Here is a short photo log of the bread making process

any good bread flour will do

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loaf making after first rising (photo out of order)

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(out of order) 2nd rising takes about a 1/2 hour or until you have the pans heated

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first rising 12 to 18 hours - started after mixing ingredients

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second rising near done, next step into hot pan

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into the hot, ungreased pan careful, that sucker is hot! cover and put into oven

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time is important

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lids off after 30 min, do it quick, don't let oven cool, back in for 15 min more

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bread is done

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cooling rack

Damn. That bread looks amazing. I love fresh bread.

JR, thanks as always. I did the second technique and browned the chili pepper. What should I try out tonight?

The idea isn't to brown the chili flakes, it's to infuse the oil. Ditto for the garlic, not a lot of heat and don't brown it. Garlic gets bitter if you cook it too long. You can arrest the browning of the garlic and chili flakes at the point you want by adding the wine.

No idea what you are in the mood for, or what you have on hand. Narrow it down a little...

JR

Definitely red meat. Has to be a stove top/broiler. No access to grill at my place.

Beef/veal?

I have to run to HEB, so I can grab anything.

How much time you want to invest? Is this a practice run for getting laid?

JR

Just increasing my general knowledge of new techniques. Can't say I won't ever cook it for a woman though. Totally solo tonight.

3 hours max.

meh. last time I don't buy a Whole Foods chicken.

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Dod you take the wishbone bone put prior to roasting like Thomas Keller?

Looks good Shaun!

Okay, braised short ribs...

First, make 1/2 a recipe of this tomato sauce:

Basic Tomato Sauce Recipe : Mario Batali : Food Network

Use Muir Glenn organic whole peeled tomatoes, fresh thyme. You should have 3 cups when reduced properly.


6 Tbsn Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 lbs beef short ribs, meaty, well marbeled
2 spanish onions, diced fine
1 medium carrot, shredded
2 ribs celery, diced fine
4 ounces pancetta, 1/4" dice
3 cups red wine
3 cups tomato sauce

Trim excess fat from the ribs. Pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Brown thoroughly on all sides in the olive oil. Don't crowd the pan, don't use a pan bigger than needed. Something with a heavy bottom is good. Don't use so much heat that you burn the fond. Do it in batches, if needed. Remove the short ribs, drain any excess fat and saute the pancetta. When cooked, add the veggies and saute them until soft. Add wine and tomato sauce, then bring to a boil and add the meat back. Bury the meat down into the liquid. Braise at a gentle simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Turn the meat over occasionally.

When done, remove the meat, strain the braising liquid through a fine chinoise. Defat the liquid in a fat separator. Put it into a clean pot and reduce until thick and rich. Adjust the seasoning.

While the liquid is reducing, trim any excess fat from the meat. Remove the bones and any connective tissue. Re-season the meat with salt and pepper. Keep warm, covered in a low oven.

Serve with mashed potatoes. See my comments in the posts above, about those. The sauce goes over the top of the short ribs. You'll want enough for the potatoes, too. If you want, you can add a little butter, off heat, to the sauce and swirl it vigorously to emulsify it and create a richer flavor. It adds to the sheen of the sauce, too.

Use a pretty decent wine. Italians would use a Barolo, if they were feeling generous. I use a reasonably-priced Bordeaux.

JR

pretty lazy on this one Tom, didn't even both to tie the legs correctly.

Thanks JR! I'll try it out tonight!

Java,

I am just now leaving work.... I was able to go to HEB though and grab what I need. Will be making it tomorrow.

I have been missing Colombia lately and am currently unable to travel. Only thing I can do is try to bring a little of Colombia home to me. Through pure dumb luck, I stumbled on the blog of a Colombian woman from Medellin that married an American and has been in the states for 10 years. She shares traditional Colombian recipes, but written in English.

Colombian food is an undiscovered treasure. The country is blessed with an incredible variety of delicious native ingredients. The cuisine leans heavily on traditional European/French techniques, combined with the country's wealth of raw inputs, to come up with some beautiful dishes.

First up: empanadas. The ubiquitous Colombian street food - like tacos in Mexico. Many Latin American countries make empanadas, and each country is different. All the correct ingredients are available locally, so no cheating here. Traditional potato/pork/beef filling. These are served with the ubiquitous Colombian hot sauce, aji. Actual aji chiles are not to be had here, but it is acceptable to substitute fresh habanero, which is available here. As a rule, Colombian food isn't hot & spicy. Aji is one of the few exceptions.

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While I was making up a big batch of empanadas, the pork was roasting in the slow cooker. I had a nice picnic shoulder, which I rubbed down with salt, pepper, and fresh chopped garlic. I seared this in a white-hot iron skillet, and used a propane torch to brown the areas that couldn't get hit by the skillet. After transferring the pork to the slow cooker, I reduced the heat a bit and deglazed the pan with some chardonnay. Then in went Colombian blackberry pulp, some frozen domestic blackberries and raspberries, sugar, and more wine. Half to the slow cooker with some stock for braising liquid, and the other half reduced for a glaze to serve with the finished pork. It came out fantastic - 195 internal temp and it was fork tender and delicious.


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Sorry about the colors here...crappy iphone pic. This is before the spinach went on the plate and brightened things up.


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This was the knockout punch...Pastel de Coco or Colombian coconut pie. I managed to find frozen shredded coconut imported from Colombia - it is much different than the dry/chewy shredded stuff in the supermarket baking aisle. Lots more texture and flavor. Cooked this with some vanilla extract, cinammon sticks, evaporated and whole milk, and sugar. The pie came out incredibly rich - one thin slice goes a long way.

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Not a problem my dear :)

From 'The Curry Bible' ISBN 978-0-14-300583-4 if you can find it;

Ingredients;

1 large onion
3 tablespoons of ghee, oil or butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1.5-cm piece fresh ginger, grated (omitted as Sharyn doesn't like ginger)
500g boneless lamb, diced
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
2 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
250g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and sliced (5hitloads more chillies and not deseeded)
1 bay leaf
salt and black pepper
1/2 green capsicum, trimmed and diced (our capsicum from the garden was a shade more ripe than green (meh), and just a small one so we used it all).
chopped fresh coriander or mint leaves (there wasnt too much of the perenial coriander left in the garden so we added some apple mint from the garden).

we also picked a small branch of curry leaves off the curry tree, and fried them just before serving with finely sliced french shallots for a garnish (would have also added some whole mustard seed here for flavour if we had any left).

Method;

Finely slice half the onion and chop the remainder very finely. Fry the sliced onion in the ghee, oil or butter over a medium heat until very well coloured (about 5 mins), stiring frequently. Lift out and set aside.

Add the chopped onion, garlic and ginger to the pan and fry until lightly browned. Add the lamb, tumeric, garam masala and fennel seeds with enough water to cover. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 mins, until the lamb is almost tender.

Add the pumpkin, chillies, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for another 12 mins. Drop in the chopped capsicum and fried onion slices, and continue to simmer until tender. Check and adjust seasonings, and stir in coriander or mint before serving.

:)

I finally figure out chicken. Nothing fancy but damn good.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391619565.jpg

doesn't photograph well, and am lazy and busy and hungry to set it up, but this habanero chicken turned out great, accompanied with buttered bread with a high malt content.

leftover chicken breast
carrots
pork stock
brown sugar
lots of habanero sauce

good lunch on when getting a foot of snow.

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sorry no dinner photo, but just a "most valuable kitchen/bbq tool award" goes to my Thermopen.



these things are stellar awesome.

no they're not cheap at $90, but also having owned one after 3-4 years I somehow cracked the case, and the company just sent me a new one free of charge. THAT'S good service.

I also got a second one this Christmas, that has a glow in the dark magnet back sleeve, they have backlit thermopens, and lots of other slick timer sticks and other devices.

no not cheap, but how many over-done roasts, steaks, fish does it take = free thermopen in the long run?

I truly love this thing.





ThermoWorks - Splash-Proof Thermapen® Thermometer

This is a good book that covers some of the foundations of cooking. Ruhlman is on Bourdain's "No Reservations" and is co-author on a book of charcutarie as well.

Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques 100 Recipes A Cook's Manifesto: Michael Ruhlman, Donna Turner Ruhlman: 9780811876438: Amazon.com: Books

Ruhlman has co-authored a bunch of books, with lots of good chefs. Thomas Keller, is one such chef that I've learned a lot from. What I had in mind was something along the lines of Bourdain's book, in tone. If you haven't read it, it's worth a read. Lots of books tell you what to do and some of them, like Thomas Keller's various books, tell you why you do certain things. Precious few tell you what not to do and how to judge if you are doing it right or not, and how to adjust if things go south. I'd like to see Tony B. do a cooking show along those lines.

JR

It would be nice to have a show go back to some of the basics of good cooking, tips and techniques. As it is, I'm stuck watching reruns of AB's "Good Eats" which I think is probably one of the best cooking shows ever done.