The Food thread
 

Been a while since we've talked food.

Rather than defaulting this only to what we've eaten last/recently...
I'm going to open the floor to any kind of food discussion.
Favourite foods.
Something you've always wanted to try but never have.
Food experiences.
Cooking wins/fails.
Places or foods you've seen recently that have intrigued you.
Ask for advice, there's some pretty solid cooks around the place.

Really anything. If it's food related throw it in.

So today I had some wholegrain bread with bacon (realised we hadn't had bacon in forever...), tomato sauce on the side, also a mixture of kewpie and some Bunsters "shit the bed", which is an AMAZING Australian made product - you guys can get it overseas, they're shipping now. Highly recommended.


Here's a couple of pictures of some good we've had recently.
Not sure what order they'll come up in...

One is some fish we had at this thai place...the hot/sour/sweet thing it had going on was excellent.
The only problem was, it was Barramundi, a very delicate fish...and it had that pour-over hot oil cook on it..which kind of fried it not just on the surface but into the flesh a bit too much. Made it chewy.
We've eaten here quite a few times now and it's one of our favourite places, Spal is actually having her birthday there this year.
They do a steamed fish that's much better, and an amazing prawn/green papaya salad which is just one of my favourite things right now.

The other picture is a shared meal we got at "TGIFs" for a friends birthday.
The steak was of quality and cooked very well...or, very rare as it were.
The onion rings were maybe one of my favourite examples.
The fries were garbage.
The ribs were cooked right, but not basted while cooking...after trying their sauces, I can see this was a wasted potential.
The prawns were ok, but needed some citrus going on.
We got a couple more side dishes, and my friend who made the mistake of telling them it was his birthday, had the staff present him with a free sundae, and all sing him a birthday song. Awkward.
All in all though - it's simple food, done well, but it could be better.

Why do 90% of places fuck up fries?

I don't get it either.
Though one thing that always gets me is...why the fuck do places still buy frozen crap fries? It's so easy and not even very time consuming with the right equipment to make your own...especially within the confines of a commercial kitchen...and they end up far superior.

Only thing that shits me more is if you go out to a takeaway for a chicken burger and they give you one with a pre-cooked frozen/reheated store bought type thing on it.
Chicken thigh. Hammer the shit. Season the shit. Grill the shit. Easy, delicious burger material right there.

Food can be dangerous at expensive restaurants.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/22/e...ntl/index.html

Suspect #1 - Poor temperature monitoring throughout (most likely) the transport process. One would hope not the kitchen, it's slightly less likely.

#2 - Cross contamination. Seafood can be volatile.

Speaking of food poisoning...reheating some chicken as we speak ha

Bought an Instant Pot. Have yet to use it. ::big grin::

Did you ever know that you're my hero? ::big grin::::love::

Hahahaha! Love you, too, Bloof! I'll let you know when I actually use it!

Made a pot roast yesterday. Actually came out quite nice. Seared the meat after seasoning and threw it in a 350 oven with carrots, celery,onions and red bliss potatoes for 3 hours. The wife was pretty impressed.

Now would you have had a cover on that? Would you have taken it off towards the end? I never have any luck with pot roast.

in a roasting pan covered in aluminum foil. It came out very good. I personally would have taken it out 15 minutes earlier or so but the wife prefers well done.

I do love a nice pot roast but have always been a little kitchen-challenged, lol.

I make my pot roast in the crock pot and it always turns out perfect

I really have to get one.

Agreed.....but when you only have 3 hours instead of 8.::wink::

LOL - that's why I usually only use the crock pot on weeknights. That way, dinner is ready when I get home from work.

Never concerned the crock pot will malfunction, causing a fire? You take any precautions as far as where you put it or anything?

I never thought about it until a buddy told me he saw one of his sparking. But I don't recall if we had time to get into it as far as if it was old, used or whatever. I'm sure 99% of them are designed to be extremely safe and do what they're designed to do. And if they're treated well there's about zero chance of malfunction.

I think some folks were just raised to be hyper concerned about shutting any electrical item off when leaving the house alone, like double checking coffee makers and stuff. I mostly confined crock potting to weekends because of that. Although I may have done a weekday once.

How many of you are willing to leave a crock pot on 8 hours while the house is empty?

I’ve done it many times. But now that you’ve put that thought in my head....

I read a little more about it.

Crock-Pot the brand/company says you can leave it unattended, but read the instructions, on any crockpot you have. General rules for leaving unattended are: Keep in on a flat hard non flammable surface. Only leave on low setting. Make sure sufficient water, and lid on. Keep it a fair distance from the wall and any overhang. Make sure cord is not touching crockpot. Inspect the cord for fraying, and the crockpot for defect, scorching, leaking, etc. And a fire chief from the NY FD says don't do it, cause there's no guarantees, a fair thing to say. = )

I dont have one but i dont think leaving it on all day in an empty house would bother me. Having said that, i always worried about whether or not it was safe to prepare food that way. If there was any bacteria that wasnt being killed off at such low heat or multiplying etc. I know they are used world-wide, day in/day out without any kind of issue.

Just a quick google search reads crock-pot low setting is 200', and traditionally chicken should have internal temp of 165' to be safe. Virtually all bacteria die at 148' within 14 secs. Some food science cooks say 160' unfolds proteins causing dryness, and is over cooking. But anyway, slow cooking in a crock kills it all.

No issues from slow cooking, and I can confirm that there's no accumulative "frog in hot water" type effect. Yes, you are taking meats etc temporarily into the danger zone, but once past that, extinction occurs and you're safe again.
There's only problems if you stay on/serve/store at those temperatures.
Is there anything in particular you're planning on cooking?

Just had this a little before.
One of my go-to light meals at a local cafe.
Soy and linseed toast.
The white bit is goats cheese.
I never use the butter. They always bring it though.
Didn't really need the crispy bacon (and oh was it crispy) but, I was a little tender after ripping my bumper off earlier today.
Could have used more avocado. I can never get enough of it.

Looks lovely. Do you have to ask for the dab of goats cheese or is it served with?
I would like to break down and get a crockpot. People seem well pleased with them. Probably for beef stews or pot roast etc. Not chicken.

By the way i referenced chicken temp 165' because it's the highest temp of the meat to be safe. pork, beef require lesser temps.

I figured that but im so paranoid especially about chicken! Beef is probably the only thing i would cook in a crockpot. One year, i did a turkey for thanksgiving and about 4 relatives got quite ill after. Ive been roasting turkeys for over 30 years. I wash down my sinks and countertops with bleach and water after preparing it for the oven and swap out all my dishcloths. And it was cooked properly. I felt mortified after even though everyone said it probably wasnt even the turkey!

The turkey thing might not have even been you. Improper storage/temps on the part of the transport companies and stores is a more likely offender.

You definitely wanna give lamb a go in the crockpot too.

More likely it was the veggie produce, lettuce, spinach, sprouts and tomatoes have been problems.

One bacteria issue I heard about with turkeys is putting the stuffing in the bird. Cheeb can correct me here... but I think it was that it's difficult to get the heat high enough on the turkey juice-contaminated stuffing inside the turkey cavity. If you do put stuffing in the bird, re-bake the stuffing separately to 165' internal temp.

Not many folks crock-pot chicken anyway. Not like there's poor cuts of chicken to soften in a crock-pot, like you do with beef.


Are there best ways to cook lamb? I may have had it once. ::big grin::

I never put stuffing in the turkey though my mom did. Seems gross to me but i do put in raw onion and celery and lemon which i just toss out after.

Depends on how you like it, though generally...

If it's a steak or fillet - high heat/grilling, sear on the outside, render the fat, leave the meat rare/pink.

If it's a roast, say a leg of lamb?
I'd roast on the bone - aiming to have the middle pink, exterior towars brown so you get the cook all the way through and a slice will have kind of a pink end and a more well done end with (ideally) a crispy skin.
I like stabbing down to the bone and shoving garlic slices and rosemary through it, make a rub with say salt, pepper, cumin, corriander seeds and oregano.
I love having a crispy surface and might finish off with a squeeze of lemon juice.
It's amazing hot, and fine cold for sandwiches.

Shanks and other smaller/tougher joints do amazingly well in the slow cooker, browned first, and immersed in say a curry or stock/wine/tomato based sauce, cooked 6-8 hours...in these cases I want it past pink, I want it "well done" and gliding off the bones. The gelatinous connective tissue breaks down and partially renders into the meat just does...something beautiful to the texture...

But yeah you can also dice it, kebab it, and bbq the hell out of it...a lot of people like it pink, and while I won't have it well done, medium is also just fine.

For all the "rare" purists there are, it's a versatile meat that can be served numerous ways and lengths of cooking.

I have a cold. I don't want to eat. I've lost 3 and 1/2 pounds so far.

what's that, about a couple of bucks?

So....anniversary breakfast...I feel like a lazy fuck because all I did was, add some milk to tea. Thank you, woman.

As I said I'm about to steal this bit from the random thread

"Today we're going for Brazlian style BBQ ~churrasco~ to celebrate both myself and Spals b'day.
(mine was back in January, hers is actually today, March 23)
Never been before, but I love the style of cooking, and some of the menu items just look delicious. All you can eat, so I'm just going to try to load up on meat.
They have grilled skewers of chicken hearts...I've had those before, but not like this. Looking forward to it heaps"

Of course, Spal will just need to take video and pictures of the food...so we'll update when it's all done, or yknow, whevever it all settles.

Hanging out right now.
I've had a piece of toast (wholegrain, canola spread, vegemite) and having a cup of tea now, but I'm going to try not to eat much, or anything, until this dinner experience.
Here's hoping it's not super crowded, but being saturday night...but hey...I'll be popping an edible to help cope and with the appetite.

Anyone been to one of these Brazilian churrasco/bbq joints?
How'd it go?

What, has everyone else been eating today?
Give me your meals.

- B.

I've been suffering from an annoying cold...which, when you've had bronchitis before...tends to trigger it again.

While throughout the day, it's somewhat fine...at night I get the barking coughs, and in the morning hack up some truly awful shit...so last night, I had my first nights sleep in 5 days that I hadn't been woken up by a coughing fit every 10-15 minutes.

The reason I was "ok" last night, was likely a combination of the new medicine
(cold and flu tablets, and some expectorant that helps break up congested stuff in your lungs)
...and something I made myself.

While I'm not in full time work, I do delivery work a few nights a week at a pizzeria.
Now, I don't handle the food so I'm ok to be there.

Anyways, last night I took in a whole habanero, and a ghost pepper.
Cut those up and put them on a pizza along with the standard amount of sauce, a little less cheese, and I went with pineapple to balance the spice, and some chicken for protein.
Wow.
So fucking hot.
My dog ate some, somehow...
I got through about 3 pieces, started sweating, felt quite hot for an hour...had a couple small coughing fits...then went and sat in my bathroom while I ran the hot shower just breathing in the steam.

...and I slept last night, not "fine" but, a lot better.
Never underestimate chilli being an assistant in burning the bad stuff away.
I feel SO much better today.

This morning, I had some grilled vegemite toast, and a cup of english breakfast/earl grey tea.

Has anyone watched Almazan Kitchen on YouTube? It has the most amazing food and atmosphere. Videos are no more that 10 or so minutes long and the outdoors is their kitchen. ::love::

I have. They are beautiful. My nephew-in-law is addicted to them.

By the way...does anyone here have an air roaster?

Spal tried a new method of making crackling. Not attached to meat, just, the crackling itself.

You can buy just the pork skin at a lot of butchers and supermarkets, right?
So cut that into "strips" which are about 3-4 inches in length, maybe 0.5 cm wide.
Salt it, mix it in well, let it sit for a bit.

We've been experimenting with temperatures and times, and landed on the one that we find gets the best results:

So there's this rotating cage in this air roaster right?
Put the strips in there above a drip tray.
160c (320f) for 40 minutes
then
180c (356f) for a further 12 minutes.

The come out beautiful. Brittle but not so brittle that they have no resistance, with most of the oil rendered out of the "fat" portion, to leave behind the kind of "shell" on the underside of the crackling.

Perfect snack.
I'd say shaking them through some chilli powder/garlic salt, or any other preferred spices post-cooking would also get some pretty damn good results.

Of course, I'm sure there's other ways to replicate this with other devices, timing and temperatures, but this one worked very well for us after a few less desirable attempts.

Anyways, just thought I'd share.

I've been contemplating getting an air fryer. However, my kitchen is full and I have no room for more kitchen gadgets.

True. It's something of a space killer...great product though.