Where my fellow cooks at???

[columbia]

I bought my first Sriracha last weekend. I've never been a big hot sauce guy...until now. What have I been doing for the last 10-15 years?

Not enjoying the good life? ;)

[shafnutz05]

I've gone from never using hot sauce to putting it on everything. Macaroni and cheese, shepherd's pie, etc.

[tifosi77]

I've gone from never using hot sauce to putting it on everything. Macaroni and cheese, shepherd's pie, etc.

Dear Sriracha


How Addicted to Sriracha Are You?

[shmenguin]

4 words that make siracha a banned substance in the shmenguin household.

potassium sorbate sodium bisulfite

can't have those chemical preservatives, unfortunately

[Shyster]

I'm more of a Tabasco guy myself.

[jimjom]

Scrapple:

Y

or

N

[Shyster]

I love scrapple.

[blackjack68]

I have a rule to eat nothing with the word "crap" in the middle.

[Froggy]

i think someone should make a knock off version of scrapple called "spare parts with friends"... that would make me laugh

[tifosi77]

N

[tifosi77]

Okonomiyaki, Osaka-style


Thought we had katsuobushi in the pantry, but we didn't. So the final plate is a little soff.

[Shyster]

Is that Kewpie mayonnaise?

Okonomiyaki is something I’ve really been meaning to make myself.

[tifosi77]

It is indeed Kewpie.

It's not difficult to make (at all), but a key ingredient in grated nagaimo (mountain yam) that's probably only available in Japanese markets. And when it's grated it looks......... well.......... it has a consistency and appearance of............... um............... man seed.

[Shyster]

I found a place online (http://okonomiyakiworld.com) that sells okonomiyaki flour that apparently includes the yam in a dried form. One just adds eggs and water like an instant pancake mix. I’m going to try that out. I’ll also check my local Asian grocery store; I’ve never checked to see whether they have okonomiyaki flour.

[tifosi77]

This is the best tutorial video in the history of cooking.

[Shyster]

This would be my candidate for that honor:

[BigMcK]

Question for you cooks that know. Is supermarket tuna and salmon safe enough to eat raw, such as served in a sushi place? When I asked the chef at our local sushi place if I could eat supermarket raw tuna and fish, he told me that it would not be advisable. But when you spend upwards of $60 - $70 on a dinner, I figured to save some money I could snag some fish at Costco and try to make it myself. I also figured he may not say yes and risk losing the $$$ by answering honestly.

Google took me here: http://www.sushifaq.com/sushi-sashimi-i ... rade-fish/
And then here: http://www.sushinut.com/Frequently_Asked_Questions

I trust there is enough safe cooking knowledge in this forum to seek an answer.

Thanks,

[shmenguin]

The normal stuff isn't sushi grade - even tuna that looks nice and pretty. You need to see "sushi grade" explicitly printed somewhere. My 2 cents anyways. In places like wegmans and whole foods, you buy the good stuff from the sushi counter.

[shmenguin]

Also, a little fish goes a long way. Half a tuna steak will get you 3 or 4 rolls easy. Sushi grade is very expensive, so don't buy too much.

I don't think making it at home saves you a ton of money. I only do it because we can't eat out due to dietary restrictions.

[canaan]

Spaghetti squash for dinner. Omnomnom

[tifosi77]

Salmon is one of those things that presents a conundrum; as a raw ingredient, it's texture is that wonderful balance of firm and delicate, and the flavor is absolutely delicious. But wild salmon hosts a tiny little tapeworm whose larvae takes up residence in the fish's muscle structure. And that larvae absolutely loves the human digestive tract. (It's a fresh water parasite, so it's largely absent in farmed salmon.) The only way to be 100% sure you don't take on one of these tapeworms when you eat wild-caught salmon is to cook it.... or flash freeze it below 31°F / 0°C and hold it there for about half a day before thawing. It can then be eaten totally uncooked. Almost all wild salmon you get in supermarkets (even whole fillets) has been frozen at some point, and I don't know of a single sushi restaurant that doesn't serve previously-frozen salmon.

Now, I don't eat salmon sushi, but I don't really like it when it's cooked to the temperature needed to kill the parasite. Partially cooked, it's one of my favorite fish, and I prepare it a couple different ways where the core of the flesh is no warmer than about 104°F / 40°C. I personally feel that freezing the fish absolutely ruins the texture, unless you have access to a blast chiller that can lower the temperature of a salmon loin to below freezing in a couple minutes, thus preventing the formation of large ice crystals within the cell walls.* Not all places that sell frozen wild-caught salmon are sourcing from purveyors that treat their fish like that.





* This is roughly the same reason why ice cream made with dry ice is smoother than the stuff I make with my counter-top Cuisinart ice cream maker. And if you're lucky enough to afford a PacoJet, the reason why it produces such a smooth texture is because it churns the ice cream after it has been frozen, not while it is freezing, which breaks up all those large intra-cellular ice crystals.

[columbia]

So other than convenience, there's not necessarily a reason to buy "fresh" wild salmon?

[count2infinity]

could always get some liquid nitrogen, tif. gotta love that stuff.

[tifosi77]

Oh, and a note on 'sushi grade' fish...............

There is no FDA standard for what constitutes 'sushi grade', so what this means is largely down to local boards of health.... which means it is possible to have sushi restaurants across the street from one and other, but in different jurisdictions, and each will be selling 'sushi grade' fish, but it will mean different things in each restaurant. At the FDA level, 'sushi grade' does not even refer to the quality of the fish, but rather to something called the 'parasite destruction guarantee' in species that have been identified as parasite risks. (Which is basically the freezing thing I talked about in that last post.) Most boards of health do not really go any further beyond that in setting their standards. About the extent the majority of boards might go is to mandate a temperature at which self-service sushi is to be displayed.

So 'sushi grade' is much more of a marketing thing - like 'organic' has become - that connotes higher quality, but is really quite meaningless in that context. Just means "we froze this on the boat and thawed it before delivery to the fish market".

[tifosi77]

So other than convenience, there's not necessarily a reason to buy "fresh" wild salmon?

I definitely prefer 'fresh wild caught'; superior texture and flavor, imo. Parasite infections are pretty common in Alaskan coastal villages, and it's not a terribly dangerous thing to have one of those tapeworm thingys in your gut..... but they can cause anemia, are known to grow to like 30 feet in length and can live for decades. It's a matter of measured risk.

could always get some liquid nitrogen, tif. gotta love that stuff.

LN2 is insanely dangerous to use if you don't know what you're doing. If you get any of it on your arm in a sufficient quantity (i.e. pouring over before any evaporates), it would be no different than if you dunked your hand in a Fry-o-lator. Stuff boils at -196°C / −321° F. There was a story about a girl in Britain who was served an LN2 cocktail that was improperly prepared; she was served the drink before the liquid had boiled off, so when she drank it the thing froze her stomach..... which had to be partially removed to save her life.

I do love the effects you can achieve with LN2.... but I'm happy to leave that stuff to the pros.