So boyfriend and I were gifted an instant pot for our wedding (off registry) and I was deeply skeptical about whether its utility would be worth the amount of cupboard space it takes up. We just made biryani in it for the first time, it was DOPE, and now I'm sold. Do any of y'all fuck with the instant pot? Any magical recipes I should know about? Update: just got up and took a shower and only then did I realize how much my whole house smells like biryani. Almost as intense as when I made a bunch of crispy fried shallots last week. Can’t decide if it’s delightful or gross first thing in the morning. Need exhaust fan stat.
It’s worth it for peeling boiled eggs alone, shells come right off, you can do them with one hand. There are tons of things to make online, Reddit has great ideas for them, use mine at least once a week.
Baby back ribs in the instant pot are amazing. I think they dry out way too quickly in a smoker compared to a full rack of beef ribs. Here’s what I do: -Coat the ribs in whatever dry rub you like, put them in the instant pot. -For liquid, put in 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 tsp of liquid smoke (yeah I know) -Set the instant pot for 25 minutes and let it go. Once done, do a 5-10 minute steam release. -Take the ribs out and put them on a baking sheet, coat with BBQ sauce and broil for 5 minutes until it caramelizes.
It's also really good for making homemade stock (beef, chicken, vegetable, whatever...) Just throw your bones/veggie scraps in there, fill it up to the max line with water, and run it for an hour. Let the pressure release naturally, then just strain. Definitely a lot better than the traditional way of having it sit on a stovetop for 8-24 hours.
I looked at the Kitchenaid stand mixers that were on sale over labor day but couldn't rationalize $260 for a lower model. I am cheap as shit. You've probably picked up on this by now. Just bought one used off someone in town. $150 for this bad boy. It came with all the attachments and bowl shield shown there. Now I just need an attachment for meat grinding and tomato processing and I am set. Woo!
Has anyone made homemade pasta? Or a link to a recipe or blog that explains it well? I have on hand all purpose flour, bread flour, whole spelt flour, and vital wheat gluten (as well as dark rye flour and rice flour but these won't be needed here). I could not find semolina in the Walmart or the local health food store but will buy online if it is absolutely necessary for the correct taste and texture. I made some last week that was meh. I don't think I had the right consistency to the dough. Also I have a pasta crank and I think due to the too soft consistency didn't do well. I rolled it out, fed it through, and it came out the other side with light lines on it but not pieces of pasta. The final product was more like ribbons of dumplings rather than pasta. Any tips appreciated.
I make my own pasta, it's the reason I started growing tomatoes. It sounds like you had too much moisture in your dough. I usually under estimate my water then add it little by little if I need more. It took me a quite a few tries to really get the feel for it. Did you use a water-flour recipe or a egg-flour-water recipe? My go to recipe calls for 9 egg yolks and very little water (it get's it's moisture from the eggs). If you use a whole egg instead of just the yolk you'll use less eggs, because the whites have more water in them. I would also recommend getting some 00 flour as it's much smoother than all purpose flour. Semolina isn't necessary, but it does give the pasta some more bite. Serious Eats is my go to cooking website, and they have a pretty good break down on pasta. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm kind of obsessed with it. https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/01/best-easy-all-purpose-fresh-pasta-dough-recipe-instructions.html
2nd on the Serious Eats recipe. What are you using for the pasta crank? Do you have a Kitchen Aid mixer? They sell a motorized pasta roller attachment for it that works really well. Something like that might help with the consistency. It has the rollout settings and then you can select what types you want to actually make. As for flour, Ive never had an issue with All Purpose, its just a matter of getting the right amounts into the ingredients and how you do it. As for semolina, its not going to be as good for spaghetti, linguini or fettuccini as regular flour due to the elasticity. It works much better for bowties, penne, and shit like that.
@AbsentMindedProf and @Juice thanks for the tip about Serious Eats. I've used their site for other recipes and they always nail it as well as explain their technique really well. The recipe I used had eggs, flour, water, salt. It was from a random blog I found when googling recipes. I'm honestly surprised Serious Eats didn't come up when I googled it. I was trying to make a duck egg pasta since I have lots of those laying about. The yolk to whites ratio is bigger than store bought chicken eggs so I think I could do as you say and omit water altogether or add a little later if needed. @Juice I do have a kitchenaid stand mixer now but no fancy attachments. I impulse bought a manual crank that was on sale like 5 years ago and hadn't used it til I tried to make that pasta. I think I'll be getting rid of it and asking for attachments for Christmas. What you say about the flour type used for different types of pasta is interesting.... never really thought that much about how their textures differ but I can imagine what you mean. To be honest we rarely eat pasta around here (and when we do its the Barilla protein plus stuff) but with all these tomatoes and eggs it's time. On to the Serious Eats site! This is something I'll have to delve into more and experiment with. Thanks guys.
Sure. One more thing, and this is super nerdy. When are you adding the salt to the mixture? The reason I ask is because when you add salt directly to raw eggs, it immediately sets off a chemical reaction that can not only alter the taste but how it interacts with the rest of your ingredients. I would make sure the salt is well mixed into the flour before adding the eggs, if you arent already. Its one of the reasons why people fuck up scrambled eggs, pasta, etc.
Honestly don't clearly remember, I think (??) I added towards the end once it was mostly a cohesive dough. I watched Gordon Ramsey's perfect scrambled eggs video and he talks about that a bit so I am familiar with the concept but didn't really think about it when making the pasta. That's a good thing to keep in mind for next time.
i don't think I've made a sangria thread but I tried something out this past summer... when I made it, I made a LOT of it, and put some down in the freezer in vacuum bags. Today I thought I'd pull out one of the containers and prep it for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night (because what goes better with turkey than sangria, right?) First step was to thaw the big frozen bag, so I put it into the sous vide at 100°F for a couple of hours just to get it properly thawed. It worked out surprisingly well... here's the fully thawed "Grownup's Camel Back": Drained out the wine and put it into a pitcher, and then put the drunk fruit into a tupperware container to serve for desert over ice cream tomorrow night. Now, you all know that I like to make sangria, and I've been told more than a few times that I make really good sangria... but holy shit, this is the absolute best sangria I've ever made. EVER. I don't know if it's the freeze/thaw cycle or what, but it came out absolutely PERFECT. No harshness... a buzz just by smelling it... and the fruit is enough to knock you on your ass. There is something going on here with freezing it, and it came out so well that I'm going to have to do some hard science around this the next time I make sangria. As it was, the sangria itself is all gone and all that's left for tomorrow night's family dinner is the fruit. I won't tell them what happened to the sangria if you don't.
For the fruit, my guess is a similar process as to what happens with ice wines where the freezing removes a large amount of water from the fruit itself. As for the wine itself...no idea
My buddy brought me back a good amount of elk and I’ve never cooked with it before. I have a few chops, some sausage, and a shoulder. Suggestions? How’s it vary from venison?
It's a lot more mild than venison, not game-y at all. Very lean. I'd compare it more to beef than venison. I cooked mine just like I would a steak. Elk hamburger patties are delicious.
Anyone got a good chili recipe? Picked up a few pounds of grass fed chili meat at a local farmer's market and wanna do some next weekend. I've done it a few different ways before (no beans) but have yet to find a recipe I really like.
I love chili with butternut squash and black beans and corn. It adds a lot of sweetness but I’m into that. Plus I feel like having good cumin makes a world of difference with chili. In other news, I made chicken and dumplings for the first time in ages tonight and it was so very satisfying. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs because I was in a hurry, and made the dumplings with heavy cream because why not, and it was rainy dark fall Monday magic. edit: I don’t recipe so good but I will approximate. I basically looked at a few different recipes and then cobbled together the bits I liked. 1) Brown about 2lbs of seasoned chicken thighs (I used a salty garlicky spice mix) 2) Remove the chicken, then brown an onion and throw in a few carrots and some celery if you’re into that, then some garlic, too, and deglaze the pan with white wine as necessary. Don’t overdo the garlic, though, the onion wants to be the star of the seasoning show. 3) Make a roux, you’ll need to add 4-ish tablespoons of butter and about 6 tbsp of flour. Keep stirring so it doesn’t get lumpy, and gradually add 4-6 cups of chicken broth, until it’s a good texture (will get thicker with addition of dumplings). 4) Add salt, pepper and thyme to taste, and throw in a bay leaf or two. Put the chicken back in, cover, and simmer while you make the dumplings 5) For the dumplings, combine 2c flour with 1tsp salt, 1Tbsp baking powder, as much pepper and other spices as your heart desires, and about 1 1/2c heavy cream. I started with 1c and then added until it was the right consistency. It will feel very thick and pasty, you might worry they will be tough, but they won’t! Then make 1inch-ish diameter dumplings 6) Before you add the dumplings, shred the chicken a little, you should be able to just use forks and pull it apart in the pot at this point. Add some of the remaining heavy cream if you’re feeling wild. Then shamelessly take a few bites because you’re hungry and you have to make sure it’s seasoned well. 7) trying to keep them mostly separate, put all the dumplings on top, sprinkle some parsley over everything, cover, and simmer for 15 more minutes. Serve with some extra pepper and parsley on top, and then sit back and soak in all the adoration of the people you’re feeding it to.
I am totally sold on this attachment. It's kind of a no no but I ran the waste through again and got even more sauce out. I was dreading dealing with these tomatoes but this made quick work of them. The pot is on the stove now to reduce the sauce.
The other day I whipped up a marinade for some boneless chops and grilled them. I can't remember what I put in it other than "Tuscan infused" olive oil, honey, and fresh herbs as well as Comice pear balsamic vinegar. What I do know is that it was good. I also put some apple wedges and onions on skewers to grill, just some experimenting. It all worked out deliciously with wild rice and corn. Although my presentation needs some work: Because I only work 4-5 hours a day, I'm now the one who does the grocery shopping and majority of cooking. No on in this house is complaining!