Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Been a Professional Cook for almost a decade now, though with my ankles/feet going to gak, and how Covid has effected my line of work. I've been trying to get out of the kitchen.


My big thing is I -love- love Mexican cuisine. But Canada has next to no concept of the cuisine at all, all the local places are bad, and Canadian Taco Bell is something I wouldn't even feed to captured ISIS fighters. I think I have the hang of seasoning and preparing Chilaquies, Enchiladas and of course Tacos. But I have to wonder, what a actual Mexican would think of my cooking, that thought actually makes me incredibly nervous.


I think tonight I am going to whip up some rice for a big, big ole burietto and gorge myself like a daft overfed beast of burden.

Funny you should mention Burrito, been craving a bit of tex-Mex myself.

Reckon I’ll get some stuff in to do Tacos tomorrow, including assembling my own Taco seasoning.

I know Trev’s girls love Tacos, so seems a sensible thing to get used to cooking.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Might also do a refresh of my cooking things this month.

Original flatmate never did quite figure out cleaning a baking sheet before reusing it, so a lot mine a largely ruined.

Could particularly use some Loaf Tins, as I’d like to get back to my baking. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed and the knack for. Or I’ll cop out and just order a bread maker, which certainly saves a lot of time. Also means I can be baking whilst using the oven for other good stuff,

I have a wok. My understanding is I must snort a line of spice and incense so as to not anger it.

I have a Wok.

Well. Had. Somewhere between the two.

I’d not used it in a long while, but wanted a Stir Fry at the weekend (nice and cheap, and pretty healthy to boot provided you go easy on the oil).

Found it stashed in one of the cupboards. Where a former flatmate left it, without washing it up. And had clearly used a sharp knife when cooking with it, because they’ve cut through the non-stick coating.]

Still had my Stir Fry, just had to use one of the frying pans.

Given no flatmate has ever been able to wash up to my satisfaction, I’m now worried I might be a bit OCD. But I can’t be, as I just use hot soapy water and a dual sponge scourer. I just....make sure they’re clean.

Oh, whichever bugger ruined my cast iron griddle can take a long walk off a short pier. Those things are expensive, and now it’s rusted to buggery!

On griddle pans....how do people like their steaks? I’m a medium rare guy, possibly edging more toward rare than medium. Before the griddle, salt and pepper, then oil the steak not the griddle. And whilst I’m not a purist on it, because a peppercorn sauce is a wonderful thing, I don’t tend to bother with sauces, instead letting the Steak speak for itself.

Serve simply with just cooked Broccoli, oven baked potato and a griddled Beef Tomato. Baked spud should have butter and coleslaw.

I’ll take a Ribeye as preference, but will generally go with what I can afford over any real snobbishness.

Steaks with sauce depends on the steak moreso then the sauce.

pork chops: at onion mustard sauce, lightly breaded and seasoned with tyhme, oregano, rosemary, paprica, salt and pepper.
Served with oven potatos and cabbage salad.

Also rip wok and cast iron griddle. a sad day

I keep thinking I should get a cast iron skillet, but they are a bit fussy to maintain, and I’m not sure I care that much. Keep hearing good things about them and what they can do for your cooking though..l


Medium rare. Most of the time just S&P, a good steak should not need anything else. If I’m doing fajitas I’ll give it a more complex spice rub. Strip steaks

I don’t do steaks often, so it’s normally an impulse buy when I see them on sale. And has been a while. Apartment living has left me without a grill. Moving back into a house in the near future, so that will change soon.

Yeah, I enjoy Steak so much, I don’t want to have it often enough to risk not properly appreciating it.

But when I do, I like to get it from the Butchers. It is of course more expensive than the supermarket, but as well as the benefit to the local economy, I figure a Treat should feel like it, and be that little bit more extravagant.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, my Bread Maker has arrived.

Been to the shop to get the necessaries, and also gonna give the soup marker an outing for a homemade, if automated, dinner tonight.

Leek and Potato soup (maybe with some crispy bacon chopped and added for serving) with fresh Granary bread.

Rather looking forward to it. So best crack on and get it on the go.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Oh, whichever bugger ruined my cast iron griddle can take a long walk off a short pier. Those things are expensive, and now it’s rusted to buggery!

Unless it's been kept in the garden for years or something, it should be easily recoverable. Rub all the rust off with wire wool, till you get to bare metal. Then re-season it - heat it up really hot and rub oil into it. Mind your fingers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
More info

https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/how-to/article/cast-iron-pan-rust

Might give that a go.

Still Incredibly annoyed that it happened!

Yeah, it is something than can be restored unless the rust has massively pitted the thing. Plenty of on-line tutorials.

Cast iron is not really hard to maintain. Just hand clean; never dish-washer clean. I repeat, never dish-washer clean. Dry thoroughly and maybe a light coat of oil if you do not plan to use it for a while. Re-season every so often if needed. Also, remember that cast iron does not heat evenly, so pre-heating is a must.

First loaf out. It smells great, passed the tap test (a way to tell if bread fresh out the oven is properly), and is gloriously wonky on the top.

Came out around 20 minutes ago, and on a cooling rack (important, as otherwise a still hot loaf will steam its bottom, resulting in sogginess). Should be able to get stuck in around 9pm.

Where did you pick up the breadmaker out of interest, me and my wife were thinking of getting one. It would be nice to have fresh bread while we are out working on site.

Edit: funnily enough my wife is coeliac as well, does yours have a gluten free function?


Cool tip I can always recommend: roast broccoli instead of boiling, mix with some garlic, chilli flakes and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Goes great with steak, or mix in some soft cheese with pasta.

It does indeed. Got mine on credit from Littlewoods, so paid slightly above market price in favour of instalment payments.

The model does do GF settings, and comes with a useful guide book on want settings to use for which dough.

SD-ZB2502BXC Breadmaker with 27 automatic programmes by Panasonic.

Seemingly a variety of price points, with Amazon being the cheapest at £159.00 according to my Google results.

It’s really easy to use. Load your gubbins into the pan, barring the yeast which goes in a separate bit. Switch it on, select the right programme, press start. Leave it until it beeps.

Oh, and use the right paddle thing, as there’s a special one for Rye Bread, which I might try soon!

It also has a built in timer, so you can load it at night, and set it to be baked when you get up.

Just in general baking principles, I don’t think I’d time it so it cools in the pan, as it can make your crust soggy from the resulting cooling in an enclosed chamber.

Looks easy enough to clean, too. Loaf came out nice and smoothly, so the pan itself mostly just needs a wipe down rather than a more thorough wash, so the non-stick coating should last a good long time. Just, don’t go at it with a scoured!

Made a stab at some fried chicken last night. No fryer so resorted to a pan of oil to make things crispy. Turned out pretty well using a mix of flour, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Double dipped in egg and flour for extra crunch. I could definitely see going the extra mile could result in a nice sticky sauce, if I had thought ahead.

The girlfriend made soft cookies over the weekend and were promptly demolished between the two of us.

That bread maker sounds cool, my mother bought be an electric mixer so I can make cake.

There is a cake setting, but it’d be all square, which doesn’t sit right with me!

Food Processor arrived, so soon to go buy frozen fruit to make smoothies, as I need to be consuming more good stuff.

Recipe calls for Nut Butter. But no. I don’t think so.

On the bread maker.

It’s definitely a labour saver, not a time saver. The programme I’m using takes 5 hours. And a good 1.5 hours is “resting” once you loaded in the ingredients.

I suspect this is to allow the flour to absorb whatever liquid you’re using, as the kneading panel only spins the one direction. The rest of the time is pretty standard (kneading, proving, baking, done).

So if you’re expecting to just be able to churn out loaves at a moments notice, that’s not gonna happe!

On to my second loaf today. It really is quick to load up. The most effort is measuring out the flour and the water. The rest is no effort whatsoever.

As for tonight’s dinner? Gonna try Nashville Hot Nuggets in the air fryer. Will get a shop bought dip though, as I don’t yet have empty sauce bottle for appropriate storage. But I will be ordering some, I can assure you that.

I made an absolutely gorgeous pasta dish last night, entirely improvised from a half remembered video I'd seen some weeks before and a variety of leftover/needed using items from the fridge!

I chopped some bacon up small and fried it slowly until it was crispy, then added chopped onion and garlic, fried until it was soft.

Then I put a block of feta in the middle of a baking dish with a lid, surrounded it with dried pasta, covered this with the bacon & onion mix, then covered that with grated cheese, then topped it up with milk to cover the pasta, grind of black pepper and put it in the oven at 180°C. Half an hour later I stirred it, topped it with mozzarella and then put it back in with the lid off for 15 minutes. It was amazing!

Sounds alright

Nuggets weren’t anywhere near spicy enough. Positively tame.

Also made soup, so everything I’ve eaten today has been home made. Really quite pleased with myself at that.

Smoothie didn’t work quite as expected. The frozen fruit made it really thick, so had to eat it with a spoon. Consistency was akin to a just thawing Sorbet. Will definitely be doing it again though as it was very tasty.

Tried making saag paneer. The paneer certainly sagged alright. It looked and tasted like seaweed left in the sink all day.

I heard cheese is a good meat alternative, so I am looking for way to work with that without killing my arteries. Might try experimenting a bit more with paneer to see if it works well enough as a curry.

Which recipe did you use for your Saag? And was it fresh or frozen Spinach

(In case anyone is wondering, Saag is Spinach in Indian cuisine. I like Saag Aloo, which is spinach and spuds. Not to be confused with Bombay Spuds)

Question for our American chums.

Pretty much every Cajun seafood video on YouTube calls for Old Bay seasoning. But sometimes the packets are different.

Is this the seasoning equivalent of a Hoover, where one companies trademark has become ubiquitous?

If not, is Old Bay really all that? Been sniffing around Amazon today, and found Slap Ya Mama as well as a couple of others.

Given it’s pretty expensive due to being import, don’t want to spend money if what I’m ordering is guff.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Question for our American chums.

Pretty much every Cajun seafood video on YouTube calls for Old Bay seasoning. But sometimes the packets are different.

Is this the seasoning equivalent of a Hoover, where one companies trademark has become ubiquitous?

If not, is Old Bay really all that? Been sniffing around Amazon today, and found Slap Ya Mama as well as a couple of others.

Given it’s pretty expensive due to being import, don’t want to spend money if what I’m ordering is guff.

As far as I know (which honestly isn’t very far in this case) Old Bay is Old Bay, and not just anything. According to the old dented tin in the pantry, it’s a spice mix with the ingredients of Celery salt, Spices (including red and black pepper) and paprika. There might be other variants out there, and other copy-cat brands, but it’s a classic blend you will find used here.

Sounds like it’s worth getting The Real Thing then.

I’ve certainly always fancied a Crawfish boil. And given American Crayfish are a problem invasive species in our waterways, you’d think they’d be a common occurrence as we introduce an invasive species to the silliness of messing with the planet’s apex predator (no, not Randy Orton). But....seemingly not.

Which is a shame. Reckon a few tactical Crawfish boils during the height of summer would start impacting their numbers.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Sounds like it’s worth getting The Real Thing then.

I’ve certainly always fancied a Crawfish boil. And given American Crayfish are a problem invasive species in our waterways, you’d think they’d be a common occurrence as we introduce an invasive species to the silliness of messing with the planet’s apex predator (no, not Randy Orton). But....seemingly not.

Which is a shame. Reckon a few tactical Crawfish boils during the height of summer would start impacting their numbers.

locals generally tend to not pick up that invasive species are technically often edible...

F.e. american crayfish....

Which is a shame as it is supposedly a lot like lobster.

The weekend for me involved eating my girlfriend's latest bakery treats: a pineapple upside down cake and some peppermint chocolate cupcakes which were both fantastic. I wasn't enthused with the idea of pineapple in a cake but it worked well with the caramel sauce she made and the sponge was nice and moist.

Yesterday we made our first pizzas from scratch. Flour everywhere, but they turned out very well for the first time. My base was a little bit thick for my liking but I was concerned about making the base too thin in the middle. Kept things simple, mozzarella and a few olives were enough. And because I'm proud of it, here are a couple of pictures of the two we made:

Darn, now I'm getting really hungry...

Looks good, but maybe a little more edge highlighting?

Only slightly joking. Brush a little oil and maybe sprinkle some parm on the crust to get a nice gloss and some extra flavor.

 Nevelon wrote:
Looks good, but maybe a little more edge highlighting?

Only slightly joking. Brush a little oil and maybe sprinkle some parm on the crust to get a nice gloss and some extra flavor.

I'll get that one down on the next model- I mean pizza

 Tyranid Horde wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Looks good, but maybe a little more edge highlighting?

Only slightly joking. Brush a little oil and maybe sprinkle some parm on the crust to get a nice gloss and some extra flavor.

I'll get that one down on the next model- I mean pizza

Its one of those steps I never bother with. So my crusts are always pale and dusted with flour. But in theory, it’s how good pizza places get that nice golden brown crispy thing going on. Might want to double check my advice with a quick web search before you screw up your next meal.

Curry out of a jar tonight, but I did add extra veggies in the form of an onion and two small bell peppers.

I swear I haven’t eaten this well in years. I’m working on my portion control (such as not scoffing all the curry, so tomorrow is another curry night), and making a conscious effort to eat more fruit and veg.

Next up I’ll get a spice grinder, so I can better make curry from scratch. The recipes don’t call for a lot of salt, but of course it’s pretty prevalent in sauce jars. So for the sake of £35 and a bit more effort, I can further cut down my sodium intake. I mean, I still use salt in my cooking, of course I do. But I’m not using excess salt, nor an excessive amount when eating. And to quote a certain supermarket, every little helps.

And as I had curry tonight, and am having it again tomorrow, my usual Friday night take away might be postponed.