You wonder what you shall do with the other half?

Baked is great.

Or fries.

Or grated into potato pancakes.

Yeah, and I've got sour cream and everything.

With onion.

Yay!

I'd love to bake the other half, but I don't think it'll work right. Oiled and roasted, I guess.

It won't be as fluffy as a good baked potato :(

Hmm why not?

Pondering this is how I am avoiding doing my dishes.

Wise.

No dishwasher?

It's just not the same. Oh yeah. I need to unload it and load it!

And I've got some pots and pans to hand wash.

So I'm pondering the potato half.

WooHoo progress! I have the bottom half of the dishwasher unloaded! Including silverware! :) Now I need a break.

Well done!!

You deserve a huge bonus.

I think so too!

cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/45974/… @Jolenealaska Subtle?!?!

Yeah well, true subtlety would probably have been lost on the target. :)

and yet they STILL haven't given me their recipe

Yep...typical. I'm about to post my Vietnamese Coconut Chili sauce results even though he never did come back to say how hot and/or sweet the restaurant sauce was.

I'd have said screw it if it didn't sound so damn good.

And it was :)

nice

do share - I need dinner ideas for the weekend

Just what I said in the answer plus broth from the shrimp shells equal to the coconut milk and a little brown sugar.

I used this:

amazon.com/Huy-Fong-Vietnamese-Chili-Garlic/dp/B0006SKCVI/…

A lot of ginger

Lemon zest (couldn't get lemongrass)

Lots of cilantro (which I mixed in after snapping the pic)

It would have benefited from more mushrooms and onions

Ooo delicious!

It would have liked Thai Basil too, but I couldn't find any. Lots of cilantro was fine though.

AND I velveted the shrimp. The shrimp was really good.

OOh and quite a bit of Fish Sauce. I used Thai, but I'm not enough of a connoisseur to care.

nice, nice

mmmm sambal oelek

I used half the jar of Chili sauce -nice and spicy :)

I might hit the asian market round the corner tomorrow

The difference is that Sambal doesn't contain garlic.

I added extra of that too. (garlic)

oh man do I have ideas for extra lemongrass

Definitely include the zucchini if you like it. That was really good in it.

maybe patty pan?

there's tons of it about at the moment

That would probably be just as good.

I love the flavor of the little baby ones

I simmered the zest, fish sauce, ginger and garlic in the broth, so the final sauce was just the chili sauce, broth and coconut milk.

And the cilantro at the last minute.

& fish sauce?

nvm you're ahead of me

yes...I edited to include that. I only simmered that for a few minutes, the rest for quite a while.

I think I might try that and test out some of my velveting theories

do a batch with the velvet and batch without

The technique that I linked to in my qustion is really good for this recipe.

That's what I did...the difference was astounding.

I'm curious about the mass question in particular

I used velveted shrimp in the recipe, but left a couple unvelveted. I cut off their tails so I knew I could tell them apart.

I figure: get two batches and weigh them as closely as possible, then velvet one and re-weigh

I doubt you'll see much difference in the weight if you simmer in water. Maybe you would if you did the oil poach.

that's an interesting thought too - what happens post-cooking?

hm

those are post velveting and simmering, before the final stir fry.

You can't even see the batter, but it's there.

yah I mean - is there a difference in the weight loss between velveted and non

might be some interesting data. sounds like a Saturday afternoon to me

Do you have a gram scale?

I do

I don't know if it's the most accurate model but it works

I think they're all pretty accurate if they're calibrated.

Mine was $11 I think, and I've tested it with weights and coins. It's good to the hundreth

ah nice. I've never bothered to test mine out in detail

I think I'll add that picture to my velveting question.

I think I'll take a picture of a Fresca bottle and add that to my answer

I have been experimenting with pure ace-k and sucralose, so I wanted to be sure.

smartass :)

yeah... maybe

I wouldn't be a proper minnesotan if I weren't a little passive-aggressive

I've probably already saved $300 by making my own sugar free coffee syrup instead of buying Torani

I've got it duped!

I can't tell the difference

I dunno, I think it's a big difference in texture mostlu

*mostly

but that's just me

and as far as duplicating Fresca at home... some of those ingredients seem specifically designed to replicate the mouthfeel of sugar with artificial sweeteners

I thought the mouthfeel was going to be an issue in my coffee, but it isn't. I even bought xanthan gum months ago, but have never opened it.

hmmm, I was about to suggest that

maybe it's less of an issue with coffee because of the astringency

At first I was trying to replicate the syrup, but once I got the coffee the way I wanted it, that was all I needed.

The milk too gives a mouthfeel (2%)

ahhh there you go

see, I'm a purist

no milk?

I like my coffee as strong and dark as possible

NOOO not a chance

ever had Italian roast? it's the next step beyond French roast

I like it almost dessert sweet. Strong, but with quite a bit of milk.

I have, but I'm pretty OK with the Kroger brand Fench roast, and it's cheap.

Holy Crap! It's almost 6pm! I've been SAing all day!

oh yeah

timezones are weird

Here especially...4 hours from the East Coast can get inconvenient.

or is it 5?

it's 4, good, for a second I was confused.

yeah... at the day job I work with people in Brussels

Well, I'm going to finish cleaning my kitchen and make some bread. Cya soon!

gl hf

seeya later

WooHoo! My first potato bread is out of the oven! She's a beauty! :)