Topic: What's Cookin'? (Read 95155 times)

Shinra · « **Reply #680 on:** August 18, 2010, 06:30:29 PM »

Dinner tonight is stir-fried pork with Broccoli and red bell pepper, served on a bed of Basmati. Mmm.

R^2 · « **Reply #681 on:** August 18, 2010, 07:09:30 PM »

Plated desserts final is next week. :/

Shinra · « **Reply #682 on:** August 19, 2010, 09:48:34 PM »

I bought a slab of pork belly the other day at the local chinese supermarket. I've done pork belly before in bacon form - I wanted to try it in a more chinese preparation - roast with crackling skin. It looks easy enough, so I gave it a shot. I prepped the pork belly with a semi-wet rub and scoring of the skin, and went to start the oven only to have it refuse to light - so I gave up and tried the electric roaster, since I didn't feel like putting this off until I could get the oven to work. The roaster works for turkey, so it will work with pork belly, right?

Wrong. The skin just got gelatinous. The meat cooked well, but the fat just turned to glue. I tried to crisp the skin by frying it in a cast iron pan and weighing it down - this worked, but only the top layer of skin. The bottom layer was still gelatinous and it did nothing to de-glue the fat.

The tastes are all right, but the texture is all wrong. I ate a few pieces and so did everyone else in the house, but the consensus is that this is really, really bad. I'm going to have to pitch the whole kilo of meat, which is... unfortunate. All in all, this was a tremendous Food Failure.

This has the potential to be awesome, but moral of the story - electric roasters aren't good for anything but fucking poultry.

R^2 · « **Reply #683 on:** August 20, 2010, 07:07:47 AM »

And occasionally roasting it, I assume.

Mongrel · « **Reply #684 on:** August 20, 2010, 08:02:04 AM »

Make the remnant into a stew or soup? Some medium where the glue-fat can be diffused and combine with other fluid/viscous ingredients?

Just a thought.

Shinra · « **Reply #685 on:** August 20, 2010, 09:38:34 AM »

Yesterday was trash day so I just pitched it. I know it's a waste, but I was too disgusted with it and myself to bother doing anything else with it. Eventually, I'll buy another slab of pork belly and try it again with the oven.

Ted Belmont · « **Reply #686 on:** August 22, 2010, 03:47:49 PM »

I've decided to pick up one new vegetable a week, and see what I can make with it, both to challenge myself, and to expand my food horizons. Sort of an Iron Chef Ted's Apartment. This week: ASPARAGUS.

TA · « **Reply #687 on:** August 22, 2010, 03:52:37 PM »

Do this with it. It's great.

Brentai · « **Reply #688 on:** August 22, 2010, 04:28:09 PM »

Don't smoke it too much.
Flavoring it with $1000 worth of lobster is pretty stupid too.

Shinra · « **Reply #689 on:** August 22, 2010, 05:08:42 PM »

Quote from: TA on August 22, 2010, 03:52:37 PM

Do this with it. It's great.

i always cook my asparagus this way. Pan-fried asparagus is fucking incredible.

Shinra · « **Reply #690 on:** August 24, 2010, 02:43:26 AM »

I cooked Lentil Soup tonight. The wife and I went out to the kitchen to steam some broccoli for a late night snack, and I had so much fun cutting up the Broccoli that I got out some celery and carrots and onion and threw together a mirepoix. Saute'd it in about half a pound? of bacon (not really sure, it was frozen out-of-package) fat. 1 1/2 tbsp coriander, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp MSG, 1 tbsp Salt, 5 well-crushed cardamom seeds, a dash of Cinnamon, two one-pound cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cups of red lentils and two boxes of this weird shit we bought at big lots for basically nothing. Initially, this tasted like shit. I let it boil for about 20 minutes to soften the lentils and then simmered for another 30-40. The end result was amazing, but the way red lentils break down in the cooking, clumping became an issue. I blended about 30% of the total mass and it's now quite smooth.

R^2 · « **Reply #691 on:** August 28, 2010, 12:34:09 PM »

So my pastry final was this week. In a team of three, we had to come up with three servings of two desserts. The other two people on my team wanted to do some monstrous chocolate mousse concoction, so I moved our other dessert be a simple cake or tart.

When the time to produce rolled around, I found myself shunned by my teammates for God-only-knows-why. To the point of my asking "What can I do to help you" answered by the two of them walking away.

So in the end, they made a chocolate mousse with passionfruit mousse inside, on a crumb crust inexplicably dyed green, topped with coating chocolate and whipped cream.
And I had an angel food cake topped with espresso glaze and served with Kahluha whipped cream, garnished with roasted hazelnuts, roasted almond slivers, and berries.

That their dessert turned out looking and tasting terrible would appeal to my schadenfreude more if it didn't affect my grade too. :/

R^2 · « **Reply #692 on:** August 30, 2010, 01:44:00 PM »

François · « **Reply #693 on:** August 30, 2010, 02:42:55 PM »

Iesus Cristo that looks delicious.

R^2 · « **Reply #694 on:** August 30, 2010, 03:54:22 PM »

It was.

Classic · « **Reply #695 on:** August 30, 2010, 04:40:48 PM »

Do you have only two blackberries for garnish, or just one?

R^2 · « **Reply #696 on:** August 30, 2010, 05:09:44 PM »

Two per plate.

Shinra · « **Reply #697 on:** August 30, 2010, 05:38:48 PM »

Jesus, R^2, that looks amazing. :( I want to go to culinary school so bad, but no money.

Hats off to you for showing you were the only competent person on your team. Shame their huge pile of shit hurt your grade. Could you try to appeal to your instructor, and point out they didn't help you, and refused to let you help them?

Büge · « **Reply #698 on:** August 30, 2010, 05:39:16 PM »

Ooooh, you did the thing with the strawberries and everything. I can never get them to fan right.

Brentai · « **Reply #699 on:** August 30, 2010, 06:01:34 PM »

It looks like something you put on somebody's head when they win at the Olympics.

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Author Topic: What's Cookin'? (Read 95155 times)