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Idle Food - Cooking!

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I'm finally getting some more kitchen items for my new Town House rental. I got a 12" Calphalon pan to go with my smaller pans, as well as nice piece of cast iron and a set of BBQ tongs. Still to be obtained: A cheese grater, paper towel stand, spice rack, and new knives.

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Whoa I always assumed lox involved smoking, but apparently that's specifically novalox. Definitely adding it to my to-do list. Any idea how long it keeps in the fridge?

 

I feel you on the beets. I made some beet-based veggie burgers recently and my kitchen was a purple disaster zone.

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Yeah, beets are terrible for that. I like to make my own borscht, which requires quite a few beets. Purple doom awaits all who enter the kitchen that day.

 

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That samon looks awesome, but i hate the stuff.

 

Some bits I've been making recently (and practicing my iphone food photography):

 

Corn and chorizo sausage

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Pea, bacon and creme frais orzo (never podding peas again)

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Braised chinese style pork belly salad with peas and cashews

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Whoa I always assumed lox involved smoking, but apparently that's specifically novalox. Definitely adding it to my to-do list. Any idea how long it keeps in the fridge?

 

I feel you on the beets. I made some beet-based veggie burgers recently and my kitchen was a purple disaster zone.

 

The video from that guy said a week, and I'd imagine that's fairly accurate. I'm willing to bet if you let it cure for more than 48 hours it'll keep slightly longer, because by the skin you could see the difference between how thoroughly it's cured. I may also have used too much weight. My filet was about a pound and a quarter, so in practice... it'll last until maybe tomorrow if I can manage to not eat it continuously. :D

 

 

Dibs, those are great pictures. I'd be interested in how you made the orzo and the pork belly.

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Home made pasta sauce tonight, I should have taken an after photo. It was head of garlic, shallots, 3lbs of tomatoes and spices. Combined with spicy sausage and pasta

It was pretty spicy in the end and bowl cleaning good

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I'm finally getting some more kitchen items for my new Town House rental. I got a 12" Calphalon pan to go with my smaller pans, as well as nice piece of cast iron and a set of BBQ tongs. Still to be obtained: A cheese grater, paper towel stand, spice rack, and new knives.

I love my cast iron skillet, we got a set of pans when got married but still prefer the cast when possible. Just gets hotter faster and more evenly. I also like the idea of the same pan for 100 years (did I mention it's got a giant ! On the back, woot.com branding), can't wait to explain that to grandkids

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Last night I decided to try making some weird tuna casserole type of thing.

I cooked some pasta, drained it, mixed it with a can of cream of broccoli soup, a can of peas, and a can of tuna. Mixed it all up, and put it in a casserole dish, topped it with breadcrumbs.

I put it in the oven, then I had to rush to the washroom... when I got out I forgot that I hadn't set a timer. I went to my computer and started doing stuff online, thinking the timer on my oven would go off sooner or later and tell me to take it out of the oven. Instead of the oven telling me, however, my fire alarm let me know it was done.

Cue ten minutes of opening windows, turning off the oven, turning on fans, and flapping a towel in front of the smoke detector. Eventually everything got calmed down, and I got to actually take a look at the dish.

The top, bottom and sides had been burnt to a crisp, but the center of it was actually still pretty good.

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My last couple attempts at broiling have met with the smoke detector going off. It's a pretty hair-raising experience, especially because it's wired together with the rest of the complex's fire alarms and I'm not 100% sure how it transitions from annoying me to evacuating the building. I think I finally figured out how to do a successful broil without setting it off though, and I'm going to buy a shower cap to put over my smoke alarm just in case.

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we dont have a fire detector near the kitchen fortunately (code check?), but our microwave will go into auto-fan mode if it gets too hot, so running the broiler and something on the stove is a 100% guarantee to set it off to full fan for ~20 minutes

 

i torched my first steak in the broiler, the propane gave out on the grill...

 

but now i just try to keep it down a rack-level from the direct flame & if its BBQ chicken or something with a sauce wait till the absolute end before pouring on

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Unfortunately, I read our lease too carefully, noticed that you aren't allowed grills of any sort on the balcony, complained to the person who showed us the place who verbally said we could, and she went back and confirmed that it's not allowed. So I'm the only sucker who can't have a grill out my sliding door because now that I asked I certainly can't break the rule.

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Unfortunately, I read our lease too carefully, noticed that you aren't allowed grills of any sort on the balcony, complained to the person who showed us the place who verbally said we could, and she went back and confirmed that it's not allowed. So I'm the only sucker who can't have a grill out my sliding door because now that I asked I certainly can't break the rule.

 

My old apartment was like that.  Technically you couldn't have a grill if you had a wood balcony (the ground floor apartments had concrete patios so they were allowed) but the management flat out told me that they didn't really care.  Unless the fire marshal called or stopped by for a random inspection, they weren't going to check.  I never did end up getting a grill while I was there but I plan to get one next year once my deck is finished.  Assuming I actually get it done by next year.

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Dibs, those are great pictures. I'd be interested in how you made the orzo and the pork belly.

 

 

Pasta was a riff on one my sis makes with courgette:

Put on pasta (I used orzo, anything is good. My sis uses fresh spaghetti from Lidl as it cooks in a few mins, and my niece loves it).

Put some bacon pieces on to fry. When they are done, add some peas and some chopped tomato (sis uses courgette strips, they look awesome!) to soften up just a little.

Take off the heat till the pasta is done.

When it is ready, drain and tip the pasta in with the bacon mix. Add a good big tablespoon of creme frais, some freshly grated Parmesan to taste, and lashings of freshly ground black pepper.

Mix well and Nomonom.

The creme frais is the really important part here, it is so tasty. Don't add salt to the dish without tasting, the bacon can be enough.

 

The pork is in a marinade that i use a lot (my freezer is full of chopped up pork in this sauce)

Trim the most outrageous fat from the pork belly and chop into small pieces.

Put in a bag (if freezing) or oven proof dish with dark soy, Chinese black vinegar, Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry), a little sugar, freshly ground black pepper, some garlic cloves just squashed a little with a knife, some roughly chopped ginger, some star anise, chilli sauce (honestly, no idea of the proportions - the vinegar is probably the biggest constituent, it isn't like western vinegar, much more fragrant). You want the meat covered, so add a little water if needed.

Leave to marinade for as long as you have.

Put in oven preheated to 180C (360F) for around a hour - you want the belly to be tender. If you used large pieces then the cooking will take longer, but cutting belly small enough allows it to tenderise fairly quickly.

Check half way to make sure nothing is burning, turn down if required.

Toast some cashews in the oven for the last 10 minutes if making the salad above.

Just a warning, using pork belly in this makes the sauce very very unctious, you better like the sensation! Very easily replaced by using a whole pork fillet sitting in the mairenade for around 45 - 60 mins in the oven instead. Just trim the fat off before you start. When done, slice thinly and pour over some of the sauce to moisten it up. much healthier than belly.

 

I also use this as a beef, chicken or pork fillet marinade. For pork dishes I really turn up the Chinese black vinegar, as i think the flavor goes well with the pork. I use this to make fried rice, or served on top of a vegetable stirfry (pic below on a day i managed to get holy basil, nomnomnom. Note cornflour in background to thicken up sauce - be careful as ever ounce of salty soy in the dish ends up on your meat and it can be overpowering), or some broccoli and bak choi that i have steamed in chinese cooking wine and garlic, or chopped up and put into rice paper rolls with noodles, lettuce, nuts, mint, corriander and onion (and peanut sauce on the side) (pic below with sweet chilli sauce, peanut is better). This is the one i keep in the freezer mostly, it is very versatile. For chicken, i will stirfry with a ton of shredded ginger, peppers and beansprouts. For beef, it normally ends up minced or chopped finely and served in lettuce cups.

Nigella uses a similar sauce in a beef shin stew, i tried it once and nearly died. The melted marrow in the sauce was too much for me to handle!

 

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First session cooking with my new cast iron pan resulted in a decent amount of smoke, but no fire alarms and only minor burns. I did get the pan too hot and burned the crap out of the outside of my steak. It's a good thing I started with the cheap stuff.

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i torched mine the first time too, way too much heat.  ended up having to re-season it because it had an uneven finish & char marks where the food was stuck

 

 

i got a digital thermometer to keep an eye on the weird hot spots caused by electric stoves, but since ive moved to a kitchen with gas and become more liberal with the oil.  actually made a stirfry last night on the cast wok, cleans like a dream

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So, I fond a pasta maker in my press, and decided to make a meal i have been planning on making a long time:

Ricotta and egg ravioli with brown butter.

 

Alongside, i made some roast asparagus with panchetta, spinach salad and some prosciutto.

It all worked really really well. Not too much work even. Two things, i used too much ricotta and i left too much pasta on the edges of the ravoili. Other than that I wouldn't change a thing! Lucky I had help for the rolling of the pasta too, there was a lot of it:)

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All together with accidental porno mist

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Bonus, the screw came off the pasta maker, so i get to keep it on the counter forever.

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I have never seen egg in a ravioli before. Does it basically turn into a hard boiled egg in the pasta, or does it more absorb into the shell?

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No, you keep the yoke whole. You cook for around 2.5 - 3 mins so it warms up but stays lovely and runny. 2nd last photo you can see it on the plate.

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Gorgeous!

 

I've only made homemade ravioli once, and I botched the prep. They turned out fine, but rather than laying out whole sheets, adding filling, and covering, I cut out individuals and tried to paste them together. It was awful I was the worst.

 

I'm pretty sure you can reattach the screw to remove the clamp. I have basically that pasta maker.

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I've been experimenting with BBQ lately, I have never really made any before. This pork shoulder sat in my oven for about 12 hours at 225 degrees. 

 

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Great thread, you guys are going to make me step up my cooking game!

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Huh, I've never considered trying to do BBQ in an oven before. I suppose there's not much of a reason it wouldn't work... I may have to try that out sometime!

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A friend of mine makes some pretty solid ribs solely in the oven (marinates them in BBQ sauce and then just lets them cook at low heat for a long ass time).  I smoke my ribs for 4-6 hours, but then I finish them in the oven to speed up the process.

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