|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
My journey to find Food Perfection![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Elf_Lunch/19.jpg) Sandwhich fillers - one of my gf's projects
My gf studies Food Technology - it isn't cooking, it is more or less Food Engineering or the study of how to mass produce food or developing things used in industrial food production. It surprises a lot of people, but in our house I actually do all the cooking (when I can be bothered). However, part of her Food tech. has rubbed off on me. I was never taught to cook by anyone, I just picked up what I could when I could, but I have a drive within me to create perfect food - or at least to my audience (aka myself and my gf).
My issue with stuff you buy at the supermarket is that a lot of the stuff is pre-prepared for you. You can buy pre-made satay sauce, you can buy pre-made pancake batter mix, pre-made pasta sauce - but all of these are more expensive than the ingredients that have gone into make them. Moreover, they aren't perfect and not all of them are to my liking. As a student, ease of preparation and price are all factors when I try to improve on what is store bought.
Thus far I have discovered/perfected a number of general recipes, in particular the following
- (a basic) Pancake
- Crepes (not the same as above!)
- Sandwhich filler, as pictured above
- Mashed potato
- Some mexican corn/zucchini dish
- Satay Sauce (for chicken, beef or beans)
- A White, Red and Rose Pasta Sauce
- Chicken noodle soup
- Lemonade syrup
I also have a few speciality recipes that I cook up when I feel like making something special - on the whole these are more expensive and more technical than the stuff listed above.
To devise these recipes I essentially cooked them 2-5 times a week until I was satisfied with the end result, and then stored in my recipe compendium (a fancy way of saying I added them to my LaTeX cookbook).
There are also things which I can't make perfect, and the one that pains me the most is roast potatoes. Now a good roast potato isn't that hard to make (just don't forget oil, proper seasoning, and knowing what about what temperature the oil needs to start 'deep-frying' things, although you won't be deep frying the potatoes haha). But perfection requires specific ingredients (or so my research tells me) specifically very floury potatoes (like maris piper). However, thus far I haven't been able to obtain very floury potatoes in NZ yet since they don't disclose which variety is on sale =/... oh well.
If you ever want to impress people with your cooking skills, or simply fake it for the sake of looking good, here is my very easy pasta sauce which tastes better than 90% of the pasta sauces that are out there. Plus, pasta is dead easy to cook (add pasta, add water, add salt and cook until it when you try a piece, it is cooked!) I have three sauces, take your pick!!
White Pasta Sauce - goes well with bacon, good for lunches!
+ Show Spoiler +Ingredients:
- 200-250ml (around 1 cup) cream (cream for cooking works better)
- 2 tbsp parmesean cheese (I like to add more, but 2tbsp is a good place to start)
- bacon (optional) as much as you like! (generally 1-2 rashes)
- Pepper (around 1 tsp, but to taste really)
- Green onion/spring onion diced (I like to use around 1-2tbsp, but again, as much as you like)
Method:
- Get a saucepan/pot, add a tiny bit of oil and cook bacon in it
- When cooked, add cream and stir it through
- Add cheese/pepper/onion and stir until melted
- Add to pasta and enjoy!
Can always substitute bacon for chicken, veges like zucchini (for vegetarians, not vegans though!), or simply take it out.
Red Pasta Sauce - goes well with meatballs or any minced beef, good for dinner!
+ Show Spoiler +Ingredients:
- 1 Can of Tomatoes (if you can afford it, get cherry tomatoes!)
- 1/2 Cup White Wine, dry if possible
- 1/2 Large Onion/1 Medium Onion
- 1 tsp of minced garlic
- 1 tbsp of chopped dried basil (dno how much fresh!)
- salt and pepper to taste
And the most important ingredient to stop it tasting like average sauce!!
- Brown Sugar!!!
Method:
- Dice (or grate if you are lazy) the onion
- Get a pot and add around 1-2tbsp of oil and cook onion in it until onion is soft
- Add tomatoes, wine, garlic, basil and simmer for about 10 minutes
- Tomatoes should be soft, bash them up with a fork/spoon so that they aren't in massive blocks
- Add salt and pepper and taste, you should be able to taste the salt and it should be a bit sour (from wine/tomatoes)
- Add 1tbsp brown sugar, taste - repeat until it no longer tastes sour or tastes as desired (I use 2 tbsp)
- Add to pasta and/or minced meat and enjoy!
![[image loading]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3492/3966770823_d4143fae1d_o.jpg) This is a rose sauce, from premade sauces aka noob, taken from someones blog
Rose Sauce - looks orange  goes very well with shredded chicken, good for lunch, easiest of the sauces to make
+ Show Spoiler +Ingredients:
- 1 can tomatoes
- 1 Cup Cream (cream for cooking is superior if you can get it)
- 1/2 cup white wine, dry if possible
- Salt to taste
- Shredded chicken (optional)
And once again, the secret ingredient!
- Brown sugar
Method:
- Add tomatoes/wine to a pot and simmer for 10 minutes
- Add salt (taste the sauce to make sure it is sufficiently seasoned!)
- Add 1tbsp brown sugar, taste - repeat until it no longer tastes sour or tastes as desired (I use 2 tbsp)
- Add cream and stir through until combined
- (optional) add shredded chicken
- Add to pasta and enjoy!
You'll note that I use white wine instead of red in the above sauces, I find that when you're only cooking the sauce for 10minutes that white gives a better flavour than red. Red, imo, is more suited to longer cooking times (which requires advance preparation, which I can't be fucked doing - to be honest with you). Also you'll note the use of one unconventional ingredient in the red and rose sauces, this is fairly typical of my experimenting when things aren't quite right! e.g. my Satay sauce uses maple syrup =]!
Why did I make this blog!?!
I didn't make this blog to show off, rather, I am stuck.
I can't decide on what I should work on next. The red/rose pasta sauces are actually my most recent project and I was extremely happy with the results. However now I don't really know what to work on next. Basically all I need is an idea of what to cook and a starting recipe or a restaurant that makes it well (e.g. the satay sauce was inspired by a Thai place near where I live that makes amazing satay, I think mine is better now though ~!).
So TL, what should I work on next?! I was thinking curry puffs of some description, but I have no idea where to start. However, some general dinner things would be useful as well like an easy steak sauce or a good steak seasoning. I also found a recipe for crispy garlic chicken which sounded tempting, but again, I'm not sure (this would be my half-hearted attempt at something katsu like). I suppose I could do some dessert stuff, I made a pretty good rhubarb thing the other day (again with a not so secret ingredient) but maybe some dessert pie or something? With this all said, I'm very open to whatever ideas TL has for me so fire away!! (Also, if you want a recipe from the above list, lemme know and I will provide!)
 
|
I'm a food noob but that looks tasty o.o
|
Strawberry rhubarb pie ez.
Also, how can you list all of the recipes you have devised without posting them!!??
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
Mostly because they are all in my head, and thus would have to write them down. And I really can't be bothered writing them all down in one sitting. However, if requested I will write them!
|
what do you mean "one of my gf's project" do you have multiple gfs?
also thanks for foodporn
i have the same way of cooking as you, no formal teaching i just try to pick up whatever i can from friends and relatives and the occasional show on tv or internet recipe. i wouldn't ever claim that i've perfected anything though but my bearnaisse sauce is pretty good now that you're all about sauces.
+ Show Spoiler +
-Ingredients
-2 egg yolks
-2 one tbs of white wine vinegar
-1 tbs of water
-half a red onion VERY FINELY chopped
-estragon
-fresh chervil finely chopped
-a ton of butter (like 300g will make a nice portion for 4 people)
put the butter in a pot and melt it at medium low heat, don't burn it
heat the yolks water and vinegar in a pot at medium heat (a bit lower if it's your first time) and whip like a crazy man. first it'll get foamy and then it'll get creamy and when you can see the bottom of the pot from the whipping you add the finely chopped red onion
turn the heat to low start SLOWLY adding the butter while still whipping like a crazy man. you don't want to do this too fast or the sauce will "separate" (not sure of the english word here but it will stop being delicious and instead become yucky. it's a one way road there's nothing you can do but throw it in the dump)
when all the butter has been added whip for a little more then take off heat and add the etragon and chervil
goes with fucking everything. ... but i make it with a nice steak and some potatoes and asparagus, and it all takes like 30 mins to cook. it's an impressive and fast dish, but not too too easy.
i'd like the mashed potato recipe, my sister makes a good one but i'm a real potato fan and i'd love to see what you've figured out.
|
This looks delicious, i'm going to try that this week!!!! Feel free to update this blog with new recipes and i'll test em 
I usually get my recipes (if i feel like cooking) from www.foodgawker.com thats one sexy porn site.
|
I think you should try using sugar in your cooking more often.
I'm a shitty cook, but my gf makes great authentic chinese foods and sauces. Sugar seems to be a key ingredient. Sugar is the key.
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
Sauces are great because they make boring food not so boring. Like, I can't raise livestock myself so I can't prepare them as I'd like so the next best thing is to dress up a piece of steak with a sauce or nice seasoning.
It's one of my gf's food tech projects I only have one gf but it was her project originally (I just took over it :p lol).
There's a ton of things you can do with mashed potato, but I find the key is quality ingredients and knowing your audience. Firstly, you can't overlook what potato you use (if you're going for perfection - I don't have the luxury). If you can, don't get floury potatoes; I find all purpose (general) potatoes the best for mashing. The dressing up of it is audience specific, I like garlic and I like butter so my recipe is obviously skewed that way. However, my gf doesn't like garlic so I avoid it when cooking for her. There's also the cream vs milk debate - the lighter the milk (i.e. less cream) the better it is for you, but the worse (imo) it tastes. Using cream gives a far superior product (same goes for scrambled eggs, lol) but milk is often more accessible and cheaper.
For me this is the best combination of stuff to add after potatoes are cooked (in salt, obviously) and you are about to mash (I usually cook 3 medium potatoes)
- 1 heaped tsp buttery (type of margarine enhanced to taste like butter, approx 1 tbsp if you like more accurate measures)
- 1 tbsp cream (or milk)
- between 1/2 - 3/4 tsp of minced garlix; with preference to liquid over the minced bits
However, some alternates are
- sour cream (1/2 tub about 100ml)
or for a spicy mashed (takes people off guard haha )
- 1tbsp cream
- 1tsp schezuan seasoning (or powderd chilli); I supposed hotsauce would work too
- 1 heaped tsp buttery/butter
But yeah, I think after the butter/milk base is added to the potatoes you can start doing more interesting things (e.g. blended onion also works) or keep things simple. They also work really well with chip dips, so if you have a favourite creamy chip dip (e.g. french onion) then you can add that instead of everything else to create unique flavours.
Your sauce has interested me, I will seriously consider trying that (and improving, if possible!)
On September 20 2011 22:10 Zorkmid wrote:Mmmmm, store bought bread and jam and burnt chicken on pasta. Looks delicious! Take a second look at the bread - the left is a bacon/tomato salsa and the other is shredded chicken with some storebought tandoori chicken sauce (T_T - failure!). The second picture isn't my own, it's merely there to illustrate what rose sauce looks like!
|
Ares[Effort]
DEMACIA6550 Posts
Shouldn't have looked, so hungry now
|
United States4796 Posts
Yeah, agree with Ares[EffOrt]. This is serious food porn ova hurr.
|
|
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
On September 20 2011 22:15 Galaxy_Zerg wrote:
sticky b uns
Oh god don't get me started about bread. I got a breadmaker this year and I have been trying to devise what makes a good loaf and I have been failing miserably. Bah!
|
|
|
My experience as a hobby-cook:
You can make anything savoury more delicious if you add roasted onions.
No exceptions.
Except Pizza.
|
I don't drink wine at all, is there a specific kind of wine to look for when purchasing the wines you talked about or some kind of qulaity of them?
|
You should check out Jamie Oliver's 30min meals.
It might not be exactly what you are looking for but you can get some good ideas from chefs and their cooking shows , and they are easy to change and tailor to how you like it aswell.
I REALLY like jamies 30min meal thing cause I have never been super good at making a main kinda thing and then a side dish, and he shows you the process and how to get everything done, even a desert for the fastest time.
here is an episode
The chef at my work tells me sooo many helpful tips and gives me recipes and stuff.
I have learned to make some super easy salad dressings, this cherry tomatoe one is sooo good.
Just cherry tomatoes, olive oil, and vinegar is the basics of it, but you can add tomatoe paste, smokey paprika, garlic, salt, pepper, some sugar if the tomatoes aren't so great, put it all in a magic whizzer and then you can use it for lots of different things.
She also gave me some great ideas with butter, like not just plain old garlic butter but sundried tomato and olive butter, but basically you can add a bunch of things you think will be nice togeather whizz it up with some butter and hey you have a nice extra flavour you can add to things.
I really do like Jamie's 30 min meals though cause I can really make a plan and try new things and get tips and ideas and make something pretty fast, so when i get home from uni I can go to the gym and get back home and make something before my partner gets home from work.
I completely agree with you on stuff bought from the supermarket, Their sauces can be used as an e-z ready made base for something else you are making, but mostly they are just rubbish and so yucky compared to what you can make yourself.
I really like making pesto and a creamy pesto sauce for gnocchi, pesto is super e-z and really cheap if you grow your own basil.
I really like cooking pasta not just in water but in stock so it gets that extra hit of flavour.
Like if I cook the gnocchi in some stock and make it super spicey and I make my pesto sauce with some added chashews, and fry up some onion (or shallots but they are expensive  ), garlic, add in my pesto and some cream, let it reduce so its thicker. Then I put my sauce on my extra flavoured gnocchi and it is yummy, you get this great hit of spice.
Just go and get some recipe books from the library, find stuff you like and play around with it.
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
On September 20 2011 22:32 Dacendoran wrote:
I don't drink wine at all, is there a specific kind of wine to look for when purchasing the wines you talked about or some kind of qulaity of them?
No idea. I am a wine noob as well. The wine I am cooking with is basically the wine I was able to steal from my gfs cousins wedding, lol. I guess cheap sav. blanc is always a good way to go
@taby
My biggest inspiration is Heston - I guess the molecular gastronomy is what is appealing in that sense. However, those foods take forever to prepare - so my challenge is finding compromise between the two. But the biggest thing following his work gives me is some kind of methodology to testing things - not that I have access to everything he does, but still it provides a starting point.
Also, the butter thing is interesting. I was almost there with my dip+potato but adding in things just to butter might be useful although I don't tend to butter things in my house.
msn me sometime btw ;o
|
Beef Jerky. Jerky is a great thing to make, and again, even your worst efforts will easily be better than packaged stuff. My general recipe as follows.
0.5 Kg of Beef. Make sure its extremely lean, and cut any fat you see out. Rump is good for this, but is generally a low quality meat.
Liquid Smoke, normally need 1-2 5oz bottles per half kilo of meat.
Soy Sauce, in similar quantities to the Liquid Smoke.
3-4 Chillies
2-3 cloves of Garlic
Sea Salt
Cracked Pepper
Slice the beef thin. Sticking it in the freezer for 30-45 minutes first will make this a lot easier. Crush the garlic. Slice the chillies. Grab a plastic container to store it all in, and start layering in the ingredients. First a layer of salt & pepper (two or three twists of the grinder should do it), a portion of the garlic & chillies, and then add a layer of beef on top. Add the liquid smoke and soy sauce in a 50-50 ratio, until the liquid is just above the level of the beef. Repeat until you run out of ingredients. Stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.
Layering like this will ensure a decent spread of seasoning's, instead of my first attempts which resulted in certain strips of jerky being a lethal and hilarious blend of garlic and chilli. You can be pretty generous with the chillies, as the seeds will wash off the beef when you strain the marinade off, so it won't get too hot. The garlic won't, so err on the lesser side. You will taste the difference if you pick up some really fresh chillies and garlic. A farmers market is usually your best bet.
When the beef is marinaded fully, strain it out. Its now time to dry it. You can do it one of two ways, the easiest is to stick it in the oven. Better results are achieved using a food dehydrator, which you can get at a local whitegoods store. If you're using the oven, pop the beef on oven racks covered in aluminium foil. Prop the door open, and leave the oven on its lowest heat setting with the fan on. (Same goes for the dehydrator, lowest heat setting possible). This will take anywhere from 4-6 hours. You'll need to turn it occasionally.
How long you leave the beef in will depend on personal taste. The longer its on, the crispier it will be. Shorter times will give you a more moist jerky. When the jerky has reached its proper crispiness level, leave it in for a bit longer (30-45 minutes). If you're like me and store the jerky in an plastic container, it will absorb a surprising amount of moisture, and turn out a bit more moist than when you took it out of the oven.
The marinade and seasoning's in this can be altered to suit your own tastes. I've tried teriyaki, worcestershire, oyster sauces, even nandos peri marinade. I don't recommend this last one, as the sauce is too thick, and tends not to drain off the beef, which means it doesn't really dry. Liquid smoke can be both expensive and difficult to find. Gourmet supermarkets will usually have it. Its not essential though, you can just use straight soy sauce if you want, or add in some of the others I've mentioned. You can also use a variety of spices. Onion salt, dried chillies and garlic salt for example. I've tried a few, but eventually I settled on fresh chillies and garlic, as it makes an amazing difference compared to the dried. As long as there is sufficient salt on the meat to aid the drying process, it doesn't really matter what seasoning's you use though.
Also you can change the meat you use. I usually use beef, because its pretty easy to find quality cuts of it. Venison is very good, as it has nearly no fat. It is generally pretty expensive though. Kangaroo is also pretty tasty, although it might be hard to find in your neck of the woods. Lamb can work, but generally has more fat than beef. This isn't a problem so much, but it does mean you have to put in more effort cutting it out. For the record, fat won't ruin the jerky, but it will go rancid after a while. The meat itself will pretty much never go bad. That said, my jerky has never lasted more than a few days, so this isn't a big problem.
|
|
|
It really depends on the fat in it. If there is pretty much no fat, it will last years. But jerky is extremely more-ish. Don't expect it to last long.
Shopping for Liquid Smoke is hilarious. Most shop attendants have never heard of it, so expect a lot of blank looks.
|
o Plexa, where is this amazing Thai place in Auckland?
|
I suggest you try cooking with beer! It seems you have already tried Wine
What's really awesome is cooking pork in beer for 3+ hours!
I'm not at my place but I'll definitely drop some ideas for recipes tonight,
|
|
|
|
|
I'm half Italian and I have no idea what the first thing is called, but some awesome stuff you can go for includes:
-It's basically sundried capsicum (or grilled in the oven for a while on lowish heat), a butt load of olive oil, some parsley, basil and I think garlic (not sure). Anyway, when you chuck that on some bread (we mostly use ciabatta or some pane di casa from my nonna) it is godly, it looks somewhat similar to the left bread in your top picture.
-I must highly recommend you going for making your own pasta, since you seem to like your pasta; it's quite easy to make (if you have some time spare, which you might not) and pretty much always tastes better than any shop pasta. The easiest to make is probably fettuccine since you just make the dough, roll it and then crank it through a machine (or only use a knife if you're gosu). My favourites, which are a bit harder would have to be gnocchi and lupini/orechiette, but fettuccine is still awesome.
If you do want these, I could get the recipes (the capsicum thing is really easy) and maybe some traditional sauces too :D
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
Agreed on homemade pasta > real pasta, but as a student - my time is limited
|
Netherlands45349 Posts
+ Show Spoiler +
Oyster Sauce, if it doesn't taste like anything, use this and voila it will taste like something
I am a student now so I don't have alot of time etc but its an easy solution.
also Soy Sauce goes with everything
Fried rice is also good the best thing is that you can add whatever you want, make it as luxerous or as simple as you want.
What I also do is I marinate my meat, this makes it(ofcourse) taste very differently and it won't even take that long for example you can marinate with some
Sugar
Soy sauce
Cooking wine(rum works)
Sesame oil
You can marinate it for 5 minutes only and you are ready to fry it, excellent for a student.
|
If you want to cook for perfection i suggest you try making Coq au vin, rooster in wine. It's the king of foods, litterally my favorite dish in the whole wide world - only reserved for special occasions. Seeing how you already like cooking with wine i guess this is your ball park.
However, it's quite a time investment. I cooked it last friday and considered making a blog about it, but i dont have a camera and not enough time. All together i think i spent 3,5 hours, though most of the times you can just let it boil by it self and do the occasional tasting.
The basic recipe is letting a rooster/hen simmer in wine, bacon, thyme, laurel, cognac, champignon, shallots (or other small onions) and loads of black pepper and salt. Its quite simply the best thing you'll ever taste. It is however a hard balancing act, letting the wine, rooster and other ingredients get their flavor (produces a sour-salty sauce rich in taste), while getting the hen tender and not cooking the shallots to pieces. Its worth the effort even on the first try, but it has so much room for improvement. I can type it up if you want to try it out.
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
|
On September 21 2011 00:22 Plexa wrote:Agreed on homemade pasta > real pasta, but as a student - my time is limited
Fresh pasta that you can find in a supermarket is a pretty good trade off and at a reasonable price. It also saves time in prep because the noodles are ready in a few minutes vs 10+.
|
Pizza!
You can use the red sauce that you already have perfected and then add toppings to your liking. But remember, it is all in the dough. As a student it is super cheap and easy, plus, it gets you in to the whole world of various flours. It took me almost a year of once a week pizza to finally perfect my dough recipe but now it is a huge hit with friends
|
United Kingdom14464 Posts
I have to eat school food in about 10 minutes. Fuck you.
|
United Kingdom14464 Posts
Also, next blog should be on the perfect sandwich.
I have my own ideas, but I'd love to see the official TL take on sandwiches.
(The previous post was meant in jest)
|
On September 20 2011 22:17 Plexa wrote:Oh god don't get me started about bread. I got a breadmaker this year and I have been trying to devise what makes a good loaf and I have been failing miserably. Bah!
Put away the breadmaker to start. I've never gotten a passable loaf out of one of those things.
|
Hey Plexa, I didn't know you liked to cook so much! Me too!
Whenever I get in a rut -- say I'm cooking the same dishes too frequently -- I just go to the supermarket and try to buy the most random things possible. One way I do this is just by purchasing the items that are on sale in the meat department and vegetable department. This ensures that you get quite an assortment. Then -- let your creativity run wild! My assumption is that you have many of the basic cooking techniques down, so experiment. Test your palette and the combination of flavors. You'll be pleasantly surprised -- and have the satisfaction of having cooked your OWN recipe!
Often, though, once I get the items I look online for a combination/flavor profile and try to imitate it. Very fun way to learn new recipes and create your own.
Cheers! <3
|
On September 20 2011 22:17 Plexa wrote:Oh god don't get me started about bread. I got a breadmaker this year and I have been trying to devise what makes a good loaf and I have been failing miserably. Bah!
You can use the bread machine for mixing and rising, then pull the dough out and bake it yourself. That seems to give dramatically better results for me at least.
I've been working on sauces too. Have you done anything with sweet/spicy? I made a sauce for some fish filets that was mostly based on chicken stock, red chile oil/paste, and brown corn syrup. I also used lowry's seasoned salt and chinese five spice mix to spice it up a bit, and it came out pretty nice.
When I lived in Shanghai, sweet/sour was the most common flavor combo in sauces. (black) rice vinegar and regular refined sugar... soy sauce for sodium content and fish sauce or other spices for flavor.
Although I'm not really a sweet tooth and don't like most candies, I do like incorporating sweet flavors such as fruits into my cooking. Like mandarin oranges in a salad, or sometimes more exotic.
Maybe you can run with some of those ideas...
|
just tried the white pasta sauce and it's awesome though i added some diced tomatoes 'cause i can't eat pasta without my san marzano. i'm hooked.
|
I LOVE he spirit of this blog post. The raw, genuinely excited energy that comes off in the writing is just fantastic. The cooking experimentation is fabulous and refined and you really seem to take alt of joy in the process.
As for what to do next, what i like to do when i experiment with a new style is choose a region of the world and try to prepare a traditional dish from that region. He last time i did this i ended up with some fantastic German style soft pretzels and home made horse raddish mustard. The experimental part for me was the mustard. I have always hated American yellow mustard and wanted to make it from scratch to see if it was still awful. Which is pretty much what you said you like to do. Inspiration born out of despise.
Another method i have used when wanting to experiment was to just show up in the grocery and pick an ingredient I've never used before, Iron Chef style, and made a meal from it. This is how i taught myself to make cajun style gumbo as well as potato and leeks soup. Partially blind experimentation cab be surprisingly effective at getting you out of your comfort zone.
I hope this post helps! Gl hf. ^^
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same
|
On June 14 2013 13:23 Plexa wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same
You don't cook the eggs at all...
|
Wow, cooking the eggs..... carbonara dilemma T_T
|
On June 14 2013 13:23 Plexa wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same
Mine is pretty similar. No shallots though (but that's just bc the recipe I learned and modified off of never had as it is traditional but theyd be good in it). I do s&p after (this is esp important for the salt because I use pancetta instead of bacon which makes this dish, and most of your salt comes from there)
start pasta cook til al dente
while that is starting, pancetta in a pan with olive oil, once that starts crisping nice, throw in garlic. while that is softening, mix your egg and cheese (iirc, i like parm/pecorino mix, hand shredded if possible). when your pasta is done, drop it into the garlic-pancetat-oil pot with a tiny bit of salt water and coat in mixture. then remove from heat (***super important or you get scrambled eggs!) and add in egg mixture. add a lot of blackpepper, garnish with parsley, add salt if needed.
you really shouldnt need cream to make this dish awesome (tons of old school i-talians never use it). if you find it is too dry without it, tinker with how much egg/cheese mix you are using, or add in a bit more salt water from your pasta water
On June 14 2013 18:18 Passion wrote:Show nested quote +On June 14 2013 13:23 Plexa wrote:On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same You don't cook the eggs at all...
your pan is still gonna be pretty hot from cooking the pork and garlic, so when the eggs hit that and the pasta while hot, they do cook a bit. just not the same as you would pouring that in ON the burner, which would cook it entirely though. this dish is definitely 100% safe though
|
I know this is an old blog, but if you're still thinking about doing curry puffs - they're quite hard and time consuming, definitely not something for a student =\. You can make the fillings in advance, but the dough is like, impossible for me to get it right. You need practice to make it beautiful and not fall apart as well. Granted, I know I'm a terrible cook but blaghh.
Also, if you're still looking to do more of these, I could probably get a hold of some other blogger and steal translate their work for Thai menus.
|
Aotearoa39261 Posts
On June 14 2013 18:18 Passion wrote:Show nested quote +On June 14 2013 13:23 Plexa wrote:On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same You don't cook the eggs at all...
Yah Hawk explained what I meant. The first time I cooked the eggs too much because I'm an idiot who forgot about residual heat. It is more of a 'warming' of eggs perhaps I should have said something more along those lines.
On June 14 2013 23:11 QuanticHawk wrote:Show nested quote +On June 14 2013 13:23 Plexa wrote:On September 21 2011 00:56 Aphasie wrote:
Edit: And i also have the most amazing Spaghetti Carbonara recipe too! An exchange student from Rome taught it to me. Easy, yet incredibly good.
Basically: You take two egg's whip 'em together in a bowl. Add a handful of parmesan, some/a lot of black pepper and maybe some salt. You simmer 3 shallots in a lot of olive oil until they are soft and silvery (if you cook on too high heat and they get brown you have to discard them). Then fry as much bacon as you want, i prefer using real pieces of bacon (the ones you cut yourself.). Then cook the pasta, i prefer using penne, but my local store only has a good type of spaghetti - that is made by some italian company (Lorenzo) rather than a norwegian dingbat. When the pasta is al dente, add the shallots and all the oil (adds so much flavor) and the egg-mixture and bacon. Mix it. (And if you're cooking for two or more, you might wanna save some bacon on the side - nothing as irritating as having the first portion of a Carbonara when all the bacon is on the bottom of the kettle) Season with more pepper and/or parmesan. Voila! Friggin amazing pasta. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Not sure how many people will see this, but I've been making this occasionally for the past 1.5 years and it's pretty damn amazing. It's one of my go-to pasta recipes when I need something thats filling and satisfying I do use grapeseed oil as opposed to olive oil (as I really dislike the taste of olive oil) and sometimes cook the bacon with the oil before adding the shallots to give an extra oomph to the flavour the oil brings. Adding cream to the egg mixture also ups the luxury of the dish and can make the texture truly incredible. Word of warning: you don't want to cook the eggs too much else it'll end up as scrambled eggs + pasta - still tasty, but it's just not the same Mine is pretty similar. No shallots though (but that's just bc the recipe I learned and modified off of never had as it is traditional but theyd be good in it). I do s&p after (this is esp important for the salt because I use pancetta instead of bacon which makes this dish, and most of your salt comes from there) start pasta cook til al dente while that is starting, pancetta in a pan with olive oil, once that starts crisping nice, throw in garlic. while that is softening, mix your egg and cheese (iirc, i like parm/pecorino mix, hand shredded if possible). when your pasta is done, drop it into the garlic-pancetat-oil pot with a tiny bit of salt water and coat in mixture. then remove from heat (***super important or you get scrambled eggs!) and add in egg mixture. add a lot of blackpepper, garnish with parsley, add salt if needed. you really shouldnt need cream to make this dish awesome (tons of old school i-talians never use it). if you find it is too dry without it, tinker with how much egg/cheese mix you are using, or add in a bit more salt water from your pasta water I'm a sucker for cream in pasta it's awesome without it but I love the texture and richness the cream adds to it. But each to their own, I suppose!
On June 15 2013 00:39 HereBeDragons wrote:
I know this is an old blog, but if you're still thinking about doing curry puffs - they're quite hard and time consuming, definitely not something for a student =\. You can make the fillings in advance, but the dough is like, impossible for me to get it right. You need practice to make it beautiful and not fall apart as well. Granted, I know I'm a terrible cook but blaghh.
Also, if you're still looking to do more of these, I could probably get a hold of some other blogger and steal translate their work for Thai menus.
My current S.E.A. problem is working out what this yellow-oil they seem to add to everything is. I've seen it used in satay, I've seen it used in vietnamese BBQ pork/beef and it just seems to make things taste good. I have no idea what it might be
|
On June 15 2013 01:24 Plexa wrote:My current S.E.A. problem is working out what this yellow-oil they seem to add to everything is. I've seen it used in satay, I've seen it used in vietnamese BBQ pork/beef and it just seems to make things taste good. I have no idea what it might be
I'm not sure what you're describing exactly, not enough clues lol. I can't think of any yellow-oil off the top of my head that you add to everything, but there is a magic powder every asian restaurant will add to everything to make them taste good: Monosodium Glutamate. I really hate this stupid powder, but every asian restaurant uses massive amount of this. It makes you feel unnaturally thirty after a meal. As I personally despise it, I never used them at home, but forced to consume them when I eat outside.
|
I've had cream in carb and other traditional dishes where it is a nice addition, but it is something that is really easily overdone! but yeah, personal tastes and all haha
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eR5Yj.jpg)
