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 Decided I wanted to eat karaage bentos all week so, welp.
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Jan 27, 2019 23:07
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Send me some of those. drat.  This bowl was too small but no regrets. Shoyu flavor udon soup with simmered Korean radish and poached chicken. Those fat radishes are so good.
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Jan 27, 2019 23:32
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Grand Fromage posted:
I really ought to try making this sometime. I know my fiance would be pleased with me if I did.
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Jan 28, 2019 01:24
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It's pretty easy. I've been toying with it to try to replicate the sanzokuyaki I had in Matsumoto, which was maybe the best fried chicken of my life. This is the basic method: https://www.justonecookbook.com/karaage/ For sanzokuyaki you also add grated onion. I've also started juicing a lemon or two into the marinade. I haven't quite hit what I'm going for yet but it's good anyway. And you do really need to go hard on the potato starch to get the proper karaage-ness. I used about 2/3 potato 1/3 AP flour this time.
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Jan 28, 2019 02:05
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What am I looking for in a good Kombu or dried Shiitake? I've been making dashi (mostly for miso soup) with them and I'll be picking up another bag of shiitake soon. Soaking the shiitake cold for 6-8 hrs and the kombu approximately overnight seems to work well. According this this (https://www.messyvegancook.com/japanese-vegan-dashi-recipe/), soaking the shiitake in cold water promotes the formation of umami compounds. For the kombu, should it be thick or thin? Color? And I'm assuming I want lots of white stuff on the surface? For the shiitake, do I want big ones, small ones, or does it matter? Color?
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Jan 29, 2019 01:36
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I always bought big rear end kombu with lots of white stuff so I don't have much of a comparison class. It is kind of annoying to hack off chunks, but the taste was always nice.
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Jan 29, 2019 02:24
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The size of the pieces doesn't really matter, though sometimes the better quality stuff is kept as long single sheets. Most kombu should be fairly dark. Mainly what you're looking for is lots of white powder and not caked in mud or some bullshit. There are different regions of kombu you can look up and apparently they taste somewhat different but I don't know how much that is Japan's obsession with every podunk village needing its own unique local product and how much is reality. Korean kombu is about the same but can sometimes be cheaper, look for 다시마/dasima. I would avoid Chinese since I don't trust the water or production quality. Dried shiitakes I've never really noticed much difference in. I try to get ones that aren't all bent up since they're easier to slice neatly but that's all.
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Jan 29, 2019 02:33
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For mushrooms you want to make sure they don’t have pinholes and buy whole ones. That’s not usually an issue unless you’re buying the absolute cheapest you can possibly find though. I’ve never found a big difference between kombu and dashima from any brands so if it looks nice go for it? The stuff seems to keep forever anyway. I need some more kombu and hijiki recipes in my repertoire...
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Jan 29, 2019 03:40
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:For mushrooms you want to make sure they don’t have pinholes and buy whole ones. That’s not usually an issue unless you’re buying the absolute cheapest you can possibly find though. I’ve never found a big difference between kombu and dashima from any brands so if it looks nice go for it? The stuff seems to keep forever anyway. What do you mean by pinholes? I’m not really sure I follow.
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Jan 29, 2019 04:13
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Eeyo posted:What do you mean by pinholes? I’m not really sure I follow. Pinholes from worms/fly larvae eating the mushroom.
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Jan 29, 2019 20:53
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It's dashi sperg time. The question on what type of Konbu to use is heavily dependent on the dish you are making and the complexity in flavor profile you are seeking. Typically, simmered dishes (like Oden, or anything reduced in a stock using a ootoshibuta) do not need to be as stringent in terms of Konbu quality, while dishes that are heavily focused on the broth (miso, ozouni, owanmono, suimono, mentsuyu, etc.) benefit from a finer stock. In the case of standard kyo-dashi (bonito, seaweed), the bonito is relatively more important. My experience is that the US doesn't stock super high quality bonito in Japanese supermarkets, so I often grab a bunch of bonito when I'm in Japan. There are sometimes some decent konbu, but they are extremely expensive in the US. In general, for selection of konbu, the less white you see on the konbu itself, the higher quality the piece of konbu. Specifically, the white part of konbu indeed is umami, but too much of it will decrease the complexity of the dashi and fineness of the final product. Too much whiteness on the dashi also signifies that the drying process of that piece may not have been the best. So in other words - you want a tiny bit of white on the piece of konbu, but not an overbearing amount. In fact, often times selecting the konbu by region produces a difference that exceeds trying to select a piece of konbu by whiteness (along with soaking technique). There are 2-3 couple of methods on infusing water with Konbu: 1) Soak for 30 minutes, heat to simmer (standard), take out before boiling This method produces a decently deep dashi, and the most common at-home technique. However, a bunch of scientists and chefs doing experiments on flavor profile found out that this technique is subpar to the second one for fine dishes, because it doesn't leech enough of the flavor profile of the konbu itself. Unless you are making something like oden, make sure to take out the seaweed right before boiling. 2) Soak 2-3 hours, heat to simmer, take out before boiling. This method is a decent tradeoff between 1/3, which produces a somewhat refined complexity. 3) Soak overnight, take konbu out. This method produces the most complex dashi and is recommended by a lot of Ryotei (especially Kyo-ryotei) chefs for extracting flavor. It's strongly recommended and very easy to do if you do home-planning. Next, let's discuss the main brands/locations of Konbu in Japan: 日高 (Hidaka): Produces the lowest quality dashi of the regions. Instead of an aroma of Konbu specifically, produces a stronger aroma of 'the sea', with a light umami that has a lacking aftertaste. When using the (3) technique above, has a very strong up front umami that basically does not linger and sort of disappears. 利尻 (Rishiri): Does not have as much umami as Makonbu, but produces a dashi that has a faint flavor of the actual seaweed, with a gradually spreading umami that doesn't taste off. Sometimes seems sharper than Rausu Konbu or Makonbu. 羅臼 (Rausu): Produces a thick and deep sweetness and umami. Known for its strong richness. Very golden dashi. Of course it can be prepared using (3), but often times (1) is done even afterwards to produce additional intensity. 真昆布 (Makonbu): Produces a very gentle flavor that is high quality with no blemishes. The umami spreads neatly around your mouth. Out of the four, considered the highest in quality. PS - the region this usually comes from is slightly northeast of Hakodate, along the southern coast of Hokkaido. So basically, it's best to use any of the other three kinds of Konbu over Hidaka if you can acquire it at the same price. On the subject of Mushrooms - the best dried Shiitake for Japanese cooking are the cleanest and largest (although some recipes call for smaller ones, which can be just as good in making a stock specifically). I usually select based on the source of the mushroom/which market I bought it. Basically: Japanese > Taiwanese > Mainland Chinese.
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Jan 30, 2019 21:02
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Whoa nice! Thank you for the write up. Kombu facts I didn’t even know I needed to know.   Korean cooking thread’s dead but cheonggukjang and natto are pretty much the same, right? I’ve been meaning to make natto for a long time but thought I really needed rice straw or some poo poo. Turns out you don’t, actually; the responsible microorganism, Bacillus subtilis, is present just about everywhere, and you can use a portion from a purchased batch of natto as a starter, too. Thanks, Maangchi and Natto Dad. The main difference between cheonggukjang and natto seems to be that the latter is supposedly cultured with B. subtilis var. natto and cheonggukjang might be all wild fermentation. I don’t know how accurate that claim is, but I’ve seen it repeated occasionally. The conditions for B. subtilis to thrive are very similar to koji: it’s an obligate aerobe so it needs air circulation to provide oxygen, it likes humidity but not sogginess, and you need warm to hot conditions to kick things off. B. subtilis favors hotter conditions in the 90s - low 100s F range compared to about 86 F for koji. They also both take approximately 48 hours to mature. I’m using a seed starter heat mat with beans I steamed in a pressure cooker after a 24 hour soak. This is a tiny batch that started with one cup of dried beans. Excited to smell what kind of horror I’ve grown this time Friday.
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Jan 31, 2019 02:09
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The Korean thread can live again if people post in it.  I just haven't cooked anything Korean lately.Also I hope you don't have neighbors if you're making the soup.
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Jan 31, 2019 02:15
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It’s marked for archiving.  also I’m totally going to make the smelliest soups. (Freezing or refrigerating really does a lot to attenuate the smell imo.)e: rescue the thread and I’ll do a year of homemade doenjang and gochujang there and how to brew your sake and make your own mirin here
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Jan 31, 2019 02:50
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Oh, I didn't realize that happened. RIP Korea thread, I'll have to post a new one.
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Jan 31, 2019 03:24
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Do it. Especially if you have good banchan recipes, I miss having a good Korean restaurant nearby.
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Jan 31, 2019 07:22
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I still cook Korean but Baek, Jong-won's recipes are very popular in Korea. I do refer a lot from them myself. His recipe is so simple and yummy. I did visit his cafe when I went back to home in South Korea. Probably visit his other restaurants when I go home again.
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Jan 31, 2019 10:21
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ntan1 posted:It's dashi sperg time. Is the Hondashi granulated stock base I can get at my local Asian market okay to use, or just trash? It's all I've used before and it seems okay, if not spectacular.
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Jan 31, 2019 15:35
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EVG posted:Is the Hondashi granulated stock base I can get at my local Asian market okay to use, or just trash? It's all I've used before and it seems okay, if not spectacular. I use hondashi a lot. It's fine unless you're doing a dish where the dashi is a (or the) prominent flavor.
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Jan 31, 2019 19:52
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EVG posted:Is the Hondashi granulated stock base I can get at my local Asian market okay to use, or just trash? It's all I've used before and it seems okay, if not spectacular. Dashi powder is perfectly fine for many things. If you're making sauces or something like a curry where there are a lot of other ingredients, there's not really much point in using good dashi since it's just playing a supporting role. There's nothing wrong with making real dashi for those but the Ajinomoto powdered stuff is pretty decent, frankly. Most Japanese use that at home. If you're making a clear soup or something where the dashi flavor is prominent, make it fresh or at least make a big load of it and freeze portions. Dashi doesn't take that long so it's easy to have it going while you're prepping the other ingredients. It's nice to have real dashi for like miso soup but probably more often than not I just do it with hot water and some dashi powder and miso right in the bowl.
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Jan 31, 2019 22:59
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EVG posted:Is the Hondashi granulated stock base I can get at my local Asian market okay to use, or just trash? It's all I've used before and it seems okay, if not spectacular. It is sufficient and a common staple of most Japanese households. The main thing to note is that Hondashi has a lot of MSG in it, and is also naturally saltier than sperg-made dashi. There are some people (I'm one of them) who can taste out MSG really easily, and I think that flavorwise it can sometimes be over-powering and unrefined. At Japanese stores, there is also a very common in-between, which are basically the equivalent of hondashi packs except with mixed cuts of bonito/seaweed/fish that do not have MSG in them.
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Feb 1, 2019 19:19
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Edit: never mind
hallo spacedog fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Feb 2, 2019 |
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Feb 2, 2019 15:26
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Awesome, thanks.
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Feb 7, 2019 01:14
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How the hell do you cook purple yams? I always see in media people cooking them in traditional/ceremonial ways where they bury it in leaves and light a fire around it. That makes for good TV but these things are dry and chalky when baked unless I'm baking them totally wrong!
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Feb 17, 2019 00:34
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I've always either baked wrapped in foil (1hr at 400F) or steamed and haven't had any issues with yams and sweet potatoes of any color. I haven't really tried fiddling around with baking temps and times, but you could probably get away with a lower temp and less time.
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Feb 17, 2019 01:47
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Boiled, Steamed, or Wrapped in foil (and possibly put some water in the foil too). The reason they are dry when baked is that the Murasaki-imo is basically the most starchy of all of the potatoes, so you need to find a way to get some liquid into it while cooking. So I rarely have seen them baked in the same way Satsumaimo (Orange Sweet Potato) is done.
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Feb 17, 2019 02:29
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Steamed is my favorite way, seems to get a fluffier texture than boiling or roasting
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Feb 17, 2019 04:06
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Apparently the panko I can get locally is absurdly overpriced since I can get twice as much for half the price on Amazon. Is it more or less panko is panko or are there any brands that are particularly good or bad?
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Feb 19, 2019 02:01
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In my experience panko is panko. Some has larger particles than others, and the larger ones are better and make a crunchier crust. But it's not a huge deal either way.
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Feb 19, 2019 03:23
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Baked my yam in the oven at 400f for 30 minutes wrapped in tin foil. Poked holes in the skin, added some butter and salt. When finished I scooped out the flesh into a bowel, added the salty butter mixture, and whipped it up. Taste goooooood. I don't know why these aren't more popular, it goes well with saucy meats. I used it as a substitute for polenta. I will spare you my rant on the difference between yams and sweet potatoes, and how the West uses them interchangeably but they're different tubers with different tastes and textures. And just to muddy the waters there's a fairly new cultivar of sweet potatoes from California that have the ruddy skin but the flesh is purple and the texture is moister like what Americans call a "sweet potato" so gently caress you clueless buyers standing next to an unlabeled box that contains both yuca and nagaimo, we hate labeling food properly.
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Feb 19, 2019 04:29
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kirtar posted:Apparently the panko I can get locally is absurdly overpriced since I can get twice as much for half the price on Amazon. Is it more or less panko is panko or are there any brands that are particularly good or bad? I've never noticed a whole ton of difference between panko brands that I've tried. I've also noticed that generally Japanese shelf stable grocery products are almost always cheaper on Amazon for whatever reason.
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Feb 19, 2019 05:22
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 Baked chicken katsu (just one cookbook) 
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Feb 26, 2019 02:14
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I have bought a whole octopus and would like to simmer it for use in sushi. I have googled this and every site I find has a wildly different technique, rubbing it with salt first is the only common element. Anyone done this before? I don't think I've ever actually cooked octopus, my guess is it's like squid and I need to do either real fast or real slow to avoid it turning into rubber but I'm not sure anymore after reading all this poo poo.
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Mar 1, 2019 00:23
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CWD’s method worked for me. That slime though...
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Mar 1, 2019 00:33
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Oh man that slime looks gross. This will be fun. E: Also here is last week's chirashizushi. Shrimp, yellowtail, some scallops you can't see, tamagoyaki, asparagus. The colors were normal IRL but my cheap phone camera is absolutely terrible in anything but full sunlight. The shrimp was perfectly cooked and good but please enjoy the evidence I forgot a step in the process. 
Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Mar 1, 2019 |
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Mar 1, 2019 00:39
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I received a couple orders of kojikin this week, so I’ll be making various preparations for stink. I wanted to post pix, but the awful app has been oddly uncooperative with pictures taken on this phone. I’ll be making koji jasmine rice, traditional douchi, and the traditional wheat and yellow soybean moromi, which is the basis of shoyu. I’ll also be making Korean meju, but that doesn’t use koji. I hope to have some good stuff to share in here. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Mar 1, 2019 |
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Mar 1, 2019 00:44
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The way I've cooked octopus before: - Massage with salt for a few minutes. - Let it sit with the salt for maybe 10 more minutes. - Blanch in boiling water for just a minute or so to remove some of the scumminess. - Simmer in a separate broth for a little under 2 hours (I think? It's been a few years. But yeah simmer it a good long while). - It should be fully tender at that point. If it goes too long, it'll start to fall apart. Hope that helps!
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Mar 1, 2019 08:02
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I wanted omu rice but I needed to eat leftover potato daal so I just threw it in instead of fried rice veg and it was surprisingly good. I have seen dahl spelled three ways.
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Mar 3, 2019 03:20
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I've wanted to make omu rice for years but I still haven't. I think it's mostly because I really don't dig fried rice all that much, but the egg and ketchup seem so... appealing
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Mar 4, 2019 04:02
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I grew up eating Denver style omelets with ketchup. It’s a good combo. I can happily say that the fermentor build with a cooler and aquarium parts really is <$75 as long as you’ve got a cooler. Hiding in those bundles are koji jasmine rice and douchi in progress.
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Mar 4, 2019 17:31
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