Fishinnards

I know it's been 8 years since this Tomato sauce tasting, but I read it with great interest a while back. I usually buy San Marzano DOP when I cook southern Italian. I decided to try the winner (Hunts) instead of something else from Italy. When I was cooking, I noticed that the sodium content was way higher on the Hunts than whatever else I'm used to using. I also notice quite a bit of variation in sodium content between types of canned tomatoes. I was wondering if anyone remembers if this was controlled for in the tasting. It appears that it was not. I haven't gone back to using Hunts after my first try because I like to salt my own food. This was a few months ago so I don't remember the numbers, but I just looked it up on the Hunt's website and it says 190mg per 1/2 cup. I compared it to Cento San Marzano DOP which I think was the other one I had at the time. This website says 20mg of sodium per 1/2 cup. That means Hunts has almost 10x more sodium than Cento (and probably most others). Since people like salt (myself included) I think this might skew any taste comparison between brands. I was a bit surprised that nobody noticed this, though It's been a while since I read the whole thread, so maybe it's in there.

Last night, rice, vegetables (cucumber, carrots, red dandelion greens, green beans, Thai basil, napa cabbage, lettuce), napa cabbage stir fried with garlic, pork, palm sugar, white pepper and fish sauce ผัดผักกาดจีน (pad pak kat chin), omelet with minced pork ไข่เจียวหมูสับ (kai jiew mu sap), green mango salad ยำมะม่วง (yum mamuang) mango, red onion, culantro, cilantro, peanuts, garlic, fresh chillies, palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.

Saturday I made some vegetarian Indian food for a small gathering at my house. Subzi Biriyani (basmanti rice, cumin, black cumin, whole garam masala and ground garam masala, garlic, onions, ghee, saffron, cream, chilli powder, peas, carrots, cauliflower, green beans, kerwa water etc.) kachumber (cucumber, tomato, onion, lime, cilantro, salt, chaat masala) Chana Dal (fresh chillies, cumin, coriander, garlic, ghee, tomato, cilantro), Aloo Methi Paneer (fresh fenugreek, potatoes, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chili powder). Also, not pictured Bhel Puri Chaat, papads and lots of beers (Three philosophers, Maharaja, Dirty Bastard, Oberon, Citizen etc.)

Garlic and galanga are optional. I roast a small piece of galanga, about the size of a nickle, with the rice and then pound about half of it for the dressing, the other half goes into the water (2-4 tablespoons) that is use to cook the chicken and then is removed. You could also just add a pinch of dried galangal powder to the dressing. I mince a 1 clove of garlic with the chicken per David Thompson, sometimes when I remember. It's totally optional, but nice. Chicken skin is separate. I don't like to waste it so I use the Danny Bowien method. I put the skin between two pieces of parchment between two cookie sheet and roast at 300 degrees for 45 minutes. I also get the added bonus of rendered chicken fat. I just eat the skin on the side. I still have not seen fresh kaffir limes. The dried kaffir lime rind pieces I've been getting have been pretty good though. It's still very fragrant. You just need to soak it for a hour of two. The importfood.com website says not in season till July 2013, so maybe we will see some soon.

Back from Florida visiting the MIL for a week. Kept it simple with a chicken salad, (laap gai) ลาบไก่ (Ayrshire farms chicken, roasted rice powder, roasted chilli powder, galanga, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, sawtooth coriander [aka culantro], mint, lime juice, fish sauce, shallots, palm sugar), crispy chicken skin, vegetables (cucumber, carrots, napa, red dandelion greens, green beans, horopa basil) and rice.

That's funny. AFAIK Sriraja Panich is the original brand. I would be hard pressed to taste a difference between it and Shark. I alternate brands and they both taste almost exactly the same to me. Both shark and Panich come in various heat levels, with "strong" being the hottest. It sounds like they got the mild one, because their tasters said it wasn't spicy. I only buy "strong". Notice how all the others have crap in them (sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate etc.) including Huy Fong (rooster).

Grilled some pork skewers (Mu Ping หมูปิ้ง) (pork, white pepper, garlic, cilantro root, oyster sauce, dark soy, golden mountain sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar) basted with coconut milk, also grilled some tomatoes and chillies for grilled tomato chilli sauce (nam prik makheua som น้ำพริกมะเขือส้ม) with green papaya salad (som tam ส้มตำ), vegetables and rice

Mr. Mike G. only has 6 reviews. He hated Masala Art and Fojol Bros. food truck (one star), but he loved Meatballs.

On Wednesday I did a little Sri Lankan cooking lesson for my neighbors (who honeymooned in Sri Lanka). We made Kukul Mas (chicken curry), Pol Sambola (coconut sambol), Paripoo (lentils), Mallung (greens), Raabu Thakkali Sambola (radish and tomato salad) and rice.

1) You are at the mercy of your computer's sound card. That is the weakest link in plugging into the headphone jack of your computer. You may want to invest in an external usb sound card (or firewire soundcard). In my experience the unbalanced headphone jack on a laptop will pickup unwanted noise and interference from the all the processing going on inside the laptop and can sometimes get hum from an ungrounded electrical source. Since your thinking about recording as well, some soundcards come with microphone preamps which you would need to plug a balanced XLR mic cable into your laptop. One example is the M-Box, but there are others. That being said, the internal mac soundcard is not terrible, so it will probably sound good with your new headphones. What format is your music in? i.e. .mp3, wav, aiff, This will make a big difference if your listening from your computer, especially for classical music. 2) Hook up your old system, if it still sounds good then it's good. You may need to clean the contacts on the knobs and sliders. Wiggle and move them, if they crackle, they will need to be cleaned. Also, the paper cones on the speakers can decay over time, so take a look at them and make sure they are not turning to dust. You will hear (or not hear as the case may be) if they are bad, especially in the lower frequencies. Hope this helps. I'll get some mic recommendations next week, the person I want to ask is on vacation.

The world of audiophiles lies at the intersection of science, hype, and too much disposable income. I am a trained Audio engineer and work with other audio professionals. I can answer science based audio questions or find the answers from my colleagues.

Friday I grilled a whole chicken and had it with green papaya salad (ส้มตำมะละกอ), vegetables and rice. That meant I could have grilled chicken salad (ยำไก่ย่าง) on Saturday! with rice and vegetables and pickled mustard green "soup" (แกงจืดผักดอง) Sunday, (and yesterday, leftovers) red curry with beef and squash (แกงเผ็ดเนื้อ), green papaya salad (it was a big papaya), pickled mustard green soup again, fried eggs with Sriracha sauce (ไข่เจียว), and beef and eggplant with holy basil (เนื้อผัดใบกะเพรา), jasmine rice.

If I may make some sweeping generalizations, I don't think (some) Mexican food is really hot at all compared to some of the cuisines of South and Southeast Asia. At least that's what we joke when one of my friends is gasping from the heat of my Thai food (She is Mexican). Of course it depends on the cook. I even know some Thai people who don't like spicy food. Of course not spicy for Thai food is very different than, say, not spicy for many Americans. I know my mother cannot tolerate chili at all, and I've heard in some places in the Midwest, food with any black pepper is considered too spicy. Over the past 30 years or so, the average American's tolerance for chili pepper has increased significantly though. For that I am grateful. When we were at BKG I did order the som tam "very spicy" in Thai. I was indeed super hot. It's nice to be able to get it that way without needing to convince the staff that you enjoy and can eat lethal food.

Hit the Crystal City farmers market on the way home from work. Tomatoes, onion and daikon radish (mooli) with chat masala, limes and fresh chillies. Moong dal with ghee, cumin, kalonji, garlic, turmeric, hot pepper, cilantro and garam masala. Radishes (some kind of red radish that's shaped like a carrot) with cumin seeds, garlic, onion, hot pepper, and tomato. Radish greens (from both of the radishes) with black cumin, cloves, cardamon, bay leaf, dried chillies, ginger and onion. Brown jasmine rice. Troegenator Double Bock. >

Real Sri Racha sauce (from Thailand, where the town of Sri Racha is located and where the sauce was invented) is much better than the rooster version, which is made by Vietnamese in California. Shark brand and Sriraja Panich are both really good brands. Ingredients are fresh chilli, water, sugar, fresh garlic (not garlic powder like the rooster), salt and vinegar. No preservatives or anything else and the type of chilli is different from the red jalapenos used in the American version. It is sweeter, but also hotter if you get the bottles labeled "strong". The flavor is much more balanced. I believe it's aged briefly as well.

Most fresh and saltwater fish are dried, salted, pickled, smoked etc. throughout Asia. There are many many kinds of salted dried fish. AFAIK traditionally, salt cod is used in European and Mediterranean cuisines.

I usually use palm sugar (or coconut sugar). You will need to add a tiny bit more if you do as it's not quite as sweet. You can even used the dried out hard stuff because it melts when you cook the dressing. I think crushed peanuts give it a great taste, but cashews are always good. I will now try to continue keep my mouth shut about the whole "primal/paleo" fad.

Laap (ลาบ) is one type of "salad" or yum (ยำ) which means tossed or mixed together. You can make yum with anything. Laap is specific to chopped meat, and the meat should be chopped prior to cooking or the resulting texture would not be pleasing (IMHO). In fact, it is common for the meat not to be cooked at all (at least in the past in rural Isaan, the meat would usually be water buffalo). There is another Isaan salad that uses the same flavor profile as laap, but uses grilled sliced meat, called nam tok (waterfall) or seua rong hai (tiger cry). For yum neua yang nam tok (grilled beef waterfall salad) the dressing and herbs (mint, cilantro or culantro, etc) are the same as laap (roasted rice powder, roasted dried crushed chillies, lime juice, fish sauce). This can also be made with grilled pork neck (kaw mu yang). I'm sure it would be good with sliced smoked chicken as well. Another option for smoked chicken thighs is to treat them as you would leftover grilled chicken and make yum gai yang (grilled chicken salad). There are countless ways to make yum gai yang, but I love this recipe from Sisamon Kongpan from The Elegant Taste of Thailand. The recipe is somewhat vague in that she calls for one grilled chicken without specifying size or weight, but I usually use half of a (3lb) grilled chicken. The dressing is strong and spicy so use more meat (or less dressing) if don't like it too hot. I wouldn't decrease the chili powder in the dressing, because all the flavors balance each other (salty, sour, sweet, hot). This dressing has no problem standing up the flavor of smoked meat and should compliment it well. Dressing: (T= tablespoon, t = tsp) as with all Thai cooking, taste as you go 1 T ground hot pepper powder (use a hot kind, Thai or Indian if you have it) 2 T vinegar (white or apple cider, not rice) 2 T lime juice 1 T sugar 2 T fish sauce 1/2 t salt mix everything together and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add 1 1/2 T crushed roasted peanuts Separated the chicken from the bones and slice diagonally into thin slices, Mix the chicken with the (cooled) dressing. Add 1 thinly sliced onion (or the equivalent amount of shallots) 1 thinly sliced tomato mix well Arrange on lettuce on a platter, serve with fresh vegetables such as raw cabbage. As you can see, amounts are vague, outside of the dressing, so you can tinker till you like it. You could add herbs (cilantro, maybe mint, culantro, slivered kaffir lime leaves) but it's just fine with onion and tomato alone. Of course, a good tomato also helps. Unlike laap, this salad holds well because the dressing is cooked, so the lime juice won't go off after sitting for a while, and there are no herbs to go off either (unless you decide to put some in). You can mix the meat with the dressing well in advance and then add the rest of the stuff before you serve.

The short answer is yes, you can do that. I am djing right now, but I will answer later or tomorrow, perhaps with a recipe.

FYI I was just checking the latest Little Serow menu and the first thing is Jaew with Kaipen.

I just learned that this seaweed is called Kaipen a specialty of Luang Prabang. The Wikipedia link was in this article about Jeaw Bong , the Lao chilli paste dipping sauce, which was linked from this article about fermented seafood products used in Thai and Lao cooking.

Farasvi murghi (from 660 Curries), jasmine rice >

Daikon radish with hot and sour dressing, snow peas with Chinese sausage, soup with pickled mustard greens, smoked tofu and egg. Jasmine rice. New Belgian Rampant. >

This is a joke, right? The is the best.

Chef Chen Dailu's Spicy Sesame Noodles (Chen Shifu Hong You Su Mian) from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice >