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Foodie Thread

Anyone use a sous vide? Is there a noticeable improvement to taste and texture of meat?
 
I decided to try making steamed egg custard. Never made it before so I watched about a dozen youtube videos of all different recipes and ways of doing it. I thought it would be smooth looking like all the videos, but mine is puffy! It puffed up to almost double in volume, and it's lumpy! All the videos showed silky smooth custards. :mad:

It smells good, though. I'll go taste it in a few minutes.

Here's what I did. I picked the simplest recipe.

1 c milk, warmed
3 tsp sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (I meant to use 1/2 tsp, but the bottle slipped. I hate too much vanilla so I hope that didn't ruin it.)

Set a pot of water to boil with the steam basket in it. I have the folding type basket with the loop thing in the middle so I had to put it upside down to hold the bowl.

Warmed the milk while whisking the eggs and sugar.
Strained the eggs into the milk, added vanilla and cinnamon, and whisked.
Poured into ceramic bowl and placed into steam pot, covered, and turned temp down to a bit lower than medium.

Set timer for 10 mins. At 10 mins, only the outer edges were cooked, about 40% of the bowl. Set timer for 8 mins more. Still not done in the middle, about 80% done. Set timer for 8 mins more and that did the trick. So 26 minutes total.

Tastes good in spite of too much vanilla, smells good, texture beneath the surface is nice and smooth, the puffiness went down as it cooled and it's ugly, but not bad.

Lesson learned: next time cover the bowl with plastic or some kind of lid as there was a little pool of water from the condensation in the steam pot. Also, a pinch of salt next time.

steamed_custard.jpg
 
Baked French Toast Casserole

Baked French Toast Casserole

This is actually a very simply dish, as are most of the things I make, and there’s not a lot of cleanup.

Ingredients

One pound (.45 kg) breakfast sausage. I actually use sausage crumbles, which seem to work OK (also easier!).
One fairly large loaf Italian bread
I cup (240 ml) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 eggs (we get our eggs from our cleaning lady, who keeps chickens, and some of them run a little smaller, so I throw in an extra one)
1 cup (240 ml) milk

Instructions

1. Brown sausage in skillet.
2. Slice bread into 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick slices and cut off crusts.
3. Grease high sided 9x13 baking dish (approx. 23x33 cm) and arrange bread slices so they completely cover the bottom of the dish.
4. Drain sausage and spread evenly over bread. Sprinkle cheeses evenly over bread and sausage.
5. In separate bowl, beat eggs and milk. Pour evenly over all ingredients in baking dish.
6. Cover and let sit in fridge overnight.
7. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 350 degrees (176 C).
8. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until knife poked in center comes out clean. Let stand a few minutes before serving.

I serve it with some kind of sweet syrup, maple or other.
 
I've taken a leave from cooking for awhile since nothing is working out like it used to. I can't seem to get recipes consistently right. Last winter I had this project to make bread in my dutch oven using dark beers. I was experimenting with different styles of porter and came across this Polish Baltic porter that was simply undrinkable because of the excessive maltyness. But it made a great bread and people liked it at the dinner party I took it to. But I couldn't repeat it again. Then I started making my chili recipe this spring after refining it repeatedly last summer. It was inedible and I ended up throwing out the entire pot. Then the cannellini bean soup I've been playing with for a month or so also had to be tossed in the compost. I tried some bay leaves that I got on recommendation from Penzies spices because I couldn't find them with any flavor elsewhere. So I put in 3 or 4 which was way too much. Now I can't even stand the smell of bay leaves. So it's down to meat loaf and spaghetti sauce and buying precooked meals at the grocery store for awhile. :frown:
 
Tharmas said:
Angry Floof said:
It was!
Click to expand...

I have downloaded the recipe and will make it for an upcoming brunch.
Click to expand...

Super easy and so tasty. But also very insubstantial. It's four eggs in that whole pan, just super floofed and puffy. A regular pie slice of it would be less than a half an egg. So consider that pan two servings, really, unless you have other substantial dishes being served.

Of course, I ate the whole pan that I made. I did it in three servings. :rotfl: But, again, so very tasty. I was surprised at how good it was.
 
This week's Comfort Stew: onions, carrots, beef broth, tomatoes, white beans, red beans, black beans, chickpeas, corn, peas, and kale, seasoned with McCormick Beef Stew seasoning and a packet of brown gravy mix.
 
This is something I do rarely because I find it so good I wouldn't want the experience diluted.

As you can see it's basically take a plate and

Slice some cheese on it add other ingredients by choice.

Break a egg or two on it

Bake in the oven

Until egg is set and cheese melts

Ans you will have cheese and egg in the oven.

Enjoy with crusty bread.

Cheese & Egg In Oven.jpg
 
Treedbear said:
I've taken a leave from cooking for awhile since nothing is working out like it used to. I can't seem to get recipes consistently right. Last winter I had this project to make bread in my dutch oven using dark beers. I was experimenting with different styles of porter and came across this Polish Baltic porter that was simply undrinkable because of the excessive maltyness. But it made a great bread and people liked it at the dinner party I took it to. But I couldn't repeat it again. Then I started making my chili recipe this spring after refining it repeatedly last summer. It was inedible and I ended up throwing out the entire pot. Then the cannellini bean soup I've been playing with for a month or so also had to be tossed in the compost. I tried some bay leaves that I got on recommendation from Penzies spices because I couldn't find them with any flavor elsewhere. So I put in 3 or 4 which was way too much. Now I can't even stand the smell of bay leaves. So it's down to meat loaf and spaghetti sauce and buying precooked meals at the grocery store for awhile. :frown:
Click to expand...

Bilby has been doing most of the cooking around here due to him being home, and me, quite frankly, too exhausted to cook.

However, I am on leave (sort of) for two weeks, so I plan on cooking bulk for the freezer and for the dogs, so that it’s easier for Bilby to simply heat, add pasta or rice, and serve!

Bring in my chorizo cacciatore, chicken cacciatore, beef stew, chicken curry, meat loaf etc!
 
gmbteach said:
... Bring in my chorizo cacciatore, chicken cacciatore, beef stew, chicken curry, meat loaf etc!
Click to expand...

I've been eating more beef steak than before, partly due to PyramidHead's thread on going full-on carnivore with good results. It does seem to agree with my system. But I need to keep to lean cuts like London broil (which happens to be the cheapest as well, and has been on sale, so I freeze half-pound portions). I used to always over-cook them for some reason, but found a foolproof method called reverse-sear. 1" thick steak coated with olive oil + salt and pepper and into the mini-oven at 275F for 30 minutes w/o convection. Let rest for 10 minutes and then sear for 1 min on all sides in a very hot skillet. Rare/med-rare and very evenly done all the way through every time.
 
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Treedbear said:
gmbteach said:
... Bring in my chorizo cacciatore, chicken cacciatore, beef stew, chicken curry, meat loaf etc!
Click to expand...

I've been eating more beef steak than before, partly due to PyramidHead's thread on going full-on carnivore with good results. It does seem to agree with my system. But I need to keep to lean cuts like London broil (which happens to be the cheapest as well, and has been on sale, so I freeze half-pound portions). I used to always over-cook them for some reason, but found a foolproof method called reverse-sear. 1" thick steak coated with olive oil + salt and pepper and into the mini-oven at 275F for 30 minutes w/o convection. Let rest for 10 minutes and then sear for 1 min on all sides in a very hot skillet. Rare/med-rare and very evenly done all the way through every time.
Click to expand...

Sounds good!
 
I cooked two things today.

Beef dog food
Boil 500g of pasta (cheap stuff is fine) and in a seperate pan cook 1kg ground beef and 1kg cheap frozen mixed veg with 2 cups of beef stock until meat is cooked and semi soup like.

Combine the two and separate into portions. We use 500g for a German Shepherd and two Tibbies, and it gets added To dry kibble.

Chorizo pasta sauce
Take 6 chorizo sausages, 5 ham steaks, 2 tinned chopped tomatoes, 3 cans of whole champignons, 1/2 tomato can of balsamic vinegar and 1/2 can good robust red wine. Cook in slow cooker on low for about 4 hours. Serve with pasta or rice. It has made dinner for tonight and 4 for the freezer. We just cook the pasta or rice as needed.
 
Trying to decide what I want to make with these ingredients: eggs, cream cheese, cherries, blueberries, lemons, and honey, using as little white flour as possible.
 
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