Stuff I cook that's considered food

[boomchakabowwow]

i saw Anthony Bordain eat Hainanese chicken at the same food court i ate at in malaysia.

you got some great skills over there in the phillipines. i am pretty sure your chickens over there taste better than our blown up, mutant birds over here thanks for the photos.

 

[franzb69]

i am pretty sure your chickens over there taste better than our blown up, mutant birds over here

there has been a rise in caged chickens here, but there is also a growing interest in free range and organic chickens as well.

but as always, the cheaper more "conventional" farming is still the winner. chickens here are tiny, they don't taste the same and they get smaller and smaller all the time, coz of the need for lower prices. i hate factory farming. big business. blah. =D

i studied culinary arts and i've always loved food. i come from a foodie family, and a great cook for a grandmother.

 

[apicius9]

that kimchee fried rice needs a fried egg on top!! i might make that for dinner tonight!!

One of my favorite breakfast things, if I take the time for an extended breakfast. Surprisingly, I never had it with Spam, that needs to be changed soon.

Thanks for the food pics, they look good. We have a growing Filipino population out here, I have to get some to invite me to dinner, interesting food.

Stefan

 

[franzb69]

We have a growing Filipino population out here, I have to get some to invite me to dinner, interesting food.

our food might not look like much but they have big flavor and a very home-y welcoming appeal that most folks enjoy.

Surprisingly, I never had it with Spam, that needs to be changed soon.

spam and hawaii, two things that get a long. lol.

i wouldn't mind moving to hawaii if i had to, sounds like a great place to be. i don't really cook filipino food since it's what i have every single day of the week. i like cooking stuff i don't normally have since going out to eat is much more expensive. half the time when i go out, since i came out of culinary school, i keep thinking to myself that i know i can cook better than most of the places i go to nowadays, i'd rather buy the ingredients and cook it myself.

 

[franzb69]

corned beef i made from scratch. didn't use any preservatives which is why it's greyish brown....

was pretty tasty stuff for sure!

just like the bacon, the flavor almost felt lacking as most people are used to that chemical taste you get from pink salt and such


wanted to post this coz k-fed posted that corned beef vid =D

 

[franzb69]

just did some dehydrating of chili peppers. found a good batch of chili peppers from nueva ecija that were especially spicy so i made chili powder out of it.

needless to say after i was done destemming and slicing them across to help with dehydration, i had to take a piss, even when i was wearing plastic gloves.... hunan hand turned into hunan sausage. lol.

 

[franzb69]

moar pizza! lol

was in the mood for pizza

 

[chinacats]

Pizza looks great, hope you enjoyed some of those chiles with it.

 

[franzb69]

thanks!

my eye sure loved the sting of the chile. lol. it pretty much flew up the corner of my eye and stung just when i was slicing the ingredients. so i was cutting veg with one eye open. lol. and no i didn't cut myself.

will make more to enjoy more pizza and more chili power/flakes tomorrow.

if i wasn't so afraid of getting more chilis going up my eyes or nostrils i'd hit it with a mortar and pestle to control the size of the flakes. that batch i made had large and tiny bits so it's part flakes part powder. just being too anal on the size of flakes i want. lol.

 

[Sambal]

Looks great Franz!

Do you make your own kimchee? What do you use as starter?

With Hainan chicken rice the best places for it in Malaysia aren't in the food courts. Should anyone want to look for this in Malaysia a quick google will tell you where the specialist restaurants are. There are places that have been cooking and serving nothing but Hainan chicken rice for generations. IMO the best ones are in a small town called Ipoh. The essentials are in the poaching of the chicken and the use of chicken fat in cooking the rice. Even in the chilli sauce should have some chicken fat in it along with kumquat juice and finely julienned peel. And of course you'd have to start with what Malaysians call "kampong chicken" which is basically organic free range.

Oh and your dried chilli flakes look deadly Franz! I can feel the heat just looking at it!

 

[franzb69]

Do you make your own kimchee? What do you use as starter?

yes i do, i don't have a starter. i naturally ferment it. i haven't made anyone sick yet so i guess i'm doing something right. lol.

i just salt it, squeeze it out, mix the powderized rice in and the pepper mix and it ferments. tastes like kimchi, smells like kimchi. then it must be kimchi. lol. i make it like how it is i saw online in recipes. I don't like using oysters or shrimp as part of the starter coz i'm highly dubious of what what would do with all that hardwork i put into making it. lol.

With Hainan chicken rice the best places for it in Malaysia aren't in the food courts. Should anyone want to look for this in Malaysia a quick google will tell you where the specialist restaurants are. There are places that have been cooking and serving nothing but Hainan chicken rice for generations. IMO the best ones are in a small town called Ipoh. The essentials are in the poaching of the chicken and the use of chicken fat in cooking the rice. Even in the chilli sauce should have some chicken fat in it along with kumquat juice and finely julienned peel. And of course you'd have to start with what Malaysians call "kampong chicken" which is basically organic free range.

thanks for the tips!

with what's going on in Sabah and the Philippines, I doubt i'd ever be going to Malaysia anytime soon. =(

 

[franzb69]

paella today.

not using the expensive rice or the right rice for it which is usually arborio or bomba (can't find bomba here), so i'm just using jasmine rice.

it's for these people:

the age old tradition in my country (since before spanish occupation) and in my family of the "pabasa"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pabasa_(ritual)

cooked enough for one serving each. there's enough other food to go around so i did just a serving each (tall pot), as paella can get rather expensive.

 

[Mucho Bocho]

This is what i did with my Belly. 3 day cure with pink salt, three day Sous Vide at 140 degrees, browned in a pan and baked until internam temp was 155. I left the skin on these and liked it better:

 

[stereo.pete]

wow @ the belly!

 

[Mucho Bocho]

Thanks Pete. You kno eye's love me a crispy juicy porkly belly

 

[Duckfat]

Looks freakin awesome!

 

[Mike9]

Franz that Paella looks amazing I buy head on shrimp every chance I get. Besides - I find when you take it to pot luck parties - you get to eat most of it. :lol2:

I want to try all this, but I just happen to have a really nice piece of lean Pork Belly in the freezer. Was there a specific reason you SV'd it for that long?

 

[franzb69]

Thanks mike9, shrimp is expensive everywhere. But the only good thing about where I'm from is that we can get fresh shrimp all the time. head on shrimp is the norm here. =D

 

[Mucho Bocho]

Mike9, So after the three day cure in brine, I seperated the belly into four one pound portions. Each portion was divided into three cubes. Wraped in film and sealed and SV at 140 for two days. Then pressed, chilled, pan fried and baked to 160. I found that the fat was not rendered enought. It sliced like bacon but was too forward. I wanted the fat to render more an be in then background more as a suporting flavor. So I popped the three unwrapped packages of pork back into the SV bath for another 24hrs at 140. Then cooked and these are the pic's from above. I also think the three day SV broke down the skin better giving an eitble crackling.

The good news is that I still have two more portions in the refrigerator.

I will say that I've been using sodium erythorbate lately and I highly recommend it for any long curing of meats. It kept the fat just as white as it was fresh after the brine. No darkening and I think the cure went deeper as well.

 

[Zwiefel]

That pork looks amazing...so hungry now.

 

[Duckfat]

Looks great Franz. It's always interesting seeing food and traditions from the other side of the world. If you ever buy another Paella pan in the future I'd suggest a thin Spanish pan made of tin. There's a few good on line sources like LaTienda etc. They are inexpensive and it's a lot easier to get a great soccorat with a thin pan. Paella on the BGE has become a staple here in the summer. I just wish I could buy head on shrimp like that more often !

 

[franzb69]

i use a smaller carbon steel paella pan/paellera (30cm) for family sized servings. only used this large pot for larger cooks like this. =D

can't really make paella good for 50 in a small pan like that. lol.