The Kitchen: all things delicious and disastrous

I enjoy raw baby carrots, but it's hard for me to eat hard fruits and veggies with braces and stuff on...

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

Yes. Stews are awesome. I just polished off a household standby with beef, onions, tomatoes, peas, and carrots.

And that just sent me on a read of Wikipedia's article about the carrot; turns out that carrot seeds were commonly thought to be a contraceptive in ancient times, and that's likely to actually be correct, according to recent research.

And apparently "Queen Anne's Lace" is actually the wild carrot.

A brighter future for a darker age.

Huh, that's pretty neat.

Who here likes raw baby spinach?

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

I hate spinach—even raw it's always mushy and disgusting.

My favorite way to do up carrots is to roast them high heat in a pan with oil and sea salt. They end up resembling sweet potato fries.

I got a Le Creuset Deep Cast iron Skillet/dutch oven thing. i am going to attempt beef bourgignon. Or possibly Cog Au Vin. Something suitably fancy, at any rate.

edited 26th Oct '12 8:24:44 PM by OriDoodle

Doodles

I loooooooooove spinach. Especially raw with mushrooms, cauliflower, bacon, hard boiled egg and sunflower seeds and blue cheese dressing although certain people think that a ham/vinegar thing is good. Clearly insane.

Also spinach pizza with cream sauce, mushrooms, tomato and mozzarella.

And the way that my current favorite Chinese restaurant serves it on noodle dishes.

And spinach stuffed ravioli.

woah man

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

I do like spinach in ravioli and lasagna. Probably because that way it is totally hidden in delicious cheese.

One thing I want to attempt one of these days is Eggplant parmigian.

Also, Here is my baby: [1]◊

Doodles

Spinach is right up there with kale for me. I rather like the slight mushiness.

Ori: Oh man that thing must have been expensive even on sale. Envy.

edited 26th Oct '12 10:17:36 PM by Leradny

I looooooooove eggplant. Especially parmigiana but I am not averse to it in other forms either.

Right now I am completely in love with baby seedless cucumbers peeled in stripes with mirin, plum vinegar and sesame oil. The crunchiness of the baby cucumber is amazing.

I'm no fan of eggplant.

But I came to ask a question, so I will so I can quickly exit, leaving the topic as undisturbed as possible.

I've recently had a thing where I have to eat something in the wee hours of the morning. (Yes, I know, it's not healthy since I immediately go to bed.) It has given me a chance to practice some basic cooking skills. I've hit upon making an egg and 1.5 strips of bacon cut in half, with a slice of toasted italian bread to go with it. My local supermarket (not sure about other chains) has a really nice brand which makes very nice bacon.

Anyway, tonight I decided to try and make a simple gravy/sauce using the bacon drippings, so I used some butter as a booster and some flour to make a simple roux. The sauce is made of 2% milk, and I only added a dash of cumin, which was actually quite nice.

I'm wondering if there's anything I can add to the sauce to make it stand out more, since I found the bacon-y flavour was being covered up a bit by the bacon itself.

Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen Fry

I cannot recommend Le Creuset cast-iron cookware highly enough. We have about a dozen pieces collected over the years, up to the largest round one they do, which is large enough to cook a child in, I swear. That one is for big stews and chilis for parties, and roasting big meat things in a sealed environment.

They are great for compensating for shitty stoves that don't spread the heat widely enough.

Don't pay full price. There are outlets that sell cosmetically imperfect ones, and places online that give good deals too. Or you can do your research and buy a clone; some of them aren't bad, though they're not quite as nicely hand made.

A brighter future for a darker age.

Yees I got mine online for a really good deal (100). I'm trying to decide: beef bourgignon,cow au Vin, or ratatouille?

Doodles

I'd go for one of the latter, depending on whether you're in the mood for chicken or just vegetables ... they're both delicious.

A brighter future for a darker age.

hmm, enhancing a milk based bacon gravy. When ever I make a cream sauce I have to jazz it up a lot to balance the flavors. I put in cayenne, dry mustard, salt and pepper and a chicken bullion cube.

Maybe a dash of worchestershire sauce, or soy sauce or fish sauce. I never fully realized how much those sauces can enhance flavor until recently.

It's always useful to have those around. I'd add balsamic vinegar to that list, I add it to a bunch of things you might not guess have it in. Dry English mustard is also a great thing to have — is that the one you're using? (Colman's, in my case — have a bunch of big containers of it).

A brighter future for a darker age.

OK, so: Mountain Dew Cake.

I modified the recipe a little bit, because the standard can of soda is not 10 oz - I cut out one of the eggs and just used the full can.

The pineapple frosting is good, but it's ... there's something indefinable that makes me regard it as less than perfect for the cake. If I make it again, I shall experiment and try using powdered sugar vice granulated and see if that improves the taste. Or I might just skip the frosting and mix the pineapple straight into the mix and cut out the oil.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

I would think a sweet lemon frosting would work better.

Doodles

I've lived my whole life using fish sauce from bottles with English labels but I still need a moment to translate it back to Tagalog.

I don't know if I'd like a Mountain Dew flavored cake. Carbonated or caffeine drinks are difficult for me because I literally have no tolerance anymore. But I second the sweet lemon frosting, or maybe lime for the sake of aesthetics. Pineapple is tricky.

Coleman's English mustard is what I use. I wonder if another pop beside Mountain Dew would work.

Pumpkin pie baking today. For real.

Go Lera, go Lera, go Lera!

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I have never had pumpkin pie, but I've had pumpkin pie ice cream from Trader Joe's.

Is pumpkin pie yummy?

Alt account of Angeldog 2437.

Pumpkin pie is glorious and if you haven't had any you should get some right now. Mine, for instance, smells wonderful right now even though it's only half-finished.

I have an extra pie crust but no extra pumpkin. I have apples and cinnamon, or the means to make custard, and I'm leaning towards custard because that's another holiday favorite.

Pumpkin pie is so far beyond Yummy you can't even see Yummy in the rear-view mirror anymore. Even poor pumpkin pie is yummy. Good pumpkin pie is sublime enough that the gods on Olympus would have turned up their noses at ambrosia afterwards if they'd known about pumpkin pie. A slice of pumpkin pie can make a bad day good and a good day wonderful. A slice of warm, fresh pumpkin pie and a cup of hot cider is like eating and drinking a hug from everyone you have ever loved and been loved by, all at once. A piece of cold pumpkin pie and a cup of black, sweet coffee is a breakfast that makes you feel like you can wrestle bears and move mountains and write your name in the stars and do it all before lunch. The smell of pumpkin pie baking is warmth and joy and comfort and all things good in the world.

tl;dr: yes. Pumpkin pie is yummy.

edited 28th Oct '12 7:51:31 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.