What Have You Cooked Recently?

[Bored & Confused]

For Christmas, I made beef wellington for the first time.
I went to a wholesale butcher for the first time for the tenderloin, but, to my dismay, they were sold out. So I got two butt tenders (& some delicious bacon). The spare was for in case I screwed up & ruined the first. I researched how to trim the butt tender so it would be better suited for making the wellington, but found that the butcher had taken care of it. Beautiful piece of meat. I forgot to put the mustard on the beef & ended up just slathering the exterior of the initial prosciutto wrap with mustard & then applying another wrap of prosciutto. All in all, it came out of the oven just fine. It may not have been the greatest example of a beef wellington, but it was far from the worst. I didn't make a sauce for it, because I forgot to pick up a bottle of dry red wine for the bordelaise. I ended up making the sauce Wednesday, & I think the wellington is fine without it. I've learned what mistakes not to make, & think the next attempt will be even better.

I also made the mistake of making a punch bowl's worth of eggnog. The eggnog was not a mistake, I just hadn't taken into account the volume I was making. It took FOR-EVER for those egg whites to stiffen. But by God is it delicious.

 

[A Grey Cat]

Seafood boil. Crawdads, shrimp, mussels, scallops, corn, potatoes, crabmeat, still got plenty of seafood left

 

[Spitz]

Gyoza first attempt








There are many things I have to work on. They tasted great and it was a lot of fun making them. Great dopamine rush.

Links that I used for help with the dough, ingredients, tips, etc.:
https://www.seriouseats.com/pork-and-leek-dumplings-with-homemade-wrapper
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-japanese-pork-and-cabbage-dumplings-gyoza-recipe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qApr4UmCGY

 

[The Feline Solution]

Cheating here as the missus prepared it, some focaccia goodness:

Mute version because of voice dox otherwise.

Edit:

Snip

The folding is the hardest part. I made a million gyoza and still don't have it down. We got a sardinian version of dumplings, Culurgiones, where the folding is even more intricate, my girlfriend can do them in her sleep and i just end up frustrated:

I cheat when doing my gyoza more often than not with using a fork to clamp the edges.

 

[Jaded Optimist]

new Year's Eve dinner for 2! Two sets off Dungeness crab legs with garlic butter, two wagyu A4 medallions, grilled mushrooms, a few pieces of greens so we feel healthy, and an elder flower and sparking wine cocktail for midnight.

Cheers everyone!

 

[Aiōn]

It is understood that a great stock adds so much depth and complexity to a dish, be it a soup or something more complex, and I feel that I want to up my game in this regard for 2024. When I’m in a hurry I’ll use the prepackaged shit but I need to make more of my own bone broth and whatnot, what are your guys’ favorite recipes or flavors for doing so?

I love adding stock to my cooking. Mirepoix is a classic, also bouquet Garni. When using raw bones I roast then with the vegetables to get a caramelized flavor and then deglaze the roasting pan with a splash of acid (vinegar or wine) and water, peppercorns and bay leaves/herbs and simmer on low - 3 hours for chicken and 4-6 for meat. Skim the fat and strain, freeze into individual portions.

 

[Mitt Doggy Dogg]

For thanksgiving I made Turkey, Prime Rib, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy and some various other dishes I really don't know what was better the prime rib or the turkey, first time I made it without packing the turkey full of stuffing and it made the bird so moist.

 

[Spitz]

The folding is the hardest part. I made a million gyoza and still don't have it down.

Yeah that's gonna take me a while. Figuring the best way to roll them out is a pain too. I tried three different rolling pins and never got a sure-fire method. Hence the misshapen ones. That's the fun in it though, imo. Fail, fail, fail, get a little bit better, fail, fail, fail, have one stick to the rolling pin, halcyon and on and on.

We got a sardinian version of dumplings, Culurgiones

"Cazzo no! Perché!? Perché!?"

Alright. I'll be back in a couple weeks. It's gonna be a mumblinfugg finding all the ingredients for this. I might even have to go to.............Europe

 

[The Feline Solution]

Yeah that's gonna take me a while. Figuring the best way to roll them out is a pain too. I tried three different rolling pins and never got a sure-fire method. Hence the misshapen ones. That's the fun in it though, imo. Fail, fail, fail, get a little bit better, fail, fail, fail, have one stick to the rolling pin, halcyon and on and on.

"Cazzo no! Perché!? Perché!?"

Alright. I'll be back in a couple weeks. It's gonna be a mumblinfugg finding all the ingredients for this. I might even have to go to.............Europe

I like that you do your gyoza completly from scratch, i bothered with that only once before switching over to store-bought dough sheets from the asian super market.

 

[Spitz]

I like that you do your gyoza completly from scratch, i bothered with that only once before switching over to store-bought dough sheets from the asian super market.

That's my "autism". I got it as I grew older. I can't go back to buying pastry dough sheets and wonton wrappers now. Besides, it's too much fun spending four hours fucking with dough.

It's ironic, looking back at it, my grandmothers would never teach me this stuff, even though they should have. "German men don't do this kind of work." Now? Sheeit, none of the women in the family come close to my skills, and I had to teach myself.

 

[toilet_rainbow]

That's my "autism". I got it as I grew older. I can't go back to buying pastry dough sheets and wonton wrappers now. Besides, it's too much fun spending four hours fucking with dough.

It's ironic, looking back at it, my grandmothers would never teach me this stuff, even though they should have. "German men don't do this kind of work." Now? Sheeit, none of the women in the family come close to my skills, and I had to teach myself.

I haven't gotten to doing my own puff pastry dough yet, but there's always later. (I think as I'm planning on meal prepping breakfast meat pies with pastry dough, a ground beef/pork blend, and grated cheese later tonight, after some rest post cooking the NYD meal.) I love potstickers so it's definitely on my "to try to DIY" list.

I roasted duck for the first time ever today. It didn't turn out perfect (probably should've let it cook more at lower temps to crisp the skin more, but it was already starting to turn medium doneness). It wasn't tough or overly greasy, however, so it could've turned out much worse. My wife really enjoyed it. Always a bonus.

My bird was very tiny, just under 2 pounds, so it didn't render cups of fat. Still got enough to baste the duck once, roast vegetables (including potatoes), and create a gravy with that, some pan fond, and the neck (which I had pre-cooked). There's enough left for potatoes in the future. Which is fine with me, because damn, duck fat potatoes really are as good as I've heard. Once I trim as much meat off the bones as possible, I'll save the carcass for stock.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Anyone have a bread machine recipe they’d recommend, and a bread box? The recipe in the manual for just a standard flour, water, salt, yeast bread makes something a bit too crusty for constant use, though I wonder if that’s because it told me to put it on the french bread setting.

Edit: I’m using AP flour.

 

[heisenbuug]

Tradwife training update: My contributions to my family holiday celebration... my first time baking focaccia, my yearly charcuterie board (with homemade bread oil), and my apple rose tarts on Christmas morning!!

 

[Spitz]

Pan De Cristal for New Year's Day Bowl Game celebrations. 10 hours of dinking around with dough.
Links:
King Arthur Baking Company recipe walkthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sOEHrawhX0
There are good tips at the bottom of the recipe. The "Desired Dough Temperature" tip greatly helped with the second batch(pictured below).
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/pan-de-cristal-recipe








A little too chewy for my taste. Good for sopping.

I did a better job of cooking the potstickers with more eyes on me. A Teflon-coated aluminum pan, twice as much oil, and paying better attention to it.

I haven't gotten to doing my own puff pastry dough yet, but there's always later.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vYECP-ravME&pp=ygUXSnVsaWEgY2hpbGQgcHVmZiBwYXN0cnk=

This video helped me with the puff pastry and Tourte Milanese. All the pot pies I've made in the stainless steel springform pan have been with puff pastry using this method.

Keeping the dough cold is the most important thing. The rule for pie crust dough is to never let it get above 70F. I try to keep puff pastry dough under 60F so that the dough doesn't stick to the counter when rolling it out. I refrigerate the flour and water until they're around 55F. That keeps everything between 56F and 59F during the initial two turns. A laser thermometer comes in handy for checking the surface temperature of the dough. Most of the heat it absorbs is from the rolling pin, the countertop, and a person's hands.

The flour I use is Bob's Red Mill Fine Pastry Flour. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess it's anywhere between 6-8% protein, compared to all-purpose, between 11-12%. In a pinch, 3 parts all-purpose to 1 part cake flour will work.

I've found Tillamook butter to work the best. Kerrygold and Danish Creamery butter didn't give me as much of a puff. I've pounded the butter between two sheets of parchment paper with a two-pound hammer but a hefty dowel rolling pin like the J.K. Adams PRP-2 works. A smaller, tapered, French rolling pin doesn't have the weight behind it, so I had to hit harder and more times.

So far, this is the project at which I've failed the most. I think it took six or seven attempts before I got a decent block of dough. It really deflated my enthusiasm, going through a few kilos of butter to end up with a couple of layers and a sticky countertop.

Here's a Kerrygold dough block. The color is from the butter. The dough looks slightly different with each set of turns, as the butter gets incorporated.

Edit: video didn't work, so I embedded instead

 

[CIS White Droid]

I had a hankering for some canned corned beef and used the leftovers to make what I'm calling "Reuben Pierogi" using my Grandmother's dough recipe. I mixed the corned beef with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and mashed potato for the filling. Had a few for lunch fried up with some onions and froze the rest for dinners later on down the line. They were pretty tasty but I wish corned beef, even canned, wasn't so damned expensive.

 

[AnOminous]

A cheesecake in the air fryer. This turns out a lot better than you would think. This isn't as flawless as it could be.

The one deviation from normal ingredients I used is more bourbon-smoked stuff. Half the sugar in the crust and cake itself is bourbon-smoked sugar, and the vanilla is Madagascar vanilla aged in bourbon casks. It has a subtle contribution to the flavor and the browning. The results are about the same as you'd get going to the trouble of using a water bath, but without the trouble.

 

[Glowie]

Bone broth with extra collagen.

It takes few days to strain the broth through a sieve and make sure collagen separates from bone marrow and sieve through the white scum that bubbles to surface as the marrow separates from the bone.

Works as a great soup base or used as is with added herbs and salt.

 

[Sundae]

I cooked a pot of oyster stew for New Year's. It was delicious.

 

[₲litches]

A tradition for New Years in the South - greens and black-eyed peas with cornbread. A lot of southern food sucks, but I love this meal. I use dried beans, and cook them in homemade stock with Cajun seasoning. I’m a terrible baker, but cornbread is a house specialty. The trick is getting the skillet hot before you add the batter. That way the whole outside gets buttery-crispy. The cornbread should be juuust sweet enough to cut the bitterness of the greens and the earthiness of the beans. Yummm.

 

[Cigarette Bud]

I know this is late but made pastries with brother for christmas dinner,we also made a chestnut mousse with cream on top but didnt bother to take pics sadly.