what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

not because it really needs to go to 2027 because we'll all be under the ocean by then but because part 4 started in 2007

i made some pretty great tomato soup yesterday

san marzano toms + butter in pressure cooker w salt and baking soda
veggie stock + drained liquid from toms + a few bags of lapsang souchong
puree toms w stick blender, drain through sieve, combine with liquid ingredients
maple syrup + fish sauce to taste

how do you get to the point in life where you're putting heterodox ingredients like tea, maple syrup and fish sauce in tomato soup? is this entirely your own invention or are you following some unknown and wild tradition?

its the food of my people

bored single men who spend a lot of time on food blogs

well I am impressed, it sounds delicious (though not sure about the tea). how long did you cook it for?

toms were in the pressure cooker for 20mins, which is the bulk of the cooking time

in the context of bold tomato flavor and stock, the tea adds primarily smokiness and some sweetness. it's worth trying, i think!

Were these canned whole toms? Why pressure cooker? Why baking soda???

whole canned toms

pressure cooker reaches higher temperatures, which, in combination with the increased pH you get with baking soda, leads to caramelization that would be impossible otherwise

i actually made a batch earlier in the week that i forgot to add baking soda to and the difference is pretty noticeable --- w/o it the soup is much brighter and more acidic/tomato-y (which might be what you want!)

i have a bream in the oven, stuffed it with lemon, garlic and parsley, threw a few slices of potato around it and i've got cabbage braising in some stock on the hob. been roasting fish a lot in the last few months, feels like one of the nicest things to eat without much effort.

Making a lamb shoulder tonight with broccoli and the serious eats roasted potatoes that I believe somebody posted on the other thread and have been intriguing me since.

how do you get to the point in life where you're putting heterodox ingredients like tea, maple syrup and fish sauce in tomato soup?

otm

its the food of my people

bored single men who spend a lot of time on food blogs

loltm

What are these blogs? Are they instant pot propagandists?

hey gbx do you do a natural release or quick release on the p.c. with this method?

mine's electric so i just do a slow release

should I get an instant pot? it seems like more like an appliance of convenience rather than one of, like, some crazy new benefit (like sous vide)

rfi: what is yr favorite way to prepare fennel?
preferably side dish but i'll take all comers

one place i worked at useda make a potato, fennel and leek gratin that was nice. other ideas: superthin sliced and put in a salad is great, too. or "melted", cooked slowly in olive oil with onions and garlic to get it really soft and borderline carmelised could be a nice side?

fennel is nice roasted

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/vegan-ramen-miso-creamy-vegan-vegetarian-food-lab-recipe.html

going to cook this at the weekend

I like fennel raw in salads, sautéed with leeks & green beans, roasted & carved up with a piece of meat or fish

Jim: it's good. Double and freeze, for all the effort.

thanks everyone! pretty new to fennel. i tried braising it in stock & vermouth last night & it turned out delicious, keen to try some of these recommendations

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/vegan-ramen-miso-creamy-vegan-vegetarian-food-lab-recipe.html

going to cook this at the weekend

― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, January 10, 2017 5:28 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man i've been wanting to try that but its daunting --- soda, you've done it? how long did it take?

i like fennel here are some things

fen risotto, maybe w/ salami
fen & chickpea broth w/ lemon zest and chilli
fen & potato soup
baked fen in like a puttanesca sauce w/ orange zest and feta
roast pork w fen (add fen seeds to pork herb rub too)
any bit of wite fish w/ fen, thyme, rosemary, lemon zest, capers etc

pernod good to have around just for fen

also if u ever want to parboil fen for anything do it in milk, or mostly milk, and keep for mash potato or gratin later

I don't like fennel because it is anise-y. I feel like I need to broaden my horizons tho w/r/t winter vegetables, I can't only eat potatoes all year, and I love kale but let's be honest it's not in season in February.

A friend is coming over on Sat bc she wants advice on cooking large hunks of meat. Considering a pot roast alongside a rolled stuffed pork loin -- one easy, one complicated.

try parsnips! one of our favorite winter things is just roasted winter veggies (beets, onions, carrots, garlic, parsnips, turnips, potatoes) mixed up with some olive oil, rosemary, and a bit of sausage, cover and bake.

best way to enjoy fennel is to throw it in the damn garbage bcz it tastes like licorice and it is GROSS

I made a great pork dish with star anise the other night and the first time I made it I used like one star anise (recipe says 5) because I hate licorice but actually it's so subtle it's really good so I always use 5 now

THANK U STEVIE YOU <---> ME = SAME TEAM

anise and fennel are wonderful flavors

that said i have bought fennel bulbs in the past and they have rotted in my fridge bc i couldn't decide what to do with them fast enough :/

tbh I wish I didnt' loathe anise/fennel bcz it wd make things a lot easier but welp here we are, what can ya do

parsnips are the devil fyi

hmph

parsnips are fine, they're sweet and a lil weird but they're fine

quickest way to ruin a soup imo

THE DEVIL

parsnips are good caramelized together with other vegetables as the base for a winter soup stock, they contribute a lot of complexity and are similar to carrots w/ their sweetness. im not a fan of plain parsnips though

for burly winter root vegetables i prefer celeriac

I stand with VG.

Honey roast parsnips are my secret ingredient in a veggie soup

monsters, all of u

mushroom pizza that has a bunch of rehydrated porcinis sauteed with a load of criminis and garlic, on top of fontina, carmelized onions with rosemary playing the role of sauce on some bland-o plain white dough i made

haven't had farinata in years, might attempt this recipe for saturday lunch http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/05/how-to-make-farinata-italian-chickpea-pancake.html

we had my brother and his family over for dinner the other night. they love cooking indian and so do we, so we made a huge feast. i haven't cooked this much food in a while:

masoor dal
benghali green beans and potatoes
tomato sambal
summer squash w/ mustard seeds
saag tofu

All the way at the other end of the vegetarian-omnivore spectrum, I'm making beef stock today.

I agree with VG that parsnips would not work well in any soup I know about, but they roast well and were quite acceptable in a beef and peanut stew recipe my wife made just a few days ago.

I really like roasted parsnips but they are such a damn awkward shape--the top fat part and the itty bitty skinny end make it diffcult to get evenly-roasting pieces.

had some oddly delicious parsnip cake last winter

I'm out. Can't take this parsnip thread. Too triggering.

I had a couple of ideas for pesto variations yesterday — roasted peanuts instead of pine nuts, and mustard greens instead of basil. I got some mediocre mustard this morning and tried that one out -- pretty good, but it needs fresher, more-peppery greens.

my co-worker's ex-husband hunted a deer and gave her a bunch of venison she couldn't use and i'm the leading consumer of meats in the office so i got some and made venison/pork chili and it's the best

niiice

My father in law used to give us venison and it was always good in chili. I don't really like chili tbh but it was ok.

i impulse bought a frozen rack of venison back around the holidays and still need to do something with it

just recently realized how freaking awesome delicata squash is. it's my new kabocha (eg fave winter squarsh). thinkin' of stuffing a couple a la http://beardandbonnet.com/delicata-squash-burrito-bowls/

Venison is awesome with mole. You're welcome.

delicata is great xp, i like it too because you don't have to peel it and it cooks faster than other winter squash

I'm also a fan of delicata. And venison! Had a discussion with a rabbi about kosher venison, which is a thing but v. v. expensive.

yeah delicata is like the french fries of squash in a good way

steely dan of squash even?
ended up making a Killer kale salad -- dino kale sliced v thinly, rubbed with salt and mashed roasted garlic, added some lemon juice and olive oil. threw in some quinoa/amaranth that i'd cooked together mixed it together and plated. topped with 1/2" slices delicata that had cumin and smoked paprika rubbed into the inside (automatic salt and pepper all around, natch) and dressed the top of salad with a simple but yum tahini/apple cider dressing. salad loving housemate was in heaven.

i have some lamb mince - it looked nice at the butcher so i bought it. not sure what to do with it.

my thoughts:

shepherd's pie
mince and potatoes cooked separately not in pie

i mean, do any recipes use lamb mince without being some celtic stodgefest?

go greek imo

you could make meatballs! flavor them however you want (i like parsley, something spicy, onion, garlic, ginger, ??) and eat with rice & vegetable of your choice. or put I guess you could also put them in soup.

shepherds pie with garlicky sweet potato mash

mince is ground meat right?

yep

actually I was looking at this keema recipe earlier, could try that?
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/461642/keema-with-peas

yeah that's right, sorry should have said!

meatballs is prob a good idea, i thought about something like a kofte tho think the spices i'd need might not have survived moving flat a while ago - could prob improvise a bit with szechuan pepper or something maybe as the spicy element.

xpost that keema recipe looks good, prob do have the spices for that. i can obv buy new ones just my cupboards are packed.

oh ok, in that case, keema meatballs?

lately my favorite meal is meatballs as described above + rice w saffron & a small piece of cinnamon + some kind of chopped radish/greens thing. colorful and flavorful but not overwhelming.

that does sound p good. i have saffron i believe. i think the meat should be quite nice so prob doesn't need too much done to it.

trying to impress a new friend of the human female species so am gonna try and pull off homemade ramen noodles, which i've been considering for awhile. http://luckypeach.com/recipes/fresh-alkaline-noodes/
and gonna use a couple bits from that cool recipe someone posted above for "the ultimate rich and creamy vegan ramen" like the soy shiitake tare and the mushroom-scallion oil

I've had an Instant Pot for a week now. I've tried steel cut oats, soft-boiled eggs (one batch overcooked, one batch undercooked -- I'm zeroing in on the sweet spot), pork loin roast, and potatoes and carrots to make hash out of the leftover pork roast. It's an interesting tool, worth the money I think. Going to try yogurt in the next few days.

xposts
Bifteki. I usually make it with ground beef, but sometimes a mix of beef and lamb; all lamb would probably be awesome. Especially if you could grill it over an open flame.

One of my favorite Indian restaurants does their lamb rogan josh with minced lamb. It is reminiscent of a bolognese sauce and is divine.

A lamb burger with feta and/or tzatziki is easy and tasty, too! Lately I really like dill with lamb.

my dad sent me a bunch of fancy beefs for valentine's day (??) and now i have ground beef for the first time in....many years? i never buy it

do i make chili or meatballs or

make yrself a kickass hamburger for a start

ooh yeah

i got some sodium citrate a couple months ago with the intention of making fancy velveeta cheese and then never did, this is as good a time as any for fancy burgs

Nothing says "romantic love" like beef from dad

Once my college friend sent me and everyone he knew 5 lbs of cheddar (each!) for Christmas.

lol

http://rocketlunch.blogspot.com/2011/07/madhur-jaffreys-ground-lamb-with.html <----my favorite

What will sodium citrate do with beef?

housemate bd in a couple days so making the sauce today for something i think she'll love, i used to work at this joint - http://greensrestaurant.com/2015/02/black-bean-chili/. will cook the beans and finish the dish tomorrow.
for tonight we already baked the baking soda for the ramen noodles that i mentioned the other day. i have a backup plan in case of noodle fail, but i hope it works. making a miso-ginger broth for it, and from "the ultimate vegan miso ramen" recipe i cherrypicked the mushroom scallion oil and shiitake-soy tare as other ingredients

courgette sliced thin and fried with garlic, with linguine, basil pesto and italian sausage

in the end, with the lamb, if anyone cares, i did make meatballs - used garlic/onion/parsley/cumin and dusted a bit of paprika picante over the top to give the oil they cooked in a saucey quality. cooked rice with saffron, it was all good!

on friday i made this aligot recipe and cooked two toulouse sausages - big glass of red wine obviously :) https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018430-aligot-mashed-potatoes-with-cheese

what are ilxors favourite fish recipes? most sundays lately i go to the fishmonger, it's the only day of the week i can make it while it's open and i love fresh fish. a lot of the time i just buy a bream or a rainbow trout and cook it whole in the oven with a load of herbs and spices and a few bits of lemon in the cavity, and maybe have some roasted veg alongside it or some greens. i wish i lived in a country where fishmongers were a daily part of life and not something closer to an extravagance.

i still find good butchers and fishmongers a bit difficult - it's hard to balance the impulse purchase with a plan for the week and accompanying veg etc that doesn't lead to waste. but buying what looks nice is sort of the fun of going to an independent store i guess.

freezer space = life is basically how i break it down to an extent

i don't really use my freezer. prob should.

oh man. ur definitely overpaid

don't think it's that, i just don't plan ahead enough to use it!

yes that is a luxury of affluence!

ok anyway so you could bake the trout again with tarragon, white wine and cream. always a treat

tomato, fennel seeds, pimenton, orange slices, saffron, wine thyme garlic - u can make this combination as poachy stewlike or as saucelike as u prefer

often like to whip up a quick mix of whatever's around from yoghurt, crushed garlic, shaved cucumber, lemon/vinegar, radish, mint/dill for white fish. bit of paprika too, if it's salmon you could dust the skin in var spices

with roast fennel or baby gem lettuce, with vermouth thyme rosemary capers lemon etc, cream too maybe

whole dinner of spring veg (potatoes peas etc) and salmon baked in parchment is uniquely satisfying

got into experimenting with fruit segments and fish for a while, orange/lemon/blood orange bright salady accompaniments with red onion and chilli etc

*greek yoghurt that shdve said

https://www.ft.com/content/8dc78fae-4678-11e3-9487-00144feabdc0

forgot this was a p dope-ass take on the old tuna zzzteak

f u i never planned ahead even when i was skint! i buy a few things on sunday for the week but that's about it. i maybe don't really like freezing/defrosting as a thing, it's annoying and i have doubts the food tastes as good as when it's fresh. my freezer is empty apart from ice cream and marks and spencer's brioche burger buns!

all those ideas sound great btw - ta.

haddock or a like fish wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and sauteed is v. tasty and easy

sea bass or another firm fleshed fish crusted with crushed fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns then started in a hot cast iron and finished in oven

i used to do monkfish (back in the day before the price shot up) in sri lankan curry. that was my fave.

or just a simple lime/tarragon butter melted over a hunk of salmon is a good one

miso glazed cod

xposts

HOW TO MAKE PAELLA, when you've been up for 2 days on the vodka and you just remembered you invited your mother for tea:

1. No saffron. I mean, FUCK saffron, it is a very costly way to what, change the colour of the dish? I can't notice any flavour benefit. Just horse a load of smoked paprika in there instead. But not yet.
2. Prolly should start with the chorizo, then everything after that can fry in the oil that comes out of that. Use the nice one your mother gave you that crumbles, not the normal asda shit that cuts into discs. Then chuck the onions in. Season.
3. Chicken. Brown that, obviously we are using thighs cos more flavour and cheaper, who even buys chicken breasts these days? Oh yeah, Him, but you know deep down you are a better cook than him, don't think about him right now, FOCUS. And season.
4. Pepper, just a bell pepper, whatever colour one is in your fridge. Actually those sweet pointy peppers go nice in this, but you never bought them, did you? No worries. Season.
5. Actually just keep seasoning at every step, I'm gunna stop saying that, just take it as a given from now on.
6. Rice, I think I am meant to use longgrain, but I like this arborio stuff, same as I put in my equally inauthentic (but equally well seasoned) risotto. Throw it into the pan dry for a spell, let it crackle a bit before you put your stock in.
7. Oh yeah, chicken stock, you prolly have a freezer full of pots from every time you roasted a chicken. I prolly should've told you at the start to take one out to defrost, if you didn't it's fine, just drop the block of ice into the pan, it'll slow things down but that just means we can smoke a cigarette in the meantime
8. smoke a cigarette.
9. HORSE A LOAD OF SMOKED PAPRIKA IN THERE
10. Now, your mother will constantly tell you that you are meant to let the bottom layer stick onto the bottom of the pan, and then serve it up with crusty bits. I donno about that, it makes the washing up more hellish, also oh shit, we forgot to use the funcy paella pan our mother gave us for Christmas, doesn't matter, she's not coming in the kitchen so we just won't mention it.
11. add the prawns shortly before serving, you took them out the freezer at the same time as the stock, right? Never mind, they can just go in frozen. Those nice chunky ones would be nice, but c'mon you can't afford them, this bag seems to contain the smallest prawns known to mankind, and they still qualify as a luxury.
12. I think that's it? BOOM:
http://i.imgur.com/3dpBc65.jpg
13. you're prolly not even hungry anymore, just give your mother a bowl of it and pour a drink.

I enjoyed this recipe-narrative

was it well received? tasty?

this was a good read
http://www.bonappetit.com/story/persian-new-year-menu-recipes

took awhile to get to it, but making a soup that article above mentions. simple beans and greens soup with loads of dill/cilantro/parsley. sounds like a winner to me
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/beans-green-soup-with-yogurt-mint

was freakin' outrageous. this Persian noodle soup recipe didn't call for a noodle so subbed Israeli couscous, which maybe incongruous, but worked

cooked some duck breast (lots of slow rendering) with a raspberry sauce. had done it before, this time I added some stock to the sauce, but didn't have any peach. served w/ roasties, it was v delicious & well received.

good call man, i should make duck soon.

duck is not that difficult or really that expensive in the grand scheme, it just *feels* indulgent so i don't do it often.

crispy skin is of course a real treat. I would have preferred it a little less well done but that probably wouldn't have been to my guest's taste. the savoury raspberry sauce really is great though; not really done much like that but it's not difficult - gastrique of sugar & white wine vinegar, break the raspberries down, red wine, stock, season. also feeling very seasonal and there aren't many pleasures out there that can compete with hanging out with a friend, slowly chatting while cooking and watching the kittens go on one of their first explorations of the garden, and then eating together

sounds awesome! i love making duck tho prob more winter eating for me.

I started documenting the slow cooker chili recipes last year

Jan 30, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/lPFtXrMm.jpg
Mar 6, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/Ns9Wx82m.jpg
Apr 24, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/rs5oAr1m.jpg
May 30, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/9J55608m.jpg
Sep 3, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/ZQwuxiDm.jpg
Dec 4, 2016: http://i.imgur.com/G01hCxNm.jpg
Jan 2, 2017: http://i.imgur.com/wjQnIu4m.jpg
Mar 4, 2017: http://i.imgur.com/boVpHdxm.jpg
Apr 30, 2017: http://i.imgur.com/lpohd8am.jpg

Hoping the allspice comes through in the latest batch and I don't hate myself for leaving out the garlic

how do you come by red habaneros in january?! (am trying to grow habaneros and ghost peppers this year)
i've never added corn tortillas to chili though, what a great idea.

Kenny Shopsin puts masa in his and I am a fan!

i think kenji adds masa too, and i'm definitely gonna try it next time

one thing that is definitely making me excited about moving to new mex: hatch (or chimayo!) chiles

adding masa is cool just gotta be careful it doesn't clump

I stole it from ATK I think? Originally they said to put the tortillas and the beer in the blender but it's less work to just dice them up tbf. Soaking them doesn't seem to have much effect.

the habaneros come on a truck.

next batch, definitely keeping the allspice; actually I think the dried seasonings are on point finally - less hot peppers though, and I think the bacon didn't render enough in the oven, this batch is a little greasy.

found an interesting technique flipping through the zuni cafe cookbook yesterday, where you quick braise fish with other stuff under your broiler. you basically get a quick gratinee of everything, then you lower the broiler and cook the finish mostly through. remove from oven, take out the fish, and finish sauce & stuff on the stovetop.

tried it tonight with potatoes, leeks, thyme, sea bass, and a lot of butter. rustic and delicious.

Y'ALL

THIS. IS. BANGIN.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/bucatini-pasta-amatriciana-recipe.html

also lol @ the guy at the gourmet shop for getting fussy w/ me asking for 0.2lb of guanciale but that's all I needed bcz I halved it and that shit was still $5 for 0.2 lb!!

anyway track down guanciale or I guess use pancetta and this shit is SO FUCKING EASY and it's one of those recipes that uses v few ingredients and showcases all of their glorious flabors

love a good flabor

o yeah we are all about bucatini

it is great for cacio e pepe

never made something like this before, seems impossible to fuck up though https://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/crumbling-crisp-convictions/

got huge strawberries and rhubarb this AM at farmers' mkt

gah I never see rhubarb at the farmer's market here, I should get mum & dad to covertly send me some in the mail.

that recipe looks good, I'm gonna save that one.

crumbles are my life, I just used up a year-old bag of frozen berries that I'd forgotten about in the back of the freezer and turned it into a cobbler/crumble kind of thing. easy and delish!

i made that crumble and its v v v good

started bunging rhubarb into my stirfries and it does add something.
Works for savoury if you don't add sugar.
Just kept seeing it in the local LIDL and thought I'd give it a shot.

also cashew nuts, plenty of ginger, garlic, turmeric, chillies, pepper, chayote, aubergine, courgette, leeks, shallotts, spring onions, mushrooms, cabbage, spinach, chard, kale, tomato, radishes, and a few other things.

I also made that crumble as, like harbl, I had picked up strawberries and rhubarb at the farmer's market. I'm a little on the fence about it--I missed the crunchiness of a traditional crisp.

have some extra time to cook since heading into finals week at school so making beet pesto today which i've never done before. sounds weird but worth a try imo. tomorrow gonna make roasted leek and white bean gallette (from smitten kitchen blog) for vegan roommate's birthday

i made ceviche for the first time the other nigh, it was delicious! i grew up eating it a lot, my dad would usually make a shrimp or a squid ceviche, i used turbot for this one it was really good. i followed this recipe for the most part - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/13/martin-morales-ceviche-recipe-peru

last night i made crab rolls, like lobster rolls i guess, i kind of used a few diff recipes mashed together. had them with steamed jersey royal potatoes, a lot of butter was expended for this meal. i still have a little crab left over so i'm going to make a linguine tonight i think, it's very hot in london so maybe some wine too.

both of those things sound delicious. i am almost getting my mojo back!! I think it has a lot to do with mental space afforded to other things that require significant mental space. now that it's fruit & vegetable & grill season + i have a break from work, i am a little more inspired. i'd like to invite some people over to grill with me, that might make it slightly more exciting. like a sunday "grill yr stuff for the week" get together. idk if i have the logistical abilities to pull that together but it would be fun.

communal cooking is the best & definitely helps me get back into it. I have never cooked crab but I do love linguine so mb I should get on it. will mostly be salads, salsa verde, fish and such this week but off duty tonight while my gf cooks feijoada

making nigel slater warm potato salad for the first time this year. i need to make more things from this book and more things from cookbooks in general.

got inspired by some pbs thing on Alice Waters last night, so making Chickpea and Farro Soup from one of her cookbooks. a couple herbs, garlic, celery, onion and orange zest, 3/4 of the chickpeas get pureed. sounds like a simple classic provençal sort of thing that is right up my alley.

can't believe I've never made this dish before, but I did cod with chorizo and lentils from this recipe: http://www.ramus.co.uk/recipes/pan-fried-cod-lentils-chorizo/

and it was way better than I expected. I put a chopped tomato in and left out the kale (had green beans on the side). It had a sweetness as well as savouriness.

cod with salty pork things is a good combo.

I made this last night -- so simple, and SO goddamn good!!
http://nomnompaleo.com/post/150016559668/cantonese-crispy-chicken-thighs

reminds me of the berebere spicy chicken thigh recipe that stevie d posted ages ago -- kind of the same principle, but not spicy but super flavorful.

gosh, I haven't made those berbere chicken thighs in years. sad! I'm actually v delighted that they've had staying power on this thread tho

i have made them a few times, i heart them

made this tonight: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/charred-and-raw-corn-with-chile-and-cheese

subbed feta in for the cotija because living in the uk, had it with grilled squid and a glass of muscadet - love summer food!

omg i love summer food too
i grilled some pineapple 2 days ago and it was heavenly

windows open, music on, wine, breeze coming through the house, it is a good time to cook.

otm

charcoal grilled flank steak and new potatoes tonight for us, but it's noon on the west coast. time to marinate the steak!

i suggest giving this a play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9IatdfP_W8

love summer food

first blt's of summer for lunch <3

grilled squid, a salad similar to another one i mentioned itt of tomato, roasted corn, feta, basil and lime juice. big glass of chablis easing a horrible hangover.

yum

squiiiiiiiiiid
love it
i am about to go to the store (tomorrow tbh) and remembered that i love ceviche so i think it's time for that

baked a two layer caker for mr veg's birthday ... am now living my own Great Britsh Bake Off

- planned to do 1 good size cake & sandwich it
- turned out more modest in height than anticipated
- baked a quick second layer
- made buttercream frosting
- was v unappealing off-white so colored it yellow
- now looks like actual butter lol
- did my crumbcoat, all good
- added jam filling, and whipped cream
- added top layer, noticed whipped cream starting to break down slightly
- o fuck the whipped cream prob wont hold
- madly frosted the whole thing & spackled over the filling to lol contain it lololol
- shoved it in the fridge, hope for the best
- hopefully (vainly) that it isnt sitting in a pool of oozed cream tomorrow

hee hee all a bit of adrenalin & fun in the end
i do enjoy baking, masochist that i am

damn you've put the work in there!

tonight i am going to cook a chicken leg and have some asparagus on the side. i bought a jar of romesco which is a bit of a cheat but whatever.

cake update:
https://instagram.com/p/BV0RVSclEyL742png8BPEUUUNKGe8OCiNSt30Q0/

the frosting set nice & hard so my "spackling" method contained the filling :)

cream kinda disappeared/ soaked into the cake despite crumb-coat but there was plenty of jam

cake was ok but v dense...may have buggered up the method somewhere so i think i'll go back to classic sponge cake next time, i have more experience with those

overall yay!

cool!
your insta-link = Sorry, this page isn't available, btw

god i miss being able to run down the street and pick up fresh squid like i was able to while living in sf. living in chico on account of school rn and can't wait to get outta here in a year

My neighbor has gotten into gardening in a big way this year for the first time, and we got hit with a deluge of yellow squash last night. At least it's not zucchini. I'm having rice + furikake + sauteed squash + a fried egg on top for lunch, and will make a pureed squash soup for dinner.

i really like making a simple squash soup just by roasting it and then putting it in with stock, onion, garlic, ginger and coconut milk and then immersion blending. very easy light meal.

sunday is fish day. whole roast plaice with cherry tomatoes and thyme, handful of samphire with lemon and olive oil. glass of vinho verde.

baked apricots with brown sugar and some leftover cream.

mmmmm yum

i just looked up samphire and still don't recognize it
intrigued!

it's sometimes called sea asparagus - it's like a salty quite coarse green - very nice and cooks quickly. think it was faintly popularised by foraging chefs over here, i guess it's plentiful in the uk as you can buy it in most supermarkets now.

not only have i not seen it, i haven't heard of it
i guess i'm nowhere near the sea, might have something to do with it?

the name is very appealing

often sold at the fishmongers or fish counter or whatever. give it a go if you can find some. it's mostly a side for fish but i think i've seen it in pastas and stuff before as well.

i'm always into a new vegetable
someone should make an ESG omelette with it -- eggs, samphire, gruyere

there's a place in oakland that only does mac+cheese called homeroom. stumbled upon their cookbook a couple years ago but filed recipes away and hadn't used any. made their vegan sauce recipe yesterday and it was un-flippin'-believable. added sauteed mush/onions and some chopped kale to it and baked it covered for awhile then topped with panko breadcrumbs til they got toasty. this gets regular rotation status consideration. was one of the simplest things in the world to make (the sauce involved no cooking!), too

just had a google, might give it a try. i am basically vegan (i eat a piece of pizza with cheese on it every once in a while/will eat vegetarian if I'm somewhere where it's the only option logistically) and have tried a few different vegan mac and cheese recipes, but this one looks fairly different to others I've tried.

i made this vegan "carbonara" on friday, it was very good http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/03/vegan-carbonara-pasta-recipe.html

Oh! That looks killer. Yeah I've tried 3 other v good vegan Mac recipes and don't think I'll be going back to them. Sauce in this one is pretty loose but came together perfectly when baked

i didn't like this very much! haha. oh subjectivity.

i don't get too upset at "failures" of this kind though, it's always worth trying new things out and you won't love everything

dang, sry to hear that. the three people that i ate it with /seemed/ to enjoy it as much as i

it wasn't too bad (i just ate leftovers for lunch at work) but i think i prefer other vegan macs I've made that were cashew based more

tonight - whole roast rainbow trout stuffed with parsley, lemon and garlic. and a baked potato. i got quite excited about having a baked potato cos they're so impossible midweek when time is scarce, realised i hadn't cooked one in years. topped it with grated manchego and chopped scallions. glass of gruner veltliner relieving a horrible hangover after some friends' 40th celebrations yesterday :)

very nice!

i'm in the middle of a move and devoting a disproportionate amount of time to unpacking/setting up the kitchen bc i miss cooking.

moving update: my rad induction range was delivered today so i celebrated ironically by burning the hell out of my finger on a pan that was under the broiler.

made this tonight, it really livened up a fairly bland dinner of boiled potatoes and a chicken breast: https://food52.com/recipes/12000-old-bay-aioli

ooh i love old bay
it's really good on popcorn

been alternating butter chicken (from Ajanta book), vegetable korma, and paneer kofta (also Ajanta) for about one year, and I'm still not tired of it somehow

ooh i love old bay
it's really good on popcorn

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, August 2, 2017 3:46 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i just discovered this and it is otm

must try that. it's not so commonly available over here, i had to order a big tin on amazon. it is seriously addictive stuff.

you probably know this, but you can make it yourself

yeah i guess so - it is just a bunch of other stuff.

food - just a bunch of other stuff

yeah old bay is something you can make but it's also worth it to buy it because you get a free shaker to dispense it and it is already made!
if you couldn't order it on amazon i would offer to mail it to you
that's how tasty old bay is

my junkfood-approximating popcorn is drizzle of olive oil, old bay, nutritional yeast, and if i am feeling like i need a really serious treat, a little parmesan cheese

i went to a restaurant in a coastal town last weekend and we decided to get some popcorn shrimp--their interpretation was literal with fried jumbo shrimp in a box w/old bay popcorn.

I've never heard of it, what's it like? I thought you meant like a really dried up bay leaf

a delicious spice mix, lots of paprika iirc?

https://www.target.com/p/mccormick-old-bay-seasoning-6oz/-/A-13477467

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bay_Seasoning

it is tasty, it really does go well with seafood

my brother made crab cakes with it a few weeks ago when we went down to the north carolina coast, they were amazing

I did actually google it, I was hoping for poetic descriptions of what kind of taste sensation it was!

old bae

taste is v similar to "shrimp/crab boil" seasoning

yea it is just kind of salty and little spicy but not too much

i think there is celery salt in there too?
I was hoping for poetic descriptions of what kind of taste sensation it was!
it's good but it doesn't deserve that kind a treatment imo ;)

celery salt is a magical thing
celery seed too

tried to make cacio e pepe tonight, failed
ugh. how can something so simple evade me so spectacularly. i ended up with oily peppery pasta that tasted vaguely of cheese. i think i needed way more cheese

anyone have a good tried & true method/recipe?

i've only done this successfully once: https://talesofambrosia.com/2013/03/04/how-to-make-spaghetti-cacio-e-pepe-like-a-roman/

and failed like 4 other times. but this is the one i want to get right. butter and evoo dilute cacio e pepe terribly.

this recipe i used called for a ton of oil & not much cheese

well the one i posted will solve that prob; my uneducated take is that the temperature where pecorino melts into a sauce is pretty hard to come by. recipes that use lots of oil or butter force a sauce by just making more liquid where this one can make a coagulated mess if the cheese heats up too much.

Inspired by SG's post above a bit making mushroom matar.
Xpost
This cacio recipe is killer and seems sorta foolproof
http://luckypeach.com/recipes/cacio-e-pepe/

interesting, i'll try that technique next time.

intriguing!

bless anyone that provides weights and temperatures in a recipe. I am going to try that one this weekend but without fresh pasta (I don't have a way to make it). outdoor_miner, please share a good mushroom matar recipe if you have/find one. I am trying to get away from using the same book for everything. I made some tandoori mushrooms with a cashew tamarind sauce (from ajanta) and some mushroom, chard, and corn tacos last week. So I am very much into the hongos rn.

Oh, that all sounds yumm.reminds me that I miss having huitlacoche around to play with.
Matar
Matar recipe came from my heart beets that u linked originally. Nice recipes there, thx for the tip!
Shrooms seemed to b enjoyed by everybody,was easy/wld definitely make again.

I haven't had huitlacoche, but Rick Bayless sure seems to love it in the red book. I will check out the matar (thanks). I found the korma from google, and I need to try some more of her recipes.

huitlacoche is very good

cooked this on saturday and it was amazing

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/sichuan-braised-eggplant-vegan-experience-food-lab-recipe.html

lol i did this seriouseats chinese eggplant recipe last night: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/02/braised-eggplant-with-tofu-in-garlic-sauce-recipe.html

also good!

dangit! that luckypeach is unavailable just days after i posted that link above. i remembered the method for the most part and made cacio the way they said (infuse crushed pepper in hot water, mash together parm. w/ 130 degree water, etc) and it was great.
Gonna make pop tarts here in a bit from minimalistbaker blog. wanted to make homemade nutella, but am a tiny bit lazy and just threw on some fruit compote instead. don't have much experience w/pie-type dough, but i have pastry flour and this looks pretty simple.

oh! those eggplant recipes both look like something i have to make tonight, picking one is gonna b a challenge

i tried making the old bay aioli the other night & it was delicious.

they should include aioli-making in crossfit workouts, i was pooped afterwards lol

otm it is tiring!

copying that cacio recipe from the internet archive to that perpetual rock of stability, ilx:

80 g semolina flour, plus more as needed
20 g 00 flour, plus more as needed
+ kosher salt
1 large egg
1/2 t (1 g) crushed black peppercorns
40 g finely grated D.O.P. pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for garnish
+ freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION
Blend the semolina flour, 00 flour, and a pinch of salt in a wide bowl and create a well in the center. Crack the egg into a small bowl set on a scale. If the egg does not measure 50 grams, top it off with a few drops of water until it reaches the correct weight. Beat the egg with a fork or whisk, then pour it into the well. Work the flour into the egg, bit by bit, bringing flour into the egg from the edges of the well. Once you have a loose, shaggy dough, set the fork aside and begin kneading the dough in the bowl. When you have a cohesive mass, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and does not crack or fray when gently stretched, about 8–10 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour, or in the refrigerator overnight.

Unwrap the dough and divide it into 3 pieces. Use a rolling pin to form each into an oval thin enough to be fed through the thickest setting of your pasta machine. Pass each piece of dough through the thickest setting several times, folding the dough in thirds and rotating it with each pass, until you have a uniform rectangle that is about 10 inches long and 1/8 inch thick. (If you need to move to a thinner setting to achieve this, feel free.) Dust the dough with semolina and let rest and dry for 10 minutes.

Affix the spaghetti attachment to your dough roller. (We’re actually making tonnarelli, not spaghetti, since the resulting noodle will be square at the end, not round.) Once the pasta sheets are leathery to the touch, pass them through the cutter. Gather the tonnarelli and dust them lightly again with semolina. Arrange on a rimmed baking sheet in a loose single layer, and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to cook, up to 2 days. (The noodles will be notably more springy and delicious after 1 day of rest in the fridge.)

When you’re ready to cook, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Meanwhile, combine the crushed peppercorns with 3 tablespoons water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat; it should have reduced by about half. Let steep until ready to use.

Drop the tonnarelli in the boiling water and set a timer for 5 minutes.

When assembling the cacio e pepe, timing and heat are important. Place the grated cheese in a bowl. Pour the warm pepper broth over the cheese, leaving most of the peppercorns behind. Use a rubber spatula to mash the cheese and pepper broth together until you have a granular paste. Drizzle a spoonful or two of slightly cooled pasta water over the cheese, continuing to stir and mash and drizzle until you have a sauce the consistency of béchamel. Keep the sauce warm, but not over direct heat. When the timer goes off, check the pasta. Once it’s al dente, drain it into a colander, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water. Toss the pasta a couple of times to release some heat, and let it stand for 1 minute to cool slightly. (If the pasta is too hot when added to the cheese, the cheese will congeal into unappetizing lumps.) Add the tonnarelli to the pecorino sauce and toss, adding splashes of pasta water to create a creamy emulsion that clings to the noodles. Transfer the pasta to a warmed bowl and top with a sprinkle of pecorino and a few grinds of pepper.

so it is written, so shall it be done

what is 00 flour?

oh wait a sec, i need a pasta machine for this? nm, so not gonna happen

Don't /have to/ make pasta from scratch. Double nought is a special Italian grind specifically for pasta dough. Regular ap flour works fine ime

otm making pasta bit is totally optional tho may change the cook time if you use dried

Have freezer overflowing with ice cubes either way I guess is my takeaway

making pasta is fun and easy

I like making pasta ok but don't find it that easy :/

Gnocchi I find even harder in terms of getting the texture just right. But I find it more worthwhile I guess?

i skip to the part where it says make the sauce

dried spaghetti ride or die unless someone is serving/making me fresh pasta

otm
making pasta from scratch may be fun for some people but i am not one of them

i rarely do it, but the texture of fresh is SO worth the little trouble it takes if one has one of those hand crank machines. used to work in a place where coworker wld come in everyday and make it for pm service and it took her abt a half hour from start to finish. and it's fun to mess w/flavors. once made a beet pasta using a juiced beet for ravioli for a special valentine's day dinner and pasta was purty

i'm sure it's great if you enjoy it
fresh pasta is in the category of things i will gladly pay an expert to make for me. croissants, pasta, probably some other things.

^^ agree

filo pastry

^^^ also agree (though I might make gnocchi or gnudi again, no equipment needed)

Sushi is in the 'pay to have it made' category for me.

I've started buying fresh pasta from the supermarket. It's not as good as the fresh pasta I had out the other week but a good little upgrade from dried. not as convenient though in terms of it lasting forever like dried.

I think of them as just different animals. Dried has a toothiness that u can't get from fresh and fresh is so delicate at it's best

disagree! It's easier to get an even toothiness with fresh. You barely have to cook it though. dried can get that slippery coating kind of thing. tbf I often have dried brown pasta which probably needs a bit more cooking than white.

Can I just say that the trend of overly patronizing instructions in online recipes is driving me bananas

The five-step method for an easy, tasty homemade enchilada sauce recipe turns into war & peace bc the author has to add all her concern-trolling
"now make sure you get all your spices measured before you start"
"heat the oil - dont walk away from the stove"

OMG. SHUT. UP.

ugh that's even worse than recipes bloated with jokes
stfu

i finally unpacked my cookbooks after they were in attic storage for a year and it is so much more enjoyable browsing through them rather than food blogs and cooking websites

What is the conventional ilxwisdom regarding preparing corn tortillas for enchiladas? Warm in dry pan? Warm over open flame? Quick dip in hot oil? Dip in sauce before rolling?

Enchiladas are a pain in the ass to make imo.

cheap fresh tortillas from masa harina, dip in sauce, and quick fry in oil on skillet imo

it'd probably also work well making from better store bought masa. I just think fresh is best for avoiding tears, and a tortilla fancier than maseca probably won't make much difference in enchiladas.

Dip before fry??? I assumed it was fry then dip.

yeah, i see that in recipes as well. my father-in-law has been making them for decades, and he dips in sauce before frying. it makes the skillet pretty messy.

we also do not bake them, though. it looks like this may be a difference in assembly between enchiladas and enchiladas suizas

i hate handling slimy sauced tortillas so i just make layered enchilada casserole now #lazy

the method described in beloved ilx favorite the border cookbook is to heat 1/2" to 1" of oil in a small skillet till hot. dip the tortillas in until they go limp (happens almost immediately ime), then sauce them, fill them, and roll them.

this has worked great for me so far.

fry then dip imo

border cookbook is so great, could be my favorite cookbook tbh

In Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen, he has recipes where he warms up the tortillas and then spoons sauce over, and then he has the "..."other" style of enchilada preparation: a cold tortilla is dipped in a robust red chile sauce, then seared quickly on an oiled surface. One taste and you'll understand why they're a favorite street food."

So I guess the dip-cold-and-fry method may be the street food style that is usually done with red sauce?

taking that book out led to creamy beet greens, potatoes, and poblano tacos, as it usually does

that pepper-infusion cacio e pepe method i reposted a little while ago worked pretty well. gradually building the sauce with pepper water and pasta water before adding the pasta seemed to prevent any major clumping. i will say that i would add pepper to finish much more aggressively than the recipe implies--the infusion is a nice backbone but it doesn't really kick your ass with black pepper like i want.

obv much better than any oil/butter method.

I don't understand the "keep the sauce warm, but not over direct heat." part. Does that imply that you should turn on your oven?

honestly i didn't really do that part except for adding small amounts of warm pasta water until i was happy with the consistency

xp double boiler I assume?

double boilers technically are direct (conductive) heat, their max temp is just limited to the 100C

i usually take "keep warm but not over direct heat" to mean "put it in the oven" (convective) or just keep it close to something that's hot (radiant)

maybe directly heat a pot of water on adjacent burner?

I would also normally put something in a low oven to "keep it warm". anyway cad skipped it and lived, so we are good.

i have an induction range so radiant heat isn't really around, also the oven was in use roasting some asparagus. could've used the warming drawer i guess but it did work out ok.

btw if you want to skip the pasta-making portion technique i just subbed the 150g of pasta the recipe makes for 5 oz. of dry pasta and the proportions seemed totally reasonable.

thanks, gonna try this one.

was in the mood for soup a couple days ago when it was cooler and dreary outside. just getting around to making but i like the look of this recipe (w cumin and cinnamon for a soup sounded nice and warming) https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017980-mushroom-spinach-soup-with-cinnamon-coriander-and-cumin?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_ck_20170916&nl=cooking&nlid=73417899

made the popular NYT red lentil soup 2 days ago and it was perfect for the cooler, breezy afternoon yesterday. this one looks good to maybe try next. also pre-ordered that Soup Bible book somebody recommended in other thread. been making/freezing lots of stock. bring on the soup!

tomato jam seems to be very popular rn. a very fancy (overpriced) bakery is selling biscuit, egg, cheese, and tomato jam sandwiches for $8, which is insane. But I've been making my own tomato jam and putting it on nearly every sandwich I eat. Really gives them a "this is a fancy and expensive sandwich" feel.

Tomato jam a staple at my regular, too. Surprised by how sweet it is!

haven't baked any cookies in a few years iirc. saw this neat looking recipe where the pans get shaken while baking to create textural dynamics. they're in the oven now and are gonna rule. subbed guajillo chile mexican chocolate and reduced the amount of sugar in the batter by a fair bit to balance

that's cool!

I was a pastry chef for years so I burned out on a lot of that, but I still make cookies. Mostly chocolate chip, sometimes oatmeal raisin or holiday varieties when appropriate. I prefer the melted butter version, wife prefers whipped, we split the difference.

how often do you shake them?

i've been making chocolate chip cookies lately w/ dorie greenspan recipe and they are the bomb dot com. haven't tried a cookie with melted butter yet.

I'm tired of tomato jam already

I'm turning into a flatbread pizza badass these days, so many good ready-made crusts available

i ended up shaking them a couple times after first putting them in for ten minutes. they don't look like the pic, but i bet they're deece. they look nice!
https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/22289782_10214411195535333_7459497610865515378_o.jpg?oh=87796497b4e7e28bdcd8fbfc7e4e7a33&oe=5A430827

don't think i've ever done cookies w melted butter but my fave brownie recipe uses that. mmmm oatmeal is the deal! xxpost

mmm y'all choc chip cookies w/melted butter are the best, more caramelized and chewy, flatter and kinda translucent

melt 1 stick butter
whisk with 1/2C white and 1/2C brown sugar
add 1 tsp vanilla, 1 egg
sift 1C plus 2T AP flour with 1 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp salt
add at least 1/2C chips, or more to taste

bake 10-12 mins at 350

I usually put the dough in the fridge for a few minutes to set up, the heat of the butter can make the batter a bit loose right out of the bowl

gonna try these imo

help i impulse-bought some spanish (cured) chorizo what shd i do w it?

soup!

Fry up with taters!

Cook up with mussels or clams!

Something like this, super good, really easy:

potato and chorizo stew

I also love it with fried eggs, and it’s been a long time but I used to frequently make sort of a chickpea and chorizo in saffron broth almost-soup with sautéed cod and garlic and smoked paprika butter plopped on top to melt at the end.

oh that sounds delicious

ignore the spanish and put it in paella. it's v good in red lentil soups though

this is cooking at château d'harbl tomorrow http://www.italianfoodforever.com/2013/03/slow-cooker-rabbit-ragu-for-pasta/

chez harbl must smell amazing today!

i had bad experiences with rabbit as a kid but i wish u all the best harb

WELL the rabbit guy didn't bring rabbits to the farmers' market because it was raining. not sure what that has to do with rabbits except maybe just expecting fewer customers. he was sorry. i made it with half ground beef half sausage instead. it does smell good.

I fired up the slow cooker and did a sort of beef bourgignon which was surprisingly good. Past few Sundays I've been making myself cook double so I don't need to cook on Mondays and it's been a brilliant idea.

I am midway through a slow cooker bouillabaisse with turkey thighs and tons of Pernod.

I made a seafood risotto with swordfish and it was my best yet

I finally learned how to fry the perfect egg and feel it is one of my life’s greatest achievements. No more undercooked white or semi cooked yolk!

game changer!

what are your tips xp

yes please share i love a good fried egg

I use a little non stick pan, high heat, crack the eggs into a bowl first rather than straight into the pan, and then after adding the eggs the trick is adding a little water and then covering - I’d read that using lots of oil and spooning the hot oil over the whites was the way to get the whites cooked first but it was a pain and didn’t work that well, but THEN I read that adding a bit of water steams the whites. It’s super fast too - takes about a minute.

I’ve been doing it this way for a week and getting totally perfect eggs every time.

I only use water, no oil, in case that wasn’t clear

I also do it that way, but with melted butter first. I'm not sure it is a very "pro" way of cooking eggs. I like that it doesn't make any hard bits, and no flip is very low stress.

I like to pile two fried eggs onto a piece of grainy toast slathered in good butter, so I prefer to avoid butter or oil in the cooking

Earlier this week I made a coconut-milk-based curry with shrimp and winter squash, garnished with lime and cilantro, served over brown basmati rice, that I just ate again as a leftover tonight. It earned my seal of approval both times.

the cream from a can of coconut milk is a wonderful thing

recipe on deck for tomorrow
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013946-home-made-mushroom-lasagna?em_pos=large&emc=edit_ck_20171103&nl=cooking&nlid=73417899

that was a tasty lasagna but seriously almost too cheezy. maybe that was my fault.
just made nutella from scratch. made it once before but it seized after a few days. gonna be more careful abt letting moisture near this this time.

tomorrow I am making red beans & rice :D

nice. i made a vegetarian version before that i loved.
went and got lemongrass, galangal and kafir leaves yesterday, so just made a tom kha broth. getting excited for soup

nice sunday cooking day - my fishmonger had some very large oysters for a pound each, so i got a few. had never shucked an oyster before but it all was quite easy contrary to the impression i had. grilled them with a butter made from parsley/garlic/lemon zest then served them with a slice of lemon and tabasco.

prior to that i put on a braise of short rib, onion, garlic, star anise, juniper berries, bay leaves, stock, and india pale ale - had some mashed potatoes with chives on the side.

i have now cleaned the kitchen :)

stealing that braised short rib concept, thanks!

it was v good - i kind of mashed together the bits that sounded good in a few diff recipes. i had it bubbling very low for about 3 hours, oh and i also used some pancetta i had, and thyme too.

brb adding star anise and juniper berries to today's shopping list

would pink peppercorns sub for juniper berries? that combo sounds DELICIOUS

hehe - i've been using the berries in loads of stuff since buying them for some recipe or other. they're p versatile.

star anise makes every braise better ime.

the red braised pork on this page uses it really well: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/17/china-best-kept-food-secret-fuchsia-dunlop-jiangnan-recipes-sea-bass-prawns

xpost not sure - in the uk at least juniper berries are more common than i would have thought, they seem to be in most supermarkets.

for the braise i riffed off this recipe and another one i had in a book plus whatever i had in my cupboard: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-braised-short-ribs-105868

thought the beer was nicer than a red wine braise which i've done a few times before - can be kinda heavy

red beans and rice turned out fantastic.
Mine was slightly bastardized from the traditional version.
I used the hambone leftover from our thanksgiving ham instead of a smoked hock
and for smoked sausage i used polish sausage instead of andouille or something more traditional because I can't handle a lot of heat in my spicy food lately.
but goddamn.
here's the recipe I used https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-red-beans-rice-recipes-from-the-kitchn-183859

love stuff like this where it's so simple and so flavorful

used an updated 19th century-vintage scottish shortbread recipe tonight & holy balls it was good

candied peel & almonds mixed in & caraway seeds on top

will need to tweak my technique & cook time a bit bc it was too crumbly but the flavor & texture was bang on - pretty much my platonic ideal of perfect shortbread

that sounds amazing

braised thighs & potato recipes are my kryptonite
this one is super good. potatoes come out like frenchified german potato salad!
i would cut back the sugar by half though, slightly too sweet for my taste.

https://www.macheesmo.com/dijon-braised-chicken-thighs/

made a Ethiopian dish that caught my eye a couple weeks ago but subbed tofu for chicken: https://www.africanbites.com/doro-wat-ethiopian-chicken-stew/
it. was. ridiculous.

https://i.imgur.com/qNo7E81.jpg

ah, the hot bread kitchen book has a doro wat recipe to go along with the recipe for injera. that looks good!

ooh bookmarking

"spiced butter" seems worth it

oh yeah i'm in

i made an Ethiopian feast* for Christmas! There's a little shop nearby that sells injera/berbere/other and they have the spiced butter. It's totally worth it.

*red lentils, spit peas, spinach, beet/fennel salad, lamb & fish

wow that sounds so good

it was! it was easy to make the lentils/greens the day before so that on day-of-feast, i just had to chop the vegetables and cook the lamb/fish + reheat the rest (which are probably better next-day anyway. one of the best parts were the many leftovers that i actually wanted to eat (as opposed to more traditional fare)

i made spinach pies from the leftover spinach

i keep thinking about this food and cultural anthropology and how if more people were exposed to ethiopian food there might be some carryover to caring about East Africa or trying to understand it politically or culturally but what the hell do i know.
i'm infatuated and making some spiced butter now in preparation for making a split yellow lentil dish (from africanbites blog) in the next day or so. should put on some Mulatu or ethiopiques disc i guess.

made this tonight: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/steamed-fish-with-lime-and-chile-380597#reviews

i seldom use my bamboo steamer but i can see myself doing this again many times. bit of sambal oelek on the side and a beer.

wish i had entire unscaled fish meals in my life

made this easy thai curry, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015694-vegan-thai-curry-vegetables, and thought it was great (affirmed by partner). Used snow peas instead of green beans, half the palm sugar (piloncillo actually), and the green curry paste recipe in Splendid Soups. I used the shrimp paste, but it would be still good and vegan without. Will be my go to recipe for having veg friends over.

and good god, why haven't I gone to the thai market for coconut cream before must have been 10 options.

also v happy to find thag same store sells reasonably sized shallots

going to make mussaman curry paste and sub it in that same recipe because I was forced to overbuy eggplant at the market. recipe feels like a good baseline for testing different curry pastes. only complaint is that eggplant absorbs too much water if you reheat leftovers.

mmmmmm sno-peas. . . and thai curry. i must do this sometime soon, thx for the idea!

thank you for introducing me to spiced butter. this is what went into the molcajete for the paste (from Peterson soup book). dried red chilies used for red curry paste.

Green Curry Paste
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp freshly ground black pepper
0.5 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp grated nutmeg
0.25 cup cilantro leaves (tightly packed)
0.5 in. ginger, peeled and grated
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp shrimp paste (optional, leave out for vegan according to NYT recipe)
1 tsp salt
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 lemongrass stalk, bottom half only, finely sliced, then chopped
2 shallots, peeled and chopped
8 Thai chilies, seeded and chopped (or 12 jalapeno)
0.25 cup peanut oil

lovely! hell yeah to the eggplant idea, too. gonna do this someday soon

been cooking more tofu: extra firm, pressed, and dry fried. never marinate because adding to stuff with sauces, usually. anybody know a good way to press tofu quickly? or can somebody recommend a clever way to press tofu in the fridge while out or at work? or maybe pressing that hours ahead is a bad idea? is freezing really necessary?

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/02/vegan-experience-crispy-tofu-worth-eating-recipe.html

^^^addresses the question of pressing

hmmm. hot salt water idea is interesting. not crazy about consuming more paper towels after increasing surface area.

question:

i am making red beans and rice - recipe calls for smoked ham hock.
all I could find at the store is smoked *PORK* hock, so, not cured.

should I cook the pork hock in the oven first before making the the red beans and rice, or is it ok to use it as is?

i don't know the answer to the question and i'm far from a pork expert so my question for you is why do you think you should cook it first? i'm learning

well, idk exactly except that if it was a ham hock, it would already be cured and essentially kinda 'cooked' already? but if I cook the pork hock all the good stuff would cook out of it and i think I want that in the beans.
so.
i guess I'm not 100% sure if the uncooked pork hock would affect the end result.

given the simmer time for a trad red beans recipe i'd just throw the smoked hock in there. i see no reason to pre-cook it as it's going to cook through in an hour+

made the unparalleled Cook's Illustrated Chicken Stew yesterday for the first time this season (their goal was to make a stew that was as rich and meaty as beef stew and they nailed it). It has so many glutamates (bacon, anchovy paste, soy sauce) and basically tastes like fond stew. It is, in full CI fashion, quite fussy, but when it tastes this good you don't mind it.

http://gourmay.net/recipes/chicken-stew-cooks-illustrated/

making gigantic-ass grilled cheese w/ roasted yams, kale massaged with reduced balsamic, grated guyere and fontina (daiya for vegan niece) on tj's pain pauline. i'm excited. did this once before and it was killer. salad of chopped (raw) bok choy and thinly sliced red cabbage w/ a tahini dressing to go with (not cuz it needs more salad but i need to use up some bok choy)

sounds great! Doing fennnel/lemon sole in parchment tonight. With some tiny potatoes dressed in creme fraiche, horseradish, chives.

did the martha stewart mac & cheese recipe tonight for some friends, it's basic but so perfect

always ready to try another mac & cheese recipe

barefoot contessa vegetable lasagna also basic but perfect. Especially if you just make the marinara instead of buying $15 marinara.

go nuts https://www.marthastewart.com/957243/macaroni-and-cheese

been trying to cook a bit more lately. My most recent was pan-seared salmon topped with kalamata olive butter, and braised leaks on the side.

Tonight I made chicken breasts with a cumin/paprika/turmeric rub and lime juice. Involved such exciting elenents as deboning the chicken and transferring a large ultra hot cast iron skillet back and forth between oven and stove.

sounds great, though deboning feels unnecessary. Had a veggie tajine out to dinner tonight and now know what to make next.

Needed to be deboned to sit flat in the pan, but next time I'll probably just start with boneless breasts. I don't know that having the skin really added much.

St. Pat's supper last night was a simple one: ham (& mustard), colcannon, steamed chard, steamed carrots, Guiness. Nice, though.

i did corned beef in the slowcooker & it turned out the best it’s been in recent memory. i programmed it to cook to a set internal temperature and it totally worked.
i also made a really nice soda bread & we had all that with just kale & veg.

Just made a Dutch baby

oooh how’d it turn out?

Good! Sometimes Joy of Cooking is unimpeachable

Scarpetta spaghetti tonight. This is our go to pasta dinner. Always great, better when we can find fresh bucatini. We also add in all the chili flakes and crisp basil and garlic that is used to infuse the oil whereas in the recipes and videos he only uses the oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BeGj38J4k

adding infused oil to the tomato sauce seems delicious. I am still skeptical, though, so I am compelled to make it myself. do you peel and seed fresh tomatoes when you make it or use canned? I've always used canned whole peeled san marzanos for red sauce.

I like sauce better with fresh tomatoes but I definitely used canned when tomatoes are out of season.

do you use plum tomatoes? or san marzanos? I guess I'm hoping someone will confirm that TJ's canned plum tomatoes are good so I can save $5 every time I make red sauce.

I use both. They're not that different but I'll splurge for real D.O.P. brands if it's a straight-up tomato sauce, just to set my little mind at ease. But for a lazy weekday night throw-together I'll use store-brand.

As for fresh, I think the best option in California is usually romas.

Same^^^ If I can get nice tomatoes I will use that. But canned tomatoes works in a pinch (especially, since I am lazy and I always keep can tomatoes around, I am pretty sure I have used some of TJ's tomatoes in a can before). This video may be better to show how to make it. Around the 14 minutes mark is where they show it. I had it in the restaurant before. And it was amazing. But it's more amazing to not pay $20+ dollars or however much the entree was (I can't remember). And we've changed the dish around a little like I said because I love bits of fried, chewy garlic and it more spicy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3iU9gpIpwE

ok, thanks. might be fun to do a canned DOP, canned store brand plum, and fresh roma taste test. suppose it will have to wait until summer.

I'm currently excited that I've found a local supplier of Gobo (burdock root). Kinpira cooked and I am eye some tasty gobo and beef tendon recipes.

Last night made Greek style roasted chicken with cucumber yogurt sauce.

sounds delish - recipe?
I made puff pastry tarts with leeks, bacon, goat's cheese - really easy and yum

Poke last night. Super easy. I feel "on trend" but if you tell anyone in Hawaii how it's taken over the mainland they are kind of astonished.

I hope you made 5 outrageous island sauces that you kept in squeeze bottles

No, we just make regular poke. I put some spicy garlic sauce in mine though.

sounds like the only sauce one needs

Pretty much. Even when we would get it from the grocery store the regular poke is always the best. The spicy poke sometimes has too much mayo.

We do put avocado in ours though, which isn't entirely common in Hawaii.

it is strange how "spicy" = "some mayo" only in the context of raw fish

Yeah, I am not into it. The sushi where I am right now often has too much cream cheese or mayo because it's Nikkei style (Japanese-Peruvian).

re:avocado, it is best to be authentic to the idea that avocado is good in poke imo

there must be at least 5 poke places opening here this summer, it’s p crazy

I think they are just opening everywhere since it's easy and you don't need a kitchen. We make it every time we see tuna on sale. In Hawaii I think most places sell it $8-14ish/lb depending on whether it was fresh or flash frozen fish or if it had a fancy salt/shoyu.

i made a rotini pasta + tomato and meat sauce. pancetta, italian sausage. onion, red bell pepper, garlic, butter, san marzanos, dried basil, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, shredded cheese blend. fun to make something so good from really basic "dollar store" type groceries.

man that sounds good

we got a subscription to Milk Street magazine and have been making a lot of stuff from it, tonight it was a cool egg/bread/chorizo/kale scramble. I'd prefer to eat less meat but when you cook for an 86 year old Italian dude yr options are limited

Carbonara with broccoli rabe.

making a vegan banana cream pie w a oreo crust. have never done this before but so far all signs point to success. just made the custard to make sure the recipe works. took abt 5 minutes to make. it's got silken tofu, coconut milk, and soy, vanilla, sugar & cornstarch. gonna finish putting pie together tomorrow and make coconut whipped cream for topping for vegan friend coming to town

yum

amasake also works really well for vegan custards

Chicken w Thai green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, bell peps, snow peas.

This time I let the packaged curry paste be the star and didn't add 100 bits of extra grated ginger, lemongrass, etc etc. I did take out the fat layer from the coconut cream and then reduce it until it separated and then coated the chicken in that oil before adding back the more liquidy coconut milk and other flavors.

It's pretty good tbh. I might pick up some palm sugar for this kind of thing just to have that more complex flavor.

This is my paste brand: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71cLxSxh6bL._SY450_.jpg

Mmmm that looks really good. I love green curry. I kind of feel like I have incompatibility issues with coconut milk/cream though and it's not something I want to test out a lot.

I have/was having those too and it's really sad but one thing I hope will help is buying a brand that doesn't use chemical stabilizers like guar gum and soy lecithin. Weirdly cheapo Goya doesn't use them and all the other, pricier ones do (that I've found).

Oh, I am going to start looking at the labels for them. Next, can you figure out what ingredient in most lipsticks/lip balm I am allergic to?

Idk but this is the only one I use, also for chemical irritation reasons: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NqpJG3U0l6E/T1Z2Gast13I/AAAAAAAANAs/nw6lR4Dr7Ik/s1600/Jordana_LOLLipOutLoudLipGloss_1.jpg

Again, ironically, it's the super-cheap version that is perfect.

Oh god sorry hueg

Ha! Thx. I was about to say the only thing I know I am not allergic to is cheap rose's salve and revlon.

I am making a tofu and broccoli stirfry tonight (brown sauce). I am going to use that link above's recommendation about pouring hot salted water over the tofu first to dry it out.

we made lasagna tonight, it wasn't anything too epic but I found some italian-style sausages at lol marks & spencer near work & since I live in a heavily muslim part of the city I can't find sausages excepts the most basic kinds near home so I snapped them up. although now that I think of it, I think of "italian sausage" from a north-american perspective & don't actually know anything about Italy-italian sausages. I should correct that! we have plenty of "genuine" italian food shops in the city, I just don't frequent them. really all I'm looking for is a spicier sausage than the generic-for-france saucisses de toulouse that I can find in the supermarkets around our apartment.

No bechamel!

ABSOLUTELY NOT

wait what

but merguez is already the best sausage

we eat plenty of merguez! it is readily available in my neighborhood. but for lasagna ?

I just googled to see if there are boudin noir lasagnas. Of course there are. I would try.

if you are taking it out of its casing, you can probably make any sausage into any other type of sausage, approximately

just read some moroccan recipe blogs with lasagna à la merguez, still, I'm not sure

that sounds good

no i mean what is yr problem with bechamel in lasagna

Ha! Bechamel in lasagna on the controversial opinion thread set off the whole cheese discussion that led to the changing of the I Love Cooking Board to The Cheese Board. Bechamel in lasagna is a huge disappointment. Always. Granny jizz.

isn't it the most traditional tho?

Post a controversial opinion

some traditions are not worth saving

I've never encountered this tradition

If your benchmark is granny jizz you are doing it wrong.

Damned autocorrect bechamel

I've never had good bechamel in a lasagna. It's only needed if you can't get cheese.

I like goat cheese in lasagna

I assumed it was added on top or something. bechamel alone seems like it'd be so mild what's the point

kinda hitting me that i don't really like lasagna. or better said, i'll take its component parts in just about any other form.

What form would the lasagna take, though

I guess it is just pasta, so you would like a different noodle

yeah, like i'd rather have a ricotta-filled pasta with some sauce or something like that

I love any sort of baked pasta.

i cant with you ppl

Plain bechamel sounds bland. I make a parmesan cheese sauce with shallots and thickened with egg yolks.

that sounds good. The mixture of egg, goat cheese, and ricotta in the recipe I make is pretty saucy. but there's mozzarella, too.

i dont know any of you

I looked at recipes, and the bechamel is just mixed with the red sauce. there's a bunch of other cheese. that seems fine, and I don't know why it'd be bad if it were made properly.

I've never had good bechamel in a lasagna. It's only needed if you can't get cheese.

― Yerac, Thursday, March 22, 2018 6:46 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this post implied replacement of cheese

mixed with the

what is happening

lol this is what I found https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/classic-italian-lasagna-recipe-1941225

ok idk what giadas on

xpost To clarify, the only way I can fairly imagine it used in lasagna is because other cheese is more expensive sometimes hard to get and it acts as a filler to cream it up. But it's disgusting. I even dislike it in croque monsieur. This is all covered in that other thread though. Growing up, I no one ever put it in lasagna. But I had a lot of asians making it for me.

All the sainsbury, tesco, M&S ready to go ones just look like a white goopey mess. The main grocery stores where I am are only slightly better where they may have it only as one layer. I think in the US most ready to go lasagnas don't have that travesty.

I made a new thread for this Controversial Food Opinions - The Béchamel Test

I made Hainan chicken rice out of 101 Easy Asian Recipes. (Roughly equivalent to khao mun gai.) Poached chicken, chicken fat rice w aromatics, broth made from the poaching liquid, condiments. Absurdly flavorful and good and an excellent use of a couple hours and a chicken.

That shit's delicious, I ate it like half a dozen times when I was in Singapore where it's like the national Big Mac Extra Value Meal. That plus a side of stir fried or braised greens is the best.

I like that cookbook, I've been making its economy noodles (also from Singapore I guess?) a lot.

I should go to Singapore just to eat I think.

Oh wow, I never even thought of making hainan chicken from scratch. I always want my friend from SIngapore to make it for me but he sometimes cant because he runs out of the "season packets" he brings back from SIngapore and for a stupid reason I assumed you needed those. HA!

I made such a good spicy steak run tonight I think we might have version 2.0 going gold finally, after only 11 years

what is a spicy steak run? idk what you are talking about aside from the words "spicy" and 'steak"

Rub not run. Whatever who cares you know what I’s saying. Seared into an incredible crispy crust, didn’t need or want for any kind of that compound butter or sauce nonsense.

Steak was huge, 24oz or so, so I guess divide everything in half (or more) for more normal preparations. Foreigners: 1 tsp = ~5 ml

1 tsp kosher salt

Put this in a tiny bowl and set aside.

1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp parsley flakes
.5 tsp white pepper
.5 tsp thyme
.5 tsp paprika
.5 tsp peri-peri
.5 tsp rosemary

Mix all of the above into a different little bowl. Mix gently, but thoroughly.

1 tsp EVOO

drizzle that on the steak and rub it all over

Then, rub the seasoning mix all over the oiled-up steak. I just use my gross fingers that still have EVOO and steak juice on them fwiw.

Lastly, sprinkle the kosher salt on the top and bottom of the steak, and rub it like nanook.

After 2-5 minutes sear both sides and cook to your desired doneness.

“I’s” = autocorrect is really on fire tonight.

so wait, you sear both sides in quick succession? I've always done one side for 3-5 minutes, then flipped it for the same amount.

sounds like a good pellicle on there. Have only done dry rub with tri tip. but 24 oz is tri tip sized, damn.

Well with a blasphemous electric grill set as high as it will go and a weight on top to apply a little pressure you can sear both sides at once

But yes, 3-4 minutes on each side works too

What was different about the rub you made to tonight to the ones you normally do? I have never in my life cooked a good steak. One day...

What is EVOO?

Today is a perfect day to light the konro and the rest of that recipe sounds delightful.

i sous vide steaks nowadays but molly stevens' sear-roasting method served me well before that. i can post a version of it if anyone is interested.

Ah, olive oil

Ed: olive oil.

Yerac: the 1.0 was just one part of each of the following: kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, parsley flakes, and a dash of cayenne.

I’ve fiddled with adding stuff and then going back to the basics for years.

I’ve had really good luck with the reverse sear for steaks which is basically the crude version of sous vide - low oven til it reaches a certain temp then a raging hot cast iron pan for like a minute on each side.

Just grill it on the day you buy it and all that fuss becomes sort of irrelevant, imo.

uh

bought a new wok. So this week has been pad thai, pad see ew, pad see ew, and khao pad tonight. New wok is bad for my health.

Well now I have a nice big porterhouse and enough time to rub it and let it come up to room temp.

i did not personally know what you were saying but now i do
most of the time people talk about steaks idk what they are aiming for -- this perfect steak everyone wants is maybe something i have never eaten? i am pretty satisfied with the steaks i have cooked but who knows, maybe they are bad? i don't think so. usually i cook for 3 min each side on highest heat (indoors) and outdoors just hope for the best (have only done this once maybe)

When I was younger I didn't know the rules about getting the proper pan hot enough, meat being room temp, patting it dry and resting. I don't make a lot of meat so I kind of just gave up. I would rather order it out instead of messing it up.

I have never been able to replicate restaurant pad see ew. Something about the char or sweetness is off.

I've never done a dry rub either. I only recently learned that my mom puts egg whites on chicken before a sautee/fry. Never knew it makes it tender/keeps moist???

we're making salteñas for tomorrow, so we have to start tonight in order to get the gelatin going. you make them like I guess xiao long bao are made. every salteña is judged on how much liquid is still in it when you bite into it.

getting restaurant-style char in a home wok is tough imo

need those BTUs

I have promised myself an outdoor high powered wok burner when I move into a proper home

I have one burner labeled "power boil" that I use. The new wok is not non-stick coated, obviously. I've been getting it as hot as possible before adding oil, and it is somewhat uncomfortable to be around. Been using fresh noodles, and the last step of the recipe involves adding dark soy sauce and letting things sit awhile between tosses to get a good char. It's from the Night+Market book, which has been great with everything so far.

Euler fam's salteñas going to rule. Still need to try one of these.

I didn't realize saltenas were suppose to have liquid in them. I think I have never had one then. I am making taiwanese DUMPLINGS! from scratch (tofu veg ones). This is going to be my 3rd weekend in a row doing it. I go through spurts of doing it a lot and then not again for months.

Just discovered that coconut milk makes a major difference to taste in the stir fry/curry/whatever I make frequently.
Made a large amount of it without yesterday then added the coconut milk to what I warmed up today.
Lovely.
Now need to work out how to do it economically and how long a part can lasts in the fridge.

yes the juiciness is the key, grandmothers judge new partners by how well they can pull it off (we rarely can).

I need to try to make DUMPLINGS! at home. there's a place in Belleville that makes fabulous ones that they also sell frozen, and I normally just go there.

Ohh, yeah. When I am in NYC there are a couple of places that have decent (thick skin) frozen ones so I usually try to keep them in the house for emergencies. It's just time consuming to make from scratch but super cheap to make 50-75 at once. I try to make the dough and most of the filling one day and then roll and fold them on another day. I make my spouse cook them since I am usually done with the whole process by then.

Euler, is the Belleville dumpling place Ravioli Chinois Nord-Est?

tout-à-fait !

So I decided to make a quick batch of hand cut noodles with random sauce/toppings today for lunch. It somehow ended up being the most like pad see ew that I have ever made before. It might've been my generous use of mirin that gave it enough sugar. Who knows?

sounds good! The recipe I follow includes 1-2 teaspoons of sugar in addition to any already in sauces. I've been trying to improvise dishes more frequently, but I am still largely a recipe follower, constantly searching out trusted cooking texts. had my first crispy rice salad the other day as reference for my own attempt later this week. crispy rice salad lived up to the hype.

I am a big recipe follower for the first 1-2 times I make something, but after that I get lazy and just put in the things I like. Although, I have been making a lot of Indian food this year and always doublecheck several recipes and kind of keep altering them. I still haven't settled/figured it out yet for all the indian sauces. It might just be a matter of not using ghee.

The sauce I made today, I think in my mind thought I was going to make a hot oil noodle thing. So i started out with red pepper flakes and garlic slivers in sesame oil. I think added spinach, tofu (it was the filling from DUMPLINGS! I made earlier so it already had ginger, green onion, cilantro etc.) and the noodles (made from scratch). Then poured in splashes of fish sauce, mirin, soy sauce, balsamic I think that was it.

what is your fish sauce brand? do you ever buy fancy fish sauce like red boat?

No, I am in Chile right now, so i have limited choices. Using the one with the squid on it.

I am too, but I actually have choices ha

it's the fishiest one I have ever used.

hmm. do you find it to be overly salty? I used it in some nam prik and thought maybe it was a poor choice for that.

All the fish sauces I have used are salty. I try to make sure to cut down on soy sauce or miso if using fish sauce. Or to make sure to cut it with acid or something sweet.

I also think these noodles came out so well because I made a single serving size. So I didn't overcrowd the pan and the amount of stuff I added was probably more spot on than if I had made a whole batch to feed 3-4 people).

a lot of stir-fry noodle recipes i’ve worked from (pok pok book comes to mind) tell you to do noodles one serving at a time.

Oh damn. That seems like a lot of work. But obviously that makes sense and the taste of these noodles would probably be worth it 10xs over.

I only ever went to pok pok once. It was fine, I just thought a lot of things had too much sugar in them, or maybe that's just not my style. How is the book?

worth checking out IMO, the yam tuna salad is fairly easy and so delicious

the book is pretty impressive in its detail, and it definitely can be cooked from, but sourcing enough ingredients and doing the planning to put together anything resembling a meal is....a commitment.

yeah, yenbamroong also says 2 servings at a time max for stir fry. will check out the pok pok book as well.

The first time I bought fresh shahe fen, it was a bit dry. This made the noodles difficult to separate into long strands. I have since learned that you need to grab from the packs in the back to get truly fresh ones. It seems obvious now, but it has made my stir fried noodle addiction more manageable.

I have established a definitive guide to cookware materials:

- Frying and saucepans: stainless steel. Plus cast-iron skillet.
- Dutch oven: enameled cast iron (which I don’t actually have and is probably not a huge bonus over regular cast iron but I think I'd prefer it)
- cake pans and cookie sheets: aluminum
- small prep bowls: glass, ceramic
- mixing bowls: stainless steel, ceramic
- wooden spoons: wood
- liquid measure: glass
- measuring spoons: originally wrote "who cares", friend of mine pushed hard for metal, will have to evaluate
- potholders: cloth

to avoid:
- plastic and silicone prep and mixing bowls. They stain like mad and confer no advantages.
- plastic liquid measures like the Oxo ones (you will break off the handle someday then just have to replace it with the Pyrex you should’ve gotten in the first place)
- ceramic knives: who are these for
- nonstick frying pans: take your pick of reasons, just don’t bother

feedback and vicious arguments welcome

Oh I have some thoughts

silicone is good for spatulas and (especially) kitchen brushes.

silicone is permitted for spatulas for sure

I really need a brush, I keep having to rub things on other things with my damn hands

Measuring spoons and cups DEF

Metal, I meant

these brushes are great for basting, evenly distributing oil and marinades, etc: https://www.amazon.com/Zicome-Silicone-Pastry-Basting-Barbecue/dp/B00QF0RRAA/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1523389375&sr=1-7&keywords=silicone+brush

I don’t currently have a non-stick frying pan, only a stainless steel one and I’m largely ok with that except when it comes to frying eggs. It takes too much fat and the eggs still stick and turn into a mess.

Chefs knife 10” no more or less

a good quality nonstick frying pan is imo important for omelets frittatas etc

we have a bunch of oxo measuring cups & they are great and have lasted 10+ years without replacement
also like pryex

Too short for me but I think it comes down to how tall you are relative to the countertop

I have made some very good omelettes in a stainless steel pan lately. I consider the fact that this requires like a tablespoon of butter to be a feature not a bug.

wood spoons otm for stirring/sauteing. also otm that you need silicone spatulas for scraping every last bit out of a bowl or container.

also need a non-coated wok, shovel, and spider. more important to me than a cast-iron skillet these days.

I measured my chef's knife blade and it was 7.5". It works well for me. I think a 10" blade would start to be unwieldy for my preferences.

The 10" cast iron skillet I got from my sister for my 21st birthday has been in daily use for four decades. Now I could not live without it. The other kitchen item I swear by is a large (8 qt.?) sturdy stainless steel stock pot with a thick aluminum base and a steel (not glass!) lid. It gets used constantly.

btw, I am not a fan of glass lids on saucepans or pots. I've dropped one and shattered it and that was more than enough to convince me against them.

transparency is kind of useless after things get simmering, but the thermal conductivities are very different. I wonder if that can matter in some applications.

Nonstick frying pan: I keep ONE inexpensive one at a time, for eggs only, never touch it with anything except a silicone spatula, and cover it with an old potholder when I put it away. No one else is allowed to use it. Usually lasts at least a few years before it gets too scratched.

Whisk: Yes. You might think a fork is just as good until you're trying to combine something wet with something really powdery and it clumps up. You need a whisk.

uncoated wok & shovel otm
i dont fry in mine but our spider fell apart years ago anyway

NB I didn’t mean to list a minimally complete kitchen just my material preferences for some things. Can’t imagine a whiskless existence.

I admire yr approach to the nonstick pan IO, v sensible

Our landlord replaced our stove a few months ago; it’s a nice Samsung job with a powerful burner which came with an accompanying wok holder. So I own a wok now, have used it a few times, it’s a blast. It’s starting to blacken nicely.

nice, a round one that you use with the ring? I looked for a cheap one, but the majority are flat bottom.

I had plastic measuring cups until I left the 1 cupper in a soup pot and turned the burner on. Now my largest measuring cup is the 1/2 C. Stainless steel ones otm.

Another up-side: You can heat things in metal ones over the gas flame if you need to melt butter or infuse oil quickly.

^^^person I could cook with

I really love my microplan and dowel rolling pin and glass lasagna size pan that I use for a lot of things. All the rest above is pretty spot on. The last time I moved I fit almost all my utensils in a bottle bag and all the cookware in 2 boxes. I kind of want one of those deep soup pots though.

I make eggs every morning so a non-stick pan is a must.

i love non-stick pans. i just get really cheap ones and then replace when they are inevitably done.

I bought a bunch of paper last year to do fish en papillote but I can't seem to make myself do it.

Yeah found a round-bottom wok at Uwajimaya here in Seattle.

damn, that place looks amazing

i used a carbon steel 12" skillet at my friend's house the other day and i'm totally smitten. definitely gonna splurge on one in a few paychecks

They’re not even a splurge! ~$30

Oh wait I’m thinking wok; don’t know about a carbon steel skillet?

they are similarly affordable

Carbon steel is my material of choice for wok after trying 3 or 4 different kinds