Cooking thread

Quote: FrGamble

I had so much fun that I was thinking about maybe learning how to cook for real and taking it up as a hobby. Any suggestions for books or other ideas?

Welcome to the fold!

Going by my experience, books have been the least helpful sources. But maybe I haven't consulted the right books.

Here's how I started. I wanted to make cabbage soup, so I looked online for recipes. I picked what I thought were the best elements of each, went out to buy some ingredients, and then just cooked. Why did I do it this way when prior ot that day I'd never cooked anything more complicated than grilled chicken breast, I've no idea. But it worked out very well (I still do that cabbage soup).

What I did afterwards was to look up recipes online. Sometimes I felt confident enough to change things, sometimes not. Just about always I feel confident enough to make changes after doing any recipe once. That way I get the feel for how a dish is cooked and what each step does. I also look up tips on food preparation. About three quarters of all cooking takes place in the kitchen coutner, not on the stove or in the oven. So things like how to peel tomatoes (really), or core an apple, or shred a cabbage are always useful.

Remember, too, all your ingredients are already dead. You can't hurt them at all. The worst you can do is make something inedible, but even then you'll have learned something.

Who would have thought it, you've converted me!

I'm excited to get cooking! By the way any advice about cooking on a very busy schedule?

Quote: FrGamble

I had so much fun that I was thinking about maybe learning how to cook for real and taking it up as a hobby. Any suggestions for books or other ideas?

Start with the CIA......Culinary Institute of America. They publish an overall introduction to high volume restaurant cooking.

Browse a few books at a bookstore but don't buy them just yet.

Learn a bit about Mise en Place which is French for placing everything you will need is small dishes so that when it says "one sliced tomato" you just pick up the saucer with your presliced tomato on it.

Given your occupation (or should I say calling) you might want to get a book such as Cooking For A Hundred... which gives hints on how to multiply recipies and get specialized equipment and procedures for high numbers of attendees at functions. Remember, if your favorite recipe for spaghetti sauce says 1/4 teaspoon of salt, you do NOT want to put in 100 times that just because alot of people will be coming to the event. That book and many like it already have recipies for large volumes of food. There is always the standby of Spanish Rice which is what is always served at SAR Missions (Search and Rescue). Do learn how to make some soups because you will find that Thursdays at the homeless shelters are soup days and many times its often just hot water with wilted cabbage and pepper.

You might want a book on One Pot, Three Ingredients or similar stuff.

If you have an email list for Chinese Poker Night, you will need munchies rather than dinners. So thats the time to use a slow cooker crockpot... You start it around Matins and serve it before Compline. In between you don't do anything to it.

Oh, and if you ever visit a Jungle, the large tin can that looks just a bit bigger than a gallon of paint... that is the only cookpot for the entire Jungle. As most Jungles are trackside... maybe you will meet the Wizard there while he is fulfilling his bucket list of riding the rods.

Quote: FrGamble

Who would have thought it, you've converted me!

How about that? ;)

Quote:

I'm excited to get cooking!

Enjoy it.

Quote:

By the way any advice about cooking on a very busy schedule?

Yes. Make the time. Cooking can't be rushed. Since time cannot be made, though, this means cook when you have the time, or choose recipes that can be done in what time you do have. For example, do not attempt to make tomato soup, or marinara sauce, from scratch if you're pressed for time. To do them well you need many hours.

Don't be afraid, either, to use pre-made items, like pasta sauce or chicken consome, even pre-washed and pre-cut vegetables. While I usually buy pasta sauce in jars, though, I make it my own by adding seasonings and/or vegetables to it before pouting it on the pasta.

I tend to scorn recipes labeled "simple." But when I'm tired from a long workweek and don't want to spend all day Saturday cooking, I gravitate towards the "simple" ones. I've even developed some of my own.

I picked up some coconut water at the grocery store today. I hadn't had any in years (or longer). Surprisingly the bottled version is pretty good (well, it comes in a cardboard container, actually). Not so surprisingly, it can be cooled more effectively than when drinking it out of the fruit itself.

I couldn't help but think a little vodka would perk it up (actually I thought rum, but I don't have any). I added a bit and it worked well enough. This gave me an idea.

The only rum drink I like is Piña Colada. unfortunately that's extremely high in sugar and fat. So now I'm thinking coconut water (some sugar, no fat), pineapple juice and rum. Buuuuut, fruit juice as sold in the store contains a lot of sugar (even when advertised as natural). Not as much sugar as soda, but too much anyway.

So in my mind I've changed it to:

coconut water
pineapple rings, diced (the center is harder and drier than the edges)
Rum
Ice

Place in a blender and use the frappe setting.

I'll try it as I have time.

Of course, getting just a bit of pineapple is not that easy. Canned pineapple is "preserved" in syrup, which infuses the fruit with lots of sugar. That's out. Small pineapples are big. Sometimes grocery stores sell minced pineapple in small cups.

If I wind up with a whole pineapple, though, I'll need to figure out what to do with the rest. Any ideas?

Quote: Fleastiff

Anyone know at what time of year pumpkin blossoms are available? And what fillings usually go into such steamed dumplings.

Bump!

I dind't find essence of mint. I found a chocolate powder advertised as "no sugar." Meh, it has fructose, which is a kind of sugar (just not glucose). I tried it anway. It doesn't dissolve well in cold or warm milk. I made mocha, with froth, but it wasn't veyr good. I found a great deal of undissolved chocolate in the dregs...

I'll try it with hot milk next time, but then frothing it will take some doing.

I just made the most wonderful Spaghetti Carbornara. It was my first time making it and it turned out perfect! I really do enjoy cooking and now I think I found my specialty - Italian food. Since I studied in Italy for so many years I know what it should taste like and I love me some pasta!

Quote: FrGamble

I just made the most wonderful Spaghetti Carbornara. It was my first time making it and it turned out perfect! I really do enjoy cooking and now I think I found my specialty - Italian food. Since I studied in Italy for so many years I know what it should taste like and I love me some pasta!

That's great.

Have you thought about delving further into culinary history and reproducing Roman dishes?

Mention Italian food, and most people think of four things: olive oil, pizza, pasta and tomatoes. Yet three these are relatively recent additions to the Italian dietary. Tomatoes were introduced in the 16th Century, Pasta around the 15th, and Pizza is somewhat more obscure (compicated by the fact that what most people call Pizza was invented in America rather than Italy).

Olive oil, though, has been part and parcel of Italy (and Greece) since long before a small Latin village even dreamed up the story of Romulus.

I sometimes think about ancient cooking, too. But I've yet to follow through. All I know about Roman cooking comes from a bit in Bill bryson's book "At Home," where he says Romans loved pepper so much they even used it in desserts.

I was planning to make tangerine chicken this weekend, as there are still some nice off-season tangerines at the stores. But maybe I'll just research for some antique recipes this time.

I looked up a few antique recipes during my lunch hour.

I'll make the tangerine chicken next weekend, but will keep researching the old recipes. I've already found a few I like, but naturally there are some kinds of antique ingredients to go along. So they'll be adaptations anyway...

I do know another thing about Roman cooking: Garum. This was a very popular sauce made of fermented fish and other things. Naturally I want nothing to do with it. the nearest thing to it these days is either Worcestershire sauce (which I know some brands keep making it with anchovies in their recipe), or possibly ketchup (No, I dind't think so).

I also want to try a Romanized dessert. See, when I heard about Romans putting pepper on desserts, I immediately wondered how black pepper would go with vanilla ice cream (really!). The answer is: you won't notice it. Ice cream is too cold to bring out the pepper (yes, I did try it). I may try it again with a stronger pepper variety, if I find one. I'm thinking crakced rather than ground pepper, too.

Anyway, I'm keen on the idea of incorporating pepper in desserts. IT's something to think about.

Another thing I want to try is a new chocolate frosting/topping for my cottage cheesecake. I like the mint-chocolate combination. I always buy a couple of bars of mint dark chocoalte at Etehl M's in Vegas (as well as more conventional bars for my coworkers). This time I asked the salesman how well theri chocolate melts for use in baking. he dind't know, exactluy, but claimed it should melt well enough. We'll see. I have three bars, so I figure I can melt a part of one as a test and try to do something with the rest.