All Activity

Lemon polenta cake... I forgot the baking powder but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. I like dense almond cakes drenched in syrup anyway, so this was a happy accident. I make this fairly regularly whenever life gives me lemons. It's a Nigella Lawson recipe, but I think she just added a soaking syrup to The River Cafe's version, and they got it from any one of a thousand nonnas back in the old country.

A. There are people who don't have a microwave. B. There are different shapes and sizes of pasta, as well as different brands of pasta. Your DeCecco is not the same as my Faella or Setaro. I think if I cooked some of the pasta I use with the fast method, it would be a gummy mess. I will say - I don't use a gallon of water to cook my usual amount of pasta - in the 200 - 227 gram range. But, I tend to use at least 2.5 - 3 L. of water, in a pot big enough so the pasta has room to swim. And I do use however much pasta water I need to incorporate into the "sauce."

All purpose flour: ½ cup + 1 tablespoon + 1¼ teaspoons Oui, chef! Also, don't forget you can dilute 10⁄11 of a shaftment of fresh yeast in 1⁄32 of a pottle of water if you don't have instant yeast.

Yes, @Smithy, I warm viands in a sous vide bath set at 5ºF or so below original cooking temperature.

for review purposes :

I tend to undercook the noodles because they're going to continue to hydrate as they sit. I also don't eat very hot soup, so I'll sit there and pick at the garnish until the broth hits an acceptable temperature and then devour it. And it can take me a minute to get the garnish together anyway... so undercooking makes it work. Nice noodles also help, since they should have some spring to them. Portion wise, one noodle block per person is a good rule. And if I'm opening up a bag of noodles, I usually use the sauce packet too unless I've made a broth of my own (a matter for another thread). For me, there are two types of noodle and two types of seasoning packet. Noodles are either fried or air-dried. I prefer air-dried because they're not filled with crappy oil that I have no use for. I'd rather put those calories into the garnish. Pork belly, anyone? The texture of air-dried noodles is also better and they tend to come with better seasoning packets. The sauce packet component breaks down, for me, between those that "taste like chemicals" and those that taste like the broth or soup they're supposed to taste like. Most instant noodles come with powders that all have a same-y MSG and nucleotide taste. This is true even of upmarket ones like those from Shin. (I quite like the vegan Shin with tofu and mushroom. Got it at Walmart, which has a big assortment of Shin.) Anyway, there's an "instant ramen taste" that most packets have that make them less delicious than they should be. It's apparently hard to make an economical, shelf-stable broth that will rehydrate well alongside noodles and not have it just taste like instant ramen. Hondashi also hits similarly, but in a fishier way. Brothwise, Nissin Rao noodles are the only ones that are somewhat widely available that taste, to me, more expensive and therefore justify their price point. They have liquid and oil bases that are very good. I have also seen these at several Walmarts in my area, along with several upscale grocery chains. I like the miso and the tonkatsu the most. I sometimes just buy them and use the very nice air-dried noodle blocks for my own broths, but it feels sad because then I have leftover sauce packets. Pro tip: they make good marinade bases. The Snapdragon instant pho you can get at Costco is also pretty good in this regard, but I don't really like the charred onion (or whatever it is) oil that they pair with it. It's too strong and offensive to me. Wife agrees. But the powder-based broth is very nice. Not real "boney meaty" but delicious and non-instant-ramen tasting. You really need to garnish this to make it sing... sliced chili, cilantro, lime, some leftover steak, basil, chili paste, hoisin-like dippin' sauce.... you know. The more the merrier. My favorite "instant" noodle that takes 7 minutes to cook are the Prima Taste Curry noodles that you can get at Amazon. They pack so much flavor and are so calorically dense that all you need to do is garnish with protein (shrimp or chicken or egg or something) and some scallions you're golden. They come with a coconut powder packet that has all the calories in it and a super intense curry paste packet. It's spicy. The world will know you're making it, because it will smell like curry. If you like it extra stanky, they make a Laksa version but it's got some heavy seafood notes that may not be for everyone. Not for me. YMMV.

@Norm Matthews almost all of my bread baking has been trial and error. I've developed my own method of doing things and I don't have the technical know how to explain why it works but it does work for me. I'm happiest with the results that I get from the simplest bread recipes. When I was trying to make sourdough bread, I came across a YouTube Channel called Baking with Jack that explains sourdough inside out. He's a little tough to take to begin with because he's pretty intense but he does have a lot of common sense advice on maintaining a sourdough starter and using it. For a beginner it's well worth watching the whole series. I also learned a lot from him about shaping bread and slashing it. I'll start you off with this video about sourdough myths. I also found a good article about preferments that you might be interested in. One thing that I have learned in my old age is that many home Bakers make a big mistake in the amount of yeast that they use. A lot of us think that if a little yeast will make it good, more yeast will make it better. It's just not true. The less yeast you use and the longer the rising time, the better the flavor and the better the texture of the bread. Bread baking is a game of patience. You have to let it do its own thing in its own time.

Looks perfect to me, putting it in my list of eggplant recipes!

Full story here (no paywall)

@KennethT no oil . the water hydrates the outer layers of the dumpling like item . longer = softer texture for some of the dumpling. you still get crispy based on the AF time and temp but you can get both ' steamed ' and ' crunchy ' at the same time w a soak. dont soak for very long w thin skinned items like these thicker ' casings ' can take a longer soak . talking minutes here , not tens of minutes . directly from Fz also tasty w no soak , directly from Fz into the AF

over here https://forums.egullet.org/topic/168215-six-seasons-of-pasta-a-new-way-with-everyones-favorite-food-by-joshua-mcfadden-and-martha-holmberg/#comment-2460284 two Italian - ish cookbooks were discusses . after the first one was posted @weinoo suggested perhaps another Italian cookbook might not be needed. then a second book was mentioned . I looked both of them over , and realized they both reiterated a pasta cooking method , while proven , and ancient , is really dated : book # 1 and book # 2 Granted , restaurant cooking is not the same as home cooking , but , why so much water ? probably not to ' seal in the juices ' a but of an extreme comparison , but .... it took time. So , are there any Italian-ish cookbooks that understand and mention The FastaPasta ? https://fastapasta.com/collections/frontpage or any other low water volume Microwave pasta cooker ? https://www.amazon.com/Tafura-Microwave-Straining-Microwavable-Spaghetti/dp/B094KQW1YS/ref=sr_1_11?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eSoGPasyp8PWrHayNVBCXPKVuSzElJU1VII0IDR-nWuh04YCd1ByE2ArXAsJV154BwG7kp88O8xbKzRYY0JN94BP7_EQKZ0gm-uzVh31Sq7oMxL7g18ssW9OWNvbmeVNmuxFCIcXw87T_G0zsa75P43spvZG2iBTXwftgNm_pkleeiwPmnOkDZGUQ_JyR5et3PrsQ3YDd0faVZnncLXK3thnMmtWg8KdEIJ7SKIUmcFypjKEo65PkY3359l5HdD9A0zwC1hkLXaqFewJJVyj-YfRNGfdCAILJW5h96PUZ7Q.Bpr_d5GBcgsGyBFPogo8tkhmnw0w462yh1NdGRIN2Xo&dib_tag=se&hvadid=693727837881&hvdev=c&hvexpln=67&hvlocphy=1027028&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=10482017846321829713--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10482017846321829713&hvtargid=kwd-1729318518879&hydadcr=20696_13296141&keywords=amazon+fasta+pasta&mcid=ecc2a7d8a42739189bcb14c280ad047b&qid=1759930783&sr=8-11 tastes the same to me , once you get the hang of it . and I mention ' cookbook ' ie something published , not noise from the internet .

What do you mean by "changes the texture just a bit" - changes in what way? After the soak, do you rub with oil or anything before the air fryer?

a fuzzy late lunch : Tj's ' Thai ' shrimp ' gyoza ' fuzzy iPhone pic , Fz gyoza are soaking in cold water for a minute or two the AF'd I do this w many of TJ's Fz item that will end up in the AF . it changes the texture just a bit Tj's sweet chili sauce , a couple drops of RB40 , and some chili oil . excellent .

on another thread , two ' Italian ' cookbooks were discussed : https://forums.egullet.org/topic/168215-six-seasons-of-pasta-a-new-way-with-everyones-favorite-food-by-joshua-mcfadden-and-martha-holmberg/#comment-2460283 looking over the first one , as e-pub , I thought about my two pasta dishes , and decided to add some chopped spinach to the Campari version : mise Campari / Spinach / Penzey's Tuscan seasoning Uncooked . window green onions jus from the Campari , used in place of pasta water two beaten eggs ( for a creamy texture a la carbonara ) EVOO / butter / Fz basil and garlic cubes ( Dorot ) DeCecco linguini ( house standard # 7 ) cooked in the FastaPasta a bit later note my pasta dishes are deliberately ' wet ' , making a sauce delicious it was , and spinach will now be a regular addition P.S.: there was grated also Tj's parmesan-ish .

Yet another curry. This time Christmas Lima beans from Rancho Gordo with summer squash and peppers from the CSA

Ours was an "indoor greenhouse," so it was smaller than that, and it lived in our laundry area (essentially a hallway). But the space was shared with a table that had an incubator and eggs, plus a 30"X30" grow-out cage for the baby chicks/quail (depending what had just come out of the incubator) as well as the laundry set and two households' worth of ongoing laundry. So yeah, pretty crowded. My nighttime bathroom runs were often rather perilous, or - as I sometimes put it - "had great comedic potential."

Wood stove, (apartment-sized) chest freezer, multiple plants under a grow light, and last winter a cage with 2 dozen live quail in ours (the latter of which are thankfully outside now, on a permanent basis). Also a "pet latrine" corner near the door, with puppy pads on a tray for the mutts and, on a stand over top of that, the cats' automatic self-cleaning litterbox and dishes. it's not a large room, so when you add in the rack for the firewood, and our respective chairs (and subtract the corner with the awkward under-stairway storage space) there isn't a lot left for actual... you know... living. This has been an ongoing complaint, because my sweetheart - despite her many virtues - has an odd compulsion about filling the available space to overflowing. I told her once that it was a passive-aggressive thing she'd learned while married to her [expletive deleted] ex. She's tiny (barely 5') but he's 6'5" and well over 300lbs (for the Europeans, that's almost 2 metres tall and roughly 150kg). I told her that her love of closely packed rooms (I tactfully avoided the word "cluttered") was a way of making him feel uncomfortable in "her" space, so he'd be motivated to head back up to the work camp (he was an oilpatch guy) instead of hanging around home. She was startled at that, but on reflection thought that I might have been right.

Frozen Costco cheese ravioli. Sauce was an attempt at a fridge purge. Leftover red sauce that I mixed with some cream. Leftover peeled shallots and red onion. Wine and chicken broth reduced. This was another attempt at cooking frozen pasta in a sauce, rather than boiling. I nestled the frozen ravioli in the sauce, covered tightly. Señor Google said it would take 10 minutes to cook the frozen ravioli (and to add water to the sauce which I decided against). Since this was a serving for two, the sauce wasn't sufficient quantity to cover the ravioli. So at the 5 minute mark, I gently flipped each ravioli. Another 5 minutes and voila!

Inspired by the Venetian dish called Schie con Polenta: Shrimp cooked with oil, butter, garlic, crushed red pepper, white wine, lemon juice. Creamy polenta with parmesan. In Venice, the dish would be made with schie, tiny gray shrimp not found here.

No photo. Still making instant food and will be until I get moved and settled. Had a baked potato stuffed with chili*, onion and shredded cheddar. *The chili was canned--Yellowstone brand, which I'd never heard of and had to try. Yes, it is owned by Paramount, though there are a couple of different manufacturers of the actual chili. It was about as good as canned chili ever is. I keep trying different brands hoping to find one I love, but nothing yet. I need to remember next time I make chili to freeze leftovers in small quantities so I can take one out for a chili dog or baked potato. I generally just freeze a couple of large bags that are enough for about 4 bowls, so too much for that.

Salad bowl for lunch with all the usual subjects plus pickled red cabbage salad, pimento and egg plant spread, boiled new tiny potatoes we call chat potatoes. Served with a vinaigrette dressing.

Carrying on strongly with the cheese theme; Sports Ball inevitably leads to the perfect marriage of casual Australian party food being stuck in the 80s and the equivalent British party food having to be beige. A Cob. My own personal fav combo of carbs, carbs, carbs and cheese. Featuring jalapeno and bacon. No, I'd prefer not to be reminded of Arteries at this time. 😅

White Poached Chicken with Napa Cabbage and Peanut Rayu from Ottolenghi’s “Comfort” - chicken breast gets poached in water and shredded. Rayu is made by slowly heating up canola oil with gochugaru and once hot you add chopped peanuts, sesame seeds and chopped garlic and cook for a few minutes. Off heat you add soy sauce, salt and sugar and let it cool down to rt. The chicken is mixed with thinly sliced napa cabbage, basil, ginger, scallions, shaoxing wine and the rayu. Finished with some lime juice

We also had a 5'x5'x7' grow tent!

Millions of people in China (including me) have a fridge/freezer in their living room.