parrotbeak
Member
Brianemone said:
Very nice. How'd you get the bacon so flat?
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
IronGAF Cookoff (hosted by OnkelC)
- Thread starter OnkelC
- Start date
- Status
Very nice. How'd you get the bacon so flat?
projectkuro
Member
some pics from the last 2 weeks at school.
fillet of sole w/ cream sauce, capers and tomatoes
fillet de sole (dover sole) bonne femme
pavlova (strawberry, kiwi, brunoise pineapple)
fillet of sole w/ cream sauce, capers and tomatoes
fillet de sole (dover sole) bonne femme
pavlova (strawberry, kiwi, brunoise pineapple)
Brianemone
Member
hitsugi said:
Part time. The place I work is more comfort food.
RbBrdMan said:
Live life on the edge!!!!
ICYICYMCSHAKE
Member
First entry into IronGaf and I fail at the pictures :lol
Ah well I promise the next batch will be up to scratch, at least the food turned out excellent.
Lamb Chops marinated in garlic, mint and a little oil. Then griddled for 3 minutes each side.
Broccoli griddled with the lamb
Carrots boiled then tossed in seasoned butter
Finally the best part, potato gratin oven baked as the side dish.
Overall a surprisingly easy and tasty dish
Ah well I promise the next batch will be up to scratch, at least the food turned out excellent.
Lamb Chops marinated in garlic, mint and a little oil. Then griddled for 3 minutes each side.
Broccoli griddled with the lamb
Carrots boiled then tossed in seasoned butter
Finally the best part, potato gratin oven baked as the side dish.
Overall a surprisingly easy and tasty dish
rykomatsu
Member
Alucrid said:
np...the first one I eat semi-regularly on weekends as a breakfast/brunch entree of sorts.
The second one is 1 or 2, depending on how much rice you have. Beat the eggs w/ soy sauce over freshly cooked rice (the best, but old rice that's been sitting for a day or 2 in the rice cooker is fine too).
Is it like a communal college kitchen or something that you use? If you need a simple stovetop, you could always try getting a tabletop gas burner like this.
They run about $15~$25 at a Japanese grocery store with prices occasionally going down to $10 for sales. The butane cartridge is also staple item at said grocery stores and run about $1.50~$2.50 per canister. Each canister will last about 50~60min at full blast. It's good enough to cook stew in an 8qt stockpot (granted you'll need to a few canisters) so it should suffice for most of your stovetop cooking needs.
Brianemone
Member
OnkelC said:
Yeah, it's cooked slowish with sitpats on top/bottom weighted with a tray.
I think I've finally nailed the menu. Completely removed one dish and replaced it with another, changed two dishes fairly drastically, refined the presentations and changed the textures/flavour applications.
We've got 16 bookings, and I've limited it to 20 but anything over 15 people is going to mean it will be a success.
Felt like something easy tonight which almost always means breakfast for me (turned out to be a breakfast/dessert dinner). Had some awesome cinnamon swirl bread that I used. Fried some bananas in butter and then cooked the eggs in the leftover banana-butter (cause I'm lazy ). Turned out strangely awesome (slightly sweet and mellow). The bananas basically replaced my usual butter on the toast as well. I'm definitely cooking them this way from now on.
). Turned out strangely awesome (slightly sweet and mellow). The bananas basically replaced my usual butter on the toast as well. I'm definitely cooking them this way from now on.
Henchmen21
Banned
Anyone know of any good crumb cakes?
ElectricThunder
Member
This week's gyro pizza adventure didn't quite go as planned, as far as last minute plans go at least, but still turned out pretty swell while giving me ideas to chew on.
This week's mystery cheese: 5 Counties
...
Which is a fusion block of: Derby, Red Leicester, Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Cheddar
Anywho, the plan was to try to slice them up somewhat separately and then lay across it all in waves so I could have a good set of "zones" for each kind. This....didn't work out so well due to some mishaps with the cutting/bits jumping away from me onto the pizza and so forth. At first I was pissed and wanted to strangle the cheese, but then I thought: "Wait, I CAN sort of do that..."
Thus, tonight I explored the world of kneading cheese in rage! Thinking back, it was only a matter of time after I have to make the little sausage patty-like arrangements to get the Brie in a workable form for it. Ultimately I had a nice little set of flat cheese entities whose colors and very being had been thoroughly mixed and mashed up so as to create a pretty odd sight. Yet again, using some waxpaper/maybe cornmeal would've helped---though not as much so as it would've for the orders of magnitude softer and messier Brie. I can see myself doing this again in the future should I not feel like messing with a knife or just take a flight of fancy towards.
Turned out rather good, all things melted proper yet none stood out----just good times cheese. I got ahold of some sort of strange...thing...that I wonder if IronGAF has experience with----something akin to an "Italian Pretzel" with various herbs and ground up anchovies within it? It has kind of "ribbon" shape to it...somewhat thick so I had a time crushing it up by hand in a mug like I do with my various herb crackers for seasoning.
It also, was great and tasty.
Next week is the last of my cheeses before having to hit the road and renew the stock with something else different---just "one" but I have hopes for it being a doozy as GAF itself introduced it to me to great amusement.
This week's mystery cheese: 5 Counties
...
Which is a fusion block of: Derby, Red Leicester, Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Cheddar
Anywho, the plan was to try to slice them up somewhat separately and then lay across it all in waves so I could have a good set of "zones" for each kind. This....didn't work out so well due to some mishaps with the cutting/bits jumping away from me onto the pizza and so forth. At first I was pissed and wanted to strangle the cheese, but then I thought: "Wait, I CAN sort of do that..."
Thus, tonight I explored the world of kneading cheese in rage! Thinking back, it was only a matter of time after I have to make the little sausage patty-like arrangements to get the Brie in a workable form for it. Ultimately I had a nice little set of flat cheese entities whose colors and very being had been thoroughly mixed and mashed up so as to create a pretty odd sight. Yet again, using some waxpaper/maybe cornmeal would've helped---though not as much so as it would've for the orders of magnitude softer and messier Brie. I can see myself doing this again in the future should I not feel like messing with a knife or just take a flight of fancy towards.
Turned out rather good, all things melted proper yet none stood out----just good times cheese. I got ahold of some sort of strange...thing...that I wonder if IronGAF has experience with----something akin to an "Italian Pretzel" with various herbs and ground up anchovies within it? It has kind of "ribbon" shape to it...somewhat thick so I had a time crushing it up by hand in a mug like I do with my various herb crackers for seasoning.
It also, was great and tasty.
Next week is the last of my cheeses before having to hit the road and renew the stock with something else different---just "one" but I have hopes for it being a doozy as GAF itself introduced it to me to great amusement.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5378587&postcount=213Henchmen21 said:
like this?
ElectricThunder, try to take a few pics, please.
ElectricThunder
Member
OnkelC said:
I still haven't gotten a camera/webcam just yet! :lol It is probably the very next piece of computer hardware on my todo list after I hurry up and order that Intuos4 tablet.
I suppose I should try to wrangle some manner of symbol/message for IronGAF thread folk when the time comes...
ugh I'm dead tired from work. Too many damn catering gigs our group has been doing. Hopefully we get the restaurant started ASAP so we can have a full kitchen for prepping to help us fulfill our catering gigs better.
I'm gonna try to cook food from my food truck if I can squeeze in time.
Otherwise at least other people are keeping the thread alive!
I'm gonna try to cook food from my food truck if I can squeeze in time.
Otherwise at least other people are keeping the thread alive!
Visualante
Member
Any tips for meals with potato wedges? Was going to do melted cheese, vegetables and potato wedges. Going to make the wedges and sauce myself.
obijkenobi
Member
Iron Gaf, it has been a long time? Do you miss me? As a return gift, I have pictures of some bbq stuff I did two weeks ago. I marinated the chicken overnight in a custom marinade. I also marinaded the sausage in a store bought marinade. Came out delicious
Kebabs skewered and ready to cook with some guacamole on the side. We also had some pico de gallo that didn't make it to the pictures
Cilantro Rice
Kebabs skewered and ready to cook with some guacamole on the side. We also had some pico de gallo that didn't make it to the pictures
Cilantro Rice
obijkenobi
Member
Zyzyxxz said:
No, I just made sure to cut the chicken and sausage in small pieces and arrange it so that they were touching hte grill directly while the veggies were suspended a bit in the air if that makes sense.
I had a bit of a food centric day. I was in Little Tokyo for the "Cherry Blossom" festival celebration but there aren't any Cherry Blossoms so its just an excuse for people to head to Little Tokyo and for the anime nerds to come out cosplaying.
All the restaurants there were gonna be packed so I decided I would eat at this gourmet sausage gastropub called Wurstküche, they have some interesting and innovative sausages.
I had a bockwurst, and a duck and bacon sausage served with a side of fries and chipotle aioli dipping sauce.
These skewers looked so good but I had just ate the sausages though:
Decided to try okonomiyaki since I have never had the chance and wanted to before.
It was alright, just that they put too much of that okonomi sauce on it. I bet I could have made it better.
All the restaurants there were gonna be packed so I decided I would eat at this gourmet sausage gastropub called Wurstküche, they have some interesting and innovative sausages.
I had a bockwurst, and a duck and bacon sausage served with a side of fries and chipotle aioli dipping sauce.
These skewers looked so good but I had just ate the sausages though:
Decided to try okonomiyaki since I have never had the chance and wanted to before.
It was alright, just that they put too much of that okonomi sauce on it. I bet I could have made it better.
CrankyJay said:
if you slice them pretty thin (with a mandolin or something similar) or just with a regular knife, and then soak them in water, a lot of the 'bite' should be taken out.
In japanese it's called 'aku nuki', and they do it for a lot of vegetables. I used to think it was bogus, but it really works for a lot of vegetables.
Brianemone
Member
CrankyJay said:
Cut them finer. Sounds like a stupid answer but the less there is the less overall impact it will have on the taste of the salad
Ooook. Roasted chicken and brie with homemade mango apple chutney on a baguette. It may not look like much, but HOLY FUCKING SHIT. One of the best sandwiches I've had in a LONG time. I NAILED this one. It was SO good. The creaminess of the brie and the sweet/spicy of the chutney was AMAZING, but you could still taste the chicken. It was fucking delicious. And I've got plenty of chutney left to spare!
parrotbeak
Member
I made a white meat white chili this weekend for a chili cookoff with my friends (1st place of 3). I'll post the recipe later after I finish writing it up, but I have a question about why my chicken came out dry.
I marinated deboned chicken thighs overnight in my chili spice mix, sea salt, vinegar, and homemade papaya seed dressing (vinaigrette with fresh ground papaya seed; it was kinda random because i happened to have too much of it in my fridge).
The next day, I chopped up the chicken and tried to brown it in a very hot pot with olive oil. The chicken released a lot of juice and didn't brown properly. I simmered the chili until the chicken fell apart, so it was passable, but it was still rubbery, especially to me since I'd tasted the chicken earlier and knew how tough the chunks had been before they fell apart.
No one else commented on that, and some people really nitpicked (especially the other 2 contestants after I won), so I guess it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the tender pieces of chicken I'd intended. The flavor was really good though.
Should I have browned the chicken pieces whole and then removed them to chop up and add back to the pot? Or brown them whole and cook for a long time and let them fall apart that way? Or did the vinegar do something overnight? I've marinated chicken in vinegar for adobo, but never overnight. I thought it would make the chicken even more tender.
I marinated deboned chicken thighs overnight in my chili spice mix, sea salt, vinegar, and homemade papaya seed dressing (vinaigrette with fresh ground papaya seed; it was kinda random because i happened to have too much of it in my fridge).
The next day, I chopped up the chicken and tried to brown it in a very hot pot with olive oil. The chicken released a lot of juice and didn't brown properly. I simmered the chili until the chicken fell apart, so it was passable, but it was still rubbery, especially to me since I'd tasted the chicken earlier and knew how tough the chunks had been before they fell apart.
No one else commented on that, and some people really nitpicked (especially the other 2 contestants after I won), so I guess it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the tender pieces of chicken I'd intended. The flavor was really good though.
Should I have browned the chicken pieces whole and then removed them to chop up and add back to the pot? Or brown them whole and cook for a long time and let them fall apart that way? Or did the vinegar do something overnight? I've marinated chicken in vinegar for adobo, but never overnight. I thought it would make the chicken even more tender.
Zyzyxxz, fantastic food-centric post! makes my mouth watery.
Dartastic, indeed a great sammich. extra props for the use of brie.
parrotbeak, you killed the chicken the moment you marinated it overnight. the use of salt and vinegar had a "ceviche" effect on the proteins in the chicken breast, similar to precooking it.
Dartastic, indeed a great sammich. extra props for the use of brie.
parrotbeak, you killed the chicken the moment you marinated it overnight. the use of salt and vinegar had a "ceviche" effect on the proteins in the chicken breast, similar to precooking it.
parrotbeak
Member
Ah, ok, thanks Onkel! I'll do something different the next time. Maybe just a dry rub of the chili powder.
these have always given me a bit of trouble in the setting department. It would usually require a few hours in the fridge to avoid being at all runny. Recently I came across a recipe that called for using a double boiler for the meringue (er, not meringue, the yellow part) and that made all the difference for me.
Aquavelvaman
Banned
Some good tuna
I forgot to take a picture of it plated. I had some rice with seared pineapple and mint chutney with it.
I forgot to take a picture of it plated. I had some rice with seared pineapple and mint chutney with it.
Did you also have the chicken packed closely together when you tried to brown it? To get good browning you need to have room between the pieces of the meat, otherwise you are just pretty much steaming and boiling it depending on how much liquid there is and it won't brown.parrotbeak said:
Price Dalton
Member
I just picked up a couple New Zealand lamb's heads on a whim. I'm not really sure what to do with them. I may give one to my dog, and I was thinking of doing a soup with the other one, or maybe burying it in the ground with some hot coals. Hopefully the brain's still there.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
way more
Member
I'm going to try to make some Kenny Shopsin Soup.
If you don't know Kenny Shopsin he is like the mad monk of cooking. He just wanted to run a small grocery store but when the rent went up he realized he had to make more money by turning his bodega into a resturant. He's completely self taught, has crazy dishes, and kicks anyone out for looking at him wrong.
Page one of his 8 page menu.
For full documentation of his insanity click below for the menu.
http://www.shopsins.com/media/redshops/shopsiemenu.pdf
A docu was made of him called I like Killing Flies.
And he has a book of recipies, history, and philosophy.
What makes his soups special is that they are made to order. Order his brazillian chicken soup and he grills the chicken, roasts/grills the veggies and plops them in pan, with deglazes with chicken stock where it poaches and is done.
I spent 36 hours making stock in my airplane bathroom of a kitchen and I'll never do it again. But at least I'll get some freaky soup out of it.
If you don't know Kenny Shopsin he is like the mad monk of cooking. He just wanted to run a small grocery store but when the rent went up he realized he had to make more money by turning his bodega into a resturant. He's completely self taught, has crazy dishes, and kicks anyone out for looking at him wrong.
Page one of his 8 page menu.
For full documentation of his insanity click below for the menu.
http://www.shopsins.com/media/redshops/shopsiemenu.pdf
A docu was made of him called I like Killing Flies.
And he has a book of recipies, history, and philosophy.
What makes his soups special is that they are made to order. Order his brazillian chicken soup and he grills the chicken, roasts/grills the veggies and plops them in pan, with deglazes with chicken stock where it poaches and is done.
I spent 36 hours making stock in my airplane bathroom of a kitchen and I'll never do it again. But at least I'll get some freaky soup out of it.
rykomatsu
Member
Was talking with a friend this past weekend about cooking and the question of where I get my spices came up since I have a decently sized selection and he thought they ran about $7~15/bottle...this might be helpful for students and thrifty folk who enjoy cooking but are put off by the cost of spices...
Cost Plus World Market in the US has spices for extremely low prices compared to your big-chain grocery store. I believe they generally run $1~$3/spice at equivalent quantities to what you'd get from McCormick brand spices at say a Safeway or Lucky's. If you want to get the refillable glass bottles then I think the prices run up to $4~6 but can always do the cheap spice packs and use a cheap chipclip to keep them closed. Tumeric, coriander, anise, rosemary, cardamom, etc.
Anyhow, hope this helps a few budding cooks
Cost Plus World Market in the US has spices for extremely low prices compared to your big-chain grocery store. I believe they generally run $1~$3/spice at equivalent quantities to what you'd get from McCormick brand spices at say a Safeway or Lucky's. If you want to get the refillable glass bottles then I think the prices run up to $4~6 but can always do the cheap spice packs and use a cheap chipclip to keep them closed. Tumeric, coriander, anise, rosemary, cardamom, etc.
Anyhow, hope this helps a few budding cooks
rykomatsu said:Anyhow, hope this helps a few budding cooks
I thought Cost Plus World Market was a "high" end shop. This is good to know since I am running low on black peppercorns for my pepper mill
All I've got to show this week so far is some lamb kofta I made today with non-traditional spices.
HappyBivouac
Member
Alright IronGAF, I have to know.
What does it take to make the leap from being someone who can cook something acceptable, to someone who is GOOD at cooking, and can genuinely impress him/herself and other people? I think there are some key fundamentals and techniques that we skip over when learning how to just be an acceptable cook. What are they?
Any good tips, thoughts, books, resources, tools for someone who has a budding interest in cooking as a hobby?
What does it take to make the leap from being someone who can cook something acceptable, to someone who is GOOD at cooking, and can genuinely impress him/herself and other people? I think there are some key fundamentals and techniques that we skip over when learning how to just be an acceptable cook. What are they?
Any good tips, thoughts, books, resources, tools for someone who has a budding interest in cooking as a hobby?
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
I ruined an otherwise lovely cake with the silly white chocolate "art" but it was late and we were told to do whatever we wanted. :lol
It's a four layer chocolate-hazelnut Sacher torte with alternating apricot and chocolate ganche, and a dark chocolate glaze. We have to bring our finished items home (there isn't room to store them at the school), so I cut a small slice for myself tonight and tossed the rest in the trash. Sad, but I can't have entire cakes sitting around my apartment three times a week.
It's a four layer chocolate-hazelnut Sacher torte with alternating apricot and chocolate ganche, and a dark chocolate glaze. We have to bring our finished items home (there isn't room to store them at the school), so I cut a small slice for myself tonight and tossed the rest in the trash. Sad, but I can't have entire cakes sitting around my apartment three times a week.
HappyBivouac said:
Pick up either Jack Pepin's Complete La Technique and La Methode which is sold as one book now for $16 or pick up Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1.
Honestly it takes practice and persistence mostly. I've been cooking for a few years now but because I've developed a strong passion for it (much thanks to this thread and Onkel) I am pursuing a professional career in it. Recently I've been doing alot of prep work and I'll tell you that there is no shortcut. It is all practice and every great chef will tell you that by practicing you are learning and improving.
The thing is you have to challenge yourself, try to perfect what you like cooking. Do some reading and try to get inspired or learn some new techniques which you can bring back to what you already cook and try to perfect it. Once you can do it in your sleep move on and keep learning. The instinct of a good cook's tongue is just something you will develop as you cook more and taste your own cooking.
Most of all do not be discouraged from bad dishes, I've made a shit ton of bad dishes that I never posted on GAF even though I may have taken pictures. My passion for cooking has caused me to be a perfectionist at home and I'll never stop trying to improve a bad dish I made before, even if I served it to my family and they said it sucked.
TL;DR READ! LEARN! PRACTICE! NEVER GIVE UP!
Get the technical stuff down, learn the basics. Don't follow recipes to the word, use your own head including brain and taste buds. Always try to improve something when you cook a dish for the second time. Give every recipe a second chance. Use fresh ingredients, preferable stuff in season. Use little processed product, go the extra mile. Have fun.HappyBivouac said:
- Status