What's cooking? part 4

Awesome, thank you for sharing! I do in fact have one of those thermometers. How the heck do I know when I am done kneading with the Kitchenaid dough hook?

rip yeats

looool

mmmm, I believe 5-7 minutes on a low/medium setting will give it enough gluten to provide elasticity. my friend that works @ a pizza joint says she knead theirs for 13-15 minutes but that's doing a 50# bag of flour. not sure what overworking would look/feel like

classic roast chicken + potatoes for dinner tonight

since apparently it is my destiny to own every small appliance known to man, there is now a bread machine in my home. first loaf cooling as we speak.

ysi

lol maybe wait until i've got a few loaves under the proverbial belt

since it's late and i'm waiting for this bread to cool, here's the complete list of small appliances in my home:

toaster oven (bought)
rice cooker (bought)
espresso machine (gift from my wife)
coffee burr grinder (bought)
blender/food processor (idk where this came from)
slow cooker (bought from a friend who realized vegans don't need slow cookers)
ice cream maker (my wife won this in a raffle)
raclette maker (xmas gift to my wife from me)
bread machine (xmas gift from my in-laws)

it looks even worse when i type it out

Things I got for christmas:

A nice vegetable peeler
The Oxo measuring cups with the 2/3 and 3/4 cups
A nice balloon whisk
A knife sharpener
A 6 QUART ENAMELED CAST IRON DUTCH OVEN OMG

GUYS GUYS WHAT DO I MAKE IN MY NEW DUTCH OVEN?!

every soup stew and braise imo

Also great for baking bread.

risotto!
boeuf bourguignon!
panade!

I love my Dutch oven - it's blue! Getting married was fun because we got a million cool kitchen gadgets, that included.

MIL gave me a couple of her heavy duty stainless steel pots with built-in strainers that she didn't want anymore; they're beautiful! I'm cooking dinner for my family tomorrow so I'm quite excited to have those.

made some lovely beet soup. sauteed leeks, cooked red beets run through food mill, added, pretty finely shredded fenel and cabbage, vegetable stock brought gently to boil for a little while. finished with plain greek yogurt, some sherry vin and a bit of lemon juice. never made beet soup before but this was a winner

I just made hash browns successfully for the first time; I am kind of dumbfounded abt how something that took so little effort with so few ingredients tasted so wonderful. You just:

Melt 1T butter in a skillet
add frozen potatoes and even them out into a single layer maybe 1/2" thick
wait
wait some more, like maybe 10 min
flip
wait, like seriously i'm not used to being this patient but it pays off
douse with hot sauce and eat

I think I just mastered Thai tea! I wound up skipping sweetened condensed milk and using sugar + half an half instead. Here's how I did it:

Bring 4c water to a boil, add 1/2c Thai tea mix and simmer for like 5 min
Remove from heat and stir in 1/2c of sugar; let sit for 10 min
Strain through tea sock or French press
Let cool and chill completely, pour over ice at like 3 or 4 parts tea and 1 part half and half

It's so yummy and rich and strong and not diluted!!!

yum stevie! that sounds delicious

I am addicted to roasting chicken

OMG gurl I just got a Dutch oven and have been reading up on roast chicken recipes!! What's yr technique??

I want to make Julia Child's coq au vin -- y/n? Is this like the most delicious thing ever? idk I've never had coq au vin

I've never made coq au vin --- but I made her boeuf bourguignon and it was incredible.

I have been using the super-stripped down Mark Bittman technique --- evoo, salt & pepper, potatoes tossed in oil & s/p scattered around, in the oven for an hour at 400, basting/stirring potatoes every 15 min

cooks up a dream, so delicious. I should try it in the dutch oven though - let me know if you find a good recipe!!

For my first loaf of bread in about a year, I tried the Kazakh Family Loaf that Tep blogged about here -- http://okaycheckitout.blogspot.com/2013/11/kazakh-family-loaf.html
I screwed it up twice (forgot the salt; got impatient and didn't let it rise enough) and it still turned out pretty good, especially accompanying a fairly salty potato soup.

I'm roasting a chicken and potatoes (and brussels) right now.

i made scratch gravy for the first time & weeee so good

(raised on powdered gravy mix, deal w/it.gif)

I cook a chicken pretty much every week (well, I do when I have a kitchen at my disposal). My favorite technique is actually not roasting! It's here:

http://www.democracyforums.com/showthread.php?p=1250637

I play it pretty fast and loose with the recipe. I love this technique because you get delicious chicken to shred up for other uses, then you pitch the carcass back into the broth to simmer down into stock. A dutch oven is perfect for this.

whats under there

http://i.imgur.com/mu8Nynl.png

I would guess sage.

looks like something more substantial, unless its fate piles of sage

fat

like it could almost be muscles or oysters

one of them looks kind of like a mouse

bay leaves?

oreos

Slices of black truffle?

Basil?

i wanted macaroni and cheese, so i made my first roux, but i didn't have flour, so i used some cornstarch, it didn't seem to matter

is it supposed to?

I don't think so, unless you want to get the flour browned for some toasty flavor.

cornstarch has a different consistency and flavor than flour, in this case since youre mixing it with all that cheese it prob doesnt matter too much, but in some sauces its p easy to tell the differnce

huh, apparently my lyfelong platonic macaroni ideal kraft uses cornstarch (at least, in the organic one - the reg one sez 'modified food starch', which who knows), so p. much zero chance of my noticing if the cornstarch makes it come out weird

: )

you can make that weird half solid half liquid science project with corn starch but you can't make it with flour

i'm poaching a whole chicken like q said to. not quite the same recipe but it's ok.

well, i used real cheese which seems to make full technological refinement in the sauce impossible, not sure where i can get cheese powder to substitute

maybe i can buy a box of kraft and just use the packet

on a bit of a pizza making binge; trying to get dough to be perfectly how i want it (not necessarily crsipy/crackery like i was into for awhile, but more)like new york slices. last night at home madea nice one with just green olives (fontina and sauce, natch). today @ work have got the dough more refined, put roasted red fresno chile strips, roasted eggplant, on top of sauce and mozz. pizza rules

mmmm, I believe 5-7 minutes on a low/medium setting will give it enough gluten to provide elasticity. my friend that works @ a pizza joint says she knead theirs for 13-15 minutes but that's doing a 50# bag of flour. not sure what overworking would look/feel like

I used to knead in my stand mixer for 3-4, having no idea that longer would make it more elastic - I tried my last one for about 7 minutes and wow, what a world of difference! I dedicate my next pizza to you.

funny you say that. i think i need a bit more patience than i had today. still came out real nice but coulda been a little more elastic. had it on a medium speed for about 3 minutes 'cuz i had some stuff i needed to get on with doing

Do you guys use the high-gluten flour that's supposed to be better for pizza? I can only find that around here in large bags, so I haven't tried it.

Also, I use the no knead method - mix dough, let sit for 18 hrs, then form and let rise for 2 hours. Anyone make pizza this way?

have never used high-gluten before but made my first batch of dough with .00 flour (specialty flour that is used for pizza in Italy) the other day. not sure what dif it made. was def v cracker-y.
last pizza of the week today: dough>sauce with finely chopped habaneros added>mozzarella>topped with thin slices of red chiles and pineapple. that is all

A handful of almonds and some brussels sprouts count as breakfast, yes? I don't even know what I want to cook anymore, I could eat Chinese and Indian takeout for weeks, I feel like.

gonna dutch oven-roast a chicken this weekend, i am excite

we won a ten pound "pasture sampler" of various meat cuts from a local farm in a silent auction and it has been really fun trying out all these different things. We have 2 lbs of stew beef and a small chicken and like a pound of ribs left over, this weekend we are making chili w/the beef and maybe that 40-garlic-clove chicken recipe? not sure yet.

A 40-clove recipe would definitely drive me to buy one of those deli containers of already peeled cloves. It's probably about the only thing that could.