I’ve made a few cheesecakes and used as springform pan without any issues, and it makes getting the cake out the pan easy as pie. And I’ll second the suggestion of using fruits to cover over cracks.
Lantz
3242
My only cheesecake lesson learned is to really follow the various separate combination steps instead of lazily dumping everything together and to head any ‘let this refrigerated thing get to room temperate’ type steps since it will impact the final texture.
My 2 year old daughter really enjoyed helping me “bake” by rolling up some Pillsbury crescent rolls. I haven’t had these since I was a young lad. I remember getting to whack the roll on the counter edge to open it, and really liking them fresh out of the oven. Perhaps its a childhood memory is better than the reality or maybe the current recipe is different from 40 or so years ago but they didn’t taste as good as I remember.
I’ve tried a couple of random recipes for crescent rolls found on the web, but they weren’t that good. Would anybody happen to have a decent crescent roll recipe?
Christien,
Probably already baking, but I did just remember one other foible. Probably want to wrap your Springform pan in aluminum foil on the outside. I forgot Alton’s recipe called for a water bath, and you don’t want moisture seeping into the bottom of the pan and making things soggy. Maybe a really well made one wouldn’t leak like that, but mine sure would. . .
I’m going to make tempura tonight, but instead of cutting the veggies up going to just drop 'em in more or less full size. I’ve never made tempura sauce before, going to try this Alton Brown one, which looks easy enough. Not sure about noodles vs rice though, still have to run and get some oil.
May I ask why? Unless your using some very appropriately sized veggies (e.g., green beans) you risk either burning the tempura batter or having veges that are undercooked. Typically, the cutting isn’t that much work.
Oh, i was trying to be more authentic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNkk4Q2mFok&t=9m30s Also, in theory, less greasy.
Normally i chop things up into small, 1-2" bits. I’m going to keep the mushrooms more or less whole, use most of the asparagus at 4-5", and then maybe use broccoli florets… maybe.
I literally use one of those laser AC tech’s thermometers to watch the temperature to keep it at 350f and it worked very well last time, though demanding more or less constant heat adjustment.
Anyway, i’m not a huge cook (anymore), but Armando, malkav, Christian et al have inspired me!
Ah. It does look like the vege being cooked in your video is at least broken up, if not cut up. The comments indicate it is some sort of artichoke-looking vege. I thought you were intended to drop in whole carrots, yams, and squashes or some such. I don’t think those would work so well, whole.
1" bits does seem rather small.
Dude’s solemn, perfunctory "Mmmm"ing while eating and stern and hilarious interactions with his family are freaking fantastic. I could watch that all day, lol.
Portuguese-Style Hoppin’ John
Couscous Helper
Both from How to Cook Everything Fast. The former is a variant on the Hoppin’ John with Collard Greens where you substitute smoked chorizo (in this case Johnsonville) or linguica (I wish but I’ve never seen this anywhere) for the bacon, chickpeas for the blackeyed peas, and kale for the collard greens. I eat it with plenty of sriracha. The latter is basically ground beef, red onion, and couscous with cumin and cinnamon to spice it and a half cup of fresh squeezed orange juice mixed with a cup of water to be absorbed by the couscous. I managed to knock most of my orange juice into the sink so I came up a bit short there, also squeezing it by hand seems wasteful. I’ll probably just buy the OJ proper next time.
As a teen in the Bay Area, linguica was pizza. I doubt I had more than a handful of pizzas without linguica as one of the toppings. Then I moved to the hinterlands for grad school only to discover a) no one outside the Bay Area had even heard of linguica and b) people in the hinterlands put ground beef on pizza. Yikes!
RichVR
3253
While I have not made this yet, it must be passed on. Caramelized Sugar without melting.
Sugar doesn’t melt; it undergoes thermal decomposition. That may sound like a pedantic distinction, considering we’ve all watched sugar effectively melt into a pool of caramel atop crème brûlée, but the implications are huge—worthy of far more explanation than a mere tl;dr.
Timex
3254
I was sent this idea. I have yet to make it.
Puffed pastry on a waffle iron. This looks crazy seeeyak.
That’s a really interesting story. Alton Brown would be all over it. But I rarely bake sweets, so I’m not 100% sure what I’d do with it. Someone needs to do an experiment. Do birds eat refined sugar? Maybe not good for them.
I was skeptical about waffling puff pastry until I got to the pain au choco-waffle, which is a profoundly good idea. I bet it’d work in a regular sandwich press, too.
Pasta with Sausage, Fennel, White Beans and Stock
The chorizo pasta dish I posted earlier is a variant of this one but this is only the second time I’ve made it, first time I felt it really came out (though my guests seemed to enjoy it well enough). As usual, it’s from How to Cook Everything Fast. I used fancy quinoa-and-stuff fusilli from Trader Joe’s and substituted bouillon for the chicken stock since it doesn’t use enough not to have leftover stock otherwise and I don’t expect to use stock for anything else for at least a week. Spiced with plenty of Penzey’s Roasted Garlic and their black pepper as well.
Timex
3257
I’ve tried making hoppin’ john a few times, and it just need quite clicked, but I gave it a shot today, using my trusty pressure cooker, and absolutely nailed it.
The pressure cooker was key. I used some cheap hormel smoked ham hocks. They come vacuum sealed, and really aren’t awesome ham hocks, because they aren’t really that meaty. They can add flavor normally, but not much actual meat. But they didn’t have any good ham hocks at the grocery and i didn’t feel like making a trip to the butcher, and i was hoping the pressure cooker could do some magic.
This time, in addition to the black eyed peas, greens, vegetables, herbs and spices, i added the ham hocks, and cooked it all under high pressure for 90 minutes.
I’ve found recently that this is seemingly the ideal time for cooking this kind of pork with lots of connective tissue, based on various experiments. Sure enough, while these ham hocks didn’t have much meat, the pressure cooker converted every least bit of the connective tissue and skin into gelatin, to the extent that the skin was not rubbery at all. It just melts with almost no texture at all. So after chopping that all up, and throwing it back in, the hoppin John has become super rich and creamy. I was worried that the beans would over cook, but they don’t seem to have at all. I can only attribute this to the magic of the pressure cooker.
Chinese-Style Couscous Helper
Mostly, anyway. This is a variation on the couscous helper recipe I made a couple posts back, but with ground pork instead of beef, five spice powder instead of cumin and cinnamon, chicken broth splashed with soy sauce instead of orange juice, and sesame oil as a garnish. I couldn’t find five spice powder at my main grocery, I don’t need any other spices from Penzey’s at the moment, and I forgot to add it to my most recent Amazon order, so I substituted the Russian-influenced “Tsardust Memories” blend from Penzey’s which has most of the same spices in it, along with ground cloves. Probably not quite the same effect but still yummy.
Fast Feijoada
A variation on a traditional Brazilian stew, from How to Cook Everything Fast. I actually made a slow cooker version from Slow Cooker Revolution a while back, but frankly this looks yummier. It’s pretty simple stuff - onion, garlic, lots of black beans, and smoked sausage, bacon and ham steak with some chicken stock and, in theory, a couple of minced dried hot chiles. Didn’t have those, so I used Penzey’s Ground Chipotle, Red Hot Pepper Flakes, and some cayenne. Hopefully that’ll be at least vaguely similar.
Damn, malkav. I want to eat at your place one of these nights. It’s always the same friendly fry pan and the dishes always look so tasty!
Yeah, that frying pan is getting a workout lately. Seems like almost everything (a couple of rice dishes aside) has been “a large frying pan or pot” and heck, frying pan’s easy. My parents had to get rid of it because they have an induction stove these days and that pan’s not compatible, and it’s bigger and nicer than anything I had before so I was happy to take it. (That and apparently it’s oven-safe, which is another thing I had recipes calling for but wasn’t sure my existing pans qualified as. I haven’t gotten around to trying it in the oven yet, though.)
And I’d love to feed more people, honestly. The biggest limiting factor for trying recipes is that I can only eat so much!
