mindstalk | Entries tagged with cooking

When I moved here, I talked about getting a cheap non-stick egg pan again, so I could fry or especially scramble eggs with no cleaning effort. Avi said I needn't need one, that cast iron and stainless steel provided all the non-stick you need. I have slowly been converted, mostly. First I got fried eggs sliding off, but that's pretty easy. Then I found that simple omelettes worked well too: wait till it's a partly-cooked egg pancake, then fold. Finally, today, I did scrambled well. ( Read more... )

I have been making smashburgers. They are quick and tasty. I do need to get better at not smashing too much or late, or conversely forgetting to smash at all. Tonight's burgers weren't fully cooked despite 2.5 minutes on the skillet.

For bread I toss a couple thin slices of butter into the hot pan, and fry one side of a couple pieces of bread. Tasty.

I solve the smoke detector problem easily, because Renovation Hell does not *have* a smoke detector anywhere near the kitchen. It also doesn't have ventilation apart from open windows; I've been wearing an N95 while cooking, and retreating to a safe room to eat, to avoid the PM 600-999 that I measure.

I've been swinging from chicken drumsticks to chicken thighs. And expanding my repertoire from pan-fried (good) and oven-baked (meh) to tossing a thigh into my stew and letting it simmer until the meat falls off.

I also tried my first wet rub pan-fry the other night. Mixed dry powders, then ketchup and mustard, and pasted that on the thighs. On the one hand I ended up with nicely blackened pieces, without sending my air PM beyond 20. On the other hand, all the expected flavor was missing. Perhaps I simply didn't have enough seasoning; I'm used to simply coating pieces by sight, not apportioning into a container.

It's kind of annoying how good Mary's Gone Crackers are. I discovered them years ago when getting party food and knowing I had a gluten-free guest. Thing is, those crackers are not just wheat-free, they're (a) really really tasty, way more so than other crackers and (b) pretty expensive. I keep getting cheaper crackers, then being disappointed. Like, even herbal Triscuit is pretty meh by comparison.

A minor element of Frieren is Really Big Burgers and Really Big Hamburg Steak for a warrior's birthday. There's even an Anthology chapter with Frieren trying to cook the Hamburg (1 kg of beef! it really is huge.) I haven't gone that big, nor that authentic (you're supposed to mix in breadcrumbs and chopped onion) but I did make something like seasoned Hamburg, with beef or pork, and yeah it's tasty. And my first one did use a whole pound, though I only _ate_ half at once.

dump a pound of 80/20 beef in a large skillet, mix in garlic powder salt and black pepper, and smush it thin for fast cooking.

For fanfic writing I've developed a pipeline of writing Markdown -> using pandoc to generate HTML -> posting HTML to AO3. I only just remember that is an option here, too...

There's been a social media meme about "white people food", bland and unseasoned. Yesterday I saw a little video, first with some woman apparently cooking skinless chicken breast in white rice, cutting to a guy saying "Do you ever feel the urge to say 'I'm white but non-practicing?'" as he cut to a big spice rack.

This all irritates me more than it probably should. But let's think about some flavor options available to mid-level peasants -- not buying imports, but not limited to just eating an insufficient amount of barley -- in ancient or medieval Europe, depending on time and place:

salt: actual salt, fish sauce (garum), salted fish or meats

fat: olive oil, butter, lard, chicken or goose fats, suet

sweetness: raisins, dried apple, maybe other dried fruit. Honey? (might have been expensive)

alliums: onions, garlic, shallots, chives

herbs/spices: oregano, fennel, sage, bay leaf, rosemary, anise, cumin, juniper, lavender, marjoram, mint, sorrel, etc. (granted, this category is much richer toward the Mediterranean, but many herbs could be and were cultivated further north, and juniper is Scandinavian)

pungent: mustard, horseradish

acid/alcohol: vinegar, verjuice, wine, ale

Even if chicken-woman were avoiding the first three categories for alleged health reasons, there's still lots of options for pepping it up. And, to be fair, no evidence in a brief low-resolution video excerpt that she wasn't. Garlic, herbs, or marinade wouldn't have been visible.

Not to mention elites importing black pepper and other eastern spices, or the post-Columbian uses of paprika if not other chili peppers.

Granted, industrialization/urbanization, the Great Depression, and World War shortages or rationing, and the lowest common denominator of school cafeterias and TV dinners seem to have sapped the vim out of a lot of American or English home cooking. But that's a partial break in a rich tradition.

Today's discovery: I have never had to think about the measured volume of a saucepan. I grew up with a certain size, and would just buy similar ones from a store. But this week I got tired of having just one saucepan, what with making soup and steaming and cooking beans and popcorn, and since there's no handy store nearby, I ordered one from Amazon. Most offered a choice of 1 or 2 quarts, so I assumed 2 quarts was good.

I was wrong. Or at least, it is not the size I was expecting. The old saucepan, personally picked out as Target, turns out to be a 3 quart. (How do I know? I poured water from a measuring cup repeatedly.)

I can probably still use the new one for steaming, at least. (Though I also need to get a Philips screwdriver to secure the handle. I'm not used to having to assemble saucepans either, vs. just grabbing one off the shelf.) But if anything I'd wanted a bigger pot, since I can fill up the old one pretty quickly when making soup.

I went back to boiling, hot start. Brought water to a boil, this took nearly 9 minutes. Had the eggs inserted and the water boiling again by 9:30. Online advice was to simmer for 4 minutes if your eggs are room temp, 5-7 minutes if chilled, which mine were. I took one out at 4 minutes and 2 more at 5. Whites were partially set, yolk runny, for all 3. If you want firmer whites, probably 6+ minutes. Total cooking time 15+ minutes.

I think I now know why I always had soft-boiled less often than fried or scrambled. It takes longer!

One advice for room-temp eggs was to put them in warm water for 5 minutes. 'warm' was not specified. If we go with just room temp, or maybe from-the-tap hot, that soak could happen while you boil the water, bringing cooking time down to 13-14 minutes.

Cold-start soft-boiled eggs can be faster: put the eggs in, bring water to boil, let simmer or sit for as little as a minute. 10-11 minutes.

I didn't time the full steaming process, but if we go with 3 minutes to bring a smaller amount of water to boil, then 3+6 = 9. Boiling some water just now, probably more than enough to last 6 minutes, took 2.5 minutes.

(gas stove)

One page on steaming eggs mentioned basketless steaming: put half an inch of water in the sauce pan, boil, insert eggs, etc. I've done something similar for mussels. It still seems weird to me, like aren't you actually boiling the part of the food in the water? But it worked okay for mussels and eggs.

Also a couple of "I thought I was smart but" moments. As a kid, I would lower eggs into the boiling water carefully with a normal eating spoon, a delicate process to avoid injury. Why not use a long-handled soup spoon instead? Duh.

Also, if making a big batch of hard boiled eggs, once done, of course you would take the saucepan off the heat, pour off the hot water, and run new cold water into the pan. But when making 2-3 soft boiled eggs, we would carefully extract the eggs one by one with an eating spoon to transfer into a bowl of cold water. Or not even that: extract one egg at a time to scoop over my bread, leaving the other eggs sitting (cooking) in the hot (but not boiling, gas off) water. NO! You can just move the saucepan to the sink and run water! It doesn't matter that there are only 2 eggs in it!

For various reasons, last night I went down a rabbit hole of cooking in a hotel or motel room, assuming you have only a microwave, or not even that. What options do you have? Well, even lacking a microwave, your room might have up to 3 different heat sources:

* hair dryer. Probably not hot enough for actual cooking (though some chefs use it to dry out poultry skin before roasting.) But hot enough to melt softer cheeses, so someone suggested it for tuna melts. And could just make food warmer, which can be nice.

* iron. Up to 400 F! There are lots of suggestions or even videos on using this. Wrap your flat food in foil, to keep it and the iron clean, and, well, iron. Supposedly good for grilled cheese, quesadillas, cooking thin meat (including bacon), searing thick meat... Also, if you can safely flip it on its back and keep it stable, it's now a hot plate, for cooking foil 'pans', or an actual skillet if you brought one.

* coffee maker, at least the Mr Coffee drip style. Most obviously it makes hot water (though it's designed to not be boiling water, for the sake of your coffee.) Good for instant ramen, quick oats, probably couscous or bulgur wheat; can make pasta, "boiled" chopped potatoes, "boiled" eggs, though with longer times. "boiled" hot dogs. Poached salmon or eggs.

But it's versatile! You can put veggies like broccoli in the coffee area, and 'steam' them (I suspect a mix of steam and blanch, as hot water and steam bubbles come out). And the warmer under the carafe is a small hot plate... though maybe a week one; one skeptical experimenters were convinced by other uses, but not by their fried eggs. (Maybe scrambled would work better, stirring so everything gets close to the plate.)

Then of course if you do have a microwave you can "bake" potatoes, make scrambled eggs in a mug, even cook pasta or rice (normal ones even, not just "microwaveable").

Getting even more creative: an induction hot plate only weighs a few pounds, maybe you can throw one in your luggage. Or weigh just buying a cheap hot plate, electric skillet (I learned those are a thing) or electric kettle where you're staying; they can cost around US $25.

Imagine a 5 day stay. By living on two burritos a day, you can eat out for $15/day, $75. Or, with a $25 implement, cook groceries purchased at $10/day: $25 + $50 = $75. Same! And with questionably cheap "eat out" and high groceries (though buying cooking supplies for 5 days sucks.) For a longer stay, or with two people, it can lean even more towards buying a tool even if you throw it away after a week or two.

(Though there's also buying plastic cutlery and paper plates, bit of extra cost.)

And if you're making road trips by car then you can have a whole travel kitchen in your trunk if you want.

https://www.myrecipes.com/convenience/foods-you-can-cook-with-coffee-maker

https://www.onecrazyhouse.com/coffee-pot-cooking/

https://www.onecrazyhouse.com/microwave-cooking-hacks/

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/hotel-chef-iron-cooking

https://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Food-in-a-Hotel-Room

https://youtu.be/VUfjOIprcOE

https://www.instructables.com/Hotel-Cooking-or-how-to-NOT-empty-your-wallet-eat/

At least when you're doing a whole bunch at once. The usual advice is along the lines of "bring to a boil, let sit for 10 to 17 minutes" which is already a range. And sometimes that works. But at my current place, I'd cooled 12 medium eggs after 9 minutes sitting in hot water, and the yolks were already more set and bland yellow than I liked.

So last night I was doing 10 extra large (Canadian) eggs, and I pulled three right after the water boiled, for soft boiled eggs -- and the yolks were *already* heading into 'ooze' rather than 'runny'. So I cooled the rest of the eggs after scooping those 3 out, and they're hard. Maybe medium? The yolks have a rich golden color, and a hint of softness.

It seems that it takes so long to get the water to a boil that the eggs are already pretty much cooked by the time that happens. Electric stove, big pot, not that much water.

I had problems in Highland Park when I was boiling lots of eggs on a gas stove, but not so extreme.