The Ducks Guts' Profile

From: Melbourne, Vic Australia

Joined: March 26th, 2010

About me: Just in case my mother finds this website, I don't buy all my cookbooks new. A lot are second hand from garage sales and op shops. One of my favorites is a 1960's high school cookbook from Malaysia bought from a garage sale. I use to love the Time-Life Good Cook series and the Food of the World series, but I haven't had a lot of success cooking out of them. They are wonderful to read tho', so they are still in the bookshelves, and not relegated to storage.

Favorite cookbook: Thai Food by David Thompson


Latest review:

August 12th, 2012

Lentil Soup from A Month in Marrakesh

A good plain soup which made a large potful. I made it with water, not stock, and it still worked, which is always a good sign. read more >


recipe reviews (154)
book reviews (14)
useful review votes (56)

The Ducks Guts' Reviews


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3 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 3Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

By Fuchsia Dunlop
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2003

Good, not too dry as some dumpling receipes can be.

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19th August 2011

Cauliflower with smoky bacon : page 139

A good way to serve cauliflower, and very easy to make. This time I tried blanching the cauliflower as suggested, as I was trying to get as many dishes on the table at once as i could, and it did work. I also used supermarket stock powder, which made it a little salty, combined with the bacon.

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I am not sure about this one. It took at least 8 minuets of vigorous stir-frying to get the potato's cooked to what I would consider edible, and even then, they certainly didn't look enticing. The recipe calls for them to be al dente, but we all agreed that potatoes were one vegetable that needs to be cooked " to mush". At the very least, a garnish of spring onion or coriander is neded against the mass of white slivers. Also, the Chinese may consider potatoes as a rice accompaniment, but I felt like I was serving carbs with carbs.
However, we did like the flavor of the sichuan peppers and chillies with the potatoes, and maybe I would consider this dish in another way, such as frying up the pepper mix to sprinkle over bought Fish and Chip shop chips, which are the golden, crunchy chips we prefer.

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