What I learned today (Take Two)

My favorite sweet potato is the white-on-the-inside Japanese Sweet Potato. They are only available for a very short season here, and I look for them in one of our locally owned grocery stores. I don't believe people are crazy simply because they do not like a specific food. We are all different in our taste preferences, and nothing is wrong with that. Once I found that particular variety of sweet potatoes it is the only one I buy because it is always the best in flavor for me. I have introduced many friends to them, and everyone has loved the taste. Baked, with just a little butter, sea salt, and freshly gr. pepper is all that is needed. Is anyone else a fan of these?

I don't believe people are crazy simply because they do not like a specific food. We are all different in our taste preferences, and nothing is wrong with that.

I was joking of course. Difficult to convey tone in these posts (and I don't love emoticons), but I thought the over-the-top nature was conveyed, especially as people know me.

Otherwise, big fan of those white sweet potatoes and your prep sounds great!

I realized Rahsaan was joking. I do like sweet potatoes, it's marshmallows I find abhorent. Or maple syrup or brown sugar etc (same applies to winter squashes). Why add sweeteners to a sweet product. For us baked or roasted in chunks (usually with other root vegetables). Sweet potato fries can be good if done well, sadly they aren't always.
Jenise, the herbed mayo really made for a great skin, I'd done on chicken but not turkey.
Paul, I had taken advantage of my big commercial fridge at office to dry brine a 17.5 lb heritage bird. I had taken a chef's knife and shears, did the spatchcocking in sink. Even if I had brought cleaver would have been awkward in sink. And I'd think it would be hard to control. Shears worked, just took a lot of work near thighs.

[Jenise]

I've never had a Japanese white sweet potato. Purple yes (called Okinawan?), but not white. I'll have to look out for them. My favorite sweet potato is the garnet.

I've never had a Japanese white sweet potato. Purple yes (called Okinawan?), but not white. I'll have to look out for them. My favorite sweet potato is the garnet.

https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/prod ... age=QP1043

[Jenise]

So yesterday I bought two Japanese sweet potatoes to try. Last night I debated between roasting slices or baking whole, and decided over the next few days I'd try one of each but went with 'whole' after trimming a bad spot off the potato that immediately turned black. Baked it, cut it open, took one bite, and tossed it in the trash. It was pure sugar, no way I can eat that. And I didn't care much for the dry, starchy texture, either. No-go!

Yesterday I learned you can pronounce turbot any way you want.
Got some beautiful turbot yesterday, fishmonger said "tur but" . I said I'll have 2/3s lb of the "Tur bow".
So I googled when I went home, basically half the people said former (including FDA), and half latter (including Marcus Samuellson -sp?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fRZbrS7Xp4
Basically I think it's European/French tur bow and US tur but

[Jenise]

Well, you can always have your tur-but with a bottle of mer-lot after an afternoon out in your Chevro-let!

I too have only heard tur-bow.

[Jenise]

I spent this weekend learning about what I can and cannot eat with my new dental disaster. (Friday loss of entire top center-left tooth.) We went out for Vietnamese on Saturday and while I knew I couldn't bite into an egg roll, I didn't foresee any issues with a bowl of pho. WELL. The issue is that while the noodles yes are soft I require being able to bite down, like a guillotine, to cut off the incoming noodle supply and have a neat bite that doesn't whip broth all over my clothes, the table or the guy next to me. Well, can't do that now!

Chawanmushi for you-shi!

[Jenise]

Chawanmushi for you-shi!

Probably so! (Yesterday, I temporarily forgot about my predicament and shredded beef street tacos were a total FAIL.)

Chawanmushi for you-shi!

Probably so! (Yesterday, I temporarily forgot about my predicament and shredded beef street tacos were a total FAIL.)

Ditto. Until I get a tooth on top of my stud and my bite adjusted, I can't clip anything--even with my canines. At least you don't have my taste alteration.

[Jenise]

Larry, are you getting an implant? That's my future, I found out yesterday. Will take a year and involve bone grafts, etc. Pretty major.
Sorry your tastes haven't returned to normal. That would be so disheartening.

Yes. Started last June. A nine-month multi-step process. Will get tooth in February. Nothing hurt along the way, except the bills.

[Jenise]

What's that going to run you cost wise? I haven't been given an estimate yet.

What's that going to run you cost wise? I haven't been given an estimate yet.

Somewhere pushing $3k for one tooth.

[Jenise]

Thanks. Fortunately I'm just in time enough to buy dental insurance. $87/mo with $5K annual benefit.

[Jenise]

I learned yesterday that anyone who says that a sous-vide duck breast can acquire a crispy skin in 3-5 minutes and still have med rare meat underneath is full of shit! Neither is true. And separately I learned that you can dry-age duck breasts. Chef Alan Kerr recommends five days. Next time!

Also, yesterday I got stuck realizing I didn't have a finger food to serve with a champagne starter. Panicked, I scrounged and found 9 frozen shell-on large shrimp, an unopened pkg of proscuitto and a small box of fresh basil about to die. Looked like a plan: I removed the shells, wrapped each shrimp in a basil leaf and then rolled them up in a single slice of proscuitto. Put them on parchment (I do almost everything on parchment these days) and into a 400F oven for ten minutes when guests arrived. Easy peasy and my guests loved them. They got two each, and I only had one but they didn't know that. Honestly, for a last-ditch desperation effort that looked and tasted like I'd planned it all week? Couldn't have been any better.

Is that the Kenji sous vide duck recipe? I've done it a couple of times and pretty good luck ( after SV, put in cold pan, put over high heat til sizzles, turn down heat - don't score the skin).

[Jenise]

Dale, no, not Kenji's. I remembered reading about sous vide success with duck breast but didn't recall where (could have been Kenji), so I just googled and found two descriptions that pretty much agreed on 135F for two hours so that's what I did. The cold pan method is classic, whether SV or not. But still, no way the fat (which I scored) was ever going to get crispy. I pulled them rather than overcook the meat any further.

I think Kenji's is 130 for an hour (and pretty sure I did something like 127, always aim a little low),. If you dry carefully seems to crisp skin well (you're not rendering as the SV already did that. think that's why you don't score/crosshatch, better to keep the barrier).
I talked about this last night as the host did an excellent job with duck breast, but took him away from table long time. For parties I find this lets me jump up and be done in 10-12 minutes (and the timing of the SV can be 1-4 hours, doesn't matter much)

https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-1 ... ast-recipe

This is something I've been doing for a while but I thought I'd share it here. I make Chinese red-cooked chicken (hongshao ji) fairly often. The first step of the dish is to sear the chicken in a bit of oil. When the dish is done there is quite a bit of chicken fat to skim off. I save this in the freezer and use some of it to sear the chicken---instead of using oil--the next time I make the dish. The chicken fat is yummy schmaltz with some flavors from the aromatics in the dish (onions, ginger, star anise).

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-101-duck-breast-recipe

Thanks, just read thru it. Everything in that makes sense, especially seasoning 24 hr in advance and the lower immersion temp. I'm embarrassed to learn there was a Kenji recipe out there and I didn't find it. I'll do this again in a few days to cement this procedure in my brain.

Btw, silly fact: last weekend Bob's son visited and one of the meals I offered was seared duck breast. Barry, age 50, had never heard of seared duck breast (fine dining isn't something they do much of) and he absolutely recoiled at the thought of eating rare poultry.