Yimyyammer, how do you make that batter? Looks awesome.

The secret to fried chicken is following the ad hoc at home recipe.

SUPER easy.

I cut up 3 or 4 pieces of bacon and cooked it in a pan until the fat rendered out of the bacon, then I throw some flour in and stirred until it becomes a slightly browned paste (i.e. roux), then add milk and reduce.

While it was still runny and I felt all the fat had come off the bacon, I strained it into a bowl to remove the bacon and any bits of stuff and then poured it back in the pan to cook and thicken up (The straining is optional and the bacon could have been left in, cant ever have enough bacon right?).

Salt & pepper to taste (I didn't add much salt since the mashed potatoes was pretty flavorful with capers, etc).

I just winged it and did the following (but I cant tell you exact quantities but probably at least a teaspoon of each spice)

• AP Flour (about 1-1/2 cups)
• white pepper
• paprika
• cayenne pepper
• Pimenton (Perhaps my favorite spice)
• Garlic powder or granulated garlic (whatever you have)
• onion powder

I put all of the above directly in a big freezer lock bags, blow some air into the bag and then seal it up and shake the hell out of it.

I just pull the chicken out of my buttermilk brine, toss several pieces in the bag, blow some air into it and shake it up til coated thoroughly.

I use a thermometer to monitor the temp of my oil so it doesn't get too hot and burn the crust before the chicken can cook. I keep it at around 300F (maybe start it at 325F because the chicken will cool it quickly).

The previous steps in case anyone wants to know are:

Brine** the chicken for 6-12 hours

Once brined I put the chicken in a bowl, add sliced onions, rosemary, garlic cloves, orange peel and then pour in enough buttermilk to completely cover all the chicken I let it sit in the bmilk mixture for a couple of hours. It then goes straight from the bowl into the spiced flour mixture above.

** Brine recipe---> I think I did a 5% brine with equal parts sugar and kosher salt, so if I used 100 ounces, I added 5 ounces of salt and 5 ounces of sugar. I also threw in some thyme, garlic cloves, orange peel, honey, brown sugar. Heat everything until all the salt and sugar is dissolved. I only use half the amount of water I want, so I can add ice to the hot dissolved brine mix to bring it up to the total amount I need which cools it at the same time. (You dont want to brine your chicken in hot brine obviously)

From what I can find online, I think I did almost the same thing except I let my chicken brine in the buttermilk a few hours in addition to the salt brine and I had more spices in my flour mixture.

Do you have the recipe? If so, have you tried it.

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Pretty random we both narrowed it to the same recipes and we're both from Vancouver...

ANYWAY, I think I'll try the belly + loin for Superbowl. Will update with results.

This is a great thread, btw. I've been lurking for a while.

This crispy giant piece of meat is like the sexiest thing I've ever seen.

I'm from Vancouver also and this is what I have to say about Meat & Bread:

Cank,

Don't think it's that random if you both have Google

I want to make porchetta now. These awesome food trucks here called Roli Roti make incredible porchetta sandwiches and you can order half or whole porchettas too.

It's very similar to your process. Can't remember the spices though and don't have the book with me. It produces damn good chicken.

I found the I am a food blog site from the writer's prior blog, Momofukufor2 when I was looking for examples of folks trying to cook from Chang's book. Both sites are good. I have made her (Jim Lehay's) no knead pizza dough with fantastic success. The gal takes great pictures.

Thai jungle curry (hot, no coconut milk) with lamb meatballs. Based on David Thompson Thai Food p 301

Two pastes I pounded in the mortar, Thai and long eggplant, lots of young ginger, cauliflower, shiitake, Birdseye chillies, holy basil, keffir lime leaf, bamboo shoots, and Anaheim chillies (for Thai long peppers)

Spiced the meatballs with basil and keffir leaf






Mmmm

Saw an $1800 knife today, any guesses what it's used for (please don't answer if you know what's it's designated use is).

I have no idea, but I'm stunned how expensive knives can get. Just heard today about a guy named Bob Kramer who's knives are $300-$500 an inch

Here's a link about them and here

Katana for whacking large fish like tuna?

harvesting the delicious cheeks from unicorns?

Vegetables?

is it for cutting the puffer fish so people don't get killed?

To cut coconuts off the tree?

Is it used for Ninja cooking?

ritualistic suicide?

"any guesses what it is used for" but don't answer unless you know for sure.

finally going through the mind of a chef. loving it very much indeed.

Tuna knife, yes.