Come all ye self-styled chefs and kitchen users, we must talk.

Blondish83 wrote:

Edit - I also have a little twinge when I see someone serving a Pork Tenderloin sandwich and call it All-American. You're just serving Schnitzel on a bun and that's fine, but it's a Polish dish.

How about this?

IMAGE(http://zamolxismd.org/m/web.tiscali.it/druzya/immagini/trollface_small.png)

Blondish83 wrote:

Edit - I also have a little twinge when I see someone serving a Pork Tenderloin sandwich and call it All-American. You're just serving Schnitzel on a bun and that's fine, but it's a Polish dish.

America takes some of the best food traditions in the world, and then does it with bacon the way god intended.

Also, look at what the Germans did to the venerable Doner Kebab.

Let me crowd source some salmon advice real quick:

I bought a pound of wild Alaskan salmon, tossed it on a foreman grill, doused it in lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then pulled it out some time later. It tasted pretty good, but it was a bit dry. Do I grill it for less time? Do I prepare a sauce to go with it? Do I do some nonsense with aluminum foil or my oven at the broil setting?

LouZiffer wrote:
Blondish83 wrote:

Edit - I also have a little twinge when I see someone serving a Pork Tenderloin sandwich and call it All-American. You're just serving Schnitzel on a bun and that's fine, but it's a Polish dish.

How about this?

IMAGE(http://zamolxismd.org/m/web.tiscali.it/druzya/immagini/trollface_small.png)

It burns... it hurtses me.

IMAGE(http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=gollum+it+hurts&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=u6BF8sAxhRu6eM&tbnid=lEiXkTefnkOrBM:&ved=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.comicbookresources.com%2Fshowthread.php%3F323699-The-Traitor-Game-Discussion-Thread-Part-4%2Fpage139&ei=3S8-UeWXGMXw2gXayoGgBQ&bvm=bv.43287494,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNHlrIEIxcrIsTQV55Mr3tj9MPw0Sw&ust=1363116359817471)

I grew up making sausages with my family. I was fortunate to have my grandfather be a butcher by trade. It took me a long time to learn how to enjoy a standard frank hotdog. Nothing beats a homemade Bratwurst, a garlicky and light summer Knockwurst, or a Blutwurst for right after the butchering of a prize hog (this is German blood sausage). My mother's family is from an area just north of Nurnberg in the Bavarian region of Germany. They make a variant of Nurnberger Rostbratwurst that we made with ground pork butt, carraway seed, majoram, garlic, and a bit of ground liver that was amazing when served with homemade horseradish cream and sourkraut.

I will plan to share some of my German/Polish recipes if people want to try them. Pickled red cabbage was always easy and goes well with any late summer meal.

In my opinion the only way to make a great Spaetzle is to make a quick egg noodle and add minced garlic, paprika, and nutmeg. Once blended and rested I place a long grater over my boiling water and use a rubber spatula to press the dough through the grater to make long thin 'dumplings'. I clean the lower portion of the grater before grabbing another spatula full of dough to keep them all small in size. Cook the Spaetzle until cooked through which should take about 6-8 minutes depending on how much they puff while boiling. Spaetzle is a great starch that works with any dish and can be served tossed in a little butter (olive oil if you are heart healthy) and topped with fresh dill or parsley or with a pan gravy.

Outline of my Spaetzle recipe
1 cup flour
2 eggs
2 Tbsp softened butter
1/4 cup milk
2 cloves fresh minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp of nutmeg (less if fresh ground)
1 tsp of paprika (cut in half if smoked)

KingGorilla wrote:

Schnitzel and Sphaetzle yes, please do share. I saw spaetzel made with a potatoe ricer and I was amazed.

It helps to put the dishes in a context. Schnitzel is pounded, breaded, friend meat. People comfortable with fried steak, or veal parmesan should try schnitzel.

Sphaetzel is a dumpling. Ever eat chicken and dumplings? I owe you a bowl of my own, I will make sum next January again.

Pickled Herring and Salted Cod no, we live with refrigeration, such terrors are no longer needed for me to live through the winter without rickets.

My wife's family is Polish, they love their pickled herring at Christmas. The nicest thing I can say to what they get, and it is the "good stuff" is that it did not smell as bad as the nasty stuff.

I love a chicken and dumpling. I grew up with a southern lady from the south of Georgia that use to cook soul food and invite the neighbors over.

I agree that the closest thing to a Schnitzel is a chicken fried steak. However, each family and region in Germany uses a different version. In my family we have two variations that both use the same wet dredge but one side bakes a potato bread that they then use for bread crumb dry coating and the other side a homemade Rye (if you can keep from eating all of it right out of the oven).

Salted Cod has such a horrible reputation much like Lutafisk. Now, Lutafisk deserves it but my father's side of the family has taught me a salted cod preparation that uses refrigeration and is not far off from a corned beef preparation. I have been known to serve a danish style 'taco' with salted cod, sweet pickled cabbage, carrots, beets, and celery in a crepe like wrapper with optional danish blue cheese to add richness. It is crave-able and you'd never know it was a salted cod unless you tasted the fish alone to get a bit of the brine left after soaking out the salt.

Squee9 wrote:

Let me crowd source some salmon advice real quick:

I bought a pound of wild Alaskan salmon, tossed it on a foreman grill, doused it in lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then pulled it out some time later. It tasted pretty good, but it was a bit dry. Do I grill it for less time? Do I prepare a sauce to go with it? Do I do some nonsense with aluminum foil or my oven at the broil setting?

I think someone posted a Gordon Ramsay video of his crispy salmon recipe. I usually cook my salmon the way he does it. Jump to 2:00 to see the fish part.

Finally, a cookbook for whom I am the exact target demographic:

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating.

So in two days time, I'll have an inkling for what to do with those lambs tongues that I bought on a whim and stashed in my freezer.

I'm a bit proud of myself for this.

So, you remember when clover, Edwin, myself and Mrs Jonman procured a whole lamb from Costco and butchered it on my kitchen island?

Well, I got around to cooking the leg this weekend (it's been hiding in my chest freezer since October). In order to assure that it would cook evenly, I decided to try my hand at deboning it. Having never done this before, I consulted Google and Youtube, then had a bash.

Before:
IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8369/8549058721_2a595c7a66.jpg)

During:
IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8234/8549058979_342f27282f.jpg)

After:
IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8245/8550158434_8a11be09dc.jpg)

It was damn tasty.

Jonman wrote:

Finally, a cookbook for whom I am the exact target demographic:

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating.

So in two days time, I'll have an inkling for what to do with those lambs tongues that I bought on a whim and stashed in my freezer.

Having been to both his restaurants in central London I can assure you that book is awesome.

Squee9 wrote:

Let me crowd source some salmon advice real quick:

I bought a pound of wild Alaskan salmon, tossed it on a foreman grill, doused it in lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then pulled it out some time later. It tasted pretty good, but it was a bit dry. Do I grill it for less time? Do I prepare a sauce to go with it? Do I do some nonsense with aluminum foil or my oven at the broil setting?

Most natives here prep it about like you did, then stick it under the broiler (skin-side down obvs) to medium-rare/medium. Takes 5-10 minutes or so depending on your fillet and oven.

My family doesn't bother with sauce other than the occasional marinade, but we've only been catching and eating salmon for a couple hundred years now so your taste may vary The trick with almost all Northwest food is mostly to cook it in such a way that you get the hell out of its way and let it do its thing.

Squee9 wrote:

Let me crowd source some salmon advice real quick:

I bought a pound of wild Alaskan salmon, tossed it on a foreman grill, doused it in lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then pulled it out some time later. It tasted pretty good, but it was a bit dry. Do I grill it for less time? Do I prepare a sauce to go with it? Do I do some nonsense with aluminum foil or my oven at the broil setting?

If you have any of that that white scum/foam oozing from the cut surface of the fish then you're over cooking it. If you're getting that then you need to either lower the cooking temp, or cook it for less time or both.

My favourite sauce for salmon or trout is

3-6 tablespoons of mayonnaise
2-3 scallions v.finely sliced
juice of half a lemon
(occasionally some dill)

Mix it all together. Leave for 20mins. Done.

clover wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

Let me crowd source some salmon advice real quick:

I bought a pound of wild Alaskan salmon, tossed it on a foreman grill, doused it in lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, and then pulled it out some time later. It tasted pretty good, but it was a bit dry. Do I grill it for less time? Do I prepare a sauce to go with it? Do I do some nonsense with aluminum foil or my oven at the broil setting?

Most natives here prep it about like you did, then stick it under the broiler (skin-side down obvs) to medium-rare/medium. Takes 5-10 minutes or so depending on your fillet and oven.

My family doesn't bother with sauce other than the occasional marinade, but we've only been catching and eating salmon for a couple hundred years now so your taste may vary The trick with almost all Northwest food is mostly to cook it in such a way that you get the hell out of its way and let it do its thing.

1: Go to Home Depot (or your preferred hardware store)
2: But a big long plank of half-inch thick cedar, 8-12 inches wide.
3: Cut into 18 inch pieces (or have them do it in store if you're happy paying them to do so).
4: Store in a dry place.

When it comes to salmon-on-the-grill o'clock, you throw one of those bits of cedar into a sink full of water for a half hour, with something heavy on top of it to weight it down. Then you simply place your slab'o'salmon on that soaked board, skin side down, douse it as you did (or better still, rub it with salmon rub - Google will provide you many options for how to make that) and put the whole shebang onto your grill.

The cedar board will gently steam the fish that's sitting on top of it, which keeps it super moist, and prevents it from charring on the underside. I don't grill salmon any other way these days.

If you want to get thrifty about it you can wash the board off and re-use it 2 or 3 times before it gets a little too charred on the bottom.

Jonman wrote:

Finally, a cookbook for whom I am the exact target demographic:

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating.

So in two days time, I'll have an inkling for what to do with those lambs tongues that I bought on a whim and stashed in my freezer.

Fergus is a legend and proprietor of my favourite restaurant in London.

Antony Bourdain is also a massive fan.

Jonman wrote:

I'm a bit proud of myself for this.

So, you remember when clover, Edwin, myself and Mrs Jonman procured a whole lamb from Costco and butchered it on my kitchen island?

Costco sells whole lamb? Did they slaughter it right there, too?

sometimesdee wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I'm a bit proud of myself for this.

So, you remember when clover, Edwin, myself and Mrs Jonman procured a whole lamb from Costco and butchered it on my kitchen island?

Costco sells whole lamb? Did they slaughter it right there, too?

They were deep-frozen. There's still a few there.

As promised, home made crumpets. Attempt The First:

Batter may have been a bit thick and I overfilled the rings a little here.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ff3BjCbl.jpg)

Thinned the batter down a little and turned up the heat. These were a little better.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/zQ4EdgRl.jpg)

End result was pretty tasty but I'm going to want to try a different recipe next time. I used a 2-stage rise which I'm not sure is necessary, and I'm pretty sure the batter needs to be thinner than my first attempt.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/iroJrRtl.jpg)

Tonight I'm going to be making a peanut butter ice cream pie. I got some recipes printed out, and am considering trying to make my own pie crust. But I'm on a limited budget and don't even know if I have an actual pie plate, so I may need to buy a premade crust that comes in a disposable plate.

It should be easy, and in truth a recipe may even be unnecessary. Grab ice cream, grab peanut butter, mix together, shove in the pie crust, drizzle with decorations, shove in the freezer.

One blog I was looking at did have a good suggestion, though. I don't know if our food processors are strong enough to handle a crap ton of cookies or other objects (they're basically designed to make exactly one glass of a protein shake or milk shake or what have you), but filling a zip lock bag and then using a rolling pin or other object to crush them is a genius idea.

The Marie Callender's pie crusts come in a pie pan that can be reused. It's not a real "pie plate" but it is much better than the usual. It's a pretty good crust, too. If you go that route, I would suggest them, and then you have one around for next time.

Pie crusts are quite fun, but since you are doing the recipe for the first time, I would go with momgamer's route. Also, you would have to buy a rolling pin if you don't have one and pastry cloth really helps. Basically, a setup something like this.

If the Marie Calendar pie crusts are as good as the pot pie crusts, it should be great.

Tonight's experiment was much better than the cookies. I have yet to taste it, and I basically deviated from Internet recipes a little. However, I didn't follow any one particular recipe and sort of just cobbled stuff together.

I made a Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie with a crust made from (Wegman's brand) Oreos, a "filling" with peanut butter and butterscotch chips, and the primary ice cream layer. Here is my process with pikiturs!

The Ingredients.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/580647_10100432896908165_1870149704_n.jpg)

Stuffed about 18 (Wegman's brand) Oreos into a ziplock bag.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/480946_10100432896903175_2054040190_n.jpg)

I didn't have a rolling pin and my fist wasn't very effective, so I decided to use my big blue rice bowl. It was quite effective.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/544317_10100432896963055_1500749147_n.jpg)

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/601538_10100432896988005_1825241755_n.jpg)

I next started to melt a stick of butter. During that process I started to prepare the filling. First was 1/2 cup peanut butter.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/600226_10100432897092795_580162730_n.jpg)

I then heated about a half-cup butterscotch chips in the microwave until I could add them to the 1.5 tablespoons softened butter, 3/4 cup confectionary sugar and peanut butter. The butterscotch chips are my one major deviation/addition, as no recipe included them. They are tasty, but can also be incredibly domineering and overpowering. I wanted to try and minimize how much I used in relation to all the other flavors that would be present.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/486445_10100432897252475_1694048827_n.jpg)

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/734158_10100432897292395_1996270364_n.jpg)

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/63079_10100432897347285_742108545_n.jpg)

Then comes the mixing of the butter and (Wegman's brand) Oreo crust.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/542575_10100432897187605_1191046083_n.jpg)

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/549224_10100432897212555_1656161124_n.jpg)

I tried to add the peanut butter filling with the crust, but I didn't cool the crust first or let it harden in the freezer. As a result, the filling pulled and tugged the crust and now there are probably some gaps beneath it.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/487829_10100432897357265_2135268366_n.jpg)

Next came 1 cup peanut butter and...well, most recipes said 1 quart of ice cream. I kind of just poured a bunch of Turkey Hill Party Cake ice cream into the bowl. Was it a quart? I dunno. I think I have more than .5 quarts left, but it was quite melted since I had left it on the counter to thaw. Mixed really, really well, though.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/71981_10100432897392195_403950016_n.jpg)

Next I poured it on the crust and filling, then mashed another 4 (Wegman's brand) Oreos in a smaller ziplock before sprinkling them on top. I tried to be artistic with chocolate syrup and failed.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/482374_10100432897407165_1488806936_n.jpg)

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/6146_10100432897422135_372811314_n.jpg)

Then we put it in the freezer guarded by Squirtle to prevent Team Rocket or Fire or Rock based scavengers from stealing it.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/559777_10100432897442095_976187590_n.jpg)

We won't be trying it until tomorrow night. However, I got to lick off some of the ingredients before cleaning bowls and silverware. I think this shall be a successful experiment.

Yum

ccesarano wrote:

The Ingredients.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/580647_10100432896908165_1870149704_n.jpg)

I miss Turkey Hill Ice Cream. Hell I miss a lot of local stuff from PA. That pie for pie day is cool...pun intended.

I made peanut butter ice team once. It was deathly cloying, but I still ate it all.

ccesarano wrote:

Stuffed about 18 (Wegman's brand) Oreos into a ziplock bag.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/480946_10100432896903175_2054040190_n.jpg)

Then we put it in the freezer guarded by Squirtle to prevent Team Rocket or Fire or Rock based scavengers from stealing it.

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/559777_10100432897442095_976187590_n.jpg)

We won't be trying it until tomorrow night. However, I got to lick off some of the ingredients before cleaning bowls and silverware. I think this shall be a successful experiment.

Squirtle and Wegmans - a winning team right there!

Been meaning to bring this up for a while. Working at McDonald's, I buy the yogurt parfaits quite often. They come with little packets of granola. I don't eat them, but I bring them home to use later, either to give as a snack to my nephews or for potential foodie experimentation. Any ideas of what I could do with them? They're just little quarter ounce packets of granola, Nature Valley brand specifically, but I figure there's got to be some interesting things to do with them. Grind them up and make cookies or, I dunno, whatever.

Just stumbled across this thread this morning, and goodness but that looks delicious, Ccesarano. Totally not good for you, but really yummy!

Dhelor, there are quite a bunch of recipes you can try out with granola, it all depends on what you're hungry, and if you're going for dessert or otherwise. A crumble would be a great place to put some granola, there's also cookies, fruit cakes, panna cotta. I also saw a recipe for fish with granola that looked yummylicious (kinda like beef Wellington, except with fish and granola instead of puff pastry). There's loads of stuff you can do, just depends on what direction you want to take them in.

I had posted earlier about making German/Polish food. I took on a challenge this weekend and made my family recipe for Bierocks. It's a 3 day process to prepare/proof the dough, make the filling, proof them once assembled, and on the final day bake them. I used two types of dough, the first being more of a sweet biscuit one suggested by a friend and the 2nd my family's traditional sweet dinner roll recipe.

This set is the batch made with my family's dough recipe and they came out rich and buttery which pairs so well with the seasoned beef, onion, celery, and cabbage insides. Someone had misplaced my rolling pin so these were hand kneaded and formed resulting in a few bursting while baking.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/656_10100109938983652_1491966417_n.jpg)

This batch is the one with the more sweet biscuit dough. They came out fine but did not proof up as much and came out more dense and with a bit of chew. So much for the short-cut recipe.

IMAGE(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/p206x206/215418_10100109248756872_377017563_n.jpg)

Does anyone else have a good recipe for a sweet dinner roll or bun that they use? I always like trying new recipes for dough. Nothing quite as satisfying as punching down a batch of dough that is proofing overnight.

Pictures or the Bierocks didn't happen.

Blondish83 wrote:

Does anyone else have a good recipe for a sweet dinner roll or bun that they use? I always like trying new recipes for dough. Nothing quite as satisfying as punching down a batch of dough that is proofing overnight.

The fam loves these rolls. Though the recipe is very forgiving, I still tweak the flour by +/- 30g depending on humidity.

Dinner Rolls

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 tsp (1 envelope) active dry yeast
1/4 cup very warm water
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
540g (~4 1/3 cups) flour (bread flour works best, but all-purpose is fine)
2 tablespoons melted butter, for brushing rolls

PREPARATION:
Sprinkle the yeast over very warm water in a large bowl (Very warm water should feel comfortably warm when dropped on wrist.) Stir until yeast dissolves.

Separately, add sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and salt to hot milk and stir until the sugar dissolves and butter is melted. (I cheat by heating the milk and butter together.) Cool mixture if needed until friendly to yeast (at most 115F).

Add milk mixture to yeast, then beat in egg. Beat in the flour slowly to form a soft dough. (I put it all in the mixer bowl and use a dough hook.) Knead in mixer for ~2 minutes or by hand for ~5 minutes. Place dough in a bowl that has been buttered or sprayed with oil; turn greased-side up. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch dough down and knead for a few minutes to distribute the yeast. Dough will be sticky, but use as little flour as possible if you're using your hands. Pinch off small chunks of dough and shape into round rolls about 1.5 inches in diameter. Place in neat rows, not quite touching, in a well-buttered 13" x 9" x 2" pan (I use glass/pyrex). Cover rolls and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Brush tops of rolls with melted butter, then bake in a 375 degrees F oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until nicely browned. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from pan.

DanB wrote:

Pictures or the Bierocks didn't happen.

FTFY

"Free samples overnight expressed to every Goodger or it didn't happen."