What's Cooking

[GoingMyWay]

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:

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[DynaGlide]

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]

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]

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.    [big grin]

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

 

[Cheese]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

+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. [cool]

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.  [cool]

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]

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.

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. [cool]

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.

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.  [cool]

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]

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]

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. [cool] 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.  [eek]

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

 

[GoingMyWay]

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

 

[upscale]

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.  [crying] [crying] [crying]

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!!!

 

[rljatl]

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]

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]

Nice presentation [member=66704]Koamolly[/member] , 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.  [big grin]

 

[Koamolly]

Nice presentation [member=66704]Koamolly[/member] , 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.  [big grin]

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]

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.