What Have You Cooked Recently?

[Takayuki Yagami]

Ramen noodles and some frozen potstickers because I’m lazy; unfortunately followed by about half an hour of on and off scrubbing on a stainless steel skillet due to me having the retarded idea to start unloading my dishwasher after pouring the water in to steam them. Thank goodness for Barkeeper’s Friend.

 

[Vect]

Two things. At the very start, it said to sauté some onions, something I've never done before. So, it said to put a tablespoon of oil into the pot, heat it up until it starts to smoke, and then add in the cubed (diced?) onions, and cook them until they brown. It said to use medium-high heat, so I put it at 6 (out of ten). Apparently that was too hot, and the onions burnt a bit, but it still smelled pretty good so I decided to just roll with it.

Later on in the recipe, it says to bring the pot to a boil, and then bring it back down to a simmer and stir every ten minutes for the next hour. Because it didn't say how long to boil it for, I decided to just leave it at 7/10 for ten minutes and then bring it down to 4/10 when I went to stir it for the first time. Given that there was a bit stuck to the bottom of the pot when I went to stir it, probably not the best idea.

It sucks, but what can you do? At least now I know what to avoid the next time I try cooking it.

Hey, look, if you're new to cooking, there's no shame. You live, you learn.

When it says bring to a boil, that means as soon as it starts to boil, reduce the heat to literally the lowest setting. The reason for this is to kick the temperature up so it starts to cook, then maintaining that cooking level with minimal additional heat. This also sterilizes your food from any gay bacteria. As a general rule, never boil protein for longer than a minute or you may as well eat your own shoes.

When it says medium-high heat, it means slightly less hot than your medium setting (4). Ignore the instruction to let the oil smoke - an easy trick is to put a small piece of onion in the pan first, crank up the heat, wait until that piece of onion sizzles, add the rest of your onions, wait a few seconds, then reduce the heat. Remember that adding ingredients to your pan always lowers the temperature - the higher you have it, the less of a problem that is. Part of the skill of cooking is having the confidence to constantly adjust the temperature according to what you can see is happening, not what the recipe tells you.

If you burn your starting ingredients, chuck them out and start again, no matter how good they smell. Onions going brown are caramalized, which means the natural sugars have oxidized in the heat and 'cooked'. If they burn, it means they've carbonized, and carbon will only lend whatever you're cooking bitterness.

 

[Banana Hammock]

Hey, look, if you're new to cooking, there's no shame. You live, you learn.

When it says bring to a boil, that means as soon as it starts to boil, reduce the heat to literally the lowest setting. The reason for this is to kick the temperature up so it starts to cook, then maintaining that cooking level with minimal additional heat. This also sterilizes your food from any gay bacteria. As a general rule, never boil protein for longer than a minute or you may as well eat your own shoes.

When it says medium-high heat, it means slightly less hot than your medium setting (4). Ignore the instruction to let the oil smoke - an easy trick is to put a small piece of onion in the pan first, crank up the heat, wait until that piece of onion sizzles, add the rest of your onions, wait a few seconds, then reduce the heat. Remember that adding ingredients to your pan always lowers the temperature - the higher you have it, the less of a problem that is. Part of the skill of cooking is having the confidence to constantly adjust the temperature according to what you can see is happening, not what the recipe tells you.

If you burn your starting ingredients, chuck them out and start again, no matter how good they smell. Onions going brown are caramalized, which means the natural sugars have oxidized in the heat and 'cooked'. If they burn, it means they've carbonized, and carbon will only lend whatever you're cooking bitterness.

Not completely new to cooking, though this definitely had some stuff I'm not familiar with in it. I usually cook simpler meals like ribs, burgers, and chicken. First time I've tried something like chili.

Still, these are some great clarifications, thank you. Definitely going to help out the next time I try this recipe.

 

[Stan]

I like to make Chicken Kiev. I can never get the butter right though; it keeps seeping through the seams of the chicken ball and pools at the bottom of my air fryer.

I made pizza last night. It's simple enough if you make the dough 1 day ahead of time and let it rise in the fridge overnight. Then you roll that dough flat as you can and put your toppings of choice on it (not too much though). The trick to good pizza is to make sure the pizza is thin enough to cook through in an extremely hot oven (400-500F). I also tried dropping a personal-size pizza in my air fryer; the top looked good but the bottom had no color at all.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

Strawberries were on sale so I made some strawberry syrup. After dinner cocktails were modified tequila sunrises; strawberry syrup, pineapple juice, and tequila.

 

[Dean Pentel]

There's two recipes I've made lately that I suggest are worth your time.

The first is steak pasties. Make gravy and mashed potatoes for a side if you want one, but they're excellent on their own.

Next, did you all know that Ragu is not just a shitty canned sauce brand? I didn't either until last week. This one is a bit more time consuming but very much worth the cost.

I highly recommend you purchase a dutch oven for the Ragu. I'd recommend it anyway; those things are great.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

There's two recipes I've made lately that I suggest are worth your time.

The first is steak pasties. Make gravy and mashed potatoes for a side if you want one, but they're excellent on their own.

Next, did you all know that Ragu is not just a shitty canned sauce brand? I didn't either until last week. This one is a bit more time consuming but very much worth the cost.

I highly recommend you purchase a dutch oven for the Ragu. I'd recommend it anyway; those things are great.

I got confused.

I thought "ragu" in Italian referred to "hunter's" stew or sauce.

But looking it up again on Wikipedia, the lore says it's actually French ("ragout") and was brought to Italy by Napoleon's soldiers.

I must have confused it with "cacciatore", which seems to translate to "Hunters' style"

 

[Stan]

There's two recipes I've made lately that I suggest are worth your time.

The first is steak pasties. Make gravy and mashed potatoes for a side if you want one, but they're excellent on their own.

Next, did you all know that Ragu is not just a shitty canned sauce brand? I didn't either until last week. This one is a bit more time consuming but very much worth the cost.

I highly recommend you purchase a dutch oven for the Ragu. I'd recommend it anyway; those things are great.

Ragu is a great way to make tough, cheap cuts taste good. It serves well over pasta or polenta.

 

[Titty Figurine]

We've had a little bit of chill in the air for the last few days so I've been making warm spiced and hearty things like apple butter turnovers and chili.

The best thing by far though has been really good oatmeal. Stirring a couple cups of thick old fashioned oats with a fat pat of butter until they smell toasty then adding an equal amount of mixed water and milk + pinch of salt and splash of vanilla, and boiling it until the bubbles reach the middle before shutting it off and letting it sit with a lid for ~10 minutes makes phenomenal oatmeal. Even shitty budget oats that have been sitting in the cupboard for a few months taste nutty and perfect cooked this way. Oatmeal isn't exactly glamorous but good oatmeal is one of the best things on earth when it gets just cold enough to close the windows at night.

 

[Srumab]

My favorite deli decided to fuck off and I was craving a roast beef sandwich. So i sawed a quarter off of the huge ass beef tenderloin that's been taking up space in my freezer. Decided to cook it like a chateaubriand. Might have been a mistake there.

Decided to make a pan sauce with some white wine vinegar, shallots, and butter.

So instead of a roast beef sandwich I have a really weird steak sandwich.

Also been munching on some pickled watermelon rind.

 

[Crashman11]

3 Eggs with butter, cracked salt and 2 splashes of lager beer, stirred, covered and cooked in foil in the air-fryer stirring every 6 ish minutes so it cooks through.

adding the beer was an experiment but it turned out great, it gave it a nice bready smell, made the eggs extra moist, and gave them like a extra flavour that kinda tasted like stock, was great, will do again.

I took the pic after i ate like half the eggs here.

 

[wam bam]

depression soup. throw whatever lurks in the pantry into a pot with tomato paste and can of beef broth, then consume it. put lid on top of pot and put into fridge because i do not have the mental energy to bend down and look for an appropriate size tupperware. microwave bowls of this slop as the hunger pangs arise throughout the week. nourishment achieved.

 

[Betonhaus]

Cooked some cream of zucchini soup in the blender. Saute some garlic and onion in olive oil and onion, added salt and pepper, added chopped zucchini potato water and chickenstock and simmerred a little, then threw into the vitamix to blend until it heated up and boiled and steamed a lot. so silky smooth and yummy.

 

[Triple Flutz]

Tuesday, we had leftover mac and cheese. Like, a lot of it. I always forget how much it makes and how rich it is. Had some more as a side with steamed broccoli and some locally made italian sausage.
Wednesday, we shared a ribeye with potatoes and dry-fried long beans, and all the kids shared another ribeye with the same sides, except their long beans weren't spicy. My little trooper who was previously eating samyang fire noodles with me recently decided she haaaates spice and it's not worth arguing preferences with kids since there are way more annoying ways they could be asserting autonomy and independence, so I'll let her pretend she hates it until she's over the phase. Should be over in a few weeks. Been there done that, lol.
Today, I'm making tteokbokki with just green onion, broccoli, and fish balls. I know broccoli isn't customary but it's my kids' favorite vegetable so I'll add it to anything I can, plus the density and shape will make it a perfect sauce-catcher.

My husband took an additional day off just for fun so I'm hoping he'll request dinners that I typically don't make too often because he works a lot and I try to stick to things that require 45 minutes and under of prep and cooking. Sick of writing ''saag paneer'' and ''more stupid, succulent beef'' on this thread lmao.

 

[Troonos]

Today, I'm making tteokbokki with just green onion, broccoli, and fish balls. I know broccoli isn't customary but it's my kids' favorite vegetable so I'll add it to anything I can, plus the density and shape will make it a perfect sauce-catcher.

My husband took an additional day off just for fun so I'm hoping he'll request dinners that I typically don't make too often because he works a lot and I try to stick to things that require 45 minutes and under of prep and cooking. Sick of writing ''saag paneer'' and ''more stupid, succulent beef'' on this thread lmao.

I see you speak my language. Saag paneer and tteokbokki are my two favorite dishes on earth.

 

[Betonhaus]

I have to say I'm actually really surprised by my roomate's Vitamix. It blends so aggressively that it can literally cook things. Just saute the raw ingrediants a little, get the water to boiling temperature, and then blend at max speed and it'll start boiling aggressivly and producing a lot of steam. makes really good cream soups.

 

[AnOminous]

Red-cooked pork but this time I did it with pork shoulder instead of pork belly. It's ridiculous I can't get pork belly for what the spot price should be something like $8. But it's routinely sold any common site at over $16 or so. Costco apparently has it but I don't have a membership or one anywhere nearby.

So I tried pork shoulder instead this time. Main variations from the normal recipe, using bourbon-smoked sugar and the dark soy sauce was double-fermented in bourbon casks (and cost half as much as the entire 2.5 pounds of meat just for the tablespoon I used). Also threw in a bit of fish sauce (as always), a splash of sesame oil, and topped with scallions and sesame seeds.

And threw in a few dried chilis (but took them out at 90 minutes) as well as whole star anise (similarly removed).

Pork belly cubes hold together, but this fell apart, resulting in more of a pot roast like stew than pork belly would.

I have about three more of these.

I always wonder why this never shows up in American Chinese restaurants (although you will see it from time to time in restaurants where you will be the only white person). In a lot of ways it's very similar to the kind of braised meat dishes you find in Yankee territory but with different seasonings.

It blends so aggressively that it can literally cook things.

I've wanted to get one of these since I found that out. Treat with respect, those things are pretty expensive.

 

[The I Scream Man]

Yeah I spent $600 on my Vitamix just because I was mad at the... seventh? Oster I had taking a fat shit all over itself and it's honestly one of my most used contraptions, I use it for all sorts of stuff.

Most recently I made salmon quiche with it, baked some salmon in a cast iron pan I have and then layered the salmon down with zucchini and potatoes, while it was baking I blended the shit out of some eggs, cream and spices, then poured the egg cream mixture over the other ingredients and baked it

No crust so technically not really a quiche but holy shit its good as fuck fam

 

[Betonhaus]

I should cook more soups in the blender

 

[Srumab]

Work was a slog today so I just wanted a beer and to get off my feet for a bit so I made 90 minute chicken.

Place chicken quarters into a dutch oven.
Season as you like. Today I went with worcestershire sauce and black pepper. A couple of dashes of lea and perrin's is enough for each quarter. Then season with salt and like double or triple the amount of black pepper you'd normally use.

Place lid on and cook in a 400 degree oven for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes remove lid and cook for another 30 minutes.

It's dark meat so it'll stay tender and the additional 30 minutes gets the skin crunchy. If you want crunchier skin 420 or 450 degree oven will do at like 15 minutes. But that's honestly more like charcoal.

Serve with yellow rice. I'm tired as hell so I just busted out some of the mahatma I had for situations like this.