Hot and Sour Soup with Chicken (Tom Yum Gai) is probably the one of the most famous Thai dishes in the world. There are hundreds of variations, like Tom Yum Goon which uses shrimp instead. It is a wonderful dish and I prefer it spicy. You can sieve out the parts of this soup you don't eat before serving - like lemongrass stalks, galangal, and lime leaves. If serving this to guests who are unfamiliar with Thai food, you may want to let them know what to eat and what not to eat before serving. It is an easy soup to prepare but so flavorful if you have the right ingredients. Start with preparing the ingredients for the soup. Remove the outer layer of the lemongrass stalks and cut off the end. Cut into 1-2″ pieces and smash with the side of a heavy knife to release flavor. Peel and slice your galangal into thin slices. Tear the center vein off the Kaffir lime leaves. Tear each leave half into two pieces , this will help release the flavors quicker into the soup. Cut the tomato into 6 pieces lengthwise and cut each slice into two . Peel the skin off the shallots, slice it thinly and smash lightly. Finally press the limes. Cut the stem of the chilies and cut each chili in half lengthwise.Smash the fresh chilies with the back of a heavy knife, or in a mortar and pestle. The amount of chili you use will decide how spicy the soup will be. If you like it less spicy, use only 3-4 Thai chilies and remove the seeds. Thinly slice the chicken breast and rinse the mushrooms in water. Bring a large pan filled with water to boil, and put in the chicken and mushrooms. Boil at medium-high heat for 12-15 minutes. Discard the water. Pour the chicken broth into a large pan and bring to boil. Add the lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, shallot, chilies and tomato. Boil for 6-8 minutes until the broth tastes herbal. if you’re using fresh ingredients, 4-5 minutes might be enough. Add a pinch of salt and then add mushrooms and chicken slices.
Cook for another two minutes and then add fish sauce and lime juice. Stir and remove from stove. Taste and add more lime juice or fish sauce if needed. Add cilantro leaves. Serve hot!!
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Ingredients: 3 Lemons cut into eights 4 seeded Lemons 10 seeded Sour Oranges 5 lbs White Sugar 5 oz Lemon Juice In January, citrus fruits are in abundance in Arizona and a lot of people have Sour Oranges in their backyards that carries a lot of fruits. The fruits are bitter and often just thrown away. However, mixed with lemons and a lot of sugar you can turn these oranges into marmalade gold. This recipe is adapted from the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook. The Lemon eights needs to be prepared two days before you cook the marmalade. Start with the 3 Lemons cut into eights. Place in saucepan and add enough water for the fruit to bob freely. Cover tightly and let rest overnight in room temperature. The following day - bring the pan with Lemon eights to boil over high heat and when boiling lower heat to medium. Cook the fruits for 2-3, until the lemons are soft and liquid has become syrupy. Add water of necessary, the fruit should be submerged throughout the cook. Strain the juice when finished and let it rest overnight at room temperature. On the second day, also prep the sliced lemons. Cut each of the lemons into halves crosswise, and then cut each half into slices lengthwise and finally slice thinly across each slide. Place the slices in a stainless kettle and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain, return the slices to the kettle and refill with water. It should be enough to cover the slices with an inch. Bring to boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes. Stir it gently every 10 minutes or so. Add water if needed. Remove pan when fruit is tender, cover and rest overnight at room temperature. Prepare the orange slices in a similar way. First, juice the oranges, cover the juice and refrigerate overnight. Cut the oranges the same way you cut the lemons. Place slices in kettle and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain, return the slices to the kettle and refill with water. It should be enough to cover the slices with two inches. Bring to boil, then simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Stir it gently every 20 minutes or so. Add water if needed. Remove pan when fruit is tender, cover and rest overnight at room temperature. Day 3 is the day when you finalize your marmalade. You need some fresh lemon juice so juice about 3 lemons - that should give you the five ounces you need. In a large kettle, add the sugar. Strain the juice with the lemons eights well. Remove all plastic wraps and pour the orange and lemon juices, the lemon slices with liquid and orange slices with liquids into the sugar. Mix thoroughly. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Cook at a rapid boil until the setting point is reached - which will take a minimum of 25 minutes. You have to be observant how the marmalade mix reacts during this part of the cook. Initially, the mixture will bubble gently for several minutes. This is the part where the moisture cooks out of the mix and the sugar concentration increases. Do not stir the mixture during this phase. Suddenly it will start foaming and rising in the pan. Make sure that your pan is high enough for these part. Stir gently every few minutes during this phase. As it get closer to being done, the foam will start receding again and you might have to lower the temperature somewhat to prevent burning. The marmalade is ready for testing when it darkens and the bubbles become very small. Test doneness with a spoon that has been in the freezer for at least an hour. Put a halfspoon-full of marmalade on your frozen spoon, and return to freezer for 3-4 minutes. After this time, remove spoon and tilt vertically. If the marmalade doesn't run and the top layer has thickened, it is done. If not, keep cooking some more.
When done, turn off the heat, do not stir, and skim off any surface foam. Pour the jam into sterilized jars. Enjoy!! Steak is one of the most popular foods to cook sous-vide, and with good reason. Cooking steak in a skillet or on the grill the traditional way leaves lots of room for error and an over- or undercooked steak is a big mistake to make when there's a super-expensive dry-aged ribeye on the line. Sous-vide cooking takes all of the guesswork out of the process, delivering steaks that are cooked to precisely the temperature you like each and every time. We are doing this recipe with two small addition, reverse sear using a torch and putting an exclaimation point on it with a puff of smoke. Start by trimming the steak so it has a nice shape. Look for steak with great marbling and without big chunks of fat. Spice rubs behave quite differently under sous-vide conditions than standard cooking conditions soanswer it's very tough to predict exactly how spices are going to react in a sous-vide bag. With sous-vide cooking, there's no way for that flavor to escape the bag. Meanwhile, spices rubbed on the surface of the meat have a tendency to get rinsed off by any juices that are being expressed. If you want spice flavor, rub some on before you vacuum seal and then add an additional layer of spices after you have cooked it sous vide. Set your waterbath to 132 degrees Fahrenheit for medium rare. Vacuum seal your steak and then insert the sous vide bag into the waterbath. With steaks around 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, cook for about 2 hours. Thinner steaks needs less time, but who wants a thin steak in the first place. Cooking time is also one of the benefits of cooking a steak sous vide, you dont have to time it perfectly. If you cook the steak between 2-4 hours, it should come out perfectly medium-rare. Sprinkle some additional spices on top of the steak. If you've got a high-output torch, now is the time to break it out to add some steakhouse-quality char. Start torching the first side working in slow, even strokes back and forth across its entire surface until it is pale brown with a few darker singed spots. Repeat the torching process with the other side. You should now have a nice char on the steak. Let us add one final touch to the steak while we let it rest. USe a smoke gun and blow hickory smoke into a glass bowl and cover the steak. Let it rest for 2-3 minutes under the smoke. When you remove the glass bowl, the steak has taken on a slight smoke flavor. Serve immediately.
You should now have a great steak - cooked medium rare throughout. Enjoy!! |
Cooking at home
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