Tell us what you have cooked lately (that's interesting)

I often do things the right / traditional / old fashioned way a couple of times just to have the experience. It’s the hobbyist part of cooking rather than the food-preparation side. Then, if I’m approaching the same dish again, I’ll start cutting corners or modernizing the process on subsequent tries.

I’ve done exactly that with a roux, spending 2+ hours standing by the stove, idly stirring while keeping half an eye on the TV. Not a very good use of time, but worth doing once.

Hell, I’ve done that carmelizing onions.

Ok, i did a good thing.

I saw these things at the store which were basically fruit cups, but with chia. I tried them, and they were fine, although overpriced, and the fruit had that crappy boiled fruit cocktail taste.

But i figured, this is a good idea.

So i took a mason jar, chopped some fresh mango and some black raspberries, and put it in the jar.

Then i put in a tsp of flaxseed, and a tbsp of chia seed, and filled the jar with water.

For those who don’t know, flax and chia are WEIRD. Dry, they are just tiny seeds. But when it in water, they absorb it into a layer on their outside, which becomes gelatinous. It kind of turns into what looks like a frog’s egg.

So, the effect after sitting for a while, is that you get a jar of fruit, but with this thickened sauce goo stuff around it? But it’s not super sweet syrup, and it’s super healthy, and it’s filling and hearty. It’s a good breakfast food.

Well, THAT looks really good.

The effect is that it tastes like it’s in syrup, but it’s not syrup.

Kinda makes me think of the overnight oatmeal stuff I used to do; there’s a thousand recipes for it online, but the basic format is something like:

1/3 cup Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Old-Fashioned (Rolled) Oats
1/3 cup Milk
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1-2 tbsp Sweetener (e.g., sugar, honey, syrup, or SF stuff like stevia)

You basically then add in flavor and textural elements at your leisure (e.g, chopped fruit, chocolate chips, flavor extracts/citrus zests, spices, etc), mix it all up well, and leave it overnight for the oats to soften and the chia seeds to absorb moisture. The resulting mixture is extremely thick, creamy, and surprisingly textureful from the oats, plus whatever you mixed in.

You can play with flavored yogurts, different flavor extracts, different fruits/chips, etc. pretty much to your heart’s content. It’s a very versatile recipe.

Obviously noticeably higher fat than what @Timex is doing above unless you’re doing FF yogurt and milk, and potentially higher carbs depending what kinds of fruit and sweetener you opt for, but also super high in protein, fiber, and, vitally for me, “fullness” factor. Ate that shit daily for awhile until it became too obnoxious to keep preparing, cuz the preparations I made had become increasingly elaborate, cuz I’m an idiot :)

This is exactly what i was thinking when i did it, and why i had chia and flaxseed. It’s similar. Easier to make though.

Very familiar with flax and chia seeds and to tie the comments together, I used to put both IN OATMEAL for what it’s worth. But It never dawned on me to do that as a fruit cup base. Very cool idea!

I believe it’s mostly the chia that does that, not the flax. It’s a long debate as to how much effect you get from chia either as seeds or as seeds that have undergone the strange transformation in water into the jelly like strangeness that they make. It was a recommended super-food additive while I was dieting that I don’t quite remember the effects from.

Flax I just mostly used as a fiber additive, but damn it it wasn’t great for that.

It’s both. Flaxseed does the same thing when you put it in water, it turns into that same gelatinous stuff, although less so than the chia.

Good to know. So I was doubly making my oatmeal more jelly like. :)

I finally got a Foodsaver and my main purpose was for longer and larger Sous Vide cooks. Ziplocks have always worked fine for me but It makes me feel better to have that meat sealed up tight. Over the last few weeks I did a Pork Shoulder and a Brisket using Serious Eats methods. Both times I cooled really well in an ice bath hoping to get some good smoke absorption once it hit the grill. I was quite satisfied with the results (sorry no pics). Super tender and juicy with a great crust and only a few hours of grill/smoker tending.

When I do a brisket again the one change I would make is to back off the salt a little on the brisket. All the recipe called for was black pepper and salt so it was super simple and tasted great but my personal preference would be a little less salt.

To add on to Timex’s point, flax is what my family uses as an egg substitute for baking (my son is allergic to eggs). You put a tablespoon or two (can’t remember) in a bowl with some water, stir it up and wait like 20 minutes. It’s very much like an egg white after that wait.

Huh, I never thought of it like that, but I guess you’re right. I guess that’s what the “goo” stuff is? Some kind of protein matrix like an egg white?

Can you actually do stuff with it similar to eggs?

In baking, its close. I don’t know if you can use it generically (like if you need egg whites whipped to stiff peaks), but it does pretty well for most baked goods that need the egg to help it set some structure.

Holy shit, you can even use it for omlettes.

This is crazytown.

Honestly I doubt that omelette would be very good.

Some baked goods have no issues with the flax substitution. Muffins are usually nigh indistinguishable. Other things I don’t like as much. It imparts a bit of malty flavor to any baked good and whether or not your particular baked good overcomes that determines if it will be any good.

Texture-wise, stuff tends to come out a little to a lot denser than with eggs. For some things this will matter, for others it won’t.

Overall, I’m still happy to eat baked goods my wife makes for the family, but sometimes I wish I had the real thing. :)

I’m waiting for Hampton Creek to come out with their Just Egg product before attempting any eggless scrambles/omelets.

https://www.justforall.com/en-us/stories/egg

Another really fascinating egg substitute is the thick, protein rich liquid canned chickpeas are packaged in. It will actually whip up into stiff peaks just like real egg whites, allowing vegan meringue. Shit be crazy.

All of this makes total sense, now that I am thinking about the chemistry behind it, but it’s still blowing my mind.

I’ve heard this. But isn’t there a lot of salt in it? I guess there might be versions that are sodium free?