Where my fellow cooks at???

[tifosi77]

I'm making some tofu chili today.
Or as tif would call it, vegan soup.

Not sure what I'd call it. But I definitely would not call it chili..... certainly not in public.

[columbia]

Speaking of temperatures that you can't get in your kitchen...

Not that I own a home and am in the market for one, but if I had a backyard cooking area like that, I would seriously consider getting one of those gas tube/wok setups like they have in Chinese restaurants.

[tifosi77]

After seasoning the new grates, yesterday was the first official day of grill season.

Made these crostini as an appie: Smoked salmon with Greek yoghurt, truffled dandelion honey (based on a dish we had at Quimet i Quimet in Barcelona)


And then had skrit steak with chimichurri and grilled spring onions (again, echoing the calçot goodness we had in Barca)

[FreeCandy44]

So when did the Food Network become GuyTV?

[canaan]

When emeril tv started to decline?

[tifosi77]

First time ever did cedar plank grilling.


Ginger-Miso Salmon, Sauteed Mushrooms, Asparagus, Purple Basil Oil

[mac5155]

all that work seasoning the grates and you use planks.

[tifosi77]

THE SKIRT STEAK WAS GRILLED

[Shyster]

Tried out cooking a whole chicken in my smoker-roaster oven. I used pecan chips and filled the bins, and then roasted my brined chicken at around 325. It was too much smoke. The skin on the chicken absorbed so much smoke as to be pretty much inedible, although the meat is moist, tasty, and nicely smoky. I just have to skin everything before I eat it. When I do this again, I'm going to use a lighter wood like cherry or orange, and I'm going to use much less of it.

[blackjack68]

I usually smoke around 250.

And I use hickory or apple wood usually.

[BigMcK]

Smoke is flavor for fowl. It should not be the heat to cook. Think of a cake with too much smoked icing. Yuck.

For fowl, smoke is an ingredient. Light taste of cherry, peach, apple wood. I give a maximum of 30 minutes smoke on fowl.

I remember the first smoked chicken I did. The skin was flabby and browned like a 75 year old. The meat was dry and bitter. I was so happy as to the smoke ring.

Dominos Pizza was my savior.

[tifosi77]

Girl Orders Cooked Sushi At World's Best Sushi Restaurant

Now let's not get bogged down with semantics of the word 'sushi'.... sushi absolutely can have cooked ingredients. 'Sushi' just means 'with sour rice'; any of the ingredients that are served with the rice can - and often are - cooked. Asking for cooked sushi isn't necessarily a faux pas, as Jiro himself apparently alluded when he said they should have been informed ahead of time so they could accommodate the cooking.

- They showed up 40 minutes late with no call to the restaurant;

- Half of the party just up and left, leaving their initial tasting menu courses uneaten on the table;

- Asked a tasting menu item to be cooked and bagged for later consumption;

- Got stroppy when called out for their stupidity

Any of those things would be considered a great insult to the itamae, especially a world-renowned master.

Apparently they were having a tasting menu of set courses (I don't even know if Jiro-san offers an a la carte menu). Any disruption in that screws up the service for all. Sushi is meant to be eaten immediately; they make it, hand it to you, you eat it. Delaying even a minute can alter the texture and flavor of both the fish and (more importantly) the rice.

But to me the greatest foul perpetrated by these fcuktards was walking away from uneaten food. It is hard for me to imagine a greater show of disrespect to the animal that died so that you may be fed.

[tifosi77]

Also, should point out here that asking for the raw food to be cooked - while stupid - wasn't necessarily the issue. According to the story, Jiro-san said the girls should have let them know ahead of time. To me, that indicates that they would have been happy to prepare a cooked menu for those guests. The problem was the girls thinking they were at TGI McFunster's where you can just make stupid requests like this on the spot.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

Cheese purchased from the grocery store deli...how long do you keep it for?

What about peppers and onions from the produce department?

[tifosi77]

Cheese is a living thing, so it's constantly in a state of change. Depending on the type of cheese, it will keep after opening for several weeks to several months. When you say 'grocery store deli', I'm presuming that to mean 'pre-sliced Swiss' or whatever type cheese. That's probably only good for 3 weeks, a month tops. You can freeze it and extend that time, but I've found that freezing cheese gives it altogether awful texture when thawed. So unless you plan on grating the thawed product, or melting it down, I don't recommend freezing.

Best way I've found to store onions is in a paper bag that's been punched with several holes, and set on the countertop. You can get up to 3 months without a huge change in flavor and texture. This works for garlic and shallots, as well. (Just remember to never store onions/shallots/garlic close to potatoes; as they break down, they give off a gas that accelerates the breakdown of potatoes.) I've also found that the paper bag thing is good with mushrooms. But I tend to use up mushrooms pretty quickly when I buy them, so I don't really have any direct experience as to how long you can store them. Same with peppers, I'm afraid. When I buy them, it's usually recipe-specific. As a result, I only ever get what I need for that particular cook. But onions/shallots/garlic are pantry staples that I buy many of at a time, even tho I do believe that the shorter the time from the dirt to the plate the better the veggie will be.

[Gaucho]

Just remember to never store onions/shallots/garlic close to potatoes; as they break down, they give off a gas that accelerates the breakdown of potatoes.

Thanks, didn't know that at all.

[tifosi77]

One other thing to mention: onions harvested in the spring should be consumed pretty quickly, like within 2 weeks. They haven't developed the sulfrous compounds that help the onion survive long-term storage yet. Onions harvested later in the year can be stored for months, because they do have those wondrous sulfur compounds........ unfortunately, that also means these onions will be more likely to make you cry when you cut them. Pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes before slicing and use the sharpest knife you have to mitigate the tears.

[pittsoccer33]

Girl Orders Cooked Sushi At World's Best Sushi Restaurant

http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/whats-i ... bar-282966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So I'm looking this place up, and as open minded as I'm trying to be, the idea of spending hundreds of dollars on some of this is making me throw up in my mouth.



I wouldnt even know what to do with that. I'd just embarass myself. Does the first one need to be filleted? Do you stab it with a fork? Use a spoon? I'm too uncoordinated to use chopsticks. All I can see in the second picture is a face hugger from Alien.

[Shyster]

Probably the most money I've ever spent on a single meal was $130 for the omakase menu at Umi. Lord almighty, that was good. Also, I was there with a personal friend of Mr. Shu, so we got extra-special treatment. Shu-san kept pouring us drinks from a bottle under the sushi bar, for example. It was worth every penny.

[tifosi77]

I wouldnt even know what to do with that. I'd just embarass myself. Does the first one need to be filleted? Do you stab it with a fork? Use a spoon? I'm too uncoordinated to use chopsticks. All I can see in the second picture is a face hugger from Alien.

Sushi is finger food. It's perfectly acceptable to eat it with your bare hands. In fact, that's almost always how I eat nigiri sushi - the most ubiquitous type of sushi, as shown in your photos. (The kind with the vinegar rice)

Use Western utensils to eat sushi and expect to have your head smacked.

This is gizzard shad - kohada - and is actually my favorite nigiri fish. It's kinda hard to find here in SoCal; my next favorites are saba and aji, which are two different types of mackerel that are much easier to get.

This is hamaguri, which is a type of clam. If a place offers it, that's a good sign; it means they cater to a mostly Japanese clientele. I've never had it, but I have seen it on a few menus.

This is akagai, which is another type of clam. Lower quality is very chewy - like to the point of being un-delicious - but the good stuff is just what I would call 'toothsome', like properly cooked pasta. It's interesting that Jiro offers it, because the best quality stuff comes from Canadian waters of the North Atlantic. It's a real luxury ingredient in Japan, but it's fairly common here.

[tifosi77]

Probably the most money I've ever spent on a single meal was $130 for the omakase menu at Umi. Lord almighty, that was good. Also, I was there with a personal friend of Mr. Shu, so we got extra-special treatment. Shu-san kept pouring us drinks from a bottle under the sushi bar, for example. It was worth every penny.

We spent quite a lot on food in Spain. I mean.... like.... a lot. I'm almost embarrassed to say how much the meal at Arzak cost, because I think it would come off as obnoxious. But we both agree it was absolutely worth every penny to us, and we'd have done it again the very next day if we could have afforded it.

But that's what we do, that's our entertainment. We travel and eat, and we plan our finances accordingly. We actually contribute almost as much to our travel/food savings as we do to our retirement. (Okay, that's an exaggeration. But we save a lot for this stuff.)

[PensFanInDC]

We ate at Volt 2 years ago for our anniversary. Dinner and drinks was $450.

Great experience. Will never go back.

[tifosi77]

We've eaten at his brother's place here in L.A., ink. Prior to Spain, that was actually my most favorite restaurant meal, even though there was one dish in particular that I just didn't care for.

The Votaggio brothers' cookbook is completely awesome, one of the best modernist books out there.

[blackjack68]

Looks like I'll be going to Gibson's Steakhouse in Chicago in early June.

Anyone ever been? Comments?

http://www.gibsonssteakhouse.com/dinner ... es-332.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[pittsoccer33]

Heres another dumb question:

Growing up my mother lived by "if its pink in the middle its cooked too little." I didnt have a rare steak until I got to college because she was convinced anything less than well done would make you sick with some bacterial infection. more than well done was bad too because that would give you cancer.

so where did this line of thinking come from? i assume it was something she either grew up with or picked up in the 1970s once she was married. sushi makes you sick, seafood gives you mercury poisoning, raw eggs make you sick, rare or medium beef makes you sick.