PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

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Re: PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

Post by PoV »

Very nice. I haven't done much fried chicken, but I do remember Panko being a goto in some recipes. Electrified breadcrumbs for the win. ;)

I still haven't cooked much (been caught up in client work, rebuilding my home networking, and preparing for my wedding lol). That said I just made up some pizza dough for tomorrow.

One thing I did finally do was make Cabbage Rolls, inspired by my late Polish grandmother's recipe. In essence it's a meatball mixture with rice stuffed (rolled) inside a cabbage leaf, topped with a tomato sauce/broth. Traditionally cabbage lines the pan, cooking in the meat juices, becoming extremely flavorful.

How they look before.
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Once sauced up.
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And how they look after baking for several hours, until the cabbage becomes extremely tender.
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Above you're actually seeing photos from 3 different batches I made. I started by making two batches: One with ground beef, and the other with Impossible burger (Jenna my .. fiance, doesn't eat meat). We had dinner together with my parents, and in classic "Kasprzak" fashion we demolished them, with barely any leftovers. Not traditional but my family likes them with a bit of sour creme. 😋

Dad was rambling, saying that his mother used to use Bacon in them. I'm not one to argue with Bacon, so I made more.

3rd batch was a combination of Beef and Chopped bacon. I also learned an important lesson about cabbage selection my first time around. Some cabbages have thick leaves, and those are difficult to fold. So I made sure to get one of the thinner flat cabbages, to great success (last photo above).

I also made too much filling of both the Impossible Burger and Beef+Bacon, so I made stuffed peppers.
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I've never made stuff peppers either, but decided "what the hey" to try making them in both bell peppers and poblano peppers. Not shown, I then covered them in mozzarella cheese.
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Re: PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

Post by Sirocco »

I still haven't cooked much (been caught up in client work, rebuilding my home networking, and preparing for my wedding lol). That said I just made up some pizza dough for tomorrow.
Major congrats :D

The upshot of cooking every evening is getting into a steady ritual, which will eventually morph into the food+exercise+shower+chores block I once had pretty well locked down. I'm just lacking the exercise element right now. I'm currently making bi-weekly trips to stock up on staples. Eggs are creeping up in price. Condensed milk is still reasonable -- I don't use enough to justify buying a gallon at a time.
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Re: PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

Post by Sirocco »

I'm about to jump into two rabbit holes: cast-iron cookware, and break baking.

Seems like the bread-baking thing isn't so bad once you get your starter kicked-off. I'm planning to bake a small loaf once a week (probably sourdough initially; I'm a sucker for the flavor).
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Re: PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

Post by PoV »

Nice, both are excellent things to explore.

Cast iron is awesome. I found and restored a vintage pan several years ago.
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It cooked way different than I was used to, and I learned a lot about the importance of temperature from it (both its consistence and inconsistency). A non-stick frying pan may heat up faster, but once the food touches it, the temperature drops immaterially. For delicate foods (eggs) that's fine, but a burger or piece of meat will cook so much better at sustained temperatures.

Also bread. :)
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If you don't already have one, I *HIGHLY* recommend getting an enameled cast iron dutch oven. They're heavy, but incredibly versatile.
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My (now) wife and I baked some incredible loaves of bread in ours during 2020.
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I like them so much I own... uh... 4?
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(Nobody needs 4, but 2 different sizes is nice to have)
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Re: PoV's Home-Made Cooking Thread (2nd Edition)

Post by PoV »

Sourdough is awesome, but I need to say dried store bought yeast works really good too. About a year after my sourdough starter died, I craved fresh bread, so I tried my sourdough bread recipe but substituted store bought yeast. Yes it wasn't exactly the same, but it was really close. Giving dough time to ferment, or cooking it dark can really affect (improve) the flavor.
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On the subject of bread, fermentation, and sourdough, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with autolyzation, AKA "no knead" dough.

https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/how-to-autolyse/

i.e. letting time and chemistry do most of the work for you.

Despite the nickname (no knead), I do recommend some folding (kneading) of your dough, but no more than a few minutes. If you skip it it still works, but a couple minutes of folding gives you a much smoother product.

My pizza dough takes very little effort. At best, 20-25 minutes of actual work, and to prepare I only dirty 2 dishes: a glass bowl and silicone spatula.

I measure and mix my ingredients in a large glass bowl using a silicone spatula, until I see no more blobs of dry flour (Recipe: 500g flour, 15g salt, teaspoon of yeast, mix those, then add 350g warm water). Then I cover and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. It's amazing how much easier dough is to handle when you ignore it for a few minutes. That's the magic of autolyzation.
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After the wait, I'll get some flour on my hands, and start folding the dough inside the bowl, adding more flour if it's too sticky. After 3-5 minutes of playing, it'll come together as a ball. That's it. Stick it back in the bowl, cover the bowl, and leave it overnight to rise.
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The next day (12 or so hours later), any graininess should be gone as the flour hydrated, and you should have a puffy airy mass thanks to the yeast. I'll throw a little more flour on it and my hands, fold it a bit more, and make a new ball.
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I'll then divide the dough into 3 balls of similar weight. I do this easily by grabbing the blob out of the bowl, placing the bowl on the scale, zeroing the scale, then dropping the blob back in the bowl. In my recipe I use nearly 900g of ingredients, so I make each ball around 300g (little less). The balls are small, and fit comfortably in my hands. I'll add flour if they're sticky, and continue folding it in my hands until I'm happy with how smooth they are: about 2-3 minutes, or a couple dozen folds. Each ball goes in an individual glass contaner will a small glug of olive oil. I'll pour the oil in first, then roll the ball around in the oil trying to cover it and the walls of the glass container. Do that 2 more times, and I have 3 portions, each good for a small pizza.
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If I want pizza today, I'll leave a covered container out to rise for 2-3 hours. If not, I'll refrigerate. Pizza doughs in the fridge are good for about 10 days, in fact, the longer you wait the better they taste (i.e. fermentation, exactly why sourdough is great). 3-7 days is the sweet spot, when they're at their best. After 10 days the yeast is starting to die off, the gluten bonds are starting to loosen, and you wont get a very puffy product. It's still totally edible and fresh tasting after baking, it's just a little flat.
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