That's just about all we goddamn do these days. Used to spend hours on elaborate meals, there's no time for that now. Which is a shame because it was one of my main methods of decompression. Slow cooking is great but I'm getting to the point where I could use some meat that doesn't have to be put on a sandwich or served in a bowl. humanodon I was deadly serious about those biscuits, though. They're happening tonight come hell or high water and I don't care how many children I have to neglect in the process of making them.
Have I got a tip for you. Long story short, every Wednesday all the ingredients for 3 meals for two show up in a box. They generally take half an hour or so to make. All the mis en place is done, for the most part, and if you've got a knife, a pot, a pan, olive oil, salt and pepper you're there. Comes to $10 a plate which, for largely-organic, artisan-grade stuff is pretty cool. Also I've started cooking with whacky shit like chayote squash and stuff. We're on Week 5 or so and loving it. Haven't ordered take-out since June.
Oh my god where has this been all my life. These ingredients look good, too. How is this so cheap?
I'm making pork chops right now. I started 15 minutes ago and am waiting for water to boil (and leeks to bake). I'll shoot a pompous food photo when I'm done.
Remember that this is all under the sub-discussion of slow cooker food.
FUCK YEAH Know who makes the best goddamn Chicken en Mole? Martha Mutherfucking Stewart. Caveat - you have to add about 4 T of cocoa powder. I use this shit. And where it says "one large chipotle in adobo" I go 5. We tried 7 once (I hate abandoning two chipotles in the can) but it was...challengingly hot. Serve on rice with greek yogurt and scallions and guacamole and chips.
Growing up, chicken en mole was a treat in our family. Whenever my mom went to mexico, she came back with this: It's supposed to be used for hot chocolate, but she used it for mole too. It was awesome stuff. I should probably learn that family recipe.
FTFY c'mon, man, throw me a bone. I'm up in this bitch making Martha Stewart Mole. (although truth be told Ibarra ain't no thing. You can get it at any Kroger-chain grocery store up and down the west coast and into the Rockies. It's about 90% cheap-ass cane sugar. She's probably got some other eldritch magic you aren't sharing)I should probably SHARE that family recipe.
I believe it. Have one of her cookbooks and a lot of the stuff in it is stupid good. Will try this.
I'm too broken up over my biscuits right now... I don't want to see anybody else's success...
Well, my wife signed up for it so it's a complete and utter surprise to me. If I were on the mailing list it wouldn't be. Chayote may be old hat for you, but I grew up in a place without, like, sushi. When an Olive Garden opened up two hours away it had a 2-month wait list. Suffice it to say it's not an ingredient I've ever sought out, so being given a path to understanding has been nice. We did catfish, too. I was traumatized by catfish as a youth because my family does an annual catfish fry. The problem being they catch their catfish from Elephant Butte Reservoir where the catfish mostly feed on sewage and corpses. As it turns out, they ain't half bad with a proper diet!
. . . I . . . see your point. I'm pretty sure that this is just what catfish eat. My ex wouldn't eat catfish for the same exact reason, but personally I am a catfish fan and will eat it 8/10 times when given the opportunity. I have this thing about eating eggs though. Corpse-eating fish are no problem, turtles are no problem, snakes are no problem, congealed blood is no problem, boiled, chopped goat testicles were . . . doable but man oh man, eggs are the grossest thing ever to me. Everyone's got their thing I guess.When an Olive Garden opened up two hours away it had a 2-month wait list.
The problem being they catch their catfish from Elephant Butte Reservoir where the catfish mostly feed on sewage and corpses.
I read the free sample and didn't go further, primarily 'cuz it was full price. As I read it, I wished it were written by Mary Roach.
It was a while ago. I attempted to read "Stiff." I didn't finish I'm pretty sure. I think my opinion of Roach suffered as I had recently read both Complications and possibly also Better by Atul Gawande and I found I enjoyed his writing style much more, while bth authors were discussing similar subject matter (bodies, medicine). The book seemed "pop"-py to me. It was not as bad as Gladwell (I read "Blink" and hated it) but I remember feeling as if the subject could have been covered better by others.
See, and I haven't read Stiff and don't want to. Packing for Mars is all I got - and it's very poppy. But it's an "everything you wanted to know about space travel but were afraid to ask" manual that spends a chapter and a half on the toilet on the space station and "poppy" is the way to go.
Complications is (somewhat sadly) definitely better than Better. There was supposed to be a third but it looks like that never came out. The Checklist Manifesto I found valuable, but it expands beyond the realm of medicine - so in that way very different from better. I would pick either Checklist or Complications, I am wondering if you would prefer Checklist because it's broader - but Complications is very good.
RRRRRRRRGH NOOOOOOOOOOO butter strikes again ARGH What the fuck are these, these are flapjacks, not biscuits. I blame my sous chef.
They're going to be delicious. They're also perfect for putting under a serving of beef stew. In the future, you might have better luck with drop biscuits. They're a lot less execution-dependent, look nice and rustic no matter what you do, and taste just the same. Nice'n'crumbly'n'salty'n'good.
They are actually plenty decent. Hard to go wrong with that much butter and cream. Next time it's either drop biscuits or sweet potato biscuits, courtesy of humanodon's post from yesterday.
Haha! Ok, troubleshooting (in no order): 1. Was your baking powder fresh? 2. How sandy was your flour mix after cutting the butter into it? 3. How did you roll them out? 4. Did you fold the rolled out dough into thirds before rolling it out again? 5. Did you use a low protein (soft) flour? 6. How cold was the butter? Uh, I'm sure there are more ways to end up with low-rise biscuits. I'll remember more later.
1. baking powder was so far away from fresh
2. recipe said marble-sized butter chunks, so that's what we did
3. I think this is the problem
4. yeah, it was folded
5. all-purpose- almost bought cake flour for the decreased protein but the recipe said either or
6. this was also the problem So I think it comes down to butter. I had it super-cold (not frozen), but I was working next to the oven which is really poorly insulated and sheds heat like a mother. Also no A/C in the house, because this house is a 70 year old disaster. So we worked as fast as we could, but that dough gets warm even faster. Also, I think I rolled it too thin- recipe said half an inch, it was less. Put it together, you have a thin dough that heats through at the drop of a hat next to an oven that doubles as our main heating element in the winter. DOOMED.
In addition to humanodon's fine advice, I will also add: 1) The more you work any kind of dough, the tougher it will get. You want to go with the absolute minimum. 2) Butter should be cold-cold. Super-cold isn't that important. Working quickly is. You should go from ingredients to rolling in about 4-5 minutes tops. 3) I know Alton Brown hates the shit out of "uni-taskers" (but have you ever seen his measuring cups? WTF) but a pastry cutter is impossibly handy if you're going to make pastry. We've got a wire one very like this. I guess Oxo has a fancier one for ten bucks. Never used it. "Marble sized chunks" is bullshit. you want aquarium gravel or smaller, and you can't get that without a pastry cutter.
Those biscuits may be doomed, but notes can be taken for next time. Next time, once the butter is cut in to the flour, throw it in the freezer for half an hour. Then pull it out and add your buttermilk or milk, mix it real gently, turn it out, but work it as little as possible. I like to just pat it out, carefully fold it over itself and then gently pat it out again before cutting the biscuits. Working with butter can definitely be a pain in the ass.
Well, thanks for the laugh. Still, biscuit-cakes might taste damn good. How are they?
Well, there you go. That said, the height comes from air being in there, right? So are they dense? You may just have a kick-ass new creation on your hands. I see a future in this for you. Come dine at Biscuitcakes -Honestly, it's a solid name for a breakfast/brunch place. -I'll only ask for 5% of the annual gross for naming rights.
We're gonna put Pancake House out of business.
People pay a lot of lip service to yeast, but butter is way more the mysterious force in my book. Yeast follows the laws of biology and chemistry. Butter's rules are arbitrary and tempramental. Attempt at pastry dough still goes down as my most catastrophic culinary failure to date.cut the butter in an keep it in the fridge (not the freezer; ice crystals will fuck up your fat!)
I have the utmost respect for pastry chefs given how much more exacting their work has to be than any other kind of chef. They definitely get the short end of the food-respect stick. I've forgone choc chip cookie heartache by just melting the butter and using it that way. That might sound like sacrilege but it comes straight from Cooks Illustrated and those guys have a kitchen lab and wear bow ties even when it's not prom 1989 so, you know, they're pretty serious. Is the croissant success reproduceable now? Or is it like leave it up to the gods to decide whether my breakfast makes me sad?
They're happening tonight come hell or high water and I don't care how many children I have to neglect in the process of making them.
that's hilarious. Your oldest is old enough that you could involve her in the process though, right?
Well done! Baking with my daughter is both one of the most enjoyable and frustrating things I do these days. Man oh man I had forgotten how powerful the allure of dipping your finger in the bowl is. Last time we baked, it was blueberry muffins. At one point I looked over at her and she was holding a lukewarm stick of butter in her hands, attempting handing it to me. Such a mess. She has a chef's coat and everything. It's pretty damn cute. Good luck with those biscuits. Have fun.
Hah, I know what you mean. Every time my daughter helps, it ends in adorable flames. But man, chef's hat and coat? That must take it to a whole new level...