Exilian

Off-topic and Chatter: The Jolly Boar Inn => General Chatter - The Boozer => Food Discussion - The Jolly Boar Kitchen => Topic started by: Lady Grey on October 31, 2014, 12:12:47 PM

Title: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on October 31, 2014, 12:12:47 PM: So, I'm making pumpkin soup in a bit...
Picture tutorial anyone...? :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: comrade_general on October 31, 2014, 12:14:27 PM: Yes. And Exilian muffins.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on October 31, 2014, 12:15:59 PM: I KNEW I should've done that with pictures and not a video! :P

I promise it's coming soon. (*hopes everyone will not be totally underwhelmed*) :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Glaurung on October 31, 2014, 01:01:32 PM: Quote from: Armadillo on October 31, 2014, 05:54:08 AM
b. wish I could cook.
This comes with practice, I found. A good way to start might be to help out with whoever does the cooking for you now, if you can - that way you get familiar with some of the techniques and equipment while there's someone around to ensure things don't go badly wrong. Once you've got used to it, you have an answer for:
Quote from: Armadillo on October 31, 2014, 05:54:08 AM
a. make me hungry

Quote from: Mother of Dragons on October 31, 2014, 12:12:47 PM
So, I'm making pumpkin soup in a bit...
Picture tutorial anyone...? :)
Yes please - and recipe. I keep thinking there must be a better use for them than being hollowed out and having candles stuck inside.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Clockwork on November 01, 2014, 01:25:37 AM: Cool, I can add my sweet and spicy pumpkin pie and chinese pork recipes... Made both tonight. Was amazing. :D

Btw if you think you can't cook, try starting with chinese food, I'm rubbish at regular food but can do those alright because all it takes is prep. The actual cooking is done in 5 min or so in the wok ;P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 01, 2014, 10:32:33 AM: ^ Ooh, please share! :D

Chinese food is super easy, but the problem is the prep for me, it seems to take me ages to chop things :P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Jubal on November 01, 2014, 10:51:37 AM: I will contribute all the things I know how to do in a kitchen, which basically means "how do you make a good toasted sandwich". :P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: comrade_general on November 01, 2014, 11:12:48 AM: I made some tuna noodle casserole the other day, and I can make a pretty badass beef roast.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Tom on November 01, 2014, 01:38:03 PM: I can make a stir fry at a push, normally my culinary skills are limited to sandwiches, thank god for parents. :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Othko97 on November 01, 2014, 02:59:35 PM: I am not gifted in the art of cuisine either, although I imagine practice would help. :P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Clockwork on November 03, 2014, 11:45:07 AM: Quote from: Mother of Dragons on November 01, 2014, 10:32:33 AM
^ Ooh, please share! :D

Chinese food is super easy, but the problem is the prep for me, it seems to take me ages to chop things :P

I'll put the pie recipe up when I'm feeling better and can make it again (being unwell not related to cooking btw :P) just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

I find crushing things works better sometimes with chinese....food...things.... Garlic and ginger are the obvious ones that work well crushed. Slicing carrot for a stir fry on a grater is so much quicker than chopping it, plus it cooks at the same rate as cabbage/pak choi/beansprouts then so it can all go in at once ;)

For the Char Siu Pork:

It's a marinade dish, 8 hours marinade gets great results I find, just turning it over once at the 4 hour mark. I use both fan assisted and regular gas ovens so I have 2 temps for you, unfortunately I have no idea what degrees are or where they come from, I suspect you can eat them but I'm not sure.

To make the marinade:

A chunk of ginger (crushed), 4 cloves of garlic (crushed/chopped), 5 tablespoons of honey, 5 tblespns light soy sauce, 3 dark soy, 3 hoi-sin sauce, 3 tblespn sugar, a teaspoon of 5 spice powder and about half a tumbler of Shaoxing Rice Wine. Chuck everything into a pan and make sure all the stuff is mixed together.

You'll need 2 pork loin cylindrical cut things and a dish that just fits the two of them leaving enough room to put the marinade in to at least half cover them. Pour the marinade over, and turn the pork onto its other side after 4 hours. Baste liberally with marinade just before cooking. To cook, heat oven to gas mark 7 (5 if fan assisted) and cook for 20 minutes. I cook it using a baking dish with a centimetre of water in, wire rack over the top and the pork on that, helps keep it tender. Turn it over and cook the other side for a further 20 minutes, turning temp down to gm 5 (or 3 if fan assisted).

Then if you want to, you can make a glaze (makes it deliciouserer). Stir in a ramekin or something a teaspoon of oil, tablespoon of dark soy and tablespoon of honey until its a single semi-thick, very sticky sauce. Coat pork with this stuff, put pork under the grill for 10 mins at a medium heat, turning as appropriate.

Freezes brilliantly, cut up into small pieces it's great in sweet dim sum dumplings. I've had great success with it, hope you do as well if you decide to try it.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 03, 2014, 12:06:24 PM: Thank you :D

The chopping advice is brilliant as well :D
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Clockwork on November 03, 2014, 12:45:41 PM: No problem. I did mean to write more on chopping but got distracted by thinking about chinese pork :/

Practice the 'backwards chopping' slow to start with until you get good enough to speed up. It takes a while to learn but speeds up everything.

By backwards chopping I mean you put the tip of the knife on the copping board and bring the hefty side of the knife down on whatever you're cutting, keeping the palm of one hand on the whatever and fingers over the top of the knife sliding the whatever along after each cut to get pretty even slices as long as you keep a rhythm. Obviously you need a large, really sharp knife but I'm guessing that won't be a problem ;)

EDIT: Realised you may have little hands which may be problematic. My hands are huge. In which case, careful with fingers :P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 03, 2014, 08:47:25 PM: I've done backwards chopping with herbs before, but that's easy and no sliding of things is involved :P

My hands are, in fact, tiny :/

Also, I never thought of crushing ginger, thanks :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 04, 2014, 06:35:40 PM: I made beetroot fruit cake stuff. Is not going mega well so far, too much moisture in the mix, it needs to cook even longer. Which sucks because i'm hungry as balls.
Edit:
Also are we making this food place?
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 05, 2014, 06:05:05 PM: ^ how did the cake turn out? :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Cuddly Khan on November 05, 2014, 07:27:47 PM: I made.... Pasta.

Had it with cheese.

And Tomato Sauce (Ketchup).
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 05, 2014, 09:13:27 PM: Cake turned out very badly, so I decided to make beetroot and chocolate cake today. This went very well. Also had pasta earlier with broccoli and pork in a thick coconut and stuff sauce and it was amazing. And I've just finished eating egg fried rice.
I love food.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 15, 2014, 12:11:17 PM: I'm not a bad cook but I'm virtually incapable of reading recipes. Presumably it's something to do with a lack of connections between the relevant parts of my brain. Abstract instructions don't translate to actions or ideas related to the emotional artwork that food is for me. My gods that sounded pretentious.

On the plus side I've found a few recipe books that have extensive sections describing what a dish should be and the kinds of things involved. They also have recipes, true, but the descriptive sections are what help me.

At the moment I'm trying to master culturing yoghurt. I think I've got the basics nailed down now after a great many failed attempts!
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 15, 2014, 03:04:41 PM: Quote from: Flamekebab on November 15, 2014, 12:11:17 PM
I'm not a bad cook but I'm virtually incapable of reading recipes. Presumably it's something to do with a lack of connections between the relevant parts of my brain. Abstract instructions don't translate to actions or ideas related to the emotional artwork that food is for me. My gods that sounded pretentious.

On the plus side I've found a few recipe books that have extensive sections describing what a dish should be and the kinds of things involved. They also have recipes, true, but the descriptive sections are what help me.
At the moment I'm trying to master culturing yoghurt. I think I've got the basics nailed down now after a great many failed attempts!

I know what you mean, following recipes used to annoy me because it never seemed to turn out as it should, and I had no measure of what was right, but I think I'm doing alright now :)

Those books sound great though :)
The yoghurt sounds really cool :D
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 15, 2014, 04:11:39 PM: I'm pleased to say that I successfully made soy yoghurt (for the missus). Now to have another go at normal whole milk. I expect it'll turn out okay but I'm figuring this stuff out still. Heating the milk up to boil for a while seems to be the key to avoiding contamination.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 15, 2014, 08:34:00 PM: Quote from: Flamekebab on November 15, 2014, 04:11:39 PM
I'm pleased to say that I successfully made soy yoghurt (for the missus)
You cruel man, what did she do to deserve such punishment?

I made pizza porridge for breakfast, thought I'd share my recipe.
Its not really porridge but pizza porridge sounds better than pizza-something that is like skirlie. Skirlie is a kind of stuffing thing made from oats.

So I fried half an onion in some oil (need a decent amount of oil for this, more is better but if you don't want the calories then you can use a lot less and just use more water later, but it won't be as good) and threw in some mushrooms too. When the onions were pretty much cooked I turned the heat down a bit and threw in some oats. Normally I would just toast them for a little while and then add a bit of water and soy sauce/salt and herbs and stuff and this makes a pretty awesome breakfast (especially with eggs) but today I was making pizza porridge. So I added the last of my homemade tomato pizza sauce (made by cooking onion and garlic with tinned tomatoes and some beans and lots of basil and then blending the result) and some cheese. And then a some salad.
It was good. Very good. Exceedingly good. Even more exceedingly good than the works of Mr Kipling.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 15, 2014, 09:27:58 PM: ^ That sounds strangely tasty :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 16, 2014, 01:11:09 AM: Quote from: Pentagathus on November 15, 2014, 08:34:00 PM
Quote from: Flamekebab on November 15, 2014, 04:11:39 PM
I'm pleased to say that I successfully made soy yoghurt (for the missus)
You cruel man, what did she do to deserve such punishment?
It's to punish her for her prejudiced beliefs. She's lactose intolerant, you see.

On the plus side the soy stuff was tasty. Furthermore it looks like my whole milk stuff behaved much better than before (and it was fairly well behaved before). I made a bit of a mess of it whilst trying to skim off the whey but I'll give it another go in the morning.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 16, 2014, 11:28:10 AM: Quote from: Mother of Dragons on November 15, 2014, 09:27:58 PM
^ That sounds strangely tasty :)
Nothing strange about it, but it was very much tasty.

Keep fighting the good fight flame, one day we will beat such prejudices and every disaccharide shall be free to be digested equally by all.
Is making soy yoghurt a complicated process?

I'm roasting a roast. Omnomnom.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 16, 2014, 03:14:31 PM: Quote from: Pentagathus on November 16, 2014, 11:28:10 AM
Keep fighting the good fight flame, one day we will beat such prejudices and every disaccharide shall be free to be digested equally by all.
Is making soy yoghurt a complicated process?
You made her laugh :D

To be honest it wasn't more complicated than making the other kinds of yoghurt. We have an Easiyo yoghurt maker (although a wide-necked thermos works too I'm told) that we got for a few quid on eBay. Easiyo sell sachets of yoghurt mixes but we wanted to figure out how to make our own.

The way that works for us is to use about a teaspoon or so of "starter"* in the prepared milk (soy or whole).
To prepare it I take a litre or so of milk and put it in a bowl and microwave it for about quarter of an hour or so. Long enough for it to boil for a bit. If I don't then other things tend to grow along with the yoghurt. Mmmmm yeasty, fermented yoghurt :-X

Once that has cooled down to a fairly sensible temperature (I haven't used a thermometer - maybe 40 - 50ºC or so. Slightly warm to the touch but not warm enough to kill bacteria) in goes the starter.

The container then goes in the hot water bath for anywhere from 6 - 20 hours. I'm still figuring out the timing. The previous batch of whole milk took a long time whereas last night's took six hours or so. I was surprised to see it was already ready.

Depending on how much whey has separated from the curds I either drain some of it off or leave it. Once it's not too liquidy I whisk it a bit to get a nice texture.

*"starter" - originally we bought a small pot of natural yoghurt (with "live!" and similar written on it) for about 59p from Tesco. Since then we've just used a spoonful from previous batches. More seems to actually have worse results. I'm still figuring out the quantities.

At some point I plan on making a video of the process. Not until I've got it better figured out, admittedly.

Quote from: Pentagathus on November 16, 2014, 11:28:10 AM
I'm roasting a roast. Omnomnom.
Jealous over here.

We're having meaty pierogies though so it's not all bad.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 18, 2014, 10:12:31 PM: Quote from: Flamekebab on November 16, 2014, 03:14:31 PM
We're having meaty pierogies though so it's not all bad.
Oooh are those them thar polish dumplingy things that look a bit like large fan shaped ravioli and taste weirdly awesome? Homemade? And if so how does one make such a thing?
Yogurts sounds like a bit of a bitch to make. Not a big ole bitch but still I could not be bothering with that. Particularly since I don't eat a lot of it. A quarter of an hour seems a very long time for something to be in a microwave.

I know I should be putting this in the other thread but portugal it, I'm going to be a maverick.
Cereal, I've been eating cereal. An entire box of sainsburys own brand maple and pecan crunch. It was hugely disappointing, I do not recommend. The nuts were old and bitter and the crunchy oat stuff was not all that flavoursome.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 19, 2014, 10:43:30 AM: Quote from: Pentagathus on November 18, 2014, 10:12:31 PM
Oooh are those them thar polish dumplingy things that look a bit like large fan shaped ravioli and taste weirdly awesome?
Indeedy do!
Quote from: Pentagathus on November 18, 2014, 10:12:31 PM
Homemade?
Nah. Bought them in ASDA for less than £1.50 per pack (£1.29 maybe?).

Quote from: Pentagathus on November 18, 2014, 10:12:31 PM
Yogurts sounds like a bit of a bitch to make. Not a big ole bitch but still I could not be bothering with that. Particularly since I don't eat a lot of it. A quarter of an hour seems a very long time for something to be in a microwave.
It doesn't need to be on full power the whole time and it should be noted that our microwave was the cheapest one in Wilkinsons back in 2012. It's not great...

One can cook it on the stove too but that requires supervision. It probably doesn't need 15 minutes either but I'm not about to lower the time and risk having more dodgy yoghurt!
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: comrade_general on November 19, 2014, 02:15:11 PM: Quote from: Flamekebab on November 16, 2014, 03:14:31 PM
pierogies
Hopefully this will be a somewhat common item in my future. :)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Lady Grey on November 20, 2014, 03:59:43 PM: I'm making Spaghetti alla Puttanesca for tea (or dinner, if that's what you call it :P )

Not that I knew it was puttanesca when I found the recipe, but oh well, I'm sort of affectionately attached to the name now :P
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 20, 2014, 09:27:42 PM: Googled the funny forn words. Sounds nice.

I had eggnog for the first time today (made it myself.) Am impressed.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Cuddly Khan on November 20, 2014, 10:00:22 PM: I had it for the first time last year. It's pretty good for what it is.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on November 21, 2014, 06:01:32 PM: I had a lamb kebab from a fairly dodgy place today. As per usual it was delicious.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Pentagathus on November 24, 2014, 06:26:01 PM: So apparently you only use the yolk when making egg custard...
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: comrade_general on November 24, 2014, 06:43:34 PM: Fetus!
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Tom on November 24, 2014, 07:30:52 PM: CG, what have I told you about playing with your food before?
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: comrade_general on November 25, 2014, 12:45:12 PM: Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://unhingedmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/10246238_488195414642565_8906025441661589018_n.jpg)
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Tom on November 25, 2014, 02:14:39 PM: That's pretty sweet, I ain't even mad.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Othko97 on December 12, 2014, 10:40:59 PM: I can't even figure out how one would go about carving a banana. I mean, are there specific tools which you need to use or is this just fancy knifework?
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on December 17, 2014, 04:44:16 AM: A properly oiled welding mallet for a start.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Jubal on December 17, 2014, 12:14:34 PM: Scalpel?
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Son of the King on January 12, 2015, 11:36:58 PM: Do you know what's great? Vanilla Cornish Ice Cream.
Title: Re: Food thoughts
Post by: Flamekebab on January 13, 2015, 03:53:56 AM: That sounds fantastic. I'm not even much interested in icecream and that's just... where do I sign up?