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[Tr4nce]

Today, I made one of my favorites again! Lasagne !


- 1 pound of beef mince

- 1 pound of mushrooms

- 1 onion

- spinach

- some salami slices

- 1 x this: (don't know what's it called in America, but basically it's a tomato based sauce for pasta's)

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 x Béchamel sauce

- Lasagne leaves

- Some grated cheese for the topping



Ok, just bake the meat until it's a nice color brown, and then add the mushrooms, and the 2 cloves of garlic. If the mushrooms are nicely brown of color as well, add the tomato based sauce. After that, add some spices, I used a little oregano, and a little salt and pepper. As well as a liiiiiiiitle bit of 'Italian Mixed Spices', but I'm not a very big fan of this.

Now prepare the Béchamel sauce, and start on the lasagne. Take an oven dish, and start the bottom, by putting some lasagne leaves on the bottom, and adding the meat sauce you made, and some bechamel sauce. This is one layer. Repeat this 2 times, and ofcourse add some grated cheese on top. Put this all in a pre heated oven of 180 degrees Celsius (356 Fahrenheit) and keep it in the oven for about 40 -45 minutes. Man, this is so effing delicious!!!!!

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Hey all, question; I am cooking a corned beef brisket and have had it on the stove in a pot of water and seasoning simmering for about two hours now, how do you tell when it is done? It was almost 3 lbs and it said to cook for 50 minutes per pound so it should be getting close.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Hey all, question; I am cooking a corned beef brisket and have had it on the stove in a pot of water and seasoning simmering for about two hours now, how do you tell when it is done? It was almost 3 lbs and it said to cook for 50 minutes per pound so it should be getting close.

slice off a piece and if its tender its done for me.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

slice off a piece and if its tender its done for me.

Sounds good, Brisket is supposed to stay fairly pink inside right?

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Speaking of, here is the finished corned beef brisket.

 

[Keen]

Did a slow cooked pork ragu yesterday.

Finely chopped 1 kilo of pork shoulder, browned it and set aside. Fried garlic and onions for a while, added the meat and then added pork stock, red wine, tomato passata and spices. Simmered for 3-4 hours under lid, and then let it reduce for another 1.5-2 hours without the lid.

Ate it with pasta. Soooooooo good!

Meat browning

Simmering

Done

 

[DJ_Lae]

I took all of ten second to snap the picture because I couldn't wait to dig into it - that and I have no idea how you actually make chili look appetizing. It always looks like a pile of goo.

Which is fine - it tastes delicious. And coming home after work to an apartment that smells of chili...man, it's tough putting away all your stuff before digging in.

Slow cooker chili with a bit of sharp cheddar for flavour and homemade corn muffins. It was my first time making cornbread so I don't know if they came out properly, but damn if they didn't taste good with the chili, and the gritty texture was quite endearing.

 

[G_Berry]

Home Made Poutine!!!!


OK so at this very moment I have the "skin on" chips in the oven.

I have made some gravy with this...

http://www.gravox.com.au/Products/Detail.aspx?id=3735


and am substituting cheese curds with this...

http://www.thelaughingcow.com/produc...-creamy-swiss/



Any tips for making this shit bad ass? I mean it most likely will be but...

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Oxtail gravy, this restaurant in Los Angeles named Animal makes it this way

 

[G_Berry]

FUCK YEAH!

 

[slidewinder]

Laughing Cow's a pretty poor substitute for cheese curds, but I bet it's good anyways.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

How'd your rolls turn out, slide?

 

[slidewinder]

Kinda bad. Borderline edible, but really way too hard of a crust for a hamburger bun.

I tried a broadly similar recipe that was meant to be for soft dinner rolls, and again ended up with really hard-crusted bread, although they seemed to me to have risen fine in both cases and have an ok "crumb."

I guess I must be adding too much flour in while kneading? I have a feeling that as a beginner I'm too squeamish about dough sticking to my hands and the surface.

The only other things I can think of are that I live in the desert of southern Arizona where the relative humidity is often down into the single digits, and where the tap water can be crazy-hard, on the order of 250+ ppm.

 

[Keen]

Oxtail gravy, this restaurant in Los Angeles named Animal makes it this way

Looks good!

 

[Axion22]

Here's my corned beef & cabbage. Colors look unusually awful in these pics for some reason.

 

[King Of Fuh]

The risotto was simply flavored with a mirepoix of sweated root vegetables, brown butter, olive oil, loads of parmesan cheese and topped with sausage and of course gotta have that fried egg.

I'm kind of the go-to guy for making risotto in my family. May I ask what you have on top of the egg? It looks like it's smothered with cheese? Is that just more parmesan? Is the idea to cut into the egg so the yolk smothers the risotto while you eat it?


Also, as far as stock is concerned, I use a combo of chicken and mushroom stock after the first wine simmer...

A tip I learned from a cooking show is to take some dried porcini mushrooms and pour boiling water over them. The water turns into a dark brown and mushroomy stock. It also has the added benefit of rehydrating the mushrooms which incorporate quite nicely into the risotto. Just use the top 2/3rds of of the mushroom stock, as the dried porcini will have left a lot of sand and gunk at the bottom.

Looks good

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Kinda bad. Borderline edible, but really way too hard of a crust for a hamburger bun.

I tried a broadly similar recipe that was meant to be for soft dinner rolls, and again ended up with really hard-crusted bread, although they seemed to me to have risen fine in both cases and have an ok "crumb."

I guess I must be adding too much flour in while kneading? I have a feeling that as a beginner I'm too squeamish about dough sticking to my hands and the surface.

The only other things I can think of are that I live in the desert of southern Arizona where the relative humidity is often down into the single digits, and where the tap water can be crazy-hard, on the order of 250+ ppm.

Sounds like you don't have enough moisture in the dough - possibly lacking in fats, as well. You might look for a recipe that uses milk instead of water, has more butter or shortening... some egg yolk could help too. You're going to have dough stuck on your hands after working with it, so yeah, try not to get overzealous with the extra flour. Might be worth picking up a bench scraper if you'd like to keep making things like this.

Another step worth trying is to let an empty pan sit on the bottom of the oven while it preheats, then pour a cup of hot water into it when the bread goes in; the steam it creates works with the yeast to make bigger, fluffier breads and a less dense crust.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

I thought that I posted this earlier (maybe in the wrong thread? Hope not), but I tried spaghetti squash for the first time this week. Wow. I don't think it'll supplant real pastas completely for me, but as a significantly healthier alternative, it's excellent.

 

[Silkworm]

I have a question regarding salted pork that hopefully someone here can help answer. I have a recipe that calls for the use of lean salt pork. But I can only find "salt pork" not lean salt pork. The recipe says I can substitute bacon for the lean salt pork, which I can easily do. I tried looking online to see if there was a better way to define the difference. It seems that lean salt pork has less fat in it (duh) but perhaps nowadays all salt pork sold is typically "lean"? Anyway, if the salt pork looks more meat than fat, i.e. there isn't a huge amount of white fat associated with it, would it be safe to guess that it is indeed "lean" salt pork even if not marked so? The recipe clearly states not to use non-lean salt pork. I did ask the butcher at one store, but he basically said salt pork is salt pork and I wasn't sure how to define lean salt pork at the time, so I gave up and bought some bacon. Still I'd like to try the original lean salt pork recommendation for the recipe if possible.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Speaking of, here is the finished corned beef brisket.

How does one make this???

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

I have a question regarding salted pork that hopefully someone here can help answer. I have a recipe that calls for the use of lean salt pork. But I can only find "salt pork" not lean salt pork. The recipe says I can substitute bacon for the lean salt pork, which I can easily do. I tried looking online to see if there was a better way to define the difference. It seems that lean salt pork has less fat in it (duh) but perhaps nowadays all salt pork sold is typically "lean"? Anyway, if the salt pork looks more meat than fat, i.e. there isn't a huge amount of white fat associated with it, would it be safe to guess that it is indeed "lean" salt pork even if not marked so? The recipe clearly states not to use non-lean salt pork. I did ask the butcher at one store, but he basically said salt pork is salt pork and I wasn't sure how to define lean salt pork at the time, so I gave up and bought some bacon. Still I'd like to try the original lean salt pork recommendation for the recipe if possible.

What's it for?

How does one make this???

Think pickled roast beef.

EDIT: Except you braise it... lol

 

[Silkworm]

What's it for?

The lean salted pork is used for a black beans and rice recipe, "Cuban-Style Black Beans and Rice (Moros y Cristianos)", I got from a recent Cooks Illustrated magazine (March/Apri 2011 issue). With regards to the lean salted pork it says

It is important to use lean—not fatty—salt pork. If you can’t find it, substitute six slices of bacon.

So I can use bacon no problem but I'm still curious about figuring out what lean salt pork is and whether I can find it locally, i.e. what the heck should I be looking for exactly if I want to find "lean" salt pork (note: it may not be available but I need to know what I'm looking for to know for sure that it isn't available)

 

[slidewinder]

Sounds like you don't have enough moisture in the dough - possibly lacking in fats, as well. You might look for a recipe that uses milk instead of water, has more butter or shortening... some egg yolk could help too. You're going to have dough stuck on your hands after working with it, so yeah, try not to get overzealous with the extra flour. Might be worth picking up a bench scraper if you'd like to keep making things like this.

Another step worth trying is to let an empty pan sit on the bottom of the oven while it preheats, then pour a cup of hot water into it when the bread goes in; the steam it creates works with the yeast to make bigger, fluffier breads and a less dense crust.

Thanks. I'll probably try again this coming week and will keep all this in mind.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

I'm kind of the go-to guy for making risotto in my family. May I ask what you have on top of the egg? It looks like it's smothered with cheese? Is that just more parmesan? Is the idea to cut into the egg so the yolk smothers the risotto while you eat it?


Also, as far as stock is concerned, I use a combo of chicken and mushroom stock after the first wine simmer...

A tip I learned from a cooking show is to take some dried porcini mushrooms and pour boiling water over them. The water turns into a dark brown and mushroomy stock. It also has the added benefit of rehydrating the mushrooms which incorporate quite nicely into the risotto. Just use the top 2/3rds of of the mushroom stock, as the dried porcini will have left a lot of sand and gunk at the bottom.

Looks good

its an over easy egg with a little bit of grated parmesan over it. I'm not a fan of dried mushrooms and much prefer to buy fresh, although its difficult if you don't have a local farmers market with a mushroom specialist.

 

[Xelinis]

I have just discovered what could be the single best fat for deep frying: Ghee!

 

[King Of Fuh]

its an over easy egg with a little bit of grated parmesan over it. I'm not a fan of dried mushrooms and much prefer to buy fresh, although its difficult if you don't have a local farmers market with a mushroom specialist.

Where I live I have never seen fresh porcini mushrooms for sale as an option, however the flavour that was extracted from the dried into the water was very strong and lovely. It had a sort of musty, even smokey quality to it. I didn't use all the rehydrated mushrooms, just a little bit which I mushed into a paste and stirred during the final step. The remainder of the mushrooms I used in the dish were fresh.

 

[dyonPT]

Cake of Port Wine

So Good!

 

[rykomatsu]

I have just discovered what could be the single best fat for deep frying: Ghee!

Rendered duck fat for deep frying is amazing. Can be expensive to get, but if you can debone your own duck, you can get quite a bit

 

[ElectricThunder]

No pics from me this time around as I'm still on leftovers, but NeoGAF posters were right on the money:

Sun Chips are freaking delicious and addictive---at least for Garden Salsa's sake!

 

[Cosmic Bus]

Made a small test batch of raspberry-pistachio butter cookies this afternoon. For the full-size run, I'm probably going to stack a sheet of vanilla dough and one of raspberry, then roll it up like a log and coat it in pistachio nuts. The cookies can then be sliced off and will have a nice spiraled color contrast.

 

[Maiar_m]

I'd be quite interested in your recipe for that, CosmicBus.

As for me, I did this for yesterday's lunch.

It's a chicken tajine with olives and lemon. I served it with curcuma vermicelli. It was my first time preparing a raw chicken, I had never cut one before: interesting experience.

 

[OnkelC]

awesome stuff, people!
Made a carrot/thyme pesto with goat cheese yesterday, recipe can be found here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7658274&postcount=1004

 

[RobotChant]

Where I live I have never seen fresh porcini mushrooms for sale as an option, however the flavour that was extracted from the dried into the water was very strong and lovely. It had a sort of musty, even smokey quality to it. I didn't use all the rehydrated mushrooms, just a little bit which I mushed into a paste and stirred during the final step. The remainder of the mushrooms I used in the dish were fresh.

Dried mushrooms usually have a more concentrated and intense flavor. If a recipe calls for dried, you should stick with dried. The fresh variety are better for sautéing or grilling. Dried version is used frequently in risoto and soups.

In California you can find fresh "porcini" at upscale shops and some farmer's markets. It was recently shown that the California variety is related but is its own species.

 

[ShinAmano]

So it has been a while since I have posted, but I made 'The Chicken' on Friday (sorry no pics). Anyhow it was probably the best chicken I have ever had.

Recipe

I did not rest the chicken like the recipe calls for rather I just put it back on the grill for 5-10 minutes.

 

[Cosmic Bus]

I'd be quite interested in your recipe for that, CosmicBus.

I forgot to take pics of the spiral cookies before packaging them up to be mailed, but they came out pretty well. The vanilla dough wasn't as "bright" as I'd hoped, so the original all-raspberry version was actually more visually appealing.

2 cups cake flour (or 1¾ cups all-purpose + ¼ cup corn starch)
+ 3 extra tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2½ sticks unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon raspberry extract (or which ever flavoring you'd like)
¾ teaspoon food coloring gel (I used pink and purple)
1 cup crushed nuts, cookie crumbs, nonpareil decors, etc

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugars, then add the butter in pieces; mix (preferably with a pastry cutter) until the mixture has the consistency of cornmeal. Add the vanilla, extract and coloring, and up to 3 tablespoons of flour. The dough should form a soft, buttery ball but not be too dry.

Roll out the dough between sheets of wax paper to about 11" x 8" and put it into the refrigerator for an hour or so. You can then press some crushed nuts into the sheet of dough and cut whatever shapes you'd like. Bake for about 15m at 325f. I drizzled a little icing on mine, as well (made from powdered sugar and a splash of milk).

Your tajine looks fabulous, btw!

 

[Maiar_m]

Thanks a lot, Cosmic! I'll have to find something to mesure in cups, but when I do, I'll be sure to try them out.

Here's the dessert I made after the Tajine.
It's an apple and speculaas clafoutis, and as always with my desserts or treats, you can click on the picture for the recipe.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Made an Escarole and Bean soup tonight. Turned out great. Might add ham or prosciutto next time though, as it needs a meat ingredient.

 

[Palmer_v1]

Alright GAF, I'm hoping you guys can help me out! Long story short, I've never really liked any fish or other seafood, but I'm trying to eat healthier, and I would like to try something different for variety.

What is a good fish to start with, that can also be fairly easily found in a market in the midwest? Recipes would be appreciated as well as general cooking tips, since I don't really know what a properly cooked fish should look like.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Alright GAF, I'm hoping you guys can help me out! Long story short, I've never really liked any fish or other seafood, but I'm trying to eat healthier, and I would like to try something different for variety.

What is a good fish to start with, that can also be fairly easily found in a market in the midwest? Recipes would be appreciated as well as general cooking tips, since I don't really know what a properly cooked fish should look like.

do you consider shrimp and scallops the same as fish? Those are easy to cook and taste so good. Shrimp can be had for cheap, scallops not so much but are good for a once in a while thing.

 

[Tr4nce]

Yup. Really easy recipe:

Penne with tiger shrimps. Put some olive oil in a pan, then when the shrimps turn pink, lower the temperature, and add some garlic, some dry white wine, and some oyster sauce. Let it cook until the alcohol taste from the wine is not so present anymore, and there you go. A really easy but nice dish!!

 

[Stalfos]

Yup. Really easy recipe:

Penne with tiger shrimps. Put some olive oil in a pan, then when the shrimps turn pink, lower the temperature, and add some garlic, some dry white wine, and some oyster sauce. Let it cook until the alcohol taste from the wine is not so present anymore, and there you go. A really easy but nice dish!!

That sounds like the shrimp would get overcooked. I've generally thought that once the shrimp are pink then they are done. Cooking them more would make them overly tough.

 

[BloodySinner]

Did a slow cooked pork ragu yesterday.

Finely chopped 1 kilo of pork shoulder, browned it and set aside. Fried garlic and onions for a while, added the meat and then added pork stock, red wine, tomato passata and spices. Simmered for 3-4 hours under lid, and then let it reduce for another 1.5-2 hours without the lid.

Ate it with pasta. Soooooooo good!

Meat browning

Simmering

Done

That is god-like.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

That sounds like the shrimp would get overcooked. I've generally thought that once the shrimp are pink then they are done. Cooking them more would make them overly tough.

depends on size of shrimp if they are the extra large variety the inside may not be fully cooked, but usually once its fully pink inside you should take it off the stove and let it rest, the residual heat my finish it off, if not add it back in the pan as your sauce cook.

 

[n0n44m]

Pizza time !!

mozzarella, dutch cheese, onion and gorgonzola, sauce = premixed+garlic&oregano, dough=homemade

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

That Ragu looks amazing, any way we can get the exact (or close to) recipe? Is pork shoulder expensive?

 

[beelzebozo]

pizza i made over spring break with m'lady. my quick pizza sauce improv came out SPECTACULAR. and i still use the same dough every time, like a boss. besides that, sauteed forest trumpet, portabello, and shiitake mushrooms, green olives, mozzarella. really excellent. the mushrooms i sauteed in butter with onion and garlic and thyme and oregano, added some red pepper flake, finished with butter. spectacular, and very versatile. i'd throw them on a panini just as soon as a pizza.

 

[thespot84]

That Ragu looks amazing, any way we can get the exact (or close to) recipe? Is pork shoulder expensive?

It's actually one of the cheapest cuts of pork. I pull it and use it for bbq.

 

[Axion22]

What is a good fish to start with, that can also be fairly easily found in a market in the midwest? Recipes would be appreciated as well as general cooking tips, since I don't really know what a properly cooked fish should look like.

I used this salmon recipe before. I recommend watching the accompanying episode for more info. I think it's called Hook Line and Dinner and available on youtube.

 

[thespot84]

Alright GAF, I'm hoping you guys can help me out! Long story short, I've never really liked any fish or other seafood, but I'm trying to eat healthier, and I would like to try something different for variety.

What is a good fish to start with, that can also be fairly easily found in a market in the midwest? Recipes would be appreciated as well as general cooking tips, since I don't really know what a properly cooked fish should look like.

I am a fan of shrimp myself but if you have no palette for seafood I'm not sure I'd start with it. If you want to ease into it, I'd try a light fish like Mahi, Salmon, Halibut, or snapper, and move on from there. You can prep these any way you want, grilled, sauteed, baked, etc.

I like to saute for something quick with a mixture of butter and olive oil (for a higher smoke point). I give the fish a rub of cracked pepper and salt, and then throw it in the pan. When the fish turns from a translucent color to a solid color and flakes with a fork it's done. Takes anywhere from 3-5 minutes per side depending on heat and thickness.

I don't think shrimp is fishy at all it just has a specific flavor that took me some getting used to. You could also mess around with shrimp cocktail to ease into that, if you like cocktail sauce....

 

[ChanHuk]

Making chili, it's gonna be a cold rainy week so this seems perfect.