What's for dinner?

sburns said:

Ah man, no shortcuts I guess...
Ok thanks will do!

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Get a cookbook that has basic techniques in and go from there. Things like making and thickening sauces (basic white sauces can be turned into tons of things), how to braise meats, how to make a pie crust, batters, deglazing etc. I had a French one that has a bunch of basic stuff in that was the basis for a cordon bleu cooking school that was good. Lots of meals are variations on one dish so learn some classic dishes like boeuf bourginon for example (then you can play around with a bunch of different stews depending on what you like...cooked with vinegar for stiffado or with paprika for goulash, or even curry spices and yoghurt or cream etc).

Some dishes sound fancy but are actually easy to cook once you get the techniques down. Lobster bisque is really simple (learn to make a roux, and then learn how to make a brown roux) and creme brulee is really simple once you learn how to make a basic custard (creme brûlée just uses a very creamy custard but it still needs to set properly). Chocolate mousse is really simple to make as long as you learn how to fold ingredients together without removing the air from the whisked parts (egg whites). Crepes made with buckwheat flour batter are tasty and can be filled with a bunch of things. Once you learn how to cook the batter for them they are simple. All these techniques can be used for other dishes too. Stir fries are great as they are quick and easy but you use the same techniques to make something like a Pad Thai from scratch too (more ingredients and a tamarind/fish sauce base). Most soups are variations of broth types or cream types and are really easy too. Tom Yum soup from scratch is easy to do if you have a decent Asian grocery nearby for lime leaves, galangal and lemongrass but it’s just the same soup techniques but with different ingredients.

My neighbour is a chef and when I head to his house for a meal I rarely see him cook things without a thermometer for meat so get a cooking guide for meat and a decent thermometer and use that too.

Hmm...what else....decent pans help and a decent chef's knife and paring knife help. Anything added to that is a benefit. I enjoy cooking and have a kitchen filled with kitchen gadgets and a whole bunch of herbs and spices that I get from various places. I visit grocery stores and markets on vacations and bring things back too. Gadgets I’d never be without are my kitchen aid stand mixer, breville food processor and now the vitamix blender.

I have to add though that my background is as a chemist. Cooking is just like being in the lab for me. Cooking is just experiments you can eat.

Healthclinicusa said:

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Edited quote to remove Advertising


Where is the BAN hammer when we need it,

Kedo said:

Where is the BAN hammer when we need it,

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Right here.

Quick and efficient.
Thank you.

JavaFan said:

salmon looks fantastic KW
first glance I though it was a brisket
I have a bit of a thing for slow cooked brisket

day off, football day, up early for the motoGP
now a few cold drinks on a dreary day and some cooking
recently discovered the Mott's Caesars with been juice
total health drink, 2 out of 3 food groups checked off for the day
if combined with a bag of Smart Food, you're g2g

have a chicken cut up, marinating for half the day
lime, garlic, black pepper and a pinch of Vegeta
my attempt to emulate Pollo Tropicale, a chicken joint in Miami
Cuban style BBQ chicken, best fast food I've tried

later will be slow cooked on my mining nomad portable grill

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Looks great and sounds tasty! Nice scratch prep.

sburns said:

Looking at what you are all posting, I really need to upgrade my cooking....or at least cook..

Any recommendations on sites to check out for someone to learn a cook some stuff. Nothing complicated, at least to do better.

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Hope you are finding stuff. As Joe Bass mentions, lots of good ideas in this thread. If you want to up your game I'll mention what I call the trifecta of cooking. Spend a little more and use quality/premium ingredients (including fresh); it makes a significant difference. Make notes and refine the cook. And finally better tools give you better cooks. Great tools makes a huge difference when talking about a grill or bbq for example. I use a temp probe for many cooks. The Instant pot has been great to me as well with many excellent recipes.

I recommend picking some meals you enjoy and want to try cooking and then google recipes for them. That's how I've found a number of meals here. I also peruse Instant pot meals on the internet and facebook to get new ideas. Same thing with the amazing ribs website for grill cooks. You'll find a number of recipes from easy to complex, and often reviewed which is great feedback. Pick one that appeals to you and run with it. I do recommend starting with easier and more simple cooks first. And finally, as one gets more experience and comfort it becomes easier to riff on recipes and adjust cooks. Good luck and enjoy.




Here are a few more meals.

Another burst cherry tomato sauce spaghetti. This is the best one I've made. Super photogenic and tasty :agave::agave:



Big resolution pictures (click on them to view and zoom). Excellent orange staining of the spaghetti.
More of the Instant pot potato salad. Excellent. :agave::agave:

Cheers

sburns said:

Looking at what you are all posting, I really need to upgrade my cooking....or at least cook..

Any recommendations on sites to check out for someone to learn a cook some stuff. Nothing complicated, at least to do better.

Click to expand...

Pick up a copy of the book "How To Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman



It's a huge book filled with all of the kitchen basics. It's well written and easy to follow. It covers everything from kitchen equipment and selection, basic cooking techniques and has recipes and methods to cook just about anything.

Kedo said:

Edited quote to remove Advertising


Where is the BAN hammer when we need it,

Click to expand...

Brian P said:

Right here.

Click to expand...

Kedo said:

Quick and efficient.
Thank you.

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-- sorry guys, what am I missing here? What are we banning? And what advertising are you referring to? --

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

Joe Bass said:

-- sorry guys, what am I missing here? What are we banning? And what advertising are you referring to? --

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

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Sorry, I think I get it...spam account created for advertising....pointed out and post deleted. Got it.
I don't want anyone messing with food or threads that involve food!

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

Joe Bass said:

Sorry, I think I get it...spam account created for advertising....pointed out and post deleted. Got it.
I don't want anyone messing with food or threads that involve food!

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

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Good guess Joe.
Yes, once the Mod deleted the user, I removed the Ad in the quote so it did not get airtime.
It was garbage in the middle of a good food thread. No food. Pills.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming. =}

Full boat low and slow 4+ hr cook of pork back ribs from the Weber Summit. (All are big pictures)
One rack done char siu style (half rack cut, half rack uncut); they are amazing. 5 star :agave: :agave:



The other rack I did BBQ (rub and sauce style). I used premium Misty Mountain national competition award winning BBQ sauce. :agave: :agave:


Here's a picture of the early cook setup, grill, water trays and all.


Served with simple garlic bread.

Cheers

They look good. It’s been a while since I made ribs on the BBQ but I made my own BBQ sauce last time I did it and it turned out really well. Brown sugar or molasses, tomato sauce, vinegar, then tune with whatever you want, tamarind, sriracha, honey, chiles, garlic, lemongrass etc. Blend it all down into a smooth sauce then cook it to the right thickness. I think it kept pretty well too.

My toms have been ripening in the house and we managed to can 4 mason jars full of processed sauce. Used a whole bunch of other toms roasted on the BBQ with onion and a poblano pepper and garlic to make tortilla soup with some strips of pan roasted tortillas. Serve the soup with pickled jalapeños, sour cream, cheese and avocado slices and cilantro and it’s a meal in a bowl. Perfect for a cool fall day.

It's been a while, so many great cooks.

Now that it's getting colder, I'll be cooking more often.
Made mussels today but didn't get to take pictures. Mussels were simple done with hot Italian sausage, potatoes, lots of garlic, onion and chicken broth with a touch Pernod added at the end after steaming all the mussels. Served it with some steamed green beans, crusty bread and a simple salad.

Here's something from mid October.



Wild boar tenderloin with a mustard cream sauce, served with roasted peppers and onions, corn and plum succotash, greens(hidden on the bottom) and topped with charred ramps With a delicious side of Delicata squash chips.

join me at The Church Public Inn, Palgrave in Caledon dinners Wed - Sun @ 4:30

Hey Bishop! Great to see you back. Love the next level meals you bring with pictures . Post 'em up.

I expect to have some more great meal posts and pictures. Anybody have some nice meals planned for this long weekend? Now that the summer specials are gone I'm planning some cooks and referring to my long recipe list. Today I spent ~$345 at the grocer with a rough plan for the next few weeks and picking up a few last chance sales for the season. My chest freezer is full again. Cheers

Another meal here. This is Asian wok stir fry pad see ew based on a box kit. I used fresh garden carrots and onions plus broccoli. Lots of flat rice noodles. Easy, tasty and filling. :agave:



I finished curing the lava molcajete I picked up. Here's after grinding some dry rice, adding some water and then more grinding.



Taking the rice down to a slurry paste with more water and grinding. It takes some effort; I did this slowly and repetitively 5 times. You can see all the grit coming off of the molcajete as it's cured (specks of black in the rice slurry making it look like pepper).



The last step is curing with fresh garlic, chiles (jalapeno here) and sea salt.



Here's after a quick initial grind. You can see how the coarse lava texture of the molcajete gives great results. It's quick and effective.



I ground down the ingredients a little more and let them sit for three hour and it's done. Bring on the meals.



Cheers

that gadget is uber cool KW.....gonna have to get one
I guess over half the world's pop is still cooking with primitive gear like that

some places, the introduction of cooking fuels other than wood or charcoal are trans-formative
can't remember exactly, but there are regions of Africa that are completely deforested from charcoal production
carbon reduction stuff, turned into massive carbon emitting stuff

my mining days in west Africa, always had a cobbled up BBQ of some kind
would get one of the locals to bring me a bag of charcoal
was usually a grain sack full of hand made charcoal for about 2 bucks
the charcoal typically outlasts the job

Thx Javafan. It's a great tool. And a nice art piece as well. I'll be leaving the molcajete out on diplay on the counter or table. I was watching Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown this morning and on the Seattle episode was a lava molcajete on the table in a food scene. Small world.


Characoal grilling is some work but great. It's a dying art. I'm a huge grill fan. Open flame cooking is definitely best to me. Pick whatever method. I use my grill year round and more often than I use the stove.







I used extra ingredients in that molcajete curing so that I could put some aside for food. I took some of the extra garlic, jalapeno and salt paste and mixed in a few chopped chipotles in adobo sauce (from the can) together.



From there I added that mixture a bunch of Newman's own premium salsa, plus some diced fresh garden onion and chives. A+ results



Nacho time.



This is another third of that pad see ew box I used in another Asian stir fray cook. This time for a change I added shiitake mushrooms, basswood black fungus, cashews and chili flakes to the same ingredients as before (shrimp, onion, carrot, broccoli and flat rice noodles). It's a less sweet meal, with some spice and a more earthy flavour. Tasty.



Cheers and enjoy the weekend.

A few more cooks. With the change in weather my meals plans have changed up as well. I made the Instant pot Trinidadian doubles recently again. :agave::agave:






Here's the dough for the meal. Each ball is one double, cut it in half for two pieces. 8 doubles here.

The great thing about this method is that I can cook the dough fresh for each meal having the filling leftovers over a number of days. Its a simple and very short vegetable oil skillet cook. The filling gets better as it consolidates for a number of days after the cook.


I made some more of those PC PEI mussels in Thai green curry sauce with toasted pita bread for dipping. Simple, easy, fast and tasty. :agave:



Cheers

This is the last Asian wok cook of that box pad see ew stir fry. This one I went back to the simple/sweet style again. Made with garden onion and carrots plus broccoli, sesame seeds and diced chicken breast. :agave::agave:



Went out to the Tianjin dumpling restaurant again already, maybe a few more times too. This food is amazing. When I go out I try to get what I don't make at home and it's usually some type of cultural food.
A pan fried pork dumpling dish plus an eggplant with pork stir fry dish :agave::agave:


Scallion pancake :agave::agave:

This restaurant has some prototypical flags for great cultural food.
1 It's in a bad part of town (cheaper rents). Someone high on meth literally walked into a business in that area and stabbed a person in the face/eye.
2 It's a very basic place. It's an old unrenovated building. It appears to be a converted house. The entrance has that 70's style small separate room set-up, plywood walls and all to separate the entrance from the rest of the room room. I assume to keep the heat from escaping. There's no cashier area and no cash register either. It's small and there are only 6-7 plain tables. All surrounded with dated, old, basic and inexpensive interior treatments.
3 It's a mom and pop operation.
4 Mom and pop hardly speak any English. The menu is also in Mandarin.
5 I was a visible minority patron in the restaurant (if you see lots of Asian people in an Asian restaurant that's a very good sign).


Made Instant pot tapioca rice pudding again. Very easy and very good. :agave::agave:



Cheers and enjoy the weekend.

Anybody have some food and meal pics?