15
votes
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!
Lately I have been buying cremini mushrooms and slicing them very thin and then roasting them in olive oil in the toaster oven. I don't really like the texture of mushrooms but this makes them nice and crispy
Fun fact: Cremini mushrooms are just white mushrooms that have been picked later in their life.
Funner fact: Both cremini and white mushrooms are just young Portabella mushrooms
We made hot cocoa with oat milk and bourbon the other day after being out in the cold. It was super sweet but also delicious and exactly what I needed!
What brand of out milk did you use? I've tried a lot of different ones and haven't found anything nearly as good as Oatly.
Planet Oat, Extra Creamy! I can drink it straight out of the glass. I don’t love the taste of regular milk, so that’s not really what I look for in a dairy alternative. :)
That’s my second choice out of the 6 or so I’ve tried
Have you tried Chao cheese? It's the best vegan cheese I've ever had. It works best as a replacement for American cheese slices, but I've also grated it for use on pizza with some success.
I'm able to get it at most grocery stores where I live, but I also see it's available online.
Made Dukkah Chicken for the first time in forever. Good healthy dish.
We stopped at a local chain burger joint, and my kid requested a hotdog with light ketchup and mustard, chess, bacon, lettuce tomato. When they couldn't finish it, I tried a bite and it was the best hotdog I ever had. I'm convinced they are a flavor savant because of things like this. One of the first was when we were doing plain wings with various sauces when they were 2, and they created a perfect blend of ranch, blue cheese, teriaki, and bbq sauces. We looked in horror as it was created, but it was better than any of those sauces individually. Was dubbed "Blukas Lucas Sauce" by the creator, and I really want to have them make it again.
Got a sixer of a nice sour beer and taught kiddo 'get daddy a beer.' They're not quite ready to do a proper pour, but it's a nice trick to have ready for a summer bbq, esp sjnce a lot of my social circle has got their vaccine.
I've started noticing a cooking itch after going through the first three chapters of "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat" by Samin Nosrat. It's a very interesting book, written in a super accessible style and the more I read the more I notice what it talks about when I'm eating food that I cook. Last night I made an (almost) vegetarian Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Burrito Bowl (with Cilantro Lime Rice). I say almost because I cooked the rice in Chicken Stock so it technically falls outside of the vegetarian category.
I've also been getting way more interested in making my own "things". I started off with pickles for a Chik-Fil-A clone chicken sandwhich from Josh Weissman. (The whole thing turned out fantastic by the way. First time ever frying anything, and to say I was a little on edge would be an understatement) And then I moved on to making mayonnaise by scratch.... which turns out to be both super easy and also incredibly difficult. I used maybe 3 cups of olive oil my first attempt, which turns out to be WAY TOO MUCH for only one egg yolk and some vinegar, so I'm going to try again sometime this week, but with measurements now :D
Other than that, I've been doing some more research into coffee brewing because I've had this as a hobby now for a little since after the p(l)andemic started and recently had a cool experience. Apparently AirBnb has created things called "Experiences" where you pay some amount of money per-person and then hop on a video call with someone who hosts the experience. In my case, my partner got both of us a seat in a "Coffee Experience" hosted by a wonderful man named Christian who lives in Mexico City. He gave us a little tour of his apartment, a little view of outside and then walked us through how he brews coffee. His background is that he apparently trains baristas for the World Coffee Tournament (Championships?) that happen in Mexico(!!). It was very interesting and the resulting brew that I got was incredibly different from what I would normally find following James Hoffmans method. It was much thicker and had a silkier texture to it. So now I gotta learn more about this.
The plandemic comment was meant as a joke, I don't actually believe that!!
Have you tried Hofmann’s no press French press method? I do something similar, but with a Mason jar and a metal filter for the Aeropress. It’s a nice cup.
Indeed I have! I agree, it comes out tasting pretty good - only problem for me is that I can't stand the fines in the cup at the end. I don't know how he's managed to keep them out of his but following his instructions word for word, I still end up with the last mouthful having the fines in it. I guess that's just how French Press is.... which is why my daily coffee is usually a V60 now, unless I need to brew for more than 3 people.
Most likely. That's probably fine when filming for a video, but doing that daily is wasteful and definitely not worth only for lack of coffee sediment.
I think that's the right way to go about it, I'll have to try these steps tomorrow morning!
Sounds like an interesting niche product opportunity!
Ya know it's the coolest thing when two minds are on the same page through space and time. I also tried a French Press experiment this morning (although it was rather quickly interfered with). This one was more for testing the difference in extraction between leaving hot water in the French Press for ~5 minutes and 10+ minutes (per @tomf 's comment below). The idea was to decant half the coffee at the 5 minute mark, and then taste test the difference of the brews once the brew time exceeded 10 minutes in the press. What actually happened was that by the time the remaining coffee in the press was done the longer brewing portion my partner had come downstairs and drank the coffee that had been decanted early on. So the only thing I can go off of is my memory of my half cup of "early" coffee and the cup of "late" coffee.
The 5 minute brew time tasted good, had considerably lighter texture to it which made the fines stand out in my mouth a little longer. 10+ minute brew had much more texture and density to it which subsequently hid a lot of the fines that (most likely) were floating around in there.
You might like a metal filter for the aeropress. You still get the oils through, but its fine enough that you don't get a lot of fines.
For Hoffman's method, you really need to have a larger french press for the 4m scraping part. Well, maybe you don't need it, but it definitely helps -- but there isn't any waste, since you're only scraping off the stuff that will overextract with the longer time.
I've watched it, and recommend it highly.
I can't say that I have :/ I'll have to watch it now though, and if it's anything like the book I'm sure I'll enjoy it!
On my brother's recommendation I've been making pastrami, cheese, mustard, and pickle bagels for my lunches of late. They're absolutely phenomenal, made all the better by having found vegan pastrami at my supermarket. Really, really good sandwich.
My housemate made Binging with Babish's biscuits and gravy on Sunday, and that was superb. I'm British, so I wasn't familiar with biscuits and gravy until I met her. Hoooo boy, was this delicious. In particular the biscuits: flaky like croissants, but crumbly like scones. Fabulous food. Her gravy is better than Babish's though, hands down.
I recently ordered the Australian clone of soylent (Aussielent) to try it out. It has the taste of watered down milk and the texture of flour mixed with water. Not super great but not bad either. Its just this powder you mix with water and its meant to contain everything your body needs.
Seems to contain sufficient energy to replace a full meal so I'll keep trying it out and see if I can get over the texture.