Hobbies - Page 2 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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For more mature forum members to ramble about things of no interest to students (DIY etc.).

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By Demosthenes
#13979171
I don't have time to reply yet. Biggie, that is AWESOME. I want a regular old kitchen in the house, and then a secret chef kitchen with a lock on the door that only I can use! So far my wife isn't going for it.

Also, one of my daughters is on her way to Spain early tomorrow morning as part of her graduation present/good grades reward kind of thing. She's going to be there for several days and then spend a couple in Italy as well. She got some kind of honors accomodation in Spanish classes, and was invited on the trip by her senora. (cost us a fortune though... :| )

Anyway, viva la Latino Americanna! (can't do the upside down "!"... sorry...)

I've take some pics of the things I've built recently, I'll try and post them before long.
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By Notorious B.i.G.
#13982777
Has some friends over for dinner on Saturday night. I recently got a Crème Brûlée set with the butane torch, so I used this opportunity to make it for the first time. It tasted nice, the ‘custard’ base was f-ing tasty, but not sure if I got the right consistency when cooking/setting it. Using the torch gun to make the hard caramel top was fun.
Glad I gave it a shot though, apart from it being time consuming to set the custard, it wasn’t too hard and can see myself making it again even without the dinner party excuse.
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By Tainari88
#13983081
Notorious BIG now you realize how addicting flan (custard) making can be. The only difference between creme brulees and flans are the position of the sugar. Flan you have to put the caramelized sugar on the bottom, swirl it around to make it stick and then with the creme brulee you put the sugar on top and torch it.

You don't have to stick to the standard vanilla either. I make coconut flan, pineapple flan, mango flan, guava flan, chocolate flan, almond flan, pina colada flan, and one of my favorite flans are peach flan. The standard vanilla flan is beautiful. Classic.

Do you use bain marie/bano de maria water for the flans not to burn?
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By Notorious B.i.G.
#13983281
I don’t have a bain marie or bano de maria yet. I just made the custard on very low heat, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla pod. Then pour that over whites and yolk and rest of the sugar. Into the ramekins. Then in the oven at 120 Celsius for an hour and a half in a water bath. Nothing too fancy at the moment. Tentative steps into the flan making world.
I understand it doesn’t allow for much control over consistency, but an easy beginner step.

Good to know about the different flavours. I used vanilla and orange blossom in my. I like the sound of coconut, how do you do that? My first thought was coconut milk but that doesn’t seem likely. Just coconut essence oil?
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By Tainari88
#13983399
There are two ways you can take coconut meat and grind it finely and put superfine sugar in it or simple syrup of sugar that is dissolved and then strain it through water till you get a fine sweet coconut milk. Or you can do it the cheater method and buy some Thai coconut milk (unsweetened in a can sold at Asian supermarkets). Don't do Coco Lopez it can get too sweet.
By Kon
#13986852
Cooking is also my hobby, I have worked in some very good kitchens in my limited experience which is a blessing. I never get complaints on my food from the casual crowd, if I wasn't in university I would surely be a chef (maybe I still will be someday).

I like to cook, especially cheap rustic things. I'm a big fan of french peasant food, which just happens to be tres chich with the whole nose to tail thing. But it is the kind of food my dad grew up on and his mom always cooks a good pot au feuille, quiche lorraine or choucroute garni (her regional speciality)
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By Jackal
#13987016
Any dishes that are considered "cheap, rustic" French dishes that you can name for me? I am always looking to cook different things and rustic European is most definitely my favorite.
By Kon
#13987379
the stuff I just listed.

Easy things like rilletes, cassoulet is a classic and can be varying degrees of difficult to prepare.
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By Goldberk
#13987837
Cooked a lovely Hunanese hotpot the other day, with minced pork and tofu puffs, there is nothing more heartwarming than traditional Chinese cooking.
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By Notorious B.i.G.
#13987942
Sounds excellent Goldberk.
I agree with your statement but with one slight change... :)
Nothing is more heartwarming than traditional cooking. From any ethnic group or country. Be it Chinese, or traditional French peasent food Kon was talking about.

p.s. just to note, I really dislike the idea of molecular gastronomy.
By Kon
#13987996
I dislike molecular gastronomy for the sake of molecular gastronomy.

There's no need to turn everything into a foam or tapioca pearl. But some techniques like sous-vide where considered ridiculous or limited in potential at one point and now they are common in high class kitchens.

A lot of people piss on anything that isn't the french technique that is the background of most of what we consider to be "cuisine" and not just food. I've never been one for this, especially with globalization opening us up to equally complicated and balanced techniques of asian chefs and technology allowing us to create things we never could before. I used to work in a "vegetarian bistro" that applied french bistro techniques to asian ingredients with great results...

When you think about it our "classical technique" is based on a bunch of stuff from the new world and asia anyways. Tomate is a master sauce, but no one made it before the 16th century (probably later a lot of people thought nightshades to be poison for quite some time).

New trendy ingredients like fiddleheads, ramps and mache come to mind as well.
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By Notorious B.i.G.
#13988025
I read (a very pompous so I hated it) history of eating out/cooking by Adam Gopnik.
He details how restauranting and eating out originated in France (pre-revolution). If I recall correctly serving chicken consomé as a health food.
Anyhow he details a litany of French cooks and gourmands basically invented modern cuisine, and this ‘way’ was exported to Britain and then the United States and across Europe. This is how/why French cooking is considered the backbone of modern cooking/chef techniques and high class.
The is (has been) a new guard of English and Australian chefs re-inventing food in their countries, but most of those chefs cut their teeth in France or in French restaurants. And they are now integrating this into their own style. So I can see why people piss on anything that isn’t French technique.
But I agree with you about Asian food and techniques. Thai and Malay cooks are the inventors of fusion cooking! And the techniques used in Vietnam produce more subtle flavours and harmonies than any French dish in my opinion.
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By Jackal
#13988026
Kon wrote:New trendy ingredients like fiddleheads, ramps and mache come to mind as well.


Not to mention truffle oil.
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By Tainari88
#13988123
I saw on Iron Chef or Chopped I don't remember which show, where some chefs had to cook 'Malanga' the exotic ingredient. :lol:

It is a tropical tuber like a potato they said....but different. For me malangas, yautias, panapen, jobos, quenepas, platano macho and platano manzano, etc. etc are not 'exotic' ingredients. But if the mainstream is unfamiliar with it....they call it 'exotic'.

I have a pet peeve in the kitchen. I hate it when people who are not Latino expect me to know how to cook corn tortillas and flour tortillas from scratch and start asking me for hot chile sauce recipes. That is MEXICAN. I am not MEXICAN. Puerto Ricans and Cubans and Dominicans are not Mexicans. Why do they expect every Spanish speaker to cook and eat Mexican food? If I cook Mexican food it is because I learned it. Not because I grew up with it. Lack of distinguishing between cuisines pisses me off! :roll:
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By Notorious B.i.G.
#13988151
I have a similarish pet peeve when people talk about ‘Asian’ food as though it’s all the same thing.
Food from Japan is very different to food from Indonesia, etc.
By Kon
#13988170
Jackal truffle oil is an old school ingredient that is not from the american continent, you missed my point totally.
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By Jackal
#13988393
Tainari88 wrote:I saw on Iron Chef or Chopped I don't remember which show, where some chefs had to cook 'Malanga' the exotic ingredient. :lol:

Well, I suppose for a show like Chopped, it could be considered an exotic ingredient. Perhaps on a show called "Picado" it would not be considered exotic. :p

Kon wrote:Jackal truffle oil is an old school ingredient that is not from the american continent, you missed my point totally.

I hardly missed your point. I was just commenting on a trendy food that is now popular over here that is laughable why so many people (usually faux-foodees and foodies alike) go crazy over. First, they actually believe truffle oil is oil from truffles and thus use it in their cooking (or topping french fries with it) to feel like they are eating some sort of high delicacy. Also, mache can be considered an "old school ingredient" and I believe it is originally from central Europe (though I could be wrong), so I don't know why you have your panties in a bunch. We are just discussing food no need to be a little douchey about it. Oh, the internet, how bizarre is thee. :lol:
By Kon
#13988639
What do you mean you didn't miss the point? You just explained what you did, mache is cornflower it grows wild in NA.
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By Jackal
#13988643
Kon wrote:mache is cornflower it grows wild in NA.


Seems so. Apparently it was brought over from Europe and got into the wild. I am right, damnit!
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By Section Leader
#13990969
Listening to Metal (and I have the mild tinnitus to prove it...)
Reading
Shooting
Drinking

I can't cook very well, I can (just about) fry, grill and roast meat, but that's about it.

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