-au-poivre-recipe-1916730

One needs to be a little careful with the flambe step. Good news is that one only uses about 1/3 cup of the cognac, so there is some available sipping pleasure in the week ahead.

I serve this with a baked potato. I use an ATK recipe for that. This method yields excellent baked potatoes. I like to dress mine with salt, pepper, butter, bacon, sour cream, and chopped scallions. Not great for counting calories, but damn delicious.

ATK Baked Potatoes.pdf

Some pics.

Plated

 

I often enjoy the second prep of the baked potato most of all.

choose files...

Edited March 13, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[ChiFlyer]

Roasted Salmon and Sweet Potatoes

We have moved much of the kitchen gear over to the new house and we are doing our cooking there. The stove top seems to have a quirk or two and will likely be replaced. In the mean time I have an induction hub which can get the job done on a limited basis. Good news is that both the oven and the fixed dishwasher are working well enough.

Tonight I made a standby -> Roasted Salmon and Sweet Potatoes.

https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/281181/sheet-pan-salmon-with-sweet-potatoes-broccoli/

There are a lot of pluses about this recipe.

• It's healthy
• Less than one hour delivery time to the table
• It tastes very good
• Easy cleanup
• No hard to find ingredients

A pic of the meal plated

[ChiFlyer]

Chicken Adobo

This is a recent addition to my lineup. I started with a basic recipe, but I am am not as happy with the result as I would like to be. Part of that is me.

https://therecipecritic.com/chicken-adobo/

I have eaten this dish probably a couple of hundred times. I was married to a Filipina for 10 years. In case anyone does not know this is most likely the national dish of the Philippines.

What I am thinking about changing:

• The vinegar. The recipe calls for White Vinegar. I went with White Wine Vinegar, as that was what I had on hand. The result was too tangy. I will likely try with Rice Wine Vinegar next time.
• I got a nice browning of the chicken at a moderately high heat. I should have shut off the heat and let the pan cool for a bit before adding the vinegar-soy mixture and ingredients. The pan was too hot, so when I added the chicken back in it ended up being a little tough. This was likely also partly caused by using White Wine Vinegar. 
• The recipe could use a little more heat. I am thinking of dusting the chicken with a little cayenne as well as salt and pepper. Additionally, IMO a TBSP or two of Sambal Olek (Red Chili Garlic Sauce) should be added to the vinegar-soy mixture.

All in all, the dish turned out reasonably well. The T-fiancee liked it and said lets try it again sometime with the changes I have listed.

VM was out of Jalapenos, so I used a green Thai chili with moderate heat. It worked reasonably well, but I think that Jalapenos would be better.

Ready to serve

 

Plated