-
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
nakedsushi
Member
I'm lucky that I live in Southern California, so right now is the perfect time for leafy greens, lettuce, and pea shoots. It was 75F when I went out during lunch time.
Oh man. I really, really want to grow my own basil (among other herbs), but my kitchen doesn't get enough hours of sunlight for that
Edit: But maybe I could plant them in my office...
I think it's more the temperature rather than the sun for basil. Once it gets < 50F , my basil outside decides to die, even though it gets plenty of sun.
Craved some fish today, and found some angler (that we mistakenly call 'lotte", here in France, 'baudroie' is the correct name) at my fishmonger's.
Made some kind of curry* with it :
Turned out delicious and super simple to cook.
* I've just discovered that these delicious cheese naans that you can find in most Indian restaurants in France are in fact a very french thing, so I'll be extra careful with calling that a curry.
Made some kind of curry* with it :
Turned out delicious and super simple to cook.
* I've just discovered that these delicious cheese naans that you can find in most Indian restaurants in France are in fact a very french thing, so I'll be extra careful with calling that a curry.
InfiniteBento
Member
You guys make me want to take more photographs of my food. @____@
I haven't done it in a while but maybe I will this weekend.
I haven't done it in a while but maybe I will this weekend.
ipitydatfu
Member
is anybody here familiar on how to make really thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies?
NipplesAndToes23
Member
Maybe brunch for a couple of friends.
French toast with Nutella centre, bacon, strawberries, raspberries, banana, and toasted pecans caramelized in maple syrup and bacon fat. First time I'd tried using Nutella that way and first time toasted and caramelized nuts for a brunch, but both turned out great additions. French toast looks a bit odd shaped in the photo because I use bread rolls, cutting off the crust all around the outside leaving a long square block of soft white bread which I think gives a good result both visually and in texture.
That shit look purdy, but I don't know about eating bacon with some fruit.
Etrian Oddity
Member
Speaking of growing your own plants, my yuzu seedlings are flourishing!
Anyways, I'm already learning and seeing a bunch of cool stuff at my new hotel kitchen. Definitely going to learn a ton here. I haven't done very much cooking at home; but I'm going to slow-roast some pork belly I brined overnight.
23 days old
Anyways, I'm already learning and seeing a bunch of cool stuff at my new hotel kitchen. Definitely going to learn a ton here. I haven't done very much cooking at home; but I'm going to slow-roast some pork belly I brined overnight.
Well, it was always odd to me too whenever I would see pancakes/french toast with maple syrup, bananas, and bacon on a breakfast menu. But after finally trying it after years of avoiding I'm now a big fan and I recommend trying if you haven't. Indeed, this dish has inspired me to combine sweetness and savoury in other areas of my cooking (including making bacon and chocolate chip cookies).
Strawberries and raspberries do have a sharper taste than bananas though, so I could see how they would stick out a little more.
I had a blast cooking today.
For starters, remember those cheese naans I was talking about yesterday?
That's how they're supposed to be made:
I fucked up big time making the first one, but the next ones came okay.
Tasted good, and remembered me the ones I ate at restaurants, so that's rather good.
Next, tried stuffing squids for main course, because it sounded funny:
At least, it went pretty well in the taste department.
And for dessert, I wanted to try some of my newer toys, so made some tiny lemon tarts:
For starters, remember those cheese naans I was talking about yesterday?
That's how they're supposed to be made:
They're basically stuffed with some Vache qui rit cheese, a soft tasting chemical monstrosity (this cheese doesn't melt, ladies and gentlemen) that kids love.
I fucked up big time making the first one, but the next ones came okay.
Tasted good, and remembered me the ones I ate at restaurants, so that's rather good.
Next, tried stuffing squids for main course, because it sounded funny:
But the sad truth is that stuffing small squids is not funny at all.
At least, it went pretty well in the taste department.
And for dessert, I wanted to try some of my newer toys, so made some tiny lemon tarts:
The dough gave me some hard time, and I'm not very fond of the lemon cream, too much butter for my taste: recipe, meet trash.
InfiniteBento
Member
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I made bacon, bratwurst, and beer cheese potato skins.
I ran into some serious issues trying to make the beer cheese, but other than that, those were ah-mah-zing.
Spinach quiche is already on the schedule.
I ran into some serious issues trying to make the beer cheese, but other than that, those were ah-mah-zing.
Spinach quiche is already on the schedule.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I can't wait until I get a good paying job and my own place so I can start cooking some good shit.
I don't normally cook or eat pork and I wanted to try something new so I picked up a "Pork Loin Chef's Choice Roast." I was thinking of dry rubbing it and then sous vide'ing it. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips? If there is a better way to prepare it I am all ears and if anyone has a good dry rub recipe that would also be cool. I can't run to the store but I have about 40 different spices in my spice cupboard so I should be able to make most things.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Try rubbing your pork loin with a mixture of one tablespoon of mustard, two tablespoons of honey, one teaspoon of garlic powder, plus some salt and pepper.
Slice two onions and put them in a plate, put the pork loin down the onion slices and pour 25 cℓ / 1 cup chicken broth in the plate.
Cover the plate with tinfoil and put it in your oven at 180 °C / 350 °F for 1 hour and 15 minutes per 1000 g / 2.2 lb.
The loin is cooked when you can easily drive a toothpick into it.
It should come out mellow and tasty.
Slice two onions and put them in a plate, put the pork loin down the onion slices and pour 25 cℓ / 1 cup chicken broth in the plate.
Cover the plate with tinfoil and put it in your oven at 180 °C / 350 °F for 1 hour and 15 minutes per 1000 g / 2.2 lb.
The loin is cooked when you can easily drive a toothpick into it.
It should come out mellow and tasty.
Cook it 2 hours at 145F then sear it off. I doubt you have fennel pollen in your cabinet but if you do that is pork's best friend. Although some places charge a lot for fennel pollen, its basically free in Caifornia if you are willing to go out and forage it yourself as wild fennel grows like weeds along our highways.
Sadly I am out of honey. The only mustard I have to work with is yellow. This past summer I got a few pounds of local raw honey from a farmers market and it was amazing. I just finished it a month or so back and can't bring myself to replace it with supermarket fare. That sounds tasty though. I'll definitely try a honey mustard pork when the weather warms.
Sadly no fennel pollen. I just went with a BBQ rub where I hand ground fennel seeds into it so hopefully it'll still be good.
I am cooking it at 138.5. Do you think I should raise the temperature? On Serious Eats they recommend between 135-140*F.
145 is the US govt's new lowest temp for pork, which is probably why that was recommended.
It'll still be plenty tender/juicy at that temp with some good texture. I'd imagine lower than that the texture might be off (like undercooked chicken feels)...just my opinion.
I brought it up to 140. I'll post pictures and results.
Rub:
Sauce:
I will probably sear it in a dry 8" skillet so I can get it as hot as possible. Let's see how it works.
(Sorry for the bad shot. I have my camera set to normal JPEG so I could fit more on. We just got two new cats.)
The pork came out great. Thanks everyone.
I definitely recommend 140*F for pork loin. Any less and it would be too pink which would make me a little uncomfortable despite knowing better, any more and the lean parts would be getting dry.
The BBQ sauce on it's own was a little vinegary. I took the serious eats basic BBQ sauce and doubled the vinegar because I wanted it looser in the squuze bottle. While vinegary on it's own it was great on the pork.
The rub was also good. Sadly the searing wasn't such a hit. From the moment I touched the pork loin to the pan a pillar of smoke rose into the air. I tried putting a tablespoon of butter in the pan to see if that would be better but that just made it worse. I ended up removing the remaining jumping butter with tongs and finishing all of the other surfaces while I could still breath. Apparently cast iron preheating on a high gas burner for half an hour gets pretty damn hot. Next time I hope to get a better sear which should make this even tastier.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I'm not a huge fan of sweet potatoes (worst fit cook ever) but that looks terrific and it may be the healthiest recipe in this thread
Unrelated: I love Ikea. I needed a bunch of neat looking, big ramekins at not extortionate prices for this weekend but I could only find swallow ones. Here comes the Smarta line at €2 a piece.
Boom.
I cannot believe how much cheapass but totally serviceable kitchen stuff I've got from Ikea. Their steel bowls are awesome for the price, and so are their glass jars, garlic presses, silicone items, whiskers, baking trays/molds and plastic containers. I think a new visit is in order.
Unrelated: I love Ikea. I needed a bunch of neat looking, big ramekins at not extortionate prices for this weekend but I could only find swallow ones. Here comes the Smarta line at €2 a piece.
Boom.
I cannot believe how much cheapass but totally serviceable kitchen stuff I've got from Ikea. Their steel bowls are awesome for the price, and so are their glass jars, garlic presses, silicone items, whiskers, baking trays/molds and plastic containers. I think a new visit is in order.
As long as you don't mind pinkish pork. If its a good quality natural pork then eating it medium rare should be fine. I know it freaks out a lot of people but if you have faith in the pork you buy you will be fine.
rykomatsu
Member
Trying the 72hr short rib this weekend...sealed bag seems to have a LOT of hemoglobin/myoglobin fluid floating around...maybe I over vacuumed the pouch...never seen this before with other cuts of beef...
Any thoughts on a good glaze? Was thinking of the modernist @ home red wine glaze...
Any thoughts on a good glaze? Was thinking of the modernist @ home red wine glaze...
InfiniteBento
Member
For Valentine's day, I made Horse Detective apple pie from scratch.
I'm having difficulty making a soft cooked omlette.
Before I even get to folding the omelette properly, I can't seem to separate the egg from the pan without shredding it in the process. In contrast to most of the videos I see, I'm using a shallow teflon coated skillet. Is it that the seasoned woks (as far as I can tell) they're using that allows them to slide around the egg even after mixing in the butter? Or is ir just a matter of timing it so the egg is hard enough to lift off the cooking surface as a whole, without being cooked to brownness (not that I mind brownness, but I want to preserve as much of the gooey insides as possible). When I make eggs, I need to do something like this to get a good separation, whereas chefs in these videos can do it with just chopsticks.
At best, I can manage a fluffy just-cooked omelette, which is really nice in itself considering how I used to cook omelettes. But I really want to be able to make the yolk pouch kind.
Before I even get to folding the omelette properly, I can't seem to separate the egg from the pan without shredding it in the process. In contrast to most of the videos I see, I'm using a shallow teflon coated skillet. Is it that the seasoned woks (as far as I can tell) they're using that allows them to slide around the egg even after mixing in the butter? Or is ir just a matter of timing it so the egg is hard enough to lift off the cooking surface as a whole, without being cooked to brownness (not that I mind brownness, but I want to preserve as much of the gooey insides as possible). When I make eggs, I need to do something like this to get a good separation, whereas chefs in these videos can do it with just chopsticks.
At best, I can manage a fluffy just-cooked omelette, which is really nice in itself considering how I used to cook omelettes. But I really want to be able to make the yolk pouch kind.
Gyros are a food that I think are really difficult to do well at home when compared to getting one from a restaurant. Emulating the effect of that giant rotating spit of meat is really tough.
I know
I just kinda want to get close to the spice mix and do some kind of thin layered chicken filet that I'll just chop up.His omelette is like surfing on a sea of butter.
I'm pretty sure that's the key.
Yeah but he also mixes the yolk into the butter at the start, and even then the omelette slides around freely.
It's like magic.
You can see how even the bits of egg that solidify on the upper ridges of the wok, which weren't buttered, still peel away smoothly.
Or maybe I just need more butter.
It's like magic.
You can see how even the bits of egg that solidify on the upper ridges of the wok, which weren't buttered, still peel away smoothly.
Or maybe I just need more butter.
It looks like there's nearly 80 to 100 grams of butter in the skillet.
And looking at the video again (and again, it's really mesmerizing), I don't think he's really mixing the eggs into the hot butter.
His sticks don't seem to touch the bottom of the pan, it's more like he's shaking the surface to prevent coagulation of the inner layer and ensuring some heating of the yolks on the surface.
He's also cooking over a brisk heat, using a rather small skillet made of thick cast iron.
Which means the skillet's surface will be both very hot and evenly heated, and will probably lead to nearly instant coagulation of the egg on contact with the pan (or the hot butter).
See how he's pulling the skillet off from / bringing it closer to the heat to regulate the cooking to 'solder' both halves of the omelette. That's amazing!
Just guessing here, but I'd say you'll probably have a hard time achieving the same kind of heating conditions using a regular - probably made of aluminium - Teflon coated skillet.
And looking at the video again (and again, it's really mesmerizing), I don't think he's really mixing the eggs into the hot butter.
His sticks don't seem to touch the bottom of the pan, it's more like he's shaking the surface to prevent coagulation of the inner layer and ensuring some heating of the yolks on the surface.
He's also cooking over a brisk heat, using a rather small skillet made of thick cast iron.
Which means the skillet's surface will be both very hot and evenly heated, and will probably lead to nearly instant coagulation of the egg on contact with the pan (or the hot butter).
See how he's pulling the skillet off from / bringing it closer to the heat to regulate the cooking to 'solder' both halves of the omelette. That's amazing!
Just guessing here, but I'd say you'll probably have a hard time achieving the same kind of heating conditions using a regular - probably made of aluminium - Teflon coated skillet.
Seems like the key is a very very hot and very well seasoned skillet and lots of butter.
I know
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/06/greek-american-lamb-gyros-recipe.html
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I made spinach and goat cheese quiche.
It came out ok, but I feel like I could have used a bit more bacon and less spinach. I like my quiches savoury.
Breakfast was molten chocolate cake.
Not seen: molten chocolate. Sorry, I was too busy devouring it to take any pictures.
It was actually delicious, even if the ramekin was too tall for the amount of batter I used, which made the presentation a bit iffy. It didn't help the fact that I was forced to create my own makeshift pastry bag out of a kitchen glove since I didn't have one to pipe the whipped cream.
It came out ok, but I feel like I could have used a bit more bacon and less spinach. I like my quiches savoury.
Breakfast was molten chocolate cake.
Not seen: molten chocolate. Sorry, I was too busy devouring it to take any pictures.
It was actually delicious, even if the ramekin was too tall for the amount of batter I used, which made the presentation a bit iffy. It didn't help the fact that I was forced to create my own makeshift pastry bag out of a kitchen glove since I didn't have one to pipe the whipped cream.
rykomatsu
Member
Kinda tangential, but did anyone see John Favreau's Chef? Came across it on Netflix, and enjoyed the food-porn and the story as well...
Also, does anyone know where one can find edible flowers, preferably not via the internet? I have lavender and rosemary growing in my yard, but kinda close to the neighbor's driveway, so getting a good dose of car fumes most likely...
Also, does anyone know where one can find edible flowers, preferably not via the internet? I have lavender and rosemary growing in my yard, but kinda close to the neighbor's driveway, so getting a good dose of car fumes most likely...
whole foods or go to a farmer market and ask the florist.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I also made borage fettuccine this weekend.
The sauce was very basic since I didn't want to cover the mild flavour of the borage. I sauteeed some fresh mushrooms with a generous splash of olive oil, then added some pressed garlic and a couple of dried cayenne peppers.
So, so good.
The sauce was very basic since I didn't want to cover the mild flavour of the borage. I sauteeed some fresh mushrooms with a generous splash of olive oil, then added some pressed garlic and a couple of dried cayenne peppers.
So, so good.
nakedsushi
Member
It's also easy to grow your own. Chives produce chive blossoms. Basil produces white basil blossoms. Pea shoots produce flowers that are also edible and really pea-like tasting. Although to be honest, most edible flowers, even though you CAN eat it, doesn't mean they're delicious.
rykomatsu
Member
I'll need to try peas this year/next year.
True, most of the ornamentals I've picked in the yard are quite bland - the miner's lettuce and cleveland salvia flowers are quite sweet, though. I figured there might be some sources out there locally that might have the more flavorful ones...
NipplesAndToes23
Member
That cake looks to die for.
Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
A nicely done Beef Wellington is always a showstealer. I made one a few days ago and everybody was stunned by it. It's a killer dish in both presentation and taste.Been a while since I posed here...but I made a Beef Wellington for the first time on V-Day and my god it was incredible. (Sorry no pics).
It was the first time I have had it before so nothing to compare to but it was devoured by both parties
Thanks! I was actually a bit underwhelmed by the final presentation due to the height of the ramekin and the fact that I made the silly mistake of putting the icecream on top of the hot cake before the strawberries (which meant it was really melty by the time I covered it with the whipped cream) but the taste... oh-em-gee. That taste. Absolutely killer recipe. I intend to make a huge batch this coming weekend.
I made my first jam yesterday. I had a pint of strawberries that I wanted to transform. I did a few things wrong. Firstly I used nearly overripe berries which is a huge no-no for jam. I also added extra lemon juice to help it set but had too little sugar in it. I should have tasted it while cooking. It set and looks beautiful but it is fairly acidic tasting. Not bad for a first attempt and I learned from my mistakes.
I made a strawberry basil vinaigrette for tonight with a 3:1 EVOO to apple cider vinegar ratio, a teaspoon of dijon mustard, some fresh basil and about two teaspoons of the jam. With a little salt and pepper in it it tastes perfect. I'm going to hand toss a baby spinach salad with sliced apple, julienned carrots and thinly sliced onion with it and serve with a baked sweet potato and meatloaf.
nakedsushi
Member
^-- How funny, I made jam (this morning) too! Weird that yours didn't set. I would have used overripe strawberries too, but maybe strawberries need some extra pectin for it to set? Edit: I bet your jam would be good on panna cotta!
I did a kumquat one with rosemary, peppercorns, and Contreau. Mostly just eye-balled and cooked till it was jammy.
I did a kumquat one with rosemary, peppercorns, and Contreau. Mostly just eye-balled and cooked till it was jammy.
BriareosGAF
Member
A jam that doesn't set is just a coulis waiting to happen I suppose .
.You misunderstood. It set perfectly.^-- How funny, I made jam (this morning) too! Weird that yours didn't set. I would have used overripe strawberries too, but maybe strawberries need some extra pectin for it to set? Edit: I bet your jam would be good on panna cotta!
I did a kumquat one with rosemary, peppercorns, and Contreau. Mostly just eye-balled and cooked till it was jammy.
From my understanding the sweeter the fruit the less pectin while the more acidic/tart tasting the more pectin.
I wasn't expecting how little I would end up with. I figured a pint of berries plus sugar and lemon juice shouldn't end up that much smalled than a pint. It was a very small batch.
That does sound good. If I ever can't get it to set I will probably use it on top of cheese cake or ice cream or something.A jam that doesn't set is just a coulis waiting to happen I suppose
nakedsushi
Member
^--- Ah, I see! I wonder if you can re-heat it and then cook in some sugar? Or you could always serve a few teaspoons with club soda on ice, charge $11 and call it a shrub.
- Status