What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[rhody]

Wow, this thread needs saving from crackpot stew recipes.

A friend and master chef recommended this: America's Test Kitchen He has been a member on and off for the last decade. These guys are the real deal, the more you dig into what they have to offer the more you will be impressed. I just joined 29.95$ a year and I just skimmed the science section for the past 12 years. Guess what I am using their knowledge for ? Cooking new and more healthy meals, yes, trying to create the most flavorful, memorable sauces, mild, medium, hot, extra hot sauces on the planet, most definitely, yes. He also lent me their cookbook summary of their best recipes for the last decade. Check them out.

Rhody...

 

[Moonbear]

The Girl Scout cookies I ordered got delivered today, plus a cheesecake and jalapeno cheese stuffed pretzels (frozen) from another fundraiser a former student guilted me into, and I spent tonight making fudge because tomorrow is my turn to provide snacks for my class and one student can't eat gluten, so everything I got today isn't acceptable for sharing with the group. I'm bringing them a proper lunch too, since it's mid semester when they start looking emaciated from too many exams and not enough eating. It's a class with just 8 students and isn't over until 12:30, so they decided to take turns bringing snacks so they could last the full time without grumbling stomachs.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Tonight we have chicken soup a la turbo.

Roast 6 chicken drumsticks (We all like dark meat. You can roast a whole chicken or just breasts, etc.)
Cut off the tips of carrots and celery and lightly boil them along with the carrot peelings to get a broth started.
Slice the carrots and celery into bite size chunks and slice some mushrooms too.
When the chicken is cooked through, remove the meat from the bones and set aside. Put the skin and bones in the broth.
When the broth is ready, strain it. Toss the bones and send the rest to the compost pile.
Put the cut veggies and meat into the broth.

 

[Evo]

Tonight we have chicken soup a la turbo.

Roast 6 chicken drumsticks (We all like dark meat. You can roast a whole chicken or just breasts, etc.)
Cut off the tips of carrots and celery and lightly boil them along with the carrot peelings to get a broth started.
Slice the carrots and celery into bite size chunks and slice some mushrooms too.
When the chicken is cooked through, remove the meat from the bones and set aside. Put the skin and bones in the broth.
When the broth is ready, strain it. Toss the bones and send the rest to the compost pile.
Put the cut veggies and meat into the broth.

Sounds good, except I add chicken bouillion to the water, 1 cube per cup of water, gives a really great flavor to the soup. You can use chicken stock instead of the bouillion and water if you have it.

 

[micromass]

I made carrot soufflé today. The taste was superb, but it was too liquid. I guess I used too much bechamel/too thin bechamel.

On another note, my new vegetarian cook book just arrived. It has 600 pages of recipes. I'm going to have lots of fun with it.

 

[turbo]

Tonight we have chicken soup a la turbo.

Roast 6 chicken drumsticks (We all like dark meat. You can roast a whole chicken or just breasts, etc.)
Cut off the tips of carrots and celery and lightly boil them along with the carrot peelings to get a broth started.
Slice the carrots and celery into bite size chunks and slice some mushrooms too.
When the chicken is cooked through, remove the meat from the bones and set aside. Put the skin and bones in the broth.
When the broth is ready, strain it. Toss the bones and send the rest to the compost pile.
Put the cut veggies and meat into the broth.

Sounds good, Jimmy. When my wife finds sales on thighs or whole legs, she'll stock up, so I can just toddle on out to one of the chest freezers and get started. I always dust the chicken-parts with powdered sage, smoked paprika, black pepper, and a bit of salt before roasting. When it's time to to make soup, those modest seasonings really stand out!

Edit: there are only two of us here, so it makes sense to start with chicken-parts instead of a whole chicken. I don't like the texture of white-meat that has been frozen, and we both prefer dark meat, like your family. It makes a richer soup. When my wife finds a killer deal on whole chickens, we plan on making big batches of chicken soup, and try to make sure that my father has some nice home-made soup in his 'fridge.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Please help! URGENT! Final Exam tomorrow.

Thanks, turbo, for the recipe. I owe you one. Here's the background. I'm a house husband now while my wife works. She leaves very early in the morning and is home by 4:00. I told her I would cook dinners to take the pressure off of her and I did make a few, but she is a great cook and doesn't like my cooking. Yesterday I bought a rib-eye steak and prepared some mashed potatoes. I started to prepare the steak when she took over from me and ended up doing the rest. I also bought the chicken and told her I would make chicken soup. When I said so on chat, turbo suggested the recipe above which I followed today. My wife liked the soup and said so. Then she had a second bowl. Then she said she would take some of it to work tomorrow for lunch. I'm as giddy as one of those dippy housewives in a 50's ad in Good Housekeeping. Well, that's not humanly possible, but I am glad to take this burden off of my wife. Now here's the upshot. This is what my wife would have me do tomorrow.

I have a large can of crushed tomatoes and a small can of tomato puree. I'm going to get about a pound of ground beef and an italian sausage.

Slice the sausage and sear the pieces. Fry the ground beef and pour off the grease. Put the sausage, ground beef, crushed tomatoes and paste, and some red wine into a large pot and simmer. Add Italian Spice (a brand name that she likes) and some bay leaves. When ready to serve, boil some spaghetti.

If anyone can improve on this, let me know.

 

[turbo]

That all sounds good, Jimmy. If you can, please try to find peeled ground tomatoes next time. They de-water better than crushed tomatoes, so if the consistency is too thin, you don't have to add more sauce or puree. Assuming you start early enough in the day, you can just increase the simmer-time to thicken the sauce.

Taste the sauce during preparation, and if the sauce seems a bit tart, resist the urge to sweeten it. Instead, stir in some ground dried basil and continue to simmer. I love summer-time when we have fresh basil growing in pots on the deck, but have to resort to the dried stuff most of the year.

I'd also suggest finely mincing some onions and crushing some garlic to add to that sauce. I'll bet that "Italian Spice" is mostly oregano and dried basil, and that you'll have more flexibility in your recipes if you buy them separately and add or withhold to taste. Whenever such pasta sauces are on the menu, some nice hard Romano cheese is always on hand with a grater or rasp, so each person can put on as much as they'd like.

Hope some of this was helpful.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

You nailed it turbo, Italian Seasoning (I got the name wrong) is Basil, Oregano, Marjoram and Thyme. We also have ground Basil (And we also have it growing in the garden in the summer.) We already have the crushed tomatoes, but I will buy a can of the peeled ground tomatoes for the next time. I will not add onions as I cannot keep them down. We just use Kraft Parmesan cheese for pasta. I like the idea of simmering for a long time to thicken it so that's what I'll do.

 

[turbo]

You nailed it turbo, Italian Seasoning (I got the name wrong) is Basil, Oregano, Marjoram and Thyme. We also have ground Basil (And we also have it growing in the garden in the summer.) We already have the crushed tomatoes, but I will buy a can of the peeled ground tomatoes for the next time. I will not add onions as I cannot keep them down. We just use Kraft Parmesan cheese for pasta. I like the idea of simmering for a long time to thicken it so that's what I'll do.

Sounds like a good solution for you and your family. Just keep tasting and tweaking. That's all I can do. I don't trust recipes at all, since I learned to cook from my mother and grandmother, and they didn't look at little 3x5 cards when they were cooking. My 3 sisters had no interest in preparation, canning, cooking, etc, and I'm so glad that I had such a close connection to my mother and my grandmother when I was a kid. I lost them both too soon.

 

[Moonbear]

Tonight we have chicken soup a la turbo.

Roast 6 chicken drumsticks (We all like dark meat. You can roast a whole chicken or just breasts, etc.)
Cut off the tips of carrots and celery and lightly boil them along with the carrot peelings to get a broth started.
Slice the carrots and celery into bite size chunks and slice some mushrooms too.
When the chicken is cooked through, remove the meat from the bones and set aside. Put the skin and bones in the broth.
When the broth is ready, strain it. Toss the bones and send the rest to the compost pile.
Put the cut veggies and meat into the broth.

I was waiting for the hot peppers when you said it was a la turbo. That's similar to how I make chicken soup, except I start by sauteeing some garlic and onion until clarified, and add the whole roast chicken, meat and all (usually the leftovers from a roast chicken dinner since there's just one of me and a lot of chicken on a chicken) with the carrots and celery in together and simmer a long time before stripping the meat from the bones. No straining either...I eat all the veggies in the soup. Depending on how heavily I season the roast chicken, I may or may not add extra seasoning. Generally, salt, black pepper, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder, sometimes oregano too.

 

[turbo]

I was waiting for the hot peppers when you said it was a la turbo. That's similar to how I make chicken soup, except I start by sauteeing some garlic and onion until clarified, and add the whole roast chicken, meat and all (usually the leftovers from a roast chicken dinner since there's just one of me and a lot of chicken on a chicken) with the carrots and celery in together and simmer a long time before stripping the meat from the bones. No straining either...I eat all the veggies in the soup. Depending on how heavily I season the roast chicken, I may or may not add extra seasoning. Generally, salt, black pepper, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder, sometimes oregano too.

Soups are so basic, but are so so personal. I don't make everything hot, but I try to make everything tasty and not waste the flavors of the skins and trimmings... There is something upsetting (to me) about advocating the addition of a commercial additive, when tried-and-true processes have been circumvented.

BTW, Moonie, your recipe is probably something that I could work with.

 

[Evo]

You guys seriously just boil a chicken in water? You guys don't use homeade chicken stock as the base or even bouillion? What you guys are calling soup, I call the first step in making a stock that you reduce then use as a base for the soup.

Chicken stock is one of the most utilized ingredients in the kitchen. Not only is it the base of chicken soup,

Making chicken stock is not as hard as you may think. It's easy, because all you have to do is simmer some chicken and vegetables until they've released all their flavor. If you have some parts leftover from a whole chicken, be it the wing tips or backbone, and you have a few carrots, celery and an onion in your refrigerator's vegetable drawer, you have the ingredients to make stock

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/how-to-make-chicken-stock_n_1244886.html

Chicken stock

Ingredients
4 pounds chicken leg quarters cut in half
1 small carrot peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small stalk celery cut into 2-inch pieces
1 small onion root end trimmed, peeled and cut into eighths
6 sprigs fresh parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic crushed and peeled
20 whole peppercorns
20 cups water

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/rich-homemade-chicken-sto_n_1049828.html

 

[Astronuc]

You guys seriously just boil a chicken in water? You guys don't use homeade chicken stock as the base or even bouillion? What you guys are calling soup, I call the first step in making a stock that you reduce, then use as a base for the soup.

Yes. Evo = Top Chef!

I never just boil a chicken.

 

[turbo]

You guys seriously just boil a chicken in water? You guys don't use homeade chicken stock as the base or even bouillion? What you guys are calling soup, I call the first step in making a stock that you reduce then use as a base for the soup.

No. Roast a chicken, and then boil the chicken parts to make a stock/broth, and then start the soup from there. What's the point of boiling a chicken?

Are you OK, Evo?

 

[Evo]

I never just boil a chicken.

Exactly!

No. Roast a chicken, and then boil the chicken parts to make a stock/broth, and then start the soup from there. What's the point of boiling a chicken?

Correct, you need chicken stock to make chicken soup. I'm referring to the "soup" recipes that have been posted that were just chicken, celery and carrots boiled in water. That's how to make the stock that you make the soup out of.

Boiling the chicken in water (no stock or bouillion) is too bland for me. I guess some people like it that way. But they should try it the traditional way with the stock.

 

[lisab]

I always roast the chicken before using it in a soup, too. Actually sometimes it doesn't quite make it to the soup ...roast chicken is one of my favorite foods of all time, I can't help but indulge!

I have had chicken that was basically just boiled. It looses that great umami flavor, but if there's a lot of other things going on in the dish, it can be OK.

 

[turbo]

I was waiting for the hot peppers when you said it was a la turbo. That's similar to how I make chicken soup, except I start by sauteeing some garlic and onion until clarified, and add the whole roast chicken, meat and all (usually the leftovers from a roast chicken dinner since there's just one of me and a lot of chicken on a chicken) with the carrots and celery in together and simmer a long time before stripping the meat from the bones. No straining either...I eat all the veggies in the soup. Depending on how heavily I season the roast chicken, I may or may not add extra seasoning. Generally, salt, black pepper, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder, sometimes oregano too.

Once we have roasted chicken parts (or whole roasted chicken) the meat and skin is stripped off the bone and reserved. The skin and bone is boiled down a long time (along with vegetable scraps, etc.) to make a stock. That is strained and is used as a base for the soup/stew. Got some potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, etc? Do your family members actually like the taste of turnip? Now's a good time to try them.

Healthy eating should not begin or end at either end of the the taste continuum.

 

[Evo]

Once we have roasted chicken parts (or whole roasted chicken) the meat and skin is stripped off the bone and reserved. The skin and bone is boiled down a long time (along with vegetable scraps, etc.) to make a stock. That is strained and is used as a base for the soup/stew.

Yes, that is the, IMO, correct way. Once you have the strained stock, then you add new chicken (I agree roasted is yummiest) and vegetables and/or noodles.

 

[Moonbear]

Exactly!

Correct, you need chicken stock to make chicken soup. I'm referring to the "soup" recipes that have been posted that were just chicken, celery and carrots boiled in water. That's how to make the stock that you make the soup out of.

Boiling the chicken in water (no stock or bouillion) is too bland for me. I guess some people like it that way. But they should try it the traditional way with the stock.

No, we start with ROASTED chicken. I'd never add bouillion to chicken soup, that's just a block of salty flavoring. I don't think you understand what we're explaining. My soup has tons of flavor!

 

[Moonbear]

Yes, that is the, IMO, correct way. Once you have the strained stock, then you add new chicken (I agree roasted is yummiest) and vegetables and/or noodles.

What a waste! Start with a whole new chicken? What's wrong with the one that's been in it? I didn't grow up in a house where you just throw away a whole chicken! That's the meat with all the flavor from the cooking.

 

[Evo]

No, we start with ROASTED chicken. I'd never add bouillion to chicken soup, that's just a block of salty flavoring. I don't think you understand what we're explaining. My soup has tons of flavor!

I fully understand. I've eaten chicken "soup" made without stock and it was just too bland. I can't eat it that way. Taste is personal, but if you haven't prepared chicken soup with stock, you don't know what you're missing.

 

[Evo]

What a waste! Start with a whole new chicken? What's wrong with the one that's been in it? I didn't grow up in a house where you just throw away a whole chicken! That's the meat with all the flavor from the cooking.

After you make stock out of chicken, what's left of the meat will be pretty tasteless, you'll be boiling that chicken for hours to get everything out of it you can. You can eat it if you want, but you need more chicken for the actual soup.

But as I said, if you like it without stock, that's great. It's not for me though, I prefer the traditional way.

 

[turbo]

After you make stock out of chicken, what's left of the meat will be pretty tasteless, you'll be boiling that chicken for hours to get everything out of it you can. You can eat it if you want, but you need more chicken for the actual soup.

If you strip the meat off the bones and you shear the bones before boiling them, it's a hard argument that you will be subject to bland, watery soups. This is not the way I grew up.

 

[Evo]

If you strip the meat off the bones and you shear the bones before boiling them, it's a hard argument that you will be subject to bland, watery soups. This is not the way I grew up.

But you said that you make the stock and strain it first, which is traditional. Or are you saying that just boiling the chicken in water is not how you grew up?

 

[turbo]

But you said that you make the stock and strain it first, which is traditional. Or are you saying that just boiling the chicken in water is not how you grew up?

You roast the chicken first. Then strip off the the meat and skin. Boil off the skin and bones after reserving the meat. Strain out the bones and waste, and that fluid is your stock. Make your soup out of that stock.

 

[Evo]

You roast the chicken first. Then strip off the the meat and skin. Boil off the skin and bones after reserving the meat. Strain out the bones and waste, and that fluid is your stock. Make your soup out of that stock.

Ok, we agree.

 

[lisab]

Oh I want to talk about roux!

My favorite: equal parts flour and peanut oil. Cook on medium heat until it's the color of peanut butter, about 40 minutes, stirring constantly once it's hot (yes, 40 minutes!).

Result: roast-nut tasting roux. Really yummy in a gumbo.

Much faster roux can be made with butter or drippings from bacon, etc.

Anyone cook much with roux?

 

[Moonbear]

After you make stock out of chicken, what's left of the meat will be pretty tasteless, you'll be boiling that chicken for hours to get everything out of it you can. You can eat it if you want, but you need more chicken for the actual soup.

But as I said, if you like it without stock, that's great. It's not for me though, I prefer the traditional way.

It is made JUST LIKE STOCK, I just don't WASTE PERFECTLY GOOD CHICKEN by throwing it away! And, YOUR way does not neccessarily equate the CORRECT way! You always get such a snobby attitude about the way YOU make something. You've never had MY soup, so you have NO RIGHT saying it is bland. Everyone else here is capable of sharing recipes and ideas without declaring their way the only right way or passing judgement on other people's cooking when they have never tasted that dish. Try being a little less judgemental just once in your life!

 

[Evo]

It is made JUST LIKE STOCK, I just don't WASTE PERFECTLY GOOD CHICKEN by throwing it away! And, YOUR way does not neccessarily equate the CORRECT way! You always get such a snobby attitude about the way YOU make something. You've never had MY soup, so you have NO RIGHT saying it is bland. Everyone else here is capable of sharing recipes and ideas without declaring their way the only right way or passing judgement on other people's cooking when they have never tasted that dish. Try being a little less judgemental just once in your life!

I said "if you like it without stock, that's ok". I also said people have different tastes. I said it was "my preference" to make soup with stock. I've had chicken soup made without stock, and it is too bland for my taste. Am I supposed to lie about what I like? And it is traditional to make soup with stock.

 

[WhoWee]

Oh I want to talk about roux!

My favorite: equal parts flour and peanut oil. Cook on medium heat until it's the color of peanut butter, about 40 minutes, stirring constantly once it's hot (yes, 40 minutes!).

Result: roast-nut tasting roux. Really yummy in a gumbo.

Much faster roux can be made with butter or drippings from bacon, etc.

Anyone cook much with roux?

I'm going to try that as a substitute for peanuts in a stir-fry.

 

[Monique]

Fortunately, I'm not making soup tonight but a rainbow terrine. To cheer up the thread:

http://1.1.1.3/bmi/cmgtcontent.ahold.com.kpnis.nl/cmgtcontent/media/000462200/000/000462246_001_FRAL07130952_300.jpg

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

The spaghetti was a success. That's two and a half meals this week that my wife didn't have to cook. I'm going for five next week. She can still cook on the weekends and usually we eat out then anyway. For instance, tomorrow we're going to a newly opened authentic Taiwanese restaurant. They make a kind of bread sandwich call saubin-yotiau. I ate this in Taiwan for breakfast and liked it immensely so I'm looking forward to the Americanized version. Also oyster pancakes.

Tonight I treat myself to my weekly beer. I always eat a snack when I drink so I won't get intoxicated. I got a kind of cheese I never saw before. It's a brie, but with blue cheese mold in it. I snuck a taste and it's pretty good.

 

[turbo]

Good, Jimmy! Keep up the good work.

 

[Evo]

The spaghetti was a success. That's two and a half meals this week that my wife didn't have to cook. I'm going for five next week.

Congrats! A budding cook.

Also oyster pancakes.

Please explain, I love pancakes and I love oysters.

It's a brie, but with blue cheese mold in it. I snuck a taste and it's pretty good.

Sounds interesting, what's the name?