What's cooking? part 4

Isn't the thing with caramel meant to be that you don't touch it, otherwise it crystallises?

I don't know, I stir the shit out of mine, but I also like grainy fudge.

I've heard Jacques Pepin say not to stir caramel at all, but I also have cookbooks that say to stir constantly.

The recipe I used said

1 cup granulated sugar + 0.25 tsp salt into pot on high heat, stir till all clumpy, reduce to low, stir till smooth (I gave up after a while and just thought fuck it if it has some small lumps), add half cup coconut cream slowly, stir till smooth.

I turned up the heat bc low was not doing shit to melt the sugar.

I have a candy thermometer but I didn't use it because it's shit and also bc it wouldn't work in the big stock pot I had to use(my only heavy-bottomed pot).

caramel makes me kinda nervous since I witnessed a saucepan full of it boil over as a kid

i like to to go with lower heat personally bc I'm paranoid, and I only stir it early on to help dissolve the sugar, then I leave it

everyone makes it different though

It seemed like it was melting faster when not stirred but I was paranoid about burning it so I keep on going

ignorant question:

can i fry potatoes in a pan but end up with them more dry than wet? is it just a matter of a balance between too little/too much oil?

too many potatoes in the pan will cause them to steam more than fry, and yah, too much oil can leave them pretty wet as well

Easier to oven fry if you want them drier, and possibly the type of potato. Toss some peeled and sliced russets with oil to coat, put in a single layer on a baking sheet (on top of parchment paper if you have it), bake at 350 F until tender inside and crisp/browned outside , depends on how you've cut them - maybe 20 min or so

potato water inside the potatoes, zounds

i always roast small chunks at a higher temp (after soaking or rinsing them really well so get the excess starch out) - dry them thorough in a tea towel, toss in a little oil and spices roast for 25 mins at 425F

e.g. i did the above method on a bunch of golf-ball sized red potatoes that i quartered and they came out super crispy but mushy and creamy in the middle.

my mini ginger caramel cheesecakes were AMAAAAAAZING btw

imo reds are a more boiling type o' tate, so ideal for potato salad (i.e. nice and creamy like you said). i know people roast 'em but i think you can only achieve what you said (i.e. mushy). i much prefer russets or yukons for roasting. why do you want less starch?
that cheesecake DOES indeed sound brilliant

i find that if i soak or really rinse potatoes/sweet potatoes first, the come out less dry and mealy, and are instead more creamy and soft on the insides. i rinse them till the water is clear.

my next vegan cheesecake experiment:

homemade hokey pokey cookies as the base
plain filling with homemade hokey pokey pieces mixed in
thin choc layer on top, more crushed hokey pokey

hokey pokey is honeycomb, right?
sounds amazing

(Mary Berry has a 'hokey pokey' coffee cake but it is a kind of hard caramel with walnuts thing, like a praline maybe)

It's a light puffy candy like honeycomb but it's made from golden syrup and baking soda. like a violet crumble (that's a uk candy bar, right?)

No, it's an Australian one.

bought this interesting (dry) rice mix today that I'm going to cook up for dinner -- smoked basmati rice with dill and saffron etc etc

super excited to try it out

hey, just1n3, and anyone else who knows their vegan stuff. I need to cook something on Friday for a vegan dinner for friends. Something that's nice enough to feed visitors but is reasonably quick and easy. Any thoughts?

I was thinking of doing these roasted sweet potatoes with star anise, but I need them to go alongside something else. And for dessert, maybe this choc-avocado mousse.

I'm on it!!

ok i would skip the sweet potatoes and do more of a close-to-one-pot dish - it's just easier to manage one single recipe than to cook a bunch of sides. here are some suggestions:

tofu tikka masala - so so good, pretty simple. i skip the habanero and sub ground coriander (1 tsp) for the dried cilantro.

creamy cheesy roast pepper sauce with pasta - this is such a complex sauce (lots of umami) but ridic easy to make. i skip the tahini, and also skip the cashew-soak by just boiling them for 10 mins. you can serve with what steamed veggies you want.

sweet and stick cashew tofu - another simple favourite that's totally delish and restaurant-level.

black lentil and quinoa salad with avo basil vinaigrette - love this and it's easy (although you have to get a few pots dirty). you can switch out the quinoa for coucous (or probably even small pasta), or use french lentils instead of black/beluga. i use half the amount of jalapeno bc i am weak. keep in mind it does need to sit for an hour after it's made so i suggest making it the night before.

desserts:
pepperidge farms, if you can get it in canada, makes an accidentally vegan puff pastry, perfect for these simple apple turnovers (add cinnamon if you must!)

these super fudgey rich amazing cookies make a great dessert served with vanilla ice cream (they don't hold together that well so are best eaten with a spoon). i also switch out the walnuts for almonds, which i think is maybe better.

my cheesecake recipe seems complicated and time consuming, but you just need to follow the filling instructions (simple if you can get vegan cream cheese) and then smash whatever cookies + melted vegan marg of your choosing and press into a tin/s, swirl in whatever you want to the filling, like berries, and cook. or just add chocolate chips. or some grated choc on top with some nuts.

Whoa, thank you so much! I'm going to read over these and decide which one to go for later today. Really looking forward to this. Thanks again!

I couldn't wait so I checked them all out furtively (I'm supposed to be working). I'm going to do the pasta with roast pepper sauce, maybe also the lentil/quinoa salad or maybe just some dips instead, and the cheesecake! (Turns out someone else who's coming along doesn't eat chocolate). Now I just have to find vegan cream cheese, but I should be able to get it locally, I think. Fantastic options, and I signed up to your blog.... will report back on my results.

If you got any questions, just message me!

I fried chicken for the first time last weekend, it was rosemary-lemon brined and coated w/ buttermilk and this very flavorful smoked paprika breading and let. me. tell. YOU!

so good. SO good. This is by and far the best fried chicken I've ever had in my life, and one of my new favoritest recipes.

https://food52.com/recipes/19368-michael-ruhlman-s-rosemary-brined-buttermilk-fried-chicken

whoa

Giving Pope Yes a run for their money; I love it!

I cannot describe to you how good and flavorful and impossibly brilliant this chicken is

It is a total #gamechanger

Vegan cheesecake prep: caramel #1 spectacularly burnt (only just too much, nearly got away with it looking deliberate but not quite). Caramel #2 mollycoddled and may get sticky rather than crunchy but the main thing is: not burnt! Cheesecake looks fab, hoping it firms up ok as it's very wobbly but I think that's supposed to happen.

yeah just fridge it and it should firm up to the same consistency as a reg baked cheesecake. that caramel recipe is weird - mine def did not turn out anything like the recipe said it would (a thin sauce).

Mine is a thin sauce but only because I was super-cautious after #1. This is my first ever cheesecake, I don't know why I've never made one before since I'm a big fan. I ate some of the ginger/Earth balance base with a spoon.

the base is the best! i was eating spoonfuls of it out of the blender.

I got a VacMaster chamber vacuum sealer, so I infused watermelon w/ rum for a graduation party. Favorite new way to get hammered.

Vegan dinner was excellent, thanks again Justine! I loved the pasta/pepper sauce. It's amazing how the ingredients come together and taste nothing at all like themselves. The cheesecake was a bit too wobbly and too sweet for me but that could easily be adjusted if I make it again.

yay!!!

Also I'm definitely going to use that caramel sauce for ice cream.

So, some of you may and some of you may not follow Tep's food blog. His most recent post was about butter -- http://okaycheckitout.blogspot.com/2014/05/what-we-blog-about-when-we-blog-about.html -- and we've been shooting the breeze lately by email on food and other topics, so I decided to follow his inspiration and make garlic butter by fat-washing garlic in whipping cream and turning it into butter. I used a whole bulb of garlic, and grated it rather than chopping it so it was extra stout -- possibly too stout. Two cups of heavy whipping cream plus two tablespoons of buttermilk, in goes the garlic (1/4 cup? possibly a bit more), let it sit at room temp for 16 hours then whooped on it hard in the mixer with the whip attachment. Beware, when the whipped cream breaks down into butter and whey, the whey will want to splash everywhere. Washed the butter as well as I could with two changes of ice water to get as much whey off of it as possible.

This stuff is an aggressive raw-garlic punch in the mouth, but it doesn't stay with you the way eating raw garlic does. The taste dissipates pretty quickly. So far I've just had a bit on a toasted english muffin -- I think it'll make great garlic toast and be useful for pan-grilled sandwiches or tossing with pasta to make buttered noodles. I think it's a bit too radioactive just to spread on warm bread, but since I'm making a batch of bread right now I'll find out soon enough.

just curious, what else can be fat-washed

Hmm, you could combine rum and butter and have butter-flavored rum for your hot toddy and rum-flavored butter for any number of things -- hard sauce for a bread pudding, spread it on your pecan waffle, etc

just1n3, after making that black lentil quinoa salad you posted and based on how amazing it is i hafta work my way through the rest of those recipes. thankyou!
xxxposts
never heard of "fat washing" - innerstin'!

I could use some fat-washing myself /jk

The jury's still out on this first stab at garlic butter. It's extremely harsh with hot/raw garlic, but it might work as a cooking fat. If I do it again, I'll either use much less garlic or use roasted garlic. In the meantime, this seems like a brilliant way to make herb butters. Next time I get a big bunch of fresh dill, it's going into some cream, and the resulting butter is going to get on some corn on the cob.

Or on a baked potato or some asparagus.

now you're talking! I know I'm not going to get around to doing it, but I love the idea of fresh dill butter.

Just1n3, I'm still eating that pasta with the pepper sauce - I made a ton. Today I had some cold, with hot buttered spinach and dill. It was superb.

Peach peelings, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean steeped in cream; whipped into peach cobbler butter, omg.

OM, did you make it with cilantro or basil?

cilantro was what was on hand. such a crazy delicious and texturally out of this world dressing!

i made a strata for my class this morning
it's pretty good but i think i should have used more eggs and milk