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Cake day: August 3rd, 2023

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  • Hoisin chicken. Adapted from a recipe I’ve not been able to find. Super easy, very few ingredients, ingredients are generally easy to find, and it’s super quick to make. Doesn’t make a huge mess, either. Goes well with simple rice and veg.

    Ingredients:

    • Chicken of choice (thigh is best, can substitute breast though haven’t tried), diced into small chunks (three quarter- to one-inch)
    • Hoisin sauce
    • Garlic, minced finely
    • Ginger, minced finely (I’m usually lazy and use prepared ginger paste from the store)
    • Red pepper flakes (optional)
    • Salt, to taste (I omit, as I find the hoisin sauce plenty salty)
    • Pepper, to taste (I recommend white pepper, though black pepper can be used)
    • Neutral oil, like vegetable

    Instructions:

    Note: you may need to work in smaller batches. Don’t crowd the pan.

    1. At med-high to high heat, quickly cook the chicken in the pan using a bit of oil. Cook until nearly cooked through, but just barely under. Season while cooking with salt and pepper to taste.
      • Note: I like to add the red pepper flakes halfway through cooking the chicken to hydrate the flakes in the oil/juices, which helps bring out some extra flavour from the flakes, seasoning the chicken itself. This makes it a bit spicier though.
    2. Push the chicken to the edges of the pan.
    3. Put approx. 1 tsp (or to taste) each of garlic and ginger into the centre of the pan and very quickly saute until golden. Do not let them go over golden.
    4. Pour in just enough hoisin to coat the chicken. Pour straight into the ginger and garlic, and mix well to form a sauce. Stir quickly for a few seconds, you’ll find the sauce thickens slightly at the high heat.
      • Note: if you didn’t add the red pepper flakes earlier to the chicken, you can add it now.
    5. Toss the chicken into the sauce. You should have a light, but thorough, coating.

    Repeat in batches for all remaining chicken.

    Edit to add: apologize for no measurements. As a humble home food-maker (as if I’d call myself a home chef!) I truly have no clue how much I use of much of anything. Sorry, I tried. Cook as you like it. Like extra garlic? Add more. Don’t like garlic? Add only a little, or none. Hypertension? Don’t add salt. Not a part of the 21st-century hypertension epidemic? Add salt to your liking.


  • Probably not. Every time your web browser makes a request to a server, it always transmits some “user agent” describing itself. By default, it’ll be something that boils down to “Safari version X on macOS version Y” or “Firefox version A on Windows version B” or something similar. You can often change your user agent (on desktop browsers at least) of you care.

    What can someone do with this specific info? Well, not a huge amount. It can be used as a sort of a fingerprint - the more unique a browser’s user agent, the more easy it is to target you as a demographic or individual. It could be used in phishing, to legitimize spam - think, “I know you use Firefox on Windows, you don’t want to know what else I know!” But honestly, for the vast majority of people (in my opinion) the reality is that letting the server know your user agent isn’t going to be doing much.

    To be fair, user agent is one of many ways that remote services can track you and identify you.



  • Definitely! Rice noodles (not pasta made from rice flour, but rice noodles like vermicelli) are absolutely fantastic! Of course, when made with an appropriate recipe, like pad thai. There’s so much variety with eastern Asian cuisines to be able to use rice noodles, and like I say curries and such are very often fantastic options too!

    Other starches are also options, for example corn tortillas. Working masa into tortillas might be an option!

    In particular, you’ll need to avoid wheat, barley, rye, and triticale. Pat is typically grown near and processed alongside wheat, so most oat is out - and some find trouble even with oats marked gluten free (processed gluten free). I’m fine with oats marked GF.


  • A truly gluten free diet (not just wheat free, but gluten free, and without cross-contamination) can be really challenging and I’ll be the first to admit that it can really stink sometimes to have very, very few options. That said, it’s actually typically really easy to do yourself.

    Today there are some decent gf breads available, and some good pre-made flour blends if you want to bake your own. Or, you can get your own constituent flours and powders and make your own flour blend. Pastas are similar - I prefer corn pastas as I find those that are primarily rice tend to be too flimsy to hold up both boiling and adding any sort of sauce. Though do be warned of a couple things. Gf pasta really sucks up sauce, so don’t be afraid of adding extra sauce (mostly if you’re expecting leftovers, by morning the sauce will be gone). Leftover gf pasta rarely holds up and can often be nothing but pieces by the next day - corn pastas are much more robust, and some pastas are decent at avoiding this.

    Meats, veg, fruit, raw ingredients are very typically fine. Just be careful of cross contamination. If it’s more than just plain butchered meat, for example a pre-marinated meat, either make sure the ingredients are fine (and accept risk of cross-contamination from prep) or don’t get it - these often don’t have ingredients listed.

    Many cuisines are super easy to do gluten free. Indian is a great example - curries very rarely have flour added as a thickener, for example. But honestly, I typically make normal, glutenous recipes just with gf ingredients. Something like bread is the biggest no-no, needing special prep, but I rarely find things that need special provisions.

    GF doesn’t need to be bland - it’s just a different prep style, usually.