Cooking/Foodie thread

we watch a lot of the great british baking show, mostly for the humour

 

Okay so I recently ran across a recipe that seemed like a neat twist on the old escalloped potato side dish. Rather than going for a savory creamy sauce, the idea is to interleave slices of potato with equally thin slices of apples. Maybe a bit of star anise for seasoning?

Can't wait to give it a go next time I get kitchen access. (I'm working on the road for the next few weeks)

EDIT:

Adding link to potato/apple/shallot side dish recipe

 

If we're doing TV shows...

Do any of your TV channels show Luke Nguyen's stuff? He's an Australian chef who's done a lot of interesting road-trip / food shows, with tours of Vietnam, China, South-East Asia, and, at the moment, India. There's some fantastic stuff on there.

And do any of them show Adam Liaw's stuff? Another Australian chef with similar sorts of themes.

 

Gotta admit I'm really not big on food TV, even though I love food and my career is TV.

Now here's one that has been haunting my dreams lately:

Biáng-Biáng noodles.

I love baking; lots of time with dough. And noodles aren't much but an unleavened bread served in wetter circumstances, right? I haven't put a lot of time into making pasta or noodles of any kind, but that may need to change.

I recently had a biáng-biáng noodle soup in a little hole-in-the-wall place where I'm working this month, not far from Seattle. Nobody in the restaurant spoke a word of English and you could taste it in every bite.

Fun fact: the Chinese written character for 'biáng' is the very hardest one:



Sixty-two separate brush-strokes to write that!

I promise it's much easier to make than write.

 

It is a horrible character to write. But the noodles are a fine thing.

You couldn't really get them outside of Shaanxi - and Shanxi at a push - before about 2010, but then they started to become popular in Beijing, and later in Shanghai. The first ones I had were at a hole in the wall in the Workers' Stadium in Beijing.

They're a big thing in Sydney now - lots of good Biang Biang places in the City Centre Chinatown, and in Burwood and Chatswood. I'm a big fan.

 

I enjoy his shows. He also toured France.

 

Ah, yes, that was a good one too.

I'm pleased to hear his shows have made it to the US.

 

I should add, since they're called biang biang noodles, and not just biang noodles, you have to do those 62 strokes twice.

 

Pretty sure I would have been calling them "the b-noodles" about 60 strokes back...

 

Okay fellow USians! How did you all do on the big take-out weekend?

In our case the family gathered at my sister's house. She roasted a turkey and served it with potatoes and gravy. Other family members brought a bean casserole, acorn squash, bready stuffing, rolls and more. I was on the hook to do the dessert pies: two pumpkin, one fruit and one lemon meringue, all from almost-scratch.

I also took a shot at making cranberry relish from raw berries.

 

My favorite cranberry sauce recipe...

https://www.marthastewart.com/312619/cranberry-sauce-with-cognac

 

I tried to get a turkey this year but relented as all the frozen imports were from Russia according to a knowledgeable grocer. Also the prices were much too high, so that's a nyet.

 

I wanted a repeat of Covid lasagna, but Mrs b insisted on a return to tradition.
Unfortunately, the turkey was expensive and a tough old bird

 

Cooked it wrong, dude.

 

Would definitely spatchcock turkeys above a certain size. Big oil frying solves that problem, but brings many others. I've watched that done twice, and no one needed emergency medical treatment. Thankful for that.

 

I haven't tried frying a turkey yet.

I have roasted one over charcoal on a rotisserie. I thought that was a neat variation. Other family members thought it was a bit radical so it was back to roasting them in the electric oven for a few years.

 

Brine her.

 

My son-in-law spatchcocked their turkey and in came out perfect.

 

Great. Get white meat to 165 F and dark meat to 175 F and boom. Thermal inertia makes that difficult with an intact carcass.

Frying sidesteps the problem by (essentially) overcooking the white meat. Does not impair quality because it is all finished so quickly.

The trip to ER could take longer though