U235

1 hour ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

I've found that any beef that I find locally in the supermarket is inedible but when ground is suitable for the usual stuff like bolognaise, chilli, etc...someone said that Makro has ground beef in the frozen food section...

 

 

 

That's why I buy my beef directly from the farm. I can see the cows, what they eat, etc, no surprises. 

 

Beef is always very soft (tenderloin). Only problem is that the beef guy has no idea about the Western cuts. Try not to order a T-Bone steak. In reality, he keeps the best pieces for the restaurants and 'the falang', the lesser cuts he sells on the market to the locals. Can be a problem is I need a fat cut for hamburgers - he simply doesn't have it when he visits me, I need to place a special order for that (he does home deliveries too!)

 

1 hour ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

the best you can do with thai 'beef' is grind it up for which you need a meat grinder...which I have but is now inoperable as someone in my house was messing about in my kitchen while I was a way at work and lost the little cutting blade and for which I became highly annoyed...

 

 

 

 

I know the feeling, happened to me too. Fortunately the shop at home send me some replacements. I have a Porkert but they not longer make it. But the blades are interchangeable with Westmark knifes, so no problem. 

50 minutes ago, anotheruser said:

There is no doubt the food and ingredients are of a substandard nature with in Thailand. 

 

Not entirely agree. If you buy the local products (vegetables, meat,....) they are mostly OK for me (except often the  lack of hygiene). Only thing you have to do is search for a decent supplier. For instance, we all agree that Thai beef s*cks. After I moved from Samui to the jungle in Kanchanaburi, we buy our beef directly from the farm. Excellent quality and deadly cheap! Not Kobe of course but still a decent steak. 

 

Imported products are another thing. From my experience in hotel business, I know that everything is for sale for the happy few (read: the 5 star hotels) at normal prices. But the average falang has to live with a very limited supply of overpriced low quality products, and that is really a shame. Can you imagine that I had a bigger cultural shock moving from Samui to Kanchanaburi as from moving from home to Samui? If I wanted to eat Parma ham in Samui I just took a bit from the stock of our restaurant. Was cheaper as TGM ham. If I want it now, I need to pay 'Siam Paragon' rates, or contact someone to send me a ham by EMS. But what can I do with a ham of 7 kg or a 80 Kg Blue Fin Tuna? Anyway, I solved the problem: will soon open a restaurant business over here, miss the French oysters and Russian caviar a bit too much 

 

But in the mean time, I'm forced to go back to the basics of cooking, which is in fact a good thing. I can cook what I want using the local products. It just takes more time and I need to see what is available. Looks that some people over here are growing asparagus. During season, every time my wife went to the market she came back with a kg asparagus. Asparagus soup, asparagus pasta, asparagus a la flamande, steak asparagus, toast asparagus, name it and I made it LOL.

 

My previous post with the ground meat is a good example what I mean: ground meat is such a stupid product that you can find everywhere at home. Here I have to make it by myself. Inconvenient, but at the other hand, it is most likely of a better quality as what most butchers sell at home (nobody really knows what they put in it, but if a supermarket at home can sell it for less as 5 euro/kg, I become a bit suspicious). But I was wondering what other people do as this meat is so common in recipes and nobody questions the lack of availability of it....

 

1 hour ago, anotheruser said:

 

I only started this thread to see what people are making over here or what is possible to do.

 

 

Which was a good idea and as I'm curious too the reason I started posting in this topic

 

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

 

So, you think you know better than one of the most famous and respected chefs in America, Emeril Lagasse?

 

If Mr Lagasse substitutes a dairy product which is formed by bacteria - a procedure which takes days to complete - with some 'in 5 minutes ready' mixture  of milk and vinegar, yes, in that case I know it better.

 

If the OP is a bit adventurous, he can try the following: obtain a pack of buttermilk from Villa or another place, mix a bit of it with normal milk and wait (a long time - days). The Villa milk should act like a starter: if the bacteria multiply they will (hopefully) convert the normal milk into buttermilk. I wouldn't put it from the beginning in the fridge to speed up the proces. Never tried it or will try (really don't like buttermilk), but it works with yoghurt, which is produced by a similar proces.

 

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

What's your personal expertise (apart from using Wikipedia)?

 

Nothing worthwhile to mention. Running restaurants and that kind of things....

 

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

 

Incidentally, Lagasse does have a recipe for home made ricotta.  It's different:  http://emerils.com/127806/homemade-ricotta-cheese

 

Indeed, it is different. He uses citric acid while I mostly use lime juice. I suppose you just buy your citric acid in your local 7/11 while I have serious trouble obtaining a lime?  He also ads the acid while the milk is still cold. No idea why he does it but I suppose it is ok. If you heat milk, you have to stir it to avoid burning. However, stirring will damage the curds. So I think it is better to wait a bit with the acid till the milk has the right temperature. Anyway, tried it many times and it works fine for me ;-)

There is one thing I don't understand about falang: we often complain about everything in Thailand, but nobody seems to complain about the lack of decent ground meat.

 

Oh, what do I miss my butcher! Imagine, a nice, clean shop where you can choose from a wide variety of cuts and prepared meats

 

 

None of these nice things are available over here, so every now and then I try to make some of them by myself.

 

Today I made 'slavinken', 'boomstammetjes' and 'Zwitserse schijven'. Sorry, no idea if these preparations have an English equivalent (I doubt it, this is Dutch btw)

 

They have all in common that the main ingredient is ground meat, partly pork, partly beef. This is not available over here, so the first thing to do is make it by myself. (and even if it was available, I wouldn't use it - if I see that even Tops expiration date is around 5 days after manufacturing date, hmmmm....)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On second thoughts I think I should have bought a larger grinder. This one (Porkert) says it can make half a kg/minute,  this amount of meat took me around 20 minutes.

 

Ok, we have the meat, let's start mixing it with spices and other ingredients:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slavinken: mix meat with egg, breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, a bit of onion. Put two slices of smoked bacon cross wise in a hamburger press, add meat mix, 'close' the bacon, form a burger.

 

 

Boomstammetjes: mix the meat with cheese, cooked ham,  breadcrumbs, egg, pepper, salt, curry- and paprika powder. Shape as on the picture. Put both ends in dried parsley. Make a mix of breadcrumbs, paprika- and curry powder. Roll the 'boomstammetjes' in it till completely covered (except the ends which are already covered with parsley)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zwitserse schijven: mix meat with breadcrumbs, egg , pepper, salt, onion

Fill hamburger press half with mixture. Put a slice of cheese in the middle. Cover with meat mixture.

Take out of the press and cover with a mixture of breadcrumbs and parsley.

31 minutes ago, GinBoy2 said:

Thanks for this.

 

Having all my life just being able to go to the store to pick up Buttermilk.....who knew it was so simple!

 

I'm afraid it isn't as simple as this. Please read the buttermilk Wikipedia article first.

 

As you can see, there are several kinds of buttermilk, what you are looking for is most likely the commercial cultured version;

 

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Commercially available cultured buttermilk is milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized (with 1% or 2% fat), and then inoculated with a culture of Lactococcus lactis (formerly known as Streptococcus lactis) plus Leuconostoc citrovorum to simulate the naturally occurring bacteria in the old-fashioned product. Some dairies add colored flecks of butter to cultured buttermilk to simulate residual flecks of butter that can be left over from the churning process of traditional buttermilk

 

The recipe Oxx mentions (and which you can find on many websites)  makes a great ricotta cheese, but I wouldn't call it buttermilk. At least not where I come from, but as you can also  read in the wiki, there are many variations in different kinds of the world. Maybe there are countries where they call ricotta buttermilk, I don't know 

 

Heat (not boil) milk with a pinch of salt

Add some lime juice or vinegar (as long it is acid)

Wait a couple of minutes and you will see curds form. Avoid to stir as the curds are very fragile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filter it trough a cheesecloth or a paper kitchen towel.

 

I use this ricotta for pasta's and pizza's. As a rule of thumb: a 250 ml carton box of milk gives enough cheese for one dish. If you add some cream to the milk, the % of fat will increase, so also your cheese production. You can keep it for a couple of days in the fridge or you can freeze it.

 

Ich bin ein Berliner

 

On 11/21/2016 at 6:47 PM, balo said:

 

No wonder the Thais loved it , 50% sugar . What if you add 10% instead of 50% . 

.   

 

That would make the perfect almond sandwich I suppose.... Cheap commercial marzipan's (especially those used to shape figures)  even contain more sugar.

 

Coconut husk works fine and is not too difficult to find over here.

New sources for casings are always welcome 

2 hours ago, CLW said:

That looks amazing!
Is there marzipan filling inside?
Did you put cinnamon into the recipe?

My family sent me loads of christmas sweets and unfortunately (or lucky for me) my gf doesn't like cinnamon (I think as most Thais do) so I'm looking for cinnamon-free recipes 555

 

Nope, no cinnamon, but maybe next time,  I should add a bit to keep Thai families away. They left almost nothing for me LOL

 

The filling is close to marzipan. Marzipan is made from ice sugar, this one from custard sugar.(50% almond powder, 50% sugar and a bit of water and white of egg to bind everything, make it at least 24 hrs before baking)

 

You can find the recipe HERE (in Dutch, so use google to translate or ask me if it is not clear)

 

 

It's almost X-Mass again: Christmas Stollen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 hours ago, notmyself said:

 

Roast a full beef joint, 3kg of spuds, 5kg of various vegetables. 1 huge Yorkshire pudding and maybe half a jar of horseradish sauce. Then all you need to do is put it in a dehydration unit and smash to dust in a blender. You may as well also dehydrate a huge apple pie and throw that in too.

 

 

 

I took the challenge, locked myself the whole day in the lab and here is the result of my experiments:

 

 

A bread 

 

Passionfood already offered me to do the distribution for Thailand. Just afraid the initial investment might be too much for me. Anyone interested to become a partner?

Cannelloni

 

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No, thanx, I just like cooking too much (and my wife will kill me I she not longer can go shopping)

 

But to answer your question: no idea if it is for sale in TH and honestly, I doubt it. But I suppose you can order online?

On 11/16/2016 at 4:36 PM, CLW said:

Though not sure if it's cheese from milk or that fake one from vegetable oil...

 

Sure it is fake. Should be fake anyway in a country where everyone is lactose intolerant

 

I plead guilty your honor: when I'm on the highway and I feel hungry I also stop at the 7/11 for a burger. No other choice....

 

But when we arrive back home my kids run to the freezer to take out some buns and burgers. Keeps daddy busy LOL

 

 

 

 

  

Shoarma (pita), with cucumber salad and garlic sauce

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions: 

 

Day one: mix meat (in this case sliced pork tenderloin) with some olive oil and spice mix. Marinate it during the night.

Prepare a starter dough

 

Day two: Make a yeast dough using the starter dough, let is sit for a couple of hours, form approx 1cm thick pancakes from it. Preheat oven with tiles to the highest temperature. Place the pita's on the top position in the oven till they 'puff'. Move them to the middle of the oven and eventually turn of the top heat to prevent  burning.

 

Bake the meat till crispy in a pan. Open the breads with a knife till you have 'wallets'. Fill them with the meat (and eventually some vegetables) and serve with a salad and your preferred sauce.

 

23 hours ago, smccolley said:

I am in Brazil this month, so I am eating BEEF! File Minion, Picanha, Contrafile and calabresa sausages with black beans and rice at chirrascarias and chirrascos all over Rio. Washing it all down with oceans of caiphirinias.

 

I will worry about losing weight later...

 

 

What a monster! Please, bring me one! Please!

Went with my wife to Vientiane 3 moths ago. Arriving at the border, we were told that they can not deliver the pass. Had to stay one night in Thailand and the hotel took care. No idea how the hotel did it, I suppose they send someone to the city hall. Borderpass is valid for only a very short time, but we were told that 'overstay' costs a Thai only 20 or 50 thb/day. Unconfirmed. If you go to Vientiane, ignore all the friendly guys with 'cheap' cars but take the bus to the city: walk approx 150 meters , bus stops near the foodstalls on the right.

58 minutes ago, tutsiwarrior said:

 

do you not use any tomato,  in traditional bolognaise sauce?

 

during college days the standard 'spaghetti sauce' was onions, garlic, green pepper, ground beef, can of tomatoes and maybe a tbsp or two of tomato paste...let simmer for an hour or so...season with salt, pepper, 'italian spices' and chile powder...and then feed the student household...

 

when I got to the UK: 'hmmm...that's an interesting bolognaise...' 'wha?...bolognaise?...'

 

 

Yep, how could I forget the tomato's 

 

What I want to say is that the stuff with tomato sauce, mushrooms, bell peppers etc. you find everywhere is not real Bolognaise sauce. This doesn't mean that these sauces are bad, it is just not what an Italian mama makes.

 

The original recipe is (more or less) the following:

 

Saute diced onions, carrot and celery in olive oil

 

Add minced beef and eventually pancetta (or bacon if you live in Thailand)

 

Add wine and reduce it

 

Add milk + nutmeg and reduce it

 

Then tomato's and/or tomato paste

 

Let it simmer for 4-6 hours. Add pepper and salt to taste

 

 

The basic of Italian cooking is that it is very simple. I can recommend the ebook version of "Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan'. I suppose there is no need to explain how to obtain a copy of it 

 

 

 

 

 

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Not in the mood to cook today  Fortunately I had some Ragu di Cinghiale left in the freezer.

 

Ragu di Cinghiale is a classic from Tuscany (Italy). The recipe is close to a traditional Bolognaise sauce  (carrot, onion, celery, red wine, milk, meat) but with wild boar instead. 

 

And one of the things I like about Thailand is that game is available all year in the frozen meat section of Makro (ok, not the quality I'm used at home, but fine for a spaghetti sauce)

 

Cooked in a slow cooker for around 6 hours. The longer the better  Served with spaghetti and parmazan (pappardelle is better for this dish, but as I said: not in the mood to cook)

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Laza 45 said:

..Those look good.. what flour do you use?

 

It's the common 'white swan' brand (green), the whole wheat and rye flour for the biga are 'imperial healthy mix', all mixed using the dough program of a Kenwood bread maker..

 

Here is a picture of a sandwich made from the smaller loaf on the left I had last night. To avoid commotion on TV I think it is better not to post the recipe this time LOL (and the colours on the pics are not so bright anyway, in reality it looked much better)

 

 

 

Favorite snack while watching TV:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pastry: frozen from Makro

Sausage: 50% beef, 50% pork, grinded through 4 mm plate, seasoned with pepper, salt, nutmeg, onion and garlic. Mix with beaten egg and breadcrumbs to improve structure.

 

Bake sausage in pan first otherwise your oven will be full of melted fat (and it will prevent your pastry to bake well). Freezes well (unbaked)

 

Probably not recommended if you're on a diet