Culinary Conversations

[Danny]

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[worth1]

Moving on from oils to bread.
I know there's a bread section but this doesn't fit.
It's a couple of historical videos on the lives of a bakers years ago.
I'm not for sure I want to get that rustic.
I made the comment some time ago about my father telling me the used to keep loaves of bread under their arms.
He wasn't too far off and considering he was born in 1914 even more so.
Life was way different back then.

[worth1]

I turned the house upside down yesterday looking for the turmeric I bought.
Nowhere to be found.
I'm out of it.
Then I looked in the freezer and saw two bags of semolina and realized it was semolina I bought and not tumeric.
I had totally forgot to buy tumeric.

[pepperhead212]

Had you used up the end of your turmeric? I remember when you posted some things you did with it recently, and I figured it was something you had gotten recently, and were experimenting with.

I can't remember the last time I ran out of any spices, but then, few people are as ocd as I am about spices (or food in general! ). Besides all the spices upstairs, the ones downstairs, to refill everything with, are in a "spice tub", with 5 or 6 2 gal ziplocs in it, with various types of spices, and the contents of each bag is inventoried in a notebook, so when they get down to almost gone, I get more, usually at the Indian market. Just recently I refilled my two turmeric jars upstairs, and I'm down to about 1/2 c in the vacuum bag down there (the things I keep almost all the extra spices in), so I know next refill, and I'll have to get another 500 g bag at the market. Also 7 more tubs of things down there inventoried, plus things in the freezer inventoried. No way I could remember all that, at any age!

And things like that nam prik pao in the fridge - I was down to about 3 tb in the jar, and had to make more! I simply never run out of that! That was what I used those extra garlic cloves for that I couldn't plant (plus a few more!).
Another batch of Nam Prik Pao. Oh, how I love the smell of that stuff! I'll even smell it when I get up in the morning! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

No I've kept large amounts around for years.
Just thought I had more.

[worth1]

I'm back in business with the turmeric and I got some chili powder from India.
No idea what it will be like but I'm sure it's hot.
Been wanting to try it for quite awhile.
28 ounces of ground tumeric for about 5 dollars.
Cheaper than Foo Foo Gardens or whatever they sell in the little jars.

[pepperhead212]

Which chili powder did you get - the Kashmiri chili powder, or the darker Resham powder? The Kashmiri isn't very hot, and is like a lighter colored numex, and I probably use that most in Indian dishes. The resham has a stronger flavor, and aroma, and reminds me of some of the dark blends of chili powder, like rancho, and has a little more heat, for sure.

[worth1]

I have no idea, it doesn't say.
It's a product of India.
What ever it is it isn't Chili powder like to make chili but some sort of chili powder.

IMG_20231013_201710934.jpg

[worth1]

Oh my God it must be ground ghost pepper powder.
I just licked up about a 1/4 teaspoon and man is it hot.
Like really hot.
It didn't even give me a chance to get ready for it.

[pepperhead212]

That's hard to believe - if it was ghost peppers they could charge more, so I doubt that seriously. Maybe just some cayenne pepper, since it's that hot. Strange - with all the peppers I have, cayenne is one you won't find in my house. Those Thai peppers are what I grind up, to use for that.

I got some chiles today from thechileguy.com - cheapest source for many of these peppers, even with shipping. I had just emptied the last of my morita chiles (probably the one I use more than any other) into the 2 qt jar I keep in the kitchen, and immediately went to order more! I get those in a 5 lb bag, and I also got a pound of mulatos, and a pound of Old Mexico chiles - a good variety of Numex. I put all these in vacuum sealed bags, the moritas in 3 batches. As always, I put the bag of chiles inside a large, cut to size vacuum bag, so the chiles wouldn't puncture the vacuum bag.

[worth1]

That's hard to believe - if it was ghost peppers they could charge more, so I doubt that seriously. Maybe just some cayenne pepper, since it's that hot. Strange - with all the peppers I have, cayenne is one you won't find in my house. Those Thai peppers are what I grind up, to use for that.

I got some chiles today from thechileguy.com - cheapest source for many of these peppers, even with shipping. I had just emptied the last of my morita chiles (probably the one I use more than any other) into the 2 qt jar I keep in the kitchen, and immediately went to order more! I get those in a 5 lb bag, and I also got a pound of mulatos, and a pound of Old Mexico chiles - a good variety of Numex. I put all these in vacuum sealed bags, the moritas in 3 batches. As always, I put the bag of chiles inside a large, cut to size vacuum bag, so the chiles wouldn't puncture the vacuum bag.

It's not cayenne pepper for sure at least not anything I've had before.
The 14 ounces was less than 5 dollars.
It had a hay like background note to it.
I'll compare it to cayenne powder tomorrow morning, I've had enough hot pepper for one day.
My most expensive powder is chipotle powder at around 12 dollars a pound.
One of my favorite hot powders is Chile de arbol, more flavor than cayenne.

[Sue_CT]

Those fresh Thai peppers are some of my favorites. I usually only use one, and it is just about the perfect spice level for me. 1 1/2 if I want to spice up a bit more.

[pepperhead212]

Thai peppers I grow more of than any others, and use them red and green fresh, but the most ripened and dried. The ones I grow seem to have more flavor than many similar, small, hot peppers, like the chile de árbol, and the Chinese, Korean, and other such peppers I've grown through the years. And much more flavor when used in place of cayenne pepper or basic "crushed red pepper flakes".n Back when I started using them so much, I would end up with way more in my freezer than I needed (dried ones, as well!), so one year I weighed all of the red and greens I froze, as well as other peppers, then weighed the leftovers, when they started producing again! After that, I would freeze the amount I figured that I used, plus 20%, and everything else was dried - the dried could keep a lot longer, and I gave a lot of those to friends. I eventually reduced what I grew to just 3 or 4 plants of Thai peppers, but also would still try new varieties, most years, naturally.

[Sue_CT]

I grow them too but one plant all of which I freeze, is enough for me right now. I don't cook in large quantities and it only takes a couple to flavor and spice a dish made for two or three servings. But I agree, much more flavor. I really should send Worth some to try since they are not easily available to him locally.

[worth1]

They have the Thai peppers at the store sometimes but I never buy them.
Too expensive.
I'm sure they have them in China Town as well.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... HKTtoMXzrp

[worth1]

@pepperhead212 @Sue_CT
Are these the peppers you folks are talking about?
There's an HEB across the street from where I'm working and I stopped in on the way to work and bought some.
I ate a whole green one with a hot link for work breakfast.
The red ones I'll save seeds for next spring.
I also bought some shisito peppers.

I've got a shrimp thing in mind.

IMG_20231017_074340089_HDR.jpg

[pepperhead212]

Those look like the ones I grow, not the much smaller Thai bird peppers, which are much hotter, but much less flavor, IMO. In the recipes that call for the bird peppers I use half, or a little more of these. A favorite recipe of mine is Mahogany Fire Noodles, which called for 12 cloves of garlic, and 30 Thai bird peppers (!), to a lb of fresh rice noodles (I usually use 12 oz dried) - definitely one of the top 5 hottest I make. Funny thing - a friend of mine way back, when his kids were young, would come over with them, and I happened to be making this, one of his boys liked it, but it was a little bit too hot (he used to try anything I had around that was hot), but the one that liked it the most was his youngest girl, starting about when she was 8 years old! Still a little bit too hot, so if I knew they were coming, and I was making that, I'd put "only" 10 Thai peppers in it, and it was just about right for them.

[Sue_CT]

I love the Thai peppers most with a shrimp dish over pasta. Yummm. They are crazy cheap around here. Not sure how much a pound, but I took a small handful to the register once and he charged me a penny a piece. 100/1.00. Can't beat that, lol. They have big bins or boxes of them loose, you just take handfuls, as much as you want, and stick it in a bag. I pick mine when they are fully ripe and nice and red. I have used the green also, though.

[worth1]

I put in about ten of them in a dish last night.
They're okay but not worth the money they're charging.
One must consider the demographics of my area and what sells the most.
That would be what the Mexicans buy.
Serrano peppers sell the most, along with poblanos and jalapenos.
Then of course the sweet peppers like bell peppers banana and so on.
I'm positive if they put a big bin of Thai peppers out they would rot before they sold.
Latinos aren't very adventurous when it comes to traditional food they've cooked all their lives.
As well as any other demographic group of people for that matter.

[worth1]

Could it be that the micro brewery bubble is about to bust wide open?
It would seem so with the reports in the news.
One new brewery I put a system in never opened.