Alkaline/Ramen Noodles.

Finding good Asian restaurants is hard enough when you live in a small town in Vermont. But finding a good ramen shop is pretty much impossible, unless i drive to New York City. So what a person to do when he is craving the chewy and firm texture of ramen and the unique flavor that italian pasta can't match??? Well if you've got some time you could make your own ramen noodles, or alkaline noodles as some call it. "Kansui", an essential part of making ramen, is a type of mineral water that contains sodium carbonate, and usually potassium carbonate as well. kansui is pretty hard to get where I live, so after a little bit of searching on the internet, I found a solution. I found a recipe that only calls for calcium bicarbonate on the New York Times web site. The recipe was simple enough, flour, water, and baking soda that's been baked in the oven for an hour @ 250 degrees Fahrenheit. So after gathering the few ingredients, I tried the recipe and whammy!!! I have alkaline noodles. And I must say that it is not perfect, but it definitely satisfied my craving..... for now.

The recipe is at the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/dining/15curiousrex.html?_r=2

"Old School"

Chicken Rillettes with foie gras fat added for a more bold flavor and richness. This was a great way for me to use up some left over braised chicken meat. The accompaniments are house made quince mostarda, pickled peppers, local carrot, and zucchini.

Death Comes to All

Ok, fair warning. The pictures to follow are pretty graphic, if you have a weak stomach, don’t like the sight of blood or have no interest in seeing the slaughter of an animal….go away, this isn’t for you…

Now, a little back story. When I first moved to Bhutan, I inherited 2 little piglets from the former Chef. He had planned to raise them for a Barbeque party but they weren’t nearly big enough to slaughter by the time he left so I was stuck with them. Due to business levels and a lot of procrastination on my part the piglets turned into massive beasts that eventually were too big for their pig pen.

Not the most comfortable living conditions I admit

Dangerous Beauty

A cactus in the different stages of flowering, is incredibly beautiful. Some times its nice to take time to stop and notice things like this. Just don't touch it....shit hurts.

Compressed

Well I tried out the Thermal Circulator the other day by cooking my chicken thigh-forcemeat-thigh concoction. The result was quite good and both the forcemeat and the thigh meat were cooked to perfection and retained moistness. But I did have one problem, I seared the pressed meat to crisp up the skin on both sides, the skin shrunk quite a bit. So unfortunately I ended up with the crispy skin being half the size it was and only cover the center portion of the block. I think perhaps next time I will remove all the skin completely, crisp up the skin separately and served in small shards on the finished plate. Learning though doing, in most cases, is the best way to learn.