Cooking Thread~ Recipes & Things

[Sinner_sb]

This is the first time I have ever seen the claim that mineral content of water affects cooking. I mean it clearly does have effects on some things - soap lather, scale buildup, pipe corrosion - but cooking? Maybe a small difference in quantity of chemical leavening agents needed? Not sure if anyone has tried to measure it.

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That is actually a thing, did you ever heard about hard water and soft water. those are terms for water with high mineral content and low mineral content, that kind of thing affects not only the taste of the water but how things cooked or brewed with it tastes like, there is a British tea whose name escapes me that is specially formulated for this area of the country that has water with such a drastically different mineral content than the rest of the country that tea companies there make teas for that region so it tastes good because the water causes non-purposely made teas to taste bad.

Apparently the mineral content and composition of New York water affects the flour there making so the New York pizza and other bread products have their unique texture, taste and proprieties as much as their processes of making the dough can. Water that is too alkaline or acidic can affect the result of baking by affecting the gluten development or possibly even activating baking powder earlier than it should. Same with chlorinated water, depending on the levels of chlorine it can affect things as well.

 

[Evillevi]

This is the first time I have ever seen the claim that mineral content of water affects cooking. I mean it clearly does have effects on some things - soap lather, scale buildup, pipe corrosion - but cooking? Maybe a small difference in quantity of chemical leavening agents needed? Not sure if anyone has tried to measure it.

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Generally the main effect would be WRT to consistency as opposed to quality. IIRC for bread Flour protein is the main variable factor with Hardness of water being a tertiary factor.

Generally it's not important enough to measure, but cumulatively every ingredient used can eventually total to a unexpected if minor results.

For me, certain yeast based recipe don't work properly, but that's due to the ambienmt temperature being off.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Given the past week's discussion about bread and flour when making parata paired with this video popping on my recommended likely because my recentish search for tortilla recipes I decided to post this video here because of the recipes and because they also mention how finicky baking can be at times.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnApthldLPY


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSi7KaA8O2o

EDIT: Added a second parata video with extra details and explanations about making it.

 

[Somebody]

Given the past week's discussion about bread and flour when making parata paired with this video popping on my recommended likely because my recentish search for tortilla recipes I decided to post this video here because of the recipes and because they also mention how finicky baking can be at times.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnApthldLPY

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Random note, but "roti" is also mostly used to refer to unleavened bread. There's a leavened version called a "Khameeri roti", which literally just means something along the lines of "yeasted bread", khameer being the word for yeast. They're usually rolled out and have some parts of refined white flour added to them, usually equal parts or less refined flour to whole wheat. What he's made here is, I'd argue, more Khameeri roti than naan. Naans usually get pressed out into a vaguely round shape by hand, like with pizzas, with the fingers being used to press a pattern into them.

Also, high heat is important for both roti and naans. A lot of times, in order to puff up the roti, the semi-cooked roti is moved off the pan and directly onto the fire in short bursts. The high heat of the tandoor is also important in making naans puff up, similar to a Neopolitan-style pizza. You can improvise the same by flipping the pan upside down and holding it slightly over the flame.

Also also, while Indian naans are pretty famous, I'm personally more of a fan of more Central Asian ones. Roghani naans, Afghani naans, Tajik Non—they look fucking gorgeous and taste delicious too. More on the thicker side, though, and usually topped with sesame seeds.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Not even sure if this counts as a recipe but her it goes.

Non-peanut peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Tahine to taste

Jelly/jam to taste, I prefer and use strawberry that I buy from costco

2 slices of bread

Salt to taste

Toasted white sesame seeds are optional


Make the sandwich as normal using your desired amounts of jam and tahini, add a pinch of salt on the tahini and some roughly crushed toasted sesame seeds, put the slices together and enjoy.



Really, there isn't much more to this. I just decided to make an PB&J sandwich without the pb because it is expensive here in Japan, it also has sugar on it and I am controlling my sugar intake, since I have a few jars of tahini at home that I bought a while back because I use for making hummus at home, I decided to replace it here, since in some other recipes that ask for PB state that it can be replaced with tahini. It is not an exact replacement for peanut butter but it is close enough to pass muster and you are craving for it but don't want to entirely ruin your diet by adding sweetened peanut butter on top of jam/jelly that is already loaded with sugar.

 

[seeing_octarine]

I live in Japan and it is next to impossible to find lard or shortening, butter is pretty expensive

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Finding AP flour is also pretty hard

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I just decided to make an PB&J sandwich without the pb because it is expensive here in Japan

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I am morbidly curious what on earth is up with the food market in Japan now. Also, if you're trying to keep your food budget down then make sure you're paying attention to the per energy cost, not the per weight cost.

 

[Biigoh]

Really, there isn't much more to this. I just decided to make an PB&J sandwich without the pb because it is expensive here in Japan, it also has sugar on it and I am controlling my sugar intake, since I have a few jars of tahini at home that I bought a while back because I use for making hummus at home, I decided to replace it here, since in some other recipes that ask for PB state that it can be replaced with tahini. It is not an exact replacement for peanut butter but it is close enough to pass muster and you are craving for it but don't want to entirely ruin your diet by adding sweetened peanut butter on top of jam/jelly that is already loaded with sugar.

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You can also make your own homemade peanut butter by grinding roasted peanuts with salt. You just need to grind long enough past chunky to creamy.

Food processor can do the job, you just need to give the motor short breaks every 30 seconds to minute.

 

[Sinner_sb]

I am morbidly curious what on earth is up with the food market in Japan now. Also, if you're trying to keep your food budget down then make sure you're paying attention to the per energy cost, not the per weight cost.

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Some foodstuffs are quite expensive here, come in very small packages or containers, or are just extremely uncommon to get here outside specialty places.

For a small less than 300 grams tub of peanut butter you pay nearly 1000 yen in a regular grocery store, I dont recall the price but it was at most 2000 yen for two 1 kg tubs of the same skippy brand peanut butter at costco. The flour thing is because Japan is pedantically detail oriented to say the least, if not worse, so they actually sell flours for making tempura, pancakes, cakes and cookies, bread, okonomiaki, all are different types, yet no all purpose flour. Regular butter at the local grocery stores are around 600 yen for a 250g pack, it is expensive.

I am keeping an eye on my budget, which is why I made the tahini replacement for peanut butter, because I already have tahini on my pantry thus not need to pay through the nose for a small tub of pb or pay for the fuel, tolls and then buying the larger tubs at costco as part of a much larger purchase because the closest costco is two hours away from my place. I am balancing the cost with energy/calories return, also buying what is cheaper where it is cheaper, but I am also not buying stuff that I don't eat as often, so peanut butter that is something that I eat occasionally, literally once every blue moon, it is not on my shopping list. The jam that I used on the sandwich? I bought that a couple of years back and only opened it a couple months ago and it is a huge costco jar that I bought cheap, I do keep some stock of stuff that I don't use as often and now I am using to change the pace of my meals because I am budgeting hard and limiting what I am buying.

A lot of foodstuffs are also imported which drives the prices up as well. Fresh produce can be horribly expensive, fruits are so bad that it is a meme of how pricy they are and little you get for the price, sure you get a massive apple, but it costs 500 yen or more per apple. I could easily buy at least 1 and a half kilo of good apples for the equivalent in Brazil.

You can also make your own homemade peanut butter by grinding roasted peanuts with salt. You just need to grind long enough past chunky to creamy.

Food processor can do the job, you just need to give the motor short breaks every 30 seconds to minute.

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I am aware of this, but like I mentioned above I am budgeting and keeping my expenses to a minimum, so I couldn't buy the peanuts to make peanut butter. Plus I would rather eat them normally over making PB, so I used the tahini since I already own3 and a half jars of the stuff. Both to save money and because I do need to use those jars of tahini. I posted the idea here because I didnt consider using it a replacement for PB in sandwiches so others might not have thought about it either, and if they have allergy to nuts, sesame seeds aren't nuts so they might be able to eat a good replica of PB&J.

 

[Mr. Error]

Honey sprinkle bread.
Pour honey on a single sliced bread and spread it evenly.
Add chocolate/rainbow sprinkles on top.
Fold the bread and press.
Shi getting me diabetes frfr

 

[Biigoh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBWMk_c3HHw

 

[gadrial]

Impossible Meatloaf​

Ingredients

• 2 package Impossible burger (¾ pound per package)
• 0.5 cup breadcrumbs
• 4 tablespoons ketchup or tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoon (vegan) Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
3. Add all of the ingredients to a medium sized bowl, and knead the meat by hand until everything has been incorporated into the meat.
4. Form the meat into a loaf shape on the baking sheet. you may have 1 or 2 loaves depending on your preference.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until browned.
6. Brush some ketchup or BBQ sauce on top if desired, or serve with gravy (I personally like to top it with jerk sauce a local Caribbean place sells).

Notes:
- You can use regular meat for this recipe, but the cooking time will go up as a result.
- Packages of regular meat typically are set a a full pound per package, so adjust the rest of the ingredients as necessary.
- if you do use regular meat, I would recommend mixing in an egg to help it bind.

 

[kinglugia]

Why not steam the meatloaf instead if you're using regular meat?

 

[Somebody]

I think I might have an addiction to the smell of vanilla. Some of it got on my hands and now I can't stop smelling them and smiling.

Anyways, some tips on how to make caramel from someone who's tried and failed to make it...a lot, really.

• Start with a small quantity of sugar, but not too small. Too little sugar is just as unmanagable as too much. A cup of sugar in a small pot is easier to manage than a tablespoon in a 10-inch skillet. As a general rule of thumb, if you're just starting to learn how to make caramel, use the smallest saucepan you have and add enough sugar to evenly cover the bottom of it. There shouldn't be any stray sugar crystals halfway across the saucepan, that will burn and be an absolute pain in the ass to clean, on top of also fucking up your caramel.
• Use a pot or a high-walled pan. I recommend a saucepan, especially when making caramel sauce, because the caramel likes to climb and splash when you add water, milk, cream, or butter to it.
• Have good lighting and a clean, stainless steel pot—it'll make it easier to see the sugar brown. Make sure you have enough light that you can see the bottom of the pot clearly. There should be no shadows from the sides of the pot. If you can't see the caramel, you will burn the caramel.
• KNOW YOUR POT WELL. Don't sink into the cult of "thicker is better". Thick and thin pots both have their advantages in this. Thicker bottomed pots, as many people probably know, don't actually heat more evenly than thinner pots. Instead, they retain heat better. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantage: thicker pots take longer to heat up, meaning the sugar heats slower than with a thin pot, which can give you some better control over the final product while also preventing the sugar from burning. Disadvantage: because a thicker pot holds onto heat better, you need to be more vigilant and take the caramel off the heat sooner, because the residual heat will continue to cook the caramel. I prefer using a thinner pot because of this, since it gives me more control. In my case, it's almost like I'm roasting the sugar directly, which I rather like. See what works for you, what your priorities are.
• Use the wet method, not the dry method—the learning curve is less crippling.
• With the wet method, you brown the syrup, not the sugar. Dissolve the sugar in an equal volume of water over low heat, low enough that the water doesn't bubble, until the sugar completely dissolves. After that, turn the heat up to medium and let the syrup bubble slowly, swirling occasionally to get syrup off the sides of the pot. As the syrup cooks, it'll thicken—you can tell by how its bubbling slower, but the bubbles are much bigger than they were before. This is when you need to start being alert. Once the syrup starts going yellow, turn the heat down to low and continue swirling the pot occasionally.
• The syrup won't brown evenly—the parts closest to the heat will brown faster than the ones farther from the heat. This will be less so on a thicker pan which will take longer to heat up entirely, but on a thinner pan you might end up with a ring of darker caramel where the heating elements are. This is why you need to keep swirling the pot. This does two things: first, it takes the pot off the heat and slows down the cooking, and second, it redistributes the syrup and prevents any one part from overcooking.
• The difference between done and burnt is hair thin. Remember, caramel is toasted sugar. The complex flavor in caramel comes from the browning process. The darker the color, the more bitterness and the more complexity you can pull out—but a dark, complex caramel can become burnt in seconds. If this is your first time making caramel, play it safe and aim for a lighter color.
• Take the pot off the heat early. Sugar has very good heat retention—it's one of the reasons it's so dangerous if it gets on you. Moreso than your steak, your caramel will continue to cook even off the flame. And, like mentioned above, the difference between "burnt" and "rich" is mere seconds of heat. Take your caramel off the flame early, before you think it's ready, and it'll continue to cook until the right doneness. The only time you should consider letting the caramel cook to the final color is if you intend to make a sauce with it, because the cooler liquid will help stop the cooking process, and even then I'd recommend not taking the risk.
• Your caramel will not be as sweet as sugar. Caramelization causes the sugars to break down. The darker the caramel, the more the sugars have been broken down. Think of it like making a sourdough—the yeast eats up the sugars, causing the final product to taste less sweet. Similarly, the browning process uses up sugars, reducing the sweetness of the final product.
• Finally, and most importantly, keep at it. You will fail. Hopefully not the first time you make it, but if you keep making it then one day you will fail. Failure is inevitable, especially with something as finicky as caramel. I've made it dozens of times, and I still fail. I've made perfect caramel one day, and later that same day I've burnt half the sugar into the pot. I've let too much of the sugars brown, leaving the resulting caramel too bitter for my tastes. I've undercooked it and ended up with a syrup that's too sweet for my tastes. I've had moments where I feel like I've got it, I've cracked the code, this is it, I've mastered the caramel, and the next day I have a burnt pot I'm scraping charcoal off of. Failure is inevitable. Don't let it get you down. There's professional chefs who fuck up caramel, it's okay if yours went bad. Push through and keep trucking at it.

 

[seeing_octarine]

Finally, and most importantly, keep at it.

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I thought the most important part was to make sure you avoid touching the debilitatingly hot sticky syrup of doom during the cooking process, lest you burn yourself to the bone.

 

[Somebody]

I thought the most important part was to make sure you avoid touching the debilitatingly hot sticky syrup of doom during the cooking process, lest you burn yourself to the bone.

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Of course not. Feel free to get right in there, dip your fingers, have a little taste, share with the friends and family ./s /j.

More seriously though, be careful. Hot sugar is dangerous, not only because it's really fucking hot—sugar starts entering the hardball stage at 120+ degrees Celsius, and caramelizes at over 160 C—but sugar also retains heat very fucking well, and hot sugar is mildly hydrophobic. On top of that, you can't pull sugar off your skin without ripping out a chunk of the skin with it, you have to dissolve it.

That said, though, the fear of hot sugar is kinda overdone. It's like a knife—you wave it around and expect to lose friends and family. Respect hot sugar, you'll be fine.

 

[Aleh]

I regularly use caramel to fry food in. This is a somewhat different process (I'm melting sugar in hot oil on a wok), but… yeah. The stuff's dangerous, but not _that_ dangerous. Hot oil's arguably worse. Be careful with it and you'll be fine.

 

[seeing_octarine]

On top of that, you can't pull sugar off your skin without ripping out a chunk of the skin with it, you have to dissolve it.

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Honestly this is the only part that mildly concerns me.

 

[vyor]

Honestly this is the only part that mildly concerns me.

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If it gets on you, just use water.

 

[Aleh]

So, I mentioned wok-frying food in caramel yesterday. This sort of thing is a big part of certain types of Chinese cooking -- you can see a fairly typical example (for chicken) here.

Side-note: That's a good recipe. I've modified it a bit for my version (I let the sugar caramelize _very_ slightly and add a few other spices -- anise, clove, cinnamon, allspice, and a bay leaf -- along with the ginger, let them cook in the oil for a little before I add the watery liquids, and then serve it atop a bed of rice instead of using the rice as a side-dish), but it's totally worth trying as-is.

The general gist of the technique is fairly simple. You take a wok. You get it nice and hot. You add a bit of oil (not too much, not too little, details depend on how big your wok is and how much you're cooking; I tend to eyeball it). Then you turn the heat down -- way down, to low or maybe medium (depending on your stove, how much you want to caramelize the sugar, and how experienced you are with the technique; start with low) -- and add some sugar.

Then you let the sugar melt into the oil, shaking periodically. If some of it starts browning or burning -- caramelizing, in other words -- shake the wok or stir with a wooden stirrer (start with shaking if you don't know what you're doing yet) to distribute the results and get the sugar evenly browned to your desire level.

To be clear, you generally want a pretty light caramel here. Many recipes even call for simple melted sugar without any caramelization at all at this stage. The sugar will typically get browned later in the recipe.

Then you toss in whatever you're planning to cook -- or you can brown certain spices at this stage; garlic works well -- and basically treat it like a more traditional stir-fry, either letting them cook in place or tossing them through the hot oil depending on what you're dealing with and what sort of cooking process you're going for.

Then you add your cooking sauces to rapidly cool things down and prevent burning. I default to a mix of shaoxing wine and soy sauces (maybe with some water, too, depending) for this, but there are plenty of other options.

At this point, the wok basically functions as a pot under moist heat. You stir a bit, toss the contents a bit, maybe cook things under cover for a bit, and let the sauce reduce and/or cook off until the food's done to your desired level.

The details, of course, depend on just what you're cooking and how done you want it. That's why I sometimes add water to the cooking sauce: to extend the moist heat step and allow things to braise a bit more before the sauce starts burning.

But long beans or wing beans cooked this way? They're absolutely delicious.

 

[Aleh]

So, I described my technique for stir-frying in caramel above. I... went a bit further and actually made some wing beans yesterday, and since I had my phone, I took pictures... and even a brief video.

To start off with, our ingredients:

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What you see here is a bit under a pound (maybe 3/4?) of wing beans that I've chopped, washed, and cut to the appropriate lengths. You also see a few garlic cloves that I've roughly chopped, a little bit of sugar, and a mix of shaoxing wine and dark and light soy sauces. Those little blue cups are each a half-cup in capacity, so that should give you some idea of quantity and scale.

Then I heated up the wok, tossed in some oil (avocado in this case, but that's because Mom's obsessive about not wanting me to use vegetable and she can be a massive nag), and turned down the heat. Then I tossed in the sugar and shifted the wok around to make sure everything got nice and mixed together:

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Then I let it cook, and let the sugar start to melt into the oil. Some of it started to caramelize before the rest had fully melted... but that doesn't really matter for this:

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I stirred a bit, I shook a bit, and pretty soon I had a nice, slightly-bubbly mix of caramel floating around in the oil in the wok:

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The image quality is a bit off there in the preview. May be a compression issue, may be format converting, whatever. I'll fix it later if it's a problem on posting and I can be arsed to.

Anyway, then I tossed in the garlic:

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And stirred, cooking the garlic in the caramel and oil until everything was nice and brown and ready for my wing beans. I turned up the heat, tossed them in, and tossed them around until everything was nice and coated:

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And then I kept tossing them in the oil for about thirty seconds, until the beans had deepened a bit in color:

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Then I tossed in the wine and soy sauce mix, tossing the beans around some more:

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And I covered the wok and let them cook for three-four minutes:

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Then I checked their consistency to make sure they were done, put them on a plate, and let the sauce on the bottom of the wok cook down a little more before drizzling it on top of the now-ready beans...

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... which I then ate.

They were delicious.

And ultimately? That's all there is to it.

 

[aquinas]

@Aleh, I just tried your process out on some beef strips and a bunch of broccolini from the garden, It worked great.

 

[Aleh]

@Aleh, I just tried your process out on some beef strips and a bunch of broccolini from the garden, It worked great.

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Cool. Just be forewarned that meat generally has to be cooked a bit differently than greens (for obvious reasons). The chicken recipe is a good starting point for that.

Still, you should be okay if you're using strips and they aren't cut too thickly. They cook pretty quickly.

 

[heralding_bubble]

The Halligan

1 the worst vodka with the highest alcohol you can get your hands on : 1 apple juice, preferably unfiltered


if you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.

 

[Biigoh]

have some kitchen/fresh veggie hacks


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p6wp3pMNjY

 

[TheGrog]

If you wait more than 1-2 days to eat asparagus it isn't worth eating anymore.

 

[Aleh]

If you wait more than 1-2 days to eat asparagus it isn't worth eating anymore.

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Even if you don't wait, it's still asparagus.

 

[kinglugia]

Asparagus is kinda yummy tho. Better off cooking it while it's still fresh.

 

[TheGrog]

IMO, asparagus is probably the single most perishable thing in any kitchen it is in. As I understand it, It suffers from the leaf crop problem of becoming tough and bitter as it ages, except way faster, and the corn problem of converting sugars to starch once harvested.

If you aren't buying it from the person that grew it, it is probably marginal at best and grocery store asparagus is worse than grocery store fruit ( but not grocery store tomatoes ). That's why asparagus at a restaurant is better than what you get trying at home even if you cook it well.

 

[aquinas]

IMO, asparagus is probably the single most perishable thing in any kitchen it is in. As I understand it, It suffers from the leaf crop problem of becoming tough and bitter as it ages, except way faster, and the corn problem of converting sugars to starch once harvested.

If you aren't buying it from the person that grew it, it is probably marginal at best and grocery store asparagus is worse than grocery store fruit ( but not grocery store tomatoes ). That's why asparagus at a restaurant is better than what you get trying at home even if you cook it well.

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Asparagus from the back garden: delicious for about 3 weeks a year, before it gets more than a couple feet tall. Asparagus otherwise, horrible bitter poison thing.

 

[Aleh]

Asparagus is kinda yummy tho. Better off cooking it while it's still fresh.

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IMO, asparagus is probably the single most perishable thing in any kitchen it is in. As I understand it, It suffers from the leaf crop problem of becoming tough and bitter as it ages, except way faster, and the corn problem of converting sugars to starch once harvested.

If you aren't buying it from the person that grew it, it is probably marginal at best and grocery store asparagus is worse than grocery store fruit ( but not grocery store tomatoes ). That's why asparagus at a restaurant is better than what you get trying at home even if you cook it well.

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Ah. That explains it. I've never had good asparagus by that metric, then. I'll have to try to fix that sometime... oh, wait. Nevermind. I'm in USDA zone 10b, which means that... yeah, no. I'd have to grow it indoors to get a decent crop, which... no.