Idle Food - Cooking!

[Badfinger]

Where on the wirecutter did you find their review? I can't see it.

 

It did, however, lead me to The Sweethome and now I want a new chef's knife, a new cutting board, new thermometer, a rice cooker, a real dutch oven, good skillet, spatula...

[JonCole]

Sous Vide stuff used to be on Wirecutter, it's now on Sweethome - http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-sous-vide-gear/

[Badfinger]

Weird. It's not under cooking gear, but some of the other stuff crosses over. Seems like a damn good resource, anyway.

 

http://thesweethome.com/leaderboard/kitchen/

[SecretAsianMan]

I love TheSweetHome/WireCutter.  I've gotten several of their recommends and so far haven't been disappointed by any of them (even after they updated the recommendation to something else).

[Dewar]

Interesting, I followed the link from somewhere else I guess, because I was going to http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-budget-friendly-sous-vide-gear/ which redirects to the exact same article as those linked above *shrug* I'm sure it's for SEO or something, but I generally just refer to the whole collective as Wirecutter and I'm not sure why they decided they needed to split it all in half.

[Badfinger]

Interesting, I followed the link from somewhere else I guess, because I was going to http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-budget-friendly-sous-vide-gear/ which redirects to the exact same article as those linked above *shrug* I'm sure it's for SEO or something, but I generally just refer to the whole collective as Wirecutter and I'm not sure why they decided they needed to split it all in half.

 

Yours is totally the same as Jon's. All I was saying is they don't have that review under the "Kitchen" heading, it's under "Appliances", even though some items are found in both subheadings so I was scared and lost and didn't think to look there.

[dibs]

Potatoes frying in chorizo oil (to be eaten with fried eggs and aforementioned chorizo). . Nomnom




Beef noodle salad with almond butter dressing. Mammy gave me some fillet steak to bring home with me, but i find it pretty tasteless, so i jazzed it up a bit.



 

[Badfinger]

I made some delicious but not photogenic tomato sauce, and then used that to make some delicious but not photogenic chicken parmesan.

 

 

[dibs]

I had chicken parm the other week, made by my american buddy. I haven't had it since around 2006 when i was in NY! It was rather tasty.

[Badfinger]

I decided I was going to be lazy and not pound out or bread the chicken, and then I did anyway and it was completely worth it. Just did provolone instead of making mozzarella, and doused it all with sauce because I wanted it to taste good more than I wanted a picture of tv-style chicken.

 

Definitely recommend making tomato sauce. Surprisingly easy! I almost got the giant can of San Marzano tomatoes and then talked myself out of it. Wish I had, really.

[dibs]

I made a sorta chilli bean soup. It is goood. Also, a million portions for the freezer.

 

 

[Griddlelol]

I made Portugese cabbage soup - onion, garlic, celery, potato, cabbage, vegetable stock (and optional chrozio). I added bay leaves and smoked paprika.

 

It sounded great to me on paper, but it's missing something. It's almost delicious, but a little too bland. Anyone know how I could have made it a little better?

[dibs]

If you are making something that light then your stock would want to be good. Did you make your own or use a cube?

[Griddlelol]

If you are making something that light then your stock would want to be good. Did you make your own or use a cube?

 

I used a cube. I tend to make my own chicken or pork stock, but never vegetable. How do you make veg stock? Just boil a bunch of veg and keep the water?

[dibs]

I've never made it, but that looks like the basic idea. I would have used some of my chicken stock probs, or ham stock would be very good with that i'd say. The soups i've been making recently are all tomato based, so that along with a stock cube and some herbs or spices is giving me a lot of flavour.

[Griddlelol]

That looks basically like what I did for the soup base, except I didn't throw away the cooked veg. 

[Badfinger]

Do you have any idea for what kind of flavor was missing? Maybe add some tomato? How did you feel about the seasoning? Sometimes just properly adding salt and pepper does it for me.

[dibs]

Ya, simple seasoning makes an amazing difference, but i'm still thinking that in such a brothy soup, you should have made a dedicated stock for it, or cheated with a really good shop stock. The idea with veg stock is you get all the flavour of your stock veg, and then add to it with the actual veg from your soup.

[JonCole]

Well, part of the idea of stock is that you're taking the flavor of the thing and diffusing it into the liquid. It makes a lot of sense with meat when you're using pieces of the animal that are less appetizing when eaten directly, but you still can wring a lot of flavor out of it. That doesn't stop you from making a stock from anything, but you have to understand that you're inherently taking away some of the flavor from the boiled away stuff and injecting it into that liquid. It's why a lot of people don't like eating meat that was prepared by boiling, you're just bound to lose some flavor to that water.

 

Anyways, I almost always make some kind of vegetable stock from scratch if I'm doing a veggie-based soup or stew because I inevitably am not going to use all of the veggies so I'll have 1/3 lb of carrots and a couple onions or something leftover from a batch that I buy. That stuff along with trimmings can make a pretty decent stock, then you add the stock cube or paste for even /more/ flavor. I mostly started doing this because I'd often see professional chefs on cooking show using both a homemade stock and additional flavoring on top.

[Griddlelol]

I couldn't put my finger on what was missing. I think the cabbage lost some flavour, but then again, I usually add cumin to cabbage recipes and I didn't this time. As I said, it wasn't bad, it was just missing something. I ended up eating more than my share.

 

I make two chicken stocks (because I roast chicken once a week for work lunches) - one from the oil and fat which I drain from the roast, and the other by boiling the left overs - generally bones and gristle. They're both pretty good. I've never made a beef stock, mainly because if I buy beef, I don't throw anything away, I eat everything that comes with it. 

 

I had a minor disaster with chili I made last night. I bought cheap (Sainsbuy's basics) tinned tomatoes, and the whole chilli tasted of nothing but over sweet tomato. I added salt, cocoa powder and chicken stock (I wanted this to be vegetarian chilli) but the cheap tomato was incredibly over powering. I usually spend more on the tomatoes, but I thought I'd give the cheap ones a try.

Never again.

[dibs]

Ya, i got Aldi tomatoes recently and they were really really sour. Easier to remedy than too sweet though!

[SecretAsianMan]

I was ordering some stuff on Amazon for my parents the other day, and while I was at it I also got a new chef's knife and mandoline, both recommended by TheSweetHome.  I've needed a new knife for a long time because mine is full of small nicks and can't make smooth cuts anymore.  The mandoline is just something I've wanted for a long time.  The knife hasn't arrived yet but last night the mandoline did and man is that thing ever fun.  I sliced up an apple because it was the only thing I had around and boy does it work well.  I'm planning to get some potatoes this weekend and make fries.  Probably some other stuff as well.

[JonCole]

Be careful with the mandoline, always use a guard or a glove. I feel like they say that every chef only has to make that mistake once to learn, but as a person squeamish around blood who has made the mistake I suggest not making it to begin with. I only use my mine with the crappy guard, planning on getting a nice glove at some point but I keep putting it off.

 

Edit: actually, gloves are cheaper than I remember so I might just order one right now... http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00E4XSSDA/

[SecretAsianMan]

I've heard some horror stories about people slicing their hands open using a mandoline before so I plan on being very careful.  The guard on the one I got is rather large compared to the mandoline itself so it does a good job of keeping your hand away from the blade.  The button to adjust it and change the guides is also far from the blades.  Plus it can lock in a safe position and includes a holder for the other guides which snaps into the main unit, keeping everything together and covered.

[Dewar]

I bought a set of 4 Victorinox knives on Sweet home's suggestion as well. They don't come particularly sharp, but are still twice as sharp as any other knife in my kitchen. I'm looking forward to taking them to get professionally sharpened (whenever I try to sharpen knives myself, I always manage to mess it up.)