Cooking

fair enough correct in the context tbf!

I have lamb and puff pastry and I'm thinking of making Borek but that recipe calls for filo dough. Can I make this work with puff pastry?
https://www.recipetineats.com/borek-turkish-spiced-lamb-filo-pastry/

YO someone just gave us a used Instant Pot and I am TOTALLY making that woman's butter chicken recipe, harbl!!! Tonight.

I've never used one of these so I may have questions later.

I wasn't actually crazy about the butter chicken recipe as is, but at one point I took that recipe, added more cumin and some coriander to the spices, pre-cooked them with onions before putting them in the pot, dumped in a bag of frozen spinach, and ended up with a pretty good though completely inauthentic chicken spinach curry thing.

You do have to make sure you have enough liquid in the pot with improvised recipes like that or it doesn't seal. Especially if you sauté anything in the pot before pouring everything else in, make sure you deglaze it really well and then listen/watch for it actually sealing up and starting to pressure cook. I've accidentally boiled chicken a couple of times bc the pot just kept cooking and not sealing.

I don't know what any of that means but I'll try!

The recipe I meant is from https://twosleevers.com/cookingstyle/instant-pot/ I was also thinking about a spinach component, though I can do that separately. I'm intrigued by the idea of cooking the rice in the pot at the same time, with something holding the rice bowl above the sauce. Was def planning to add some cardamom etc since we have all that stuff.

Yes, sorry, that was a really unclear post I just wrote.

The two sleevers butter chicken recipe is the first instant pot recipe I ever made. And I'm glad I made it! It didn't end up being my favorite recipe ever - I think it's just richer than I actually like - but it's a really good base for adding things to once you get more confident with the instant pot and are ready to improvise.

No it was fine! I just don't really understand how pressure cooking works, w/r/t what you said about it not sealing if there's not enough liquid?

i agree. the butter chicken is a little bland. you need to add stuff.

What I was trying to say is that the instant pot only works if you're making something with at least a quarter cup of liquid in it, ideally more, and if there's nothing stuck to the pot itself. When in doubt, pour in a little water or broth and stir to make sure nothing is stuck.

It will make a quiet roaring noise as it's getting up to pressure, and it will shoot out steam for a minute as it's getting ready to seal, and you'll wonder if it's supposed to be doing that, and then the noise and the steam will suddenly stop and it will lock down and start counting down the minutes. Mine occasionally does a thing where it fails to do that, and I end up with boiled chicken instead of pressure-cooked chicken, but that only happens when I'm trying variations on recipes and I've messed up.

Hahah that play-by-play is actually very helpful, ty.

That little metal thingie needs to have enough steam under it to push it all the way up and keep it there. It something gums up its movement, it can't seal, so make sure it moves freely before you put the lid on. Also, if it gets a little sideways, it can help to poke it with a chopstick or something long and narrow so you don't get burned, to kind of knock it straight.

yeah my old one used to sometimes fail to seal properly and boil off the water because i was covering the valve up a tiny bit so it couldn't pop up. new one is designed better.

I've just discovered cooked.wiki/ and hoo boy...

It takes out all the rambling and noise of a recipe webpage. Completely life changing.

My Step Mom used to make a appetizer called (salupbow). They were pork filled steamed DUMPLINGS!. Do you know of which I speak

― Sharon Welles, Friday, April 23, 2004 12:12 PM (nineteen years ago)

I believe OP was referring to 小笼包, the mighty xiaolongbao and yes Sharon, I am embarrassingly familiar with that which you speak.

omg brownie thank you - incredible!

My partner can't eat alliums (garlic, onion, shallots etc) which is challenging. Recently realized that ginger and lemongrass makes a great alternate flavor base.

nice! have you ever seen the chef's table episode with Jeong Kwan? she doesn't use alliums, so there might be some more ideas there for you.

Holy shit at cooked.wiki!

I haven't seen that episode, but will check it out. Thanks!

talking of garlic - the callouses on my left hand mincing veg fingers have cracked again and feel very sore in contact with wet minced garlic. A minor quibble, but I need to learn how to stop my skin cracking.

BROWNIE YOU LEGEND ILU

^^^

Bon Appetit!

Oh sheesh, my current (terrible) method of saving recipes involves editing the text of the bookmark to mention "add more salt", "too much flour", etc. I'll have to give cooked.wiki a go, looks way better

I got the Paprika recipe when it was on sale for like $2 and it’s amazing - you put the recipe url into the app’s browser and it pulls the ingredients and directions into two separate tabs (and cuts out everything else). It’s been great because I’ve been telling myself for years I’ll write down all these recipes and I never do.