What's cooking? part 4

pies rule

My mom's apricot nectar cake is what rules.

whoa that sounds delicious

Basically a sour cream pound cake with some apricot nectar in the cake batter, + some more soaked into the cooling cake, + a simple glaze of more apricot nectar + powdered sugar + a little lemon juice for tartness.

O_O

want!!!

Modify with the Jumex nectar of your choice – mango or peach would be good. Actually now that I have a line on really good sour cherry nectar, I might make one of those.
http://www.sayadmarket.com/product_images/f/459/Tamek_Sour_Cherry_Nectar_Juice_11_5oz__48366_zoom.jpg

anyone played with ~aquafaba~? i tried a chocolate mousse but i fucked it somehow and the chocolate seized. tasted alright though. i want to eventually be able to make vegan macarons, but would be happy achieving a nice meringue or mousse.

i would like to know what type of pot stevie decided to get and i hope he got stainless because it is the best

cosign

i second the "i use cast iron for everything" when i don't want something to stick (eg when cooking a protein), and a strong acid isn't being used. my fave cooking utensil is my le creuset cocotte (cast iron with enamel inside coating) - you can braise or fry, it has tight fitting lid and can go from oven to tabletop, it's pretty non-stick by nature. . . stainless is terrific, too - i kinda need all three

God I hate stainless so much, which obviously means I don't know what I'm doing because you cooks seem to love it. Give me cast iron for everything that needs to get brown, though.

stellar pots otm

For stainless steel imo there's a big difference between cheap and pricier stuff. I bought an entry-level set, but bought an all-clad frying pan and don't regret the extra expense. The cheaper stuff is great for boiling but not so good for sauteeing or searing.

With cast iron, you don't have to pay much to get great results, and you can do a lot of stuff you can't do with stainless.

well, there is but i think the most important thing is it has to be 3-ply. last year i got an all-clad saute pan and it's the best thing that ever happened to me. however, for several years i was using a kitchen aid pan i got for like $20-30 at target. it was also great but had no lid. i think the major difference and part of why it was so cheap was only the bottom was thick. you can see the seam between the bottom and the upper part of the pan.

well, there is but i think the most important thing is it has to be 3-ply.

^^^ yessssss

I kind of hate to admit to buying stuff from HSN, but I was channel surfing one day right after we first got Directv and Wolfgang Puck was flogging his first (I think) signature cookware collection. My wife says "ehhh, you're impossible to shop for – buy that and that's my birthday present to you this year." Anyway, that was some top quality shit and it serves me well to this day, the end.

agree w/all, for saucepans and stockpots i am a big believer in restaurant supply brands but would drop $$$ on a skillet/sautee pan.

yup my only stockpot is like target's cheapest piece of shit and it's fine. i want a much bigger one though. i made a big batch of mashed sweet potatoes yesterday for freezing and i could only fit 6 in my pot. i need to fit about 9 to make use of all of costco's $10 sack of sweet potatoes.

3-ply is u&k

Best deal I ever got on anything in my life is my 8qt all-clad stockpot. Someone had broken up a set and there was some slight model change happening so I got it for $44. I was returning a wedding gift so I traded a crystal punch bowl or something equally useless for that and $10.

A disk bottom one would be fine for most stuff I use it for but man is it nice.

Ya I would never not buy 3-ply if buying stainless. Aggghh, I came in here looking for reassurance to buy hard anodized but everyone loves stainless but I still don't understand why stainless is better than hard anodized!!

I have one anodized piece, and it's an odd slope sided pan so I don't use it that often. It seems to do all the things that stainless does but all things being equal I would much rather have the bright shiny surface as it makes browning of pan juices much easier to see.

Nonstick and cast iron are similarly dark but have other advantages that make up for this.

Sorry Stevie, but I'm on Team Stainless. I've used nice anodized stuff when housesitting, and I just didn't bond with it like I did with my All-Clad. All-Clad protip: you can get factory seconds online; basically all of my pieces are seconds and I'll be damned if they aren't excellent. Maybe a scratch on the outside but whatever, I bang mine up anyway.

Tramontina makes a line of good nonstick with an off-white cooking surface. xp

I got a Oxo stainless set with a BB&B gift card because the handles were super comfortable and everything I've bought from Oxo has been pretty good. Made the mistake of making scrambled eggs in the saucepan day two and wasn't gentle enough with the heat I guess. Scrambled eggs freaking weld themselves to stainless.

i don't have the patience to learn to cook eggs in stainless & can't control heat well enough on my stupid electric stovetop. i believe that it is possible.

i grew up w/ an electric range, we had those coil things for a while, then my parents bought one of those flat glass/ceramic electric ranges and they've had that since. i hate the fucking thing, also you can't use cast iron on it because it can scratch or crack the ceramic surface. but growing up, my dad taught me how to cook fried eggs "peruvian style" which is basically heating a shitload of olive oil super hot (almost to smoking) in a skillet, crack the eggs in, and spoon all that excess oil over the top of the egg, and the eggs cook very very fast, and they come out super crispy on the edges, white is perfectly cooked, yolk is drippy and perfect for bread dipping, somehow the hot oil spooned over puts this very thin membrane of cooked egg white over the yolk like you might achieve doing over-easy, the whole technique is like flash-frying your eggs in hot olive oil. it's my favorite way to cook eggs, and a stainless steel skillet on my parents' electric ceramic range is honestly the very best way i've ever been able to achieve the ideal peruvian eggs. i have gas in my home now and i would never, ever, choose to have electric but i have tried and tried to cook eggs this way in my cast iron skillet on my gas range and it never comes out the way it does at my folks house in a stainless steel skillet on their glass smoothtop electric. that said i would never try scrambled eggs in a stainless steel skillet.

like something about the extremely high heat you can get from an electric range in such a short period of time combined with the heat conduction of stainless lets me flash fry these eggs in a way that i cannot achieve w/ cast iron on my gas stove at home. i heat this stainless skillet for like just a few minutes and it is hot as fuck. the eggs bubble up and the edges crisp immediately and oil is splattering every and it is a little scary tbh because i always get a little burned from the oil flying everywhere but it is so good. my dad always has good crusty bread around plus some alphonso olives and some feta cheese and that is always breakfast at my folks' house

also i really don't know if there is anything particularly "peruvian" about this style tbh, this could just be the way my dad had eggs growing up in his house in peru and because of that he passed them on to us as "fried eggs peruvian style"

the flat glass cooktop came with my house and i HATE it. i have a gas line i just need like $10,000 more to redo the kitchen.

I grew up with coil electric and had it in every apartment, now renting a house with gas. Started using a portable induction burner instead of the coil electric at my last two places - it kind of turned the kitchen into a hot plate situation (I pulled the coils on one side and set the burner there - theoretically I could still use the other side) but it's a really good hot plate and I can generally get away with using one pan plus the oven.

Gas is nice but given the climate in Texas if I ever buy I'm going to put in real induction. All the controllability of gas without the wasted heat running up AC bills.

I've had gas everywhere I've lived for the last 25 years. Switching back to electric would be a bummer in the short term.

Electric is great for ovens but I cant stand it for stovetop - too hard to control the heat quickly!

I had a glass top stove for a year at the last rental I lived in and was so awful that the electric coil stove at the first house we bought was good enough for seven years. Current place came with a super nice gas stove that I would probably never have bought myself but am extremely happy to have. I still sort of wish I had one electric burner though because even the smallest gas one is too hot sometimes for low simmering.

When I see a recent kitchen remodel with a glass stove I just think "those people don't care about cooking".

Marcos I saw the Spanish chef Jose Andres cook eggs like that on a cooking show once - super hot pan, crispy whites with barely cooked yolks, in like a small metal pan. I think he threw a smashed whole garlic clove in the oil too. I've done it a couple times and it's super good with bread and Spanish chorizo

My parents have always had an electric hob - first halogen and now induction - and I hate it. Even the induction one I find hard to control and the range of pans you can use with it is quite limited. Gas 4 evah!

Spooning over the hot oil is how I fry my eggs too, though not on the highest heat because the spitting terrifies me.

xp oh cool! smashed garlic sounds like a great addition, so does chorizo too

I actually tracked this down last night cause I was curious and made it for breakfast this morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdeszbyfAdE

Yolks were totally runny but seemed to work out and I don't have salmonella yet.

finally getting around to making tempeh chili w/red beans and a 3-ingredient chili powder(toasted anchos,cumin seeds, smoked paprika) i made for sake of convenience. and dammit, i am out of habaneros for the first time all year. i do have some ghost chile flakes that'll have to suffice for heat

this is my absolute favorite way of making smokey tempeh: http://www.yourveganmom.com/your_vegan_mom/2008/08/the-b.html

perfect served on grainy bread with slow roasted cherry tomatoes, avocado, mayo and romaine.

that all looks and sounds yummy. wonder if smoked paprika wld work subbed for liquid smoke.

i made these awesome energy nuggets yesterday: http://www.thehealthymaven.com/2014/05/chocolate-matcha-energy-balls-energy-ball-round.html

I made tempeh "meat"balls with spaghetti and marinara sauce the other day, from an isa chandra moskowitz recipe, and it was just the greatest thing ive cooked in months

salted a bone-in NY strip and let it sit in the fridge overnight
pre-seared with a blowtorch
oven @ 250F for ~20 minutes (until internal temp was 105F)
cast iron pan screaming hot for 45-60 seconds on each side (internal temp 125F)
<3 - the overnight cure makes it taste pretty damn close to expensive dry-aged beef

whoa

xps not sure but worth a try. i LOVE liquid smoke, only need a drop for an entire recipe and it just gives that lift .

i asked about aquafaba upthread but i feel like that might be something you'd be into experimenting with, outdoor-miner (and also jaq!). i still haven't tried it again, maybe after xmas.

i've got four ilxors to bake xmas cookies for, so i best get on that.

yeah, i read a bit about aquafaba when you posted. def will work that into something someday, thx 4 reminding! i'm sure yer right abt liquid smoke. for some reason the concept of smoke in a bottle has eluded me. may have something to do with a scary gallon-sized jug we useda keep at work that i never saw anybody go near (except me to take a whiff)

Happy holidays ilx! I have an exciting meal I'm trying out. It's a lamb pithivier. I'm cooking a confit of lamb shoulder right now and I've folded the puff pastry once. I have 6 more times to fold the dough. I stole the idea from this http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lamb_shoulder_pastilla_74296 but instead of making pastille I'm making a pithivier.

Family coming over soon. Tradition dictates simplicity and reliability, therefore we're serving: baked ham, homemade cranberry & orange sauce, bakery bread & butter, braised Brussels sprouts, a shredded broccoli salad with sliced almonds & dried cranberries, blueberry cheesecake, Russian tea cake cookies, coffee, eggnog & whiskey.

made this for breakfast, omg delicious

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-ham-and-cheese-breakfas-43364

I made Swedish pancakes for breakfast, and lunch was spinach salad with pears sauteed in sherry/butter, spiced toasted pecans, pancetta, and three fried sage leaves on top of each one (dressing was dijon mustard/apple cider vin/s/p/oo). Ate hummus/cheese on crackers on the side, drank delicious beers. Just me & mr <3
later we will go to our friends' house where they will serve us delicious food that i didn't have to make!

I took the old reliable Apricot Nectar Cake recipe, a southern warhorse, and tried a pomegranate variation — turned out great. The violet juice made the cake turn out a dingy yellowish-brown color, but the flavor was A+.