In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby dimfer » Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:43 pm

it looks like your menu is getting wider and better. I'd been doing a lot of dishwashing lately, maybe it's time we punch a hole on a wall and team up for a little Wiredstate resto in NY, you be the cook I'll be the dishwasher :devil:
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:16 am

dimfer wrote:it looks like your menu is getting wider and better. I'd been doing a lot of dishwashing lately, maybe it's time we punch a hole on a wall and team up for a little Wiredstate resto in NY, you be the cook I'll be the dishwasher :devil:

Still a long ways to go, but if I were fired from my job, I prolly would be selling tamales in Grand Central station... minus the secret ingredient-- Miss Y's beef stock made from her favorite Thomas Keller recipe, which was mixed into the masa :lol: If that happens, will you be my taga-sigaw? ;)

But yeah, I admit to fantasies about a having little restaurant, hopefully when we retire... and that's why Tito Mands is my lifetime idol :D
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby dimfer » Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:45 am

I sold ice candy when I was in elementary... praktisado ako dyan.

Still a long ways to go, but if I were fired from my job, I prolly would be selling tamales in Grand Central station

sali ako dyan, then we'd be rich :D

I was surprised to find out how much the street vendor make. Before my sister and her husband had kids, they were selling flavored shaved ice cones during the festival season in Phoenix, on good days, they take home $2,500 a day. Masama ang loob kung isang libo isang araw. Her Mexican father-in-law used to do something similar full-time, the guy used to make over $200,000 per year tax free.
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:45 am

dimfer wrote:I sold ice candy when I was in elementary... praktisado ako dyan.

Then our next problem woud be, to quote Tony Montana, getting high on your own supply! :lol:

I was surprised to find out how much the street vendor make. Before my sister and her husband had kids, they were selling flavored shaved ice cones during the festival season in Phoenix, on good days, they take home $2,500 a day. Masama ang loob kung isang libo isang araw. Her Mexican father-in-law used to do something similar full-time, the guy used to make over $200,000 per year tax free.

That's amazing, maybe that's what we need to do to afford an ML3 ;(
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby rtsyrtsy » Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:42 pm

If you're restaurant can issue an H1B visa, then I'll be your chief quality control officer. I'll work for food. :D
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:16 am

I've been on a little quest recently, but the goal still eludes me. I've always wanted to learn how to make Malaysian Roti Canai from scratch and so far, the internet recipes haven't been successful. This is as close as I got--

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There's a few things wrong with it-- first, too much ghee. Then, the dough doesn't stretch as much (needs high gluten flour). So last Wednesday, we went to our favorite Malaysian (Nyonya @ 86th St Brooklyn) and I pretty much stood in front of the kitchen pass watching the cook's technique. I couldn't tell much about the ingredients except that they used way more dough in their "loaves," the dough looked totally wet but not sticky, and they're able to fluff it paper thin. Jeebus, this has got me obsessed. I wanna use the roti canai as a wrap, maybe with some duck confit, peralzola cheese and microgreens as "palaman" but I have to get the dough right before anything can be done.

Oh well, came home for dinner yesterday to Miss Y's lobster with leek and saffron cream sauce, sous-vide'd at 139F for 20minutes--

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We have a little rule, one of us has to "book" the kitchen so we don't step on each other's "culinary toes" :lol: (just kidding). So I didn't expect her to point to a skate and say I should cook it. Channeled Singapore some 20 years ago, the hawker's. Found a pandan leaf in the fridge, some spices, fired up the wok. Skate, sometimes called "stingray" in Malaysian/Singaporean menus, is a cheap fish, about $2/lb but done right can hold its own even against lobster... Well, this one surely did :)

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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby Superman » Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:27 am

Literally, nakakataba ang mga posts mo, Tito! :D
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby rtsyrtsy » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:25 am

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This photo made me want to book a ticket for Singapore--ang ganda pa naman yung promo ng SQ from DXB.

Hay naku, kakakain ko lang, ginutom mo ulit ako!
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:29 am

Thanks, Russ and Jen, pasensya na, I've been "out of action" this past week. Miss Y and I took a "vacation" but we really didn't leave, instead we worked on our kitchen cabinets, sanding it to strip the old varnish, then did staining and lacquering. We really didn't need to do this but miss Y hated the cabinet's "orangey" color and the old hardware (handles)--

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We started off by moving all kitchen stuff to the living room (see inset pictures below) and sealing off the kitchen/dining area. Made a jig to drill new handle holes, removed the doors and drawers, then it was action with the belt sander.... which, given my inexperience, caused me to gouge the wood in some areas :( Eventually, I moved to an orbital sander but the damage had been done, we chucked our plans to use a natural stain and went with ebony instead. But basically, for the past week, we couldn't cook and ate fastfood, even had one dinner with spam sandwiches :lol:. We also had to deal with copious amounts of sawdust and at one point I even dreamt I was still sanding! In short, it was hard work... sorry, but I couldn't imagine this project as being fun.

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We finally finished Friday evening, just minutes before miss Y's friend arrived for her weekend stay. That loomed over our heads allthroughout this project, causing us to rush, but in the end, we managed to pull it off. Unfortunately, we don't have a "before" picture, but here's the final result. Also note miss Y's letter press on the counter, I think it's another hobby she's getting into.

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At least we're done and over with. But I must admit this was one "vacation" where I was looking forward to get back to work! :lol:



Thanks for reading!
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby rtsyrtsy » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:44 am

Wow, and I thought I was being productive recovering family photos from a failed hard drive!

Congrats on the wonderful kitchen!

ttommy wrote:
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Is the above picture an effect of watching 7 Pounds?
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Mon Aug 03, 2009 10:53 am

Is the above picture an effect of watching 7 Pounds?

You know we'd rented that movie but never got around to watching it. What's the connection? I don't mind the spoiler ;)
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby rtsyrtsy » Mon Aug 03, 2009 1:03 pm

ttommy wrote:
Is the above picture an effect of watching 7 Pounds?

You know we'd rented that movie but never got around to watching it. What's the connection? I don't mind the spoiler ;)


One of the main characters in the movie does wedding invitations--the analog way with vintage printing presses as opposed to whipping up invitations on a desktop publisher and spewing it out of an inkjet.

Watch it. Not a bad use of an hour and a bit...
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby dimfer » Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:29 am

nice job Tito.

we're supposed to be vacationing in Jamaica together :D

pero mukhang sulit naman sa effort ninyo.
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:06 am

Have it on our Netflix, Russ. Thanks too, Ding, hope we can vacation together another time :)
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby ttommy » Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:02 pm

Sous Vide tips for JackD

My favorite sous-vide dish so far is ribs, Flanken or English cut, with a Korean Galbi marinade. While you can probably substitute sous-vide techniques for braising, sous-vide is all about cooking at very precise temperatures where the target is usually the breaking down of collagen/connective tissue into gelatin. While this also happens with smoking/BBQ and braising, sous-vide cooking can be thought of as a hybrid of both-- you retain meat flavor, like BBQ, but are able to keep the marinade/juices, as with braising.

Tip #1. For me it starts with the vacuuming. Ideally, you'd like to use a differential cryovacuumtubeampli... oops, sorry, a chamber vacuum sealer and these have been steadily coming down in price (see ARY Vacmaster VP 210 or VP 112). I use a cheap FoodSaver vacuum sealer so my technique to not suck out the marinade while vacuuming is to freeze the marinade with the meat first.

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Tip #2. Aside from vacuum-sealing, sous-vide is all about answering two more questions: first, what temperature? And second, how long? For ribs, I'd tried different cooking temperatures, but I'm happy with 150F. I'd had a conversation with a chef who likes it at 143, but I haven't gone that low yet. For the second question, it's best if you confirm this yourself, but for me, unequivocally, 72 hours for ribs. Three fuggin' days. Chances are, the first time around you won't wait and bail at 48 :D But believe me, that extra 24 hours are worth it. (And unlike me, Jack, you won't have the problem where you can hear the immersion circulator from your listening chair.)

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Tip #3. After you're done with the sous-vide, the meat will just have a uniform color and won't look so attractive. Don't panic, this is like your favorite GRO without her makeup :x Oftentimes, you'll want to continue and "finish" the dish using yet another technique.

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Tip #4. One way to finish the dish is to grill. Here I'm using a tabletop "gogi" grill to crisp up the outside. This approach is a winner in terms of presentation points.

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Tip #5. Or alternatively, use the David Chang/Momofuku technique of quick deep frying sous-vide'd ribs. Just be aware that most home fryers don't get much above 350F even if it says 375F in the dial.

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Tip #6. I'd tried various times in the fryer in 30 second increments and the best I've found is just 1 minute in the deep fryer. Remember the ribs are already cooked after 72 hours in the immersion circulator.

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Tip #7. Remember to do a sound check before you hit the record button 8) Or put another way, remember the combination of decisions you made along the way-- how you sealed, temperature, duration, finishhing -- and correlate it with the result if you do this a different way next time.

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Tip #8. When NOT to sous-vide. Below we have my interpreation of Hong Shao Rou on top of Soba/dashi with a side of sweet bean bun. If I sous-vide'd the pork belly in this case, it would've just overload itself with pork fat. For this application, I use "pressure steaming," i.e. elevate the pork inside a pressure cooker so the fat renders out, before cooking in a wok.

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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby keith » Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:17 pm

Oh boy!!! :worried:

I'm starving. That looks absolutely scrumptuous.

Tito, I showed Sri the picture of the braised beef (or was it pork) on chicharon. I felt fatter just looking at it. :D
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby dimfer » Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:43 pm

see you in a month bud! finally, a visit to Tito's kitchen (cannot find a hungry smiley)... este, Tito's hi-fi rig.

will call you later. pls email me your phone number (again :$ )
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby jadis » Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:31 pm

keith wrote:Oh boy!!! :worried:

I'm starving. That looks absolutely scrumptuous.

Tito, I showed Sri the picture of the braised beef (or was it pork) on chicharon. I felt fatter just looking at it. :D



Same here. Seeing the 'foodographs' here made me hungry though I had just finished dinner. :lol:
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby JackD201 » Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:49 pm

Oh boy you kill me Tito! That was as funny as it was informative! It makes me miss you and Miss Y even MORE!!!!!!!!!!

Worry not next weekend expect some pestering PMs. Good old Forex dropped off the PolyScience and the plastic bags. Our recent adventure to Keller's Laundry inspired me a lot.

I kep telling myself.........kaya ko to, kaya ko to, kaya ko to. Then I woke up in a cold sweat :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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Re: In search of the perfect yolk (and other experiments)

Postby kabubi » Mon Jan 17, 2011 12:33 am

worry not, Chef Tommy for it is written:

"...for the yolk i will give you is easy, and my albumin is light. come to me, and i will give you eggs."
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