the thread for cooking questions!

Garlic, rosemary, Parmesan, and a little olive oil to hold it all together. What more is there?

my current favorite spice is cumin...my mother hates it, so we rarely had stuff with it at home, and now i am kind of going crazy with it, and would probably put it on potato wedges.

xpost! (no, i just chop garlic)

Herbed-up potato wedges sounds good -- maybe I'll make some tonight.

i'm really new to cooking but proudly i can say OTM to this.

i pretty much use lowry's seasoned salt in place of regular salt now. on almost everything.

i don't actually know. but there is a lawry's restaurant off michigan ave in chicago (on ohio or huron maybe?) that i went to when i first moved here. the steak was sublime.

Don't be a sissy, your hands are the best kitchen tools in the world. GET THEM DIRTY, they clean up pretty easily.

I'd dip potato wedges in lemon and olive oil, then sprinkle with cumin and cayenne.

I bought garlic puree but it's really salty and nothing like the real thing.

and this was my solution too, for now. once i'm up there with the Olivers and Ramsays in terms of efficiency I'll probably go back to good old garlic chopping board activity.

http://www.celebopedia.com/flavor-flav/images/flavor-flav.jpg http://www.paunchstevenson.com/photos/dominos-noid-250x309.jpg

this is about 17x easier than garlic press and helps avoid the "whoops cut off my fingernail" or "wow my hands are disgusting" problems inherent with garlic, onions, etc.

I either flatten garlic and mash it with salt using the side of my knife or use my fabulous Microplane™ grater to dissasemble it, since I'm frequently using grating ginger or shallots at the same time.

Immersion blenders are pretty awesome.

Mr. Jaq, who is foreign to me in his not-really-liking-fruit-what- grows-on-trees habits, waxed rhapsodic about a Fuji apple from last week's box o' produce.

I thought the immersion blender was a tricksy gadget until a bunch of squash soup talk. I used it to whip up the roasted yams for Thanksgiving and it was amazing.

I still need to get one -- finally got a real blender, though, that took me long enough.

You will pardon me if I would like to have more than one option to hand.

The whipped cream everywhere freaked me out SO much the first time I used it, I was certain I did something horribly wrong. Even whisking up the salad dressing in the tall measuring cup they give you to work with the whisk gets kinda squirrelly at first! I got used to it, mainly because delicious dressings with -3 work.

For this, a ziploc bag and a BIG mallet! Gets all your stresses out in a jiffy!

Or, yeah, just bust it up. I personally don't like ice so this isn't really a concern I've considered at all!

See, I *love* ice, and I also like making batches of drinks for get-togethers, thus. Etc. etc.

(The point is slightly moot for me anyway in that I am avoiding alcohol at present due to The Mysterious Digestive Problem which has been troubling me of late, to the point where I had an ultrasound yesterday. They've ruled out a lot of stuff but still aren't too sure what it is, but I never want to have stomach-aches like THOSE again. Horrid.)

i have a big-ass blender and it rules but the immersion blender is key for lots of things, especially for blending half the soup you've been making without a lot of multibowl faff action

no blender at this point though...my roommates tried to steal a chair from some friends and exchange it for a blender because they have multiple ones, but they didn't actually notice that the chair was gone, so that failed horribly.

pumpkin puree
balsalmic vinegar
tiny bit of kosher salt
cumin
ground allspice or cloves (not really sure which yet, still deciding)
some carmelized sweet onions
dried cranberries (not very sweetened if you can get it)
chopped fresh sage
SOMETHING to substitute for tiny minced garlics--maybe course ground toasted pinenuts?

cranberries substitute for the tomatoes, sage substitutes for the cilantro, balsalmic substitutes for lime. I haven't actually TRIED this, mind you, I just made it up in the past few minutes.

or pepitos! (roasted pumpkin seeds)

This may have to get made for the potential Seattle ILXmas, along with the beer waffles, which I totally forgot about.

Maybe pita bread triangles, or chips made from flour tortillas.

I have W. Puck stainless steel, and 7", 10" and 14" nonstick skillets that live by the Bourdain "never let soap touch them" rule. I'd like to have a Le Creuset casserole, but otherwise I'm pretty well set. I had an All-Clad skillet, but I gave it to Sarah when she went to school.

Yep, which surprised me. I kept a small teflon skillet around for years specifically for eggs, then tried making Mr. Jaq's over-mediums in a small cast iron saute pan. Patience is required: to season the pans, to wait for them to heat to temp, to wait for the food to sear/release from the pan surface. Worth it, to me. To Mr. Jaq, not so much, which is why we do still have one small teflon skillet for him to cook eggs in.

Non-stick fry pan from Family Dollar, warped (Xmas gift from mom)
Two really dull non-serrated knives I've had for 7 years that I got from my mom who'd used them for prolly 10 yrs before
About 48 steak knives (people keep dumping them on me)
One 9x9 baking pan
One aluminum cooking sheet
One stock pot
One mixing bowl
A spatula
A wooden spoon
Measuring cups/teaspoons
An iron

AND THAT IS ALL
I manage to make a lot of really nice things, considering, but it's hard going into even Wal-Mart or somewhere and not dying of cooking stuff covetation. I keep having dreams people are coming to cook at my house and they're all frustrated, "HOw do you even USE this knife?" I also think this comes from watching thee food network before sleep.

Is this for grilled cheese sandwiches?

Big advantages of cast iron pans: cheap, so heavy they will never warp, stovetop or oven or both! (I bake biscuits, cornbread, yeast bread in my cast iron skillet because it makes the crust so amazing) If you find a rusty one at a thrift store/yard sale, scrub it with soap, hot water, and steel wool to get rid of the rust, dry it thoroughly, rub lightly (really lightly) all over (inside and out, also handle) with veg oil, crisco, or lard, wipe with paper towel then bake upside-down and empty at 350 deg for 1 hour to season and make usable.

(However, I am REALLY REALLY bad at making steaks not rubbery and nasty. Pretty much anything else cooking-wise I can cope with, I'm pretty good at cooking really, but even the best cuts of steak are just nasty rubbery lumps when I am finished with them. This upsets me greatly. What am I doing wrong? I have a good quality pan, I have tried following all manner of instructions with regard to heat, etc, but, no, chewy rubbery lumps of steak always come out at the end of it. HELP ME! My current answer is: go out if I want to eat steak, but I need to know how to do them right at home)

for a 1" (2.5 cm) thick steak - Take the meat out of the fridge and let it warm up for about an hour. Heat the pan or grill up on medium high heat for a minimum of 10 minutes. Dry off the meat with paper toweling if it's wet or damp so it doesn't steam. Put 1 steak in the middle of the pan or both on the grill - this is all about surface area, you don't want the pan crowded also the temperature of the pan can drop too much if you cover up too much of the surface with cool meat (this is another reason I'm a cast iron evangelist - those things hold heat for-fucking-ever). Leave the meat for 7 minutes, then turn over and sear for 7 more minutes (medium rare - add 1 minute to each side for medium, subtract 1 for rare). Remove to a warm plate and let rest for at least 5 minutes - this really seems to make a difference in juiciness and flavor.

Today for lunch I had a 1/2" thick dry-aged spencer steak (boneless rib steak with the lip) - cooked for 2 minutes each side and sprinkled with some lavendar sea salt.

xpost -- Jaq's right on about taking the meat out of the fridge well in advance.

http://www.wishlist.com.au/images/Products/MI03/skillet-grill-2_L.jpg

I think it's the not-taking-out-of-fridge that's maybe been my downfall. I shall try again sometime soon. Thanks, all!

And Ned - :) Since I'll be working nights this coming week, I may get to swing by Avanti during the afternoon for more soup etc.

I know what you mean, but it's nice to have available when there's an inch of ice on the back deck and the grill. Also, I've some fantastic flank steaks from under the fire.

As for the garlic chopping debate upthread: people, mortar and pestle! Chopping if you're just making spagetti sauce or something, but for things like say, garlic puree for a salad dressing, the mortar's the go. Bit of oil and salt and it's reduced to a paste. Also fun to bash at if in crankx0r mood.

aka "garlic snot"

i am psyched... but for some reason i am not using it for dinner tonight... don't know what i was thinking.

For inspiration.

No, I am just a lonely girl w/no $$$ and Kitchen-Aids are kind of hard to sneak out of a store under a trenchcoat. HOWEVER, the knife-sharpening is a good idea. I don't think I've ever even used a properly sharp knife. My mom would flip out if my dad sharpened her knives on the wetstone because then she would use the same amount of dull-knife pressure and chop bits of her finger off. :( This happened maybe twice as I grew up and it lead to almost divorce-level fights.

Abbott, except for a saucepan and maybe a dutch oven, you've got lots of the basics and things that can be multipurpose (ex. mixing bowl + folded towel + stock pot = double boiler depending on size of mixing bowl). Lots and lots of kitchen stuff, especially gadgets, doesn't always make a happy cook. Good quality basics are the place to start.

First off, get your knives sharpened, if they are sharpenable. If they aren't, put a mid-range name-brand 6" chef's knife (Wustuf or Henckels, that kind of thing) on your Xmas list. Once you've got a good sharp knife, try to keep it that way. Get a polypro or wood (but not bamboo - I think they are way too hard) cutting board, don't cut on glass boards or your countertops (unless they are butcher block) or plates or marble - those things will smush and dull the edge of your knife. Keep your knife in a cardboard sleeve or a plastic knife safe - don't just toss it in the utensil or silverware drawer. Wash the blade by hand after you use it and dry it off right away.

Here's a good knife skills tutorial, though I wish I could find the one Paul Eater linked to over on old-ILCooking. Especially look at the photo under knife grips and fulcrum placement - it was a revelation to me to find that holding the knife by the handle only was a problem. It makes such a difference to have your first finger and thumb on either side of the blade (though the wide edge of the blade will build up a callous at the base of your index finger). I'd been doing it totally wrong for 40 years, no wonder I've got scars from the knife slipping.

Once you've got a good knife, you could start thinking about upgrading your pans and such. If there's a Ross or T J Maxx in your shopping range, check out their kitchen stuff. There's usually some good quality stuff in there, maybe in a horrid color or something, but at 70% off maybe you can live with it for awhile.

I won't tell you a Kitchen-Aid isn't a great thing to have, because they are totally wonderful especially if you bake. Amazon has them re-conditioned occasionally, but they are still a big ticket item. But an immersion blender (don't make that face Ned!) can do quite a few of the same tasks (whip cream, eggwhites, mayo, mash potatoes and yams, mix cake and pancake batters) and some of the tasks of a food processor, for a lot less $.

I saw six Laguiole knives for a fiver last weekend. Not the best quality ones, but they're still great and you couldn't get them in France that cheap. I ended up paying a tenner for some because I preferred the colour of their handles.

to make it more strangely flavorful you can invent whatever weird-ass marinades you fancy and let it rest in that for hours beforehand.

I am very keen to try the super reverential heston blumenthal method. He takes the well hung rib of beef (two ribs), Blowtorches the outside for crispiness then he heatsoaks it in the oven at 50?C for 24 hours. then he cuts the steaks and does them on hot cast iron.

Just to do a tiny bit of complaining about my housemates, but they've been living with us for the last year, and if I catch them taking a metal spoon to my le Creuset once more, I'm going to kick the fuck out of them. I had to throw out the two metal whisk we had and replace them with the le Creuset one just to stop them from scraping up my pans.

And one of them has broken the tip off one of my Sabatier knives. Fucking dicks. Those knives were a very expensive wedding present.

Haha, we used to have to warn people in our kitchen that all the knives were sharpened regularly, because visitors would cut themselves all the time. My dad's a little nuts about peak efficiency and things being done RIGHT, though. I could a sharpening stone, me self.

I settled for food service-quality paring knifes that are basically just inexpensive workhorses, but I did get a serious 8" chef's knife for Christmas a while back and I try to use it for everything.