What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[Evo]

I made coq au vin the other night. Haven't made it in ages. You just can't go wrong with something that calls for bacon and wine.

So I have more chicken I need to cook, it was on sale for 79 cents a pound for leg quarters. I have now officailly run out of ideas. Maybe I'll just make fried chicken. Mmmm, bacon fried chicken with garlic mashed potatoes.

 

[Evo]

The fried chicken was awesome. I had to buy a can of crisco for that 55 year old recipe for cherry wink cookies, so I used that. Alton Brown claims that crisco is his preferred shortening for frying, but you can't believe anything he says on the show because the script is written by his writing staff and he just plays the part. But I remember my mother always had a can of crisco for frying.

My how times have changed.

I cut the leg quarters into drumsticks and thighs and I refuse to admit I cut that last one, I misjudged the joint by a good 2 inches.

But I'm ready to dress a moose, seriously turbo, I can do it.

 

[rewebster]

But I'm ready to dress a moose, seriously turbo, I can do it.

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/30046-bored_enough_wear_moose_head_made_ordinary_objects.jpg

 

[Evo]

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/30046-bored_enough_wear_moose_head_made_ordinary_objects.jpg

That's[/URL] pretty scary.

 

[turbo]

That's pretty scary.

How quickly could you gut that? I'm figuring 5 minutes at the most to do a quick field-dress.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I made coq au vin the other night.

I can cook a vegetarian coq au vin.

 

[turbo]

I can cook a vegetarian coq au vin.

Without wine?

 

[lisab]

Where do cravings come from? I've had a craving for beef stroganoff all day. I haven't made it in a long time...mmm, mushrooms :!). Looking forward to a yummy dinner.

 

[Evo]

Where do cravings come from? I've had a craving for beef stroganoff all day. I haven't made it in a long time...mmm, mushrooms :!). Looking forward to a yummy dinner.

I *LOVE* beef stroganoff.

 

[Borek]

Where do cravings come from? I've had a craving for beef stroganoff all day.

Lol, such cravings are considered (at least here) to be early symptoms of pregnancy.

 

[turbo]

Lol, such cravings are considered (at least here) to be early symptoms of pregnancy.

Universal belief, it seems, except that in the US, such cravings are characterized as being for odd combinations, such as pickles and ice cream.

 

[Evo]

Universal belief, it seems, except that in the US, such cravings are characterized as being for odd combinations, such as pickles and ice cream.

I love pickles dipped in honey, taste like apples.

 

[Evo]

Ok, I'm making my stew for couscous. I guess very few people here know that traditional couscous is cooked in a couscousiere, which is an elaborate steamer placed over a pot of boiling lamb stew. The steam cooks the couscous and gives it flavor. My mother is French, but was born and raised in Algiers, when it was a French colony, so much of my cooking is North African based.

Anyway, I've never done this before and I know it's not acceptable, but I was thinking of adding corn or peas to the stew. My shepherd's pie has corn and it's awesome, so I'm wondering, since I have already substituted beef for lamb, do you think corn or peas would be better? I've never seen corn with couscous, I think I've seen someone add peas. Of course couscous is used like rice in cooking now, so there are no longer rules, which is a bit sad since I'm more of a food purist. Like baklava can't be made with sausage and cheese.

 

[turbo]

I just got a short look at Iron Chef America. Alton Brown should have stuck with his manufactured (Good Eats) "prominence". He is an actor/spokesperson, not a cook.

 

[Evo]

I just got a short look at Iron Chef America. Alton Brown should have stuck with his manufactured (Good Eats) "prominence". He is an actor/spokesperson, not a cook.

He's definitely not a cook. But he had a great idea for a show "Good Eats" where he played a scientificallly minded cook. Unfortunately his research staff sometimes blew it big time.

 

[turbo]

He's definitely not a cook. But he had a great idea for a show "Good Eats" where he played a scientificallly minded cook. Unfortunately his research staff sometimes blew it big time.

That's painfully evident, but he's still on the air as an "expert". Why? If I was forced into an impromptu cook-off with him and Bobby Flay (no information nor back-feed by their producers), I think I would bury both of them. I use my grill year-round, and there are some considerations to deal with when using a grill outside in an ambient temperature of 0. Think either of those "stars" would know how to contend with that? Cooking isn't some zero-sum game that is done under controlled conditions, and the Food Network seems not to know that. When I was a kid, we used to take the windows out of our kitchen and open doors so that we could stand to put up with heat needed to can high pH vegetables. My grandmother had a huge open-air summer-kitchen to accomplish the same, but she was the head cook at a large log-driving concern, and could make that pay.

 

[Evo]

You would have died if you had seen the episode where they had just installed their high tech infra red grill. They went on and on saying how cutting edge Food Netowrk was for installing them. Apparently no one tried cooking on them before the filming started. BUWAHAHAHAHA Everything they placed on the grill instantly went up in flames and no one knew how to adjust the heat. It was hysterical.

 

[turbo]

You would have died if you had seen the episode where they had just installed their high tech infra red grill. They went on and on saying how cutting edge Food Netowrk was for installing them. Apparently no one tried cooking on them before the filming started. BUWAHAHAHAHA Everything they placed on the grill instantaly went up in flames and no one knew how to adjust the heat. It was hysterical.

FAIL! Which Food Network does regularly, BTW.

 

[suvorav]

what are you eating on your work? Are you eatin in canteen or taking homemade food?

 

[Evo]

what are you eating on your work? Are you eatin in canteen or taking homemade food?

In my office, more people are bringing their lunch than in the past. The only time I go down to the food court is when I didn't take time to prepare a lunch.

 

[turbo]

I must say that Alton Brown's method of pan-frying steak is quite handy. Last night it was pouring rain, so instead of grilling our flat-iron steak, I cooked it inside. The method is drop-dead simple.

Warm the steak to room temperature. Put your skillet in the oven and preheat it to 500 deg. Lightly oil the steak and season it with salt and cracked peppercorns. Transfer the skillet from the oven to the grill-top with the burner set on "high" and put the steak in the skillet. Don't move the steak while it is searing. After 30 seconds, flip the steak using tongs. After searing the second side for 30 seconds, put the skillet right back in the oven. After 2 minutes, flip the steak and leave it in the oven for another 2 minutes. Then get the skillet out of the oven and immediately put the steak somewhere where it can relax. I use an inverted luncheon plate on top of a dinner plate (to catch the juices) and cover the steak with the cover from my large Revere stew-pot. After 2 minutes, serve the steak. It's a pretty fool-proof method. Not real energy-efficient, but the results are quite consistent.

 

[lisab]

what are you eating on your work? Are you eatin in canteen or taking homemade food?

I bring my lunch from home about half the time (usually a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich...ah, like food of the gods ). After a long search I finally found some frozen, microwavable meals that are fairly healthy, with not many calories, for days I run late in the morning and don't have time to make a sandwich. I keep a bunch of those in the freezer at work.

 

[turbo]

My wife juices fruits, berries and vegetables every morning, and that's her breakfast, along with black coffee. She also blends thick "shakes" of yogurt, banana, wheat germ, flax-seed, soy milk, and various fruits, and takes that to work in an insulated container for her lunch.

I snag some left-overs for breakfast, and skip lunch. When she comes home after work, we make a nice sit-down supper. Weekends, we make up "batch" dishes like chili, baked beans, stews, etc. Except for the occasional crackers, chips, etc, everything we eat is home-made.

 

[suvorav]

I usually take home-made food. My girlfriend cooks it on weekend. It is usually soup and pork with rice or pasta. and vegetables.

 

[Evo]

I usually take home-made food. My girlfriend cooks it on weekend. It is usually soup and pork with rice or pasta. and vegetables.

Sounds yummy.

 

[Evo]

[RANT]Grrr, On American Iron Chef, Mario Battali says he's serving grits, or polenta, like there is no difference. People in the south only call milled white hominy corn "grits", yellow cornmeal, course or fine grind, when cooked in water (or milk) is called cornmeal mush, now that is what the Italians call polenta. I understand that only a small portion of the US is familiar with grits, and I may be the only forum member to have eaten them, but if you are a chef, you shouldn't talk about things you don't know about. Just spreading misinformation.[/RANT]

 

[turbo]

Nope! You're certainly not the only grit-eater here. Most of my consulting work (pulp and paper mills) was in the deep south, and I ALWAYS ordered grits with my breakfast down there. Some diners automatically included them in a standard breakfast. Order eggs and sausage, and you'd get toast and grits, too as standard sides. Grits seemed to be better at little family-owned diners. Forget Denny's, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel and other chains. The little diners seemed to take real pride in their grits. Even as far north as northern Kentucky, there were really good places to get grits - just avoid the chains.

 

[Evo]

Nope! You're certainly not the only grit-eater here. Most of my consulting work (pulp and paper mills) was in the deep south, and I ALWAYS ordered grits with my breakfast down there. Some diners automatically included them in a standard breakfast. Order eggs and sausage, and you'd get toast and grits, too as standard sides. Grits seemed to be better at little family-owned diners. Forget Denny's, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel and other chains. The little diners seemed to take real pride in their grits. Even as far north as northern Kentucky, there were really good places to get grits - just avoid the chains.

YAY! Another fellow griter! Oy, tell me about Denny's grits, made that mistake once, it would've made a fine substitute for plaster of paris. Absolutely inedible.

 

[turbo]

YAY! Another fellow griter! Oy, tell me about Denny's grits, made that mistake once, it would've made a fine substitute for plaster of paris. Absolutely inedible.

I think that the chain restaurants made grits in huge batches, and the little diners made them in small batches to keep supplied all through the breakfast period. You can't control the consistency of grits well if you make big batches and keep them heated with steam table. I tried really hard to find local diners to eat at everywhere I worked. Sometimes they were mom-and-pop stand-alones, sometimes they were in-house restaurants in truck stops... Whenever I started working a contract in a new location, I'd mention food to some of the mill-workers and the ones who were most enthusiastic would give me directions to their favorite diners and tips about what was best on the menu.

 

[turbo]

A little tip: If you have a recipe that calls for mace, but have none on hand (it happened to us today while making raisin bread), you can substitute nutmeg. Just cut the quantity in half. Mace is made from the milder outer layer of the nutmeg seed.