What Have You Cooked Recently?

synthetic_glazer said:
Made a recipe from that Wii game again- roast chicken with steamed fennel and couscous, along with a mustard sauce. It turned out really delicious, though the mustard sauce didn't thicken very well. It made way more couscous than I was expecting, but it's tasty so I don't mind. I also never had fennel or couscous before, so it was a new experience for me. Not sure what to do with the fennel fronds though. Do I just throw them out?
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The wii game in question:
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Fennel fronds are perfect when you want to add just a hint of anise/licorice flavor to something. Dry them out and keep them for later!
 
I made bacon and harissa pasta

Basically just fry up some chopped bacon, pour off any excessive grease (leave like a tbsp or two in the pan though) add a couple cloves of minced garlic and saute until fragrant, deglaze with some white wine, harissa, a bit of honey and black pepper. Simmer for a few min to reduce, then toss it with your cooked pasta and some of the water over high heat until it starts to coat the pasta, take it off heat and stir in plenty of grated parmesan
 
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I like to buy lamb legs when they get discounted for the infidels. So with josh talking about his only favorite Saar food, I made lamb vindaloo. Never had it before so dont know if I made it right. But it was good!

ps. @The Mass Shooter Ron Soye thank you for introducing me to the rittenhouse chocolate pbutter rice cookie balls. That shit was so good
 
I made "steak on a plank" myself for the first time a while ago. It's a local dish almost entirely eaten at restaurants consisting of pommes duchesse (mashed potatoes with some egg yolks), a tomato, and some (possibly bacon-wrapped) asparagus spears all grilled/baked then plated ("planked?") with some fine rare beef and béarnaise sauce. Went great. The plank adds a surprising amount of aroma - it's not really infused into the food itself, but the smell of hot wood in your nostrils as you eat makes a difference.
 
skjora said:
the smell of hot wood in your nostrils as you eat makes a difference.
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9 out of 10 homosexuals agree.

My last meal was fine, but last night I used some skim low fat cheese and tried to kind of create a lazy coat for my casserole. Turned out fine, until it got cold. Then it was abysmal. I was tempted to scrape it off tonight, but I didn't.

Tomorrow, I'm making chicken broccoli cheese soup, since it's easy to make a roux, and I have some broccoli and cheese that needs to get used, as well as some leftover chicken.
 
I'm in the woods at the moment so im trying to do one pot/pan meals and made dirty spaghetti (like dirty rice but with spaghetti! how innovative!) with ground beef and andouli sausage. The hardest part was actually getting the amount of broth correct so the pasta would cook all the way without sticking and the dish wouldnt turn out too soupy. 8/10 would do it again with more seezonins.
 
I've been having a rough past few days so I wanted something really cozy. I settled on roasted chicken breast with mashed potatoes made from the drippings. Simple, but it turned out really good
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TheTitKoker said:
Flour slurry is probably what I'll try next time.
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I've seen a chef use a thin layer of mayonnaise to brown baked chicken. It sounds weird at first, but works because of the way the protein on the mayonnaise reacts along with the oil on high temperature. The results are nicer than you might expect, so you can try that

I prefer to make a thin paste with olive oil and seasonings myself, brush the chicken and rest it for 12h

synthetic_glazer said:
I've been having a rough past few days so I wanted something really cozy. I settled on roasted chicken breast with mashed potatoes made from the drippings. Simple, but it turned out really good
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Mashed creamed potatoes and breast are my second go to comfort food, just after bolognese. Hope your next days turn out better :heart-full:
 
Chili has been a difficult nut for me to crack... First I made it way too spicy and it turns out adding brown sugar just ruins it entirely. Second I realized after ingredients were out of cans and beef was browned I didn't have chili seasoning. Taco seasoning and my best crack with the spice rack was better than my first try but still not great. This time though, oh boy did it turn out great:
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Just the plain McCormick Chili packet, beef, small can of corn, red kidney beans, and "small white beans" because I grabbed the wrong thing instead of white northern beans. The reason I didn't start with the spicy mix is because I got the Goya chipotles in adobo sauce to add to reach the right spice level. Turns out for this gringo that is all the adobo steeped in chipotle and none of the actual peppers themselves. Big shoutout to whoever here recommended the silicone cube trays for freezing. That's about half of the chili in the second pic. Threw a bit over some leftover rice and it was fantastic.
 
BelUwUga said:
First I made it way too spicy and it turns out adding brown sugar just ruins it entirely.
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How much did you add? Seriously, if it was much more than a tablespoon it was too much. Brown sugar is a perfectly cromulent ingredient but you don't use it to make the chili sweet but to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.

Basically if you can taste it you added too much.

If you throw in an onion (after caramelizing it a bit) don't bother with any kind of sugar.
 
AnOminous said:
How much did you add? Seriously, if it was much more than a tablespoon it was too much. Brown sugar is a perfectly cromulent ingredient but you don't use it to make the chili sweet but to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.

Basically if you can taste it you added too much.
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More than that for sure. The real solution was just making sure I didn't make it way too spicy in the first place. Through poor planning and some hasty web searches I essentially arrived at deciding between ketchup or brown sugar to try and solve my problem. I concluded since ketchup is just tomatoes and sugar I could cut out the middleman and use the brown sugar. It was okay tasting immediately off the stove but became vile the instant it wasn't piping hot. When I say I ruined it I mean utterly and thoroughly. Learning experience: my milk/sour cream was not out of date, the taters weren't sprouted, and I had extra tomato sauce ready to go for this attempt. I didn't need them but I was ready this time.
Edit: I can't update my previous post but wanted to provide a reheat report. It mellowed out a bit in the fridge and I probably should have saved/used one of the adobo chipotles. A little gochujang got it to that just right spicy glory.
 
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BelUwUga said:
I concluded since ketchup is just tomatoes and sugar I could cut out the middleman and use the brown sugar.
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You're usually better off sweetening it with anything that isn't just sugar. Onions. Carrots even (grated). Even a cup of beer. But chili shouldn't be very sweet. Savory is way more important.
 
I made muffins as the special extra thing for the men's breakfast, tomorrow. The blueberry turned out excellent. The banana walnut were kind of bad. I would love a good recipe for banana muffins for the future. I've got a great recipe for banana bread, but that doesn't translate into muffins, well, so I used a well rated muffin recipe. Sorry. I am not a baker
 
AnOminous said:
You're usually better off sweetening it with anything that isn't just sugar. Onions. Carrots even (grated). Even a cup of beer. But chili shouldn't be very sweet. Savory is way more important.
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Carrots are my go to when sweetening sauces. If i want tomato sauce less acidic i use finely diced carrots before processing

I think it's terrible to add sugar to tomato sauces
 
souschef said:
Carrots are my go to when sweetening sauces. If i want tomato sauce less acidic i use finely diced carrots before processing

I think it's terrible to add sugar to tomato sauces
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How do you feel about brown sugar? I find that carrots are getting woodier and woodier all the time. So I can't count on them. Same with yellow onions. Less overall flavor, more sharpness.
 
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BelUwUga said:
First I made it way too spicy and it turns out adding brown sugar just ruins it entirely
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Peanut butter can work well, the oils will actively counteract capsiaicin and the flavour of the peanuts will kinda fade into a nice savoury note. Learned it trying to make Chinese takeaway style satay sauce.
 
souschef said:
I've seen a chef use a thin layer of mayonnaise to brown baked chicken. It sounds weird at first, but works because of the way the protein on the mayonnaise reacts along with the oil on high temperature.
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To add to this, one of my "weeknight meal" quick hacks is to take boneless/skinless chicken thighs, season them with salt and pepper and garlic and onion powder, cut them into 1" cubes, then chuck them into a bowl and mix up with a tablespoon or so of mayo and whatever seasonings and herbs I want to have that night. Sometimes it's dried citrus peel, dried ginger and a shitload of black pepper, other times it's the central American combo of chili powder, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Occasionally, it's gochujang, soy, ginger and grated onion. Every now and then, I do middle eastern spices since I wanna jam that shit into a pita.

Line a sheet pan with foil, put your mayo and spice coated chicken chunks on it loosely separated and chuck into a 375F/190C oven for about 20-25 minutes. Let it rest for five minutes and then do whatever you want with it - shits great with rice, on tortillas, inside a pita or just served alongside mashed potatoes or plantains. You can make it fit into whatever culinary space you want by just fucking with the spice and herb mix.

Also, as tax - I'm currently simmering another colossal pot of Bolognese because I ran out from the last batch and I wanted to do a baked ziti Bolognese for dinner tonight.
 
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