culinary endeavors

[scurv]

I tried to make caramel this weekend. Seems to be three failures, But I'll try again next week.

Someone else shout out about your culinary endeavors

[The Glyphstone]

Making myself a pot of chili tonight.

[MonkeyBusiness]

Don't give up on your attempts to make caramel, scurv!

I make bread. I love to make bread, but it took me a while to get good at it. It also took a while to discover which tools worked best for me, and to invest in the ones I needed. The things I bought were not expensive - loaf pans, a good set of whisks, etc - but getting the right ones mattered quite a bit.

So did practicing. I have a good technique now. Also, I discovered some ingredients work better than others: some brands of yeast or flour yield a superior result, for example. But like practice, discovering which ingredients are best takes time, and trial and error.

Still, it's worth it to have fresh, home made bread.

.

[THAC0]

Salted caramel apple crumb bars, to be made before the weekend.

Made sweetpotato/beet pancakes this weekend. Sounds gross. Tastes amazing!

[scurv]

Oh I won't! I think in a month or so I should have it quite passable. I tend to fail till I win when it comes with cooking. Then tweek it forever.

[HeadlessMermaid]

I tried to make kebab the other day. Kebab means very different things to different people, but I mean the Armenian (I think) kebab, which is mincemeat with spices, shaped in sausage-shaped rolls, skewered and grilled. In the absence of a grill, you roast them in the oven. You usually serve them with yoghurt and a red sauce.

I did not have skewers, so I made them shorter and hoped they wouldn't fall apart in the process. Most didn't.

It smelled like heaven. I don't even know what spices I put eventually (there are tons of variations, so I just picked what sounded good), but I'm sure that cardamom and coriander made a huge difference.

The taste was OK, but no match for the delicious result I get in places with real cooks.

And the fail part: it was notably hard to chew. And I've no idea how to fix that. Maybe it's the meat. I used only beef, which - I've read - does tend to produce that effect in kebab (though I know for a fact that real cooks can circumvent that, god knows how). Adding lamb, or using lamb only, would take care of it, but the whole point of that adventurous endeavor was that I'm supposed to eat more beef from now on - doctor's orders.

Or maybe it's the roasting, and here I'm stumped because I rarely use the oven, and I don't really now how it works, how it behaves. So when you roast something and it turns out hard to chew, what do you do? Less heat or more heat? Less time or more time? Do you change the shape, and if so do you make them fatter or thinner?

In short, I have NO idea what I'm doing.

[Tebryn]

I tried to make kebab the other day. Kebab means very different things to different people, but I mean the Armenian (I think) kebab, which is mincemeat with spices, shaped in sausage-shaped rolls, skewered and grilled. In the absence of a grill, you roast them in the oven. You usually serve them with yoghurt and a red sauce.

I did not have skewers, so I made them shorter and hoped they wouldn't fall apart in the process. Most didn't.

It smelled like heaven. I don't even know what spices I put eventually (there are tons of variations, so I just picked what sounded good), but I'm sure that cardamom and coriander made a huge difference.

The taste was OK, but no match for the delicious result I get in places with real cooks.

And the fail part: it was notably hard to chew. And I've no idea how to fix that. Maybe it's the meat. I used only beef, which - I've read - does tend to produce that effect in kebab (though I know for a fact that real cooks can circumvent that, god knows how). Adding lamb, or using lamb only, would take care of it, but the whole point of that adventurous endeavor was that I'm supposed to eat more beef from now on - doctor's orders.

Or maybe it's the roasting, and here I'm stumped because I rarely use the oven, and I don't really now how it works, how it behaves. So when you roast something and it turns out hard to chew, what do you do? Less heat or more heat? Less time or more time? Do you change the shape, and if so do you make them fatter or thinner?

In short, I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Marinate the meat before you mince it. Pineapple juice is wondrous for this.


I've been smoking Ghost Peppers to use in a curry powder I'm making, so far so good. I've also been drying some since I live in a climate that is helpful in that process just to see how it will turn out.

[Serpentine]

I'm about to go down the street to get cream with which I intend to make a cinnamon baked custard, with cinnamon sticks and real vanilla beans.

[Traab]

My first attempt at making banana bread with chocolate chips was a mixed bag of win and loss. The win is it tasted mostly awesome. The bad news is, the chips all fell to the bottom of the batter and we had to chop off the burnt portion that was on the pan.

Someone mentioned chili. We knew sort of how to make it, so we gave it a shot. First attempt came out closer to meat sauce excellent for pasta. Second attempt came out chiliish, but bland. Third time was the charm though. We got the perfect thickness, and just enough spice for it to be a solid 2 alarms, maybe 2 and a half in heat. Enough to leave a nice tingle on our tongues, not so much we couldnt enjoy the flavor.

[celtois]

I'm planning to make a curry with pumpkin as the primary thickener (sometime this week). Probably by modifying a recipe that calls for tomatoes. I'll let you know if it turns out.

[HeadlessMermaid]

Marinate the meat before you mince it. Pineapple juice is wondrous for this.

Before I mince it? The butcher minces it, I have neither the expertise nor the tools to do it myself. Can't it be done afterwards?

Also, I'd be weary to add pineapple taste to this dish, and I wonder if there's something more appropriate that I could use.

Still, that's a neat little trick, thanks! :)

[Tebryn]

Before I mince it? The butcher minces it, I have neither the expertise nor the tools to do it myself. Can't it be done afterwards?

Also, I'd be weary to add pineapple taste to this dish, and I wonder if there's something more appropriate that I could use.

Still, that's a neat little trick, thanks! :)

I've never marinated ground beef but you could certainly do it I'm sure.

As for other things, Pineapple doesn't have much of a flavor when used as a marinade though you could certainly use other things. vinegar of any variety though I like Apple Cider vinegar. Anything that's highly acidic like tomato sauce, lemon/orange juice/lime juice, pineapple juice....the list is a long one that should fit into your desires quite well.

[Katana_Geldar]

My first attempt at making banana bread with chocolate chips was a mixed bag of win and loss. The win is it tasted mostly awesome. The bad news is, the chips all fell to the bottom of the batter and we had to chop off the burnt portion that was on the pan.

Try coating them in flour, that can work. Or put the chips in last.

I've made quiche lorraine, the right way which is pouring the liquid after arranging the filling and cheese. It's a regular of mine but my fiance loves my cheese sauce, which I cook with mushrooms, cauliflower and brocolli.

Now I'm making cheese meatballs and crostini.

[Krazzman]

An sort of common recipe for me and my GF is the "super Teriyaki Burger" from Cooking-Comically. The also have an awesome ice-cream and chili recipe (the chili one I would test myself to adapt better to "hot" spices as they most of the time don't taste for me) on there... and some other stuff I believe.

Another quite awesome thing is... we got a Thermomix when we moved together. This thing came with an extra cookbook with a few awesome recipes. Sadly the selfmade mayonnaise contained too much mustard on our first try and I think she used too much oil and thus we had to throw it away...

So... if you want some easy cooking done? Buy a Thermomix. I know they are expensive but worth every friggin cent. You get some really awesome dips/dishes/beverages(alcoholic and non-alcoholic)/dessert recipes for it.

Another thing you could cook to actually eat more beef is:
Minced Meat (100% Beef) + beefsteak slices (like gyros or so) + onions + Curry Ketchup.
1 lb of each and 1 bottle of ketchup... I think. Not so sure about the stuff as my GF's mother made that a few weeks ago. Although instead of beefsteak slices she used Lamb.

On another note if you want to eat more beef... might search for epic meal time on youtube... they use loads of meat for their.... show.

[Eldan]

I made a plum pie yesterday, since my parents gave me a few kilos of them from their tree.

[Serpentine]

My cinnamon baked custard has been declared a success, although it separated out into two slightly different layers. I also got a cinnamon and vanilla toffee, which I dissolved into a sauce, out of it.
Btw, the apple pie (fresh apples, marmalade and real cinnamon filling and a sweet almont pastry crust) I made for my grandparents the other day was also declared successful.

[Malak'ai]

I tried to make kebab the other day. Kebab means very different things to different people, but I mean the Armenian (I think) kebab, which is mincemeat with spices, shaped in sausage-shaped rolls, skewered and grilled. In the absence of a grill, you roast them in the oven. You usually serve them with yoghurt and a red sauce.

I did not have skewers, so I made them shorter and hoped they wouldn't fall apart in the process. Most didn't.

It smelled like heaven. I don't even know what spices I put eventually (there are tons of variations, so I just picked what sounded good), but I'm sure that cardamom and coriander made a huge difference.

The taste was OK, but no match for the delicious result I get in places with real cooks.

And the fail part: it was notably hard to chew. And I've no idea how to fix that. Maybe it's the meat. I used only beef, which - I've read - does tend to produce that effect in kebab (though I know for a fact that real cooks can circumvent that, god knows how). Adding lamb, or using lamb only, would take care of it, but the whole point of that adventurous endeavor was that I'm supposed to eat more beef from now on - doctor's orders.

Or maybe it's the roasting, and here I'm stumped because I rarely use the oven, and I don't really now how it works, how it behaves. So when you roast something and it turns out hard to chew, what do you do? Less heat or more heat? Less time or more time? Do you change the shape, and if so do you make them fatter or thinner?

In short, I have NO idea what I'm doing.

If they are meant to be flamegrilled try using a griddle pan (one of those wavy ridged frypan things) to seal them up all nice (also give the grill effect to the meat) and then put them into the oven.
For beef, if I remember correctly, it's 20mins per 500g at 180 degrees C, so for kebab's of that nature I wouldn't have them in there more than 15 minutes (maybe 20 minutes for well done) at the most.

EDIT: This is assuming they are approximately the same size as the ones I've had at restaurants, which were about an inch in diameter.

[dehro]

I've been experimenting with bollito misto for a while.. with alternating results.. trouble is that I cook mostly for myself.. meaning that this is both a lot of work and a mountainload of food, for one person.
put simply..several cuts of meat from several animals, boiled for several hours, together with a few veggies..then presented with assorted sauces..homemade sauces would be best but I'm not that refined yet.
done properly, the meat melts in your mouth.
I limit the dish to 3 cuts of meat... usually a turkey leg, a veal's tongue and another cut of veal or beef

[Malak'ai]

I've tried cooking Hangi (pronounced: Hung-ee) before and failed with spectacular results. According to a Maori friend of mine, you can't use just any old stone you pick up off a riverbank for it .

[Lentrax]

I pretty much fail at cooking. I mean, I can screw up making pudding.

But I can make a couple of good things, notably grilled cheese and chili, though my steaks usually turn out okay as well.

[Astral Avenger]

I am a fan of making frybread. I don't know if it has a different name, my roommate and I discovered it when he had some leftover flour. basically you take 1 part white flour and 1 part wheat flour, pinch of salt and add water until its a nice bread-dough consistency then flatten it out until its about 1" thick. then you fry it in oil or butter (I've used butter, olive oil, peanut oil and canola oil, use whichever you prefer the taste of). Flip to fry up the other side, then enjoy. Try putting peanut-butter on it or adding cinnamon.

On a related note, I feel I may be in the presence of much better chefs than myself.

[Winter_Wolf]

I love me some Indian food. I've managed to successfully replicate a variation of chicken biryani several times. I've managed to mangle the heck out of both mango chutney and that green stuff you get for dipping your corn chips into. The green stuff made with cilantro, not guacamole. I *have* successfully made up batches of guacamole, but realistically it's just cheaper to buy it from the store where I live.

Once I was desperate for something to eat, and it was two ingredients that I wouldn't normally consider as food, but they went well together. And I'm drawing a complete blank on it, unfortunately. I want to say cucumbers and saltine crackers, but I like both of those things.

Baked duck (kao ya style Chinese baked duck anyway) with horseradish, and also with brown mustard, are quite good with julienned cucumber and spring onions, wrapped in flour tortillas. Then again mustard and horseradish have been good on almost everything I've put 'em with.

[Asta Kask]

Before I mince it? The butcher minces it, I have neither the expertise nor the tools to do it myself. Can't it be done afterwards?

Also, I'd be weary to add pineapple taste to this dish, and I wonder if there's something more appropriate that I could use.

Still, that's a neat little trick, thanks! :)

Pineapple juice contains enzymes that tenderize the meat. Apparently you can buy meat tenderizers in the grocery store. You can also add the juice from fresh papaya (not canned or cooked) - this also contains tenderizing enzymes.

[Tebryn]

Pineapple juice contains enzymes that tenderize the meat. Apparently you can buy meat tenderizers in the grocery store. You can also add the juice from fresh papaya (not canned or cooked) - this also contains tenderizing enzymes.

I think she was more weary because of the flavor of the Pineapple. The enzyme is Bromelain which also removes the "finger prints" on our hands. Papaya has Papain. Though really, any acidic sauce/fruit/vegetable is useful as a marinade.

It should be noted you can buy both Bromelain and Papain in powder form which should negate any lingering issues with the flavor of the Pineapple.

[Traab]

I pretty much fail at cooking. I mean, I can screw up making pudding.

But I can make a couple of good things, notably grilled cheese and chili, though my steaks usually turn out okay as well.

Hey, pudding is tough! That damn powder seems to refuse to ever fully blend in, leaving at least tiny little powder pockets that are just unpleasant to bite into.

[Asta Kask]

I think she was more weary because of the flavor of the Pineapple. The enzyme is Bromelain which also removes the "finger prints" on our hands. Papaya has Papain. Though really, any acidic sauce/fruit/vegetable is useful as a marinade.

It should be noted you can buy both Bromelain and Papain in powder form which should negate any lingering issues with the flavor of the Pineapple.

Everything's better with pineapple.

There was even a rumor in Sweden that smearing your private parts with pineapple juice would destroy the sperm and work as a natural contraceptive. Our professor said that this was a perfectly acceptable practice as long as you didn't mind pregnancies.

[Tebryn]

Everything's better with pineapple.

There was even a rumor in Sweden that smearing your private parts with pineapple juice would destroy the sperm and work as a natural contraceptive. Our professor said that this was a perfectly acceptable practice as long as you didn't mind pregnancies.

I tend to agree, though I like Spicy, Sweet and Sour flavors over...Meaty, Salty, Bitter flavors so Pineapple fits the former more than the latter.

That..is a wonderful quote.

[Krazzman]

Hey, pudding is tough! That damn powder seems to refuse to ever fully blend in, leaving at least tiny little powder pockets that are just unpleasant to bite into.

As I said above a Thermomix makes stuff easier. Pudding without resorting to those instant packages? There's a recipe for that and it is awesome. It might needs abit to cool down so you should do it in advance but else it is delicious.

[Serpentine]

Oh, wait, are you talking about that YoGo-like custardy stuff, not propper soft, hot cakey puddings? Weirdos :P

Anyone interested in my baked custard? I think I can actually recite the recipe (such as it was) from memory.

[Malak'ai]

Oh, wait, are you talking about that YoGo-like custardy stuff, not propper soft, hot cakey puddings? Weirdos :P

Anyone interested in my baked custard? I think I can actually recite the recipe (such as it was) from memory.

Not much of a fan of custard, but shoot. Never hurts to give different things a try.