Cooking (not just dinner)

Roti de porc au lait… in the slow cooker now… Only 20 mins to prepare…

4 Likes

I spent years-ish researching knives. Japanese clear winners, but expensive.

Nonetheless, I got a few Global knives. Good to go, and less maintenance than the perfectos.

1 Like

Globals are very nice. Did you get the all metal handled ones?

#Ultra Chocolate Cookies

250g plain chocolate
125g soft butter
125g brown sugar
130g plain flour
30g cocoa
1tsp bicarb
1/2tsp salt
1tsp vanilla
1 cold egg
250g of your favourite cookie additions (chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or something like macadamia nuts)

  1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees c.
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter together, remove from head beat in sugar and egg.
  3. Mix together all the dry ingredients, then beat them into the sugar/butter/chocolate mixture, along with the vanilla.
  4. Mix through the yummy additions by hand.
  5. Use a tablespoon to scoop out spoonfuls of the mixture, ball it up and then put it on a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes/as long as necessary.

They firm up quite a bit when you take them out of the oven, so you don’t have to worry if they’re kind of ■■■■■ when you remove them. At the same time, they are still nicely soft.

9 Likes

Yep - metal handled.

After all my research, I understood that the knife has to be constructed so you grip it with all four fingers round the handle, and thumb free (out of the way, or resting on the blade). A knife is no good if you can’t get the blade down flat because your fingers are in the way.

Global knives are basically the Sears of the good knife world. That’s why they’re so popular.

I held off for a longtime because they’re the go-to Middle Class Knives. But after meeting a dodgy seller of Japanese knives, and recognising that I wasn’t going to fly to Seki or Miki City to buy, I simply went for that option. And gave up on the esoterism that had so captured me.

1 Like

This was the wrong thread to stumble across at 3:00 a.m. while on a “oh shit, deadline” diet.

10 Likes

I saw ‘bread’, and read ‘sourdough’. Could not resist tot post a pic of the batch ‘daily bread’.

The shape is not rustic or beautiful, but for school and work the peeps need/want ‘sandwich-shaped bread’. I use a rye sourdough, make a 50/50 ‘poolish’ the night before. And mix the other parts of flower and a bit more water, salt, the next day. It is a slow, needs time to develop and some folding, slightly wet-dough (66%), bread, but if I may say, great tasting. Havoc if I don’t create time to bake. :wink:

9 Likes

Pardon me, but you are wrong. That bread is BEAUTIFUL and I want to eat every crumb of it.

7 Likes

Oh man, now the cool long dark days have begun, I need to get back on my over night rising dough so I can pop it in the oven when I get up in the morning. Nothing like fresh bread with your coffee in the morning!

5 Likes

I concur with the Monkeyman. I WILL FIGHT YOU FOR THAT BREAD! :smile:

3 Likes

Yeah, that’s an issue here as well. I make a straightforward multi-grain sandwich loaf on Sunday nights for that purpose, though. What a waste, to use that beautiful sourdough in a sandwich!

3 Likes

66% is a great sweet spot, and it looks like there is a good oven kick to those bad boys. They look great.

I always use something closer to a poolish as well, not a biga. Though I have read (but not confirmed) you can get more tang out of a denser starter.

Lastly with Sourdough I always ferment then with a bundle of flowers in a vase near by. My logic is the flowers should have more natural yeasties that float on by, but really it is me being a romantic :smiley:

3 Likes

Thanks for the compliments. :smile: But please do not fight.
If you leave the wish for beautifully shaped ‘French style’ loafs, they do not look bad. And not a waste to use taking to work or school, good food helps you through the day. Only… I’m the only one who does not mind to take, for example, oval shaped bread. :wink:

Indeed a great amount of oven spring. I love that, just magic.
@japhroaig what do you mean with ‘ferment’? I call it: first the poolish, 50/50 with a good amount of the sourdough, (pre) ‘rise’, (some resting/rising/folding in between), final shape, rise. With sourdough I’m talking about this stuff:

Years old, I take from it, refresh/feed it with rye flour and water (55/45 or 50/50 depends on the smell and feel) and leave it alone in the fridge till next time. Poor thing, but it seems to be OK with that. :slight_smile:

But the type of loaf also has the name ‘sourdough’ (zuurdesembrood), so I’m a bit confused.

Oh, btw… talking about knives… This type I love.

2 Likes

I am a nerd :smile: When I say ferment it means the conversion of sugars and carbohydrates to CO2, ethanol, acids, and esthers via either fungal or bacterial action.

Shorthand for ‘dough rising’. :smiling_imp:

2 Likes

Ooh, but that is talk I understand. Only need to adjust, do not talk often (nearly never) to bread and dough nerds. And all the technical processes happening. Wow…
Flowers will do, nothing wrong with romantic feelings when baking bread. :wink:

3 Likes

There are a few of us here. I’d love to do it for a living, but my shaping sucks, the pay is terrible, and the hours are looong. So I just make miches and boules for my friends.

4 Likes

I’ve got this recipe bookmarked in my mind. Haven’t made it but how could this be wrong?

8 Likes

That sounds like something that should work.
Only need to work out the ‘lb’
lb = g 1.0 = 453.59237 so we are talking about 2kg fish?

Yes, 2.25 kg. And the “2 cups” are according to the handy command line tool units about 450 ml :smile:

2 Likes

Whoa… I know about that. But as ‘baker’ and cooking nerd, I always like precise measurements. Like grams, or other things on a scale. :wink:
Although for most cooking, using some experience, ‘the feel’ of it is mostly enough. So, above recipe sounds OK. Seems less salt, but we are talking about salted pork added.

I will take it in half and prepare it this weekend. Replace the milk with coconut milk (cant have milk) Thanks! @ChickieD