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I have no idea where to ask this, so I'll ask here. One of my biggest culinary losses from the pandemic is the ability to eat out at hibachi restaurants. In particular, I miss the amazing fried rice. I've tried with varying degrees of success to make it at home, but after tons of Google searching and experimentation, I just can't nail down the taste that I get from any of my good local hibachi places. My general, go-to fried rice recipe is: - Cooked white rice (day-old if possible, or spread out and dried) - Butter - Soy sauce - Sesame oil - Onions and/or carrots - Egg (scrambled, added toward the end) - Salt - Black pepper - Meat of choice (pre-cooked, added toward the end) - Seasoning varies as I experiment (ginger, garlic, red pepper, etc.) I have the cooking methodology down, and the results are always tasty, tender rice with a good sesame flavor, but there's always a flavor I'm missing that I can't identify. Something with bite, maybe umami-type flavor? I've had friends recommend Chinese mustard, but I don't have that easily available here. Any ideas? Most of the Japanese-style fried rice recipes I've found online use this same general base, but they just never taste like any of my local restaurants.
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Feb 2, 2021 20:03
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:45 |
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poeticoddity posted:Possibly a dumb question: Have you tried cutting the salt back and adding MSG? Not a dumb question at all. I haven't tried it -- I grew up with really bad migraines, and my doctor said to cut out MSG, so while I don't really avoid it in restaurants, I've never kept it in the house. I can give it a try. Is there a rule of thumb on how much to use versus salt? Doom Rooster posted:What you are looking for is a bottle of Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce. Can find online or at any Asian grocery store. Thanks goons! I'll report back.
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Feb 2, 2021 20:33
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poeticoddity posted:When it dissolves, MSG dissociates into a sodium ion and a glutamate ion. Regardless, I ordered a shaker of MSG and a big bottle of Golden Mountain Seasoning Sauce -- 32 ounces was about the same price as 8 ounces, so I'll be using this for a while! I do wonder though if there's something special they only tend to use at hibachi places. The fried rice there always tastes pretty different from what you get at non-hibachi Japanese restaurants, let alone Chinese ones. And it's not one specific restautant -- I have three good hibachi places around me, and all of them have very similar-tasting fried rice, which is quite distinct from the fried rice anywhere else around here. Maybe they just don't clean the hibachis very well. 
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Feb 3, 2021 16:39
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poeticoddity posted:I hadn't heard about garlic, so if you've got any info on that, I'd be curious to know more. I don't have any science on this. Honestly, after decades of coping with severe, complex migraines (I get the fun ones with visual aura, numbness, and sometimes even cognitive difficulties), visiting countless GP's, vascular specialists, and neurologists, and trying virtually every prescription medication available to little effect, I've stopped overthinking it and just try to get by. quote:It's entirely possible that the secret flavor at those restaurants is just a different oil, oil that's been heated more or less, or a technique thing. You could always ask them. BrianBoitano posted:They also cook their eggs very hot and "well done", very differently than any other scrambled egg style. I hate that flavor on its own but it seems to belong in stir fry! Next time I'll try cooking the eggs in the same pan and just leaving them through the entire process, making sure the egg gets moved around enough that it doesn't turn into complete rubber.
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Feb 3, 2021 20:45
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Funktor posted:Anybody have advice on what to look for in an oven? What features should I be looking for? Are there some price points that are more effective than others? How much is too much to spend? Anything you can tell me would be helpful. I went through some exhaustive research last summer when my old electric range died, so this is still fresh in my mind. A decent, mid-level electric range will will run you $1000-1500 USD street price, and it will serve most people very well. Unless you have a specific need for something more, there's no reason to spend $2000+. As the model levels increase, you start paying dramatically more for gimmicks that you'll probably never use. "Pizza mode"? I guess if you make a ton of pizza, but is it worth $250 more? Dual ovens? Would you use that mode enough to justify the smaller compartments and cost over picking up an Instant Pot, slow cooker, or sous vide device? Induction burners are a neat party trick, but unless you constantly need water boiled really fast, it won't justify the price for most home cooks. Personally, I ended up with the LG LSE-4613 slide-in electric range. It retails for ~$1900, but I didn't pay remotely near that much -- even during a pandemic you can find some great deals if you're patient. I selected it mainly on the strength of reliability and review scores versus price point, but it did have some specific features I wanted from an oven: - Convection mode (awesome for baking, and great for heating anything from frozen that doesn't need browning) - Low minimum temperature (ideally as low as 200 F for "low and slow" cooking -- this one goes to 170 F) - Self-cleaning modes There's some other gimmicky stuff I don't care about -- though I do want to try the proofing mode -- but this was the lowest model that had all of the above. So far I've been thrilled with it. I keep an oven thermometer in there and the temps have been spot-on for both regular and convection baking. The two-mode broiler works very well, too. As for the stove, it's a traditional glass cooktop, with all the pros and cons there. It scratches more easily than my old GE glass top, but it's more consistent with temperatures. I dig the front dials for the burners, but not the digital control panel for the oven, since it's hard to see in low light, and the timer is cumbersome to set. It also, puzzlingly, doesn't come with overhang flaps for the counter -- for some reason LG doesn't include them with any models. I have lovely formica counters, and the edges look ugly with a gap next to the range. It's not a huge deal, but come on -- this is something that has been standard for slide-in ranges forever.
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Feb 4, 2021 04:17
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WhiteHowler posted:Now we're talking! I'll give this a try too. We do have a few Asian markets around here, but I'm in the deep South U.S. and nobody's taking pandemic precautions seriously at all, so I'm doing everything via mail order or delivery right now.  I followed goon suggestions and added Golden Mountain seasoning sauce and MSG to my fried rice recipe, and it definitely made a big difference. It's not quite the same flavor as the hibachi places around here, but it's much closer and tastes incredible! Other things I did -- started the scrambled egg right at the beginning and just let it cook the entire time. It didn't get rubbery and added a bit more flavor. I also went heavier on the black pepper. Thanks for all of the recommendations! I think I've found my new fried rice technique.
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Feb 8, 2021 01:13
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Steve Yun posted:Welp now I need to try this golden mountain sauce Here's what I did for the fried rice -- I don't actually measure most of it very closely, but this is a rough estimate: 2 Eggs (large) 3 tbsp Butter (salted) 3 cups White Rice (cooked; day-old or allow to steam-dry) 1 tbsp Sesame Oil 3 tbsp Golden Mountain seasoning sauce 2 tbsp Soy Sauce 1/2 Chicken Breast (cooked, large) 1 healthy pinch MSG Black Pepper (more than you think you need) 1/2 cup Green Onions (chopped) ** I don't care for peas and carrots in my fried rice, but feel free to add them if that's your thing. ** Add 1 tbsp butter to pan over medium-high heat. Scramble eggs with a dash of black pepper. Pour into pan, continually folding over as it cooks. Chop cooked egg up with a spatula. Toss in the rest of the butter, dump in the rice, and sprinkle the sesame oil over everything. Use a spatula to combine -- you want to break up clumps and get the rice well-coated with butter and oil. Add the Golden Mountain, soy sauce, and chicken (or other meat of choice -- I usually pre-cook my meat for fried rice). Sprinkle MSG over everything, along with another healthy dose of black pepper. Use a large spatula to mix everything, keeping it all moving constantly for several minutes. I never set a timer; watch the texture of the rice until it starts to firm up just a bit. Add the green onions and stir, cooking just long enough that they barely start to wilt.
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Feb 8, 2021 05:24
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Remember that the 165 F guideline exists because it's basically foolproof. Get poultry to 165 in the center, and everything* is killed within 2-3 seconds. It's a good rule for fast food places and beginner home cooks. Unfortunately, 165 degree poultry usually kind of sucks, especially if it has been left there for very long. Cooking poultry at home, feel free to go lower and longer -- just be aware of the safe cooking times at lower temperatures (that table above is the one pretty much everyone uses). I personally like doing chicken breasts sous vide around 147. I've done lower, and while it turned out very juicy and tasty, the texture is oddly smooth. There's a good article on Serious Eats that has been proven to be correct in my own kitchen experimentation.
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Feb 25, 2021 03:02
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enki42 posted:Also 30 minutes under pressure is probably a bit too much for the meat, especially breast meat. I do chicken pho in 20 minutes with drumsticks and the meat is just on the edge of being overcooked. The ones I've found online have been a bit of a letdown compared to what I can get at even the worst (still good) Vietnamese place near me.
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Mar 13, 2021 15:45
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Mods, please change my name to The Champignon.
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Apr 1, 2021 20:38
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EL BROMANCE posted:Ah I watched a video about that, really makes the difference? I’ll give it a whirl. Thanks. It works well. A heads up though, consider using aluminum-free baking powder. Before I switched, the wings sometimes came out with a bitter aftertaste.
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Apr 4, 2021 01:05
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Not the person you're replying to, but I do this too. Depending on the type of bread and cheese you're using, the bread can get toasty well before the cheese is fully melted in the middle. I can probably tinker with temperature to offset this, but I've found it's easier to just to throw the bottom slice/cheese in the microwave for about five seconds just to let the cold cheese get a bit of temperature (not enough to melt it at all).
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May 13, 2021 19:15
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Wouldn't the vacuum seal process crush the bread pretty good, too?
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May 14, 2021 14:30
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me your dad posted:I called my friend since I am cooking for the two of us for a camping trip and he said he isn't super comfortable eating shrimp left out for that long (I was leaning toward the same thing) so I'm unfortunately going to scrap it. It was going to be cooked for a rare camping trip and I don't want to risk spending the whole time making GBS threads and puking I'd honestly be more worried about the chicken than the shrimp. Seafood tends to let you know when it's dangerous to eat.
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Sep 23, 2021 20:55
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:45 |
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It's not my favorite method, but I've done baked potatoes in the crock pot, and it's fine. You'll probably get small crispy/overcooked spots where they were touching the pot, even if they're in foil. But they'll be tasty. I'll say that mine have turned out better in the oven though. Salt, olive oil, foil, and heat. Since discovering Serious Eats roasted potatoes, I haven't been doing as many whole baked potatoes. Those things are like crack. One of the best "easy" sides I've ever done.
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Sep 24, 2021 01:54
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