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

[WarrenM]

Kraaze

Absolutely! My wife thinks I’m a little anal about it but I try to get as much prep work done before I start cooking as possible. The only exception is if something needs to cook for, say, 30 minutes first then I’ll get that started because that’s enough time to do the rest of the prep without stressing out.

[Tortilla]

Here’s my weaksauce attempt at foodporn:

This was an impromptu dinner using materials on hand. Sometimes those turn out great, sometimes not so great. Got lucky with this one.

I knew I had some boneless skinless chicken breasts to use up or face discarding due to age, so I was casting around for something to do with them. I figured it would be easy enough to cook them in my cast iron skillet and then whip up a little pan sauce to make it flavorful.

I started with a tablespoon of butter in the skillet on medium high, and threw in the chicken breasts as soon as the butter had melted. I was completely sans seasonings at this point since I knew the pan sauce would be bringing all the flavor I needed later. After letting the breasts brown nicely, I turned them so the other side could start browning, tossed in 1/4 of a chopped onion, put the lid on, and decided to give it ~20 minutes to cook. My cast iron skillet has a nice heavy lid and when I lid the pan it traps heat so that it cooks more like an oven. Great for cooking chicken breasts or pork chops.

While the chicken was cooking I started a rice side dish and a can of green beans (all I had on hand) and belately realized I still hadn’t figured out the pan sauce. Looking around for what I had, I decided my pan sauce would be more butter, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and triple sec. Why triple sec you might ask? I have no idea, it was an impulsive thing.

After the chicken had 20 minutes to cook thoroughly I removed the lid and added a bit more butter. I cut the chicken into the chunks shown in the picture just to give more surface area to brown and so that I didn’t have to try splitting up three chicken breasts among four diners while at the table. After I’d browned my chicken chunks a bit more I pulled the chicken and deglazed the pan with triple sec. Then I tossed in the chicken broth, two generous pinches of kosher salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and a bit more butter. I added the chicken back to the pan to soak in the flavors while the sauce reduced.

After reducing about half I gave it a taste and discovered I’d oversalted. Oops, it’s a common mistake me for me when eyeballing salt because I always forget how much the reduction will concentrate the salt. I added a bit of water to thin the sauce and reduce the saltiness, which worked but gave me a thinner sauce consistency than I’d wanted. Oh well, the end product was delicious. Triple sec citrusy flavors didn’t come through much at all in the final sauce, the other flavors overpowered them so I’m not sure if I’d use triple sec again but the chicken was still quite tasty.

[interman]

Looks tasty. With a white plate, some vegs and ten seconds spent cleaning off the excess sauce at the side it would probably look even more pornolicious.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can taste the salt then you’ve oversalted, but balancing out a sauce isn’t always easy.

[tromik]

Also, the more you cook, the better you get at it. I never used to use a mise en place (getting all the ingredients together beforehand,) but now that I cook daily, it helps to be organized.

Read the recipe before you start, and after a while you can see where you can organize things.

Oh, I’m totally organized. That’s what kills me, time-wise, I’m slow as hell getting all that done. I’ll chop onions and I’ll have to seal them and put them in the fridge or they’ll start to wilt or whatever before the rest of my prep-chopping is done. Once I start cooking, it’s not so bad. I guess it’s really my slow knife work.

[Athryn]

Practice, practice, practice!

[Timemaster_Tim]

Absolutely! My wife thinks I’m a little anal about it but I try to get as much prep work done before I start cooking as possible. The only exception is if something needs to cook for, say, 30 minutes first then I’ll get that started because that’s enough time to do the rest of the prep without stressing out.

This drives my wife nuts because I end up using so many little dishes and utensils when I cook.

[Tortilla]

Looks tasty. With a white plate, some vegs and ten seconds spent cleaning off the excess sauce at the side it would probably look even more pornolicious.

Undoubtedly, but I’m more into recipe sharing than taking food porn pics ;-) I’ll leave the good food porn production to those with cameras fancier than a Motorola Droid.

[Kaigen]

Strawberry/Banana/Nutella pie.

Plus, there’s booze in it! Why use water when you can use wine instead?

Picture isn’t great because I don’t have great lighting in my kitchen and was feeling lazy. Maybe I’ll take another picture tomorrow.

[Dejin]

Strawberry/Banana/Nutella pie.

Plus, there’s booze in it! Why use water when you can use wine instead?

Picture isn’t great because I don’t have great lighting in my kitchen and was feeling lazy. Maybe I’ll take another picture tomorrow.

It looks yummy Kaigen!

[interman]

The best meal I’ve had in a long time: vegetable risotto with brown trout

[Tortilla]

I love the food porn but you really ought to start listing recipes or linking to them in case some of us want to make this stuff too :)

[interman]

Haha, sure. I didn’t really use a recipe this time, but for the vegetable risotto you heat a pan, add the desired amount of arborio rice, let it get hot as you move it around for a few minutes, and then you add vegetables (in my case celery, carrots and shallots), and then alternate adding stock and white wine. Add enough to sort of fill the bottom, and then just keep moving it around until it’s incorporated into the rice. Keep doing until it reaches the right consistency. It’s hard to explain what “right” is, so you have to just keep tasting. You want it to end up creamy, so less resistance than in some other rice dishes, yet not soggy.

Once it’s ready take it off the heat and add a decent chunk of butter. Let it get incorporated into the rice by moving it around. If you’re making a lot you probably want several smaller chunks.

Once that’s done add parmesan cheese. Again, add until creamy and awesome.

For the fish I just season it with salt and pepper, set a pan to medium high, and as I put the pieces on (skin side down) I lowered the heat. For me that gets the caramelization done nicely. When I see the change of color creep upwards to about half way I take the pan off the heat, flip the meat, and leave them for a little while.

Finished with parsley on top.

There may be other, better ways to do it, but that works for me.

[tromik]

For the fish I just season it with salt and pepper, set a pan to medium high, and as I put the pieces on (skin side down) I lowered the heat. For me that gets the caramelization done nicely. When I see the change of color creep upwards to about half way I take the pan off the heat, flip the meat, and leave them for a little while.

Finished with parsley on top.

There may be other, better ways to do it, but that works for me.

No lemon juice to finish? Man, I love pan-cooked trout with the skin on when you get just the littlest bit of crisp.

Speaking of acids, does anyone have instructions for a good chicken marinade? I did one today that was lemon juice, olive oil, diced onion, salt, pepper, a bit of soy sauce, chili flakes, and then I sealed it in a big ziplock bag with the chicken and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Before I put it on the grill, I threw on some no-salt chicken rub stuff. It was good, but it didn’t really permeate too deeply into the chicken. I’ve never done a marinade before, so I’m not sure if the one I made was too weak or if the pieces of chicken were just too large. How the heck do those Korean BBQ places do it? You can taste that stuff the entire way through the chicken.

[skedastic]

Continuing the “things to put under a piece of fish” theme, this is a fennel and citrus salad. Use a mandolin (even if you have ninja knife skills: use a mandolin) to slice a fennel bulb. Julienne a tart apple. Supreme an orange or two (cut off the ends and then the peel, being careful to follow the curve of the fruit. Cut between the segments). Separately, juice a couple of limes and drizzle in double the amount of olive oil while whisking, fairly heavily season with salt and pepper and a bit of honey. Mandolin some good parmesan and coarsely chop some cilantro or a similar herb. Just before serving, toss all together. Plunk fish on top. Healthy, fast, flexible, easy, and brilliant with any sort of fish or shellfish.

[interman]

No lemon juice to finish?

Didn’t have any around, and figured there was enough acid in the risotto. Probably wouldn’t have hurt though.

Also, looks great skedastic.

[dwolfe]

No lemon juice to finish? Man, I love pan-cooked trout with the skin on when you get just the littlest bit of crisp.

Speaking of acids, does anyone have instructions for a good chicken marinade? I did one today that was lemon juice, olive oil, diced onion, salt, pepper, a bit of soy sauce, chili flakes, and then I sealed it in a big ziplock bag with the chicken and stuck it in the fridge overnight. Before I put it on the grill, I threw on some no-salt chicken rub stuff. It was good, but it didn’t really permeate too deeply into the chicken. I’ve never done a marinade before, so I’m not sure if the one I made was too weak or if the pieces of chicken were just too large. How the heck do those Korean BBQ places do it? You can taste that stuff the entire way through the chicken.

Vinegar. Acid helps break down the meat and allows marinade flavours to soak in, but vinegar seems to work much better than citrus. Acetic acid vs citric acid, probably. Oh god, there’s a ton of publishedpaperscomparing them in journals…I had no idea even Something Awful forums get into this debate.

I’ve used balsamic, rice, and apple cider vinegar in my marinades depending on the other ingredients in the marinade. I’ve never had an issue with too much acidity, but I’m using <30mL (1 oz) vinegar per pound of meat.

[tromik]

Vinegar. Acid helps break down the meat and allows marinade flavours to soak in, but vinegar seems to work much better than citrus. Acetic acid vs citric acid, probably. Oh god, there’s a ton of publishedpaperscomparing them in journals…I had no idea even Something Awful forums get into this debate.

I’ve used balsamic, rice, and apple cider vinegar in my marinades depending on the other ingredients in the marinade. I’ve never had an issue with too much acidity, but I’m using <30mL (1 oz) vinegar per pound of meat.

Holy crap, that experiment was awesome!

I’ll try 50/50 lemon juice and vinegar next time. PretentiousFood’s experiment didn’t mention salt. Increasing the salt levels would draw the water moisture out of the chicken, and allow the acid to soak in faster. I wouldn’t be using enough salt or giving it enough time to actually brine or pickle, but increasing the amount and using the vinegar should help, correct?

[ElGuapo]

I made steak tartare the other day and didn’t get sick or die!

It was pretty easy, too. I bought some shaved steak from a butcher I trust (Harris Teeter’s down the road has a really good butcher and meats…don’t know if that’s everywhere but this one is good). Made a balsamic vinegar and super diced green onion and salt mix, applied some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and then drizzled with the vinegar. Waited a few minutes for it to soak in and ate.

It was really good, and easy. I don’t think I’d have it every day but it was a nice treat.

[dwolfe]

Holy crap, that experiment was awesome!

I’ll try 50/50 lemon juice and vinegar next time. PretentiousFood’s experiment didn’t mention salt. Increasing the salt levels would draw the water moisture out of the chicken, and allow the acid to soak in faster. I wouldn’t be using enough salt or giving it enough time to actually brine or pickle, but increasing the amount and using the vinegar should help, correct?

I always use a fairly salty marinade (no more than .9% salt, sea water level, at a guess) since most of the salt is lost in the marinade anyway. To brine something you should use several percent salt in the liquid; and I’ve never had an issue with accidentally pickling my marinaded meats, as the ratio of liquid:meat is very low.

So no, I think you’re ok, just add some vinegar to your previous marinade and see if that helps? Don’t change too many variables at once!! You won’t know which change helped or hurt.

[dwolfe]

I made steak tartare the other day and didn’t get sick or die!

It was pretty easy, too. I bought some shaved steak from a butcher I trust (Harris Teeter’s down the road has a really good butcher and meats…don’t know if that’s everywhere but this one is good). Made a balsamic vinegar and super diced green onion and salt mix, applied some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and then drizzled with the vinegar. Waited a few minutes for it to soak in and ate.

It was really good, and easy. I don’t think I’d have it every day but it was a nice treat.

Back in grad school, we had stories about how certain families would come down with Salmonella every fall when they tried to make tartare and messed up.

No garlic? Usually people added garlic for the anti-bacterial properties as well as taste, I thought? I don’t know, I won’t touch the stuff.