Mofassah

I only have like one meter of cookbooks. It's more than I need, since I only actively use three or four of them, and only when I on rare occasions bake cakes. I don't use recipes for any other cooking. I have read them all though, and tons more I have borrowed from the library, since I read them more or less like novels.

Pavlova with mascarpone cream and lots of fresh berries.

Ok, I have one more. Spaghetti with butter and a couple of easy-overs on top, with running yolk that blends in with the pasta. Edit: Ok, I admit it. I wasn't gonna, but it's the guilty pleasure we're after here, so yes, I add a little bit of ketchup too, and it gotta be Heinz.

As long as there's sausages, it's all the food trucks we need.

For a pear cobbler, I'd take the hardest ones I could find. There's a whole lot of pears that may be suitable, but it's the same rule as it is for apples; The harder and not so very sweet ones are by far the best ones for anything that involves heating, such as pies and cakes baked in the oven. For cold dishes, like salads, the softer sweeter ones is good, unless your after the acid in for instance a potato- or waldorf salad.

Well, I'll be damned. I was sure those things had actually been laying around in the sun for a week or a month. I am a tad bit disappointed right now, but I'll try the oven method as soon as I get over it. Thanks.

Butter, and nothing but good 'ole butter, is all I ever use to fry or sear anything in my skillet, especially everything with eggs. Not only because I love the flavor, but also because it's better at helping to avoid stuff to stick than any form of oil and fat I have ever tried. If I am going to fry something hard, at really high temp, I use clearified butter, since the white proteins that ends up at the bottom when the butter melts may add an unpleasant burnt sour flavor and also cause some sticking. I have invested in a really good sturdy thick non-stick pan now, and I love it, but I have used both steel and cast iron for 25-30 years and I've never had a problem with things sticking to it. The clue is to NEVER EVER use any form of soap in it. Just rinse and scrub it under running warm water after use, when it's still hot, and dry it off thoroughly with a paper or a towel. If you burn something or fry something smelly, like fish, you can fill it with water and let it boil hard for a couple of minutes, then dry it off and smear it with a bit of sunflower oil or another oil that handles heat well, i.e. not olive oil.

I just love sun dried tomatoes. They are pretty darn expensive though, but fresh tomatoes are not, and since it's summer and the sun is hanging up there, warm and nice, I was thinking there might be a way to make those red wrinkly lumps of luxury myself. I have no clue on how to do it though. Anyone?

Turbot. If you don't think that's the best fish in the world, you havn't tried it yet.

I am no expert, but I would assume the thicker the better. I use rolls from La.va, which I cut to desired length and seal in each end. I don't know how thick they are, the lable doesn't say, and I have never given it any thought, but they are pretty sturdy and take high cooking temperatures without leaking. I buy them from a hunter's shop here in Norway. Hunters know what they are talking about when it comes to prerservation of meat, so I trust them when they say La.va is the shit.

Gas stoves are great, no reason to hold back.

Thanks guys. Just the answers I needed to do the right choice. I will go for the Primo. Cold smoking is interesting, but I have a plan on that I will update you on in a later post. I am Norwegian and fish my own salmon in summers, and hopefully I will be able to smoke one of my own catch this summer ... if I'm lucky.

I am drooling over two different grills, the Primo Oval XL kamado and a totally different one, the Memphis Pro, which is a pellet grill They can both do much the same and they are both pretty darn expensive, but I definately want to save up to one, but which one should I choose? Any input and experience is most welcome.

Hell yeah! I LOVE pavlova and hope there will come some brilliant recipes here. When it cvome sto the consistency of the meringue, there's two ways to do it as I see it, and each ahs it's own ... congregation; crispy all the way through or sticky in the center. I like both, as long as it's fluffy enough, but I prefere the sticky center I usually takes it out the meringue of the oven and let it cool off there to make it sticky in the center. If you leave it in the oven with the door slightly open, it will become crisp all the way through. My favourite topping is mascarpone cream and raspberries. Mix mascarpone 50/50 with whipped cream and a dash of flour sugar and vanilla sugar and top with lots of fresh rasberries. Yum.

I really don't see any way of grilling a leg of lamb that gives a better result than a regular oven, or sous vide, unless you have a kamado (and know how to use it) or a really advanced gas grill with really good temperature control. If it's one thing you don't want, it's a leg of lamb that is chared on the outside and raw in the center.

Nothing beats a good leg of lamb. The meat itseøf is so tasty and tender that there's no point in making a lot of fuzz about it. This is what I do. Brine the whole leg overnight in a mild salt solution (60 grams of salt per liter water). Take out the bone, fill it with some nice fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme are classic and hard to beat) and a handfull of whole garlic clefts, and then tie it up nicely. Now it's ready to cook, and I have done it two ways, sous vide and in the oven, oven is best: Sous vide: Vacuum seal it and cook it sous vide at 150F (60C) for 10-12 hours. (that's for medium, go for plus or minus 10F if you want it less or more cooked). Oven: Put the meat in a buttered pan and cover it with tin foil. Put it in the oven at 250F (120C) and roast it for 8 hours, then turn up the heat to 475F (240C), remove the tin foil and and let it get another half an hour to crisp it up on the outside. Check it with your thermometer. Core temp should be 140F (60C) for medium, 150F (65C) for rare and if you like it well done, 160F (70C). Good luck.

I'd marinate it for 24 hours in a nice sauce of olive oil, red wine, a table spoon or two of fish sauce (I like the Vietnamese best since it's stronger on flavour than the Thai, but Thai fish souce is fine too), ground black pepper, honey and mustard. Sear it in butter in a skillet for a couple of minutes till it's nice and brown all over, put it in the bag and dunk it in ice water (50/50 ice cubes and water - or if you can't be bothered to make all those ice cubes, just put a big bowl of water in the freezer for a couple of hours till it gets a crust of ice). The meat should be enough chilled after a minute. Add some of the marinade back in the bag and vacuum seal it. Cook the pork for 10-12 hours at 60 C (that's 140F). Sear it again if you wish, a blow torch is conveniant, and serve it with whatever you like. I think a good potato mash and some sauteed peppers, squash and red onions is perfect. My sauce suggestion would be to cook the liquid from the sous vide bag together with equal amount of apple juice and some soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Use a roux if you prefere, or just thicken it with some corn starch.

*bows his head in shame* I know ...

I have big problems walking past a sausage van. I just can't hold myself. I simply LOVE a good hot dog, preferably a nice long and warm wiener that cracks when you bite through it and fills your gob with it's nice juice. On top I want two stripes of sweet mustard, not too strong but it gotta have a little sting, and one stripe of ketchup, and off course a spoonfull of chopped fresh onions. Yum. What is your guilty food pleasure?

My kids demand omelettes from time and time, and they want it cooked exactly the same way every time, and they want it country style, with a nice browning. I beat together two eggs and two spoonfulls of water and a pinch of salt and beat them pretty well, so you see no white strings in it. If you don't get that right, use one more pinch og salt, as the salt breaks down the egg. Then I warm up my non-stick skillet to medium, add a dollop of butter and when it's melted I pour in the eggs, drags it a little bit across this way and that with a spatula untill it's semi coagulated all over. Then I cover half the omelette with strips of cooked ham and a couple of slices with Jarlsberg or another nice gouda style cheese. Then I fold the other half over, put a lid on and let it rest for a couple of minutes till the cheese is melted, flip it onto a plate and serve it with a pinch of salt. Myself? I prefere a nice and fluffy scramble with chive, .

Good grief. You are joking now right? I mean it's OK to list a couple of waters on the beverage menu, like with or without bubbles, with or without a lemon twist and maybe even a couple of brands, since they actually do taste a bit different, but make a standalone water list is just stoopid. And "water sommeliers" got to be a joke. Please tell me it's a joke.

The problem with frozen seafood, is that it releases it's juice when it thaws, but I have a way of poaching frozen cod that saves the succulence and which may very well be worth a try with scallops too. I will vacuum seal them when they are still frozen, and dunk the bag in boiling water for 10 seconds before putting them in the sous vide bath. This technique is often used to kill off bacterias on the surface of meat before long time cooking, but it also kinda seals off the outer layer of cells, and help the delicate scallop to hold it's juice. (Yeah, I know many people say that searing wont help a steak hold on to it's juice, but my taste buds are not lying to me, it does help my fish to stay juicy).

Those aren't trends, those are traditions! No, they are trends, megatrends even, and where the big money is, and therefor they recruit good chefs and give them nine to five jobs, with double or triple wages of what any restaurant is able to offer. It ruins peoples relationship to food as much as it makes it pretty darn hard to get good staff on your restaurant kitchen, and in turn ruins the restaurant industry. Kids today actually believe their food comes from the freezer, they don't even know that chicken is a bird, and have no idea that meat is actually dead animals. Disgusting.

Why do you wrap them in cling film first?

Ok, you are all wrong. Nothing mentioned in this thread, let it be sous vide, stupid foodie-lingo, or various speeds of serving at restaurant is even worth getting annoyed at. I salute ANY trend that focuses on making delicious food for the people. It doesn't even have to be a trend, as long as it's something that enable any average Joe on his kitchen to make something edible from scratch. Sous vide is a perfect example, since it enables both Dum and Dumber to eat a steak that's neither bleeding raw or like the sole of his shoe, but perfect medium rare through and through - every time. How can one dislike that? What realy should upset all of us is the abundance of cheap (and expensive) frozen, ready made pizzas, lasagnas, spagetthi dishes and all sorts of disgusting meals, full of sugar, fat and MSG you will find in any super market all over the world. People actually live of that shait. That is a trend to dislike.