Key Ingredients

Are there any ingredients that have taken your home cooking to new levels?

Recently, I love and am in love with chipotles in adobo sauce. Dear gog. Nice smokiness and heat. Been mostly using 'em for lunch prep, especially with batches of chicken. I get these ones from WF, but if there are any other brands that people like, all of my ears are open.

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And lemme know your other secret ingredients!

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I don’t know about new levels, but I like to use Lyle’s Golden Syrup in place of brown sugar/regular sugar/honey/maple syrup. It gives everything a delicious “caramely” flavor. I especially like it on candied bacon.

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Fish sauce. I have several brands. It ‘brightens’ so many things without leaving behind any telltale taste of its own.

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I put these in braises, and tomato-based pasta sauces. My stepdaughter asked why spaghetti sauce is so much better than Mom’s. She hates fish. Won’t touch it, but still likes that sauce even after telling her that this is one of my secrets. She also insists on fish sauce for her cha gio. Go figure.

These are also great wrapped around olives for martinis.

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I get their Spanish tuna from Zingerman’s. I’ll have to look for these. Heading to Seattle soon.

I get mine through Amazon.

That’s always my last resort. I say that if Amazon doesn’t have something I don’t really need it :slight_smile:

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MSG

#NeverLeaveTheKitchenWithoutIt

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It’s hidden somewhere in my spice pantry. I need to find it and use it (again).

A ton better: The flavor oil packets found in instant ramen.

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Too much oil.

There is this concept called dilution. The dense flavor concentrated in the packet is designed for dilution. #betterlivingthroughchemistryconcepts

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Does equipment count? My wok burner and learning to use the wok is single best kitchen/ time investment ever. Got the night + market cookbook and did his pad Thai in under 4 minutes

https://instagram.com/p/BhIX7c6DbtH/

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Dang you got skillz!!! :+1::+1:

Here’s another benchmark for you to try, Penang Char Kway Teow. Try to keep the wok smoking throughout the cooking process and ingredient quantity small to optimize contact with the wok.

Note proportion of ingredients relative to the size of the wok in the video.

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Night + market has this recipe too so it’ll be on the list to try. Your sense of porportion for the best wokhei is right on, but my wify does the prep and mis en place and I’m just the poor chap who has to wok it when I get home from work. :joy:

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really OT, but would you be willing to share a pic of your camera setup for that?

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You [quote=“hppzz, post:15, topic:7396”]
but my wify does the prep and mis en place and I’m just the poor chap who has to wok it when I get home from work. :joy:
[/quote]

where I come from, we call you a “lucky bastard”!

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i can, but basically i got a horizontal boom https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071NDBR9F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and a standard smart phone holder that accepts a 1/4 screw to attach to the boom.

everything gets attached cheap tripod/light stand.

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lucky indeed. i had to earn that by building up arm strength-- wok tossing dried beans and wet towels for hours on end :joy::rofl:

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I miss S’pore…

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