What's cooking? part 4

recipe says something like, "now you're going to think you have way too many onions..."

first thing you do is let them cook down in butter for about 40 mins so idk it won't be too bad

i have a recipe for four main course servings that calls for two pounds

haha, shit, well we'll see soon enough, won't we.

Yr house is gonna reek of cooked onions for weeks, just sayin.

when I realized that onions are kind of like, sugar, I understood why I love them so much

I made vege soup last night from a batch of frozen chicken stock I'd made ages ago, with all the leftover carrots, some capsicum, celery and a shit ton of garlic as N was whining about coming down with a cold.

As I'd had to dilute the stock to make enough liquid I thought "hmm I better add some salt" and unthinkingly threw in a large pinch of un-ground rocksalt, forgetting how much salt that actually is.

Yea, its a lot of salt. Haha. Ohwell it was still v nice, just VERY saltygarlicky.

i measure salt v precisely these days

yeah me too. when i first started cooking with fish sauce i thought the biggest danger was accidentally making everything way too fishy but i've found the salt content is more likely to be the first to ruin it all. so easy to f up w/ salt.

i don't measure salt but you gotta add a little and then taste with something like soup

i forget how the expression goes, you can always add salt later but you can't take it out once you add it, kinda like how you can always add more heat to something that's underdone but once you've overcooked something you're kinda fucked

I love salt so its hard for me to really overdo it, but Ive come close a few times! I dont measure anything tbh (except when baking cakes)

salt is serious business no joke

otoh sugar is hard to od on... well there's more of a buffer than with salt

Noooo way, for me, sugar is so easilyh overdone. Blech. something being even a little too sweet I just cant eat.

It's like the difference between a lightbulb and a pregnant lady

I can't take over-sweet either

I'm the kind of person that if you put a heaped teaspoon of sugar in my tea instead of a flat teaspoon of sugar, well thats just way too much, I gotta pour it down the sink.

I never used to be, its weird.

what about when you think you're adding salt to the hamburger but you're adding sugar

YUM

I guess I just have a sweet tooth

I used to be really tolerant of salt but I find my tolerance has gone down lately

i bought a big slab of pork belly today!

i think i will try this http://www.melindalee.com/recipes/braised-pork-belly-with-glazed-turnips/

pork belly = oh hello

I just made WmC's garlicky mushroom cream herb sauce - delicious!

Lol, glad it turned out well, I've made that many times but never written it down.

yeah I just kind of eyeballed everything, sauce tasted a little salty but mellowed out when mixed with the pasta.

'fraid that my parents will never get used to western flavors, though

I'd love to make creamy mushroom pasta more often but a) it is a deadly thing to eat more than as a treat, weightwise and b) my housemate's lactose intolerant so I cant make things with cream/milk often. And if there's such a thing as soy cream I dont wanna know, bleugh.

yeah I used light instead of heavy cream and olive oil instead of butter. mistakenly added a few spoons of cornstarch instead of flour because I thought the cornstarch jar was the flour jar.

the one time I made alfredo, jeez! it was just heavy cream and parmesan and butter.

i just use regular milk, not cream and it tastes fine imo

i also don't really like things that are creamy so it's something i make/eat very rarely

I'd love to make creamy mushroom pasta more often but a) it is a deadly thing to eat more than as a treat, weightwise and b) my housemate's lactose intolerant so I cant make things with cream/milk often. And if there's such a thing as soy cream I dont wanna know, bleugh.

Cashew cream. Seriously, you just soak cashews for a while and then purée them and add water til it's cream like. The fat acts as a flavor carrier and when all is said a done you'll be stunned it's not dairy.

Anyone have luck w this mushroom cream sauce? I am a whiz at recipe cooking but I'm still a freestyle noob. I'm thinking maybe like 3-5 pbellos, 8 cloves of garlic, half an onion, few tbs of oil and flour, 1c chicken stock, 1/2c white wine, 1c heavy cream (or more, idk)? Are any of those proportions wack? Will that coat a pound of linguine?

I have been reading Gustavo Arellano's awesome new book Taco USA and it is making me crave Mexican food nonstop.

Stevie I'd say maybe 1/4 cup of wine, but you really only need it for deglazing and a bit of flavor; 1/2 cup of chicken stock and maybe 1/2 cup of cream? With that much wine and stock and cream it'd take a long time to thicken imo

Stevie, sounds about right depending on the amt of flour. Usually when I mess up a roux-thickened sauce it's because I used too much flour and made library paste. Just googled and found this guide --
http://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/American-Woman-Cook-Book/Thickening-Power-Of-Flour-Or-Corn-Starch.html

I might print that out and keep it in the kitchen for quick reference.

Change of subject -- can y'all recommend me some good coleslaw recipes? I can't make good slaw to save my life. Creamy, vinegary, any versions welcome.

i recently made a slaw with cumin as one of the main modifiers--i can try to track it down

stevie I can give you some of my sauce, I made too much and froze some. haha.

I dont think frozen cream/bechamel sauces reconstitute terribly well when you thaw them tbh, they kind of seperate :(

haha well maybe i could throw it on the stove again? idk

I made the wmc pasta, but did not stop to get sherry a la Le Lechera; deglazed with white wine and oops for some reason did not have garlic in the house (? this never happens) and used sage as the herb; was very good. Oh also I added peas. I sound like one of those insufferable wankers leaving reviews on recipe sites now "oh I changed up pretty much 75% of the recipe and liked it/didn't like it."

Hahah, I love that about recipe sites! Every single vegtetarian recipe on taste.com.au has at least one comment of "this was delicious, I added bacon"

I love "here were my variations" comments, except when the commenter reveals that they totally don't understand their ingredients. "I don't like chicken livers, so I made a lychee paté -- it was terrible! One star for this recipe."

FWIW, Silk soy cream is delicious, but soy is thinner than milk so it's only got the constitution of 4% (famously, "homo" in Canada)

Peas are a good idea in that pasta sauce, I wish I would remember to use them more often.

love peas in creamy pasta sauces: esp fresh peas

I always whirl my peas before using them

I do peas, pink salmon, and shallot or leeks, in a creamy sauce. Delish. And so quick!

om nom nom

Gah now Im hungry.

Orzo salad w spinach, basil, feta, lemon, and tomato. Easy as pie, but the lemon imo really is the secret ingredient because it just teases you into taking the next bite.