What Have You Cooked Recently?

Wow, the banana butter will still probably taste like banana. Shocking twist.
I know. I just don't like them, I was making an unfunny joke about it.

I was thinking more along the lines of apple butter, that if the recipe called to spice them up enough, it might cover the taste of banana, but then I read it and it calls for no spices.
 
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My second attempt at buttercake is much much improved. It's still kinda off, but it is way better then my first attempt
 
Reading the recipe though if you're going to give it a go I would trust this user over the way it's printed. Going straight for high heat with a big pot of fruit slurry is just asking for trouble, no matter how attentively you stir.
Yeah that's a great recipe, I actually like it better than mine so I'm gonna steal it so thank you <3

But yeah, gradually is the way to go here, there's absolutely no need to rush and fruit over heat is something you have to baby anyway in my experience
 
I've realised over the past few years that I'm a much better baker than I am a cook (though I'm not bad at that either.) Handling dough is just second nature to me - I just 'get it.,' no matter the scale. It was quite a strange realisation for both myself and those around me when I just seemed to nail it, first time, every time. Interesting, given my family generations back were bakers by profession. Epigenetics skipping a generation? I don't know.

In any case, I'm on for Christmas dinner this year. Only four at my house, so it won't be too difficult. I am a verified sunvabitch expert when it comes to making gravy though.
 
That buttercake reminds me of a favourite of mine, hot milk cake. So simple and dangerously good. Recipe:

Beat 2 eggs, add 1 cup white sugar.
Add 1 cup flour, 1 tspb baking powder, salt.
Heat 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp butter & vanilla.

Stir and bake at 350 until barely done (20-30 min, test with toothpick)

Topping -

3 tbsp melted butter, 4 tbsp cream or canned milk plus coconut shred and brown sugar to preference. Should be a slurry consistency.

Poke holes in top of cake with toothpick and spread on the topping. Broil until golden brown.

This cake is dangerous because its so easy and so good. I like to use slightly less baking powder for a bit of a denser cake. 1 tbsp is a bit fluffier. The holes let the coconut goo seep into the cake a bit.
 
Thursday, we ended up having goulash.
Today, we had the rest of the second chuck steak as tacos, the street kind with small corn tortillas, lime, white onion, and cilantro.
Tomorrow……… the prime rib with pan dripping-roasted root vegetables and blistered tomatoes on the side.
Sunday is a celebration lunch which might carry us into dinner, so we’ll see if I end up cooking. Might not have to.
 
I'm further expanding and applying my knowledge of French and Japanese cooking. This time, it's soy based sauces. Saw a youtube chef make eel sauce by roasting eel bones and then cooking it in soy sauce, mirin, and sake. Did the same thing but with salmon bones and got this extra depth of flavor from the salmon bones. Kind of a deep fried flavor of salmon in the sauce despite me just pan frying the fillet of salmon and dumping on the sauce to finish. Will plan to do a similar take for chicken, but use demi glace made solely from chicken and adding it to the same soy sauce mix.
 
Made the prime rib today, just the classic rosemary+thyme+garlic+salt+pepper+olive oil deal. It came out perfect, I tend to snack a lot on vegetables whilst cooking and did that today so I only had one thin slice and bits and pieces of the other components, but my husband had three plates (He does OMAD on work days and thus chimps out at his leisure) and the kids had seconds, so I'm happy. Plenty of leftovers for lunch sandwiches or breakfast burritos or whatever throughout the week.
Served it with roasted potatoes and carrots with the same ingredients as the prime rib, and instead of the blistered tomatoes I was thinking about making, I ended up making tomato and garlic confit since I now have the handiest little 5''x5'' baking dish that's perfect for confit or baked cheese, crusty no-knead dutch oven bread that I baked as the prime rib was cooking, and I also made a gravy with the pan drippings. I was initially going to roast the veg under the grate for max flavor from the pan drippings, but I figured the kids love to dip and that would be perfect.
I wasn't going to cook dinner tomorrow since we're celebrating outside of the house, but it was better to move the event earlier in the day to accommodate everyone, so I'm probably going to make something lowkey like homemade bread, a plate of cheeses, smoked fish, and meats, and more garlic/tomato confit to spread on the bread.
 
Cooked a cheesecake from scratch in the air fryer. I didn't notice I was out of vanilla until too late in the process to go get some so I subbed out some of the sugar for bourbon smoked sugar for some sort of added flavor. I was going to top it with some canned strawberry pie filling but the browned top looks too nice to spoil.

I'm taking it to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow (we are having it early).

It's in a springform pan I got specifically for the purpose. It looks great but the picture looks like shit as usual so I'm not posting it.
 
I had some acorn squash that bloomed late in the season. I cut them up, put toasted sesame oil and cinnamon on them, and baked them at 375F for an hour. They weren't as nutty as they could have been, but they were still very tasty.
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I've been bartering my vegetables for some elk organs. I pressure cooked a heart in a liter of water for about a half hour and then slow cooked it in a garlic and sesame marinade sauce for six hours. I ground up some liver and mixed it with a few tablespoons each of quinoa and oat flour, added in some freshly-picked sage, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and habanero peppers and then cooked the batter like one does with pancakes. It ended up with a consistency somewhere between pâté and liverwurst. Tasted much better than liver and onions though, as horrifying as it looks.
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I really should try making a horseradish sauce. Absolutely adored it the one time I had it on a sandwich.
Here's to get you an idea of where to begin. You can tweak it as you go. I know some stores sell horseradish root, Whole Foods and vegetarian/vegan grocers. Pro tip: when chopping horseradish, cut into the root with the blade held at a slight angle. If you try to cut straight down, you might get stuck halfway, depending on each individual root. The ones I cut up were tougher than hell. Even with good, sharp steel, I still had a few stops.
I enjoy your enthusiasm in this thread. Keep pushing yourself and trying new things.
 
It's in a springform pan I got specifically for the purpose. It looks great but the picture looks like shit as usual so I'm not posting it.
Nah you post that shit and you like it, who cares what it looks like, we're here to see evidence of your success not some filtered instagram-friendly shit
 
Nah you post that shit and you like it, who cares what it looks like, we're here to see evidence of your success not some filtered instagram-friendly shit
You asked for it, here's a shitty photo of the last bowl of my borscht looking really awful, I promise it was great. Maybe I'll do more shit photos of my really nice food, we are not a plating kind of family lmao. On another note, I'm 90% certain we own the same dinnerwear Jack Scalfani used to feature.
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So a bunch of my relatives are those "seasonal salesmen" people that travel to places during holidays renting out real estate we totally don't already own and they bring their weirdass kitchen implements.

Anyways: Smoked meats and an entire charcuterie board using smoked meats and dried fruits, from scratch. Don't ask me how I did it I just followed instructions to get this shit for free.

I served the air fryer cheesecake and it got rave reviews and nearly immediately disappeared.

I'm definitely making it again for Christmas, although we're actually celebrating that on the day before New Year's Eve.
I prefer making smaller batches of air fryer cheesecake by using those silicon muffin pans. Makes it easier to customize. Don't remember if I used vanilla jello on it but I think it works too. I think I still have the sit that had the basic recipe for it one sec.
Really REALLY annoying to make for an entire party of people tho. At that point use an oven.

I was thinking of making it upside-down since taking out the cheesecake from the muffin cups is ass, but then the cream cheese shit during covid happened so fuck that.
 
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