Food thoughts

[Lady Grey]

So, I'm making pumpkin soup in a bit...
Picture tutorial anyone...?

[comrade_general]

Yes. And Exilian muffins.

[Lady Grey]

I KNEW I should've done that with pictures and not a video!

I promise it's coming soon. (*hopes everyone will not be totally underwhelmed*)

[Glaurung]

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:

a. make me hungry

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.

[Clockwork]

Cool, I can add my sweet and spicy pumpkin pie and chinese pork recipes... Made both tonight. Was amazing.

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

[Lady Grey]

^ Ooh, please share!

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

[Jubal]

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". 

[comrade_general]

I made some tuna noodle casserole the other day, and I can make a pretty badass beef roast.

[Tom]

I can make a stir fry at a push, normally my culinary skills are limited to sandwiches, thank god for parents.

[Othko97]

I am not gifted in the art of cuisine either, although I imagine practice would help.

[Clockwork]

^ Ooh, please share!

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

I'll put the pie recipe up when I'm feeling better and can make it again (being unwell not related to cooking btw ) 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.

[Lady Grey]

Thank you

The chopping advice is brilliant as well

[Clockwork]

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

[Lady Grey]

I've done backwards chopping with herbs before, but that's easy and no sliding of things is involved

My hands are, in fact, tiny :/

Also, I never thought of crushing ginger, thanks

[Pentagathus]

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?