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Cooker? I barely know her! [Cooking Thread]

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Posts

  • ChanusChanus Harbinger of the Spicy Rooster Apocalypse The Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered User regular
    No-Quarter wrote: »
    Welp! It looks like a certain Arizona senator bucked the odds and is getting his cantankerous mug as my avatar when I get home later. Bonus points if I can finagle a gif of him closing his hand to vote "no" in my signature.

    EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

    ...

    EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

    this is the strangest recipe i've ever seen

    Allegedly a voice of reason.
  • No-QuarterNo-Quarter Nothing To Fear But Fear ItselfRegistered User regular
    NO REGRETS

    BUT PLENTY OF DELICIOUS BITTER BITTER TEARS

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    edited July 2017
    I've taken a break from my weekly devouring of a duck to work on experimenting with sous vide short ribs.

    8AdN

    Short ribs are one of the big things sous vide enthusiasts like to mess with. It's extremely flavorful and much less expensive than the major steak cuts with a lot of connective tissue that makes for wonderful texture when cooked a long time. And cooking it sous vide means you can serve it at much lower temperatures than you can when braised which makes for much more juicier meet. But I'm not kidding when I say it needs to be cooked for a long time. A lot of modernist cooking writers talk about cooking it for up to 72 hours. That's not hard to do sous vide but if you salt beef and cook it that long you end up making corned beef. Tasty but not really the depth of flavor and texture one is usually aiming for. So cooking it in a marinade that can be turned into a sauce is the smarter way to go.

    I've based my approach off of this recipe which originally was from David Chang. There are many modifications.

    To start with, I prefer boneless ribs. Bone in ribs are less consistent around here. There's more flavor in them, but sometimes you get a rib that's 50% fat. That might sound good, but remember that that's on top of connective tissue being 20% or more of a bone in rib. I've baked cheesecakes and not shared it and getting a rib like that makes me feel like I'm biting into shame and regret.

    Pear juice is pretty flavorless. In fact, that's what gets used to pad out really cheap grape juice. So I use apple juice for all of my juice. I'm pretty sure the pear juice is meant to substitute for a Korean pear used in kalbi marinades but I can't imagine it's a stellar replacement if you're buying pear juice off the shelf. Now if I could juice an Asian pear (which tastes quite different from other pears) it might be a different matter. I also dropped the carrot since it too is clearly just meant for sweetness and I usually don't have any on hand these days.

    Mirin was a pain to find. A lot of mirin sold in stores is cheap stuff with a tiny amount of wine and a lot of corn syrup. I found more traditional mirin on Amazon but even this stuff isn't stellar. To get around alcohol restrictions, it does the cooking wine thing of adding in sea salt so i can't really judge the flavor well. But even the Japanese markets near me that stock sake don't sell high quality mirin so this is what I'm stuck with. Before my package from Amazon arrived, I just subbed in some port or marsala since those are shelf stable wines that pair well enough with beef and have the sweet notes mirin is used for.

    I tend not to have garlic and onions on hand. I do a lot of ballroom and social dancing which dissuades those from the diet plus a friend who often is over for dinner has dietary restrictions against them. But she can eat shallots and I tend to prefer shallots to onions anyway and have those on hand due to making risotto.

    Finally I don't fry to finish the ribs. Searing in a hot pan works well enough and is much less of a hassle. Obviously if one works in an avant-garde restaurant and is frying stuff throughout the day doing so is much more reasonable.

    So here's my take on this with notes to date:

    Meat:

    6-8 boneless shortribs. My preferred grocery store usually sells them in 3 packs but some do 4 packs.

    For the Sauce:
    600g water
    150g soy sauce
    82 g apple juice
    23 g mirin
    13g Asian sesame oil
    250g sugar
    10 grinds black pepper
    2-4 shallots
    3 scallions, solid parts only. That is the whites plus the green parts up until they become hollow tubes.

    The water is highly mutable. As long as you have enough water to dissolve the sugar and submerge the ribs, you're fine. Eventually we'll be reducing the marinade into a sauce so no sense in using more water than required.

    I think this ratio of soy sauce may be a bit too salty but wouldn't reduce it by much. Since we don't salt the ribs, too little soy sauce will be very noticeable. When I do fiddle with the soy sauce amount, I replace it with more apple juice.

    Speaking of which, the biggest flavors in this are the salt and umami from the soy sauce, the sweetness from the apple juice, sugar, and mirin, and the sesame oil. The other parts are more backing flavors that will get more backup later. This also means one could totally omit the alcohol in favor of more apple juice.

    Finishing touches:
    The hollow parts of those green onions chopped.
    Apple cider vinegar

    These won't see use for a while. David Chang recommends serving the meat and sauce with braised daikon, pickled carrots, and some brown mustard. I don't usually have those on hand so these get used to add a bit of acid instead. And I prefer to finish the sauce, which I reduce for longer, with the scallions chopped up instead of using it as an edible garnish.

    Procedure:
    1) Slice shallots and scallions. You could dice the shallots if you wanted to, but we're not actually eating them here so slicing is good enough.
    2) Mix water, soy sauce, apple juice, mirin, sesame oil, sugar, and black pepper in a pot and stir until combined. Add in solid scallion parts and shallots and place over high heat for about 10 minutes. This is not an exacting step, feel free to go longer to extract more flavor.
    3) Strain mixture of solids (I chucked mine into the freezer for use in stock later) and let cool down. As long as it's not hotter than the temperature you cook at it's cool enough but it's probably a better idea for it to cool down to the point where spilling any on yourself won't result in pain.
    4) Bag the short ribs in ziploc bags or generic equivalent and split the marinade evenly among them. Since this is a long cook with liquid, I highly recommend double bagging. A sandwich sized bag is big enough for 2 short ribs and then easily fits into a larger sized ziploc bag. Actually vacuum sealing it could prevent the need for this (just do more than one seal to be safe) but then you're dealing with sealing something with liquids which is a pain for the foodsaver style sealers most of us have at home. Also, double bagging is a lot cheaper.
    5) Prepare water bath with desired temperature. There's a lot of wiggle room here depending on what texture you want. Chef steps has a visual guide to some popular temperatures and cooking times here. While a lot of writers champion temperatures of over 140 F, a lot of folks on the internet prefer something closer to 135 F for a texture that's closer to a steak. I prefer it as well. As far as cooking time goes, there's a big uptick in flakiness at the expense of moistness between 2 days and 3 days even at this low of a temperature. I've personally decided that 2 days is long enough. When you've settled on the temperature and time, set it, submerge the bagged meat when the bath hits temperature, and wait.
    6) Put whatever bagged meat you're not about to eat in the fridge. Take the bags with what you are about to eat and remove meat from marinade. Strain marinade into a saucier/sauce pot. Dry off surfaces of meat.
    7) Reduce the liquid over high heat. If you reduce all of it for just 10 minutes as the original as written does, you'll end up with something that's still very fluid and thin. I usually eat 2 ribs at a time for a dinner and reducing a third of the sauce for 15-20 minutes yields a texture closer to a gravy. Finish the sauce by stirring in chopped scallion green bits and a dash of apple cider vinegar.
    8) Heat a pan over high heat with oil suitable for that purpose. When pan is hot enough to sear, place ribs in pan with the fattiest side down. Sear each side for 30 seconds to 1 minute each. While meat is searing, pour some sauce onto the plate/bowl you'll be serving in so each piece of meat gets a bed of sauce.
    9) Transfer meat to plates/bowls and spoon rest of sauce on top.

    There's usually still a fair bit of sauce in the plate after eating the meet so I use the rest of it as a dressing for arugula. Definitely serve it with some sort of vegetable side that can handle the sauce.

    Edit: To reheat any bags of meat you didn't eat immediately, set a water batch to anything above 120 F and heat the bag for an hour or two and then pick up from step 7. You don't need to use the same temperature water bath you cooked it at and using a lower one reduces any further changes in texture.

    Steel Angel on
    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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  • So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    Anyone have a nice bolognese recipe that I can put in the slow cooker

    TIA

  • MNC DoverMNC Dover Full-time Voice Actor Kirkland, WARegistered User regular
    I've been rotating out sweets for the last 2 months and subbing in fruit as replacements. Thought I should give fruit smoothies a try.

    Any good recipes or protips, or is it literally just fruit x2-3 + juice/ice/yogurt? I'd be mostly focusing on banana, strawberry, raspberry, and orange.

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  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    MNC Dover wrote: »
    I've been rotating out sweets for the last 2 months and subbing in fruit as replacements. Thought I should give fruit smoothies a try.

    Any good recipes or protips, or is it literally just fruit x2-3 + juice/ice/yogurt? I'd be mostly focusing on banana, strawberry, raspberry, and orange.

    If you want it to taste more dessert-y or sweet, add in small dash of [real] vanilla extract. You can also add in a few teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, which by itself is pretty healthy for you! It will make the smoothie taste very chocolatey, and the fruit will provide more than enough sweetness, if it's ripe and in season.

    Banana thickens shakes like woah, so you may need to add more liquid in for that. I find strawberry and raspberry can add a lot of tartness - that's something you may like, or may not! Blueberries tend to add a LOT of sweetness. I personally like to blend bluebs with strawbs for a nice balance of sweet and tart.

    Watch out for the yogurt you're buying, if you're aiming for these to be "healthy smoothies". Most yogurts out there are packed with sugar. Try to find a brand that has low sugar and high protein. I'm a personal big fan of Siggi's.

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    MNC Dover wrote: »
    I've been rotating out sweets for the last 2 months and subbing in fruit as replacements. Thought I should give fruit smoothies a try.

    Any good recipes or protips, or is it literally just fruit x2-3 + juice/ice/yogurt? I'd be mostly focusing on banana, strawberry, raspberry, and orange.

    If your blender is powerful enough, you can make something akin to ice cream by freezing a banana or two and blending the hell out of them when you want to vary things a bit from smoothies.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • SimpsoniaSimpsonia Registered User regular
    So It Goes wrote: »
    Anyone have a nice bolognese recipe that I can put in the slow cooker

    TIA

    Here's Kenjis pressure cooker version, which should be pretty easily adaptable to a slow cooker. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/11/pressure-cooker-ragu-bolognese-sauce-italian-recipe.html

  • MNC DoverMNC Dover Full-time Voice Actor Kirkland, WARegistered User regular
    Yeah I was thinking the smoothies would act more as treats than anything else. Not afraid to sweeten it up as long as it doesn't make it too sugary.

    Sorry for another recap, but I'm bad at cooking/prepping food without precise instruction:
    • 2-3 fruits
    • milk, ice, or yogurt to "liquid" it up
    • vanilla extract or unsweeted coco powder for flavor

    A few friends mentioned freezing fruits in place of ice or adding Peanut Butter with Bananas or OJ if I want it orangy (which assumes a sugar free style OJ. Does such a thing even exist?).

    Thanks again!

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  • m!ttensm!ttens he/himRegistered User regular
    MNC Dover wrote: »
    A few friends mentioned freezing fruits in place of ice or adding Peanut Butter with Bananas or OJ if I want it orangy (which assumes a sugar free style OJ. Does such a thing even exist?).

    Thanks again!

    If there is such a thing as sugar free oj it's so far gone from the fruit it was squeezed from there is likely no nutritional benefit to be had. Which is why I very rarely drink much fruit juice.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    There's no sugar added OJ, which is probably what you should be looking for.

  • So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    MNC Dover wrote: »
    Yeah I was thinking the smoothies would act more as treats than anything else. Not afraid to sweeten it up as long as it doesn't make it too sugary.

    Sorry for another recap, but I'm bad at cooking/prepping food without precise instruction:
    • 2-3 fruits
    • milk, ice, or yogurt to "liquid" it up
    • vanilla extract or unsweeted coco powder for flavor

    A few friends mentioned freezing fruits in place of ice or adding Peanut Butter with Bananas or OJ if I want it orangy (which assumes a sugar free style OJ. Does such a thing even exist?).

    Thanks again!

    Here's what goes in our smoothies:

    Strawberries
    Banana
    Yogurt
    Maybe some milk to thin if it's too thick

    That's it. You shouldn't need any added flavor if the strawberries and banana are ripe.

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    Just about any frozen fruit + apple juice makes a reasonable smoothie.

    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    edited July 2017
    I make a snack/dessert smoothie y'all might like. In the blender I start with a cup of live active culture yogurt in my blender. I add frozen, unsweetened strawberries and blueberries next. Finally I add 100% fruit juice. I'll blend until smooth and serve with a straw and spoon. The yogurt typically has sugar in it and the fruit/juice are typically plenty sweet enough on their own so I don't add sugar. Using frozen fruit means you don't need to add ice and it even blends up smoother in the end.

    That_Guy on
  • jungleroomxjungleroomx It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovels Registered User regular
    Frozen blackberries, raspberries, blueberries.

    1 regular banana.

    Handful of spinach.

    White tea.

    Bam.

  • Casual EddyCasual Eddy The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
    if you get wyman's where you are they're incredible for smoothies

    product-triple-berry_0.png

  • Casual EddyCasual Eddy The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
    If you want some staying power for your smoothie, add a nut butter. preferably no-sugar-added natural peanut butter since the fruit has sugar in it. I also use plain greek yogurt and just sweeten with honey if needed. I usually don't use juice since it's so sugary but will sometimes use coconut water as it has less sugar.

    I also like some veggies, frozen or fresh spinach is a classic, carrots are nice if your blender can handle them. For further flavor you can use some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes to jazz it up a bit.

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    edited July 2017
    Made a new thing last night... Warm Roasted Brussels Sprouts Slaw

    Started by using the food processor to slice a couple pounds of washed and cleaned brussels with the bottoms cut off -- the product was a mix of leaf shreds and some bigger chunks coming from the core.

    Meanwhile, cooked a maybe a cup of bacon sliced into little shreds. Reserve the bacon, pour the rendered fat onto the sprouts. Added some olive oil, salt, pepper to the sprouts then roasted at 450 for ~25m, stir twice.

    While that's roasting i made some croutons out of a stale-ish piece of herb bread we had around, chopped up some almonds, and made a lemon vinaigrette.

    Once the sprouts were cooked, some dark crispy leaves, and the cores softened through, I tossed them with the croutons and the almonds, and served over a bed of vinaigrette.

    The result was very good -- the sort of meaty thing you want with brussels. It was pretty heavy though, I think I could lose the bacon fat and it would be fine.

    w67tmvdwexd9.png

    VishNub on
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Yellowfin tuna steaks were a reasonable price (~$8.99/lb for unfrozen/"fresh") so I bought two for dinner last night. Salt+Pepper+sesame seeds and that was it. I squirted half a lemon across both steaks while they were resting. I went a bit too heavy on the salt since I wanted it to cover both sides.


    I'd guess that if I used table salt instead of kosher salt, and didn't pour directly from the container (instead of using my hands to sprinkle both sides), it would not have been as salty as my wife said it was.


    I poked around online and it was suggested to use a mix of butter and olive oil in the pan when I seared. That helped add a lot of flavor (and in hindsight, the butter was likely the extra source of salt; since I used our tub of margarine because I'm lazy).

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    Yellowfin tuna steaks were a reasonable price (~$8.99/lb for unfrozen/"fresh") so I bought two for dinner last night. Salt+Pepper+sesame seeds and that was it. I squirted half a lemon across both steaks while they were resting. I went a bit too heavy on the salt since I wanted it to cover both sides.


    I'd guess that if I used table salt instead of kosher salt, and didn't pour directly from the container (instead of using my hands to sprinkle both sides), it would not have been as salty as my wife said it was.


    I poked around online and it was suggested to use a mix of butter and olive oil in the pan when I seared. That helped add a lot of flavor (and in hindsight, the butter was likely the extra source of salt; since I used our tub of margarine because I'm lazy).

    Not sure table salt would have helped. It's grains are a lot smaller and tend to easily clump in a small location instead of spreading out evenly when rubbed in giving portions that are way to salty and other sections that are barely seasoned. Not using your hands does make a difference though. Actually rubbing in the salt spread out anything that piled on too high.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

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    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I know there's a bit of a debate regarding packaged food versus making your own, but I found this recipe accommodating for however far you want to go with making your own. Disclosure: we will be eating this tonight, so I don't have a 100% verdict on awesomeness (but I'm fairly certain of how good it will

    Decased sausage (I used 3 links; but you can alter it depending how meaty you want your sauce)
    8-12oz of non-meat pasta sauce/tomato sauce
    8-12oz of pesto
    8oz sour cream
    8oz mozzarella
    Pasta of your choice (we used penne)

    Brown the sausage, or get it at least pink, then toss in all the other non-pasta ingredients. While that is cooking, boil up the pasta, but undercook it (3-4 mins tops). Drain and dump into a casserole dish. Dump the sauce mixture on top and combine.

    If you're going to eat this right away, add a layer of mozzarella on top and toss under the broiler for 5 mins. If you're going to wait to cook/eat, then I recommend baking it covered for about 10 mins when you finally heat it up. Then uncover, add mozz, and put under a broiler for 3-5 mins.

    Undercooking the pasta when you prep the dish keeps the pasta from getting mushy in the casserole; which is one of my pet peeves.


    While prepping, I added a bit too much pesto and it overpowered the sauce; so I added a little more sauce to balance it out. My biggest concern about this dish is that it's easy to have an oversalted sauce because nearly every ingredient either contributes salt or has a salty taste. If I do this again, I may try mozz balls instead of the shredded stuff and see if that's a bit more mild.

  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    edited August 2017
    Fish Tacos w/ Crema, Fruit Salsa, and Slaw

    30.jpg?w=676

    So, this is one of my favorite dishes that I've come up with. If you take the shortcut below with the fish, it only takes 10 minutes of prep time, and it tastes really fresh and delicious. We have it a lot for weeknight dinners. If I've caught some relevant fish, we'll do the real version on weekends.

    Fish

    27.jpg?w=676

    You can batter and fry your own; any white, firm fish will work. These were made with sculpin, but I've also used rockfish, barracuda, and yellowtail. I wouldn't do Tilapia. I also wouldn't eat tilapia, but that's a separate thing.

    Or to make this recipe much easier
    You can just use fish sticks, just bake it the way they say

    Batter is roughly

    1cup flour
    8oz beer, darker beer is better
    Salt
    Pepper

    Adjust the amount of beer to get the breading thickness you want. Dry the filets on a towel, Dip them in batter, then straight into ~350 degree oil until nice golden brown. Flip 1x.

    Fruit Salsa

    122.jpg?w=676

    Any fruit really works -- you're mostly going for a sweet note. I've used orange, mango, peach, and pineapple. Peach is probably my favorite, and is currently seasonal.

    1 peach, diced
    1 big tomato, diced
    1/2 bell pepper, diced
    1/4 red onion, diced

    2 cloves garlic, finely diced
    1/2 Jalapeno, finely diced

    Cilantro
    Cumin
    Salt
    Olive oil
    Lime Juice

    Mix 'er up, let it sit for 20 minutes while the fish cooks.

    Lime Crema

    Sour Cream
    Lime Juice
    Salt

    Mix 'er up.

    Serve on tortillas -- obviously homemade is best, but my local Kroger has some good made in store ones, and the Trader Joes "Truly Handmade" ones are also good.

    And add some cabbage slaw -- we just buy the cole slaw mix in the salad area, it's just there for texture.

    If you use fish sticks, it takes ~10m total prep time.

    VishNub on
  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    I know there's a bit of a debate regarding packaged food versus making your own, but I found this recipe accommodating for however far you want to go with making your own. Disclosure: we will be eating this tonight, so I don't have a 100% verdict on awesomeness (but I'm fairly certain of how good it will

    Decased sausage (I used 3 links; but you can alter it depending how meaty you want your sauce)
    8-12oz of non-meat pasta sauce/tomato sauce
    8-12oz of pesto
    8oz sour cream
    8oz mozzarella
    Pasta of your choice (we used penne)

    Brown the sausage, or get it at least pink, then toss in all the other non-pasta ingredients. While that is cooking, boil up the pasta, but undercook it (3-4 mins tops). Drain and dump into a casserole dish. Dump the sauce mixture on top and combine.

    If you're going to eat this right away, add a layer of mozzarella on top and toss under the broiler for 5 mins. If you're going to wait to cook/eat, then I recommend baking it covered for about 10 mins when you finally heat it up. Then uncover, add mozz, and put under a broiler for 3-5 mins.

    Undercooking the pasta when you prep the dish keeps the pasta from getting mushy in the casserole; which is one of my pet peeves.


    While prepping, I added a bit too much pesto and it overpowered the sauce; so I added a little more sauce to balance it out. My biggest concern about this dish is that it's easy to have an oversalted sauce because nearly every ingredient either contributes salt or has a salty taste. If I do this again, I may try mozz balls instead of the shredded stuff and see if that's a bit more mild.

    Your recipe calls for up to 12 ounces of pesto. I'd say yeah, maybe you added too much pesto. 1-2 spoons would usually be considered ample for a dish.

    Also your sauce is basically fat. Putting sour cream AND pesto (lots of both) on pasta alone would be overkill, even without the the sausage, and then there's cheese as well because what the hell.

  • CampyCampy Registered User regular
    So I bought some cheap steak with the idea to try out cooking carne asada. I think it's been discussed before in here, but does anyone have any tips/recipes for it?

    Gonna read up on the serious eats to start and see where that gets me.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Mugsley wrote: »
    I know there's a bit of a debate regarding packaged food versus making your own, but I found this recipe accommodating for however far you want to go with making your own. Disclosure: we will be eating this tonight, so I don't have a 100% verdict on awesomeness (but I'm fairly certain of how good it will

    Decased sausage (I used 3 links; but you can alter it depending how meaty you want your sauce)
    8-12oz of non-meat pasta sauce/tomato sauce
    8-12oz of pesto
    8oz sour cream
    8oz mozzarella
    Pasta of your choice (we used penne)

    Brown the sausage, or get it at least pink, then toss in all the other non-pasta ingredients. While that is cooking, boil up the pasta, but undercook it (3-4 mins tops). Drain and dump into a casserole dish. Dump the sauce mixture on top and combine.

    If you're going to eat this right away, add a layer of mozzarella on top and toss under the broiler for 5 mins. If you're going to wait to cook/eat, then I recommend baking it covered for about 10 mins when you finally heat it up. Then uncover, add mozz, and put under a broiler for 3-5 mins.

    Undercooking the pasta when you prep the dish keeps the pasta from getting mushy in the casserole; which is one of my pet peeves.


    While prepping, I added a bit too much pesto and it overpowered the sauce; so I added a little more sauce to balance it out. My biggest concern about this dish is that it's easy to have an oversalted sauce because nearly every ingredient either contributes salt or has a salty taste. If I do this again, I may try mozz balls instead of the shredded stuff and see if that's a bit more mild.

    Your recipe calls for up to 12 ounces of pesto. I'd say yeah, maybe you added too much pesto. 1-2 spoons would usually be considered ample for a dish.

    Also your sauce is basically fat. Putting sour cream AND pesto (lots of both) on pasta alone would be overkill, even without the the sausage, and then there's cheese as well because what the hell.

    It was an Emeals recipe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    V1m wrote: »
    Mugsley wrote: »
    I know there's a bit of a debate regarding packaged food versus making your own, but I found this recipe accommodating for however far you want to go with making your own. Disclosure: we will be eating this tonight, so I don't have a 100% verdict on awesomeness (but I'm fairly certain of how good it will

    Decased sausage (I used 3 links; but you can alter it depending how meaty you want your sauce)
    8-12oz of non-meat pasta sauce/tomato sauce
    8-12oz of pesto
    8oz sour cream
    8oz mozzarella
    Pasta of your choice (we used penne)

    Brown the sausage, or get it at least pink, then toss in all the other non-pasta ingredients. While that is cooking, boil up the pasta, but undercook it (3-4 mins tops). Drain and dump into a casserole dish. Dump the sauce mixture on top and combine.

    If you're going to eat this right away, add a layer of mozzarella on top and toss under the broiler for 5 mins. If you're going to wait to cook/eat, then I recommend baking it covered for about 10 mins when you finally heat it up. Then uncover, add mozz, and put under a broiler for 3-5 mins.

    Undercooking the pasta when you prep the dish keeps the pasta from getting mushy in the casserole; which is one of my pet peeves.


    While prepping, I added a bit too much pesto and it overpowered the sauce; so I added a little more sauce to balance it out. My biggest concern about this dish is that it's easy to have an oversalted sauce because nearly every ingredient either contributes salt or has a salty taste. If I do this again, I may try mozz balls instead of the shredded stuff and see if that's a bit more mild.

    Your recipe calls for up to 12 ounces of pesto. I'd say yeah, maybe you added too much pesto. 1-2 spoons would usually be considered ample for a dish.

    Also your sauce is basically fat. Putting sour cream AND pesto (lots of both) on pasta alone would be overkill, even without the the sausage, and then there's cheese as well because what the hell.

    It was an Emeals recipe. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    I would suggest that you treat their recipe suggestions with scepticism.

    How about this:

    Start your pasta cooking. Meanwhile brown up your sausage with a few fennel seeds and a bay leaf, and maybe some red pepper flakes if you want the spicy. Add the pasta sauce, and simmer it in for a few minutes while the pasta cooks. When the pasta is still a little undercooked, drain it (save a little of the pasta water for use if your sauce is thick and needs loosening a bit) and drop it into the sauce. Let it finish cooking for a minute or two in the sauce. If your pre-bought pasta sauce is kinda of dull, maybe stir in a spoonful or two of pesto.

    Save the sour cream and mozarella for another occasion entirely.

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    I finally figured out how to make low and slow cooked, smokey sweet and sticky delicious barbecue chicken that doesn't stick to the fucking grill and tear all the skin off, catch fire, or turn out undercooked. Also, I think pecan may be my new favorite wood for smoking meats.

    pqrll3j1b323.jpg

    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • NightDragonNightDragon 6th Grade Username Registered User regular
    I finally figured out how to make low and slow cooked, smokey sweet and sticky delicious barbecue chicken that doesn't stick to the fucking grill and tear all the skin off, catch fire, or turn out undercooked. Also, I think pecan may be my new favorite wood for smoking meats.

    Damn, that sounds and looks delicious.

    Also, what are your newly-learned secrets?!

  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    I finally figured out how to make low and slow cooked, smokey sweet and sticky delicious barbecue chicken that doesn't stick to the fucking grill and tear all the skin off, catch fire, or turn out undercooked. Also, I think pecan may be my new favorite wood for smoking meats.

    Damn, that sounds and looks delicious.

    Also, what are your newly-learned secrets?!

    I've been trying to nail this down for a long time and wound up using a combination of methods. You find some whacky shit googling how to grill chicken that doesn't stick to the grill, like laying down a teflon mat across the grill grates (no thanks). The methods that worked for me? Lots of vegetable oil and a quick super hot sear. I'll explain more below.

    Method alone isn't enough though, you also need to learn what you're working with. All grills will behave somewhat differently and the brand/type of charcoal you use will as well. The big thing here is temperature control, learn how the vents at the top and bottom of your grill influence the charcoal, how quickly and how hot it burns. Also, learn how to get that flavorful chunk of hardwood to smolder and release lots of tasty smoke instead of just burning up in a little ball of flames.

    For me I settled on regular ass Kingsford briquettes. You can get em hot as the surface of the sun for a quick sear, then turn around and get a good long low temp cook out of them.

    For hardwood I'm really digging pecan these days. It's tempting to use applewood but it will make your chicken taste like a hot dog. Be adventurous!

    For the chicken, the trick to getting it not to stick is a nice clean grill grate and lots of vegetable oil. Get the grates hot, brush em real good, oil up the grates (I use a peanut oil soaked paper towel and tongs, but they also make sprays for this). Brush the chicken with vegetable oil too before it goes on the grill.

    With that said, here's my step by step:

    Light the charcoal, when it's ready set up your grill for 2 zone cooking (all the charcoal on one side of the grill). Pile the charcoal up so that it's within a couple inches of the cooking grate. Cover and let the grill get hot for a few minutes.

    While you are waiting for the grill to be ready, brush vegetable oil on the chicken (be sure to use skin-on cuts) Salt and pepper to season.

    Grab your grill brush and give that hot grill grate a good scrub, then oil the grates with vegetable oil. Cover and give the grill a few minutes to get that grate good and hot again.

    Place the chicken skin side down directly over the charcoal to sear 1 to 2 minutes. Don't worry about flare ups, the flames won't be licking your chicken long enough to do any damage.

    Now that your chicken has a good sear flip it over skin side up and move to the charcoal free side of the grill. Now is a good time to add any hardwood chunks to the coals for smoking. Cover the grill and adjust the top and bottom vents to get your hardwood smoldering, then adjust again to aim for a temperature about 300 F. This is where learning your grill and charcoal comes in to play, it will take a few grilling sessions to really dial this in. If it is your first time a good place to start is set both vents half open, wait several minutes, check the temp and adjust from there. Remember more airflow = more heat and, potentially less smoke if your hardwood gets enough oxygen to stop smoldering and full on ignite. Once you are satisfied with your vent placement, let the chicken cook for 30 minutes.

    After 30 minutes are up, flip the chicken skin side down and brush the side facing up with your favorite bbq sauce. Cover and cook 20 minutes.

    Flip the chicken again skin side up and move the chicken close to but not over the charcoal. Now brush the skin side with your favorite bbq sauce. Cover and cook 10 mins (or longer depending on how "cooked on" you like your sauce). Give it a quick check with a meat thermometer and you're done! Sweet sticky smokey tender juicy delicious chicken is now yours.

    Feel free to experiment with different hardwoods, sauces, seasonings, marinades, etc. There's a lot of potential here to really make it your own.

    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • NobeardNobeard North Carolina: Failed StateRegistered User regular
    Uhhhhhhh... how do you make good looking omelette? My daughter is on an omelette kick thanks to grandpa, and I can't make them look as good as his. Mine wind up either overdone on one side or raw on the inside and they fall apart. They taste fine to me, but my daughter can be picky sometimes.

    FWIW, she likes plain cheese.

  • ChanusChanus Harbinger of the Spicy Rooster Apocalypse The Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered User regular
    Nobeard wrote: »
    Uhhhhhhh... how do you make good looking omelette? My daughter is on an omelette kick thanks to grandpa, and I can't make them look as good as his. Mine wind up either overdone on one side or raw on the inside and they fall apart. They taste fine to me, but my daughter can be picky sometimes.

    FWIW, she likes plain cheese.

    a french style omelet is really thin like a crepe so the idea is spreading it around the pan and using a pan large enough that it can spread out thinly

    a more IHOP style omelet you want to keep pushing in toward the center and letting the still runny eggs pour down and fill in the gap you just made. once that has taken care of most of the runny eggs you flip it in the pan (mostly in the wrist. takes some practice but is really easy once you get it down. if you want to practice without making a mess start out flipping a piece of toast)

    Allegedly a voice of reason.
  • JavenJaven Registered User regular
    edited August 2017
    I've never heard about a french omelette being defined by its thickness, or lack thereof. French style omelettes to me have always been about using a lower overall heat, so the butter doesn't brown and the skin is smoother, and the insides are runnier, whereas US style omelettes are basically just one big sheet of scrambled egg thats folded, usually with more fillings than french style.

    Doneness is something that you're just going to have to learn over time, but the biggest part is heat control and motion; it sounds like you're working with too hot a pan, so the bottom is fully cooked, without giving the insides a chance to also warm up. Try cooking at a lower temperature for a longer period, and after it's taken its basic shape, make sure and spread around the remaining, still liquified egg, so it can also get contact with the pan. High heat is something you should really consider only if you're going with the classic french technique, but that will give you a very, very runny inside, which many find to be unappetizing, or straight up unhealthy.

    Javen on
  • VishNubVishNub Registered User regular
    As always:

    http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/04/food-lab-american-omelettes-ham-and-cheese.html

    http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/04/how-to-make-french-omelette.html

    I haven't tried the French one -- though I did do a Julia Childs version a while back that was good -- the American style one turned out very well.

  • SoggybiscuitSoggybiscuit Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator Registered User regular
    So, my garden has been producing lots of fresh tomatoes and I decided to make a Bolognese-style sauce with them.

    The base:

    3 quarts peeled and diced fresh paste tomatoes
    1 lb (or so) of sweet red cherry tomatoes (You can peel these, but it really wasnt worth the extra work and I only found a few big pieces of skin in the final sauce)
    1 medium sweet onion diced finely.
    8 cloves of thinly sliced garlic
    1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
    A bouquet garni consisting of fresh thyme, basil, and oregano (Should be fairly large. Alternatively, I chopped the basil leaves and added directly to the sauce)
    ~2 tablespoons dried parsley
    4 bay leaves now
    14.5 oz. cans of tomato sauce, as needed to thin sauce
    2-4 tablespoons tomato paste
    Salt to taste
    1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
    1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
    1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

    The meat:

    1.5 lbs. ground beef or chuck
    1 lb. Sweet Italian sausage
    2 bay leaves
    ~1/2 cup dry Marsala wine

    The sauce:

    Preheat a dutch oven with about 3/4 of the oil in it to about ~300 F on the stove. Add the diced onion and red pepper flakes and sweat until the onion is translucent and very soft and starting to darken. Add the sliced garlic and continue to saute until soft. Remove the mix from the dutch oven and add the cherry tomatoes, cooking until they soften and the skins burst. Add the onion/garlic mix back in, the rest of the tomatoes and all remaining sauce ingredients and simmer on low until everything is very soft. Remove from the heat, remove the bay leaves and bouquet garni and blend the sauce until smooth (I used a stick blender). Place back on the heat at a low simmer.

    The meat:

    Break up the Italian sausage into chunks and fry in a separate pan, allowing the bits to brown. Once done, add to the sauce with any accumulated fat. In the same pan, add the bay leaves and ground beef. Break the beef up and fry until all fat has rendered out and the beef is starting to brown nicely. Remove the bay leave, drain all but a tablespoon or two of the fat, and add the beef to the sauce. Deglaze the pan with the Marsala add it to the sauce.

    Final:

    Let the sauce simmer for at least an hour after everything is in the pan, supplementing with the canned tomato sauce if it becomes to thick. I needed 2 cans to make mine an appropriate consistency, but it would have been fine with 1 if I didn't add any beef to it. Makes about 4 quarts overall.

    Serve over favorite pasta and enjoy. I would post a picture but the wife and I ate it all.

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  • SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Nobeard wrote: »
    Uhhhhhhh... how do you make good looking omelette? My daughter is on an omelette kick thanks to grandpa, and I can't make them look as good as his. Mine wind up either overdone on one side or raw on the inside and they fall apart. They taste fine to me, but my daughter can be picky sometimes.

    FWIW, she likes plain cheese.

    Here you go:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFCpQ0I3SYk

  • CelestialBadgerCelestialBadger Registered User regular
    Nobeard wrote: »
    Uhhhhhhh... how do you make good looking omelette? .

    Small, nonstick pan.

  • SoggybiscuitSoggybiscuit Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator Registered User regular
    Slow Cooker Stock

    I totally did this on a whim, by the way

    6 quart slow cooker
    2.5 quarts of water
    2 carrots, quartered
    3 stalks of celery, halved
    1 medium onion, quartered
    2 bay leaves
    1 tablespoon peppercorns
    1 tablespoon kosher salt
    1 tablespoon cumin seed
    3 lbs. chicken wings

    Mix ingredients. Cook on high for about 8 hours.

    Strain with a strainer and cheesecloth. Pressure can or freeze.

    Turned out a nice color, and it is gelatinous!!!!


    Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I feel like I've finally come close to having my spices for my chili dialed in. But I cheated. I went with:

    1 Tbsp Cumin
    1 Tbsp Curry Powder (my "secret" that adds some depth of flavor without adding spiciness)
    1/2 Tsp Chili Powder (I'd use more, but my wife and kids don't like spicy food)
    2 Bay leaves
    1-2 Tsp Paprika
    1-2 Tsp Basil

    Now the reason I say I cheated is because I used one can of "Garlic and onion" chopped tomatoes and about a half a jar of spaghetti sauce we had open. Between those two additions, it helped even the flavor out so that it wasn't so "tomato-ey" / acidic tasting. I typically add 1-2 Tsp of sugar to help counteract the tomato taste, but it wasn't needed this time around.

    If I had my druthers, I'd add one small can of green chilis, and I could probably drop the chili powder and maybe the paprika.

  • That_GuyThat_Guy I don't wanna be that guy Registered User regular
    edited August 2017
    I made a steak tonight. I know it's pleb, but I really like basic A1 steak sauce. For a side I made a rice dish. Right at the end I mixed in frozen green beans and a can of cream of mushroom. The steak was the real star of the show. T-bones were on sale for 7 bucks a pound. I just couldn't say no. I made a marinade with soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, canola oil and steak seasonings. I fired up a chimney full of natural lump charcoal and set them at medium height. Right before putting the steak on I fanned the coals with my electric air duster. I like to start my steaks on a little bit lower heat until it's just about done. Right at the end I brought the coals up as high as the crank would take them for a final high temp sear. I rested in a foil pouch while I plated everything else. It was so good I almost forgot to document the final results.

    w5n7lrcmvkyd.jpg

    That_Guy on
  • MNC DoverMNC Dover Full-time Voice Actor Kirkland, WARegistered User regular
    Over the last few months I've been cutting out bad foods from my diet in order to lose weight and eat healthier. First went sweets (ice cream, shakes, cake, sodas, etc), followed by chips (doritos, lays, etc), and now french fries (so hard!).

    So far so good, but I'm really starting to get cravings between meals. Currently I eat an apple or some fruit to get by but was hoping you fine folks might have some healthy, yet tasty, snack options?

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