In my last post I mentioned Chinese noodles. Have you ever seen hand-pulled noodles being made? Amazing. I am convinced that Chinese ancestry is required to do this.
Here’s something else that’s almost in the same category. I do not believe that it is possible to make good corn tortillas by hand without 10,000 years of Indian ancestry:
If I think up any other examples like this I’ll add them to this post.
I like this one. A cook makes spaetzle with a board:
http://youtu.be/-Y6Ga9hMm4Y
Fun! I’ve never made spätzle quite that way. I usually make mine the way Hungarians do: with my spätzle grater.
I’ve learned so much about food from Alton Brown it’s not even funny.
I improvised with a perforated grill pan and a board scraper. It turned out a little short, but fine. Nothing like hers, I’m sure.
Yep, Mr. Brown is a great teacher.
My wife just went to grab some Thai food. There are two in the immediate vicinity. I once asked the owner of one about the other, to which he scoffed “they don’t have a REAL Thai chef”
I wonder if there are certain techniques you folks are citing that pertain to Thai food.
I remember watching a Chinese friend of mine do that long ago. So freakin’ amazing.
It’s the simple stuff that will break your will: noodles, tortillas, pie crust. There’s nothing to it. Nothing! And yet it’s impossible.
Crusty dinner rolls kicked my butt a couple of years ago, Michael. The recipe was from King Arthur’s Flour, and I couldn’t make it work for love nor money.
Pie crusts are a work in progress. I’m confident that my recipe is a winning formula. The handling is very sensitive. I think that letting the dough rest long enough is the key factor now.
Janis, I use The Joy of Cooking for all of my dinner roll recipes. I prefer the 1946 edition. Although it doesn’t have the contemporary ingredients and ethnic dishes, it has many, many more cookie and pastry recipes than its successors do.
For pies I rely on Aunt Chick.
My JOC is more recent, but it does have a hard roll recipe, I see.
Do you mix your pie crust in the food processor? Some cooks say that’s better because it avoids the warmth from hands.
Never. It’s too rough. I have cold hands, anyway 😉
There was a time when I went around buying up old copies of the Joy 1946 edition. Some I gave away. I lost one during our home remodel. I still have one. I also have my mom’s tattered, old, falling apart copy of that edition.
Of course, a warm-hearted fella like you.