Picture Thread: What's For Dinner?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Sort of cold and rainy. Good day for buttermilk fried chicken. Marinated for 24 hours, perfect. Should have done some cole slaw and made some fries.

[Baz]

Looks good, Shaun! I didn't realize you can marinate chicken for that long. Nice to know.

I picked up a couple box lunches for Mom and I today from Popeyes. 4 tenders and a biscuit for $3.99. They were GOOD! Sorry, no pics. I'm always in too much of a hurry to eat...lol.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Sort of cold and rainy. Good day for buttermilk fried chicken. Marinated for 24 hours, perfect. Should have done some cole slaw and made some fries.

Looks good, fried chicken is hard to do properly. Have you ever tried Thomas Keller’s recipe for his fairly famous fried chicken?

[vash]

Fried chicken is my white whale.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by javadog

Looks good, fried chicken is hard to do properly. Have you ever tried Thomas Keller’s recipe for his fairly famous fried chicken?

Looked it up, should be very good.

My method is to make a dry rub with onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, nutmeg and S&P. Coat and let sit for for an hour in the fridge. Buttermilk, S&P and chopped vidalia onions for the marinade. 24 hours later, pull chicken from the marinade, coat in flour & baking powder, S&P mix, let sit, egg wash, back in flour mix, shimmering oil, 10 minutes on one side, 8 on the other, cooks perfectly.

[Rusty Heap]

Grain in, Llamalizer poop out.




watch those lips fly.


Here's a Animated Gif I made



https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNXUKGP2uEA7txTjbdj4ncmTbVWMXjzwNiVr4pHn1g-Dh1KtBQ2PWilEqs6NIO8Zg/photo/AF1QipPDGbFP7cn_6lONgp5I9PxtMop7BWzxR7oEyJiR?key=M nM4c2paNjA1ZFhtUTVoRXlfTnBsS1VsRjBnRkpR

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Steak tips marinated for 3 days in a gochujang-based sweet and spicy marinade, grilled. Reduced some of the marinade, added honey, ramen noodles, egg yolk, perfect.

[Baz]

Wow, Shaun....excellent photo and even better cuisine!

Italian for me tonight......

[Racerbvd]

[PorscheGAL]

Calling all chefs:

My son brought me the following from Thailand. I don't have much experience with Thai food. Only eaten it a handful of times. What would you make with it? Also, he came back talking about how good the green curries were. Any favorite recipe?

[javadog]

I spent some time in SE Asia as a kid and I've cooked Asian food all of my adult life. I cook a lot of Thai food, sometimes on a daily basis.

First, if that's legitimate saffron, thank your son for that alone. That's a huge quantity. It's not something I'd use in Thai cooking but more something I'd use in Spanish or Italian cuisine. Good stuff...

Thai cooking tends to use fresh ingredients far more than dried ones. The galanga, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves would always be used in their fresh forms and should be readily available to you.

If the "Chilli" powder is ground, dried red chilies, it has some use, as do the whole red chilies. Far more prevalent would be fresh, Thai chilies. The curry powder could be green or yellow (it's hard to tell from the photo) and it doesn't have much use. If it's yellow (Madras) it can be used for Singapore street noodles (which have nothing to do with Singapore..) The pepper will be ground white pepper, hopefully of a Thai variety and is useful. The curcuma is probably turmeric, which is useful (mainly for color) but it doesn't look as intensely colored as what I'm used to. Fresh turmeric would be better. The coriander seed is useful, the star anise and cinnamon not so much, although they have other uses.

As for green curry, or any curry, you can make it with a powder, a paste, or from scratch. I never use powder. You shouldn't either. The canned pastes that are available are not as bad, use them in a pinch if you want to whip something up quick and you're willing to trade flavor for convenience. If you want the real curry, make it from scratch. You'll need fresh galangal, lemongrass, coriander root, green chili peppers, shallots and a kaffir lime. You'll also need shrimp paste, garlic and cumin. It's the hottest of all of the curries, blistering hot if it's made authentically.

I'd suggest you buy a few Thai cookbooks, if you want to explore that cuisine. A couple I like are Pok Pok, by Andy Ricker and Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook. Pok Pok is readily available about anywhere, even in libraries; Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook is out of print and a little tougher to obtain. It's also the more voluminous of the two, which makes it my favorite.

Real Thai food is vastly better than what you get in Thai restaurants in the US. If you have any questions, let me know if I can help.

[PorscheGAL]

This is excellent! Thanks so much. I found them both on Amazon and have placed my order.

[vash]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

Calling all chefs:

My son brought me the following from Thailand. I don't have much experience with Thai food. Only eaten it a handful of times. What would you make with it? Also, he came back talking about how good the green curries were. Any favorite recipe?

Wow. Curry is a culmination of spices. You have them. If you can’t find palm sugar in your area, PM me and I’ll mail you a package. That and coconut milk and you’re golden.
I’d YouTube Thai dishes. There is one lady that simplifies it for us.

[javadog]

Some more advice... Things you'll want in your pantry:

Fish Sauce
Light soy sauce
Sweet soy sauce
Black soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Shrimp paste
Dried shrimps
Tamarind concentrate (liquid)
Sweet pickled radish
Rice noodles
Palm sugar
Coconut milk
Coconut cream
Whole white peppercorns
Green peppercorns (canned or in a jar, in brine)
Fresh limes
Jasmine rice

Buy products from Thailand. You can get the same things from Vietnam, the Philippines, China, etc. but there are differences, so try to get the Thai versions.

Fish sauce - buy the highest grade you can find. First pressing. Ingredients are anchovies and salt. Nothing else. No anchovy extract, no sugar, nada. If you can't find a good one, look for the Red Boat brand, which is probably more widely distributed.

Soy sauces... look for those made the traditional way. Read the ingredient lists.

I wouldn't buy any of the condiments from a regular grocery store, or even a place like whole foods. They sell crap and it's vastly more expensive than Asian grocery stores.

There are many kinds of dried shrimps, get the smallest ones and the next size up.

Coconut milk in a cardboard box is usually better than the kind in cans.

Produce that you'll also want to keep on hand: fresh garlic, shallots, onions, green onions, cilantro, ginger, galangal, tumeric, cilantro roots (if you can find them), kaffir limes and leaves, regular limes, bean sprouts, thai chilis. Thai shallots are smaller than the ones you're used to, so "one shallot" doesn't mean one, big honking shallot like you're used to. The limes they use are also a lot smaller than the Persian limes we have in our grocery stores.

I don't know where you live but there are probably Asian grocery stores in Columbia. If not, mail order is easy.

There's a ton of info on the net. If you want to watch videos, try this girl:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaS2Ffd8cyD7jyg_eU00bBaYeu67SoGkt

There's a lot of stuff on there that's much more in depth but she's going to get you started.

Have fun, any questions just ask.

[javadog]

If you want to cook a green curry, try this recipe:

https://www.eatingthaifood.com/thai-green-curry-recipe/

It's the most authentic one I found on the net in a quick search and similar to the one you'll find in the Thailand The Beautiful Cookbook, which is the recipe I use the most.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by vash

Wow. Curry is a culmination of spices.

You've eaten too many curries from India...

[TimT]

I've been pretty obsessed with Thai food since I visited Thailand in 1982. I have many of the thing listed at hand, and am lucky to have so many Asian markets nearby in the greater NYC metro area.. More specifically the neighborhoods of Woodside, and Elmhurst in Queens have large Thai and Lao populations, and Thai specific supermarkets... With online shopping you can get everything you need also...

I have found palm sugar in of all places Target.




And you should grow as many of the fresh veggies herbs etc as you can.. I have a Kaffir Lime trees which is about years old now, and even in NY and living inside for the winter I'v had it bear fruit.. currently I have Lemongrass, Thai and Holy basil, garlic and Thai peppers in my garden. The nurseries around me usually carny the various variety of basils, and lemon grass.... and cilantro is a given..



Also a sauce that hasn't been mentioned is "Golden Mountain Sauce" peek in to any Thai restaurant kitchen around here and you'll see a bottle..its like soy suace, but has a thicker body.



And if you really get into it and go down the rabbit hole.. get a sticky rice

https://www.amazon.com/Sticky-Rice-Steamer-Pot-Basket/dp/B00019MRRE

[javadog]

Originally Posted by TimT

I have... Holy basil

You are the man. Probably the hardest thing to find in the US. One of my favorite things is spicy chicken with holy basil...

Originally Posted by TimT

Also a sauce that hasn't been mentioned is "Golden Mountain Sauce" peek in to any Thai restaurant kitchen around here and you'll see a bottle..its like soy suace, but has a thicker body.

Another similar one is called Maggi Sauce.

[PorscheGAL]

What a great list! We do have a Chinese Grocery and I have a few things on your list from cooking dumplings with my son's Mandarin Tutor. I will need to wander the grocery for some of the other things. Thanks so much.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I can't add much Stephanie, only to say that clearly your son loves you. On the saffron, I would save some for a saffron beurre blanc with any mild whitefish like sole. On that note, make some paella and bouillabaisse, you've got a few $100 worth of saffron it looks like so enjoy it.