The BYOB Fine Dining Effortpost Funhouse

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Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Hello. I am Bo-Pepper. Former restaurant employee, current home cooking enthusiast and man who is old in internet years. I have made a number of cooking threads in recent months and interest has been expressed in having cooking chat made into one fancy thread for one stop shopping. I am not the only one by far who has good cooking info. Om Nom Nom is someone who actually cooks for a living, or so he says, I don't believe that's actually possible. And I know I've seen some good culinary chat bubble up from lots of folks from time to time.

So what is this thread for? It's for effortposting about food and talking about food and cooking. You can also talk about how food turns into poop that exits from our butts though it wouldn't be in the spirit of the conversation. I mean do whatever. It's BYOB.

To be clear, this is not Bo-Pepper's house of food. This is for everyone. If you have something you want to post about, go to town. With that said, I have a submission straight away.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 17:28

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 01:16

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

So I made breakfast today. What did I have? I made an egg salad sandwich. Let's talk about my egg salad sandwich breakfast.

It's summer so some nice stuff is available. I'll list all the ingredients I used though not everything is pictured as of yet.

eggs
a tomato
an onion
dill
celery seed
salt
pepper
mayonnaise
fresh pickle slices

Hard boil the eggs. There are lots of different techniques people use to hard boil eggs. Here is the right one:

code:

Put your eggs in a sauce pan.  
Fill the sauce pan with cold water until the eggs are well covered with water.  
Cover the pan.  
Heat the pan on high until it boils.  
When it boils, turn the heat off.  
Wait ten minutes.
Remove the eggs from the pan and put them in a bowl with cold water.  
You now have hard boiled eggs.

The advantage of this technique is that it is more forgiving than another one that involves constantly putting heat into the pan. It becomes very easy to overcook them when that is the case. A pan off the heat has only so much energy to put into the eggs, resulting in much more consistent results with less worry.

Chop up some onion. How much onion you use in your egg salad is up to you. I don't use a ton. Celery is also nice to add to egg salad but I don't have any. The celery seed adds some nice celery flavor to the mix though.

Grate some raw garlic. This step is easily omitted. I just happen to like the little extra bite the raw garlic adds. Oh and see that rasp grater I'm using? Get one if you don't have one. It is perfect for zesting citrus, grating cinnamon or nutmeg, making a nice pulp of garlic. All sorts of things. It's irreplaceable.

Oh, Bo-Pepper-chan! When will we be together? I want to be in inside you!

Take out one of the pickles you have in the fridge and slice some thin chips from it. Put it back in the brine. They're not ready yet!

Peel the eggs.

Perfecto.

Chop up the eggs and mix in the chopped dill, onion, celery seed, salt and pepper with it. I don't use too much mayonnaise. Gets too slimy very quickly with too much mayo.

Now mix it up. Take an unusable blurry picture of the results.

Ungh tomato UNGH Oh UNGH

Use your favorite sandwich bread. In this case, I use challah bread which I toast.

Assemble sandwich. Drink it with watermelon lemonade. You're doing summer right.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2014 17:29

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

i am he posted:

That's some good lookin food. What's your favorite meal to make bo-pepper? Or just some you really like, it's usually hard for people to pick favorite things.

Thanks! I don't know what my favorite thing to cook is. Cooking for me definitely falls in the hobby category. I don't get to really focus as much as I would otherwise because baby but it's all good. I tend to seek out new projects, moving from one untried thing to another rather than honing a preferred dish.

The one thing I learned back to front in my life was cutting fish in North Carolina. I did that for hours a day for a few years. Funny to say it but I loved that job. Trying to achieve the perfect salmon filet day after day is some zen poo poo.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 00:33

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

I'm envious of your training om nom nom. I've tried Asian cuisine from time to time but the results have always been lacking. I'm still deep in the read a recipe do that recipe without really understanding the underlying ideas yet stage when it comes to Asian food.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 00:37

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

i am he posted:

I think the fish cutting in "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" is one of the coolest parts actually. That documentary is very good in general.

It's definitely something that takes time to get the real feel of. Eventually it gets to the point where if you can't see through the spinal membrane of a filleted fish you get mad at yourself for wasting food left on the bone.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 00:40

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

How would you go about making a proper Asian broth. I mean I know how to make broth but Asian soups and ramen in particular have a quality I wouldn't know offhand how to replicate.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 03:07

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Slaapaav posted:

My favorite thing to make is burgers and i have gotten really good at doing them but i feel like i need to learn how to make my own burger buns

Baking is not my strong suit, but what sort of bun do you favor? Like are you a brioche bun person? A pretzel bun fad watcher? Potato bread? English muffin?! You gotta narrow it down bro.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 04:10

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Bread is one thing I just have never tried. For some reason baking even on a simple level intimidates me way more than it should.

I have no problem preparing a huge piece of meat or playing with the levels of a sauce, but baking feels way out of my league. I know it's partially because of the apple pie I made once years ago where the crust came off like chewy bread. I really wanted that pie to be good and it was poo poo.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 14:51

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Air Julio posted:

ok byob cooks, pimp my dinner.

i have a ham steak, frozen broccoli, and seasoned fries. make this dindin pop!

Do you have the basics of soup in your cupboard? Like chicken stock? Potatoes? You could make a broccoli soup with sauteed ham steak pieces mixed in. Get them nice and crispy, maybe have some of them nestled on top. As for the seasoned fries they're already seasoned fries eat them as seasoned fries hell I don't know.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 19:04

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Maybe use the seasoned fries as a starch binder for the soup though that sounds like some Chopped level ingredient weirdness.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 19:06

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

dogcrash truther posted:

I'm seeing pork belly everywhere these days. What's up with pork belly.

It used to be a really cheap cut of pork that could be cooked to make some amazing stuff. It's the same cut bacon is made from so it's all fatty unctuousness. If cooked properly, a lot of the fat melts out of it leaving the meat fork tender, but juicy as hell.

Even though it's not as cheap as it used to be, it's still something worth trying if you're not on a diet. Also, since it is typically found with the skin still on it, you can have it with the skin all crispy while the meat remains moist.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 19:15

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

dogcrash truther posted:

kinda fatty imo

ur kinda fatty lol

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 19:16

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

dogcrash truther posted:

what's the best restaurant you have all ever eaten at?

Eh, I can probably mention a dozen places I had a mind blowing meal. But my favorite dining experience ever was going to the Le Cirque at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. There I was shown what world class service really means.

We were there for my brother's bachelor party, so it was a special occasion meal. My father and I both got some extravagant 7 course tasting offering they don't even seem to offer anymore. Each item was better than the last. Fois gras sliders on meticulously rounded and tiny brioche buns. Caviar. Basil sorbet. Saffron broth with lobster. Now this was almost 20 years ago, but some of those bites stick with me. But that's not the part that cemented it in my head. It was the service.

There's a real skill to placing a chair just a whisper behind someone's knee as they sit down. To smile and offer the deference of serving staff without being servile. To be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. To be perfectly in tune to the needs of the diners. Even to offer a little bit of humor.

My father is a smoker. The courses were coming somewhat quickly, with little lag between completion to new dish presentation. This started to annoy my father a little bit because he wanted to pop off to have a cigarette at the bar without having a dish get cold. He didn't say anything to the wait staff, but made an offhand comment to the table. As he finished his course, two waiters approached from behind, each at a shoulder. As one removed his current plate, the other one in the same motion placed a covered pot in front of him, to which my father gave a frustrated grunt. The first waiter, having had the dirty plate taken away by some other third waiter in the shadows, reached to the pot, and removed the lid.

In the pot, on a doily, was a cigarette and a pack of matches.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 19:43

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Probably the one food item I've had recently that I keep thinking about is the Yuzu Guacamole at Talde in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Each piece is a perfect two bites with several layers of flavor and textures. There's chewy and crispy in there with a seafood twinge from the shredded seaweed and a heat kick from the pepper. Oh man I want to go there right now.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 20:21

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

I definitely spent a few hundred on it in 90s money, but yeah that definitely was something anticipated and saved for. I couldn't imagine having that sort of dining experience as a regular event in my life. It would almost cheapen it. Someone please pay for me to go to expensive restaurants like that all the time to teach me a lesson because I've been a bad boy.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 21:59

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

If budget is an issue, you really can't go wrong with Cuisinart or Tramontina. Tramontina you can only get from Walmart, but they're really not at all bad. I mean yeah if money is no object, it's All-Clad all day, but I've been putting my kitchenware together for years and only own one All-Clad saucepan. I do own a Le Creuset dutch oven that I will have buried with me but that was a wedding present and not a purchase I would have easily been able to justify otherwise. This thread is really good for planning kitchen purchases.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 03:19

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Royal P posted:

i have a pork tenderloin in the fridge that i need to cook p soon

im tempted to make a stew out of it because thats excellent leftover food and i live alone but i also feel like that would be a form of tenderloin abuse

I see nothing wrong with using tenderloin for stew, especially if that's what you want to make with it. A cursory search with google brings up a bunch of recipes that call for pork tenderloin. I say go to town.

But if you choose to roast it whole or something similar, be sure to brine it first. Most lean cuts of meat, especially pork nowadays, benefit massively from some time spent in a simple brine.

For pork I like to make a quick concentrate of hot/warm water of 1 cup water to 1/4 cups each of kosher salt and brown sugar. Once the salt and sugar are dissolved, mix that with 2 cups cold water and some ice cubes. Make sure the brine is cold before adding the pork. But once you have that, just add the pork to the brine and wait a half hour to a couple of hours. Then use your pork for whatever it is you wanted ot do, but now it tastes beter and will stay juicy more easily. I refuse to make even pork chops without brining them.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2014 13:58

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Royal P posted:

ooh, neat! ive been roasting meat for years now but nobody ever told me about brining. gonna try this now.

Here's a long boring article about it!

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/why-brining-keeps-meat-moist.aspx

# ¿ Aug 13, 2014 15:05

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Hey, does everyone have a cast iron pan? Because they should.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2014 04:36

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Cosmic Charlie posted:

I have an electric glass top range

Tell me what it's like to have a real man kick sand in your face every time you go to the beach?

# ¿ Aug 14, 2014 04:39

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

But seriously get an induction burner and use parchment paper to avoid scratching it. Problem solved.

Paper towel's good too.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2014 04:40

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

om nom nom posted:

stock

Oh man, it's been so long since I made a proper veal stock. It's one of my favorite all day projects. I have a huge (for a home) stock pot that can get me a heavy quart or so of gelatinous bounce a quarter off of it demi-glace. I roast the bones and everything. Slather them with tomato paste. I tried it once the way The French Laundry cookbook describes, but criminy that was a bridge too far.

quote:

Ingredients

10 lbs veal bones
Tomato paste
Carrots
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Parsley
Thyme
Bay leaves
Fresh Tomatoes

Chef Keller does not tell you the quantitiy of the ingredients.

Directions

1. Place veal bones in a large soup pot and fill with cold water. Turn the burner to a medium heat, move the bones around a little, skim off the gunk occasionally, and bring the pot of water and bones to a boil, about 1.15 minutes. As soon as the pot begins to simmer, turn off the heat and drain the bones in a colander. This step is called "Blanching the Bones for Clarification".

2. Rinse the bones and place in a cleaned stock pot. Add 12 quarts of water and begin what Chef Keller calls "The Initial Extraction of Flavor From Bones and Aromatics to Obtain a First Liquid". Heat over medium heat and bring to a simmer, about 1.15 minutes. Skim every 15 minutes. Once liquid is simmering, add tomato paste, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, and fresh tomatoes. Let it simmer for about 4 hours...skming every 20 minutes or so. When ready, strain it and save the bones and aromatics for the next step. He strains this part of the stock into a smaller pot, puts it into a sink full of ice, and stirs to cool before refrigerating.

3. To make the Veal #2, or "Remoistening" is the 2nd extraction. Place the veal bones and aromatics into a clean pot. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 4 more hours...skimming every 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and cool it.

4. Mix the 2 liquids and refrigerate overnight.

5. Take both liquids and bring to a simmer. Now simmer for 7 hours and reduce, reduce, reduce it.

6. Ladle 2 cups at a time and freeze...use as necessary.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2014 14:23

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Dennis Rasmussen posted:

Thank you! Nobody said anything. I thought maybe it was hideous. I actually showed it to Ken Forkish as a photo at trifecta in town, and he was like 'bake it longer, the crust isn't dark enough.' Next time I did and it was a crispier crust, it was good.

Oh yeah, I'm sorry I didn't comment. It looks great to me. Way beyond what I'm up to right now. Baking still seems like wizardry to me.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2014 14:25

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

The primary means of looking at food is seeing it

# ¿ Aug 15, 2014 00:47

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Well poo poo if no one els is going to post pictures, I will. Or I will steal pictures to talk about a fun thing I did with a whole pig one time.

If you ever can, cook a whole pig. You can get your hands on a caja china box where you put the whole pig inside, close it off and put the hot coals on top. Leave that pig in there most of the day.

Then it eventually looks like this.

If that doesn't appeal to you then you're either fluffieduckie or some godless heathen.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2014 14:31

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

dogcrash truther posted:

the first thought I had when I saw that was "it has wheels so I can steal it, and the pig"

please don't steal my crispy pig

# ¿ Aug 15, 2014 15:24

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

meteloides posted:

I wish I was good enough at cooking to just put things together without looking up recipes online. I don't know how to learn this skill without going to culinary school though, and I'm broke as poo poo.

I do plan to make molasses & coffee pork chops later tonight, tho. I found a recipe for it through Supercook, and I'm looking forward to it.

Culinary school Pah! Learning how to cook without a recipe is just about getting confident in knowing what you like and some basic techniques. The best book anyone wanting to learn how to cook more confidently is

Every recipe in it is really just a starting point, encouraging the reader to substitute and play with things they like. Give it a try if it interests you.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 04:00

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

The best food makes you wonder how things in the world could ever be so good again.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 04:02

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Thank you for the culinary blue balls dct oh it hurts so good

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 04:42

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Good stuff. I love beef stew but I can't make it anymore because my wife got some sort of bug that made her throw up everywhere the same night I made a nice beef stew. So now the thought of beef stew makes her faintly queasy.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 03:52

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Dennis Rasmussen posted:

I went to Pok Pok in Portland tonight.

I got take out from Pok Pok NY tonight. I didn't take any pics but it was take out so presentation wasn't the thing. But the flavors were fully in residence. I got the braised pork would have looked like this:

The whole rotisserie chicken would have looked like this

Finally we got the pork salad which would look like this:

It tasted better than those pics makes it look and I'm well aware those pics make it look like it tastes better than anything ever.

Also don't underestimate how much the perfectly prepared sticky rice adds to it. I've never had better sticky rice in my life. My toddler couldn't get enough. I would hand him huge chunks and he would just stuff them in his mouth, yelling "More!" seconds later. Oh man.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 05:01

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

I got my hands on some great tomatillos because they're in season. Gonna make a nice salsa verde tomorrow. Everyone should!

# ¿ Aug 18, 2014 05:34

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Dennis Rasmussen posted:

I just bought some today, though I don't know what to do with them! What's your recipe?

I don't really have a recipe. I'm just going to do what I usually do when making something for the first time. I type it into google and pick the recipe that sounds good and fits my time schedule. They all seem pretty similar. Here's the generic one I'm going with.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/02/basic-salsa-verde-mexican-tomatillo-recipe.html

# ¿ Aug 18, 2014 14:55

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Hey I made Salsa Verde and an impromptu Pico de Gallo. Let's talk about it. I have pictures for sure, but there are some gaps because I was cooking and taking pictures with the presence of a toddler yelling "Dada!" over and over again down the hall and I was trying to do this quickly. Mistakes were made.

Salsa Verde is a simple green salsa that is easy to make and a great way to make use of tomatillos that are currently in season.

Here we see what my cutting board currently looks like. Lots of what's here will make it into what we're making today, but not all of it. The tomatillos are the ones that look like green paper leaf pods.

Here is what they look like peeled and in a state of semi-undress.

So for the salsa verde I made I used:

Some tomatillos - about a pound or so
A clove or two of garlic
A few tablespoons of fresh cilantro
A lime
A jalapeno
A couple dashes of ground cumin

Typically some chopped onion is used as well but I forgot. Not a huge deal.

First give your tomatillos and garlic cloves a rough chop. Nothing fancy. Everything will go into the blender shortly.

Chop up your jalapeno. Here is where you determine the heat of your salsa. If you want full heat, keep the seeds. Otherwise scoop out the seeds and white membrane with a spoon. It's up to you how much jalapeno you add form here because you can't fully eliminate heat from the pepper.

Dump your tomatillos, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, and cumin into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Once at a boil. reduce to medium low and simmer for about ten minutes or so. You just want everything to get softened up.

Realize you really need to go at your sauce pan with some bar keeper's friend.

Looking good! Season with salt and pepper as needed. Add the juice from the lime. Now dump this into a blender and whir away for about ten to twenty seconds. It's up to you how chunky you want it. I like it a little chunky so I don't blend it for too long.

Now here's where my photos trail off for a little bit.

At this point I realize the salsa verde is too watery. So I strain off the liquid, return it to the sauce pan, and reduce it before returning it to the bowl. This has the added advantage of intensifying flavors. Salsa Verde done!

But oh no! I added too much jalapeno to the Salsa Verde! My wife's not all that into heat! Welp, time to make a Pico de Gallo then. Easy quick and delicious.

First chop up a lovely tomato then place the chopped tomato into a strainer over a bowl. Salt the tomato with some kosher salt and shake it around. You will immediately see delicious tomato water start to dribble into the bowl below. Later I will drink this directly from the bowl. Wait ten minutes or so. You are left with concentrated tomato chunks without the excess liquid you would get if you cut a tomato and just plopped it all in a bowl.

Plop it into a bowl. Add grated garlic clove, chopped onion, cilantro, and juice from one lime. Mix it up. That's it really. Let the fresh ingredients do the work.

And there we are. Use these liberally for tacos, chips, or whatever south of the border ethnic food you wanna try. I used them on boring tacos not otherwise worth mentioning but they were still great because of how tasty the salsas were.

Have fun, kids.

Bo-Pepper fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Aug 19, 2014

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 03:57

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Saranya posted:

That looks so delicious! If I tried making some salsa verde, do you think I would have success with my immersion blender, or would it be too much for the little blades to handle? I'm used to using a food processor but that's in a basement somewhere in the US and I haven't replaced it yet.

I think an immersion blender would do just fine. Maybe cut the tomatillos into somewhat smaller chunks but it's probably fine even if you don't. Go to town.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 17:21

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

Looks good!

I keep saying I'm going to use that slow cooker I have in the cupboard but I never do. It would be so handy to just come home to food.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 01:15

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

my kitchen is out of service until i fix the stopped sink and i left all my plumbing tools at work and bah

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 03:05

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

I had breakfast gnocchi with two runny farm eggs, peas, and pancetta the other day. Local place that opened up recently called Krupa Grocery offers it. Was drat fine.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 03:59

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

I don't want to get pedantic, but what you're showing in that pic is a shallow poach or a braise. If you want to steam it properly you should have the item completely removed from the liquid.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 05:46

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 01:16

Bo-Pepper: Want some rye?
Course ya do!

get a new cutting board ugh

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 19:40

The Something Awful Forums > Main > BYOB: BYOB BYOB BOYB BBOY YOBB YBOB BBYO?? > The BYOB Fine Dining Effortpost Funhouse

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