Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

[mistersloane]

Toast bread on one side, take out of grill, turn over, butter non-toasted side, add cheddar cheese, salt and pepper, grill until the cheese is just burning, add maybe worcester sauce.

Fact about cheese on toast? When other people do it, it's never as nice. It's like handjobs.

 

[stephenk]

big thanks to whoever posted that riceandcurry blog, made a couple things from it, so good
that guy skiz is doing a youtube cooking show which i have to make some stuff from as well
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThaILLST

 

[baboon2004]

Haven't tried this yet but:

Szechuan pepprcorns mixed with rock salt and ground, then rubbed onto roasting chicken; then, halved oranges, few pieces of ginger and scallions in the roasting tray/in the cavity. Possibly garlic too.

 

[Slothrop]

Turns out, the secret to nice fried tofu is to chop the tofu into cubes and then roll it around in a shedload of cornflour before frying it in approx 5mm of oil (or deep fry it) - the cornflour picks up moisture from the tofu and forms a sort of thick batter around it, which then fries nicely (ie absorbs an appropriate amount of oil). Previously I'd been doing this without the cornflour and ending up with hot crunchy tofu that still tasted pretty dry and boring.

Thanks, Yotam!

 

[Krasner]

I made Kare Kare over the weekend. It's a filipino peanut stew and I made it with beef shin and oxtail. The meaty braising stock enriched with peanuts and shrimp paste was fucking tasty.

 

[baboon2004]

If only I could stand peanuts....oxtail soup does sound great though.

I'm gonna make Iranian chicken soup with dried limes, split peas etc etc.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The only 'efnic' recipe I make regularly (I mean, other than stuff like pizzas, which doesn't really count these days) that I think is reasonably authentic is Slater's tom yum gai (spicy chicken soup), which is utterly amazing, especially if you can get your hands on the proper east-Asian ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass.

I do a pretty good stir-fry, althoughIsayitmyself, but it's just meat and veg and noodles chucked in a wok with a load of spices and soy sauce, so I could hardly call it 'authentic'. Anyone got any top stir-fry tips they feel like passing on?

 

[DannyL]

The only 'efnic' recipe I make regularly (I mean, other than stuff like pizzas, which doesn't really count these days) that I think is reasonably authentic is Slater's tom yum gai (spicy chicken soup), which is utterly amazing, especially if you can get your hands on the proper east-Asian ingredients like kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass.

I do a pretty good stir-fry, althoughIsayitmyself, but it's just meat and veg and noodles chucked in a wok with a load of spices and soy sauce, so I could hardly call it 'authentic'. Anyone got any top stir-fry tips they feel like passing on?

To properly stir fry it should be radioactively hot, I know that much. Don't put more than one portions worth of stuff in at a time otherwise it starts to steam rather than fry.

 

[Mr. Tea]

To properly stir fry it should be radioactively hot, I know that much. Don't put more than one portions worth of stuff in at a time otherwise it starts to steam rather than fry.

Yeah, I've heard this before. But if you're cooking with stuff like ginger and garlic, which I do, how do you prevent it from singing to a crisp in no time? Burnt garlic is minging.

But yeah, when I make them they probably cook more by steaming than frying - it still tastes good, but it's interesting to see how different it would be if cooked in the traditional way, i.e. very hot and very quick.

 

[Slothrop]

I find fairly simple combinations of stuff often work best. Comes out a bit less like the generic student stir fry with bits of everything and nothing particularly interesting. And don't overcook the veg.

Brocolli (pre-cooked), red onion, ginger, mustard seeds, chilli flakes and soy is an ongoing favourite.

I really need to find more east asian stuff to cook, though.

 

[viktorvaughn]

This place is ace. Medium/big plate chicken is the one. My fave dish of 2010 so far.

http://helengraves.co.uk/2010/03/silk-road-camberwell/

 

[petergunn]

wonderful flavour combinations


apples and garlic (when baked w/ pork loin)

nothing particularly amazing about this but i remember when i first read it the idea of apple and garlic made me sick, but then ended up tasting delicious...

and now i basically will not cook any sort of pork w/o brining it first...

 

[luka]

if you put the garlic in once theres already food in the wok it doesnt burn.

 

[baboon2004]

wonderful flavour combinations


apples and garlic (when baked w/ pork loin)

nothing particularly amazing about this but i remember when i first read it the idea of apple and garlic made me sick, but then ended up tasting delicious...

and now i basically will not cook any sort of pork w/o brining it first...

nice idea - so do you just throw chunks of apple and garlic in and roast them, and then puree after?

 

[Mr. Tea]

if you put the garlic in once theres already food in the wok it doesnt burn.

Right, I'll try that. I guess you can chuck it in right at the end, even. Presumably super-hot cooking requires the meat to be in very thin strips, because otherwise the outside is going to burn while the inside is still uncooked...

 

[baboon2004]

depends what meat you use. if fairly good beef or lamb, then doesn't need to be cooked all the way thorugh, which is useful. But i think general philosphy with stri fry is to have everything very small so it cooks quickly.

 

[DannyL]

You can also give garlic etc. 5/10 secs rather than 30. One obvious way of adding flavour would be to marniate the meat. Do you know the Japanese supermarket behind Centrepoint, T? They do a wicked beef in red wine and plum sauce which is perfect for stir-frying.

Couple of unusual ingredients should make the dish as well - water chestnuts, bamboo shoots etc plus stuff like nuts, lime juice and various sauces (Thai fish sauce, soy, chilli) at the end. And fresh coriander is a must. Christ, I'm making myself hungry.

 

[Mr. Tea]

depends what meat you use. if fairly good beef or lamb, then doesn't need to be cooked all the way thorugh, which is useful. But i think general philosphy with stri fry is to have everything very small so it cooks quickly.

True, of course, though I often stir-fry pork, so rare is not an option. Though I love rare beef, so I shall try cooking it that way. Dan's post sounds like it has some pretty decent flavour ideas, though as far as the sauces go, soy/chili/nam pla/lime juice form the flavour backbone, along with garlic and ginger, of most stir-fries I cook anyway (and I'm so glad I've just had lunch, threads like this are torture to read if you've not eaten... ). I'll look out for that marinated beef next time I'm around that part of town, cheers.

 

[Slothrop]

You can also try cooking the meat seperately - so grilling it, roasting it, frying it or whatever - and then slicing it and adding it to the stir fry at the very end.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Having a first go at an Ital vegetable stew tonight. Will report back on the results...