I'm not a fan of kraut due to a childhood food poisoning incident, but I definitely want to make some pickles. I picked up a few kimchi and pickling books over Christmas, so I plan to use some of those recipes.

Hey TCC, how's CooksIllustrated books? How much is their monthly thing?

I made Beef Paprikash tonight. If you are a big fan of bell pepper and paprika flavoring I highly suggest it.

702 wrote:Hey TCC, how's CooksIllustrated books? How much is their monthly thing?

for $80/yr you get access to all of their sites (cooks illustrated, cooks country and atk) including almost all of their recipes and instructional videos and equipment testing
(which you can do for a month free trial) For me, it's been totally worth it.
I also subscribe to the magazines (you can get a discount and pay $20/yr for Cook's Illustrated and $25/yr for Cook's Country), even though I have access to the recipes I find the magazine interesting as the articles delve into how they came to the recipe that they end up with and all of the stuff that they tried (and failed at) and often explain the science behind it. As a result, when I go off book or use another recipe I can often figure out how to make it better due to the base knowledge I've gained over the years. (a quick example, marinating the beef or chicken for stir fry in baking soda and water for 20 minutes to make it more tender)

as far as the books-

The Science of Good Cooking is a very good one to start with

From there it depends on if you want volume of recipes or prefer specific styles or methods of cooking

Making pea soup today. It's one of my favorite things, and for some reason, neither Mrs. nor Lil' Vulture like it. It's okay though, more for me.

Dinner tonight was an omelette with pan-fried Asian-seasoned duck leg confit, drizzled with Sriracha sauce.

so you're saying an omlette with cheese & hot sauce

Makin this tomorrow

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015 ... ecipe.html

Ate a burger last night that might of killed me. :stillalive:

My two latest obsessions are Valentina Mexican hot sauce, which is like a more deeply flavored Choluhla, and Vietnamese nuoc cham, which you can make ahead of time and keep in your fridge. If you roast veggies like cauliflower, broccoli or brussel sprouts, then toss them with the nuoc cham and toss with cilantro and/or fresh mint, you can't beat it. Here's a basic recipe for one. Don't be afraid of fish sauce, it makes things so flavorful.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011 ... ecipe.html

we keep a bunch of hot sauces around. Lousianna, Valentina, Choluhla, Crystal, a version of Franks and Sriracha. we make a lot of our dressings at home and we usually will throw one of those into them.

Sounds like my fridge. I also have a hot sauce that's made in house at Quahogs in Stone Harbor that is awesome. Owner is Argentinian so it has some unusual spices in it. It definitely has some cinnamon which makes it really interesting.

Found a pork belly today at the Asian market. Time to smoke!

EndlessSummer wrote:My two latest obsessions are Valentina Mexican hot sauce, which is like a more deeply flavored Choluhla, and Vietnamese nuoc cham, which you can make ahead of time and keep in your fridge. If you roast veggies like cauliflower, broccoli or brussel sprouts, then toss them with the nuoc cham and toss with cilantro and/or fresh mint, you can't beat it. Here's a basic recipe for one. Don't be afraid of fish sauce, it makes things so flavorful.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011 ... ecipe.html

Viet tip...use Red Boat fish sauce.

http://www.redboatfishsauce.com/

Mmm... first-press extra-virgin fish sauce.

I don't think the Assi market here, which is my go-to resource for Asian ingredients more exotic than Kikkoman, carries that one. I use Three Crabs brand which seems to get the job done.

What is so special about Red Boat?

Just my opinion, but it tastes better. My mom likes it too. She used to use 3 crabs and still uses it when she needs a bulk amount of fish sauce. The Red Boat costs about twice as much, but is only a little bit better. If you're not using it often, I'd say invest in the extra 4 bucks, but you might have to go to a Vietnamese grocery store, maybe a Chinese one will have it (Assi is Korean). Or Whole Foods and "upscale" grocery stores with Asian food sections might have it. I've seen it at some of those for about 10 bucks.

I just got some Red Boat off of amazon. Haven't used it yet though.

Highly recommend the Jerusalem cookbook, first recipe so far was the bomb

https://instagram.com/p/BAYDHsQszOp/

Needs moar bacon

Had Waygu Tri-Tip tonight from the butcher. Unbelievable the difference. Might have him order me Wagyu Filet, not bad on the pricing either.


Also made fan cut red potatoes (presentation was neat)