The Food and Drink Thread

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Made a nice Hungarian chicken in cream sauce for late lunch today. Very simple, just chicken, onions, garlic, a little chili powder and a great whack of nice paprika, plus cream. A little thickening and voila. Served it over orzo.
 
So... post-mortem: the only people who tried the spaghetti were people who already knew they loved my spaghetti. It was, however, my single best attempt to date.

The spinach was spectacular and now I'm going to be working to recreate the success of my failures until I can reproduce them reliably. Everyone who tried it, loved it-- except Irene, who loved small bites but discovered the big bites had onion in them-- and I'm counting it as a win.

Next event, probably the first Sunday in November, will be Italian Star Wars knock-offs with maple balsamic pork chops and my maple candied bacon walnut mashed yams. The ones where I had to lock my landlady... and my roommates... and the neighbors... out of my goddamned kitchen to keep them from stealing my bacon crack.
 
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The spinach was spectacular and now I'm going to be working to recreate the success of my failures until I can reproduce them reliably. Everyone who tried it, loved it-- except Irene, who loved small bites but discovered the big bites had onion in them-- and I'm counting it as a win.
We have a different approach to happy accidents in the kitchen. I prefer to brood mournfully over my plate, knowing I can never make this dish again because no future attempt will even come close.

That said, I made some scintillating burgers and fries yesterday.
 
We have a different approach to happy accidents in the kitchen. I prefer to brood mournfully over my plate, knowing I can never make this dish again because no future attempt will even come close.

That said, I made some scintillating burgers and fries yesterday.
Do you wear black turtle necks and a natty beret while you brood? That's the standard dress code. Perhaps with a pensive frown and a slight air of ennui. Proper brooding is essential....
 
Do you wear black turtle necks and a natty beret while you brood? That's the standard dress code. Perhaps with a pensive frown and a slight air of ennui. Proper brooding is essential....
Of course. I also sigh frequently, smoke a clove cigarette and toy with a glass of wine while I quote the famous philosophers out loud to justify my languor. C'est la vie.
 
IMG_20211013_102631650(1).jpg
Everything in the case was made today.
Of special note is the Bacon Jalapeno Chocolate Bars on the bottom right, and the Creme Brule Bismarcks to their immediate left.
 
Just raped a Murgh Palak. Went the whole nine yards — half the ingredients missing, the other half substituted. Olive oil for ghee, tandoori masala for garam masala, Thai curry powder for sambal ulek. Now I'm wondering whether Pakistani delivery systems can throw a warhead to Western Europe. It's worth the destruction, though; I needed a break from the baby gloop and substrate for ketchup and Nutella my children call food.
 
Ghee is super easy to make, just melt butter and...

edit: I thought it was a funny joke, as it's pretty easy to make. :grin: But ok, for others out there.

... and strain out any milk solids that float to the top. There's sieve ladles that help this. I recommend lower heat to give you more control. Big difference between ghee and clarified butter (both just boil away the water and skim out any milk solids that may foam or burn at the surface) is clarified butter is clearer (lower heat, cleaner skim, earlier decanting), whereas ghee gets lovely complex almost nutty flavor from the pan-settled milk solids toasting during heating (once the water's gone it is considered cooking dry). And that's it! Lasts a long time, very stable stuff, can store at room temperature.

Also garam masala is just the trio (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg), the duo (cumin, coriander), the king & queen of spice( black pepper & cardamom), the newcomer (chili), the award (laurel), and the parable (mustard). You can have a lot of variations too, but the trio, duo, king, and newcomer are often core. :smile: I imagine Silent Green already knows, but I think it is worth deconstructing since a majority of those spices are rather common household names now. You can reconstruct a passable garam masala from pumpkin spice mix if needed.
 
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Dunno. What's their position on Nutella and ketchup?

And I know next to nothing about cooking. I think I remembered that making ghee involves slow heating and straining, but hot butter and me is anathema ever since I invented Vantablack in the process of making an almond butter sauce.
 
Well in that case buying ghee sounds much safer, especially with kids running around. :grin: Milk solids are what burnt, by the way. Most of those solids are strained out in ghee & clarified butter. In fact, clarified butter is a huge tool in modern restaurants to avoid burnt butter-based sauces, as I've been told by my chef friends. You get the base of the sauce done without needing the finesse, add some butter at the end, voilà, sauce done and any employee can make it! :shade:

Here's a neat secret: the trio (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg) helps make that ketchup flavor. With tomato, vinegar, and some sugar you got core ketchup.

That means if you want to broaden your children's palate you can build on that core. e.g. hearty Tunisian Ramadan Lentils, trio plus tomato paste, vinegar, carrots, lentils, maybe some cumin if the kids can handle it.

Or you can squeeze a shot of ketchup in a mature tomato-based sauce dish to cheat in making it faster. e.g. Zesty Italian Tomato Chuck stew, chunks of beef chuck, water to deglaze fried chuck then to slow & low braise, can of stewed tomatoes, cubes of onion, carrot, celery, ketchup squirt, bay leaf, oregano, (optional: rosemary or basil or marjoram), lid on for an hour plus.

Before it turns Vantablack you know it's done! :hehe:
 
Don't come at my Vantablack, bro; it gives me great peace of mind that I can get that part right.
And thanks for the tips, I'll try them out whenever I'm ready for that Midwich stare again.
 
This month's plans-- pork chops and yams-- are unchanged.

Next month, the only goddamned thing I'm serving is fruitcake. Gonna learn me the steps, between now and then, and then on the night of: gonna have one regular fruitcake for pansies, one maple bourbon fruitcake, one tropical mojito fruitcake, and on the advice of counsel... a pistachio fig rosewater fruitcake.

Anyone who wants square nutrition can bring their own.
 
This month's plans-- pork chops and yams-- are unchanged.

Next month, the only goddamned thing I'm serving is fruitcake. Gonna learn me the steps, between now and then, and then on the night of: gonna have one regular fruitcake for pansies, one maple bourbon fruitcake, one tropical mojito fruitcake, and on the advice of counsel... a pistachio fig rosewater fruitcake.

Anyone who wants square nutrition can bring their own.
Presumably you can cut rectilinear slices from the cake, though.
 
So today I made quick stir fry - chicken, peppers and mushrooms, and a pear. Seasoned with lime juice, garlic, soy sauce, chilli and kiwifruit sauce augmented with a couple of bird's eye chillies and a bit of salt. The pear mushed out into the jus, which I boiled down a bit and thickened with some cornflour. Not bad for a slap up meal taking about 20 mins. I've got enough left for another day or two.
 
Really? I've never seen fruitcake in anything other than rectangular slices. Do they come in other shapes? Eldritch, non-euclidian shapes with blasphemous curves and unclean angles?
It's not proper cake if it has raisins in it.
Bread loaf pans, a little narrower on bottom with muffin tops.
 
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