Where my fellow cooks at???

[Letang Is The Truth]

Is there some sort of contraption with a heating element that you put in food/drink and it heats up to desired temperature?

[mac5155]

Crock pot? Microwave? Stove?

[Letang Is The Truth]

No... It's like a probe that put in said food/beverage. Not sure what it's called.

[count2infinity]

We've been doing meatless mondays for quite a few months now. what i made tonight is probably one of my favorites. brussels sprout skillet pizza:



I had made a large batch of pizza dough and froze some about a month ago. used that in the cast iron skillet. coated the bottom with olive oil and then spread out the dough. put fresh mozz and pecorino romano cheese on the dough. Took a bunch of brussels sprouts and pealed off the leaves and tossed them in olive oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, put that on top of the cheese, then heated the cast iron on the stove for about 4 or 5 minutes on medium-high heat. once the crust was starting to brown a bit underneath, threw it in a 500 degree oven for about 8 minutes, took it out and tossed the brussels sprouts around a bit (get the ones that are browning underneath and cover the top a bit with some of the melted cheese underneath and then put it back in the oven for about 4 more minutes and what you see above is the result. It's delicious.

[Sarcastic]

What kind of dough are you using there? Looks good.

[count2infinity]

It's just standard pizza dough. Unfortunately I don't have a recipe other than to tell you it's water, bread flour, sugar, salt, oil and yeast. I go by eye/feel. I made a really big batch of it for a christmas party that ended up getting snowed out so I decided to freeze some of it. Personally I think it's better after it's been frozen and then thawed again.

[tifosi77]

Of course, I would ruin the meatless Monday concept by adding pancetta or bacon. Cos I'm a bit of an idiot like that.

[tifosi77]

Second, something that I think has huge potential to set ChefSteps apart; an ingredient wiki. They've added a wiki page for every ingredient in every recipe they've published to date, and have just opened the feature up to community members for group editing.

For those who may be interested, ChefSteps has published the Ingredient Wiki as a gallery.

First, I shall immodestly note that I created the Wiki page for ginger. Yay, me.

Second, they are offering a promotion for new and existing members to go to the Wiki and edit an ingredient's page to gain entry in a contest to win free enrollment in a paid premium class. I just finished the whipping siphon class last month, and it's excellent. Took a couple hours to get through the course materials (I did it in one go, as a beta tester, but you can parse out your lessons and the site will remember where you left off), but you can go back and visit completed lessons at any point in the future.

[BigMcK]

I would like to see Duck on my home menu more often. It seems to have a price point way above chicken. Many chinese markets around us to find fresh not frozen.

Duck ala' .....

[count2infinity]

mode?

[tifosi77]

You've got to remember also that a large part of that price differential is because commercially raised chickens live in absolutely horrible conditions. Ducks generally get to live much happier lives, and if you can get magret* duck breast you get a bit more bang for the buck.

We just had friends over before the hols and I did handmade garganelli pasta with duck ragu that was pretty delicioso.






* Magret refers to the breast meat of ducks that have been force fed ('lavage') to produce foie gras. The breast is much larger than normal, so there's more meat... but there's also less fat. And rendered duck fat is worth its culinary weight in gold, might be the only fat better than bacon.

[blackjack68]

This was posted on a friends Facebook page yesterday and entitled, "Blizzard Day Xhef Challenge. What Are you Making?"

Make something using all these ingredients (the bag behind the vinegar was not revealed to me until after I submitted my creation).
So, what are you making with this? (spoiled for size)

Spoiler:

Here's my suggestion. Afraid how it might actually taste.

Spoiler:

Dissolve the Ring Pop on med-low heat in the vinegar. Once dissolved allow mixture to thicken slightly. Add in aspargus spears (drained) and olives (also drained) and then sprinkle in one of the mini-boxes of raisins. While that is cooking, nuke the soup. When the vinegar is mostly reduced to a thick syrup, remove the contents and place in a large bowl. Pour hot soup over the top of the asparagus, olive and raisin mixture. Top the dish with whatever is in the bag behind the vinegar...at this point, it won't matter. Voila! Bon Appetit!

[mac5155]

[blackjack68]

What dish would you make with that pile o' stuff?

[mac5155]

Id eat the tomato soup first. Then eat the black olives. Then grill the asparagus. And have a ring pop for desert.

[blackjack68]

What about the raisins, wise guy?

[the wicked child]

I despise black olives so I would be in trouble from the start...

[tifosi77]

This was posted on a friends Facebook page yesterday and entitled, "Blizzard Day Xhef Challenge. What Are you Making?"

Make something using all these ingredients (the bag behind the vinegar was not revealed to me until after I submitted my creation).
So, what are you making with this? (spoiled for size)

Spoiler:

Here's my suggestion. Afraid how it might actually taste.

Spoiler:

Dissolve the Ring Pop on med-low heat in the vinegar. Once dissolved allow mixture to thicken slightly. Add in aspargus spears (drained) and olives (also drained) and then sprinkle in one of the mini-boxes of raisins. While that is cooking, nuke the soup. When the vinegar is mostly reduced to a thick syrup, remove the contents and place in a large bowl. Pour hot soup over the top of the asparagus, olive and raisin mixture. Top the dish with whatever is in the bag behind the vinegar...at this point, it won't matter. Voila! Bon Appetit!

Are you limited to just those ingredients, or is the full pantry open?

[blackjack68]

That's it. Gross, I know.

The idea was, you didn't make it to the store for MILK AND BREAD!!! and this was all you had to make a dish.

[tifosi77]

I would set up a smoker (using branches from the shrubs outside my house) and smoke the asparagus spears. Then I'd use the vinegar to pickle half the spears and all of the raisins. Put a skillet over low heat then add the olives and cook them until they dry out. The mystery bag appears to be dried fruit (cherry? berry?); roughly chop them into bits, then break off the candy from the Ring Pop and add it and the dried fruit to the olives and cook the mixture just just until it started to get sticky to make a sort of candied tapenade garnish. Cook the soup down until it's very thick, about 1/4 its original volume.

Thinly slice the untreated half of asparagus spears on the bias and divide among four warmed soup bowls. Make a small mound of pickled raisins in the center of the bowl and pour the hot soup over until it comes about halfway up the raisins. Garnish with pickled spears and the candied tapenade.

[Letang Is The Truth]

This was posted on a friends Facebook page yesterday and entitled, "Blizzard Day Xhef Challenge. What Are you Making?"

Make something using all these ingredients (the bag behind the vinegar was not revealed to me until after I submitted my creation).
So, what are you making with this? (spoiled for size)

Spoiler:

Here's my suggestion. Afraid how it might actually taste.

Spoiler:

Dissolve the Ring Pop on med-low heat in the vinegar. Once dissolved allow mixture to thicken slightly. Add in aspargus spears (drained) and olives (also drained) and then sprinkle in one of the mini-boxes of raisins. While that is cooking, nuke the soup. When the vinegar is mostly reduced to a thick syrup, remove the contents and place in a large bowl. Pour hot soup over the top of the asparagus, olive and raisin mixture. Top the dish with whatever is in the bag behind the vinegar...at this point, it won't matter. Voila! Bon Appetit!

im not sure if this could be executed but this reminds me of an idea i have had for a restaurant: the customers bring whatever items they want and the the chef creates their meal. i have struggled with how to design the pricing to make it lucrative/financially feasible and the pacing to make it not a 3 hour dinner but always intrigued me

[Troy Loney]

This was posted on a friends Facebook page yesterday and entitled, "Blizzard Day Xhef Challenge. What Are you Making?"

Make something using all these ingredients (the bag behind the vinegar was not revealed to me until after I submitted my creation).
So, what are you making with this? (spoiled for size)

Spoiler:

Here's my suggestion. Afraid how it might actually taste.

Spoiler:

Dissolve the Ring Pop on med-low heat in the vinegar. Once dissolved allow mixture to thicken slightly. Add in aspargus spears (drained) and olives (also drained) and then sprinkle in one of the mini-boxes of raisins. While that is cooking, nuke the soup. When the vinegar is mostly reduced to a thick syrup, remove the contents and place in a large bowl. Pour hot soup over the top of the asparagus, olive and raisin mixture. Top the dish with whatever is in the bag behind the vinegar...at this point, it won't matter. Voila! Bon Appetit!

im not sure if this could be executed but this reminds me of an idea i have had for a restaurant: the customers bring whatever items they want and the the chef creates their meal. i have struggled with how to design the pricing to make it lucrative/financially feasible and the pacing to make it not a 3 hour dinner but always intrigued me

Bring your own meat?

[Letang Is The Truth]

bring your own everything. anything.

[blackjack68]

I would set up a smoker (using branches from the shrubs outside my house) and smoke the asparagus spears. Then I'd use the vinegar to pickle half the spears and all of the raisins. Put a skillet over low heat then add the olives and cook them until they dry out. The mystery bag appears to be dried fruit (cherry? berry?); roughly chop them into bits, then break off the candy from the Ring Pop and add it and the dried fruit to the olives and cook the mixture just just until it started to get sticky to make a sort of candied tapenade garnish. Cook the soup down until it's very thick, about 1/4 its original volume.

Thinly slice the untreated half of asparagus spears on the bias and divide among four warmed soup bowls. Make a small mound of pickled raisins in the center of the bowl and pour the hot soup over until it comes about halfway up the raisins. Garnish with pickled spears and the candied tapenade.

Did you read mine?

Supposedly, the mystery ingredient is

Spoiler:

sunflower seeds

(but I agree it looks like dried fruit)

[tifosi77]

im not sure if this could be executed but this reminds me of an idea i have had for a restaurant: the customers bring whatever items they want and the the chef creates their meal. i have struggled with how to design the pricing to make it lucrative/financially feasible and the pacing to make it not a 3 hour dinner but always intrigued me

I don't think that would be permissible in the U.S.