Yeah, with all due respect to the allrecipes.com authors, the 4:1 recipe is bullshit. Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try it tomorrow and see if it’s edible! :)
Just start with a certain amount of potatoes and add flour until the dough reaches the desired consistency. I didn’t measure accurately last time I made potato gnocchi, but it was definitely closer to 1:1 than 4:1.
8-27-2010 004 by tim_elhajj, on Flickr
Taking interman’s advice. It’s amazing how much better food photographs if you put it on a white plate and daub up the spatter.
This is about the easiest fish dish ever - A can of diced tomoatoes, garlic, cumin, lime juice and sliced olives. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper. Bake at 425 until it gets white and flaky. Sprinkle with chopped tomato about half way through the bake cycle.
That’s a beaut of a picture Tim.
What kind of fish? (The olives appeal to me, particularly.)
-xtien
I’ve never tried, though I assume they would be fine.
Thanks, that’s tilapia, but I’ve done it with snapper and maybe even haddock. I know what you mean about the olives. Can’t think of another dish that uses giant pimento stuffed olives to such great effect.
Any pickling advice? I’ve never done it. I’m going to try to pickle some sweet peppers tonight and see how that goes, but there are almost always jalapenos at the markets near me and I’d love some thoughts on what to do with them. Also, what do you use them for once they are pickled?
I also just made this: it’s a Turkish? spicy feta spread. I had it a bunch in Germany and really liked it. This recipe makes it spicier and a little drier than what I had over there… I might halve the amount of chili flakes, and up the olive oil in the future. But it’s really easy to make and tasty on sandwiches and the like.
In this particular trial, I cheated and used canned. sheepish I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing first. Here’s the recipe I used:
[B] Ingredients[/B]
[ul]
[li] 1 teaspoon olive oil[/li][li] 1 cup chopped onion[/li][li] 4 cloves garlic, minced[/li][li] 3/8 cup red wine[/li][li] 1 tablespoon white sugar[/li][li] 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil[/li][li] 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes[/li][li] 2 tablespoons tomato paste[/li][li] 1 tablespoon lemon juice[/li][li] 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning[/li][li] 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper[/li][li] 2 (14.5 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes[/li][li] 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley[/li][/ul]
[B] Directions[/B]
[ol]
[li] Heat oil in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes. [/li][li] Stir in wine, sugar, basil, red pepper, tomato paste, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, black pepper and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer uncovered about 15 minutes. [/li][li] Stir in parsley. Ladle over the hot cooked pasta of your choice. [/li][/ol]
I doubled it to make a big batch, but I left the crushed red pepper at 1 tsp. It gave it a nice heat without being painful. Next time I think I’m going to leave out the sugar - I don’t think the sauce needs both it and the red wine.
My photography isn’t as good as everyone else in the thread but someone lent me their camera so I’ll show you one of my favourite dishes.
First Dish
Ingredients
1 spoon Sesame seed oil
Bell pepper of each colour
2 packs of side pork
2 spoons Black bean sauce, thick like molasses
3 spoons Chili garlic sauce, same thickness
lotsa chili flakes
1 spoon sugar
1 spoon very dark soy sauce
I boil the side pork first to remove some fat, then I cut the fat off and then fry it. I cut the bell peppers into strips. When the side pork is fried nice and brown I throw in the chili sauce, black bean sauce, sugar and then soy. After that cooks for a minute or less I throw in the bell peppers and maybe throw some more sauce on them. I let that cook for another minute with the lid on my wok and then throw the chili flakes on.
My Salad
Ingredients
1 cauliflower
1/2 cup bacon bits
1/2 roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
Dressing
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 spoon vinegar
1 spoon sugar
Thats definitely overdoing it a bit on the dressing, you can probably cut it in half and still be good. I added wayyy to much to a small cauliflower this time.
Edit: I destroyed H scroll.
Marged
1853
Apparently “winging it” was not an advisable method for bread baking.
Early in the evening I made a sponge of flour and water and a tsp of yeast. I’m not sure what ratio of flour to water it was but it was very wet.
Later in the evening, I added flour and water and salt and mixed it in my stand mixer. It was wet but not soupy and I thought it would work as ciabatta dough.
I preheated my oven to 450 with a pizza stone. It was an unmitigated failure. It burned on the bottom before it even cooked through. I am a sad, stupid panda.
(Even though I know my whole “measuring is for engineers, I am an artiste!” schtick was really stupid, a part of me doesn’t really get how this happened. I mean, slack dough doesn’t necessarily equal a burned bottom crust, right?)
My wife has been doing a lot of bread experiments and one thing has become clear: it’s all about the chemistry. Makes you wonder how they did this stuff thousands of years ago before they believed in SCIENCE!
Gendal
1855
Not ciabatta, but Cooks Illustrated recently published a recipe and technique for making focaccia that is just awesome. I was curious to see what freshly made focaccia tastes like since I can’t stand the stuff you find on a typical deli sandwich.
The answer was it tastes incredible if eaten within 2 hours and merely great within 24 hours. First attempt and people literally hurt themselves trying to eat a couple batches I made. Went with the pancetta and onions version though I don’t think it really matters, the bread would probably be great just on it’s own.
Small tip though, go with a high quality olive oil for coating the bottom of the pan, they call for a lot and the one I used imparted a very slight bitter flavor I think (a known problem for me with the brand I used).
I also began creating my own Sourdough starter and it’s almost finished. Can’t wait to get started using it in a couple more days after I finish switching it over to a the white flour.
baren
1856
I recommend checking out the Jim Lahey no-knead bread recipes. As you look around, you’ll find dozens of variants. Article describing it in the NYT, and the recipe itself.
Marged
1857
I have made that dough and also their older recipe that comes for potato. I think I prefer the latter - it is like the perfect mixture of crispy crust and nice crumb.
I’ve been making my own foccacia a few times this summer to go with my excellent Vitello Tonnato (a favourite dish). The first batch was also rather hard… but what a taste.
Do share the recipe.
I tried grilling pizza (with a stone) since the grill supposedly gets the high temp a normal oven can’t. First try in a mini travel Weber failed, second was really good - I will have to improve the recipe (ie not the pizza recipe, but what stone to use, how hot to get the grill and adding smoke).
Here’s another very simple dish I make a lot these days since I’m collecting about half a kilo of tomatoes on my balcony every second day.
It’s just olive oil, tomatoes cut in half, basil, sliced garlic, salt and pebber mixed with freshly cooked spaghetti - the secret lies in using different tomatoes (there’s four different here) and different types of Basil (also four here) or perhaps some majoram and a good quality oil.
Then squeeze the tomatoes to get some juices out and mix with the spaghetti with your fingers.
Damn, Hans. I love the color in your picture. Looks yummy! And I’m not big on tomatoes, but it looks delicious!
Enidigm
1860
Hey Hans, trying making it into a hot/cold dish by throwing all those ingredients in with balsamic vinegar first, cool to room or refrigerate, and serving that on top of the hot pasta. Toss some good cheese on top for contrast. I did that for years when i still had a garden.
