I have to admit Ive never used my copy of Cooks Companion for a THING :/
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:27 (twelve years ago) link
But u kno, its kind of like owning a dictionary or shakespeare, you dont really read it, its there for reference.
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:28 (twelve years ago) link
This is a thread I mentioned yesterday and the first post is hilariously befuddling.
The super-basic questions thread for non-cooks
is there anything technically wrong with this? any way i could make it better?
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/183/415409461_68654b7a14.jpg?v=0
It could be made better by not doing whatever is going on there, also by getting a stove w/ burners. What's w/ that stove?
― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:29 (twelve years ago) link
Lol
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:30 (twelve years ago) link
yeah something really weird is going on there
― call all destroyer, Friday, 16 March 2012 03:30 (twelve years ago) link
also to cut to the chase: plastic colander over heat = fire hazard so
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:32 (twelve years ago) link
That initial post and image have been stuck in my head for 5 years now and I'm glad I finally tracked it to ground! Jergins was a little defensive in that thread, but I think things were learned and lives were saved. (literally. he was doing dangerous shit w/ chicken)
― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:33 (twelve years ago) link
Joyriding?
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:34 (twelve years ago) link
i was kidding, i know that the french laundry is probably the hardest cookbook out there that's not molecular gastronomy or pastry
― the late great, Friday, 16 March 2012 03:34 (twelve years ago) link
chicken sounding?
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:36 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss8LDBNcsWc
― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:37 (twelve years ago) link
sweet lord, that female co-anchor's reaction face is one of my favorite things in the world
― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:38 (twelve years ago) link
hahahha
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:38 (twelve years ago) link
that is fantastic
One-pot cooking is my favourite thing.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:07 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, but it's amazing, such a great thing to have and stare at and imagine learning things from.
― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:10 (twelve years ago) link
Anyway, ate a huge meal at a Beefeater last night, which is why I'm awake now. It was satisfactory.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:14 (twelve years ago) link
And half price with a free hotel room.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:15 (twelve years ago) link
I have Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course (or similar - 400+ pages, black, she's wearing red on the cover) which is kind of my reference guide. I seldom cook a recipe from it but it gives me lots of basic facts and ideas. I have lots of Nigel Slater, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and Jamie Oliver books, plus a few by the likes of Madhur Jaffrey, Gordon Ramsay, and so on and so forth. Slater is my favourite. Oliver is like an adolescent version of Slater. I do a lot of recipes from The Guardian, toot here is a huge amount to be said for owning a few good knives and some good pans and learning a few basics (like dicing an onion! The flavour changes depending on size of pieces, oil used, heat applied, etc etc), and then just experimenting.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:22 (twelve years ago) link
Keller's Ad-Hoc At Home is a much more down-to-earth book. Also big ups to the Culinary Institute of America's book The Professional Chef.
― s.clover, Friday, 16 March 2012 04:30 (twelve years ago) link
Ruth Reichl's complete reworking of The Gourmet Cookbook has been a handy resource for me.
― Carlos Pollomar (WmC), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:33 (twelve years ago) link
labensky's on cooking is really intimidating but also really useful:
http://vig-fp.prenhall.com/bigcovers/013715576X.jpg
between the page count and all the sidebars/tangents, it's kinda the infinite jest of cooking texts.
― the kids of boris midney high (get bent), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:35 (twelve years ago) link
^ how not to sell a copy to me
― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:37 (twelve years ago) link
Books weren't how I learned my fundamentals.
Keith Floyd on TV is where I got much of mine from!
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:38 (twelve years ago) link
most of my heroes dont appear on no stamps
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:39 (twelve years ago) link
But they are on Channel 4 quite often. Or BBC2.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:40 (twelve years ago) link
oh god the keep fuckin that chicken clip just sent me into like 10 minutes of conniption fits. that will never not be funny.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:40 (twelve years ago) link
my theory was that ernie was just really bored that day. wkiw ernie.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:41 (twelve years ago) link
Ha Trayce! I loved Keith Floyd. My secret favorite was Jeff Janz (sp?)
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 04:56 (twelve years ago) link
I swear that guy is actually saying "keep pluckin' that chicken" and erryone just wants to wilfully mishear it.
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 05:49 (twelve years ago) link
I hada pesto chicken sandwich today, thanks to this thread.
― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Friday, 16 March 2012 05:50 (twelve years ago) link
yum
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 16 March 2012 06:24 (twelve years ago) link
i dunno, trayce. the slow-it-down part of the tube makes it seem pretty clear that he said "fffffffuuucckkiinnn", but maybe they doctored it or something...
― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Friday, 16 March 2012 06:31 (twelve years ago) link
'okay whatever' is what this thread is notably fucking lacking.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 16 March 2012 10:10 (twelve years ago) link
i don't get what's wrong with this? i've done it myself. with broccoli, not beans
― lex pretend, Friday, 16 March 2012 10:33 (twelve years ago) link
probably wdn't do your plastic colander much good, and you might get a bit of leaching of plasticy chemicals? with a metal one it wd be a perfectly acceptable steaming method i think
― Kony Montana: "Say hello to my invisible friend" (Noodle Vague), Friday, 16 March 2012 10:36 (twelve years ago) link
you need a LID to TRAP THE STEAM. like a large pot lid. hot steam is what cooks the food. otherwise the steam just goes UP. it cooks the food a little bit as it goes up but not very much. with a lid, all the steam stays around the food. it happens very fast. with green beans you maybe need to steam them for like 5 minutes.
the other BIG PROBLEM is that something plastic on the stove = potential for burnt, melted plastic.
you need to use something METAL. if you don't have a metal colander or sieve, or even an ACTUAL STEAMER, you could use aluminum foil with holes punched in it.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 16 March 2012 10:37 (twelve years ago) link
oh i don't really know what the colanders i've used were made out of
― lex pretend, Friday, 16 March 2012 10:37 (twelve years ago) link
the last time i tried to steam broccoli the pots all seemed too big for the colanders and none of the lids fit so i had to rest a too-small lid on top of the broccoli and then the colander slipped off and fell into the hot water halfway through and i had no idea what to do. that's when i ended up gnawing on semi-raw florets because i sat there waiting for like half an hour but they didn't get any softer
― lex pretend, Friday, 16 March 2012 10:40 (twelve years ago) link
never again
"i was going to drive to my friend's house and crashed my car into a tree and sat there in the wreckage, but i didn't seem to ever arrive at my friend's house. CONFUSING"
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 16 March 2012 10:41 (twelve years ago) link
You know if you dont have a decent steamer there's also nowt wrong with just popping the greens into the pot itself with a bit of water and salt, and simmering them for 5 mins. Right?
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 10:58 (twelve years ago) link
isn't that what you do with frozen veg?
― lex pretend, Friday, 16 March 2012 11:03 (twelve years ago) link
yep! or steam them. both work.
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 16 March 2012 11:08 (twelve years ago) link
Sure! But its ok to do it with fresh veg too! They take a lil longer to cook, tho. Frozen veg are slightly pre cooked :)
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 11:09 (twelve years ago) link
Lex you make me go all mumsy and wanna show you how to cook simple things, bless yer.
― Medical Dance Crab With Lesson (Trayce), Friday, 16 March 2012 11:12 (twelve years ago) link
Getting a steamer with a timer for £20 might be worthwhile if you have the counter space and eat a lot of vegetables.
― Une semaine de Bunty (ShariVari), Friday, 16 March 2012 11:22 (twelve years ago) link
read that as "if you live in outer space and eat a lot of vegetables"
― ↖MODERNIST↗ hangups (thomp), Friday, 16 March 2012 11:54 (twelve years ago) link
I read that his comment was a reference to a joke about tenderizing chicken by fucking it. I think in the joke the chicken is alive?
Which explains the other thing he says, "it takes a tough man to make a tender forecast."
― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Friday, 16 March 2012 13:40 (twelve years ago) link
if there's heat on it then you risk getting cancer-causing chemicals in your food
if no heat no problem
― the late great, Friday, 16 March 2012 14:21 (twelve years ago) link