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IronGAF Cookoff (hosted by OnkelC)

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Yes Boss!

Member
My twin brother is down from san francisco so we New Super Mario Brothered it up and cooked some lamb (the second third of my 4lb leg). This one is Vindaloo like last time. I've put it on a bed of buttered Naan (great for soaking up the fantastic spicy grease) and covered it with a mint/coriander/yogurt chutney sauce.

P1030030.jpg


Also, made some pomegranate ice cream. I used pomegranate three ways: 1) fresh pomegranate reduced to a thick syrup with sugar strained and blended into the mix 2) dried anardana seeds are stirred in for a crunchy texture and 3) ample fresh pomegranate seeds are used for garnish.

P1030031.jpg
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Yes Boss! said:
Also, made some pomegranate ice cream. I used pomegranate three ways: 1) fresh pomegranate reduced to a thick syrup with sugar strained and blended into the mix 2) dried anardana seeds are stirred in for a crunchy texture and 3) ample fresh pomegranate seeds are used for garnish.

[IMGhttp://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg114/gregbuczek/P1030031.jpg[/IMG]

Oh nom... That looks and sounds delicious.
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Yes Boss! said:
My twin brother is down from san francisco so we New Super Mario Brothered it up and cooked some lamb (the second third of my 4lb leg). This one is Vindaloo like last time. I've put it on a bed of buttered Naan (great for soaking up the fantastic spicy grease) and covered it with a mint/coriander/yogurt chutney sauce.

P1030030.jpg

So does this mean you are back to meat?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Yes Boss! said:
My twin brother is down from san francisco so we New Super Mario Brothered it up and cooked some lamb (the second third of my 4lb leg). This one is Vindaloo like last time. I've put it on a bed of buttered Naan (great for soaking up the fantastic spicy grease) and covered it with a mint/coriander/yogurt chutney sauce.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg114/gregbuczek/P1030030.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Drool*
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
Yes Boss! said:
My twin brother is down from san francisco so we New Super Mario Brothered it up and cooked some lamb (the second third of my 4lb leg). This one is Vindaloo like last time. I've put it on a bed of buttered Naan (great for soaking up the fantastic spicy grease) and covered it with a mint/coriander/yogurt chutney sauce.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg114/gregbuczek/P1030030.jpg
That looked so good until I read the bit about the mint. I've never understood why people like mint and lamb together.
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Jive Turkey said:
That looked so good until I read the bit about the mint. I've never understood why people like mint and lamb together.

have you actually tried it?

It's a very common Mediterranean pairing, especially lamb with some kind of yogurt/cucumber/mint sauce or dip
 

vesp

Member
Yes Boss! said:
Also, made some pomegranate ice cream. I used pomegranate three ways: 1) fresh pomegranate reduced to a thick syrup with sugar strained and blended into the mix 2) dried anardana seeds are stirred in for a crunchy texture and 3) ample fresh pomegranate seeds are used for garnish.

P1030031.jpg

Did you do anything special to keep the ice cream that color? Was it a typical egg custard base? Every time I use pomegranate syrup in a creamy application (Pastry Cream, Hollandaise) it becomes a pretty gross used chewing gum purple. It could probably be fixed with food coloring, but I kinda hate using things in cooking that don't add anything to the flavor.
 

Cosmic Bus

pristine morning snow
I made another batch of almond cream tartlets this afternoon, again with dried starfruit on some and chocolate added to the others with a dried cherry on top.

4123484143_43dfd93c70.jpg


With the remaining dough (a sweet, crisp French dough, if that's of any interest) I made a quick apple tart at 1am tonight.

4124253490_d6219c29e7.jpg


Used some of the same almond cream as a base, then a layer of cherry-apple compote and sliced apples on top. I wanted more caramelization on the apples, but it was going to burn the crust if I left it in much longer. They're plenty soft as it is, I just wanted something a bit prettier for no other reason than vanity. ;)
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Zyzyxxz said:
So does this mean you are back to meat?

Not back to meat! If fact, I'm enjoying the vegetable approach so much I'll probably continue into the next year. Unfortunately I'll be occupied for the first six months 2010 (in Texas and the South) with zero opportunity to cook. :-( I just bought the leg of lamb to learn the Vindaloo recipe and since my brother wants to cook some Gormeh Sabzi. My plan is to apply the Vindaloo marinade to a dish with potatoes and plantains to see how well it adapts.

Zyzyxxz said:
have you actually tried it?

It's a very common Mediterranean pairing, especially lamb with some kind of yogurt/cucumber/mint sauce or dip

Definitely that for me. I don't even know why I put it on other than that it seems natural. Plus I always modify my Hari Chutney with tons of fresh mint. Also, having lived in Saudi I pretty much consider mint a savory herb.

vesp said:
Did you do anything special to keep the ice cream that color? Was it a typical egg custard base? Every time I use pomegranate syrup in a creamy application (Pastry Cream, Hollandaise) it becomes a pretty gross used chewing gum purple. It could probably be fixed with food coloring, but I kinda hate using things in cooking that don't add anything to the flavor.

I've never worked with fresh pomegranate before. What I did was take about a cup of fresh seeds and reduced them down with 1/3 cup of sugar and a bit of water till it thickened to a candy-like consistency. What I was hoping for was to have a swirl-like appearance by adding at the last minute of ice cream mixing but it quickly diluted to a pale pink. I added five drops of coloring to punch it up. No problem with that as I always add green to my pistachio as a signal.

Ice Cream base is a simple 2 cups of milk with two cups of cream and 2 egg yolks with a 1/2 cup of sugar.
 
Yes Boss! said:
I just bought the leg of lamb to learn the Vindaloo recipe and since my brother wants to cook some Gormeh Sabzi.

Damn it Gormeh Sabzi is the best. Gets no love outside the Iranian community here in the US, but it's one of my favorites. Go fenugreek!
 

Yes Boss!

Member
bumbillbee said:
Damn it Gormeh Sabzi is the best. Gets no love outside the Iranian community here in the US, but it's one of my favorites. Go fenugreek!

Love fenugreek. The last few weeks I've been cooking with fresh fenugreek. Such a hidden gem. Tonight I cleaned and chopped an entire bunch and put it in a big batch of Makhi Dal (below). Tomorrow I plan on making a punjabi potato and fenugreek dish called, you guessed it, Aloo Methi.

P1030066-1.jpg
 
Right, what's the trick to getting Smoked Gouda cheese melted proper? Is it a matter of length of time or temp? 6 min on 350 had me a delicious, but nearly burned, gyro pizza last night but with only barely melted cheese.

Such awesome cheese though...need to try the Goat's Milk and regular variety to at some point.

Damn YOU though Dekalb Farmer's Market staff for not putting waxpaper between the slices to prevent fusion! :angryfistshake:
 

Keen

Aliens ate my babysitter
Made chicken curry stew kinda thing with pasta. Fried garlic in butter with curry powder. Added chicken and browned it, then added leeks and onions. Cooked a little while and then added cream and chicken stock.

Added the cooked pasta into the pan.

IMAG0080.jpg



Finished:

IMAG0081.jpg
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Mecha_Infantry said:
I haven't touched down in here for a while:

Honey Roasted Duck, with Roast Potatoes, Plantain & Summer Cous Cous & Red Wine Sauce


11055_210494121286_707666286_4604271_2067181_n.jpg

Nicely done!

How did you cook the duck btw? I love duck and I wouldn't mind trying something similar in the future although I find the pairing of duck and cous cous strange.
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
Zyzyxxz said:
have you actually tried it?

It's a very common Mediterranean pairing, especially lamb with some kind of yogurt/cucumber/mint sauce or dip
Yes I have. I get the yogurt and cucumber but mint never seemed right. Probably deosn't help that I'm not a huge fan of mint to begin with.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Made a huge batch of saffron tapioca pudding. Tons of saffron used while the pudding was coming up to boil and during the simmer. The threads on top are for garnish. Also, stirred in a bunch of roasted pistachios. Some edible silver leaf would have been nice but I did not have any. I used Bob's Red Mill tapioca for it. This is a warm serving so the pearls have sunk a bit. I'll chill the rest and plate it up as a cold serving tomorrow.

P1030068.jpg
 

beje

Banned
Tried to do Beef cutlets with onion gravy.

Ended up with Slightly dry beef cutlets with too much extra-sticky nasty-looking onion gravy.

Any tips? (aside from using less onion next time)

302ugd4.jpg


PS: It tasted good anyway. Caramelized onion FTW!
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Dry and tough?

Most likely you just cooked it too long, how did you do it exactly?

There are two ways you could have gone about this, or I would have.

1. quick sear and leave it medium rare since its such a thin cut.
2. braise it in the gravy over low heat over 1-2 hours.
 

OnkelC

Hail to the Chef
Awesome stuff, everybody!

trancekr, I'd love to see the recipe for the Apple spaghetti, sounds good.

beje, beef is not a good meat to cook as a cutlet. apart from the absolute prime cuts, it's better off braised or slow cooked. Have you tried tenderizing it before frying?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
OnkelC said:
How about mashed potatoes or hash browns or panfries or Gratin?
Already had 5 potatoes made into delicious mashed potatoes, another 2 I made to go with chili.
Plus I have early Thanksgiving leftovers and going to have another Thanksgiving on Thursday :lol

Panfries are 'ok', I'll probably make some sweet potato pan fries again for Thanksgiving.

If I had a usable oven I'd love to make some gratin.

*Also had some mincemeat to go with the turkey.
358e96t.jpg
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Ok day off from work so I finally get to cook for myself (since the owner of the restaurant always prepares staff meals I rarely get to cook myself)

To start the day off with breakfast which I need to eat more since going to work on an empty stomach sucks.

4129134905_86fac6794a_o.jpg


Tried doing scrambled eggs, Gordon Ramsey style, have to say I think this is how I'm gonna make my scrambled eggs from now on. Served it with english muffins and a mix of pancetta and breakfast ham.

4129135051_e0a9180b78_o.jpg
 

santouras

Member
mrkgoo said:
Yummy stuff guys. I'll have to try some stuff at a later date.

I still have a plethora of Chanterelles.

Tonight, Creamy Chanterelle Soup. I've perhaps posted this here before, but never with Chanterelles. I like soup, but I hate using a blender (I'm just lazy to clean it), but mushroom soup doesn't require a blender.

500g Mushrooms (sliced)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 cup chicken (or vegetable) broth/stock
2 cups milk (regular if you want more creamy, but I have used 1% with success)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour


1) Melt butter in a pot.
2) Cook onions and mushrooms together on medium-to-high heat, until onions are clear.
3) Add flour, and continue to cook for ~1 minute - don't let flour stick. Drop to medium heat if necessary.
4) Add stock/broth and bring to bubbling, stirring often.
5) Gradually add milk (maybe 1/3 cup at a time), bringing to simmer with stirring each time.
6) Once all added, add the 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper to taste.
7) Cook for 5 minutes, or until the soup slightly thickens.

8) serve with parsley and toast.

(serves 3-4)



For some variety and a bit of extra-ness, add some lemon juice, chives, or pearled barley during cooking.

just thought I'd mention that I used this recipe last night and it was fantastic! I didn't find chanterelles so used a mixture of oyster and shitake mushrooms, but still tasted pretty amazing!
 

trancekr

Member
OnkelC said:
Awesome stuff, everybody!

trancekr, I'd love to see the recipe for the Apple spaghetti, sounds good.

beje, beef is not a good meat to cook as a cutlet. apart from the absolute prime cuts, it's better off braised or slow cooked. Have you tried tenderizing it before frying?


It's very simple - just add celery and apple for your typical tomato sauce recipe.

The key point is the texture of celery and apple. For apple, grind roughly.
 
Just picked up some incredibly fresh grass-fed beef liver and heart from the farmer's market. Liver can often run rather bitter, but this stuff was sweet and silky. I just sliced it thin and ate it raw like sashimi. Melted in my mouth. Heart, being pure muscle, is a bit tougher, but it's got a nice heft to it. Haven't cooked with either, yet.

Anyone got good recipes for liver or heart? I usually just saute it in bacon fat and onions.
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Price Dalton said:
Just picked up some incredibly fresh grass-fed beef liver and heart from the farmer's market. Liver can often run rather bitter, but this stuff was sweet and silky. I just sliced it thin and ate it raw like sashimi. Melted in my mouth. Heart, being pure muscle, is a bit tougher, but it's got a nice heft to it. Haven't cooked with either, yet.

Anyone got good recipes for liver or heart? I usually just saute it in bacon fat and onions.

calf's liver cooked in a sherry sauce is a common Spanish or French dish, I forget which.

As for the heart, make Heart tacos! Because there is little fat in the heart you gotta braise it over low temperatures for several hours.
 
Zyzyxxz said:
calf's liver cooked in a sherry sauce is a common Spanish or French dish, I forget which.

As for the heart, make Heart tacos! Because there is little fat in the heart you gotta braise it over low temperatures for several hours.

Sherry sauce eh? I'll look into that. Sounds French.

Yeah, heart is a tricky one. I mainly do it raw (was actually thinking about slicing ultra thin and adding a bit of lime and salt. Like heart tartare or something.) I don't eat grains/corn, so tacos are out, but I'm guessing the same concept would work for heart chili, huh? Low and slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Price Dalton said:
Sherry sauce eh? I'll look into that. Sounds French.

Yeah, heart is a tricky one. I mainly do it raw (was actually thinking about slicing ultra thin and adding a bit of lime and salt. Like heart tartare or something.) I don't eat grains/corn, so tacos are out, but I'm guessing the same concept would work for heart chili, huh? Low and slow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

definitely, heart in Mexican cooking from what I know tends to stick to slow cooking since its a tough cut of meat.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Made a huge batch of Ghormeh Sabzi with my brother. So, so good. We upped the dried lemons, used dried kidneys that had been pressure-cooked, fresh fenugreek and ghee for the fat. Just a ton of fresh herbs (four bunches of cilantro, four bunches of parsley, one bunch of mint, two bunches of scallions) that we picked up at the GORGEOUS persian market in Irvine called Wholesome Choice. Also, a lb of lamb that was perfectly tender after browning and then braising in the herbs for 90 minutes.

P1030072.jpg
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Just brined my turkey at the restaurant today, having a walk in fridge and easily accessible ice machine helps alot.

So get them Thanksgiving pictures ready people, I wanna see what the rest of you are doing!

I'll document my Turkey cooking on Thursday for those who are interested.
 

thirty

Banned
i made tried making paella tonight so that i can get it right for a holiday party that i'm having this sunday. i figured people will be tired of thanksgiving food by then so decided to make paella and sangria. i followed tyler's ultimate recipe from the food network website but only used shrimp, chorizo, and chicken. next time i'm going to toss in squid and some clam juice for some added depth.
 

Smash88

Banned
Zyzyxxz said:
Ok day off from work so I finally get to cook for myself (since the owner of the restaurant always prepares staff meals I rarely get to cook myself)

To start the day off with breakfast which I need to eat more since going to work on an empty stomach sucks.



Tried doing scrambled eggs, Gordon Ramsey style, have to say I think this is how I'm gonna make my scrambled eggs from now on. Served it with english muffins and a mix of pancetta and breakfast ham.


By any chance you know where I can find or can you provide me with the "Gordon Ramsey style" scrambled eggs. Would appreciate it. :D
 

thirty

Banned
Smash88 said:
By any chance you know where I can find or can you provide me with the "Gordon Ramsey style" scrambled eggs. Would appreciate it. :D
youtube it, it's sooooo simple. just crack eggs in pan at the lowest heat possible, never stop mixing, and every so often take the pan off the heat so that the eggs continue cooking at a lower temperature. cooking eggs in this method takes much much longer but the results are the moistest eggs you'll ever have without being runny.
 

thirty

Banned
yeah, with those scrambled eggs i will never make an omelet again. what i've been doing is topping the scrambled eggs with things like chives, smoked salmon, prociutto, chorizo, cheeses, sauteed spinach, etc.
 

Keen

Aliens ate my babysitter
thirty said:
youtube it, it's sooooo simple. just crack eggs in pan at the lowest heat possible, never stop mixing, and every so often take the pan off the heat so that the eggs continue cooking at a lower temperature. cooking eggs in this method takes much much longer but the results are the moistest eggs you'll ever have without being runny.


Actually he uses a pretty high heat, or generous as he says in the video, which is why it's so great. It's quick but still very moist. The trick is to take it off the heat a couple of times.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Zyzyxxz said:
So get them Thanksgiving pictures ready people, I wanna see what the rest of you are doing!

I'll document my Turkey cooking on Thursday for those who are interested.

Looking forward to photos. I've never brined poultry but I've been wanting to do it...even with simple white chicken breasts for a daily recipe.

I made this one up and I think it turned out pretty decent. I modified the Vindaloo marinade recipe for potatoes, making it a meatless dish. I struggled with the proper approach to the cooking of the starch, keeping in mind that this is a marinade, and ultimately settled on first reducing and intensifying the sauce for thirty minutes and then adding additional water and slowly braising raw potato in the liquid for 60 minutes. Originally, I intended to fry the starch but figured that that sauce would become isolated in the finished product. I also kept the starch large, and what small pieces did fall off were blended in to enrich. Also, doubled the amount of coconut milk and used a dirty palm jaggery to modify the heat. This one is hot...twenty dried chilies ground up. No tomatoes at all. About three tablespoons of clarified butter to compensate for the lack of fat.

P1030089.jpg
 

xrich

Banned
im a big fan of fetuccini alfredo pasta and want to try making it myself, probably with some chicken. anybody have a really good recipe that they use? i still want that classic alfredo taste though, just..better :lol
 

jarosh

Member
Yes Boss! said:
Me too. Even problems are interesting.
no actual "problems". followed every step of the recipe. the end result looked the same but tasted awful. never happened to me before. i'm not usually one to follow recipes but when i do i usually get it right. this seemed pretty straightforward. i had all the same ingredients. even the spices were fresh. only the fenugreek was missing. i've cooked indian food before too. i make currys all the time. not sure what went wrong.
 
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