I am reducing leftover sparkling cider from New Years eve.
Hoping to finish it all in one pan using one of the recipes
“use a heavy skillet, high heat, and a combination of oil and butter… start by heating up the oil until it’s almost smoking-hot, carefully adding in the pork/carrots, then cooking it, turning occasionally, until it’s browned on most sides. I add butter just for the last few minutes of cooking…”
Maybe I will use the dreaded bottled “ghee”/clarified butter.
This one has you put them directly in the water bath and reads
“(Note: This process does not cook the oysters. They will still be raw. It simply firms them–which can better please some palates–and makes them easier to shuck.)”
I put 8 larger (Fanny Bay, Royal Miyagi oysters) in a sous vide bag with a foil liner at 185f for 5 minutes, and there was no significant difference in flavor, texture, nor ease of shucking.
I have been a bit disappointed with the small Oishi, of which two of twelve have died so far, and another three were dry. I haven’t checked the tags to see if they were a ll harvested the same day.
When I was 3 or 4 years old (I swear) my grandfather would take me to the raw bar in Baltimore’s old North Avenue Market for oysters. I didn’t even know what they were, but I ate them with him. . Cocktail sauce and all!
I am sure I didn’t eat oysters until I moved to Northern California around age 30. Please don’t tell me that is “later in life”. I’m having enough trouble with mid 60’s being “later in life”.
About 50 hours since delivery and most, if not all of the remaining 8 are still clinging hard to life ( and their shells).
We accustomed our boys to raw oysters when they were 9 and 6. They were tough and wanted to please us, so they powered through textural issues and acquired the taste. We were happy about the accomplishment of broadening their culinary palates, but soon realized this was an expensive decision. Whenever oysters are on a menu they insist that we order them, and like many children, their appetites are oblivious of the cost of food.
This is day 5 at least, and these oysters are still hanging on for dear life. This time I Sous vide for 12 minutes, and mistakenly at 184f,. They were a bit easier to open, and the few small ones were definitely dry, and had a cooked texture. Here’s a picture of the larger ones.
I made sous vide Hainan chicken rice today. Even with sous vide out of the equation I’ve always felt that home recipes for this dish are a bit misguided for the sake of convenience. I’ve always thought that making a separate stock, which gets more chicken parts and more hours to simmer is the way to go, so you get a more flavorful rice and soup if you decide to make the soup as well. The chicken also comes out more flavorful when not poached in a large pot of water. Not that the chicken should be all that flavorful for this dish, but I still prefer for it to be better seasoned. And it’s much simpler to make on a whim when you already have your stock. Without sous vide I prefer a method like this.
Anyway, as for today I cooked the breast at 148° and it was very tender and juicy, but I would go down to 145° for smoother appearance. I prefer white meat by far in this dish because gentle poaching doesn’t do much for sinewy thighs. I find the thighs kind of unpleasantly flabby and a bit gamey in flavor if I get this dish and can’t opt for white meat. At home if I were doing thighs I’d cook them at a higher temperature to have them more tender but still juicy.
I cooked the breast with some ginger and scallion whites and I removed the bones to avoid the typical red coloring you get around the bones when cooking sous vide. Shocked in ice water after an hour and brushed with sesame oil and soy sauce.
I can’t make chili sauce here unless I happen to have chilies growing in my yard, so I took Huy Fong chili garlic sauce and sweet chili sauce and strained them then added lime zest and juice and had a pretty fantastic sauce. It’s hotter than what you typically get with this dish, and I’d prefer it milder, but it’s delicious.
I don’t know why I see so many recipes for chicken rice calling for a ginger scallion oil, because I’ve never gotten that sauce when I’ve had this dish. And obviously ginger scallion oil is delicious, but I’ve always had a preference for this ginger and garlic sauce which has lime juice for a bit of acid.
The rice is pretty standard. I was only making a little stock, so some parts from a whole chicken (including the feet) gave me a flavorful stock that gelled in the fridge. I skimmed the fat off and used that to sauté my aromatics before adding jasmine rice and sautéing it for a bit. I miss the pandan, but it was pretty close otherwise.
I love that at home I can load up on cucumbers. There are always so few when ordering this!
In the end this tasted pretty much like what I’d get from a stall and I inhaled it. So satisfying!
. Cocktail sauce and all!
