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We aren’t doing any crazy Christmas cooking and aren’t really celebrating until Friday. But we were gonna eat some pancakes tomorrow for breakfast and I tried a blueberry sauce with lemon sugar water and corn starch. I think I used too much water and had to cook it off a long time. It also could be sweeter, but that’s not a negative for me. It’s super thick but I feel like heating it up should make it more liquidy.
It's been a few months but I went on a tear of making breakfast using blueberry compote. I'll have to do that again. Shit was good.
I got a 4.8Q air fryer for Christmas. I did some research and tried to watch some YouTube videos and it seems to me like it's not all that relevant for Kitchen Equipment. I figured out how to use it to recrisp up fried foods that have been refrigerated. That works out great. But almost everything I could find says it's not great for raw vegetables but is good for cooking frozen foods and reheating. Am I missing something here or is it essentially a mini-convection oven to take the place of a microwave when you want shit crisp? Thanks in advance.
I got a 4.8Q air fryer for Christmas. I did some research and tried to watch some YouTube videos and it seems to me like it's not all that relevant for Kitchen Equipment. I figured out how to use it to recrisp up fried foods that have been refrigerated. That works out great. But almost everything I could find says it's not great for raw vegetables but is good for cooking frozen foods and reheating. Am I missing something here or is it essentially a mini-convection oven to take the place of a microwave when you want shit crisp? Thanks in advance.
my understanding is that anything you would normally deep-fry, you can air fry and get the same effect without all the oil. so typical frozen shiz like fries, chicken fingers, chimichangas, etc. or battered stuff like fried chicken, tempura vegetables, etc.
It's an appliance I know I would never use enough to justify buying one.
Thanks snow. Yeah, I don't eat that much fried food at home. The YouTube videos all had you spraying non-stick spray all over everything raw you wanted crisped. Hopefully someone has had some luck with one of these and some random recommendations on what to do with it other than reheating or cooking fried shit. Yeah, I know it's an air "fryer" but hopefully there is more that you can do with it?
We are watching football and grilling some marinated carne we picked up from the local Latin grocer. Gonna probably do a mix of OG and New G. We have pico gonna roast some corn but also we will fire roast some jalapeños and cebolla. .
My cousin threw me a bottle of wine for Christmas. I don’t have shit coming up so I cracked that. It’s a 2016 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvée. Shit is out of my price and class range but it’s good as shit. Super complex for a Pinot with butter berry cherry and other cool notes. Wish I could afford to drink that kind of shit more often.
Sling has Cooking Channel for free this weekend so I was watching Mans Greatest Food “smoked” and they went to Stiles Switch in North Austin. Buford T’s Diabolo sandwich was what they showed from there. It was a toasted buttered bun with a base of jalapeños then brisket topped with sausage and house made bbq sauce and pickles and onions on the side. I hit up my boy in Austin who said we’d go to the satellite one for Memorial Day weekend and go to Jester King and a bunch of the new shit they have in Dripping Springs. I can taste that Central TX BBQ already, but that’s 3 months out. For today, it’s the first crawfish boil of the year for me. It has been a pretty mild winter here in the Deep South, so crawfish are early and already looking good which you don’t really expect until March. Boiler is a guy from the bayou. Never had his crawfish before so I don’t know if he does it like we do in New Orleans (powdered seasoning, lemons, onions, garlics) or if he does it like they do in Lafourche which is liquid crab boil and no fresh fruit or vegetables. They also make a terrible “cocktail” sauce down there where they mix mayonnaise mustard and ketchup instead of ketchup horseradish lemon and Worcestershire sauce. I hate their version of dip.
Recently come to prominence here is the use of lemon oil to add extra lemon to a boil. Also there are a few places doing Vietnamese crawfish which is some Asian butter sauce added after a crawfish is boiled. That’s been big n Houston for a while but took a few years to get here.
Tried my hand at fire roasting a modified corn salsa. I did all of the veggies on the burners except avocados. This adaptation was 1/2 blistered white onion, 2 Serranos, 2 jalapeños, 8 roma tomatoes, 1 poblano, zest and juice of 2 limes, cilantro, kosher salt, cracked black pepper, 2 roasted toes of garlic, a few dashes of red wine vinegar, 2 ears of corn and two cubed avocados. It’s pretty fucking delicious.
Post by crazykittensmile on Feb 24, 2020 17:15:23 GMT -5
Speaking of roasting veggies and stuff... Has anyone noticed an absolute influx of grilled shishito peppers on menus everywhere? Or is that just a thing in California for now? Seriously half the menus I look at now have them. It's like they're the newer sexier brussels sprouts lol
Speaking of roasting veggies and stuff... Has anyone noticed an absolute influx of grilled shishito peppers on menus everywhere? Or is that just a thing in California for now? Seriously half the menus I look at now have them. It's like they're the newer sexier brussels sprouts lol
its the new cool thing. There’s a couple places here that have had them the last couple years. So far it’s been a seasonal thing, we won’t see them again until late summer.
A butcher shop in town made some Boudin sausage so I've been eating that all week. So good
That's one of the cajun things I don't like. I love Tasso and Andouille, but boudin tastes weird to me. I guess the ones that use meats other than liver and that use less blood to mix with the rice are tolerable, but I just never cared for it which makes me the only one I know who doesn't eat it. I don't like sauce piquante that much either. But I'll eat most of the stuff they cook.
A butcher shop in town made some Boudin sausage so I've been eating that all week. So good
That's one of the cajun things I don't like. I love Tasso and Andouille, but boudin tastes weird to me. I guess the ones that use meats other than liver and that use less blood to mix with the rice are tolerable, but I just never cared for it which makes me the only one I know who doesn't eat it. I don't like sauce piquante that much either. But I'll eat most of the stuff they cook.
This one doesn't have blood so I can't speak to the taste of that, but it does have liver and it's surprisingly great! Or they are just good at preparing the boudin that makes liver taste better than normal.
I picked up 10 large royal red shrimp for shrimp tacos. They are marinated in lime juice, garlic, many types of spices and a little olive oil and red wine vinegar. We made salsa consisting of a roasted red bell pepper, a roasted yellow bell pepper, 3 roasted poblanos (pablo'nos in birthday honor of the guy who started the thread), 4 roasted jalapenos, 2 limes and zest, some roasted and some fresh tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro, a mango (my daughter loves mangoes and you can put whatever the fuck you want in salsa), one roasted shallot, a couple toes of garlic, salt, pepper, 2 ears of roasted corn, 2 avocados, cumin and red wine vinegar. It's pretty nice - got some sweet, some sour, some heat and some salty but I kind of wish I had another lime to juice into it.
Shrimp are deveined and shelled with heads on. I'm going to saute them with the heads because there's a lot of flavor that will leach out into the flavor of the shrimp. They're mostly 6"-8". I love me some Royal Reds and always say that I wish that was something we got in Louisiana. Gonna see if I can't get a photo up.
I picked up 10 large royal red shrimp for shrimp tacos. They are marinated in lime juice, garlic, many types of spices and a little olive oil and red wine vinegar. We made salsa consisting of a roasted red bell pepper, a roasted yellow bell pepper, 3 roasted poblanos (pablo'nos in birthday honor of the guy who started the thread), 4 roasted jalapenos, 2 limes and zest, some roasted and some fresh tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro, a mango (my daughter loves mangoes and you can put whatever the fuck you want in salsa), one roasted shallot, a couple toes of garlic, salt, pepper, 2 ears of roasted corn, 2 avocados, cumin and red wine vinegar. It's pretty nice - got some sweet, some sour, some heat and some salty but I kind of wish I had another lime to juice into it.
Shrimp are deveined and shelled with heads on. I'm going to saute them with the heads because there's a lot of flavor that will leach out into the flavor of the shrimp. They're mostly 6"-8". I love me some Royal Reds and always say that I wish that was something we got in Louisiana. Gonna see if I can't get a photo up.
Those are sweet looking shrimp. Since going vegetarian, shrimp (and various sushi) has been my biggest "cheat." We get a lot of Mexican Pacific wild caught stuff at the farmers' market, but nothing that big. Usually colossal, sometimes super colossal available. Rarely get em with heads on though.
And I was getting into salsa making before all the social distancing. Been using romas actually, pulling all the pulp out before dicing em up, then mashing the hell out of a couple for a bit of "juice." Roasting the peppers over direct heat on the grill has been the key though. Serrano's, anaheims, jalapenos and poblano/pasilla. A local new Mexican restaurant nearby sells hatch chilis by the pound in August and September, hopefully I'll be able to get a good batch then if this whole covid thing doesn't put a damper on it.
yeah sometimes the Royal reds can be upwards of a foot long. They are pretty tasty. If I’m right, they are more of a deep water species which can be caught in Florida and Alabama Gulf waters, the Keys and off Connecticut. They tend to have a sweetish flavor. I couldn’t find any serranos yesterday, and though the salsa did have a kick, I wanted that specific heat and flavor profile.
For salsas, I usually try to do it slightly different every time with a variation on concentration of ingredients and usually one or two different ingredients or changing up how some of them are used (raw vs roasted). I don’t have gas in Florida so I had to oven/broiler roast what we used yesterday. I prefer flame or grill, but it was easy as shit this way and not much mess. The tacos turned out good, but I felt like the shrimp would have been better fire grilled or grill panned.
I think I might try some peaches next time I make salsa.
2nd time grilling with hardwood, first time using flavor wood (apple), for pork chops. started drizzling rain as soon as i put the finished coals together. also 2nd time brining anything, we'll see how this goes.
I feel like I should be doing less experimenting during a time of 'rationing', but i'm also bored and have this stuff that i havent used before so whatever
2nd time grilling with hardwood, first time using flavor wood (apple), for pork chops. started drizzling rain as soon as i put the finished coals together. also 2nd time brining anything, we'll see how this goes.
I feel like I should be doing less experimenting during a time of 'rationing', but i'm also bored and have this stuff that i havent used before so whatever
It was good! Brine worked, smoke worked :thumbsup:
Fruit wood smoke is a nice touch but sometimes can be subtle. I like cherry and peach a lot but it’s sometimes hard to tell. We got an iron smoker box for Christmas that goes in the grill to accentuate charcoal.
Pecan is my favorite flavoring wood but you can smoke over that directly of course. I haven’t ever brined anything because we only ever grill vs smoke but good to hear it was effective.
I did pre soaked at the start and dry chips throughout because I've heard it's got to be overwhelming or you can barely taste.
I tasted the rub significantly more than the apple wood, but it was really moist without having that weird thick brine skin you get with chicken, I'd assume because it was more off heat than I'd do with chicken.
*Light brine, 3/8 a cup water, 1/8 lemon, not a ton of salt, garlic/pepper in it as well
I picked up 10 large royal red shrimp for shrimp tacos. They are marinated in lime juice, garlic, many types of spices and a little olive oil and red wine vinegar. We made salsa consisting of a roasted red bell pepper, a roasted yellow bell pepper, 3 roasted poblanos (pablo'nos in birthday honor of the guy who started the thread), 4 roasted jalapenos, 2 limes and zest, some roasted and some fresh tomatoes, a bunch of cilantro, a mango (my daughter loves mangoes and you can put whatever the fuck you want in salsa), one roasted shallot, a couple toes of garlic, salt, pepper, 2 ears of roasted corn, 2 avocados, cumin and red wine vinegar. It's pretty nice - got some sweet, some sour, some heat and some salty but I kind of wish I had another lime to juice into it.
Shrimp are deveined and shelled with heads on. I'm going to saute them with the heads because there's a lot of flavor that will leach out into the flavor of the shrimp. They're mostly 6"-8". I love me some Royal Reds and always say that I wish that was something we got in Louisiana. Gonna see if I can't get a photo up.
Thank you! Heads-on adds a ton of flavour, but too many people don't see past "eww, heads".
Yeah you right Cap'n. The base is so fucking easy. The biggest problem we have in Florida is that I don't have sharp enough knives here to chop and dice, so the shapes and sizes could have been improved. We have to improvise a little which takes up prep time. But the base (which we established from a mixture of Linda's "Obnoxious" Pantry recipe for sweet corn salsa and various other YouTube shorts) is pretty easy. From there, you just decide if you want to roast and concentrate all or some of the flavors or have it all fresh. I like some roasted shit in there personally when I can, particularly peppers and tomatillos. We figured out with the one we ate this weekend, that putting the peppers on foil on a baking sheet under the electric broiler (again, we don't have gas here) at 500 until the top blisters (7-10 minutes). Flip them so the other side(s) blister as well and then put in bowl with lid or brown paper or plastic bag (or tupperware or whatever) to steam for about 15 minutes. Once steamed, the skins pretty much rub right off under cold water or with your fingers (use gloves for any peppers hotter than a Jalapeno). Chef Sanchez also says it's a Gringo move to get rid of the seeds in the peppers and tomatoes. Everything is to taste, so other than the limes and onion, it doesn't really matter what quantity you use
Base:
juice and zest of 2 Limes 1/2 onion or 1 shallot Tomatoes Peppers Cilantro Course/Kosher Salt Cracked Pepper a few shakes of Red Wine Vinegar (probably would be good with any quality vinegar) A couple toes of Garlic or Garlic Salt
Optional:
Corn on the Cobb Black Beans Mango Peaches Sprinkle of Cayenne Pepper Tomatillos Avocado Dried Ancho Powder Cumin Anything else you think can go in
That's literally it. There's no order to the ingredients, but if you're using avocado, I'd put lime juice in right after the cubes of avocado as this helps them from turning brown from the start.
Here's the obnoxious Linda's Pantry version for the base work. She's annoying, and you can fast forward when she fucks with her camera. But it shows how f'n easy sweet corn salsa is. She doesn't roast anything which again is super easy to do over a bbq pit, stove burner or in the oven. I don't recommend green onions over sweet onions, but that's a taste preference. I'd also caution against 3 tbs of red wine vinegar in favor of a few shakes/squirts out the bottle.
Tonight's Corona isolation brought some Fail Army worthy fuckups. We found some white sweet potatoes at a small grocery and decided we would do a bourbon-vanilla-cinnamon-butter-sugar sauce for that and do some steaks with a red wine reduction and baby bellas. But I'm a suck cook for technique. I know flavors, and that's a primary focus. But you have to get shit right. First was the potatoes. I only ever had white sweet potatoes once, and they were bruleed at a top end restaurant. I never made any bourbon sauces, so that was a new adventure. I started with butter in the saucepan and added bourbon, vanilla, a splash of orange juice, some raw sugar and Vietnamese cinnamon* and brought that to a boil. Then we turned the heat down and whisked in pats of butter until they incorporated. Sauce didn't break and was actually good as fuck. But in hindsight, even though I tend to like things less sweet, it could have used like 1/8th tsp of maple syrup, agave nectar or honey. This part of the dish wasn't too much of a failure, but I'm weak when it comes to when you add what. What I learned was that Vietnamese Cinnamon is about the best cinnamon I ever had. I've had it at restaurants in Vietnamese Iced Coffee, but I hadn't ever cooked with it. I would say if you appreciate depths of flavor and shit like Mexican or Hungarian smoked paprika, you'll want to spend 4 or 5 bucks to have some of this in your pantry. Late to the game, but damn that shit is good.
The steaks on the other hand were a bomb. Only having electric is a challenge, but I got some halfway decent ribeyes and figured we could pan sear them and then finish in the oven ala every restaurant. So we coated them with coarsely ground salt and black pepper and put some olive oil in an all metal pan. It seemed hot enough, but it turned out not to be. So I was fucked there. Next, because the sweet potatoes cooked for 50 minutes at 400 degrees, I figured I'd leave the oven at that temp to finish. It wasn't quite hot enough. So once they were sort of seared, we added butter and a couple cloves of garlic to the pan and put in there. The fat didn't render. So I was like fuck, I don't want these overcooked so I'll just crank the mf'n broiler. It did end up crisping some of the top, but it was not to my satisfaction. What you ended up with was a soft interior where you had to cut around the marbling that should have cooked off and reabsorbed. Fail. The flipside was that the Cline Pinot Noir and baby bella mushroom sauce was excellent. So that made the steaks infinitely more edible. At the end of the day, I could have pulled it all off with a gas stove and oven. We (95% of the time) grill beef at the crib. So I had to improvise. And I fucked up to where the execution would rank around a 6.5, but the taste of dinner probably hit 8.25 or so. You can't win them all, but I think in life you figure out where you fucked up and improve on that and get better.
Post by piggy pablo on Apr 5, 2020 10:28:41 GMT -5
Seems like if all that stuff was chopped up it would be much easier to eat. Like, pico de gallo over tomato slices and onions, relish over a straight pickle. That kind of stuff.
Seems like if all that stuff was chopped up it would be much easier to eat. Like, pico de gallo over tomato slices and onions, relish over a straight pickle. That kind of stuff.
The poppy seed bun is where I'm like "...ok".
Yeah, poppy seeds are annoying and I'm not sure that they add any real flavor.
