What are you cooking?

[alms]

Hoping someone can clear this up for me: I bought some fresh fish with the idea of freezing it, because I don’t want to go through the hassle of having ice bags in the fridge. I should’ve probably researched the matter more thoroughly, but here I am anyway.

Having gutted the fish and washed it under water, I simply put it in the freezer. Most guides I’ve hastily browsed, suggest descaling and removing the head, but that sucks.

I want to grill the fish, so the head and scales are not optional. Other guides go the extra mile by saying that lean fish should be left in a brine for a while, before freezing.

On the other side of the scale, I find many saying they’ve had no problem with fish they had simply dropped whole in their home freezer. So I’m confused.

Not planning to keep the fish in the freezer for long, thought that maybe someone is into fishing, or maybe has a loved one that is, may have a better grasp than me on these matters.

[Matt_W]

I’m not sure if this counts as cooking, but I’ve starting brewing kombucha at home. A friend at work gave me a scoby with about a 1/2 cup of starter tea and that was plenty to get going. It’s surprisingly easy:

1. Brew a quart of black tea
2. Add 1/4 cup of sugar
3. Let it cool to room temperature
4. Pour it on top of the starter tea and scoby
5. Cover the jar with a coffee filter and put it in a dark place for 1-2 weeks

Then:

1. Pour the fermented tea (should smell and taste vinegary) through a strainer into a grolsch bottle or something that you can seal airtight. Be sure to reserve a 1/2 cup or so and the scoby for your next batch.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of fruit juice or some chopped dried fruit or crushed berries. Something with some sugar content for the yeast to eat.
3. Seal the bottle.
4. Every couple of days burp the jar.
5. After about a week it’s fizzy and ready to drink.

Turned out pretty well:

My scoby is very fecund too, so I was able to double production after the first batch and should be able to double again after the next one. I’m looking at trying to get up to at least 1/2 gallon per week. It’s easy and much much cheaper than buying kombucha in the store.

[alms]

I’m dabbling in low-tech sous-vide. Not only I did not research the preparation thoroughly, I didn’t at all, other than whatever I remembered months ago, and using some instructions from SE:

Sous Vide Smoked Beef Chuck Recipe

I was basically asleep when I set stuff up, and missed the prerequisite(?) brining, the spice rub had to be changed (I used paprika), there were problems with temperature control in the beginning, overshooting and then dropping a touch too low while sleeping.

Don’t have a vac sealer, and resorted to a ziploc bag immersed in a water bath (the comments on the SE video are hilarious - people preoccupied with water being wasted, when cooking meat wrapped in plastic, seriously?).

Water was very little compared to what I’ve seen recommended elsewhere (8 liters?! whoa), nevertheless I was able to hit a remarkably stable 69 C, only a one degree difference from the SE mandated temperature.

Given the teething problems (I should’ve pre-heated water!) I’m going to play it safe and extend the already long cooking time (36h), ex post research suggests it should be fine either way.

If the results are interesting, I may try lo-tech sous-vide again, perhaps with a lower temperature (55-60 is recommended for tough beef cuts, though there is ample variation, up to 80 even), oven accuracy permitting.

IIRC the consensus is ovens don’t go that low, but I’m getting 69 with the dial set to just above 80, so maybe dropping it 10 degrees or so isn’t outside the domain of possibility.

With all the time it’s spent in the oven, I sure hope it was worth the wait #fingerscrossed

[LordBolton86]

Whoever is cooking something right now, just sent it over to me! I am hungry because I haven’t had any breakfast! Got no milk!

[alms]

Made Tonkatsu. And I’m not even reading a Murakami novel.

[thatnightIwasoffline]

Cury vegetable and pasta

[alms]

I’m on a ghetto sous vide bender. After ditching the slow cooker, too fiddly, I am back to experimenting with the oven.

As long as I’m not messing excessively with the door, it keeps a steady 60 C which works pretty well for tough stuff.

I have claimed success over some rubbery octopus that didn’t even look real, bought a few batches on sale, and while all of them were incredibly hard to get right, the last one was out of this world; the smaller they are, the worse?!

The most important thing, after temperature, is to get the time right; some recipes on Serious Eats seem to be fairly optimist, so I picked up some timing tips from ChefSteps and that worked out well for me.

Eventually I streamlined the process, and I’m ghetto vacuuming the bags directly inside the cooking vessel. I also found Dutch ovens aren’t really necessary this way, which makes sense, thank you Zeroth Law: as long as the oven is only opened to take a quick temperature check (something that becomes almost superfluous when the temperature has been verified to be stable) everything inside the oven stays at 60 C regardless!

The fanciest piece of kit I’m using are my trusty ThermoPop and zip-loc bags, though I’d love to replace the pans with polycarbonate vats, the round shape isn’t space efficient at all.

When I’m done with this round (and there’s a chicken waiting to be roasted), I’d like to try lower temperatures. With some luck maybe it can do 55: food porn on Serious Eats makes it look like the bees’ knees.

[Insignus]

Your random directive of the day is as follows:

1. Obtain Panini Presss

2. Record Video

3. Place Octopus in Panini Press

4. Eat.

[Jurple]

Over here, Panini presses are common, but I’d have to hunt far and low for an octopus.

And I’m not at all sure what the video is for

[alms]

In my on-going quest to turn fennel in a cooked form that I like, I discovered that lemon goes great with it.

It’s kinda of weird, though, because the bland sweetness of the cooked fennel provides the palette for the taste of lemon juice to truly shine through.

I’d have to hunt far and low for an octopus.

I get it’s not popular, but why?!

[Jurple]

In my on-going quest to turn fennel in a cooked form that I like, I discovered that lemon goes great with it.

I like my fennel raw, in fine slices. My wife prefers it if no fennel were to ever enter the house. Compromises!

The only recipe for cooked fennel I can think of is in fish stew, a la greque? Cioppino?. That one has lemon as well.

I get it’s not popular, but why?!

Messy cleaning? Easy to overcook? Body horror? I know that I like eating them, and that I can’t buy them locally.

Actually, I’ve no clue whether what I’ve eaten in the past has been octopus, squid or cuttlefish… Or some cousin of those.

[Matt_W]

In my on-going quest to turn fennel in a cooked form that I like, I discovered that lemon goes great with it

It works great raw in salads. It has the crispy texture of onion without its boldness.

[alms]

Grilled asparagus is, like, WOW. Dead simple.

I fried some stuff in a pan for the first time (thanks, ThermoPop). Deep frying is fun.

[Mar]

really like grilled meat with onion soaked in vinegar. its meal for picnic in nature reserve. marinade for meat can be on mayonnaise or ketchup base. very delicious

[theclockworkrat]

I use fennel and coconut as one of my curry bases. The flavours work spectacularly well together.

---

I’ve been making my own pasta of late, though mostly egg pasta. I tried making some without egg, i.e. just pasta flour, water and olive oil, but it tasted pretty bland. Open for suggestions to making it not-bland. Thinking spinach, black pepper, or paprika?

[alms]

I’ve been making my own pasta of late, though mostly egg pasta. I tried making some without egg, i.e. just pasta flour, water and olive oil, but it tasted pretty bland. Open for suggestions to making it not-bland. Thinking spinach, black pepper, or paprika?

What do you mean? Pasta is supposed to be bland. After boiling it in salted water, garlic-infused oil is a quick an easy way to make it super yummy.

[theclockworkrat]

Even less taste than boiled store-bought pasta.

I used the remainder of the batch this evening with some pesto, courgette, and black olives. Much nicer!

[Jurple]

Kedgeree!

Onions and spices and basmati and smoked mackerel and runny eggs, oh my.

[alms]

Even less taste than boiled store-bought pasta.

I see: first thing that comes to mind is that store-bought is thoroughly dried?

[theclockworkrat]

Yes? I don’t think I’ve ever paid for egg-pasta except maybe in restaurants.