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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!
Reverse seared some sirloin steaks yesterday for lunch with my in-laws and did roasted broccoli, asparagus wrapped in pancetta and a homemade bearnaise sauce.
I've been following The Ramen Rater for a little while and trying out some of the most highly rated stuff where I can get it. This week it was the MyKuali penang white curry and I was astonished at how tasty they are. Surprisingly spicy too.
I haven't eaten it yet, but I also bought some special reserve 60 month matured cheddar which arrived this morning. Very much looking forward to cracking that open closer to Christmas.
I had a hankering for a burger but didnt really want to buy one. But my homemade burgers have never been... right. Drove out to the butcher, he had excellent, untouched ground beef, must have come right out of the grinder straight into the display.
I then ran around to 3 bakeries to find the right buns. Sadly, no one had potato buns but the last joint finally had soft-enough looking buns.
First two burgers were okay, like good but still not there yet. A bit underseasoned, i smashed one into a bad shape that didnt work for the bun. On the third day, as was prophesied, i nailed it. Everything went smoothly, i got a great sear on the smash, perfect amount of cheese, right temp, buns crisped up on the edges but soft inside. I had a fucking BOMB cheeseburger. Im still beaming, and the craving is gone.
Not sure what ill pursue next, either paella or maybe just some french onion soup.
If you’re making thick burgers try to minimize how much you work the beef. The more you smash and shape the burgers the tougher the beef will get.
If you look at fresh ground beef it has a thick noodle like grain to it. I try to shape the patties enough to get a hockey puck, but still retain distinct noodles. It sort of feels like loosely pulling the meat into a shape instead of mushing it into a ball. Make sure they’re thinner in the middle to account for shrinkage. Same strategy for meatballs—which is really fun cause you’re doing mixins.
Only need to season the outside. Salt to start, pepper to finish. Butter and toast your hamburger buns.
If you’re doing thin burgers then yeah you need to work the meat. For that reason the vacuum packed beef is best for thin burgers but terrible for thick.
Agreed on the minimum working of the beef. I actually dont form patties specifically for that reason. I tear the right weight off of the whole chunk of ground beef, push a couple of sides in to make it a more consistent ball, drop into a ripping hot pan, smash immediately, follow that up with seasoning on the top.
I havent messed around with salt then pepper to finish, is there some reason for that or is it just a concern with burning the pepper?
As for buns, i refuse to toast them anymore because theyre too crunchy. Not what i want from a burger. I butter on one side with a bit of mayo and that goes onto the hot skillet as well so that the bottom is crunchy but the tops are soft.
Salt doesn’t burn but pepper does. So fine to use salt but supposedly better to finish with pepper.
Yeah that totally makes sense, I'll definitely give that a shot next time. Thanks!
Baked buckwheat and tahini chocolate chip cookies this evening! Well, I made the batter and froze it in logs for next week and only baked one cookie off it as a tester. It was ridiculously good btw, all sweet and nutty and rich and chewy. It's going to be hard to let the logs chill for the rest of the week without testing another one.
I used this recipe but added vanilla paste and more salt: https://breadcakesandale.com/2021/12/02/buckwheat-tahini-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan-gluten-free/
I'm suffering through a rising wave of migraines that are becoming more and more debilitating, so I'm trying to semi-systematically remove typical food related migraine triggers for a month to see if the frequency subsides.
I'm drinking nothing but water, even though I was relying on kombucha for long lasting stomach biome issues I've been dealing with, because fermented stuff can be known to cause migraines. I grew up with terrible eating habits, so I'm trying to weed out a ton of artificial foods for whole foods, while dealing with potent ARFID that's triggered by a lot of food textures common amongst whole foods. Then to top it all off, I'm trying to be disciplined and consistent through all of it with raging ADHD, on the heels of the realization that I was never taught how to build habits and thus have always had a massive fail rate at attempting to create them. I can't blame my parents, they didn't know any better and they themselves obviously have undiagnosed ADHD. It's just a lot, but I'm trying.
Bought an air fryer oven (Breville) finally and have really enjoyed cooking with it.
I've started meal-prepping egg, bacon, and potatoes o'brien burritos (with the bacon and potatoes being air fried), and being able to reheat them easily in the small oven vs waiting for the large oven to heat up has been fantastic. Being able to have a very quick, simple meal has helped a ton with keeping a good, home-cooked diet when I don't have something else available or the energy to make something.
Which, talking about diet, I had tried getting into cauliflower-crust frozen pizza but the crust was always too floppy and made the cauliflower flavor stand out more. Making it in the airfryer really helps crispify the crust and actually makes them delicious!
I also really got into make lemon-pepper chicken wings. Clarified butter is a game changer. Still trying to find the right lemon pepper seasoning and might just try making my own, but no store bought has let me down. I also add some spicy ground Indian red peppers to the mix to help give it more of a kick.
I will say though, as a fan of undercooked and soft cookies I have yet to get those right in there (not using the air fryer aspect, just using it as a normal oven). I think I'll just be sticking to the big oven for that.
I love getting those personal pizzas a la Pieology/Mod Pizza, but I found I liked them way more if I got the Cauliflower crust and asked them to overcook the pizza quite a bit. I tend to enjoy a more well done pizza, but I also found the same as you. The extra cook time really transitions the cauliflower crust from meh to wow!