If I ever win the lottery would you be willing to move to Canada and be a personal chef?
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Yes.
Did you see the Melba toast?
You make toast, then slice it is half horizontally, then toast the middle. I may make a cheese compound butter to go with it.
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Honestly no idea. It said āyoung duckā on the package. My friend went out to the farm to get them. I donāt ask questions i just accept ducks! We are so full nowā¦ duck fat fried new potatoes and sautĆ©ed black kale with garlic and olive oil. So so so full.
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I havenāt started yet, but Iām gonna make some sides tonight. Tell me what you think of this idea.
Grilled and blackened brussel sprouts with balsamic reduction
This is my go to recipe. It looks like this (not my picture)
So thatās not the issue. What popped into my head though is what if I added two things to the reduction:
- juice from an Orange in my back yard
- a small amount of onion/Portobello jam
Would that be too much?
If you have tried grilled sprouts you are missing out. One of my faaaaavorite vegetables.
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Screw it, Iām going weirder. These arenāt kumquats bit they taste like a sour version of them.
I just finished the sauce and had a couple of blind taste testers. They all got fresh citrus, balsamic, one got a hint of onion , and nobody (even me) got mushroom or celery salt.
Where the hell can I get fresh, wild mushrooms this time of year? Maybe cheat with mushroom stock?
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Okay, I have the sprouts prepped. The involves inspecting each one, trimming the end, removing lose/brown leaves, then splitting them along the wide axis. The are now resting in a slightly salty, slightly acid cold bag in the fridge.
The carrots took longer. I call them āPerfect Carrotsā. I carve each one into a pleasing cone, with a perfect point and a severe top (since they didnāt have leaves). Each takes about two minutes. They will be sauteed in butter, then lightly glazed with sugar.
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(Try adding just a touch of clam juice and just a tiny smidge of fish sauce. Or of you can make a court bouillon from fish bones it would
ā¦
Wait, donāt listen to me. I make things waaaaaay too complicated)
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Hay, @shaddack, I have a question.
Letās say you want to build a fire operated oven that was mobile. Letās look at current options.
- an entirely steel over which is relatively light and strong, big is basically uninsulated.
- small concrete structures on the back of a trailer. Which have insulation, but are heavy and small.
Is there an insulation material the a) is food safe (as much as steel is), is light, can handle 1000f, and wont be destroyed traveling 65 mph? Does such a thing exist?
Perhaps a steel lattice so you had an interior steel structure, an air gap, and an external steel structure? (Basically a tube in a bigger tube)
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Iād use a ceramic wool, the Cerablanket-like kind. That stuff can handle WAY above 1000F (you can aim a torch at it and it will just merrily show tiny white lights of ends of the fibers poking out), and you can hold it in hand on the other side.
So Iād go for a box-in-a-box design, with the ceramic wool as the primary insulation, air gap under the device (standing on legs) and behind it as secondary. Stainless steel sheets inside the oven for food contact (304 should do), and maybe even aluminium could do the job on the outside (it should not be significantly thermally loaded due to the insulation). Steel for structural components.
Could that work?
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A tiny bit of honey can work well with carrots, and then itās not so sugary, just a pleasant amount of sweet.
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Thatās a really good idea.
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Some fill lightening would have been good. Even a bounce card would have helped.
(Looks tasty though.)
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Cheap light boxes are Sooo easy. Iāll Spend $15 and make a nice one soon.
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That sounds a lot like a kiln bodyā¦ which makes sense. The whole fire operated part of it intrigues me though, I usually work with electric kilns so obviously the heat is coming from coils within the kiln, usually on the walls. For a fire operated oven where is the heat source? Underneath it? On its floor? In a connected side compartment?
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Didnāt you say youād be willing to cook for room, board, and general affection?
(eyeing guest room and calculatingā¦)
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And isnāt Chicago a lovely city?
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Spinach, mushroom and tofu lasagne. That may not sound particularly appetising, but it threaded the needle between soft enough for my son to eat, healthy enough for my FIL to eat and tasty enough for my daughter to eat. (OK, so the healthy part is open to interpretation, but I reduced the cheese and thereās no meat). My daughter actually finished her thirds, so maybe this should be in the victory thread.
Followed by ginger Teh Tarik. It has been a good day.
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Breakfast. Caramelized onion, beet and parsnip. With a balsamic, thyme, horseradish sauce. Topped with a mediocre tomato.
The balsamic kinda overwhelms everything, but the acid is a nice counterpoint. Perhaps next time a hollandaise. Also, beets first, then parsnips in the pan. Beets take ~25% longer to cook.
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The other day I had a minor epiphany:
For some reason, I was craving deviled eggs, but making only one or two at a time is a pain because there isnāt enough volume to use a ricer to get the lumps out of hard-boiled yolks. Then I remembered a garlic press I havenāt used in a long time. Sure enough, itās just about the right size to squeeze one yolk at a time, resulting in a nicely broken-apart and fluffy yolk to mix with mayo, mustard, and paprika.
Guess Iāll be making deviled eggs more often now!
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