Food Skills I Need to Learn or Practice

[callistra]

We made beef rice bowl tonight, and it was fantastic. We now have recipes for guydon and oyakodon which we are happy with, which leads me into thinking about personal cooking goals

- Frying. Deep frying, stir frying, shallow frying. If it involves oil, I need to learn or practice. Stir frying, we're getting a handle on, but I still think I need to be watched over and told what to do. I don't think I cook hot enough, or else I end up braising by adding too much liquid. Deep frying - well, we got out gas in November, and Chesh has done the bulk of the deep frying. I tend to hang around and watch, and he does a great job, but I want to play too! Shallow frying... well, I get worried about using more than a tablespoon of oil in a frypan. But now I have bought a non-stick frypan! I want to do schnitzels, katsudon, kievs, and a brilliant tempura. If any one knows Mr Samurai's secret sauce is, let me know!!! I miss going there. How dare they only be open on weekdays! How rude!! :-)

- Pancakes, crepes, pikelets, flatbreads. Pancakes, I am learning with my trusty pancake pan. Part of the thing is getting used to how the pan works, and the batters, and the heat distribution. When I was younger, we made them in the electric frypan and they were perfect every time. Every electric frypan I've had as an adult has had uneven heating, and this is a sh*t when it comes to pikelets and pancakes. My grand dad used to do pancakes on the BBQ at family events (there was about 30/40 people by the time you included him, nanna, five children and their partners,and 2 - 3 children per child, plus partners...) with lemon and sugar. And they were great. I was probably about 6. I remember, a few years back, going to Moore River with a Venturers group, and they made up pancakes at night while we were all drunk and then we forgot to cook them, and the next morning one of the guys was cooking them with the sort of intensity that only comes with a bad hangover and no pain killers in the tent, and they were crispy on the outside and light and fluffy and cake like on the inside. I have never ever ever found any one do that ever again.

- Pastry. Making it. Eating it. Cooking it. I find that when cooking pastry, there's uncooked spots on the bottom. This annoys me no end, although other people seem to think this is normal. But I also want to practice pastry enough that I can do it with my eyes closed and make shortcrust pastry at a moment's notice rather than go down and buy the damned stuff. I will never, ever, bother to make puff pastry. I wanna make a pie!

- Confectionary. Sugar. Caramel. Toffee. I tried to make toffee once in the microwave when I was much younger (like 14 or 16 or so) and it melted the microwave plastic. There you go. End of story, never even tried since. Read about it alot though. :-)

I am so tired. I might try bed and come back if I still can't sleep. :-(

- Croquembroche. Sorry about the spelling. But anyway, need I say more? Do I need a reason to want to make profiteroles filled with custard and cream and stuck together with toffee??

- Cake decorating - I'm working on this one. I want to make exciting cakes. Actually, I wouldn't mind eating exciting cakes right now either. This pregnancy has done things to my sweet tooth. Like, given me one.

I will probably update this post as I think of more stuff that I want to do. This will be fun, then I can tick each one off as I learn to do it! Yay!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

Chef Aaron warns that croquembouche is temperamental, and best done on cold days. Heat makes the toffee difficult to handle, and all sticky in an unpleasant way.
Myself, I've never come to grips with making choux pastry. Or any pastry really.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Interesting. I always wondered how long it would last for too - ie, could you do it all the night before the wedding, but apparebtly not. Bits of it can be done in the few days before the wedding, but the toffee needs to be done that morning.

Thanks to you and him for the tip!
:-)

[chaosmanor.livejournal.com]

Choux pastry is not complicated, though it looks it, and I've never had a batch not puff up like crazy.

And I make extra-short pastry with ease, but my dad had been a baker's apprentice as a kid, so it's something that I've just grown up watching, and then later doing. He made killer cakes out of cornflour and not much else as well.

I've made puff pastry, and it's really not worth the effort. It came out quite tough, even though it rose well.

Of course, choux pastry is far too eggy for me to actually eat, but it's fun to feed to other people.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never had the choux pastry stuff up either, but have only done it a couple of times.

It's the stacking and building into the empire state building that interests me now.

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

i should also make a list...

interesting reading though - and food for thought (apologies for the pun)

[chaosmanor.livejournal.com]

I'm fussy about pancakes. They need to thin and crispy and lacy.

Laurton makes pancakes all the time, all thick and rubbery, and I think they're crap. She does things like make the mix in a blender, and drop bananas into the batter. Yuck. I can say that here, she doesn't read your lj.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

LOL

So, closer to very fresh crepes then? And ... blender? Banana?? Eeek! We're very happy with plain ones with lemon and sugar

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

i ADORE thin pancakes/crepes - they're my favourite of the type, occaisionally i like the thick ones but if i wanted thick ones i'd prefer waffles :)

[feathersoul.livejournal.com]

hooray! a sensible person! thin crepe style pancakes are the ONLY way to go.
*snuggles*

[vegetariansushi.livejournal.com]

I suspect that you excel in the areas in which I am deficient. I'm ace at frying things -- there are, at current count, six deep friers of varying sizes in my house -- and make a damn fine crepe. My stir fries are absolute crap, though, despite my love of them.

Frying isn't really hard. People set it up to be this big deal, and really, all you need is something to monitor the temperature so that it stays steady, a bigass pot (or, you know, a deep frier,) and whatever you're after frying. Veg and that sort of thing are not at all tricky, because you really just bread them (or occasionally blanch them and then bread them) and toss them in the frier. Wait until they're golden and pull them out. Chicken wings are totally easy, as well. Other chicken bits are a harder, but mostly in that it's sort of difficult to tell when they're done. Seriously, though. Frying = super easy. Just don't be afraid of it, and keep -- er. Keep something nearby to put out fires, just in case.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

LOL

Yeah, this one is a "needs more practice" as we have a deep frying pot, and all required accountrements, and we even have a thermometre, so really I have no excuse.

[tikiwanderer.livejournal.com]

I'm a thick-pancake person, myself - lots of odd flours (amaranth, arrowroot and millet are all good) and a lot of puff between top and bottom, then all thrown into a stack. You can't stack thin-and-crispies right no matter how much you try. I stick the stack together with treacle a lot of the time too, or golden syrup if I'm feeling capitalist. Hot fruit compote and dessert yoghurt are the absolute best accompaniments though. This is one of my favourite dinners.

I'm also fond of the Indian pancakes that you make with rice flour, dahl flour and spices, the ones they do just as a spoonful of very thin batter and stir it around with the spoon while it fast-cooks so that the spoon mark is still there, then served up with a good masala dosa.

[tikiwanderer.livejournal.com]

Oops - dosa is the name of the pancake, and masala is the filling, I usually make some kind of spicy potato thingy.

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

sounds all yummy. if you need someone to practice with :) I've got a few good recipes for the above (see; pastry * pankcakes/pikelets etc inc. scones) :) Good goals actually. I have goals like that.

Like chocolate mousse, gravy & sponge cake.

but still pregnant, huh. (it's my daily phrase)

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I think it's so much more fun to cook with someone. When I'm back on my feet, I'll get on to you and we'll tick off a couple of things. How does that sound?
:-)

And yeah, still pregnant.
:-)

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

that sounds good :)

hehe - I noticed that.

I've been wondering what's going to happen when I ask that question and just don't get an answer.. within a few hours I'm going to have to go ARUGH!!!!!! CALLI!! BABY!! *gg*

[callistra.livejournal.com]

LOL

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Well, we have given mynxii my password so she can update my blog as needed.
:-)

Does that make you feel better?

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

heheheh

yes :D

I can just imagine me running around the house going "ARRRRRRRRUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!" or "SQUEEEE!" at the time XD

can't you?