Quarantine Cuisine |OT| : Cooking With COVID19

[Himu]

No one here is black and vegetarian but I'll give this a shot. I love making greens but have no idea how to make greens taste as good as traditional southern made greens without meat product. First I sautee onions, then dump some chicken broth in. Then I put salt pork and let it cook. Then I put collard greens or kale in and season. Let it cook down, then insert another bag of greens until it's full. My dad taught me to make greens this way and his parents before him. It's tradition and it's delicious.

But I have no idea how to do it without chicken broth and salt pork. Water alone isn't enough. You need broth. And pork really brings the flavor out and makes the greens have a complex taste.

[Himu]

First time making jambalaya... Think i added a little too much liquid but i got red beans, veggie sausage and cremini mushroom in there

(Image removed from quote.)

One of my favorites to cook If you can, look into orderering Tony Chacere. Will help with all creole cooking which is one of my go tos. In the southwest and Louisiana area it's in the kitchen of anyone who knows how to cook. I'm not sure if Tony is available where you live though.

[Himu]

But I have no idea how to do it without chicken broth and salt pork. Water alone isn't enough. You need broth. And pork really brings the flavor out and makes the greens have a complex taste.

Trader joes has a 2 dollar "chickenless" powdered bouillon that owns. Also liquid smoke is a trick I use for when I need to make something porky 

You're embodying your avvie. Thanks!

[BlueTsunami]

Got a new fry pan. Spent some $$ (not crazy spending, but like $40-50) and got a nice one since I'm cooking all my stuff with fry pans and it's aluminum non-stick which I've never used. Took me a bit to get the hang of it (oil just runs to the edges pretty quick, but doesn't need much oil to cook) but it's working out pretty well. It is a bit heavy so I gotta use two hands.

I've failed every time at making a good tasting indoor hamburger so I was reading up and everything was saying you gotta use a cast iron grill if you're gonna make hamburgers indoors. So I spent all night reading about cast iron which sounds like a fucking pain in the ass (and hot & heavy) as someone who just soap hand washes everything and throws a lot in the dishwasher, but I'm gonna give it a try. Ordered a cast iron grill and cleaning brush/scraper and some better oven mitts since everything says cast iron gets HOT and I'm prone to slightly burning myself and dropping everything I'm holding. Read up on cleaning/oiling after each use and how to season the pan initially. Will put the effort in and see if I can get a good hamburger out of it. I used to eat at least 2 hamburgers a week and I've had like one in the last two months so I miss them...

A good indoor burger seems predicated on developing a great crust in the pan. I've found a high heat with a fatty ground mix smashed into to the pan to create as much surface contact is the best way to go about it. Salt and pepper liberally but I like using adobo in place of salt to give it an extra punch. If it's a thickly formed burger, sear off both sides then cover with a bit of water to bring the center to temp.

[Nintex]

These are difficult times for local restaurant owners 

[BisMarckie]

Me 2 months ago: This is going to be awesome, I will try out so many new recipes

Me today: I just had Chinese delivery food for the third day in a row.

[CatsCatsCats]

Cold Chinese noodles the next day

[BisMarckie]

I have to reheat Chinese food. Cold pizza is the only cold leftover delivery food I like.

[CatsCatsCats]

Oh man, I get 3/4 chub for greased up cold lo mein

[BlueTsunami]

So this is the first time I've baked something from scratch. Used Joshua Wiseman's chocolate chip cookie recipe






These are more on the savory buttery side but in a good way. The sweetness isn't at the forefront as it usually is with cookies. Balanced very well and delicious as hell.

Plan on making his version of orange chicken at some point that uses fresno peppers.

[Pennywise]

These are difficult times for local restaurant owners 

True, because that doesn't look like a selfmade hollandaise.


I went to a farm where you can either pick strawberries or pay a bit more and take one of those pre-picked packs. Season is almost over, at least the farm was nearly out of them :/
Bought 1,5kg and I ate quite a few, I still had plenty left for a decent strawberry cake.

[Nintex]

These are difficult times for local restaurant owners 

True, because that doesn't look like a selfmade hollandaise.

Everything at that restaurant is fresh and self made. It's insane how much effort they put into the food compared to other places. 
It was Bearnaise not Hollandaise

[Pennywise]

Everything at that restaurant is fresh and self made. It's insane how much effort they put into the food compared to other places. 
It was Bearnaise not Hollandaise

In that case I approve.

Alot of places just don't bother with hollandaise or bernaise and serve those bad premade versions.

[Pennywise]

Cheesecake with raspberries.

[skullstorm]

  Oh lord

I baked a rhubarb pie and a blueberry marble cake yesterday but now I want cheesecake too

[Pennywise]

Part deux.

[Bebpo]

I've still been cooking a ton with some real good turnouts (and some nights of nausea from fuckups  :'(). I'll post some good pictures soon. Just haven't been in the mood to be socially sharing right now because it feels like it's so minor in the scheme of the important stuff going on in the world atm (though I still post a ton about videogames so I'm a hypocrite there).

For Father's Day this weekend I got my dad a frozen pizza from Chicago and one from NYC since my parents are mostly quarantined eating food they cook for the last few months and I thought they'd like some good pizza. All the pizza delivery places ship in sets of 2 or more, so I got one for myself of each and received and made the Chicago one from Lou Malnati's.







It was good, but honestly disappointing. I've been to Chicago before and had good Chicago pizza and loved it and there's one place in So Cal called Rance's pizza which does B+ quality real Chicago style pizza.

The tomatoes and sauce were A+
The cheese was good, though not amazing
The crust was....crispy and kinda thin and not a ton of that Chicago cornmeal crust flavor  :'(

I mean the thick deep dish cornmeal crust is what I think of with Chicago pizza and this seemed no more thick than your average California style pizza here. And yeah, the crust was fine but it didn't have a lot of flavor.

Now this is probably because it's been frozen which probably kills/fucks with the crust. I'd be curious to try to get a frozen pizza from Gino's East to see how it compared.

Right now ordering a doordash contactless delivered pizza from Rance's pizza 40 mins away is probably a better Chicago style pizza than ordering a frozen Lou Malnati pizza. Price is probably about the same.

I'm getting the NYC pizzas from Roberta's, and I'll make their frozen Margherita Pizza next week and see how it compares. One thing about the Malnati frozen pizza is that it's as filling as I remember Chicago pizza being. I ate maybe 40% of the pizza for lunch and I feel soo bloated and food coma and good on food for another 24 hours. So including the leftovers, this pizza will last me like 2.5 days of food   

[Bebpo]

So I was making Lobster Rolls from my meal kit recipes/ingredients and they were kind of weird, at least to me.

The lobster meat was already cooked and frozen lobster meat and the instructions were to take it from the freezer and defrost it in cold water for 20-30 mins and then open the package and drain the liquid and then just eat the thawed lobster meat raw with fennel/chives/tarragon/dill/lemon/salt/pepper/mayo in a butter toasted bun.

It toasted good, but I've just never heard of eating meat defrosted from the freezer without cooking it first to kill any bacteria that may have developed. Apparently though they sell cooked crab meat/shrimp meat frozen that you eat raw as well at markets? So maybe it is normal and safe, idk.

I end up in the ER if I get food poisoning because of my gut sensitivity, so this just made me kind of nervous.

[shosta]

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out how to caramelize my onions without burning the shit out of them

[team filler]

they taste better burnt 

[Bebpo]

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out how to caramelize my onions without burning the shit out of them

Why don't you just saute them? Add some butter, salt and sugar and cook for a while on low heat while stirring occasionally and they're delicious.

[shosta]

I like em sauteed, I just also wanna learn how to get that perfect caramel color

[skullstorm]

Make a soup and toss the mascarpone in/on it? Tomato soup or something

[tiesto]

Been making these hatch-chile marinated tacos a lot lately:

[Bebpo]

Man, I just cooked the best steak in my life (cooking-wise, not eating-wise, not gonna compare to that wagyu Japan teppan stuff of course) and probably destroyed some stuff in the process.

I have the worst fucking ventilation ever in my Kitchen with one of those shitty microwaves above with a filter fan that does nothing so whenever I cook anything on medium-high the whole house just fills with smoke and my lungs get irritated and shit. Because of this I don't even bother searing chicken breasts anymore and just cook them in the oven. Only thing I really sear is scallops and beef bulgogi but those cook up in a couple mins so the smoke isn't too bad. I use avocado oil with a higher smoke point but can't tell if it helps.

Someone recommended that I try using a lid to contain the smoke, so I tried searing a steak on medium-high, flipping it every few mins until it was medium-rare with a lid on and house still filled up with smoke (like literally the ventilation is so poor it becomes visibly foggy in the kitchen/dining room) and my sinuses/lungs/eyes still got irritated. Also used a recipe I found online that said not to use any oil at all and just put the steak on and use the natural grease/fats.

The steak seared amazing, came out perfect and super flavorful. That lid seems fucked though. Cleaned it a bunch of times with light and then heavy duty scrub and the clear lid is still pretty brown cloudy. Also might've fucked the pan a bit too. I'll see when I cook tomorrow.

So probably not going to make a steak again until I get an outdoor bbq again, but at least it was worth it since the steak came out amazing.

I read somewhere that you can cook it on low 200F in the oven and finish with a short sear or even finish with broiling in the oven to cut down on smoke. So that might still be a possibility.

[Bebpo]

Was talking to a friend and they recommended I look at electric grills for searing stuff without killing my kitchen and pans with smoke. Looked around a bunch and picked up a Phillips Smokeless Grill.

I've been avoiding burgers for the last year because even with a cast iron I feel like hamburgers cooked in a skillet pan just don't taste right. Will try burgers/hot dogs/chicken breast/steak on this thing and see how it goes...