Author Topic: What's Cooking (Read 211535 times)

GoingMyWay · « **on:** June 26, 2018, 06:32 PM »

Maybe this is way off base and most people are not at all interested. But I thought I'd give it a go.

Being a foodie and someone who likes to cook (I like to think that I'm a better cook than a woodworker), I thought it might be a nice to start a thread of people showing what they've been cooking.

Last night we made sous vide duck breast with broad bean tips, leftover scalloped potatoes, and jasmine rice:

DynaGlide · « **Reply #1 on:** June 26, 2018, 07:26 PM »

Last night's dinner was Angus filets cooked about an hour at 275 then seared over direct heat with asparagus. The down side to this is I'm always let down when I spend money on steak at a restaurant and it isn't even close to as tender.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2018, 07:35 PM »

Reverse sear, nice!

I feel the same way about ordering an expensive steak in a restaurant - I could make something a lot better for a lot less.

Rob Z · « **Reply #3 on:** June 26, 2018, 09:01 PM »

Tonight's dinner was steaks, corn on the cob and avocados, all grilled on a Primo. The avocados were topped with tomatoes, olive oil and basil.

No pictures because it all disappeared too quickly.

All pictures above look quite tasty. I do love duck and haven't had that for some time.

Cheese · « **Reply #4 on:** June 26, 2018, 09:38 PM »

We gave up on restaurants about 15 years ago because we cook better food for 1/4 of the cost. The exception is the St. Paul Grill, that we have a yearly, never ending reservation for around the Holidays. Fantastic faire...you need to book it a year in advance or you’ll never get past the doorman.

FWIW, the recipe app I prefer is Paprika. I’ve been using it for the last 5 years. It’s so simple to copy and paste recipes, and it’s just so easy to save recipes and share recipes. Better yet, the app keeps evolving into improved versions every year.

live4ever · « **Reply #5 on:** June 26, 2018, 11:27 PM »

Dang, you people eat well.

+1 on Paprika. Great app. Have both the desktop and iOS versions and it is far better than any other recipe management I've ever tried.

six-point socket II · « **Reply #6 on:** June 27, 2018, 12:53 AM »

Hi!

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might have seen a couple of these, big time foodie here.

I think we're cooking as much as we're going out for dinner/lunch - I don't always take pictures ...

Here's some stuff I've cooked/baked - please enjoy.

So this is - by far - our favorite starter for menus. It's quite simple as it's just tiger prawns with a cream sauce (shallots) made in the same pan the tiger prawns were roasted/seared in and a piece of puff pastry. Sometimes we add some mushrooms to the sauce.

Another quick & easy favorite dish is pasta with salmon. Sometimes it is not quick - when we make our own pasta - but the salmon and sauce are easily and quickly made.

We love oysters.

And to stay in the water, here is a dish called "sailors dish".

Crawfish on a bed of oven roasted/baked tomatoes and black olives.

This is called "veal chops like grandmother used to make them" (veal chops, shallots, bacon, mushrooms ... can be deglazed with cream)

Sometimes we BBQ

Vol-au-vent

By far out most favorite autumn/winter dish: Bœuf bourguignon

And finally, for the woodworking aspect/topic: "Baumkuchen" (pyramid cake) - baked layer for layer ... I take the time to do this in early December, and then the cake sits until Christmas. It's a good day of work all in all.

Kind regards,
Oliver

Bob Marino · « **Reply #7 on:** June 27, 2018, 05:06 AM »

To All,

Incredibly looking (and I'm sure, tasting) food.
Makes me feel quite boring simply throwing on a steak or some chicken on the grill!

magellan · « **Reply #8 on:** June 27, 2018, 05:39 AM »

Hello all

Ok. 5/6 months ago I believe it was Bob M. That started a thread about what grill to buy. Well I followed that thread with great interest. I was sitting on the fence about a smoker or a Kamado style cooker. With info given here and with my own research I decided to purchase a Kamado Joe cooker. I’ve not regretted the choice, I’ve enjoyed learning about cooking in this fashion. I was always concerned about using charcoal to do all this fancy cooking but have found it is quit simple to adjust and control the heat of a Kamado style grill.

So thank you all for your opinions and knowledge of grilling.

That all said, I have to agree that I’m recently more interested in cooking than I am in being in my shop Costs are similar, for example you have to purchase all the accessories for the grill, and covers for the grill, and in my case I had a small kitchen in our lower level of our home that we never used except to store financial records and other items. So I cleaned it out and remodeled the kitchen completely new ceiling new flooring new lighting new appliances and sanded down the cabinets and repainted. I bought a mixer to make pizza dough and now I’m accumulating cookbooks like I did with Woodworkering.

I will say that’s it’s been fun this past 6 month learning a new hobby and a few pound added on

I enjoy this new thread and it comes at a good time when grilling is easier with the weather

Thank you all

So cooking can be just as expensive as woodworking. And I have all of you to thank for it

Cheese · « **Reply #9 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:27 AM »

Quote from: live4ever on June 26, 2018, 11:27 PM

+1 on Paprika. Great app. Have both the desktop and iOS versions and it is far better than any other recipe management I've ever tried.

I have the app on my iPhone so when I'm shopping for food I can pull up any recipe I want and purchase the ingredients on the spot.

I have the app on my iPad in the kitchen for cooking purposes. Once you've chosen a recipe, the iPad will not shut off automatically.

I have the app on my MB Pro because it's a lot easier to update or edit recipes on a laptop.

The latest version lets you toggle between several recipes at the same time.

Here are a couple of my summer favorites:

Strawberry-Chicken Salad with Pecans & Feta

Tuna Steak Burgers and a fresh Beet Salad with Balsamic & Chèvre

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #10 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:42 AM »

The Paprika App costs $4.99? I really cringe at the idea of having to pay for an App, but it sounds like this one is really good so it may be worth it.

Quote from: Cheese on June 27, 2018, 11:27 AM

I have the app on my iPhone so when I'm shopping for food I can pull up any recipe I want and purchase the ingredients on the spot.

A lot of our recipes are either printed out or handwritten. That's fine and all until we decide we want to make something while at the grocery store and then I can't remember what all of the ingredients are! Having cloud access to the recipe would be really useful then.

Quote from: Cheese on June 27, 2018, 11:27 AM

I have the app on my iPad in the kitchen for cooking purposes. Once you've chosen a recipe, the iPad will not shut off automatically.

One of the reasons why I like having the recipe written down is that it's annoying that normally the iPad screen turns off if you're just looking at a recipe on a web page. This would solve that problem.

I had thought about inputting my recipes into Evernote, but that's not a recipe manager per se. There used to be a Evernote Food app, but that was shutdown for some reason.

Dane · « **Reply #11 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:49 AM »

Ok. I’ll play. Here’s our yearly Xmas Eve project. Timpano. I make all the ingredients except for the the ziti. It’s definitely a multi-day affair, basically a huge pasta shell enclosing ziti, homemade meatballs cured meats and cheeses and hardboiled eggs. If you’ve seen the movie Big Night, which you absolutely should if you like food, you’ve seen this. This year the power went out- so I was hand mixing the pasta dough by lantern light.

Cheese · « **Reply #12 on:** June 27, 2018, 01:12 PM »

Quote from: GoingMyWay on June 27, 2018, 11:42 AM

The Paprika App costs $4.99? I really cringe at the idea of having to pay for an App, but it sounds like this one is really good so it may be worth it.

A lot of our recipes are either printed out or handwritten. That's fine and all until we decide we want to make something while at the grocery store and then I can't remember what all of the ingredients are! Having cloud access to the recipe would be really useful then.

After I used the app for a while, it worked out so slick that I decided to make a chalkboard for the side of the fridge so I could just take a picture. Between the app and the chalkboard photo, everything I need to purchase is on the phone.

No more small scraps of paper in my pockets and scattered throughout the kitchen. Sometimes with 2 or 3 shopping lists, I couldn't remember which one was current.

Two different colors of chalk. One for groceries and the other for Target, Menards, HD...whatever.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #13 on:** June 27, 2018, 01:15 PM »

I use Evernote for my shopping list(s). 1 list that's divided into sections - regular grocery store, Home Depot, Woodcraft, Costco, etc.

Upscale · « **Reply #14 on:** June 27, 2018, 03:56 PM »

All you home cooks are getting me aggravated. I rent an apartment and barbecues on the balcony are strictly prohibited. All I can do is head over to a friend's house every 3-4 weeks to use his barbecue.

I do have some skill with the stove, but it just doesn't come close to a barbecue. And yeah, I've tried a whole pile of indoor barbecues, but they suck big time!!!

RobBob · « **Reply #15 on:** June 27, 2018, 05:16 PM »

Quote from: GoingMyWay on June 26, 2018, 07:35 PM

Reverse sear, nice!

I feel the same way about ordering an expensive steak in a restaurant - I could make something a lot better for a lot less.

Me, too. Always disappointed when I order steak, even at expensive steak restaurants. Cooked at home is better.

Koamolly · « **Reply #16 on:** June 27, 2018, 08:25 PM »

Assuming you have access to some good sashimi grade ahi, here’s a simple way to prepare it, even for people who don’t care for raw fish. I think you guys might like this.

Ratio of shoyu to strained lemon juice is 1:1, but you can adjust to taste, but remember you are adding slivered lemon rind.

Outside of fish is barely cooked on low heat to whiten outside. Can also put under broiler briefly if you keep an eye on it. You just want color. You don’t want to brown it. Refrigerate it after taking it out of pan while you’re preparing lemons, green onions and marinade, it will be easier to slice. Plate it on shallow plate. Let it marinate about an hour before serving. Top with lemon rind and green onions.

If I’m taking it to a party, I’ll pour just enough marinade to moisten fish, to make transport less messy. Assemble at party, add rest of marinade.

Cheese · « **Reply #17 on:** June 27, 2018, 10:22 PM »

Nice presentation @Koamolly , it looks delicious, love the Shun knives, however I used to be a fan of Kikkoman but switched to Tamari-Lite because it was less salty. That allowed the subtle flavor of the sushi to come through...a major improvement.

I’m also interested in why you’re mincing the rind instead of just zesting the skin. There’s a difference in bitterness levels.

Putting those nits aside...I could eat sushi 3 nights a week.

Koamolly · « **Reply #18 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:06 PM »

Quote from: Cheese on June 27, 2018, 10:22 PM

Nice presentation @Koamolly , it looks delicious, love the Shun knives, however I used to be a fan of Kikkoman but switched to Tamari-Lite because it was less salty. That allowed the subtle flavor of the sushi to come through...a major improvement.

I’m also interested in why you’re mincing the rind instead of just zesting the skin. There’s a difference in bitterness levels.

Putting those nits aside...I could eat sushi 3 nights a week.

Thanks.

My first wife, from years ago, was Japanese, this was her mom's recipe and she did it this way. A bit crunchier perhaps. Need to be careful when peeling, for sure. Those pics are from a few years ago, I took for my daughter who was making this, to walk her through it. Shuns are ok but I usually use cheap Japanese knives (sharpened) I can abuse when hanging in the kitchen. But, a good way to cut up fish is with a Olfa snap blade razor knife with the blade fully extended.

I use lite shoyu but it’s whatever I have at the time I took pics.

Cheese · « **Reply #19 on:** June 27, 2018, 11:42 PM »

Quote from: Koamolly on June 27, 2018, 11:06 PM

My first wife, from years ago, was Japanese, this was her mom's recipe and she did it this way. A bit crunchier perhaps. Need to be careful when peeling, for sure. Those pics are from a few years ago, I took for my daughter who was making this, to walk her through it. Shuns are ok but I usually use cheap Japanese knives (sharpened) I can abuse when hanging in the kitchen. But, a good way to cut up fish is with a Olfa snap blade razor knife with the blade fully extended.
I use lite shoyu but it’s whatever I have at the time I took pics.

I have an affinity to always follow the original recipe the first time around. After that... the world’s your oyster, so go forth.

Cooking is almost more creative than woodworking because you’re always creating every meal. That’s creativity and part of the thought process that’s being generated all day long.

I’ve always been a fan of Wusthof because they’re really tough knives. However recently, the Shuns with the 16 degree cutting angle are incredibly sharp and only need to be steeled every couple of days.

Bob Marino · « **Reply #20 on:** June 28, 2018, 05:08 AM »

Quote from: magellan on June 27, 2018, 05:39 AM

Hello all

Ok. 5/6 months ago I believe it was Bob M. That started a thread about what grill to buy. Well I followed that thread with great interest. I was sitting on the fence about a smoker or a Kamado style cooker. With info given here and with my own research I decided to purchase a Kamado Joe cooker. I’ve not regretted the choice, I’ve enjoyed learning about cooking in this fashion. I was always concerned about using charcoal to do all this fancy cooking but have found it is quit simple to adjust and control the heat of a Kamado style grill.

So thank you all for your opinions and knowledge of grilling.

That all said, I have to agree that I’m recently more interested in cooking than I am in being in my shop Costs are similar, for example you have to purchase all the accessories for the grill, and covers for the grill, and in my case I had a small kitchen in our lower level of our home that we never used except to store financial records and other items. So I cleaned it out and remodeled the kitchen completely new ceiling new flooring new lighting new appliances and sanded down the cabinets and repainted. I bought a mixer to make pizza dough and now I’m accumulating cookbooks like I did with Woodworkering.

I will say that’s it’s been fun this past 6 month learning a new hobby and a few pound added on

I enjoy this new thread and it comes at a good time when grilling is easier with the weather

Thank you all

So cooking can be just as expensive as woodworking. And I have all of you to thank for it

Yes, I started the conversation regarding grills - and got an awful lot of great info and recipes posted by members.

magellan · « **Reply #21 on:** June 28, 2018, 01:41 PM »

Hello all

I don’t want to change the direction of this thread but if I may I’d like to ask a question about
knives. We have a full set of Cutco knives for every day use, but I would like to acquire a few nice knives for my downstairs kitchen that I’m now using as my kitchen for grilling and making pizza dough.

Knives are a bit of a mystery to me. Stainless, carbon steel or whatever ever else they’re using to make knives. Do you need to spend a lot of money or can it be a reasonable purchase. Seriously I visited a high end kitchen store the other day and I had no idea of what to buy steel wise. I knew I wanted a chef’s knife and a boning knife but I didn’t know what to buy. They had so many knives it was confusing

What brought this to mind was the comment about the knife Cheese used in the photo

Thanks all

Cheese · « **Reply #22 on:** June 28, 2018, 01:50 PM »

Here's a good article on the difference between Japanese & German knives.

For slicing tasks I use Shun.

For heavier duty tasks I use Wusthof.

If you purchase a premium knife, NEVER put it in the dishwasher and don't abuse it, it will outlive you.

https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/national/japanese-versus-german-knives

For a boning knife I prefer the Wusthof Flexible version. It also does a real good job in removing the skin from salmon fillets.

http://www.wusthof.com/products/classic/6-flexible-boning-knife

six-point socket II · « **Reply #23 on:** June 29, 2018, 02:34 AM »

Hi,

Personally, as a long term and die-hard handmade knife collector, I've been using a handmade knife from a German knifemaker for years now. It's basically a Japanese / German/European crossover with a medium size Gyuto style blade and a German / European handle. I use this for any and everything, I always keep a sink of hot water for rinsing. I won't bore you with the details about steel and so on ... For most it doesn't matter anyway. When I need a smaller knife I use another one of my handmade/custom knives ...

Just FYI and before this sparks controversy: This is a picture I took after having great results/ great taste experience with the salt pictured, that one of my acquaintances produces - short message: This salt is addictive. The picture was used on their IG and FB, after I posted this to my private, back then, FB and IG Accounts - IIRC. This is no statement on drugs.

The Shuns are great knives as are so many others all the way up to handmade/custom knives ... You can sink more $$$$ in one knife than a couple of Festool tools would cost. ...

And the truth is, that's plainly a personal decision and not a necessity. I would highly recommend to you to see what knives fit your hand well and you enjoy "working" with - and then probably buy a big, medium and small one + a bendy one. If it's the Shuns that's a great choice - as would be Wüsthof, Zwilling, Herder, Dick ... Also cool, especially their "bread knife" also referred to as "bread saw" is https://www.guede-solingen.de/de/ -> https://www.guede-solingen.de/en/knife-series/guede-bread-knife

I'm sure there are also interesting US manufacturers that offer a quality product.

Kind regards,
Oliver

Bob Marino · « **Reply #24 on:** June 29, 2018, 07:02 AM »

I have the Wustoff Classic set for over 20 years and has served me well, though I should be a little better at sharpening. Well, last week my wife was using the 8" chef's knife to crack open a chicken - probably hacking the bones. Low and behold, when I went to clean the knife, I see that she also cracked some of the blade - beyond repair! Luckily I have a 10" Wustoff from about the same time ago and will use that in its place.
I also have a Shun that I keep in it's own sheath and is off limits for use by anyone other than myself. Beautiful Shun, but they are fairly delicate.

Cheese · « **Reply #25 on:** June 29, 2018, 09:42 AM »

Quote from: six-point socket II on June 29, 2018, 02:34 AM

1. This is a picture I took after having great results/ great taste experience with the salt pictured, that one of my acquaintances produces - short message: This salt is addictive.

2. You can sink more $$$$ in one knife than a couple of Festool tools would cost. ...

3. Also cool, especially their "bread knife" also referred to as "bread saw" is https://www.guede-solingen.de/de/ -> https://www.guede-solingen.de/en/knife-series/guede-bread-knife

1. Hey Oliver, curious what's so special about the salt? It looks like fleur de sel.

2. A number of years ago, I came across some custom 8" chef knives that ranged from $750 to $1200 AND you were placed on a wait list for over a year. That immediately made me think about Randall knives.

3. I have a Wusthof tomato knife and also their bread knife. I've used them for years and they work well. However, since I started using the Shuns, I now use their long slicer for both bread & tomatoes. They're just incredibly sharp.

Koamolly · « **Reply #26 on:** June 29, 2018, 10:55 AM »

Quote from: Cheese on June 29, 2018, 09:42 AM

Quote from: six-point socket II on June 29, 2018, 02:34 AM

1. This is a picture I took after having great results/ great taste experience with the salt pictured, that one of my acquaintances produces - short message: This salt is addictive.

2. You can sink more $$$$ in one knife than a couple of Festool tools would cost. ...

3. Also cool, especially their "bread knife" also referred to as "bread saw" is https://www.guede-solingen.de/de/ -> https://www.guede-solingen.de/en/knife-series/guede-bread-knife

1. Hey Oliver, curious what's so special about the salt? It looks like fleur de sel.

2. A number of years ago, I came across some custom 8" chef knives that ranged from $750 to $1200 AND you were placed on a wait list for over a year. That immediately made me think about Randall knives.

3. I have a Wustof tomato knife and also their bread knife. I've used them for years and they work well. However, since I started using the Shuns, I now use their long slicer for both bread & tomatoes. They're just incredibly sharp.

Many years ago when I bought these knives there was a wait list of about a year. Now I think it’s about six years for a Randall. The carving set I’ve used quite a bit, but the dive knife I’ve never felt the need to take diving and I've been a commercial fisherman (reef fish)/diver for most my life. Lots of cool stories about Randall made knives.

I think what Olivier said about seeing how a knife feels in your hand is pretty important especially if you’re going to be using it a lot. I have many Shuns but usually reach for a smaller wood handle cheap Japanese knife. Mainly just having a really sharp knife of any kind really helps. There are many sharpeners, stones, ceramic sticks, etc. available. Not to drift further but Edge Pro is worth considering.

http://www.edgeproinc.com/

Impressive knives Olivier. Enjoying everyone’s photos too.

Joe Felchlin · « **Reply #27 on:** June 29, 2018, 11:15 AM »

You guys look like really great CHEFS.

Wish I had your talent.
Fortunately, I married a gourmet chef.

We’ve had the complete set of -
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro Knives for 25+ years.
She like REALLY SHARP KNIVES.
I don’t even use my Tormek Sharpener to sharpen ‘em.
I keep ‘em “razor blade” sharp by hand.

Bob Marino · « **Reply #28 on:** June 29, 2018, 11:17 AM »

Quote from: Joe Felchlin on June 29, 2018, 11:15 AM

You guys look like really great CHEFS.
Wish I had your talent.
Fortunately, I married a gourmet chef.

We’ve had the complete set of -
Zwilling J.A. Henckels Pro Knives for 25+ years.

She like REALLY SHARP KNIVES.
I don’t even use my Tormek Sharpener to sharpen ‘em.
I keep ‘em “razor blade” sharp by hand.

What’s your technique for that?

Joe Felchlin · « **Reply #29 on:** June 29, 2018, 11:40 AM »

Bob:
I use water stones -
Then increasingly finer sand paper grits (adhesive backed) on a flat granite stone block -
Finishing with a gentle leather stropping (accompanied with a small amount of honing compound.
I set it up like an assembly line on my work bench -
And do most of our knife set all at the same time.
Once the “production line” is set up (a few minutes) - The sharpening goes pretty fast.
And... Since I’m already “in business” -
It’s a great time to check/touch up my most used hand plane and chisel blades -
Which I normally sharpen on my Tormek sharpener.
On occasion, I leave things set up and tell friends coming over for dinner/BBQ -
To bring their kitchen knives. (No more than one or two couples)
Takes a few minutes - And “brings out the smiles”.