What's cooking? (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

Almost anything I cook starts by sauteing an onion in some kind of oil. Canola for what will later be spicy things: EVO for things of more delicate flavor. And of course peanut oil for stir-fry.


Onions can be so cheap. Around here they go on sale for $4 for a 25lb sack of regular yellow onions.

 

[Sam Posten]

Spiral Ham as my new weight regime starts Tuesday.

Ham by Sam Posten III, on Flickr


Ham by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

Not so 'secret' ingredient: Li Hing Mui on the fresh, chilled Pineapple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_hing_mui

Make sure you get the version without Aspartame.

Also:

 

[DaveF]

I took a knife-skills cooking class several years ago and learning that onion-cutting technique changed my life!

 

[Kevin Hewell]

As always, it's important to keep your knives very sharp. More cuts on your fingers have been done with dull knives.

 

[Wayne_j]

For those interested in a good cooking show, Hulu now has Jamie Oliver's original BBC cooking show "The Naked Chef" up for streaming.

 

[ChristopherG]

Spiral Ham as my new weight regime starts Tuesday.

Ham by Sam Posten III, on Flickr


Ham by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

Not so 'secret' ingredient: Li Hing Mui on the fresh, chilled Pineapple.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_hing_mui

Make sure you get the version without Aspartame.

Also:

used to eat Li Hing Mui as a snack food all the time as a kid living in the Marshall Islands.

 

[Stan]

Almost anything I cook starts by sauteing an onion in some kind of oil. Canola for what will later be spicy things: EVO for things of more delicate flavor. And of course peanut oil for stir-fry.


Onions can be so cheap. Around here they go on sale for $4 for a 25lb sack of regular yellow onions.

Peanut and Olive oils are great, a bit pricy, but you know where they come from. Corn oil is a good substitute for generic sautéing.

What is a Canola? It's a chemically manufactured oil. I'm not some hippie organic whack job, but Canola has a very suspicious background. I'd avoid it as much as possible.​

 

[Citizen87645]

Who's to say peanuts or olives aren't also subject to genetic modification? And corn is probably just as manipulated (not just genetically) as canola, if not more so, if you've read Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma or seen the documentary King Corn.

 

[Citizen87645]

I took a knife-skills cooking class several years ago and learning that onion-cutting technique changed my life!

I have a friend who advises a slight variation: When doing the second set of cuts, follow the curvature of the onion so you're making radial cuts to the center, which will give you more even sized pieces. The trade off is the angled cut may be more dangerous, so sharp knife is critical.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Peanut and Olive oils are great, a bit pricy, but you know where they come from. Corn oil is a good substitute for generic sautéing.

What is a Canola? It's a chemically manufactured oil. I'm not some hippie organic whack job, but Canola has a very suspicious background. I'd avoid it as much as possible.​

Nonsense. Canola oil comes from rapeseed. Because they thought people would be hesitant to buy something called "rapeseed oil." According to wiki, "Can" is for "Canada" and "ola" stands for "oil," because that's where the name was thought up. Canola oil is one of the healthiest cooking oils.

 

[Stan]

Nonsense. Canola oil comes from rapeseed. Because they thought people would be hesitant to buy something called "rapeseed oil." According to wiki, "Can" is for "Canada" and "ola" stands for "oil," because that's where the name was thought up. Canola oil is one of the healthiest cooking oils.

The whole "rapeseed" thing is understandable, bad name. But there's a lot more behind the scenes. Canola is an oil you should avoid.


Good oils are extracted from the original product, not created or chemically processed until an "oil" finally emerges.

Don't want to start an argument, done with this thread.​

 

[Citizen87645]

There is a section on the canola wiki about genetic modification issues, but to say that corn is safer, especially when its got such a foothold in everything we (and livestock) consume, is highly questionable.

 

[DaveF]

From the 2015 Best-of Cook's Illustrated magazine: Tuscan-Style Beef Stew. This is an odd recipe, in that it uses vegetables for flavoring, then discards them to result in stewed beef chunks with a savory sauce. It's good, but expensive. I want to merge this with a traditional beef stew to get the umami merged with the potatoes and carrots of a regular stew.

 

[Stan]

As always, it's important to keep your knives very sharp. More cuts on your fingers have been done with dull knives.

**** Warning **** Somewhat graphic story ahead.





Renting an apartment about 25 years ago where the kitchen had a tall, bar stool type of counter where you could look out into the living room and watch TV.

Love to cook and try new recipes, was watching the TV and also chopping garlic and cut off about 1/3 inch of the end of my thumb, right through the nail, knife went through it like it was butter. Blood like you can't imagine. Surprisingly didn't pass out or panic, just calmly wrapped it up and drove myself to the ER. They cauterized it (nothing left to sew up with stitches). Sent me on my way with this gigantic splint thing and loads of gauze wrapped around it.

Amazingly over the next year it healed, and kind of like a lizard's tail, everything grew back. No scar, would never even know it had happened.

As the Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith taught me, "keep your fingers bent under" when using a knife.

 

[Raul Marquez]

From the 2015 Best-of Cook's Illustrated magazine: Tuscan-Style Beef Stew. This is an odd recipe, in that it uses vegetables for flavoring, then discards them to result in stewed beef chunks with a savory sauce. It's good, but expensive. I want to merge this with a traditional beef stew to get the umami merged with the potatoes and carrots of a regular stew.

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Dave,

Do you sauté the beef in oil first so it gets a crust or do you dump the raw meat in the liquid?

Raul

 

[DaveF]

This recipe splits the difference: Half the beef is fried in oil to brown all sides and develop a fond (deglazed when the wine and water are added). The other half is then added raw. This simplifies the recipe somewhat, not requiring multiple batches for browning.

 

[DaveF]

**** Warning **** Somewhat graphic story ahead.
(...Edited for YIKES!...)

As the Frugal Gourmet Jeff Smith taught me, "keep your fingers bent under" when using a knife.

Yikes!

Given the sacrifice made to the kitchen gods that day, I hope your recipe turned out phenomenally!

 

[Stan]

Yikes!

Given the sacrifice made to the kitchen gods that day, I hope your recipe turned out phenomenally!

I honestly don't even remember. Given the blood factor, everything was tossed. Learned a very painful lesson that day.

Learned another one a year or two later, don't put a wooden spoon in your blender, even if you think you're high enough above the blades. No injuries but a big mess.

Also don't try to deep fry in a two quart sauce pan. Mega boil over, started a fire, which thankfully I was able to put out, followed by hours of cleanup.

All just growing pains from my younger years as I taught myself how to cook.

Probably the best one came from my mother, not me. She made a cake from scratch and somehow reversed the salt & sugar, obviously not a good result. Have no idea how somebody keeps that much salt, but guess things were different in the '50s, way before my time.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

From the 2015 Best-of Cook's Illustrated magazine: Tuscan-Style Beef Stew. This is an odd recipe, in that it uses vegetables for flavoring, then discards them to result in stewed beef chunks with a savory sauce. It's good, but expensive. I want to merge this with a traditional beef stew to get the umami merged with the potatoes and carrots of a regular stew.

Most French stews are cooked that way. it makes the sauce better and at the same time you don't have overcooked veggies. Actually, that's the way I've always cooked my stews. This is actually like making a stock. Use your leftover carrots, onions, celery, etc.. (I really don't know why potatoes are in there , but...), and use them for the first cooking and then use your fresh veggies for the finish.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Most French stews are cooked that way. it makes the sauce better and at the same time you don't have overcooked veggies.

Well, you *have* them; you just don't *eat* them!