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Entries from Talk tagged with 'cooking'
Cooking with liquor?
Can you cook a dish with like, say, Southern Comfort or whisky? I've had vodka marinara sauce, fish and chicken with rum, white wine and chicken marinated in Belgian ale - what else can one use?
Terrible Kitchen Odors
Many kitchen fragrances make us hungry or bring back childhood memories. What about the opposite? Are there cooking odors that make you sick? I saw a show last night where a woman was sued because of odors emanating from her apartment, even though she had gone to herculean effort to prevent bothering her neighbors. That kind of living situation would make an impact (positive or negative) on those who could smell your food. What cooking odors make you run for cover?
what kitchen smells effect you the most
They say that memory and scent are strongest linked. What smells trigger memories for you the most strongly. For me it's the smell of olive oil and sauteeing onions and garlic.
substituting for wine in recipes
i don't cook with wine. what can i use to substitute when sauteing mushrooms?
My MIL gave me Easter this year! Help!
To make up for taking Thanksgiving from me last year, my MIL gave me Easter this year. I've never cooked Easter dinner before. My in-laws always have baked ham, which I'm a little sick of. I'd like to do lamb, but my husband (=slightly picky eater) isn't sure he'll like it. I offered to do a test run first & if he hates it, then I have time to come up with something else (like ham). I was thinking of roasting the lamb with roasted new potatoes, but I'm not sure what else to serve. Any ideas?
How has your cooking style changed over the years?
When I started to go through the earlier stages of my love faux chefdom (I’m a good cook, but I know it’s faux chedom. Jean-Georges has nothing to fear from me), I swear, I could not get enough ingredients into whatever I was making. The more complicated the procedure was the more I liked it. I lived for hunting down Thai basil and galangal.
Now? Not so much. My tomato sauce, once a thing that took, like 75 ingredients (I exaggerate, but only a bit), now uses 4 or 5, and is much improved by the reduced ingredient list. Now I like nothing better than making a simple roast chicken, flavored with nothing more than lemon, salt and pepper. My rice and beans are an exercise in simplicity.
Do you find that your cooking style has changed over the years? Are you more daring? More shortcutty? More inclined towards the complicated? Do you look for challenges you would have run from before? Like mayonnaise, which scared the heck out of me before, and is now one of those, yeah, well, whatever, things that I make without even thinking about now.
"Proper" techniques I just don't use...
Whether it's out of habit, obstinacy, or a simple lack of mastery, it seems every cook has at least one technique they do their own way. Not just among friends, either. Most professional chefs seem to have at least one of these quirks.
I'm sure I have many, but the two that come readily to mind are:
Chopping onions. I know how to do it the "right" way (i.e., keep root intact, make horizontal cuts then vertical, etc.), but I just don't do it. Reason? My way works fine for me, and the proper technique is a hassle, and doesn't seem to offer any real advantages over mine. In other words, pure obstinacy. (It makes me so happy to see an occasional pro use a technique similar to mine.)
Cracking eggs. I can do it one-handed but I always use two hands. Why? Mostly habit. But also because my eggs are usually of the brown variety. They have a thicker shell and a VERY tough membrane, which lend themselves to crushed shells rather than cracked.
Fess up. What do you do? Why?
Shortcut Secrets...
What are your secret (or, not so secret) shortcuts in cooking? Do you do everything from scratch except for that one little trick? What is it?
Mine is Annie Chun's Pad Thai sauce...no experimentation of my own with the million different possible ingredients has ever made home cooked pad thai taste so good.
I know you have them!
indian cooking help
i bought a book call the great curries of indian. and on page 106 it called for 4th line it calls for chille past..up above there is no chile past. is it when you add the yogurt and cayenne together? i'm very blind in the indian cooking and needs some help, also it didn't say to put a cover on it in the oven also all together there were 9 onions but instructios 5 can you help this mama
kathleen
I would advise a beginner cook to _____
What one piece of advice would you share with a beginner cook? Thinking back to what may have been helpful to you...was it a specific cookbook? Shopping for ingredients? Being fearless with seasonings? Safety & sanitation tips? Utensil & cookware purchases? Menu planning? The SE community has a collective wealth of cooking knowledge & expertise...what one piece of advice would you give to the novice cook?
Cooking with leftover wine
When I woke up and wandered into the kitchen this morning, I realized there was an open bottle of sauvignon blanc, with about a glass's worth of wine still in it from last night. It had been sitting out, unsealed, for the entire night. Now, I was planning on making a roasted pork loin for some friends tonight, and I thought, why not use the leftover wine as a basting liquid? However, I've heard conflicting advice on this subject.
On the one hand, the wine is going to be cooked, used to baste a garlic-rosemary pork loin, not in a sauce or anything, and thus will not be a major flavor component. And the alternative is to just pour it down the drain.
On the other hand, there's the "don't cook with a wine you wouldn't drink" rule; cooking concentrates the flavor of wine, so if the wine is no longer drinkable, it will hurt the dish more than help it.
What say you, Serious Eats community?
What has been your proudest cooking moment?
Did you win a cookng contest? Accomplish a new technique? Create a spectactular feast? Impress a SO? Teach someone else how to cook? My most memorable was at age 8 when I won several blue ribbons at the county fair for my plain muffins, white cake & biscuits.
Cooking by sense of smell....
Recently I made roasted brussel sprouts for dinner with friends. One of my guests asked how I cooked the brussel sprouts, and I was telling her that after I put them in the oven, I waited until I could smell them.....then gave it about 10 minutes until I could smell them stronger, then checked them for doneness. I cook this way often....checking on food in the oven once the smell is prominent. Does anyone else use their nose as a main cooking tool?
How often do you follow a recipe exactly as written?
When cooking from a recipe, I'm a weigh & measure type person. I'm just plain awful when it comes to adding a pinch of this & a dab of that---meaning poor recipe results. Dorie encourages us to "play around" with recipes but it just doesn't work for me. What % of the time do you follow recipe instructions to the "T"? Baking differ from entrees & sides?
All this talk of chocolate and cheese....
Has anyone listened to the Ween album titled Chocolate and Cheese...
What types of music or bands do you like to listen to while cooking?
Question of the Day: Listening to music while cooking?
I like to put on some nice background music like thievery corporation...
what do you like to listen to while cooking?
Question of the Day: When left uninspired, what dish do you fall back on to feed the masses?
In my house [a 24yoF, 25yoM, and 26yoM here], it's gyudon [Japanese beef bowl] a la Matsuya [a gyudon chain I lived for in Japan], "Italian Dating Soup" [my version of Wedding Soup - for my boyfriend and I], or sandwiches of jar'd Italian vegetable goodness, provolone, prosciutto, various random condiments, and turkey breast, wrapped in foil, and baked under my cast iron skillet to the point of hot, crusty goodness.
Et vous?
Question of the Day: Recipe software?
Do you use any type of recipe application to keep your cooking notes organized on your computer? If so, what?
Question of the Day: Has the internet made you a better cook?
I will answer yes to that question. I find blogs and food boards an invaluable resource. I love that you can post a specific question about a recipe or technique and get a wide variety of responses and suggestions. I never was confident in my ability to cook roasts or large pieces of meat. Recently, thanks to the internet I made the best pork roast I have ever had!
Question of the Day: What surprises your friends most to hear that you make yourself?
I make my own yogurt, which always elicits responses like "oh, you're such a gourmet" and "where do you find the time?" - even after I explain that I only do it to save on plastic containers, and my total time investment in the process is about fifteen minutes (thanks to my Salton automatic yogurt warmer that looks like R2D2). What commonly-bought food items do you make yourself that your non-food-obsessed friends are surprised about?
At home, do you encourage your mate to cook with you?
My husband and I don't eat a lot of the same things, but we do enjoy cooking together, albeit separately.
At home, do you encourage your mate to cook with you?
Question of the Day: What do you cook that your parents wouldn't approve of?
When Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine mentioned in our PBJ Special Report that Alaina's mom would have killed her for using more than a thin coating of peanut butter on her PBJ sandwiches, it started us thinking...
What or how do you cook today that your mother or father (or whoever taught you to cook) wouldn't approve of?
What is the most creative food you have ever cooked?
I was just thinking how I've gotten into a cooking cycle, a never ending, always the same things. Salmon, roasts, sweet potatoe fries...yadda yadda yadda. I need some refreshers, to jazz things up...Any suggestions? I need some new, fun recipes.
Question of the Day: Are you a baker or a cook?
Do you spend more time flitting about the oven or the stovetop?
Do you like company in the kitchen while you cook?
me = emphatic NO.
Eggs!
Eggs! My mom gave me 30 eggs over the weekend. I am down to 25 - what can I do with the rest before they go bad?
What kind of oil do you use for cooking?
I use olive oil and canola. I have grape seed oil but I am not really sure what to use it for.
What to do with the fryer oil?
I have a basket type deep fryer that I never use. The problem I have is it takes so much oil to fill it that it seems like a complete waste to fry up one dinner and then throw the oil away. I tried saving the oil in the fridge once but I read that it's not healthy to re-use fryer oil. Does anyone have any suggestions for getting more use out of my fryer without being so wasteful?
My vacation rental only has a 2 burner stove. Any ez menu ideas?
I'm looking for easy, comfort food menu ideas for a VT vacation rental. We'll be there for a week, but I want to take it easy. They supply a two-burner stove, toaster, and cheap pots & pans.
I can fit a small appliance or other tools in the car. Any suggestions?
Question of the Day: What did Mom used to cook that no restaurant's been able to match?
Whats's your worst kitchen disaster ever?
Mine was recent. The first Thanksgiving at our house....I turned on the wrong burner and caused a pyrex dish of already cooked cabbage to EXPLODE! Glass and smoke everywhere! It was actually pretty hilarious, and luckily the rest of the food was covered and safe from flying pyrex pieces.
Question of the Day: What's your favorite dish to cook when you're trying to impress?
One pot meals?
I'm in New York, but all my kitchen stuff is on a moving truck somewhere between here and San Francisco! I've got a 2 1/2 quart covered sauce pan, a cutting board, knife, and basic untensils. Any suggestions for some tasty one pot meals? Chili is on my list.
Why won't my dried beans cook evenly?
I always soak them for the required amount of time. I never salt them until the end. I have tried with limas, black beans, kidney beans, cannellinis, black eyed peas and countless others. They always cook unevenly, and the skins are always horribly tough. Even lentils routinely let me down! What am I doing wrong?
Question of the Day: Who Taught You to Cook?
Or are you pretty much limited to boiling water or using the radar range?
How do you cook?
Do you improvise your meals or follow recipes? What has been successful for you, and why?
What is the one dish that you've been intimidated to try? Why?
For some reason, I've been scared to make my own pasta. I have no valid excuse but for some unknown reason it has been my personal Everest. Others have said it's not difficult. I have flour. I have eggs. I even have the pretty, shiny pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer. It sits all alone in the box it was given to me in. I vowed not to go into the office next week so I'm pledging right here that I will do it after Christmas.
Amount of food to make for 10 guests?
Is there a site that tells you the serving size for appetizers, sides, main courses and desserts? Every time I cook like this make way too much food. Thanks
I have a question.
Can you please give me the best way to prepare a 12 ounce NY STrip steak, about 1 1/2 inches thick to rae to medium rare? This would be cooked indoors. Thanks very much.
Ideas for building around leftover Indian?
This is probably an apt topic for most delivery leftovers, but I think that Indian presents the biggest challenge. Certainly, you'll likely need more rice, and I've tried the ethnicky Near East brand's coconut-ginger version with Indian. Also, a room-temp cucumber salad made with Indian-type flavorings also agrees with this food. Any ideas?
Lamb Ribs other than Braising any other ways to cook?
Just got an order from Allen Bros. they added it to my order. Kinda stumped as to what to do with them, Can't find any recipes for them online. Help?
Proper burger cooking technique: Do you flatten the patty while it's cooking?
If you watch some video of people cooking burgers (over grills or on griddles), you'll often see them flatten the patty with the spatula. Wouldn't this squeeze out all the yummy juices and make the burger thinner, thereby prone to cooking faster and getting dried out? Or does it drain the burger in some special way, and get it to cook more evenly? What's the proper technique?
somewhere, i recently read a food article discussing french cuisine which discussed that the french pretty much only use 3 herbs in their cooking.
somewhere, i recently read a food article discussing french cuisine which discussed that the french pretty much only use 3 herbs in their cooking. i have tried to remember which herbs? where i read the article? but i can't recall - driving myself crazy - can anyone help??
