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What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking?
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
We made an okra & tomato stew tonight. It was super easy and very tasty
I took the suggestion on a bag of dried mochi and rolled up a bit in a kraft single and a slice of ham. The taste was honestly exactly as you might think, but the texture was amazing. It was somewhere between a fresh Charleston Chew and fondue.
Gochujang cookies!!
Edit: video version
A few weeks ago, I tried to broil something, and the broiler on my stove then stayed on. Any time the stove was plugged in, broil was on, full blast. So we unplugged the stove, and on Saturday our new stove was delivered. Having been stuck with not-baking anything for a few weeks - we have had loads of stir fries, and a few instant pot meals were had - we have been baking things. We had chicken fingers for the first time in a month, we baked cookies, we baked croissants for breakfast, we baked a lasagna.
I imagine we will be baking things for a while. I think I'll make a meatloaf this week.
Whoa... that's quite the coincidence. The exact same thing happened to us a few months ago. Our LG oven broiler suddenly wouldn't shut off either, and after finding out it couldn't be repaired, we had to buy a new one too. We bought ourselves an electric skillet and toaster oven to hold us over until the new oven arrived though, since its delivery ended up delayed for several weeks, apparently due to COVID related supply chain issues.
But now that the new oven is here, we have also been using it far more frequently that we normally would too. And we're also cooking a bunch of stuff we never have before since the new oven has an extremely powerful convection (AKA "air fryer") mode which is awesome for making stuff extra crispy. E.g. I used to hate oven fries and wedges, since they always ended up either kinda limp, or crispy but also too dry... but now, using the air fryer mode, they come out amazingly crisp but still moist and fluffy inside, and so I am totally addicted to them! :P
I haven't explored the convection option yet - our new oven has one too! I've been reading and re-reading the manual, especially around cleaning and care, as I'd like this one to also last a long time.
The repair guy that I got out to look at our old stove said that it's actually relatively common to have the control board go in ovens now; ours was 16 years old when it went, and we just could not get a replacement. We ended up with another KitchenAid. I think we were lucky because our oven was gas, so we could still use the stovetop, we just had to use a lighter to light things. And I guess we could broil as well, but that doesn't come up much, except for tuna melt day.
I did a trip to M&M meats and bought a whole bunch of stuff for this week, so that we can get to know the new oven in some detail. I think I'll air fry some potatoes at some point this week, and I might also make some samosa's and air fry them as well after watch four levels of samosas.
I don't know if your oven came with one (ours did), but if not, make sure to buy yourself a mesh crisper/airfryer tray. They make a huge difference when using the convection setting since they let the air circulate around the entirety of the food. The bigger the tray the better too, since you don't want to cramp the tray and impede the air flow, or the food won't get as crispy all around.
Ah, M&Ms. We haven't been to one in ages, but thanks for reminding me of their existance. I should definitely go pick up a bunch of their stuff to a give a try in the new oven. I suspect their chicken Kievs (one of my favs) would be even better now with the convection cooking.
And speaking of somaosas, another funny coincidence, we literally just had Indian food last night! A new higher-end Indian restaurant (with proper tandoori ovens) just opened up here in Georgetown a few weeks ago, so we decided to give it a try... and it was absolutely amazing. So if you're ever in the area, I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out. :)
p.s. Do yourself a favor and go buy some Pinty's chicken wings, which are sold at Metro. They're fucking amazing in the convection. So amazing, in fact, that we never even bother to go out for wings anymore. :P
p.p.s. If you don't have a meat thermometer, be sure to get one too. A lot of frozen meat dishes (e.g. chicken wings) don't have convection oven instructions, which is a bit of an issue since the convection cooks a lot faster than traditional ovens. So often times going by internal temp is the only way to tell when a frozen meat dish is properly cooked.
And we have also found that dropping the temp down a bit from what's written in the traditional oven instructions is a good idea too, just so the internals have time to come up to temp before the outside gets too toasty or dry. It takes a bit of playing with to get right, but once you get a feel for it, the results are definitely worth it. Just make sure to write down the adjusted temps and cook times you used for each dish when you eventually do find the sweet spot using your particular oven (since we didn't at first and kept forgetting). ;)
CostCo also has Pinty's wings, which are a staple around here - the kids love the bold barbecue and I think the buffalo flavour is pretty good. I a couple of hole-y pans, and luckily there's some gift receiving opportunities in the near future so I'm hoping for a good basket like you linked. Our new stove also has a fun feature that I have not fully figured out yet, which is automatic adjustments - if a recipe calls for 45 min at 400, you can just convert it to "convection", or at least that's what seems to be the case when I start up the convection oven. I'll make sure I go the meat thermometer route when cooking meats; I've only used it for browning up potatoes so far, and it worked very well, but I do want to try it out on other things, and I do have a pretty nice meat thermometer that I basically never use - I think I've only used it for lamb, and I don't recall the last time I cooked lamb.
I will check out Rangoli - it's one that my in-laws want to take us to, so we might go some time over the holidays. My mother-in-law's current favourite restaurant is Diana's in Guelph, and she said Rangoli was just as good, which is high praise from her; she tends to be pretty nit picky at Indian places (being Indian / Goan herself).
I have to find a good samosa place nearby though, or actually commit and make them. Maybe I'll do so over the winter holidays and see how they are.
That's a neat function of your oven. AFAIK ours has nothing like that. :(
And oh, nice. I didn't realize you already knew about Rangoli. It makes me feel good that a native Goan agreed with me about it being good though. :P
I've been doing pasta (mostly spaghetti, linguini, or bucatini) with tomato sauces. The channel I get recipes from is https://www.youtube.com/@italiasquisita and they often do a thing where they show a traditional recipe and then a michelin star version, and that's great because the traditional recipes are solid time-tested, and the michelin versions have some additional steps that I can do at home to really boost flavour or texture.
Spaghetti with tomato sauce by Michelin Star Italian chef Carlo Cracco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ1kuh0pZ_g
Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce: Original VS Gourmet with Chef Peppe Guida and Grandma Rosa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__veO6nfP28
Spaghetti with tomato sauce: original Tuscan style vs. gourmet with Cristiano Tomei: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27aAsz9XwxM
This last one has an interesting technique that I haven't tried yet of making a sofrito but using very rough chopped veg, and then allowing that to drain through a colander. Those collected juices and then slowly reduced down to a syrup which is added to the sauce.
This week I'll be trying to do Mozzarella Sticks which is a bit intimidating because I tend not to deep fry anything ever.