The Foodie Thread

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Four cans of beans to two pounds of meat is a bit heavy on the beans for me. And no cilantro? I usually go with one can of black beans but purists say the correct number is zero. Admittedly I usually go for more a Tex Mex flavor and the Worcestershire, cinnamon and clove in your recipe sounds like the Cincinnati stuff. There's no accounting for personal taste.

And while I'm being opinionated, the key to a good gumbo is the roux. People who throw some okra in a soup and call it "gumbo" are posers.

And if the scallops feel like they may be tough, consider a 30 minute soak in milk before sauteing..

And don't get me started on barbecue.. :D
 
UNCatTech said:
We use packaged noodles for ramen bowls. We normally add a meat, fried egg, baby boc choy, kale, mushrooms, and other items depending on what we have around the kitchen.

I really want to learn to make pasta and noodles.
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Pasta is easy. Gazillion YouTube’s out there. Just flour and egg. (All purpose or semolina)
3 cups and 6 eggs is a good start.
Yes, you can add olive oil or salt or whatever… but not necessary
After that, a pasta roller if you must, but you can do it by hand.

It’s fun and good, like making your own mayonnaise, it’s something everyone should do at least once.

But at the end of the day, there are so many high quality dried pasta shapes out there these days… specialty pastas and some are fresh in the cool section of your store.

It’s like with mayonnaise- nothing better than your own fresh made… but when the rubber meets the road with time constraints, give me a jar of Dukes and I’m fine. (Perhaps the only time you’ll see me spell it like that)
 
Centerpiece said:
Pasta is easy. Gazillion YouTube’s out there. Just flour and egg. (All purpose or semolina)
3 cups and 6 eggs is a good start.
Yes, you can add olive oil or salt or whatever… but not necessary
After that, a pasta roller if you must, but you can do it by hand.

It’s fun and good, like making your own mayonnaise, it’s something everyone should do at least once.

But at the end of the day, there are so many high quality dried pasta shapes out there these days… specialty pastas and some are fresh in the cool section of your store.

It’s like with mayonnaise- nothing better than your own fresh made… but when the rubber meets the road with time constraints, give me a jar of Dukes and I’m fine. (Perhaps the only time you’ll see me spell it like that)
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Man, can we get a better comparison than mayonnaise? I would vote to ban mayonnaise. 😁
 
UNCatTech said:
Man, can we get a better comparison than mayonnaise? I would vote to ban mayonnaise. 😁
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Oh I get it. It’s like cilantro tasting like soap for some people. Mayo can be a non starter for some. But the point is, making pasta from scratch can be fun, and everybody should do it at least once. But I’ve seen many of pasta makers/pasta rollers get used a couple of times and then it sits in the pantry unused for years at a time. Like a fondue pot.
 
Centerpiece said:
Oh I get it. It’s like cilantro tasting like soap for some people. Mayo can be a non starter for some. But the point is, making pasta from scratch can be fun, and everybody should do it at least once. But I’ve seen many of pasta makers/pasta rollers get used a couple of times and then it sits in the pantry unused for years at a time. Like a fondue pot.
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My pasta advice is to forget you ever heard the word "semolina". I think a lot of first time pasta makers want their first attempt to be special and feel like sourcing semolina flour will make it special. In general it won't. It will most likely have the opposite effect. Most semolina flour available in the US it too coarsely ground to be good for pasta and to be honest even if it is fine, semolina is tough enough that it only really responds well to the machine milling that factory made pasta gets. Your typical home pasta mill is not going to get he job done on semolina flour.

Honestly, all purpose four will be fine for your homemade pasta. If you want special flour source some Italian 00 flour or similar, but my advice is to avoid the semolina.
 
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I've never made pasta before. I guess I enjoy the dried stuff too much. One of these days I'm sure

Speaking of pasta and never making things, I have yet to ever make a lasagna. I say I'm going to every year but it continues to elude me
 
Heelsandeers said:
I've never made pasta before. I guess I enjoy the dried stuff too much.
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This is 1000% legitimate. The thing to remember is that dried pasta is a completely different animal than fresh pasta, neither is better or "truer" than the other. There are many dishes and occasions when dried pasta is superior to fresh pasta, in particular they offer a very different 'bite'. It's great to have the variety offered by eating both fresh and dried pastas, but neither is, culinarly speaking, better than the other. And when you factor in convenience, dried is often a flat out better choice, even taking into account that making a basic fresh pasta is pretty easy (the clean up is the part that gets me).
 
If I go through the effort it would probably be for a stuffed pasta. Something like ravioli

Fresh gnocchi actually piques my interest more. I feel like there's more of discrepancy there in fresh vs dried
 
Ddseddse said:
My pasta advice is to forget you ever heard the word "semolina". I think a lot of first time pasta makers want their first attempt to be special and feel like sourcing semolina flour will make it special. In general it won't. It will most likely have the opposite effect. Most semolina flour available in the US it too coarsely ground to be good for pasta and to be honest even if it is fine, semolina is tough enough that it only really responds well to the machine milling that factory made pasta gets. Your typical home pasta mill is not going to get he job done on semolina flour.

Honestly, all purpose four will be fine for your homemade pasta. If you want special flour source some Italian 00 flour or similar, but my advice is to avoid the semolina.
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Solid advice. AP flour is found everywhere, cheaper, and you can tell your friends it’s a special flour which your great aunt Stefania sends you.
 
I went down a masa rabbit hole recently. That's going to be my next homemade venture

A lot of effort but nothing like it and no Mexican grocers selling it around me unfortunately

Not ready quite yet. Going to work with a good quality masa harina first just to get used to the process of making fresh tortillas
 
I am opinionated about the brand of flour I use. I like King Arthur. I like the fact that the % protein is explicitly marked on the outside of the package. Cheaper flours have an unknown amount of protein and that may even vary from batch to batch. Since baking is a science where we're dealing with precise chemical reactions, it's nice to know you're starting from a known starting point. TBH, I'm a shit baker and I need all the help I can get.
 
Centerpiece said:
Oh I get it. It’s like cilantro tasting like soap for some people. Mayo can be a non starter for some. But the point is, making pasta from scratch can be fun, and everybody should do it at least once. But I’ve seen many of pasta makers/pasta rollers get used a couple of times and then it sits in the pantry unused for years at a time. Like a fondue pot.
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I'm just kidding about the mayonnaise, I have a mental aversion to it. My kids have fun trying to trick me into eating it. I'm sure I've eaten it when used in other dishes. As long as I don't know, I'm ok. ;)
 
BubbaOtis said:
And while I'm being opinionated, the key to a good gumbo is the roux. People who throw some okra in a soup and call it "gumbo" are posers.
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Roux is unhealthy as hell. I make one-pots with okra and some combination of seafood, andouille and chicken (depending on which of my kids is eating), in a tomato-based broth with thyme, paprika, red pepper, garlic, red wine, bay leaves, and parsley. Those are cajun flavors for the most part, and thus It's close enough to cajun dishes that I call it "Daddy's Gumbo" or "Daddy's Jambalaya," though adding the "Daddy's" qualifier (in addition to inspiring trust) differentiates it from more authentic formulations.

There's no law that requires you to make a dish exactly as it is "supposed to" be prepared. Experimentation is good. I often improvise in the kitchen and rely on pairings that are familiar to me from different cuisines I've eaten. I then use the cuisine in the name of the dish. It's for private purposes only, and often I use the appendage "style" to clarify.

For instance, one of my twins loves, loves, loves him some okra. His mom is from India so she cooks it for him. I don't cook it Indian style, but I do have different ways of preparing it. If I use tomato juice, harissa and fennel, I call it "Tunisian." If I use a little less tomato juice, sumac, garlic and sesame, I call it "Lebanese style." If I just saute it plain, seasoning mostly with sea salt and a dash of paprika and/or black pepper, I call it "Southern style." None of the labels are exact or necessarily even particularly accurate, but they serve my purposes.
 
My daughter wants to make bread.

Are there tools that could be used for bread as well as pasta? Like the drinder mentioned earlier?

My coworker brought me a jar of saffron from Oman, he was there visiting his parents.
 
Ddseddse said:
I am opinionated about the brand of flour I use. I like King Arthur. I like the fact that the % protein is explicitly marked on the outside of the package. Cheaper flours have an unknown amount of protein and that may even vary from batch to batch. Since baking is a science where we're dealing with precise chemical reactions, it's nice to know you're starting from a known starting point. TBH, I'm a shit baker and I need all the help I can get.
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King Arthur is solid. Didn't notice much of a difference in their 00 vs the "gold standard" Caputo 00
 
UNCatTech said:
I'm just kidding about the mayonnaise, I have a mental aversion to it. My kids have fun trying to trick me into eating it. I'm sure I've eaten it when used in other dishes. As long as I don't know, I'm ok. ;)
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I also have a mental aversion to it, and anything related (e.g. aioli). I'm not sure if I would be OK if I ate it and didn't know it. Once I found out, I'd be retroactively nauseated, I think. So I inspect the hell out of anything that might have mayo in it, to make sure that it does not have mayo.

The worst thing, for me, is spicy mayo. I mean, no. Just no. It defeats the point of the chili, and to be honest, probably of the mayo as well. And since one of the functions of capsaicin is to accentuate other flavors, putting it in mayo is just the wrong thing to do.
 
Ddseddse said:
I am opinionated about the brand of flour I use. I like King Arthur. I like the fact that the % protein is explicitly marked on the outside of the package. Cheaper flours have an unknown amount of protein and that may even vary from batch to batch. Since baking is a science where we're dealing with precise chemical reactions, it's nice to know you're starting from a known starting point. TBH, I'm a shit baker and I need all the help I can get.
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Thanks, I would have never considered flour consistency.
 
UNCatTech said:
My daughter wants to make bread.

Are there tools that could be used for bread as well as pasta? Like the drinder mentioned earlier?

My coworker brought me a jar of saffron from Oman, he was there visiting his parents.
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What type of bread? Shouldn't need too many special tools

A kitchen scale and baking stone/steel or dutch oven are needed

Other than that.. some sort of tubs/containers for mixing and proofing
 
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