Snadra
-
Posts
564 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Snadra
-
-
Any Australian reading this might or might not feel the same way. My nominations:
Masterchef Australia. Typical of Australian TV productions, they took a classy UK Masterchef and fused it with Big Brother to produce a lame reality TV competition where those who sob the loudest gain the most mileage. It is also handy product placement for various sponsors of the show and several wannabe celebrity chefs. Truly second rate TV for the housewife class.
Huey. All that fat wheezy Huey does is think up of recipes for canned Apricots or whatever that his product sponsors have asked him to promote. The timing of his show (morning TV) tells you all you need to know about what the TV execs think of his cooking.
And yet they are marvellous compared to Alive and Cooking with James Reeson.
-
Those mini ice cream cones are great! We have a minor addiction to them. I only wish the cone bit were crispier.
-
I will never again grasp the bread lame incorrectly when removing it from its stupid little sheath. Because 3cm scores in the palm of one's hand are unpleasant and tend to make a mess of the tea towels. The thing has officially cut more human flesh than it has bread dough.
-
I use Asian fried shallots as a topping for things like perogies and sometimes as the onion component in meatballs or burgers. Because life is too short to cry a river over alliums and then go through the rest of the day with hair that smells of their fried corpses.
Edited: because onion components are different and less scary than onion opponents. Damn you autocorrect!
-
I don't truss chickens before roasting: saves work and saves cooking time.
Trussing take not even a minute to do.
Rubbish! First you have to dig around in the giant wasteland of a kitchen drawer that holds the things suitable for trussing recalcitrant poultry. Once you find something to keep said poultry legs from flying out willy-nilly and destroying your self-delusional Martha psychosis you must disinfect and bandage the wounds sustained from random poky things found in said hell-dimension drawer. The trussing may begin at this point (making allowances for frustrated detanglements) but it is a well known fact that trussing anything other than a calf at a rodeo takes a period of time that can only be an exponential multiple of the time taken on an average cooking programme. Trussing complete, the aforementioned wounds must be re-disinfected and re-bandaged to prevent icky mess from festering in them. (optional extra time allowance for a desperate search for a clean tea towel). At this point you may bung the damn thing into oven, but will more likely drop it on the floor due to hands still being slippery from not having been dried on a clean tea towel, but hopefully shaken into the sink instead.
Total time: apparently infinite.
Never mind though, as you likely forgot to turn on the oven, so have plenty of time to rinse the damn thing and fend off marauding cats while waiting for it to heat up.
Edited for grammar and 4-th dimension errors.
-
Is she interested in cooking, or just in eating decently? Judging by the experiences of many friends, the problem with the bigger all-encompassing cookbooks is that they can be overwhelming for a novice who just wants to make a simple meal. Bittman is great (I've got how to cook everything and its vegetarian sister and find them very useful), but there are so many choices it can also be paralysing.
I think for some people a better choice is a book with good pictures of the final product, short ingredient lists (with minimal prepared ingredients) and straightforward instructions. Locally I would choose one of Bill Granger's cookbooks, a Marie Claire (authored by Michelle Cranston or Donna Hay) or a Donna Hay. I like Bill's Open Kitchen in particular because it gives suggestion for simple accompaniments to complete the meal. These books aren't about learning to cook properly as much as just mucking in and giving it a go and generally getting something tasty at the end. Many of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks take a similar approach, but his ingredient lists tend to be getting longer and longer lately... My feeling is that the wider range of techniques and options provided by Joy of Cooking, Bittman et al can have more of an impact if they come after one has some simple meals under the belt.
Of course, people are all different, and your son knows her best. Some people thrive on seeing the theory laid out in front of them with all the possibilities.
-
.......
So much cant about foie, I love the stuff. Not so keen on halal meat though, seems wilfully cruel to me and does not make a nicer meat product as far as I can tell. Dont see anyone trying to ban it though.
As for the evening standard and their 'sting' what a disgusting paper, no wonder they have been reduced to giving it away.
S
I don't understand the point you are trying to make here. The production of foie gras is about creating a particular taste. Why should halal meat (or kosher meat for that matter) taste better if its purpose is adherence to religious belief? And in what way is the production of halal meat crueler than that of 'regular' meat anyway?
-
I like the idea of chicken Parmesan, but hate the frying mess, so recently I broiled the chicken after coating it in parmesan and parsley seasoned crumbs, then put a bit of sauce and cheese on it before running under the broiler to melt the cheese. I do eggplant parmesan this way (often leaving out the mozzarella) and we love it. Flavourful, light, and little mess. Goes great in a sandwich as well! I just make a sauce using the Marcella Hazan method: tomatoes and half an onion cooked over gentle heat for 30 min or so. not very traditional, though...
-
When we redid our kitchen a few years ago and I really wanted a double oven but we have a very small kitchen. We ended up putting in one of these, and it has been fantastic. It probably gets more use than our regular oven and it's the one I do grilling in and quick things like reheating rolls. It's also excellent for reheating things like lasagne from frozen as you can combine the microwave function with the oven. The only issue with it is that there is no pre heating function, so you need to make adjustments if doing straight forward baking.
If I were fitting out something like a vacation cabin, I would definitely consider putting one of them in instead of a full oven.
-
1. Eat less!
2. Learn to cook some Sichuan dishes from Fuchsia Dunlop's book.
With you there on #1! and I can recommend #2 as being very rewarding.
My goal is to take a proper lunch to school AND eat it every day.
-
Having been raised drinking mostly raw milk, I say drink it!, it's delicious! But proceed with caution, based on how careful they are about hygiene. Pasteurisation became the standard for very good reason, and organic methods and good intentions are not a substitute for hygiene and proper management.
If its raw it's unlikely to be homgenized anyway, so the cream will float soon enough. Use the cream for butter, whipped cream or your coffee, and drink the rest.
If you truly have concerns regarding its safety don't bother with pasteurising it yourself, just feed it to pets or bathe in it (one local raw milk producer gets around regs by promoting it as bath milk).
Edit: fix autocorrect!
-
I know in some homes gratin potatoes would be a traditional accompaniment. We usually had it with riced potatoes, a spiced raisin sauce, pumpkin pickles and cauliflower and broccoli in cheese sauce, run under the broiler.
Here it might be surrounded by salads, rolls and giant bowls of prawns.
Can you elaborate on pumpkin pickles?
-
I know in some homes gratin potatoes would be a traditional accompaniment. We usually had it with riced potatoes, a spiced raisin sauce, pumpkin pickles and cauliflower and broccoli in cheese sauce, run under the broiler.
Here it might be surrounded by salads, rolls and giant bowls of prawns.
-
I stayed with someone who did this and marvelled. They turned out perfectly every time. She didn't even acidulate the water.
-
Edward, your story terrifies me. I've seen some dirty commercial kitchens (and my father, who was a refrigeration tech for a while told me about a few more), but that is beyond...erk.
With regard to my soon to be kitchen, I am happy to report that I have found better and less expensive accommodation closer to town - and the kitchen has a proper stove AND a dishwasher, although apparently it is of the same fabulous style and colour as the one I posted up thread (nothing like renting sight unseen). Leaving me with nothin to complain about!
But once I had thanksgiving with a fabulous group of people in a back country cabin. We had to hike most of it up the mountain (thankfully the mules took care of the really heavy stuff) and the entire, traditional spread was cooked in a wood stove that looked like it came straight out of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book. It wasn't all hardship though - there was a hand pump inside so you didn't have to go out for water in winter. Personally I found it enchanting, but it did give me a new respect for people who had (and may still have) to chop their firewood for cooking on a daily basis.
-
I grew up in an area where the water was so hard it ran a protection racket. Everyone rinsed.
Maybe it's more to do with historical access to hot water for rinsing? Don't a lot of European homes have very small hot water systems still? I spent time living in a house with such a small system you had to turn off the water while soaping up in the shower, or you'd end up doused in cold water. And I'm always seeing old films where houses have a separate, tiny boiler for the kitchen.
-
My grandfather had some sort of super sensitivity to soap, so none was used in my grandparents' house and everything was scrubbed under very hot running water instead.
The only time I have come across non-rinsing was in a book of 'life on the ranch' tales: two cowhands were sharing quarters and one insisted on doing the cooking, but burned and ruined everything. In revenge, the other (who had to do the washing up) deliberately didn't rinse the plates the 'cook' was eating off. The cook got sick and soon changed his ways.
-
Bump!
Anything new to report since 2009?
I post not because I am expecting the ptiter ptater of typographically-challenged little feet, but rather because I am the main user of the kitchen in our house and we will be spending most of the next 6 months apart. I'm planning to do a fair bit of cooking and freezing to ensure that there are some easy single serve meals in the house so that my sweetie eats,weel while we're apart. The idea is to have a main dish or its components in the freezer, then he will just cook a starch and side to go with it. We will buy a foodsaver so the meals can be vacuumed packed. I would take some of this planned bounty with me, but it's a 6 hour drive to where I'll be living.
My cooked meal ideas so far include:
- Meatballs (in tomato sauce for pasta and in brown gravy for potatoes)
- Beef rendang
- Georgian pork stew (a Darra Goldstein recipe)
- Ragu (Marcella Hazan)
- Par-baked pizza bases
- Caramel chicken
I am also thinking of some quick cook things:
- Perogies - quick boil and they're ready to eat
- Individual chicken breast/steak/pork chops - to grill and serve with salad
If I have a chance I will probably also make some cookies and squares as well.
Soup is an obvious option, but it's not his favourite, and as the weather will be warm for sometime yet it's overkill anyway. There's plenty of hearty stuff on the list already. I'll also print out some suggestions for a veg to go with each dish.
- Meatballs (in tomato sauce for pasta and in brown gravy for potatoes)
-
That chicken lamb thing is a nightmare. But also on a sidenote one becomes desensitized the longer you work and the more you see. Cockroaches in blanching water, etc.
Cockroach in the ice cream...and the kitchen hand was going to dish out around it because he couldn't be asked going to the other freezer to get a fresh bucket.
-
Worst sins I've seen were raw meat in the deep fryer, and--get this, dumping a flat of whole, shell eggs in the Hobart, put the paddle in, let 'er rip for a minute or two, then strain through a chnoise to gt "liquid eggs" for the B'fst buffet.
Lollol, that's kinda how the real shelling machines work. I've seen em demoed at restaurant conventions. They look kinda like upright washers. You dump in a whole cube of shell eggs. Let er rip. Liquid eggs come out of the spigot into your bucket. The busted up shells are retained in the drum for you to empty.
Yeah, seriously, it may be lazy but it also sounds smart. What's wrong with this?
Nothing inherently, but I recall an incident of food poisoning some years ago invoving the Egg King and a cook who didn't wash his hands before handling the eggs, and this presumes the shells are clean to begin with.
Liquid eggs from a HACCP-accredited facility are one thing, but I would have fits if I saw that happening here - it only flies if the eggs are washed, which doesn't happen in every country. I open the carton at the supermarket not only to check for broken eggs, but also for very dirty ones, because I prefer my scrambled eggs without a poop garnish.
-
I don't know enough about panforte to try to give suggestions for correcting it, but my first thought was that you could try cutting out the centres and maybe coating the edges in chocolate or a dip in honey then chopped nuts (whichever you used in the panforte itself). That would hide any obvious indications you'd cut it. Maybe you could then use the cutoffs crumbled in something else, or as an ice cream topping, etc.
edit: missing word
-
A lot of mispronunciations of Italian words bug me, but one of the ones most spectacularly butchered in Denmark is 'espresso', for which you generally hear ex-PRA-so. Ouch.
But you do have to give kudos to any speakers of a language with phrases like 'rødgrød med fløde'. Surely that gets them a pass on Italian pronunciations!
(I haven't spoken Danish in over 20 years but I can still say that one well enough to please a Dane!)My husband used to say "broh-cole-lie" until my death stares began to shorten his lifespan.
-
I believe my freezer was almost all butter at one point, due to a sale on Lurpak....
Besides butter, most useful purchased freezer items for me are frozen peas (soup, pasta, fried rice or a side dish), frozen corn (toasted in salads, soup), frozen berries (ocassional smoothies, but usually pancake toppings or dessert puddings), tater tots/potato gems, puff pastry and wood fired pizza (last minute 'argh' meals). Also, I tend to buy meat from the supermarket when it's discounted for quick sale and stock the freezer with that (organic chicken is pricey, but it's a good deal when it's half price!).
I also make perogies and soup for the freezer, but that's really a different conversation.
-
I have given and received cookbooks with varying degrees of success. Honestly, it's very much like giving or receiving any other books - so much depends on how well you know the person and their library. I have given a few with a basket of ingredients, probably like what Marmish received - mine didn't go over well, but nothing I do does with that particular crowd!
The best received/given have related to particular and narrow interests, but I have also given a few Aussie cookbooks (Bill Granger, Marie Claire, Donna Hay) with good success to people overseas. This is probably because they have a different angle to them, rather than make any statement about cooking ability - plus they have beautiful pictures and simple instructions and ingredients.
Help! Need food ideas for a picky eater
in Cooking
Posted
I take it he will eat fresh herbs?
You might do okay with:
As far as desserts go, you also could try fruits poached in syrups. And I still like homemade applesauce topped with granola (which can be very high calorie).
For breakfast, avocado or tomatoes on toast is always good.