Food Thread

[Dave2512]

1 minute ago, saevel25 said:

That lemon basil flavored cider reminded me of the lemon basil ice cream I had at Ritter's here in Dayton. So far, one of my all time favorite ice cream flavor combinations. Maybe it's because basil is part of the mint family, but it works really well with vanilla and lemon. 

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I just bought this machine, http://www.amazon.com/Sansaire-Sous-Immersion-Circulator-Black/dp/B00KSFAB74?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

I am looking forward to trying out a new cooking style 

Lemon basil ice cream sounds amazing I'd be all over it. Seems to be a popular spring choice. The cider is a seasonal offering from a local orchard in my home town and it was the martini special at a bistro we visited yesterday.

[k-troop]

I love doing fun stuff with leftovers.  Last night's dinner:  30-oz ribeye cooked on a coal fire with grilled sourdough baguette and a green salad with carrot, tomato, onion, dried cranberry, bleu cheese, and basalmic.  Assembled the leftovers into a sandwich.

[billchao]

59 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I just bought this machine, http://www.amazon.com/Sansaire-Sous-Immersion-Circulator-Black/dp/B00KSFAB74?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

I am looking forward to trying out a new cooking style 

Oh man, I almost bought this just now.

[k-troop]

What's your go-to spot, book, etc. for food ideas and cooking knowledge?  I really like Serious Eats/The Food Lab, a website/blog/book by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.  http://www.seriouseats.com/

I bought his book and read it cover-to-cover in a weekend.  Yes, a cookbook that was interesting enough to just sit down and read it. 

[saevel25]

10 minutes ago, k-troop said:

What's your go-to spot, book, etc. for food ideas and cooking knowledge?  I really like Serious Eats/The Food Lab, a website/blog/book by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.  http://www.seriouseats.com/

Serious Eats is awesome. That is where I found this recipe. Here is my go-to for pizza dough, http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/basic-new-york-style-pizza-dough.html

I like a lot of youtube videos on cooking. Gordon Ramsey has some good videos. I tend to just bounce around. I've been watching Sorted Food the past month or so. They have some awesome looking desert recipes. 

This website has some great culinary technique videos. https://stellaculinary.com/

I really don't own any cookbooks. I tend to just look up recipes online that I find interesting. I've been cooking seriously for over 16 years now. I've learned by cooking skills from just trial and error with lots of recipes. Typically now I just tend to create meals off the top of my head. 

[nevets88]

Blue Apron inspired one dish that I cook often now. I also try and cook dishes I ordered in the restaurant - this, has a low success rate, doh.

YouTube is awesome for little tips on how to do things better and faster.

[jamo]

33 minutes ago, k-troop said:

What's your go-to spot, book, etc. for food ideas and cooking knowledge?  I really like Serious Eats/The Food Lab, a website/blog/book by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.  http://www.seriouseats.com/

I bought his book and read it cover-to-cover in a weekend.  Yes, a cookbook that was interesting enough to just sit down and read it. 

That's been my go-to for a while now. He's excellent, and not afraid to use a non-traditional ingredient or technique just for tradition's sake. I got my dad his cookbook for his birthday last year, and it's been a real hit. The other writers on Serious Eats are very good as well.

I also really like Mark Bittman. He's got some recipes on the New York Times website, and his cookbook How to Cook Everything is very good (though, there are differences between the original version and the subsequent editions; I know a few recipes in particular were taken out). You won't get crazy experimental recipes, but the basics in that book are excellent, and it provides a nice base from which to expand upon. I also got the iPhone app the goes with it (they had it for free on sale a few years ago), which is a nice reference for when I'm at the grocery store and want to put together a list quickly.

I second @saevel25's recommendation of Gordon Ramsey's YouTube video. The way he chops onions in particular really helped me speed up and improve my technique. Jamie Oliver has some good YouTube vidoes too.

I can post a few of my favorites later.

[DaveP043]

1 hour ago, k-troop said:

What's your go-to spot, book, etc. for food ideas and cooking knowledge?  I really like Serious Eats/The Food Lab, a website/blog/book by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.  http://www.seriouseats.com/

I bought his book and read it cover-to-cover in a weekend.  Yes, a cookbook that was interesting enough to just sit down and read it. 

For a few years we've subscribed to Cooks Illustrated magazine, and really like many of the recipes there.  They'll take a specific dish and vary the ingredients and techniques until they think they've got the absolute right way to make something.  In many cases, the final recipe may be quite a bit different from the standard technique, but will almost always come out really well.  We also subscribe to the website, to be able to search archived recipes.  Beyond that, both my wife and I have cooked enough over the years that we can find recipes on the internet and kind of tell if they'll work for us.

[Dave2512]

[RandallT]

7 hours ago, Dave2512 said:

I made something similar to this during the week. Shrimp, avocado, lime, tomato, black bean, and quinoa (or however you spell that). 

Anyone better luck at picking avocados than me? I try to get the right softness and I usually check under that outside stem thingie whether or not it is green under there. If brown, it's usually a sign that it's brown inside. Last couple years, I haven't had much luck, or maybe the avocados haven't been too great. They haven't been too brown, but the texture hasn't been great.

Not sure how to describe, but that bottom slice in the pic above looks a little harder and more yellow than the rest of the avocados above it. The others look great, but the avocados I've been getting recently seem more like that bottom one. (could be lighting on that one piece, but kinda describes what I've been getting)

[Dave2512]

Buy Mexican avocados not CA or whatever. Bigger sweeter and more creamy. My lunch was from my local seafood place but we all buy from the same carnicerias.

The MX avocados are big and ready to eat before it gets soft to the touch. In fact squeezing it will bruise it and leave brown fingertip spots. Helps to speak Spanish. 

Oops not behaving tonight with dinner. Grilled cheese with bleu, local cheddar and house smoked bacon, side of sweet tots. Washed it down with two Wonderland Brewery Peach Wit pints. 

 Rough living in CO. Killer pub scene here. This is at a truck stop dive two miles from my house. It shares a building with a Conoco. 

[Yukari]

2 hours ago, Dave2512 said:

Buy Mexican avocados not CA or whatever. Bigger sweeter and more creamy. My lunch was from my local seafood place but we all buy from the same carnicerias.

The MX avocados are big and ready to eat before it gets soft to the touch. In fact squeezing it will bruise it and leave brown fingertip spots. Helps to speak Spanish. 

Oops not behaving tonight with dinner. Grilled cheese with bleu, local cheddar and house smoked bacon, side of sweet tots. Washed it down with two Wonderland Brewery Peach Wit pints. 

 Rough living in CO. Killer pub scene here. This is at a truck stop dive two miles from my house. It shares a building with a Conoco. 

Looks delicious. What is the name of that restaurant?

[Dave2512]

9 hours ago, Yukari said:

Looks delicious. What is the name of that restaurant?

http://www.savorygrilleandpub.com/

Good place though not sure people get his flair at the truck stop. Tonight the special is smoked prime rib and I will be there .

He changes up the style each week. Last time it was a Tuscan inspired plate, smoked PR over a bed of sautéed spinach, tomatoes, onions with cheese gnocchi. Totally unexpected but the flavors were huge. 

He is in for a rough summer. The space he took over was previously occupied by a beloved greasy spoon that is set to reopen up the road. I hope he weathers the storm. 

[billchao]

12 hours ago, RandallT said:

Anyone better luck at picking avocados than me? I try to get the right softness and I usually check under that outside stem thingie whether or not it is green under there. If brown, it's usually a sign that it's brown inside. Last couple years, I haven't had much luck, or maybe the avocados haven't been too great. They haven't been too brown, but the texture hasn't been great.

Buying avocados is a bit of a crapshoot for me. They like to sell them in bags of 4 or something like that around here and I usually end up having to toss at least one of them out.

I'd take firm over brown any day of the week. Just let it sit on your counter for an extra day or two and it should soften up.

[Groucho Valentine]

I buy avocados a little on the firm side and set a couple out to ripen. I put any other ones i bought into the fridge. That seems to slow down the process a lot and then i can eat them when I'm ready. But its an art to getting them just right. You got like a razor thin window with that, hahaha. 

[Dave2512]

Firm to just starting to give to the touch is better than squishy for sure, it's a fruit and squishy is typically not a good thing. Size is a pretty good gauge too. The smaller US grown avocados are always a little bitter compared to the small grapefruit sized Mexican avocados. The Mexican ones can still have a light green tint to the skin and be soft and buttery inside. Calories are the issue with the big ones I get some that are 3x larger than the grocery store type. Which is also a big reason they are bruised from shoppers squeezing them over and over. My guess is quite a few people buy the tender to the touch ones to make guacamole. The little market up the street form my office keeps them behind the counter.

[RandallT]

2 hours ago, Dave2512 said:

http://www.savorygrilleandpub.com/

Good place though not sure people get his flair at the truck stop. Tonight the special is smoked prime rib and I will be there .

He changes up the style each week. Last time it was a Tuscan inspired plate, smoked PR over a bed of sautéed spinach, tomatoes, onions with cheese gnocchi. Totally unexpected but the flavors were huge. 

He is in for a rough summer. The space he took over was previously occupied by a beloved greasy spoon that is set to reopen up the road. I hope he weathers the storm. 

Hey, not sure if you're anywhere near these guys in Colorado (just east of Denver I believe), but it's my sister-in-law (and her husband). 

http://www.edgefoodscolorado.com/

They got inspired to start their own business, and it sounds like what you describe above where they change up the menu style constantly.  He was a corporate chef his whole life, and decided he wanted to follow his passion of doing interesting foods, mixing it up constantly and trying different inspirations. They're fairly new

At a family gathering once, he just made do with whatever was in the house we were staying at and picked up some things to tie it together at the store. At dinner time, we had an amazing feast that he cobbled together like it was a challenge on the Food Network. Very impressive.

[Groucho Valentine]

I gained 15 pounds by just looking at the first couple of pages in this thread.