What's cooking? part 4

It's comparable with Hello Fresh, I think, who we get boxes from occasionally. Premium ingredients, exact amounts, very well packaged and delivered to the door at a convenient time, recipes slightly outside my comfort zone (about one in four of which get added to my repertoire). I wouldn't do it every week but it's an easy way to get out of a rut.

I would probably value it less if I didn't spend close to 12 hours a week commuting between home, work and childcare.

yeah i tried the purple carrot for a few weeks this winter because i thought it might actually make my grocery bill cheaper (less waste) and help with time management (medical resident) but the two recipes i tried were pretty weak (the chili was esp heinous) and i just couldn't countenance the cost. it was something like $11/serving

but would agree with madchen --- these services seem most likely to appeal/actually be useful to ppl who a) already willing to pay for premium ingredients b) like trying new stuff and c) are time-limited enough that the increased cost can be reasonably weighed against the time/cost of shopping and meal-planning

we did like 3 blue apron boxes last year just to try it and it was ok, there was always one recipe in the box we weren't that psyched about and it got boring from a technique perspective since everything was designed to be cooked pretty quickly on a range.

this is kind of an aside, but was wondering if some cheaper/subsidized version of this would be helpful for some of my patients --- lots of people i work with could improve their diet, and "better diet" is often prescribed by other well-meaning physicians, but just a little probing reveals that an astounding number of ppl simply have no idea ~how~ to cook using even the relatively simple techniques these boxed recipes require

i know some of the case managers i work with will help clients acquire ingredients and such, but i realllly don't think there's much investigation into how ppl actual prep or what they actually eat

also as an aside: some of my pts are old farts at the VA and when i ask about cooking/eating it's like 50/50 "the wife does it" and "i ran the mess tent/galley in the service of course i know how to cook sheesh"

it's a great point--you can absolutely learn to cook using whole foods from these services and that's prob of less value to the bourgie urban ppl they tend to market to.

cool imma drum up a business plan brb

if i could make a living helping people in need learn how to cook, i think my life would improve elevenfold

same!

my school has a culinary program and a social work program…getting ideas

xp - Yes, same here. We have a friend who wants one of her kids to learn how to cook and I tried to imagine how much of a drill sergeant I would be. It would be fun...potentially.

i think it's a really underrated idea, especially within a VA context

i also think about retirement communities, where a spouse has maybe lost the person who did the cooking and/or never had to

my dad's current interest in cooking (sous vide! fancy knives!) is due entirely to my parents' divorce a few years ago (he's just recently in his 70s)

thats awesome

i like the idea of teaching guys (usually guys) at the VA how to cook!

i think it would be pretty dope

Make sure you hire a person who knows how to teach (aka an out of work teacher) :)

Gbx, I *love* your cheaper/subsidised idea. Have some friends with depression/bipolar who are hopeless cooks and could really benefit from something like this (if not only as a means to learn to cook but to improve their terrible diets) . Same goes for busy parents too - I don't think the idea is bad at all, just the pricing seems pretty exploitative and unsustainable.

Just discovered 'nduja omg wow

such a popular ingredient. but it is awesome. i always feel like gochujang and nduja taste kinda similar, but i'm not a chef so i can't use that hipster ingredient crossover.

this lil number is abt 5 minutes away from being done and i'm VERY excited bcz i roasted the red peps myself!!

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014184-pasta-with-roasted-red-peppers-and-goat-cheese

I steamed a whole fish stuffed with scallions and ginger, then poured a soy sauce/sesame/garlic sauce over it, then spooned hot oil with more herbs etc. It's pretty great even though I accidentally picked up the bottle of Thai fish sauce in place of the soy sauce the recipe called for.

...

Which fish? Was it good?

I think it was porgie/bream? The market I bought it at is a Chinese one, so no signs were in English. I mangled the first one trying to open up the body to stuff scallions in, but the second one, I just used the cavity left by the organs and didn't try to filet the rest. Cut slits in the flesh of the sides in order to stick slivers of ginger in them. I think it came out better (also I didn't accidentally douse it in fish sauce). My upstairs neighbor loved it! She's Chinese and always misses home cooking so I might try to bring her things from the market I pass every day.

Recipe at http://steamykitchen.com/132-chinese-steamed-fish.html

question -- in the past, i have always determined if my tofu went bad by smelling it. this time it smelled fine and i cooked it, then i went to eat it a few days later and it's kinda...tangy? how do i know if my cooked tofu is bad?

i don't feel like sifting through google results trying to determine which ones are full of crap -- figured i'd go straight to asking trusted food preparers

http://luckypeach.com/three-dishes-cacio-e-pepe/

ll unless it is v foul tasting i wouldn't worry

i feel like in the past month i have been hearing about cacio e pepe all the time from various people/places

btw i pan-fried some shishito papers and they were so delicious. evoo with some salt and a little lemon. they are one of my favorite things

i feel like in the past month i have been hearing about cacio e pepe all the time from various people/places

― marcos, Monday, March 21, 2016 11:49 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same! i think seriouseats had a few articles on it recently

have any of you guys ever prepared shad roe by chance?

update, i prepared shad roe, ama

i did this thing with avocado seeds where you slow roast them and grind them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxrk-xWdoqY
supposedly they're full of antioxidants and whatnot. taste: kinda akin to a toasted artichoke (?). i ground up abt 10 seeds - am making falafel tonight so tossed some of into the mix. may endup using the rest in smoothies

One of the ways I make boneless skinless chicken taste like anything is throwing a bunch of breasts and thighs in the crock pot with onions, garlic, mushroom soup and a big branch of fresh rosemary from the bush out back, but it produces unattractive drawn-up little knots of protein. Today I prettied it all up by turning that into chicken pot pie.

xp - that's cool, I always thought avocado pits were poisonous or something

i have recently made two completely bomb-ass soups, largely according to the pressure-cooker blueprint laid out in the modernist cuisine at home

basically: cut up a veg, cook it in a pressure cooker with a lot of butter, blitz it with an immersion blender, pass it through a sieve, and then mix in water/stock/juice/whatever until it's a consistency you like

they seem to recommend that the liquid be some kind of extract or w/e that deepens the experience of That One Vegetable but i've made it with better than bouillon chicken stock both times (carrot, mushroom) and it was totally fine. maybe a little two heavy on the butter (recipe calls for a stick for each 500g of vegetable).

i's pretty much the same as a thomas keller recipe/technique i read about once: take a perfect, in-season vegetable, cook it sous vide (can't remember if it's with butter or without), blitz, strain, add liquid for consistency and add'l flavor

i'm thinking about joining a CSA, and this might make excess vegetables a little more easy to manage

i'm interested, what are the rough pressure cooking times for the vegetables you've used so far?

25mins -- after posting that I made an additional batch of asparagus to bring to a dinner party, which i varied by steeping the stock with lapsang souchong so it was a little smokey

general reaction from other ppl has been "omg this is good ass soup"

it doesn't seem to matter what veg you use, the recipe always calls for about 25mins. you also mix in a little water/salt/baking soda mixture which is maybe to break down cell walls more easily? the cookbook, after laying out the basics of the carrot recipe (which calls for carrot juice and not stock), just gives variations by suggesting a veg/liquid pairing

recipe (off the top of my head) --

500g carrots (after prep)
113g (stick) butter
30g water
5g salt
2.5g baking soda (I used baking powder cause I had it, which you multiply by 4)
~600g stock/juice/whatever

1 peel and cut carrots into about 2in pieces. remove the core for a sweeter taste (i did not do this)
2 mix water/salt/baking soda
3 melt butter in pressure cooker
4 mix in water/salt/soda
5 mix in carrots thoroughly
6 cook in pressure cooker for 25min at full presh
7 when done, blitz into a coarse puree with immersion blender
8 press puree through chinois/sieve (it doesn't look like it'll work, but use the back of a ladle and you'll be surprised at the yield)
9 add liquid (how much you add is really up to you, but I used all of it and didn't find the result too watery)
10 blend a bit more, adding a bit more butter for the emulsion (i did not do this, it didn't seem to need it)
11 garnish with whatever you like

yield is just enough to fill a standard plastic quart takeout container

peeling and chopping carrots was a major rate-limiting step in the first batch. asparagus was much faster at that point, but needed more work/time to get through the sieve. mushroom might have been the easiest since you can just kinda tear them up---I used a mixture of shiitake, cremini, and oyster (strongly favoring cremini due to cost)

this is basically going to be my go-to soup recipe from now on, i think. it's simple enough that i already have it memorized, the result is fantastic, and playing with veg/liquid combinations gives plenty of room for creativity

6

dunno about that 6

also obv there is a LOT of butter in there but the final result just feels rich and silky, not like "ew buttery"

thanks! i am a newish pressure cooker owner so def looking for things to do with it. i love the idea of this as a template.

i'll be curious to know how it turns out!

Got some crawfish yesterday. Disassembled them today and made a quick stock out of the heads...final product, crawfish and grits, is one of the best things I've made in a couple of years.

What does baking soda do in that recipe?

Some friends got one of the varieties of Instant Pot recently and I am really envious.

I have shrimp shells and two lobster tails in the freezer waiting for me to be inspired to do something w them.

My fish counter has wild stuff like conch and geoducks and eels and here I am on the boring end of the bivalve spectrum wondering if I know what to do with some nice razor clams?

xp i think baking soda helps things caramelize... but i'm not sure if thats still the case in a pressure cooker?

straight from the source:

Pressure cookers are particularly suited for promoting the Maillard reaction because elevated temperatures encourage foods to develop their characteristic flavors far more quickly than conventional cooking methods (such as roasting) do, thereby transforming a long process into a short 20-minute cook time. Adding 0.5% baking soda when pressure-cooking further speeds flavor reactions by producing an alkaline pH of about 7.5.