It was pretty tasty. I also picked up a pumpkin cheese cake and whipped up some cream for dessert.
FOOD THREAD 1
- Thread starter pardus
- Start date
It was pretty tasty. I also picked up a pumpkin cheese cake and whipped up some cream for dessert.
So I had a few things left over from the party that needed to be used up. I got to looking at them and thought....hmmm, there's stuff for a cake here.
Black Forest cake to be precise. But I think I didn't wait long enough for the cake to cool and it did this
:
So being the quick witted person I am, I fixed it...
No Problem
(and it tastes good too!)
Black Forest cake to be precise. But I think I didn't wait long enough for the cake to cool and it did this
:So being the quick witted person I am, I fixed it...
No Problem
(and it tastes good too!)
So, a shit day at work & I meet the GF for some wine dinner. Say I, "How much are the tix?" replies herself, $100 even...well that fucked that I says. So we move to the outside area with a view of Darling Harbour & I'm feeling a bit crabby. Mumm champagne, oysters with champagne sorbet & caviar, bbq pork squares with a green dressing/sauce are the choices for an entree.I have lots of both. (Entree is different here for you Stateside folks).More Mumm...and I'm getting to like this. We move to the main event. Still dunno what I'm doing here but I'm ok with what I've had so far. The Em Cee is at out table, the centre of which is adorned with a fuck off bucket of about 6 -7 Aussie white wines on ice (riesling, chardy, pinot gris etc.) + 6 -7 bots of Aussie red (shiraz, pinot, cab merlot, merlot) beside them. Mine host says for those not acquainted with the evening there's this. (Points to a silver bucket) The rules are simple, it's all about the tasting, have a wine, if it's not for you tip it out & get another one, we won't be upset...hook in and enjoy! Main course - a choice of Patagonian tooth fish or Waygu Beef. Can't remember the dessert but it arrived with some brilliant sticky wine. Chateau d'Yquem be buggered, Aussie botrytis is the shit.
Yep, all good here.
Yep, all good here.
I'm jealous, dude!
I also have no idea what the fuck half of that meant but what I did understand sounded good.:wall:
F.M.
BWAHAHAHA! It was fun. I forgot to mention that it was also a debate by esteemed (read drunken) members of the local Wine Society. Two teams of three debated the merits of keeping foreign wine out of Australia as the local juice is pretty good anyway. I can't remember laughing that much for some time, knocked a glass of red all over the linen table cloth. The GF laid waste to some other glass of something. Overheard her best friend of years gone by putting the hard word on her. I let it slip, he was blind...I was right at home! It was like a Commando Christmas party from last century. 12 hour shift the next day too...no worries!
Since one of my posts didn't have full detail or seem legitimate to some, I made sure I got some footage of the process while making this today. This is an in depth look of my previous Indian Chicken dish.
If you want to make this yourself, here's the exact recipe (with my personal preferences tossed in).
- Pack of Uncle Ben's White Rice
- Pack of Chicken Thighs or Chicken Drums
- Chili Peppers (slice in 1/2 and remove seeds)
- Diced Tomatoes (personal preference w/tomato sauce if you want more 'gravy')
- Diced Onions
- 1 table spoon Cumin
- 1 table spoon Garam Masala
- 1 table spoon Tumeric (personal preference)
- 1/2 table spoon Chilli Powder (personal preference)
This time instead of doing separate cooking of the chicken while the spices and other ingredients cooked up in the pot , I tossed into into the pot after everything else settled raw and had let it cook that way. Takes a while longer this way but with the resources at my college house I didn't have the luxury of doing it my preferred quicker way.
If you want to make this yourself, here's the exact recipe (with my personal preferences tossed in).
- Pack of Uncle Ben's White Rice
- Pack of Chicken Thighs or Chicken Drums
- Chili Peppers (slice in 1/2 and remove seeds)
- Diced Tomatoes (personal preference w/tomato sauce if you want more 'gravy')
- Diced Onions
- 1 table spoon Cumin
- 1 table spoon Garam Masala
- 1 table spoon Tumeric (personal preference)
- 1/2 table spoon Chilli Powder (personal preference)
This time instead of doing separate cooking of the chicken while the spices and other ingredients cooked up in the pot , I tossed into into the pot after everything else settled raw and had let it cook that way. Takes a while longer this way but with the resources at my college house I didn't have the luxury of doing it my preferred quicker way.
dirtmover
Verified Military
Hates for everyone and their delicious food. One of these days I am going to have time to grill out here and you will all be jealous.....very very jealous....
...lol
. for real though these pics are giving me a crap ton of ideas for when I get back so keep them coming.
...lol. for real though these pics are giving me a crap ton of ideas for when I get back so keep them coming.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2013
- Messages
- 464
Plain old hot dog? No says I. All beef hot dog with Chinese mustard, Asian coleslaw and Sriracha sauce:
We had a cook off at work today, I won!
I literally had to write things down as I was adding them, I am glad I did...it was really excellent. The balance of flavors was excellent, just the right amount of heat that hit you at the end. If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it.
Basically I used chunks of Angus beef, ground beef and chorizo, red and green bell peppers, onion, garlic, San Marzano tomatoes (thought a bit of sweet to offset the heat) good cocoa powder, cumin, chili powder, oregano, papkria, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, kosher salt, hatch peppers (which I bought in August and froze since you can only get them 1x per year here), sun dried tomatoes, beer (Sam Adams stout), kidney pinto and black beans, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Oh and at the end of the cooking time I added lime and cilantro.
Everyone raved and I won a 25.00 gift card.
I literally had to write things down as I was adding them, I am glad I did...it was really excellent. The balance of flavors was excellent, just the right amount of heat that hit you at the end. If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it.
Basically I used chunks of Angus beef, ground beef and chorizo, red and green bell peppers, onion, garlic, San Marzano tomatoes (thought a bit of sweet to offset the heat) good cocoa powder, cumin, chili powder, oregano, papkria, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, kosher salt, hatch peppers (which I bought in August and froze since you can only get them 1x per year here), sun dried tomatoes, beer (Sam Adams stout), kidney pinto and black beans, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Oh and at the end of the cooking time I added lime and cilantro.
Everyone raved and I won a 25.00 gift card.
$75 in ingredients, for a $25 gift card.... LMAO
Not at all, all the meat was on sale. Chorizo, 1.25 Ground beef, 2.97 and the angus beef was 3.49. I always have everything else on hand.
You're just jealous, Troll.
You're just jealous, Troll.
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2006
- Messages
- 1,886
We had a cook off at work today, I won!
I literally had to write things down as I was adding them, I am glad I did...it was really excellent. The balance of flavors was excellent, just the right amount of heat that hit you at the end. If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it.
Basically I used chunks of Angus beef, ground beef and chorizo, red and green bell peppers, onion, garlic, San Marzano tomatoes (thought a bit of sweet to offset the heat) good cocoa powder, cumin, chili powder, oregano, papkria, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, kosher salt, hatch peppers (which I bought in August and froze since you can only get them 1x per year here), sun dried tomatoes, beer (Sam Adams stout), kidney pinto and black beans, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Oh and at the end of the cooking time I added lime and cilantro.
Everyone raved and I won a 25.00 gift card.
What is this "if" you speak of? I'm always up for trying a new recipe.... please post when you get a chance.
If anyone wants the recipe I'll post it.
To the Food Thread with you, woman!!!
Not at all, all the meat was on sale. Chorizo, 1.25 Ground beef, 2.97 and the angus beef was 3.49. I always have everything else on hand.
You're just jealous, Troll.
You did not send any to me... yes, I am hurt... jealous, notsomuch.
So just a basic chicken night tonight. But I thought I would cover the basics of making a pan sauce for anyone that is interested and doesn't know the technique. This one is a basic white wine reduction. If you already know how to do pan sauces, skip on by :)
So I start by searing the chicken breast with just a bit of olive oil in the pan. I don't want to add too much flavor to the breast itself since I'm making a sauce so just sprinkle both sides liberally with salt and pepper. For the heat on the pan, the oil should be kinda wavy like the bottom of a swimming pool but not smoking. If the olive oil smokes, throw it away and start over, it'll be very bitter. Sear the breast so that it has a nice little bit of carmelization on each side. Also, I sear the edge on the thick end so there is good color.
Once I pull the chicken out of the pan and into a 375 degree oven, I use a little white wine to deglaze (scrape the meat bits from) the pan. maybe 2-3 oz. Then I pile my aromatics in. In this case, a couple of shallots sliced thin, half a Spanish onion and about 3 cloves of garlic that I smashed to let the juices out. I'm still at med-high heat through this whole process.
When the onions turn translucent, I add the rest of the white wine, in this case about 16 oz total. The amount of wine isn't really that important as long as you use the same amount of chicken stock (later). I bring the wine to a fast simmer and let it sit there for about 10 minutes. When the wine is nearly gone, I add the chicken stock and my herbs (rosemary, thyme leaves and a couple of ancho chile rings) and mix it together. There are classic flavor combinations that you can use here or you can get adventurous. There's a pretty good book called The Flavor Bible that talks specifically about complimentary flavors and gives you a list of what goes with what. Adventurous is more fun, but you can really make mistakes if you don't think about what's happening to the flavors. When you reduce your sauce like this, the flavors concentrate. One of my first reductions was awesome...awesomely inedible. I used a whole chile and when it reduced, that was all you could taste. Anyhow, I check the temp on the chicken, I'm looking for about 155. Since it was ready, I pull it out and put it on a wooden board to rest. The chicken will still keep cooking while it is sitting there so it will be safe to eat. If you are going to serve it straight out of the oven without resting (NEVER DO THIS!) you need to get the temperature up to at least 165F measured in the thickest part to make sure it is safe to serve. BTW, chicken is still slightly pink at 165, it's safe, go for it.
Once the stock finishes reducing, it will be thick enough to coat a wooden spoon (called nappe) . If you don't want to wait for the sauce to fully reduce, you can add a bit of corn starch to cold water and stir it until it looks like very thin skim milk. About 8 oz of water for 2 Tbsp of starch. Strain all the stuff out of the sauce, rinse and wipe your pan and put the sauce back in it.
Add salt and pepper to taste and add the corn starch if you are using it. Bring it to a boil and then lower to a simmer for about 2 minutes to activate the starch. Then strain it one more time and serve. I used corn starch so I could show it.
When you serve a sauce like this, you don't need much, there's a LOT of flavor in it. I just drop enough to make sure that the person runs out of sauce at the same time they run out of meat.
Start to finish, this meal took 45 minutes including prep (not counting making the stock and breaking down the chicken). I love pan sauces because they are easy, flavorful and they look good too. Here's another one I did recently using the same method, but it's a red wine reduction. BTW, any acid... wine, vinegar, fruit juice... will do, it doesn't have to be wine. Please ignore the spot on the plate, the one down side to using corn starch is that you have to "paint" the plate right, if a couple of drops spill in the wrong place, they don't wipe up.
So I start by searing the chicken breast with just a bit of olive oil in the pan. I don't want to add too much flavor to the breast itself since I'm making a sauce so just sprinkle both sides liberally with salt and pepper. For the heat on the pan, the oil should be kinda wavy like the bottom of a swimming pool but not smoking. If the olive oil smokes, throw it away and start over, it'll be very bitter. Sear the breast so that it has a nice little bit of carmelization on each side. Also, I sear the edge on the thick end so there is good color.
Once I pull the chicken out of the pan and into a 375 degree oven, I use a little white wine to deglaze (scrape the meat bits from) the pan. maybe 2-3 oz. Then I pile my aromatics in. In this case, a couple of shallots sliced thin, half a Spanish onion and about 3 cloves of garlic that I smashed to let the juices out. I'm still at med-high heat through this whole process.
When the onions turn translucent, I add the rest of the white wine, in this case about 16 oz total. The amount of wine isn't really that important as long as you use the same amount of chicken stock (later). I bring the wine to a fast simmer and let it sit there for about 10 minutes. When the wine is nearly gone, I add the chicken stock and my herbs (rosemary, thyme leaves and a couple of ancho chile rings) and mix it together. There are classic flavor combinations that you can use here or you can get adventurous. There's a pretty good book called The Flavor Bible that talks specifically about complimentary flavors and gives you a list of what goes with what. Adventurous is more fun, but you can really make mistakes if you don't think about what's happening to the flavors. When you reduce your sauce like this, the flavors concentrate. One of my first reductions was awesome...awesomely inedible. I used a whole chile and when it reduced, that was all you could taste. Anyhow, I check the temp on the chicken, I'm looking for about 155. Since it was ready, I pull it out and put it on a wooden board to rest. The chicken will still keep cooking while it is sitting there so it will be safe to eat. If you are going to serve it straight out of the oven without resting (NEVER DO THIS!) you need to get the temperature up to at least 165F measured in the thickest part to make sure it is safe to serve. BTW, chicken is still slightly pink at 165, it's safe, go for it.
Once the stock finishes reducing, it will be thick enough to coat a wooden spoon (called nappe) . If you don't want to wait for the sauce to fully reduce, you can add a bit of corn starch to cold water and stir it until it looks like very thin skim milk. About 8 oz of water for 2 Tbsp of starch. Strain all the stuff out of the sauce, rinse and wipe your pan and put the sauce back in it.
Add salt and pepper to taste and add the corn starch if you are using it. Bring it to a boil and then lower to a simmer for about 2 minutes to activate the starch. Then strain it one more time and serve. I used corn starch so I could show it.
When you serve a sauce like this, you don't need much, there's a LOT of flavor in it. I just drop enough to make sure that the person runs out of sauce at the same time they run out of meat.
Start to finish, this meal took 45 minutes including prep (not counting making the stock and breaking down the chicken). I love pan sauces because they are easy, flavorful and they look good too. Here's another one I did recently using the same method, but it's a red wine reduction. BTW, any acid... wine, vinegar, fruit juice... will do, it doesn't have to be wine. Please ignore the spot on the plate, the one down side to using corn starch is that you have to "paint" the plate right, if a couple of drops spill in the wrong place, they don't wipe up.
Glory of the win..PRICELESS!
Congrats, L. And post that recipe!
Great chili cost money. I haven't spent more than $36 yet, but it's always been worth it.
I need to make up some chili soon.... it is getting to be that time of year.
