I agree about not being able to add to old reports - makes me sad. I’ve been wondering if it might be useful to have a Reports from previous COTMs thread? The downside seems like it would mean we would be less likely to do a reboot from those books over here on HO. On the other hand, I would hate to lose the chance to hear about people’s ongoing experiences with COTM cookbooks in the future, and certainly have some recipes still in my queue from past books. What do you all think?
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I’m still cooking my way through Simply Julia too, and I think we could either start a new post for a prior COTM and people can add to it as they go, or the combo approach like hirsheys suggested.
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The combo approach makes sense to me, where people would state book plus recipe title at the top of the post. Separate threads would mean littering the site with a lot of threads that wouldn’t have a ton of replies or a lot of relevance to many here.
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Oh wow, love both these ideas.
Just the other night I remade something from a previous COTM, and thank goodness I was able to look it up on CH because there (and not in my book) I mentioned that I needed to cook it less than called for. I am going to need to be more aware of adding stuff like that to notes in my books.
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I will begin a past COTMs thread within the next couple of days.
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Thank you so much, Caitlin. I have recipes I’ve RECENTLY made and some I plan make IN THE FUTURE, which I would love to share with folks WHO ARE INTERESTED in that sort of thing.
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I scan quickly through the book, lots of chicken recipes!
My first impression and I’m glad the recipes seem simple (suitable for busy days cooking) and the usual ingredients vs the more complicated recipes by David Thompson’s Thai Food.
Also glad that my lemongrass survived indoors this winter and it’s outside again now!
Maybe people with the book can confirm, does every recipe come with a photo? I’ve the ebook, only about 1 out of 4 dishes has a photo, a bit frustrated, but I think I got it when it was on promotion.
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@naf I have a hard copy of the book and
there are about 38 to 40 photos in Simply Thai Food. Nice to see that you are excited to begin cooking!
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Your April reporting thread is here:
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I love fresh rice noodles in pad ki mao, although I find it kind of a PITA to painstakingly peel the noodles apart, one by one. Also, I recently had to throw a pack out. I meant to use them the same day I bought them, but something came up, so I put them in the fridge - huge mistake. The next day, they were too hard and brittle to separate. I tried a brief soak in warm water to no avail.
Do you have any tips for working with fresh, store-bought rice noodles? Any advice on storing them, like could I refrigerate them on a baking sheet after I’ve separated them? Can they stay out of the fridge for more than a day? TIA
Here’s a mound of noodles I hand-separated.
I would cook them right away then rinse them in cold water to remove the starch. Drain in a colander then toss with some oil before storing in the fridge.
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From Hot Thai Kitchen (scroll down to her recipe notes):
“If you buy fresh rice noodles from the store and they’re cold, hard and stuck together into a big block, you’ll need to heat them (I do this in the microwave) until they’re hot and softened, and you will be able to separate them then.”
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Do you mean cooking by stir-frying them?
Thanks, that makes sense. I’ve microwaved fresh yakisoba noodles to loosen them, so this could work.
Good luck!
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I was referring to the Bon Appétit technique:
Another source as Amanda mentioned:
Under tips:
"* If your fresh rice noodles come compressed together, take some time to separate them. It’s best not to perfectly separate them. Leaving them clumped into 2 or 3 noodles will mean less breakage.
- Also, it helps to leave the fresh rice noodles out of the refrigerator for a few hours beforehand or to open the packet and microwave them a few seconds. Getting a helper to assist you with this task makes it much faster and easier."
I plan to try this hack also:
Please report back and let us know what works for you.
P.S.
The risk with microwaving them is that it is easy to overcook them.
I find that I have more contol submerging them in either room temperature or warm water.
Thank you for the links. The YouTube and the Bon App article give a wealth of information on dried rice noodles. The Spruce article has some good advice on fresh rice noodles, which I will bear in mind.
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The Bon Appétite method also works on Fresh stuck together rice noodles.
There are 3 ways to separate clumped together rice noodles.
No one way is better than the other it’s just a matter of finding out which method works best for you.
P.S.
As I mentioned my concern would be overcooking the noodles in the microwave.
That’s why I prefer to soak mine because I have more control that way.
