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IronGAF Cookoff (hosted by OnkelC)

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----~ Season's Sweet ~---- (September)

Plum Upside-Down Cake

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I've cracked my head at coming up with cakes and other sweets that includes plum. Well it's easy to do that, but I'm hoping to find stuff that screams 'this sure is a typical plum thing', like with a Carrot Cake or a Blueberry Pie. Otherwise you would just see me making just Mousse variations every month.
An upside-down cake is good enough, and I may have one extra plum dessert in my sleave, but otherwise I don't really know what makes a good plum dessert, other than just eating them like they are of course.
As for the cake itself, the plums very good and tasty, which helped a lot of course. But my cake came out a bit too moist for my taste, and there's a surplus of the topping that didn't do anything except make it (too)sweet. I would half the amount of brown sugar and butter used for the topping next time.

Recipe
I recommend using less sugar/butter topping, and bake for longer.

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Unfortunately I dont have pictures but yesterday my mom was searching for a new dessert to make and stumbled across sopapilla. Its one of the best things I ever ate. Why have you been hiding this from me, people of Mexico?!
 
Unfortunately I dont have pictures but yesterday my mom was searching for a new dessert to make and stumbled across sopapilla. Its one of the best things I ever ate. Why have you been hiding this from me, people of Mexico?!
Did they look like this?

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Looks reeeeally great. Can you get the recipe from her perhaps?
 
What does IronGAF think of America's Test Kitchen? They seem like god tier in terms of cooking shows/recipes.

My wife loves their podcast and we have a subscription to Cook's Illustrated. I find them a little bland and clinical myself, I prefer River Cottage or one of Ramsay's shows, Mind of a Chef with David Chang was interesting recently, too.
 

Defyler

Member
Mind of a chef was really good.

I usually like Serious eats recipes far more then the Cook's illustrated ones. I have 2 Cook's illustrated cookbooks and subscribe to their online subscription. Usually the cook's illustrated recipe stray towards an american palate (and ingredients) instead of authentic recipes.

For general cooking they're fine.
 
Test Kitchen does solid work, and is an oasis compared to the endless damned Martha Stewart and blah Mexican shows of late.

We need a second season of Cuisine Culture for the sheer madness on display and that porn-tastic over the top opening theme!
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Seems like I have to cut back on the red meat so might be a while before I post foodporn of big hunks of meat for now.

For the Labor Day weekend made a steak for the family. It was nearly 3 lbs of prime grade ribeye
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Sous vide for 4ish hours @ 129F with thyme and garlic
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After basting it in butter with more thyme, garlic, and shallots
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Sliced and ready to be served
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So I made Bolognese Sause yesterday at 5am.

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Made Some Penne Rigate with it for yesterday's Dinner,

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And a nice Lasagna for today. The Lasagna has layers of Bolognese Sauce, Spinach, Mozarella, and some creamy mushroom sauce.

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Sliced and ready to be served
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Two awesome posts! Stop making me want to go out and buy an expensive sous vide machine Zyzyxxz ;_; It looks absolutely delicious.

My girlfriend has been away to greenland for some weeks(again) and my dinners have been pretty boring, but today I made moink balls inspired by Crankyjay

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Made in the oven and served with french fries and haricot verts.

For dessert, I had a typical summer eating here in Denmark. Fresh strawberries with milk and sugar. Now I'm a milk lover already, but the combination with strawberries is just so good. I always mash the berries so I end up with delicious strawberry milk at the end. Feels very nostalgic whenever I have this.
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Oh and this will be my last entry for some weeks, as I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow morning. Will live at a great sensei and train martial art most of the time, but in the few days off I'll defintely go to Tokyo and search for some of the famous pastry shops. Cya IronGAF!
 

Zyzyxxz

Member
Oh and this will be my last entry for some weeks, as I'm leaving for Japan tomorrow morning. Will live at a great sensei and train martial art most of the time, but in the few days off I'll defintely go to Tokyo and search for some of the famous pastry shops. Cya IronGAF!

Please share pics of food! Been wanting to go to Japan for most of my life, hoping next year is the year.
 
For dessert, I had a typical summer eating here in Denmark. Fresh strawberries with milk and sugar. Now I'm a milk lover already, but the combination with strawberries is just so good. I always mash the berries so I end up with delicious strawberry milk at the end. Feels very nostalgic whenever I have this.
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Woah....I have to try this!
 

TheExodu5

Banned
For dessert, I had a typical summer eating here in Denmark. Fresh strawberries with milk and sugar. Now I'm a milk lover already, but the combination with strawberries is just so good. I always mash the berries so I end up with delicious strawberry milk at the end. Feels very nostalgic whenever I have this.
strawberries.jpg

My mom has always done this as well, and she's French Canadian. I really love it.

Works with blueberries and raspberries also. I do like to cut up the strawberries as well as then they tend to bleed their sugary goodness into the milk.
 

tri_willy

Member
pretty guilty of not posting pics here in ages, all food ive seen her looks absolutely delish. gotta give it to metroid for making those awesome cakes and desserts... if only i had that skill, knowledge and experience haha
 
I posted my "Simple Recipes" video like a page back but I'm not really satisfied with the name...think anyone could come up with a better one?

Minimalist cooking?

Idk
 
Heya Irongaf!
Long time reader but just posting in here for the first time.
Curious if anyone has some good pickle recipes. We grow tons of cucumbers in our garden, and we make lots of Caprese salads with the addition of our cumbers. Now Im looking to branch out and try my hand at making my own pickles!
 

Easy_G

Member
I posted my "Simple Recipes" video like a page back but I'm not really satisfied with the name...think anyone could come up with a better one?

Minimalist cooking?

Idk

Just watched the video and it was awesome! It was a bit hard to get a handle on the ingredients in the beginning since it was a moving shot and the text was flickering. But the overall style was superb. I especially liked the little touches of showing how to tell when the potatoes are done crushing the garlic.

I get where you are going with Simple or Minimalist, but I think that only describes the video style, and not the recipe style, though that may be what you are going for. It could be confusing if the recipe is actually fairly complicated. I can't think of anything else right now, but that's just my two cents.
 

Maiar_m

Member

Almond and peach pie for this weekend. One of the few times I had the general idea and had to create a recipe from bits and pieces.
 
Almond and peach pie for this weekend. One of the few times I had the general idea and had to create a recipe from bits and pieces.

Very nice, the use of a cheesecake pan is interesting; did you lay the dough in per normal or construct the sidewall out of a strip?

Not so much cooking as harvest. Our garlic haul for the year, will take us a few months to get through:

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Maiar_m

Member
Very nice, the use of a cheesecake pan is interesting; did you lay the dough in per normal or construct the sidewall out of a strip?

Not so much cooking as harvest. Our garlic haul for the year, will take us a few months to get through:

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I laid it out as you usually would, it's thick enough to hold and letting it set in the fridge before baking ensures it doesn't melt too much on top of the filling! Nice garlic by the way, reminds me I've got hummous in the fridge....
 
Very nice garlic! Is it hard to grow?

It's pretty simple, you just plant cloves in the ground in late fall before the freeze (we're in southern Maine) and then in the spring they'll have sprouted and will continue growing into the summer. You can cut the scapes when they're in (pesto!) and then when the greens start to die and dry out you harvest, clean, hang, and let them cure for a bit, then cut and store. We have quite a bit of land so each year it gets more tempting to plant larger and larger plots. Plus they supposedly ward off insects so you can interleave in your garden for pest control.

We've been participating in some research work for the local university so we assay the harvest as part of that. Weigh-in grouped by variety:

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Heya Irongaf!
Long time reader but just posting in here for the first time.
Curious if anyone has some good pickle recipes. We grow tons of cucumbers in our garden, and we make lots of Caprese salads with the addition of our cumbers. Now Im looking to branch out and try my hand at making my own pickles!

I recently made two jars worth of pickles following this recipe. Left them in the fridge for about a month and they turned out great!
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Trying to cook for myself more instead of eating takeout/delivery all the time.


Have discovered love of avocados. Good thing there's a grocer's nearby me because I'd hate to buy these in bulk with how finicky they are about ripening and whatnot.
 
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Cheese: Haystack Mountain Goat Queso de Mano Such a nice, delicious goat cheese---rather slow to "melt" (closer to soften), but when it does there's no browning with just a clean/refreshing taste that goes down smooth.

Crumble: Cape Cod Wafflecut Farm Stand Ranch Finally a new Cape Cod chip, good as always, with wafflecut always being appreciated as the royalty of chip cuts that it is. Nicely seasoned, though nothing spectacular like a Late July Dude Ranch---which is still the king and shits on Dorito's Cool Ranch from a great height.
 

Easy_G

Member
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Cheese: Haystack Mountain Goat Queso de Mano Such a nice, delicious goat cheese---rather slow to "melt" (closer to soften), but when it does there's no browning with just a clean/refreshing taste that goes down smooth.

Crumble: Cape Cod Wafflecut Farm Stand Ranch Finally a new Cape Cod chip, good as always, with wafflecut always being appreciated as the royalty of chip cuts that it is. Nicely seasoned, though nothing spectacular like a Late July Dude Ranch---which is still the king and shits on Dorito's Cool Ranch from a great height.

I always see your pizzas, but never know much about them. What are the dough and the sauce?
 
Heya Irongaf!
Long time reader but just posting in here for the first time.
Curious if anyone has some good pickle recipes. We grow tons of cucumbers in our garden, and we make lots of Caprese salads with the addition of our cumbers. Now Im looking to branch out and try my hand at making my own pickles!
I pickle jalapenos pretty much every year, I'm not sure of specifics for pickled cucumbers but I'd say it's the same.

Just boil 50/50 water/white vinegar (how much depends on the jar) for 15 minutes, and boil mason jars in water for about the same amount of time to sterilise them.

Take the jars out of the water and drain (use tongs, be careful), put the cut up or whole cucumbers in (maybe pierce them in a few places if they're whole?), at this time you can add other herbs and spices if you want (e.g. peppercorns, rosemary, garlic, thyme, chillies, whatever you want really). Pour the water/vinegar mix on top and seal with a lid. As it cools the lid should 'pop' in to indicate it's sealed.

With jalapenos usually instead of just letting them cool, I'll put the jars into a water bath, simmer for 15 minutes, and then remove, this makes sure the seal works but will also cook them a little bit. There are other ways to seal but this is the easiest.

Leave as long as you dare (I aim for at least 12 weeks with jalapenos if my supplies are low, but generally they're in the cupboard for a year or two) and you're good to go.
 

hitsugi

Member
I made the Peanut Butter Crispy Bars from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.. they're absurdly easy to make, and just as good. Horrible photo D: I found it difficult to get the actual crispy part in focus.. and I just wanted to eat.

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Easy_G

Member
Trying to cook for myself more instead of eating takeout/delivery all the time.

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Have discovered love of avocados. Good thing there's a grocer's nearby me because I'd hate to buy these in bulk with how finicky they are about ripening and whatnot.

Awesome! Is that some fried chicken? Also, avocado, red onion, and balsamic is an amazing combo. I don't know what you made the dressing out of, but I've discovered that a dressing of olive oil, dark balsamic vinegar, and whole grain mustard is delicious. The ratio of ingredients is maybe around 6-2-1, respectively. Not sure since I just make it up each time.

Hopefully you keep up the trend of cooking! Some people get bogged down in the labor of it, but hopefully you instead enjoy it and end up wanting to cook each night.
 
I need some advice Irongaf. A month or so ago I bought some black olive tapenade thinking it would be a nice thing to spread on toast, but despite enjoying black olives I find the taste of the tapenade far too salty.

I'm looking for a nice pasta dish, or similar, where I can use a little bit of the tapenade in the sauce. I did think of puttanesca, but I like having the texture of whole black olives in the sauce. So does anyone have any recipes I can incorporate the tapenade into where texture will not be an issue?
 

Datwheezy

Unconfirmed Member
I need some advice Irongaf. A month or so ago I bought some black olive tapenade thinking it would be a nice thing to spread on toast, but despite enjoying black olives I find the taste of the tapenade far too salty.

I'm looking for a nice pasta dish, or similar, where I can use a little bit of the tapenade in the sauce. I did think of puttanesca, but I like having the texture of whole black olives in the sauce. So does anyone have any recipes I can incorporate the tapenade into where texture will not be an issue?

Although not pasta based, when I think olive tapenade, I think muffaletta
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/dinner-tonight-muffaletta-sandwich.html

(not necessarily the best recipe, but gives you an idea)
 

CRS

Member
I need some advice Irongaf. A month or so ago I bought some black olive tapenade thinking it would be a nice thing to spread on toast, but despite enjoying black olives I find the taste of the tapenade far too salty.

I'm looking for a nice pasta dish, or similar, where I can use a little bit of the tapenade in the sauce. I did think of puttanesca, but I like having the texture of whole black olives in the sauce. So does anyone have any recipes I can incorporate the tapenade into where texture will not be an issue?
Add some olive oil and try to dilute some of the saltiness. If you add enough oil, you can turn the tapenade into a spread for sandwiches.

Not sure how this might work but you can try to mix it with a chutney, specifically a sweet based chutney to counter some of the saltiness in the tapenade.
 
Add some olive oil and try to dilute some of the saltiness. If you add enough oil, you can turn the tapenade into a spread for sandwiches.

Not sure how this might work but you can try to mix it with a chutney, specifically a sweet based chutney to counter some of the saltiness in the tapenade.

Yeah, we mixed it with olive oil the second time we tried it and it didn't make a great deal of difference - or, at least, an acceptable amount of olive oil didn't. Not sure I really like the second idea, but thanks for the suggestions.

Although not pasta based, when I think olive tapenade, I think muffaletta
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/dinner-tonight-muffaletta-sandwich.html

(not necessarily the best recipe, but gives you an idea)

Now this looks like it could be a good option. All those other elements should neuter the saltiness of the tapenade. I'll seek out a few recipes and give one a go. Thanks.
 
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