Image courtesy of tokyofoodcast of Flickr under Creative Commons by attribution 2.0
Welcome to a new column here, where you ask the questions, and I give the answers as I know them. As always, you can contact me through my About Page if you have any questions.
can any one list two causes of stock becoming cloudy during the cooking process? – mezza
There are a couple of things that can go wrong. What you need to do is review your process steps to find out where you have gone wrong. Off the top of my head, the main culprits are:
- Stock should be started with cold water. This is so the impurities can dissolve and float to the top during cooking.
- Stock should be simmered, gently. If the stock comes to a rolling boil, then chances are you will have a cloudy stock.
- After resting, the stock needs to be strained through a fine strainer. (Preferably through a spigot.)
Hopefully those 3 points can help you track down what might have gone wrong.
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spice grinder…keeping the device clean, which seems to be nearly impossible. – FatGuy of EGullet forums
While this is not necessarily a question, the answer to the problem lies with a simple trick with a coffee/spice grinder:
Place a couple of soda crackers with baking soda in the base, and grind to a powder. Dump the contents out and wipe the lid. The baking soda will cling to the oils and help to get rid of them. You could use rice instead, but I find that the blades will dull that much faster.
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I bought a package of salted black beans when I was at the Asian market yesterday… When I have them, I can never figure out what to put them in. – fooey of EGullet Forums
You have stumbled on a real treasure. I love those beans in all sorts of preparations. There are a couple of things to think of though:
Wash the beans, pound them, soak them for at least 5 minutes. The initial step will take away some of the massively saltiness of the beans.
Rinse, then soak again for another 5 minutes. This is to get rid of the final saltiness.
After that, the beans are ready to roll! I have used them in stir-fried rice for a nice filler, a spicy dish from one of my favorite sites, and of course, spicy black bean chicken.
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On the Chili sauce recipe you sent me… can you think of a substitution for galangal and palm sugar?? I seriously can’t find them around here. Which is crazy given that I live in a metropolitan area…. I’ve been to like 3 or 4 asian stores and they don’t have them. – Nick from Macheesmo
I understand completely. Sometimes your area just does not have the items you need. Palm sugar can be substituted with light brown sugar, and the galangal can be substituted with an equal amount of ginger. Unfortunately, it will be missing that je ne sais quoi.
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Finally, for link love, here is a link to the Scale Manifesto. Read it, it will change how you look at recipes forever!
That is it for this week.
Do you have a question for the Well Done Chef? Contact me from my About Page, and your question may be featured here!
