Cooking For Noobs

[Phylum of Alexandria]

My wife is a great cook, but I wanted to pitch in more.

I make a decent fried rice, banh mi, chicken tikka masala, and mexican lime chicken, but I needed more ideas, and stuff that wasn't super hard.

This collection had a bunch of stuff that I found easy to make a tasty.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy/packages/healthy-every-week/quick-and-simple/healthy-dinners-in-40-minutes-or-less

Stuff we really liked: 

• Pan-Seared Salmon with Kale and Apple Salad
• Sweet and Tangy Chicken Burgers
• Chili Chicken with Hominy Hash
• Curry Salmon With Mango Chutney
• Healthy Tuna Grain Bowl With Turmeric Sweet Potatoes
• Pork Tenderloin With Seasoned Rub
• Seared Salmon With Ponzu and Baby Bok Choy
• Ribbony Shrimp and Pasta Scamp (my wife liked it more than I did)
• Pasta Puttanesca (I liked it more than my wife did)

 

[Spockydog]

This is pretty easy, and absolutely bloody delicious. And while Delia recommends basmati rice, I much prefer this dish when it's done with paella rice.

CHICKEN BASQUE by Delia Smith

"The delicious combination of chicken and rice, olives and peppers is typical of all the regions around the western Mediterranean but, to my mind, this Spanish version, with the addition of spicy chorizo sausage and a hint of paprika, beats the lot.

My interpretation of it also uses dried tomatoes preserved in oil to give it even more character. This recipe will provide a complete supper for four from the same pot – it needs nothing to accompany it!"

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

6 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I opened a jar of pesto tonight. It appeared smoke came out of the jar after I opened it and it made a big pop. Seems I nearly got botulism. 

I’m sensing a possible smorgasbord of antibiotics in your future.

fun fact: foil top single serving yoghurt containers: If the top is loose the yoghurt is still good, regardless of the date. If the top is tight as a snare drum, you probably want to avoid it, regardless of the date.

[litechick]

Veggie Casserole Fail!  I liked the idea of the video--lots of veggies, a modest topping of some kind of batter with eggs, milk, and flour.  The video drives me nuts because of the excessive attention to the details of chopping each ingredient, because of the almost Herculean dedication to using as many pots and pans as possible, and the incessant pleas for liking and subscribing.

Nevertheless, I liked the idea and I decided to make it myself.  Sadly, not even the initial serving was palatable.  This may be due to my lack of cooking panache, but I'm pretty sure that the recipe just sucks out loud on its own.  

Next attempt--crustless quiche.  This week, I specifically bought eggs and milk for the purpose of trying this recipe and that did not go well for me so maybe a tweak which gives me the veggies and protein without this video's general silly uselessness.

 

[timmett]

6 hours ago, litechick said:

Next attempt--crustless quiche.  This week, I specifically bought eggs and milk for the purpose of trying this recipe and that did not go well for me so maybe a tweak which gives me the veggies and protein without this video's general silly uselessness.

 

Frittatas are nice -- much better IMO than actual quiche.  There is a school of thought a frittata should not contain dairy, but I usually add a big dollop of creme fraiche or Mexican sour cream anyhow. My lazy method is to briefly saute up the veggies in a large, well-seasoned cast iron skillet; whip up 8-9 eggs (plus cream) with a hand mixer, and pour it right over the veggies. A quick stir with the heat turned off, then pop the whole skillet into an oven preheated to 350°F (175°C). Then you wait, and wait, and wait.

One pan, one mixing bowl, one spatula. Uneaten portion refrigerates well & is tasty hot or cold. Another advantage over quiche -- where the crust starts out soggy & gets worse with age.

 

[litechick]

Thanks Timmett.  I sort of followed your advice with my 9x13 cake pan and skim milk.  The result was...edible.

Trying to work up the courage to purchase a proper casserole dish and dutch oven.  They are expensive. 

[timmett]

Oh yeah. Cake pan isn't optimal for eggy pies. They'd tend to scorch on the bottom & be runny in the center. An acceptable 12" cast iron skillet can be had at WallyWorld for $13. The front handle is really useful for lifting it out of the oven. Pyrex casserole dish will be more versatile for baking & storage than a skillet & should cost ~$8. The ones with rubber/plastic lids are nice.

We have a stupid selection of cooking gear in this joint, partly a result of combining households & partly because SOMEONE (ahem) does like his kitchen gadgets.  I forget not everyone owns five cast iron skillets, a dutch oven, four casserole dishes and a terra cotta bread cloche.

[ithanos]

I soft boiled 8 eggs. Plan to use these throughout the week in various delicious meals. Cooked them to perfection, if only they were judged by the inside softness.  Had some bother peeling the shells off, the exterior appearance by the end of it all - what the fuck man! Only one of the eight came out unblemished. The rest look like this side of the moon - one was even round I must've lost a third of the white! Fuck! How can I garnish more than one bowl of delicious ramen with half cratered soft boiled eggs - this is some bullshit.

It'll at least be a week before I can soft boil another batch. Need to figure out where I went wrong. Did I cool them under cold water too fast?

Edited May 31 by ithanos
Can't count, though I felt like I ended with 6.5 eggs after the peel.

[timmett]

It isn't just you. Boiled (supermarket) eggs have become much harder to peel over the past decade -- partly because supply chains have gotten so much shorter! Which sounds odd, but it's true. Unlike (say) apples, big retailers have been moving eggs from giant battery farms to store shelves within a week of laying with minimal time in cold storage. So they are almost like farm-fresh eggs, which are notoriously difficult to boil & peel and also to get a consistent yolk firmness. A case of "too fresh". (Also why egg prices recently tripled in the US for a short period, b/c there was no warehouse inventory to absorb the avian flu cull.)

So along with the icewater bath afterwards, you have some other tricks. You can buy eggs in advance & store them in your fridge for 3 weeks before boiling. You can leave the intended eggs on the counter overnight, promoting oxidation in the shell membrane. Bit of Salmonella Roulette, but soft-boiled should be okay. Or you can cook them at a higher temperature, which denatures & breaks down the shell membrane proteins for easy peeling. Lowering eggs into rapidly boiling water is better than heating water to a boil with eggs already in (room-temp eggs or they'll break like crazy.) Some people use a pressure cooker, tho you need a shit-ton of eggs to make the hassle worth it. We live at 7200' elevation, so water boils at about 92°C (198°F) and our eggs are unpeelable. Restaurants use pressure cookers to get the temperature up.

Or you can steam eggs rather than boiling them. Steam is much hotter against the shell than boiling water. Any veggie steamer arrangement can work but here in the Land of Stupid Kitchen Gadgets we use a dedicated egg steamer, which produces faultless & easy-to-peel eggs every time. You control yolk hardness by how much water you add to the cooker.

 

[Toth]

6 hours ago, ithanos said:

How can I garnish more than one bowl of delicious ramen with half cratered soft boiled eggs - this is some bullshit.

I've been thinking about making a Soba/Miso combination that I stumbled across because I got stacks of soba noodles in a sale and have an opened miso bag in the fridge for weeks already. That recipe calls for poached egg. Maybe that's easier because you don't have the hassle of peeling it. XD

But yes, I also read that troublesome peeling is a sign that the eggs are actually very fresh.

[ithanos]

8 hours ago, timmett said:

It isn't just you. Boiled (supermarket) eggs have become much harder to peel over the past decade -- partly because supply chains have gotten so much shorter! Which sounds odd, but it's true. Unlike (say) apples, big retailers have been moving eggs from giant battery farms to store shelves within a week of laying with minimal time in cold storage. So they are almost like farm-fresh eggs, which are notoriously difficult to boil & peel and also to get a consistent yolk firmness. A case of "too fresh". (Also why egg prices recently tripled in the US for a short period, b/c there was no warehouse inventory to absorb the avian flu cull.)

So along with the icewater bath afterwards, you have some other tricks. You can buy eggs in advance & store them in your fridge for 3 weeks before boiling. You can leave the intended eggs on the counter overnight, promoting oxidation in the shell membrane. Bit of Salmonella Roulette, but soft-boiled should be okay. Or you can cook them at a higher temperature, which denatures & breaks down the shell membrane proteins for easy peeling. Lowering eggs into rapidly boiling water is better than heating water to a boil with eggs already in (room-temp eggs or they'll break like crazy.) Some people use a pressure cooker, tho you need a shit-ton of eggs to make the hassle worth it. We live at 7200' elevation, so water boils at about 92°C (198°F) and our eggs are unpeelable. Restaurants use pressure cookers to get the temperature up.

Or you can steam eggs rather than boiling them. Steam is much hotter against the shell than boiling water. Any veggie steamer arrangement can work but here in the Land of Stupid Kitchen Gadgets we use a dedicated egg steamer, which produces faultless & easy-to-peel eggs every time. You control yolk hardness by how much water you add to the cooker.

 

Interesting. I would have guessed the complete opposite. However it makes sense as the eggs I've been sourcing this year are fresh. I get them from my local kebab shop owner who has laying hens at his farm - he gives me a text message whenever he has a dozen or so extra he can sell. They're all-sorts of sizes and still have crap on them - but they are much better eating than supermarket eggs. Thanks for the ideas, I'll may try them out. 

 

8 hours ago, Toth said:

I've been thinking about making a Soba/Miso combination that I stumbled across because I got stacks of soba noodles in a sale and have an opened miso bag in the fridge for weeks already. That recipe calls for poached egg. Maybe that's easier because you don't have the hassle of peeling it. XD

But yes, I also read that troublesome peeling is a sign that the eggs are actually very fresh.

Cold soba noodles are the best, I prefer the buckwheat kind, massaged with a little oil and soy sauce. Had forgotten about poaching the eggs. I have poached batches before and, depending on how careful you set the raw egg in the bath, they come out tidy.

[timmett]

23 minutes ago, ithanos said:

Interesting. I would have guessed the complete opposite. However it makes sense as the eggs I've been sourcing this year are fresh. I get them from my local kebab shop owner who has laying hens at his farm - he gives me a text message whenever he has a dozen or so extra he can sell. They're all-sorts of sizes and still have crap on them - but they are much better eating than supermarket eggs.

There's your issue. Fresh eggs don't hard boil well at all. The shell liner proteins are too strong & elastic. OTOH, you can store farm-fresh eggs unrefrigerated for over a month, if you don't wash the poop & feathers & straw off them. (Might want to turn them over every other day, to keep the air bubble moving around). My buddy runs a tiny farm with laying hens. His eggs are superior for everything but boiling & peeling.

[ZackGlass]

On 5/10/2023 at 2:31 PM, BigFatCoward said:

What's the benefit of slicing rather than just eating a banana?  Is it like how grated cheese tastes better than sliced, and easter egg chocolate tastes better than a bar of chocolate?

Sliced pieces taste different, in a more subtle way than the solid staff. Sujihiki Knife is perfect for slicing even bananas.

[BigFatCoward]

2 hours ago, Soylent Brown said:

A knife that slices bananas, you say? Intriguing.

And is this knife capable of dispatching other fruits and vegetables too? One would have to be a fool to not click the link if that were the case.

i wanted an avocado last week, but my avocado knife was in the dishwasher, there was nothing i could do but wait 2 hours for the cycle to finish. 

[timmett]

I have a special knife for grapefruit.

[Raja]

I have favourite scalpels too

wait what

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I love this channel. Learn something you bastards.

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Rachael Ray! This is a crime against Italian food! 

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

 

[Soylent Brown]

Well if we're doing disturbing things with Italian food (sound on)-

 

Edited June 29 by Soylent Brown