The Foodie Thread

[BubbaOtis]

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.

Poser!!

Seriously, cook what you wish and call it what you want. But don't try to make this into a "health food" thread, that'll kill the fun..

 

[superrific]

Poser!!

Seriously, cook what you wish and call it what you want. But don't try to make this into a "health food" thread, that'll kill the fun..

It's not health food. It's delicious. It's just that, if you can make something taste good with less oil and less carbs, why not? I mean, there's already andouille in there. Adding a bunch of butter seems like overkill.

 

[superrific]

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.

My daughter wants to do this thing that humans have been doing for thousands of years. But neither she nor I can figure out how to do it, despite being college educated at good schools. So can anyone give me a hand here? I can't think of any other way to find some instructions as to how to do this thing that humans have been doing for thousands of years. . .

J/k. I'm just goofing off at this point.

 

[NYCBlueBlood]

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.

As somebody who inherited his grandmother's pasta maker, I disagree with you on semolina. Yes, look for a finely ground version at the store... but semolina is not hard to find these days. 20 years ago, sure. But my local supermarket carries it in 4 different places around the store... it's not hard, and it makes a real difference.

 

[Ddseddse]

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.

I am right there with you! Preach, brother!

It took me forever to put into words why I hate mayonnaise, sour cream, aioli, but love yogurt, cream cheese, etc.

Finally in my fifth decade I hit on it... "acidic emulsions". Neither alone is a problem but any substance that has both properties is revolting.

Acid alone is fine. Emulsions alone are fine (say a mornay sauce). It is the precise combination of acid in an emulsion that fires up my gag reflex. No clue why.

Any my pet peeve is mayo on sushi. I mean just don't! And spicy tuna the authentic (non-Americanized) way with just the sriracha is delicious! I love it! But do I love it enough to get into a fifteen minute negotiation with the waiter trying to get it? No, sadly, most of the time not.

 

[Ddseddse]

As somebody who inherited his grandmother's pasta maker, I disagree with you on semolina. Yes, look for a finely ground version at the store... but semolina is not hard to find these days. 20 years ago, sure. But my local supermarket carries it in 4 different places around the store... it's not hard, and it makes a real difference.

I mean, if it tastes good, there are no wrong answers, I’d say.

My advice was based on my own empirical observations, which were backed up by a recent(ish) acquisition of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. She says:

In any event I wouldn’t recommend semolina to a beginner making their first fresh pasta.

 

[UNCatTech]

I found a new cooking show on Netflix. It's a competition between very successful chefs from around the world.

In the second episode, they were tasked with making a Paella. I learned a little while watching.

 

[Rock]

Apples around me have been pretty pitiful lately at the grocery stores. I saw a set of 4 Cosmic Crisp apples in fancy packaging tonight at Sprouts... 4 for $6 but they were big and beautiful. I just ate one and I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the tastiest apples I've ever eaten.

 

[HesNaughtHere]

Nice weeknight dinner from a nyt recipe

Pressure Cooker Sweet Potato-Coconut Curry Soup Recipe

This creamy soup makes the most of a few supermarket staples: red curry paste, coconut milk and peanut butter Since curry pastes vary in heat and salt, be sure to taste this soup at the end and adjust the flavor as you like The rich soup is quite thick, so if you prefer a looser soup, stir in a...

cooking.nytimes.com

Second time making this, pretty solid. Bonus okra from the garden

 

[Centerpiece]

I mean, if it tastes good, there are no wrong answers, I’d say.

My advice was based on my own empirical observations, which were backed up by a recent(ish) acquisition of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. She says:

In any event I wouldn’t recommend semolina to a beginner making their first fresh pasta.

Bingo. And there it is in black and white.

 

[UNCatTech]

My daughter made a really good broccoli cheese soup tonight.

 

[HesNaughtHere]

Also I found that my black bean burgers were a bit crumbly and made somewhat of a mess when eating them on a bun. Would rather not deal with that during lunch at work, so I started turning them into crunchwrap supremes.

Spinach wraps, a little grated cheese, the blackbean patty, more cheese, avocado slices, diced red onion, a few drizzles of chipotle mayo, a layer of tortilla chips, then shredded lettuce, diced hatch chiles, diced tomato, a sprinkle of Cholula, and a hit of shredded cheese on top. Damn good

 

[Rock]

Not sure if you're familiar with J Kenji Lopez Alt but his black bean burgers are one of my favorite things to eat, ever.

 

[HesNaughtHere]

Not sure if you're familiar with J Kenji Lopez Alt but his black bean burgers are one of my favorite things to eat, ever.

I use Kenji's recipe! It's hard to beat.

In general, Kenji is my favorite food writer. His book, Food Lab, is great if you're willing to take a more nerdy approach in the kitchen, which I always am.

His al pastor recipe using loaf pans is pretty great, though labor intensive.

 

[NYCBlueBlood]

I mean, if it tastes good, there are no wrong answers, I’d say.

My advice was based on my own empirical observations, which were backed up by a recent(ish) acquisition of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. She says:

In any event I wouldn’t recommend semolina to a beginner making their first fresh pasta.

Yes, if you do not have a pasta maker to do your rolling, you should probably stick to AP flour... but I'd say that if you do not have the right tools, you should probably stick to buying fresh pasta at the store.

Semolina has a distinctly different taste than AP white four... just as wheat or rye do. Maybe not as sharply different, but semolina has a richer, nuttier flavor to it.

Granted, some of this is a North vs. South thing (Italy, not US). Just know that by going with AP flour, you're taking the side of the Yankees of Italy (southern Italy uses semolina exclusively for fresh pasta/ bread)... ok, done with pasta snob rant...

 

[Ddseddse]

Yes, if you do not have a pasta maker to do your rolling, you should probably stick to AP flour... but I'd say that if you do not have the right tools, you should probably stick to buying fresh pasta at the store.

Semolina has a distinctly different taste than AP white four... just as wheat or rye do. Maybe not as sharply different, but semolina has a richer, nuttier flavor to it.

Granted, some of this is a North vs. South thing (Italy, not US). Just know that by going with AP flour, you're taking the side of the Yankees of Italy (southern Italy uses semolina exclusively for fresh pasta/ bread)... ok, done with pasta snob rant...

I don't feel the need to argue with any of that. I'm just trying to save a first time pasta maker from bringing home a bag of super grainy Bob's Red Mill Semolina Pasta Flour and having a bad first experience in pasta making. It's not going to go well.

 

[Ddseddse]

Need advice. Go? Or no go?


A good chunk of my pantry would be off limits if I slavishly adhered to these Prop 65 warnings, but I don’t recall the others specifically calling out lead. That’s giving me a slight pause.

 

[NYCBlueBlood]

I don't feel the need to argue with any of that. I'm just trying to save a first time pasta maker from bringing home a bag of super grainy Bob's Red Mill Semolina Pasta Flour and having a bad first experience in pasta making. It's not going to go well.

Oh yeah, well... ummmmm... I agree. So take that!

 

[Centerpiece]

Need advice. Go? Or no go?


A good chunk of my pantry would be off limits if I slavishly adhered to these Prop 65 warnings, but I don’t recall the others specifically calling out lead. That’s giving me a slight pause.

Just makes one wonder why/how lead gets in this product? As they say, get your groceries from the outer edges of the store and avoid the aisles in the middle. Surely there are other ramen type noodle products where reading the ingredients list doesn’t scare you.

 

[NYCBlueBlood]

I'm pretty flexible on food warnings... but iron would be a step too far for me.