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[OnkelC]

Damn that looks tasty. How did you make the pork? I just smoked a pork butt yesterday.

Thank you! yours is looking awesome as well

We started saturday morning with pork neck, a dry rub and a bit of pineapple juice and let the meat cure in the fridge overnight. on Sunday morning, it went into the oven for about seven hours at 110 degrees Celsius, with a basting of pineapple and apple juice every other hour. The juices were collected in a pan beneath the roast.
Edit:
1,000 post hooray!

 

[BriareosGAF]

We're committing to high tea every weekend. English-style scones:

(Taken with a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 on a cropped D40, hello CameraGAF.)

 

[Sesuadra]

Thinking about subscribing a magazine about cooking and food...but nothing from Germany is interesting and available digitally so I found two American magazines
Savour
Cook's illustrated

Each is 20€ a year but it thought why not ask IronGAF first if one of you has a subscribtion and if it's worth it?

 

[BriareosGAF]

Cook's illustrated

We've had a subscription to CI for almost ten years, it's very well done. My wife listens to their podcast regularly also.

I had an amazing dinner last night here in Portland at an Italian place named Roustabout, but my wife's tiramisu, based on the CI recipe, was better than the restaurant's. Was the only slightly disappointing note of the meal.

 

[Silkworm]

Thinking about subscribing a magazine about cooking and food...but nothing from Germany is interesting and available digitally so I found two American magazines
Savour
Cook's illustrated

Each is 20€ a year but it thought why not ask IronGAF first if one of you has a subscribtion and if it's worth it?

I'm a bit biased as I'm only familiar with Cook's Illustrated (have not read Savour), but I have enjoyed what I've gotten out of it. I like how things are very detailed with the instructions for their recipes as well as the articles accompanying each recipe that details about how they tried various approaches until settling on their final published version. It's not for everyone but it hits the right spot for me

 

[zbarron]

The Richmond Safety Knife came in the mail today.

To be honest I am a little disapointed (see edit). I don't know what I was expecting but it was different. As advertised this thing is big. It's a 10"/240mm and overall is 14.2" long. That I was expecting. I guess I didn't wrap my head around just how thick this thing would be. It's about as thick as a meat cleaver and there is no taper until the hollow grind at the bottom. This is not a knife for precision cuts. I know it was originally made for prisons and they needed it unbreakable so you couldn't break part of it off to use as a shiv, but I definitely prefer a thinner knife.

The handle is a red resin and it's nothing to write home about. It's not great but it doesn't get in the way. I guess the fact that when I use it I don't think about it is a good sign. The lock on the back of the knife could possibly hurt your hand if you use a racket grip and have extremely wide hands but I use the pinch grip so it's not an issue.

I'm having a hard time getting a sharp edge on it even at 15°. I don't know if it's because of the thickness or if I'm just not getting a good sharpen on it but it doesn't go as easily into the food as my cheap Chicago Cutlery knife. I feel like it must be my sharpening abilities or even not being used to the knife because in this video he is cutting with a lot more ease than I am. EDIT: I used the directions under "Asian" for the belt sander and used 16° like it suggested and the edge came out worlds better. I haven't done extensive testing but it is very sharp now.

I'll keep using it for about a week and maybe try sharpening it again, if anyone has any tips that would be great. Even if I don't use it as my main I may put a wider angle on it and use it for heavy duty tasks like bones and coconuts etc.

 

[OnkelC]

sorry to hear that. Knives and cutlery in general are among the very few things that I would never buy before actually handling them.

 

[zbarron]

sorry to hear that. Knives and cutlery in general are among the very few things that I would never buy before actually handling them.

It was $10 which is very cheap. I also edited my post. I like it a lot more now that I put a sharp edge on it. Time will tell if it will be my primary chef knife or relegated to heavy duty tasks like chopping through bones or cutting through melons, coconuts and squashes. I often use my paring knife for delicate work anyway so this might make a good pairing.

Hell if I find that I hate it for whatever reason I'll still use it to practice sharpening and maybe changing knife profiles on the belt sander. It's long and wide enough where I could probably remove a ton of metal and get it to the dimensions of a 160mm Nakiri. Going for the whole "They say he carved it himself from a bigger spoon" thing.

Edit: Pic

 

[Sesuadra]

I made an omlette for the first time in my iron DeBuyer Pan and it was amazing.

and we even baked already. A quiche with wild garlic

Spoiler

or ramsons?

and feta.

 

[le-seb]

I've made this little dessert thingy yesterday (vaguely inspired from a Tiramisu as I was baking a pizza too):

- a crunchy bottom layer consisting of a mix of Traou Mad biscuit (Breton salted butter specialty) and home made praline
- a big layer of sweetened and cocoa flavored whipped cream
- a daze of salted butter caramel sauce and some Traou Mad biscuit fragments
- a smaller layer of straight (unsweetened) whipped cream with some cocoa powder on top

I was afraid the straight cream would be a bit too sour at first, but it's working amazingly well when you dive the spoon down to the bottom.

Bonus shots (sorry for the crappy photos, as always):

 

[Funky Papa]

I made chicken parm for the first time using Chef John's recipe.

Exotic, I know.

It was the first time I tried to make some (it's not exactly a common recipe around here) and unsurprisingly enough it was damn easy to make. Pretty tasty, too, although the homemade tomato sauce I used was a bit overpowering for my taste.

Also, I need to get some better dishware. My bachelor special Ikea plates are no longer cutting it.

 

[zbarron]

I made chicken parm for the first time using Chef John's recipe.

Exotic, I know.



It was the first time I tried to make some (it's not exactly a common recipe around here) and unsurprisingly enough it was damn easy to make. Pretty tasty, too, although the homemade tomato sauce I used was a bit overpowering for my taste.

Also, I need to get some better dishware. My bachelor special Ikea plates are no longer cutting it.

We have Fiesta Ware dinnerware that we adore. It is freezer, microwave, dishwasher, and oven safe and very sturdy when my son drops plates or cups. They are colorful and beautiful and I am not sure about by you but around here you can sometimes find them on sale for good prices. I find white plates to be more photogenic but in person having a variety of colors you can mix and match looks beautiful.

 

[Funky Papa]

We have Fiesta Ware dinnerware that we adore. It is freezer, microwave, dishwasher, and oven safe and very sturdy when my son drops plates or cups. They are colorful and beautiful and I am not sure about by you but around here you can sometimes find them on sale for good prices. I find white plates to be more photogenic but in person having a variety of colors you can mix and match looks beautiful.

I'm not averse to colourful dishware, but it would clash a lot with my home decor. I'll probably get some cheap Luminarc Yalta/Diwali/Carine/Sweet Line in white in the near future. It looks good and it's fairly inexpensive.

I'm not worried about oven stuff since I already have a lifetime supply of cute ramekins and the like. Ikea and Tiger stores are the primised land for cheapass cooks looking for pretty, ration-sized baking containers.

 

[BriareosGAF]

After suffering with lots of chipping with Dansk we are trying some classic high-end porcelain right now. Will report back in a year .

I love eggplant parmesan, had a great one here recently. Similar to what you mention, my wife makes a killer sauce that's calibrated to our taste and probably overpowers most folks (ton of garlic for one).

 

[ElectricThunder]

...So, any obvious hints/cautions on cooking meat wrapped in top quality parchment paper and foil, other than fish(which worked fine)? Oven still broken, rage still a constant, but the little toaster oven is now seeing more prodding and attention to possibilities...

 

[Mario]

Had pre party drinks round at my place last night, so made some hand cut wedges and pork belly sliders to feed the crowd.

 

[zbarron]

...So, any obvious hints/cautions on cooking meat wrapped in top quality parchment paper and foil, other than fish(which worked fine)? Oven still broken, rage still a constant, but the little toaster oven is now seeing more prodding and attention to possibilities...

I don't see a problem. I use parchment paper in the oven even at high temperatures often when I make bread. It's never been an issue.

Lately with all the nice weather I've grilled most of my meals. Tonight I had chicken thighs with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme and then rubbed with some olive oil before being thrown on the grill. I served it with grilled zucchini. It was a big hit.

Had pre party drinks round at my place last night, so made some hand cut wedges and pork belly sliders to feed the crowd.

Looks nice. What is next to the wedges or is the sauce a secret?

 

[Mario]

Looks nice. What is next to the wedges or is the sauce a secret?

That's just sour cream with sweet chili sauce drizzled over the top.

 

[OnkelC]

simple dinner tonight, Linguini with a salmon/ham/white wine and Dill sauce:

 

[Mario]

Tried my hand at my second curry ever, with a chicken, sweet potato, and cashew nut combination. Took my time layering the spices, not skimping on ingredients, and properly browning/caramelizing at each step. The result was great tasting with so much depth. Just about to heat up my leftovers for lunch

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Going to Lima, Peru for a few days hopefully I can snap some good shots of the food I eat. Hoping I can find inspiration for my future restaurant.

 

[Funky Papa]

That's a good place to get some inspiration. Lima has a fairly impressive restaurant scene, apparently.

 

[InfiniteBento]

It's been a while since I've posted in here. ;___;

I went over to BOH full time now instead of doing Swift's coffee service and occasional pastry. So now I'm in the kitchen 40+ hours a week. The first few weeks I was on the line and got really great at rapid fire plating but recently my chef changed me over to prep so I can be more familiar with making our products instead of just plating them. It's been a whirlwind to learn.

I've been practicing making our gougeres for service at least 3 times a week. They're basically spiced, unfilled, pate a choux. It was extremely difficult at first because I was so not used to piping 500+ of anything but now it's coming a lot easier. I've been posting my progress on instagram.

Heres a few shots of my gougeres that I've made along with a few sweets n things

I still pop in here from time to time to read how everyone is doing but I admit, I need to get up on my posting game D:

 

[zbarron]

That all looks fantastic. I've been meaning to try my hand at making cream puffs lately. Maybe this weekend or next weekend. Can't say I plan on making 500 of them though.

 

[n0b]

Long time no see irongaf! I made pizza tonight woooooo.

 

[ElectricThunder]

That marvelous glisten on the last pizza especially renews my hopes for the future---so good. Mmm~

 

[Nordicus]

Since I got my first cast iron skillet a few days ago I've tried cooking a few things on it and today I did pan pizzas. Nothing fancy, just ground beef and bacon with emmental cheese.

I might do cast iron pizzas again in the future rather than in big oven pan that I've been uing previously. It was really convenient not having to take all the things off my one table with enough space to use a rolling pin to create a big flat pizza dough big enough for 2 meals, and then clean all the flour off afterwards. With the second pizza I put extra oil on the pan and dough, and the texture of the crust got interesting. With less oil it's more bread-like, with more oil it's slightly piedough-y

 

[zbarron]

That marvelous glisten on the last pizza especially renews my hopes for the future---so good. Mmm~

That stood out to me too. Is that just olive oil? It looks almost like an egg wash. It's beautiful.

Since I got my first cast iron skillet a few days ago I've tried cooking a few things on it and today I did pan pizzas. Nothing fancy, just ground beef and bacon with emmental cheese.

I might do cast iron pizzas again in the future rather than in big oven pan that I've been uing previously. It was really convenient not having to take all the things off my one table with enough space to use a rolling pin to create a big flat pizza dough big enough for 2 meals, and then clean all the flour off afterwards. With the second pizza I put extra oil on the pan and dough, and the texture of the crust got interesting. With less oil it's more bread-like, with more oil it's slightly piedough-y

Nice. I saw you post in the cast iron thread.

How hot was the oven? The edges are supposed to get slightly dark and crisp when you use oil in a pan pizza.

 

[Nordicus]

How hot was the oven? The edges are supposed to get slightly dark and crisp when you use oil in a pan pizza.

250C, or 480F, little over 15 minutes on the lowest level of the oven. Might have even gone a bit overboard on the oil, since thinking it further, it's as if the crust got deepfried like a good-ass home made donut

 

[snacknuts]

Long time no see irongaf! I made pizza tonight woooooo.

Holy mother of god, those are some beautiful pizzas.

 

[n0b]

That stood out to me too. Is that just olive oil? It looks almost like an egg wash. It's beautiful.

Just brushed with butter.

I wish I had a bigger pizza stone, biggest I can make is a 12 inch and that's rough to make neatly. Usually make 10 to be safe.

 

[OnkelC]

Soul Food:
yesterdays noodles, fried with a helping of Tilsit and ketchup, served with a dessert of Ep.VII

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Got bored of sitting in the house today so I had a long walk going into different restaurants. I went to this hot dog/ice cream parlor place and they had some bomb ass wings, I mean that shit was crispy, I got a cheseburger from there as well, then went to this Italian restaurant that was fancy as hell and ordered a lasagna, but I got full on the bread and salad so I didn't even touch my lasagna and took it out. I walked home with about 4 take out boxes. I was hungry as fuck today.

 

[zbarron]

Tonight I made Kenji's Ultra-Smashed Cheeseburgers. No pictures but they came out almost identicle to the ones in the article.

I replaced on of the grates in our 4 burner gas grill with the Lodge cast iron griddle. It is a fit to within 0.4" in each direction and workes perfectly. I prefer searing outside where I don't have to worry about smoke or a mess, and the griddle doesn't work well on the electric ranges we have here.

I am definitely going to make these again. There was more prep work involved than a normal burger, though not much, but once they were on the griddle they were off and ready to eat about 60 seconds later. I really can't recommend these enough,

 

[bucknuticus]

Tonight I made Kenji's Ultra-Smashed Cheeseburgers. No pictures but they came out almost identicle to the ones in the article.

I replaced on of the grates in our 4 burner gas grill with the Lodge cast iron griddle. It is a fit to within 0.4" in each direction and workes perfectly. I prefer searing outside where I don't have to worry about smoke or a mess, and the griddle doesn't work well on the electric ranges we have here.

I am definitely going to make these again. There was more prep work involved than a normal burger, though not much, but once they were on the griddle they were off and ready to eat about 60 seconds later. I really can't recommend these enough,

This is basically the method i make all my burgers with for the past 3 years or so. Except i use a big cast iron pan and then use a smaller cast iron pan to smash my patties down. I dont do quite as small of a patty, but the crust it creats, no matter the size, is great.

 

[Funky Papa]

Instead of making two cheat meals, I pigged out for Labour Day and destroyed my diet at one fell swoop.

I made Irish Cream and chocolate pancakes for breakfast...

... which tasted awesome since they are fuggin pancakes.

And Chef John's cheesy jalapeño popper puffs followed by Hattie B's Hot Chicken From 'Fried & True' (per Serious Eats).

The jalapeño puffs were fantastic and looked great. Fun to make and tasted even better with the sour green onions sauce. The chicken also came out TERRIFIC, but it gave me the spicy equivalent of a brain freeze. It really is tongue numbing hot. The batter is spicy enough by itself, so I'd recommend cutting the cayenne amount in the coating to 1/3 (and thus the brown sugar) unless you don't intend to taste anything else for a couple of days. It really is too damn hot.

We ended up removing most of the otherwise dense and deliciously crispy coating so we could eat that damned chicken. We kept an entire piece separated, which I intend to see how it goes with some plain white rice.

Next up: donuts?

 

[Sesuadra]

I'll make deluxe poutine now with twister fries, buffalo mozzarella, a nice sauce and pancetta instead of normal bacon.

I'm on a diet right now, so besides a soup for dinner I won't eat anything else today..but I really want something hearty right now.

Question: do you guys have hearty yet diet appropriate recipes? I really want to lose weight but I'm a person who loves hearty food. I don't eat sweets, don't drink sugar stuff..only coffee, tea and water without milk or sugar. hearty food is my weight downfall...

 

[le-seb]

Rice, pasta or potato salads will keep you fed.
Put as much veggies as you wish in them, not too much fat toppings, and be gentle with the vinaigrette.

 

[zbarron]

I make a vegetable soup that is chicken stock, diced tomatoes and whatever canned or fresh vegetables I have/want. I usually dice a potato in it. I like to sweat a lot of the vegetables in olive oil before adding the liquids. Add italian seasoning for flavor and soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, and/or marmite for umami so it feels meatier. I also add crushed red pepper or hot sauce. It's nice because it's warm, flavorful and I can eat almost as much as I want considering how low calorie it is.

I love zucchini pasta with a fresh tomato basil sauce. Zucchini has about a tenth the calories as normal noodles. I find the vegetti redundant though. If you have a mandoline with julienne or matchstick attachment you can use that. If not I just use a vegetable peeler to get wide flat noodles. They only take about 2 minutes in boiling water to be perfect. Since this is so low calorie you can have a lot of it or add grilled chicken or meatballs and still be good.

Stir Fry is also your friend. It cooks quick and is a great way to get lean protein and vegetables. Just look at the calories in the sauce you add. That's the only dangerous part. That and the rice. If you need a starch to go with it go with soba noodles. They have about half the calories of rice, though as long as you don't eat too much of it rice isn't bad.

Berries make a great snack. Strawberries are delicious and you can eat an entire pint package which is only about 116 calories. It's hard to find such tasty snacks that are that low.

I'll also eat sliced apples and peanut butter for a snack because the peanut butter makes it so filling.

Salads are an easy suggestion. Add steak or grilled chicken to basically any salad to make it feel more like a meal and less like punishment. Taco salads with romaine, tomatoes, black beans, red peppers, chicken rubbed with taco seasoning, avocado, and salsa as the dressing feels like a cheat meal but isn't.

Fish is another great lean protein with fish oils/omega 3. I personally can't stand fish so I can't give any specifics.

Now if only I could follow my own advice I'd be healthy.

 

[Samara]

Shark meat taste gross . bought some. To try it, Yuck, tastes like nail polish.

As a pescatarian, I eat a lot of shrimp and smoked salmon. Some white fish is good mixed with quinoa for some taco filling or just plain.

 

[InfiniteBento]

Shark meat taste gross . bought some. To try it, Yuck, tastes like nail polish.

As a pescatarian, I eat a lot of shrimp and smoked salmon. Some white fish is good mixed with quinoa for some taco filling or just plain.

Been seriously contemplating going to just fish for a while. I was vegetarian for 2 years and was so healthy, moved around, got stressed out, and let go of that diet only to now eat like royal shit. I rarely eat veggies or even fruit lately. It's terrible ;_____;

There is a local asian market I absolutely adore that sells frozen fish so cheaply too. Probably not the best of quality but I feel like that is far better than the bullshit I keep eating lately instead. Probably going to go pick up some fish and vegetables today and get back on the boat of fish, veggies, yogurts & fruits.

Also, smoked white fish with cauliflower is my fucking jam. Could eat it for days.

 

[OnkelC]

Greece-inspired dinner tonight, Souvlaki and salad with feta:

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Pesto Pasta + Bean Lasagna + Garlic Bread

Too much paste on bread for garlic bread, but overall pretty yummy for all 3.

 

[Mario]

Dinner date cancelled on me :/ so I just made, plated, and ate two servings of the main course I had planned for practice anyway.

Beef eye fillet steak under red onion sautéed in raspberry jam on sweet potato hash with Brussels sprouts and bacon

 

[luoapp]

Dinner date cancelled on me :/ so I just made, plated, and ate two servings of the main course I had planned for practice anyway.

Beef eye fillet steak under red onion sautéed in raspberry jam on sweet potato hash with Brussels sprouts and bacon

I will date Donald Trump for that piece of steak!

 

[zbarron]

I just picked up some beautiful looking looking beef short ribs.

My problem is I can't decide how to cook them. I can sous vide them, smoke them or grind them into burgers. I don't have a dutch oven so I can't braise. Anyone here have any suggestions?

 

[InfiniteBento]

I don't know any short rib recipes off the top of my head but I know sous vide is never a bad idea for red meats. Usually if I want some savory (or sweet!) ideas tho, my favorite website in the world for unique recipes is FoodGawker . I just peeked their short rib recipes and they all sound pretty damn good

 

[NetMapel]

 

[thespot84]

Made the first version of the omelette from this video, was super easy and was amazing with just egg and a little salt/pepper. Greater technique video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU

 

[zbarron]

I don't know any short rib recipes off the top of my head but I know sous vide is never a bad idea for red meats. Usually if I want some savory (or sweet!) ideas tho, my favorite website in the world for unique recipes is FoodGawker . I just peeked their short rib recipes and they all sound pretty damn good

Thanks. I ended up deciding against using the sous vide just because I realized I don't want to be without it for 3 days. It's on the smoker now but I think I ruined it because I am using a salt and pepper rub and according to all images and videos I see online I used way too much of it. I mixed the salt and pepper in a bowl, then caoted the meat with some hot sauce and pressed the meat on all 6 sides directly into it making a thick crust. Oh well I'll taste it once it's done to see if it's palatable and at least it was cheap.

I also made strawberry banana ice cream the other day.

Nothing fancy. I used frozen banana, some strawberry jam and a splash of International Delight French Vanilla Creamer. Threw that all in the blender and got basically soft serve. The leftovers went in my freezer and it really is the right texture for ice cream.