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I was just wondering if anyone else on the board is into culinary arts. If so what do you like to cook, any certain regional cooking you like? Have any favorite recipes? Hell even talk about all the different cooking shows out now days.
Right now I'm in school trying to get my pastry seal and get certified as a culinarian with the ACF.
I'd like to be able to say i'm a decent cook - truth is i dont know, i'm either too lazy to cook or don't have the appropriate ingredients to make whatever it is i want to make. The extent of my cooking thesedays reaches its ends at pancakes and more often than not, eggs, although I've recently put a stop to eggs because i bloody well hate them now, they were my last resort for food when nothing else is in the kitchen, now i just go hungry.
I love pasta...you should come make me some.
I never cook, I hate it actually. But I love eating.
In other food related news, my FAVORITE chinese food joint of all time closed a month or so back. One of those little hole-in-the-wall type places, where you always got the same table, and the waitress didn't have to ask your order, she just brought it.
They had the absolute best General (Chos I think) chicken EVER. It's like this spicey n' kinda sweet breaded? chicken, in this kinda red sauce. Man they made it so good there, and now they're closed.
I've went to five or six other chinese places and NONE of them even come close to Lan Kwei Fong.
*cries*
yeah i have a chinese place down here that i like quite the same - rice and rolls, one of the most unassuming chinese restuarants i've ever been too, they dont try to pretend to be something they are not.
but as far as local "cheers-esque" hangouts, the local dennys is the place where everyone knows my name (tracer's as well) - same table and everyone is a little too familiar with everyone.
Man...
After that post of mine above all I can think about is the Generals Chicken and how I may never get it again.
A really good way to cook roast:
1. Get a cheap pork/beef roast. The extra fat makes it taste better.
2. Put in Crock Pot with a little water. Season to your liking (you can add some BBQ sauce at the last minute to the beef roast).
3. Keep on high for an hour or two.
4. Turn to low and cook for about 3 or 4 hours, or when it's at a cooked temp.
Serving suggestions: The pork is good served over rice, either white or yellow, and with black or red beans on the side. Beef is good "BBQ" style, served with corn, fries, and some thickly-cut fresh bread slightly toasted.
This is definitely the best roast I've ever had. It gets very very tender after being in the Crock Pot for so long, cooking in its own succulant fat. *drool*
Edit: These are my estimated times. I've never cooked it myself, but I'm pretty sure that this is how my dad cooks it.
I nuke stuff.
and I'm done!
Well, when I still lived in Dallas there was this awesome flat bread you could buy at the Sam's and Costcos out there that was made locally. Now that I'm in Vegas I can't get it anymore :( but when I could I made the most awesome pizza with it. :)
Took flatbread and cut about 1/3 off of it (LONG pieces). Put on some Ragu Quick Pizza sauce, a combination of 2-4 cheeses, depending on what I had (asiago, parmesan, mozerella, cheddar), some Hormel pepperoni slices and sliced portabella mushroom on top.
Put in turbo oven and quick cooked it in about 7.5 minutes. Took it out, crunchy crust, toasted cheese, baked pepperoni....mmmmm....best pizza on Earth.
To anyone who lives in Big D or the vicinity, I recommend you head down to your local Sam's or Costco and pick up the bread, the other ingredients can be had anywhere else. Make it as I described and I guarantee it'll be one of the best pizzas you'll ever have :D
I make a mean Ramen.
And like any other red-blooded male, I grill. Year round. 3-4 times a week at least.
I'm really into chinese food. It's probably, with Italian, one of my favorites. Although Chinese food is great, it's very hard to find an authentic chinese buffet without seeing them serve french fries, hot dogs in syrup and pizza... I mean the real shiznit. :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by DjRocca
Buffet is your problem - buffets are for those who wish to be overgrown, or poor college students or people with the munchies if you know what I mean. You want real chinese food that is nicely done, go to a real non-buffet chinese restuarant. Hot dogs in syrup? WTF is that?
Sauteed Shrimp and Portabella Mushrooms in garlic and butter.
Lasanga I dont care who made it, or how to spell it.
cheese raveolies.
This may sound weird but sometimes I make it and eat it.
Take a lot of chedder cheese and shred it. get cheerios (regular for pete's sake) get a small plate. put down a even layer of cheerios, add layer of cheese. repeat until a pile is created.
nuke for about 1:30 till cheese and cheerios are crispy, enjoy!
or try baked beans (regular) on toast with grated cheese on top?
I enjoy cooking. Growing up both of my parents were very good cooks and so I have always been spoiled for home cooked meals. I never really enjoyed restaurants much, outside of getting Chinese takeaway or going for hibatchi.... (However, since I moved to Montréal I actually quite enjoy going to restaurants now. The restaurants in this city are amazing).
Anyway, I pretty much taught myself how to cook based on observation and improvisation. Most of the things I make are Asian styled, but I make many other styles as well. I really want to work on learning how to cook Swedish/Norwegian food, because that's one thing I never picked up on my own. I am dependent on my mum in that department and since I have moved away from home it is missed! :(
...
Ok, now I am hungry...
You're from Montréal? If so - go downtown and try Zyng, Hot & Spicy, Le Gourmet d'Orient, or any of the other restaurants along St-Denis or St-Laurent.. Hrm.. or if you are on Ste-Catherine East you can try U & Me, it's pretty decent. There are more Asian restaurants than you could ever possibly visit. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by DjRocca
Avoid Just Noodles and never ever go to a place with "buffet" in the name. :yuck:
That only would sound good if im stoned. I'll try to keep it in mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by M
It's General Tso's, and yes, its delicious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kidnemo
when ever I'm in the city I goto Chinatown for some good authentic Chinese food. luckily, its right near the city centre, which is where everything else is.
Any fans of Thai food? I'm new to it, and it rocks my world.
My wife and I are both culinarily inclined. She gets to cook more than I do since she works out of the house though. I'd love to go to cooking school at some point. Maybe later in life when I'm ready to leave I.T. behind.
My fav cooking show is Good Eats, followed quickly by Ming Tsai's East meets West, and 30 Minute Meals. And of course, Iron Chef.
My wife does all the fancy stuff that takes hours on end, in addition to some quicker meals. I haven't had a red sauce (other than pizza sauce) out of a jar in 6 years. Every year she does an open house for friends as well as business clients around Christmas time, and it's amazing. It's all finger foods, but the selection is mind boggling. She'll easily have a dozen different cookies or desserts, and 2 or 3 dozen finger foods ranging from meatballs, to BBQ beef, to garlic shrimp, and on and on.
I do a lot of the simpler stuff. Give me some boneless chicken and some spices and give me 30 minutes. Strangely, out of all the stuff I can cook, my wife's favorite of mine is...grilled cheese!?! Go figure.
I recently whipped up a simple asian orange chicken. General guidelines: sautee boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a little sesame oil, and season with five spice poweder, thyme, salt, pepper, and what ever floats you boat. Next, peel and slice an orange or 2 (large chunks are fine), preferably a seedless variety. Put the orange slices in a small sauce pan. Next, mix in some soy sauce, fish sauce, honey, and hoisen sauce to the sauce pan. Add some water to thin it out a bit, then simmer the sauce to reduce. The sauce should be a little thick (as in coat a spoon) when it's done.
Once the chicken is golden brown and it's pretty much done, I like to take it out and chop it in to thin strips. Set the chicken aside. Hopefully you have some frozen stir fry veggies available to cook. If not, chop up some onion, green pepper, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots if you like. Stir fry them until they are almost tender, but still a bit cruncy. If you have some ramen or soba noodles, cook some on the side. Next, pull the plate together: Put the noodles on the plate, top with the veggies, then chicken, then drizzle the reduced sauce over the chicken.
I'd offer measurements, but I wasn't following someone else's recipe. :)
General Tso's chicken was actually developed by a a chef in New York I think. Was supposed to help Americanize Asian food or somesuch.
I love to cook, myself. I don't have many of the ingredients and such, and right now not even a TV, but I enjoy any chance to learn something in that area. My favorites are Ming Tsai, Good Eats, and Iron chef also. The Galloping Gourmet's old show also gets me as well.
Actually, I enjoy peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. I know it's not cooking, but I don't really have any recipes on hand right now.
I'm a suprisingly good cook.
My current favorite is a Chicken Parmesean recipe I stole from some master chef on Food Network.
You set up two bowls, one with an egg wash (one egg mixed w/ milk or cream) and another with 2 parts Parmesean cheese and 1 part flour...
Get two breasts of Chicken (or one large one) and pound them to a pan-fry-able thinness (1/2 inch?) and submerge them in the egg wash, then transfer them to the parmesean.
Then fill a skillet about an inch with oil (i use regular vegetable, but only because it's the only thing i have) and get it hot and throw the chicken in there "until it's done".
I then serve it over a bed of pasta with lots of cheese over the chicken, and then pour boiling hot marinara sauce over it.
Such a fantastic, yet simple recipe.
I'm also a big fan of stir frys and meat/pasta dishes. I tend to use only skillets because baking just takes too much planning.
FirstBlood, that sounds like the recipe Racheal Ray did on 30 Minute Meals recently. My wife made that last week and it was delish! :)
Do like I do, keep a lot of chicken handy around the house. You can do a lot of easy stuff with chicken breasts. With just some simple ingredients you can make different stuff easy and keeps things interesting. Eggs are good to keep around for an ingredient for other things.Quote:
Originally Posted by station82o
Yea I think I've had that chicken in red sauce too. I had a friend take me to a little Thai restaurant like the one you described kidnemo. I want to go back to that place cause it was soooo good.
arjue, yea I'm a Thai food fan too. I did some thai cooking last quarter in internation cooking class. I have a whole packet full of recipes if you need any.
Firstblood, baking isn't all that hard really. You can pan fry or saute' up some meat to give it a good color or desired look, then put it in the oven right after to finish it off and make sure its cooked the right temp, or further the browning. I bake a lot, I just assemble and put it in the oven and its good to go.
Peanut butter and pickle is the SHIT! Never heard of anyone else ever eating it before. Good to hear i'm not alone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dripdry
Top Ramen and tabasco & grill cheese with tomatoes. Im still paying off my Apple Studio Display. Hahaha!!!
Im not that good of a cook. Of the few things that I can make, one of my favorites includes a cold noodles recipie that was taught to me by a dear friend of mine.
Have some "Mirin" (sweet rice wine) ready.The kind that they sell in asian food markets. Get yer pencil and paper. This wont take long.
Cook up a regular package of ramen. Dont use that stuopid cup o' noodles stuff(inferior!). Then here is the weird part. Make the noodles cold.
You (culinary noob) at this point would say "Cold noodles? Imbossible! Rubbish! Tomfoolery! Harumph!" and then adjust your monicle and top hat and storm out the room to go swim in your pile of money. However trust me. It will taste good.
Drain the noodles into a strainer and run cold water over it. If you want, add a couple of ice cubes into the mix, and run your hands throught the noodles to make sure that therer are no hot pockets of noodles that might burn you or somethin (if you havnt washed your hands by this point, shame on you).
Next you should set aside the noodles and pull out two things. First is an ordinary bottle of sesame oil. On a plate put a small amount (around a tablespoon Ithink) of the sesame oil. Be carefull, because its some rather strong stuff. Too much would throw off the whole thing. Too little and the world collapses into darkness :p Next, you will add the mirrin, covering the bottom of the plate. Cut up some ham into strips and place the whole mess o' cold noodles on the plate and drench it in the sauce. Add the Ham and you are done.
Good times.......
You can make a lot of cold pasta salads like that. I've made quite a few of em in school. You can make more italian ones with penne pasta noodles, some vegi's and maybe cooking up some chicken the day before and diceing it up and chilling over nite. There are all sorts of different marinades to go with em too.
Heres a pic of a cake I made bout 2 weeks ago. Its a variation of the L'exoticia cake.
I have my final project due tomorrow and I'm gonna take some pics of that too. I have to have 1 yeast bread, 1 tart, 1 torte and 6 plated desserts for show.
Wow, that's a great looking cake. What kind is it? *drool*
I think I'm a pretty good cook but unfortunately not much of a baker. Although squares I can handle ... especially easy ones like Rocky Road Squares. :p
I used to make quite a lot of vegetarian dishes (curries, chillis, etc.) but I haven't done much of that lately since I started eating meat again. I went to a really good Greek restaurant over the weekend so I borrowed a Greek cookbook from my Mum and am going to try some of those out. I make a damn mean macaroni and cheese from scratch! Usually I make stuff up as a I go along ... :p
DjRoca, from Montréal, eh? Want some good Chinese food? I highly recommend you trekking it out from the west island and going to Hot n' Spicy. For $25, you can get really high quality all you can eat food ... but it's not a buffet, it's all waitered. You can keep ordering as much as you like. Go to the one at Namur metro ... it's really nice there.
I can make many different types of Chinese dishes.
For instance?
Its a L'exoticia cake, with a few variations. You can't really see the layers inside...I should of cut it and took a pic too.
It has a bottom Genoise cake layer as the base, then a Coconut mousse layer with mango and pineapple and a splash of fruit liquour in the mousse. Next is a another genoise cake layer topped with a mango glaze, then topped with more Coconut mousse, then topped with another mango glaze layer. The outside surrounding cake layer is a sponge cake ribbon I made ahead. That cake was a pain in the butt to make.
I'll have some pics of the nifty stuff I'm doing tomorrow. My plated desserts look all neat from what I got planned.
I also get a small thrill out of tricking my non-drinking parents into eating alcohol/liqour desserts...which they have no idea of mwahahaha
During high school me and a friend made vodka cupcakes and brought them to school to celebrate a "holiday" that I made up. The teacher was a non-drinker and she got a bit tipsy from them. It was pretty funny/strange.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtificial
That was 10 years ago and I just found out that my sister has her as a teacher this year. :doubt:
Hahaha thats pretty good. A girl in my class made a Kirsh cake..and that thing would take your breath away with all the liqour.
In my intro baking class, I once put WAY too rum in a whipped cream, it damn near got me bent tasting it.
My teacher now, he has an actual "hash" brownie recipe from Jamica. It even has the measurements and type of weed to use haha. Even has a warning "if to be served to kids, please leave out weed"
I think we need to arrange the official TNL Bake-Off. I volunteer to taste Rtificial's stuff :nod:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtificial
While I like to cook, I don't have a lot of time to devote to it (30 minute meals is my favorite show ever), and I'm usually cooking for myself, except when my roommate wanders into the kitchen :) Consequently, a lot of what I make is designed to prepared quickly.
Favorites include stir fry (with whatever meat's on sale :) ), fajitas, and a cajun chicken pasta dish.
There's also a chicken and mushroom soup pasta dish I like to make when I've got company. Get a big can (or two, for extra sauce) of cream of mushroom soup, a pack of chicken breasts, a bit of rum, some broccholi and some mushrooms (optional). Season and brown the chicken how you like (I like (love) garlic, onion powder, black pepper, a little thyme) I tend to leave out salt because of the soup.
Dump the chicken into a big saucepan and cover it with the soup, adding some water to it to thin it out some, and add a couple shots of rum. Cover it and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes. Add the broccholi and mushrooms with about 5-10 minutes to go so they get cooked, but don't get mushy. Serve it over pasta and you're set :)
its amazing (at least when i was there) how many of my friends were so inept when it came to cooking while i was at college. besides a frat party with beer there's nothing ladys like more than when a guy makes food (and good food to boot) for an entire floor of his dorm. we were lucky and had a room that was basically a small kitchen on each floor and i was the only one that would use it. so many times id be in there cooking for myself, someone would come back from class and ask if i could make something. most of the other kids had the parents that would buy them so much food but they could only cook the noodles. well finally this would ctach on and a lot of times even the girls floors would come up. ahhh fun times. it was nice to because our RA's didnt mind if we drank (as lomg as we shared with them) so we got a way with a lot. usually now tho i dont tend to go all out unless i feel like doing something special for the lady friend. goning to a nice restaraunt is nice and all but making it yourself tends to go over sooooo much better.
I just got home from school with some pics of my final project. It turned out pretty good, there was only some minor things I would have changed tho.
That lady that does 30 min meals is adorable.
Yea Masaka, I make some quick stuff too, sometimes I'm too tired to do anything time consumming. I do a lot of chicken wraps, fajiitas, quesadilla's. When I have salmon steaks, I cook up alot of them.
Heres the pic of my final project. From left to right we have a Chocolate pinenut tart, German black forest torte, Miniature scarlette empress, with more up front for the judges and on the right my epi bagette's.
damn that stuff looks great - i'd be nervous as hell doing a class like that... it also seems like a hassle to transport all that food intact from home to school as a final project.
I always thought that cooking school tests involved doing all the cooking at the school. No?
I'm quite a good cook. My favourite recipe remains Nigel Slater's slow fried potatoes with thyma and taleggio, although I'll give anything by Nigel Slater a go.
Far and away the greatest cookery writer... ever. Do you have his books in the US? If so, I'd REALLY Recommend buyingn one. They're so well written I like to just flick through them occasionally when I have no plans to cook. Then his descriptions make my mouth water andI have to go and cook soime bacon or something. ;)
I'll check around and see if I can find any of his books.
Yea I cooked all that at school. I didn't get to bring home the black forest cake...cause I have such a long drive home, I doubt it would make it. I'm eating some the chocolate pinenut tart right now. The bread was bout gone by class over and the lil scarlette empresses got ate up too.
Heres the black forest cake. Them cherries are stoooooout I soaked em in a kirsch cherry sauce.
Damn, that stuff looks great, Rtificial. I wish I had the time and money to go to cooking school. I'd love to open a restaurant with my wife, but I know that around 80 or 90% of all non-chain eateries tend to go belly up within 12 months. Maybe when I win the lottery. Awesome work, Rtificial! I'm sure you passed the exam with an A++!
Thanks, yea I did pretty good. Only some minor nitpicks on some things.
Opening a restaurant is A LOT of money. The school I goto we have to learn the business aspects too. Our last class is facilities and we pretty much have to come up with a restaurant theme, have EVERY THING planned out from the location, demographics and more. Then we have a portfolio show and are judged on our restaurant. Its almost as if we are trying to sell our idea to a bank to get a loan.
Things have been tough on the hospitality industry for awhile, with the recession, 9-11, stock market messing up. I think the ratio is like 1 in 3 restaurants fail. If you can make it your first 5 years, your there to stay.
I wouldn't put off opening up your own restaurant. There are 3 types and each have their plus's and minus's. You can either go independent, chain, franchise. I'd research and see which way you'd want to go. But sounds like you'd best be suited for independent.
Thanks man, I believe I've already heard of that. A great chinese place is a small restaurant, not a buffet, called JustNoodles. It's reaaall good, i forget which Metro station it's near, but I'm pretty sure it's near Dawson College.Quote:
Originally Posted by icepop
My neighbor is a chef who teaches other chefs and is very rich. I talk about cooking with him when I can but I stick mostly to chilli (using real steak of course) some good soups (all vegan) and stewed eggplant. I make a mean tuna pie also.
Real steak? You mean, you mince it yourself?Quote:
Originally Posted by Parcher D.O.D.
Do you have butcher shops in America? Because, you can just, like, buy mince here. o_O Assuming that's what you meant.
For the chilli I would probably go to Albertsons which has a butcher shop of sorts in the back. They also have fresh fish there. Depending on my mood, I might just get somewhat cheaper steak. Also, I've been discussing with my chef neighbor the possibility of obtaining some grass fed beef. It would mean firing up my old refrigerator (to store a hunk of frozen beef), but it would be worth it.Quote:
Originally Posted by red_war_machine
Someone did a speech at my Toastmasters meeting about corn feed beef. Some of the things they do to cows is kinda gross. Hormones, anti-biotics, and ecoli . . . it's what's for dinner! :xx:
Grass fed beef? You talking about free range raised animals? They both have their pro's and con's. Free range may make better meat, but it's usually tougher and more expensive meat. The other type usually has leaner meat but might be of lesser quality.
At work we sell fresh water catfish, they raise catfish in clean water so they don't eat from the bottom of a river and pick up that earthy flavor. I still don't really care for catfish tho, I'll stick with salmon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtificial
i think that young brunette chick that cooks the italian food all the time is amazingly hot. funny story tho. one time i was watching sarah's secrets and they must not screen the callers before they get to ask questions. well one show (where she was messing stuff up left and right) this little kid called in and was just sitting there making noises. and instead of just killing the call she rolled with it and actually tried to get a question out of it! i was suprised since it's not a live show that they didn't edit it out. funny stuff tho.
Bean's Bomb-Ass Penne a la Vodka
In a saucepan heat up a few tablespoons of expensive extra virgin olive oil (Greek preferably).
Chop up 2-4 cloves of garlic, I like 4 myself. A razor blade works well to chop but you can leave it as big as you like to.
At this point also add some salt, black pepper, and a table spoon (or more) of crushed red pepper (important). You can also add a little bit of onion if you like but not too much. Other seasoning is to your discretion rosemary or oregano can be good but are not necessary.
LOW HEAT do not burn the garlic after the garlic cooks 1-2 minutes add 1/4 lb of expensive Prosciutto ham chopped as fine as you would like. It's already cooked and its going to be over heat for a while so don't cook the shit out of the garlic and prosciutto.
Now add four big cans of whole peeled tomatoes in their own juice (I think each can is 32oz.)
Cook the tomatoes, prosciutto, and garlic for about fifteen minutes breaking apart the whole tomatoes as they cook down. They will look kinda funny and not quite right until they are done.
Once you have the desired consistency and viscosity (15 min. total) add one quart of heavy cream (40%) and 1/2 cup-3/4 cup of vodka. The quality of the vodka is not even pertinent.
Continue cooking on low for about 15 more minutes until the vodka cooks into the tomatoes and out of the sauce. (Good time to start boiling your water when you add the vodka and cream.)
When you're ready to go to the table stir in a 1/2 cup of the most expensive grated romano cheese that you can find. Add fresh chopped basil as well. Save a few whole basil leaves for garnish.
2 lbs of penne is perfect for this sauce. And you can add the cooked drained pasta right to the sauce when both are done, and mix them up together.
Voila Penne A La Vodka Suga Rosa di Palermo (It serves 8 but you'll probably eat 2 helpings per person) Reheats very well.
Warning do not inquire about the fat, cholesterol, or calorie count on this dish, it is astronomical but oh so fucking good.
Hahaha thats too funny. I wish Emerale would take calls, i'm sure a lot of real chefs would call in and light him up. "Yea Emerale, thats really sanitary the way you dangle a towel from your shoulder all the time with no hat too." "Yea Emerale I like a whole branch of rosemary as garnish for my meat too." "Meat sure is good when each bite has a mouthful of garlic in it." bwahahaha.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
I was watching Spike tv over at a friends and they were showing the top 100 hottest women. I think 2 or 3 of em were cooking show ladies.