Food/Dining

[astfgyl]

Yeah obviously it can be flavored up a bit with whatever one wants but just a dough of plain flour and natural yoghurt is enough to make a lovely bread. Cooked on the pan rather than the oven as well

[ochoill]

Yeah seconding the yoghurt and flour kebab bread recipe.  Very handy and you can fry them in a pan.

Jamie Oliver's pizza dough recipe is fairly standard but works great, have used it loads of times for pizza and rolled for kebabs too.  This one.  It's fairly malleable but the Tipo 00 is the flour to use.  Also haven't remembered/figured out the mix since I worked in the pizza place years ago but you can get a low ratio mix with wholemeal flour in the base for a good texture.  Between 4:1 and 9:1 anyway.

Used a similar dough (plain white/wholemeal 4:1) to make a jalapeno and cheddar loaf earlier but I fucked it up before the second proof and it came out a bit like a scone in loaf format.  Fuckin tasty though as dense as it is.

[Emphyrio]

Ya, I'd seen his recipe. That particular flour seems to be a must.

[Circlepit]

00 flour is the best for pizza.
I would always go half 00 half white spelt.
I'm sure Jamie Oliver's recipe is great.
Regardless of what recipe you use it's all down to practice. Getting the feel for the dough on the different stages, humidity, the room temperature all affects the rise.

Don't over work it. Use more olive oil than you think you need.same goes for making pizza sauce.
Loads of garlic, fresh basil with the stalks, fresh oregano and the best quality tin tomatoes you can get.
Also when whizzing the sauce add another good pour of olive oil as you blend it.

Some people use a pizza stone, I don't.
I use a sheet of parchment paper and whip it out half way through.
When shaping the base don't beat it silly, firm but gentle movements.

[Emphyrio]

00 flour is the best for pizza.
I would always go half 00 half white spelt.
I'm sure Jamie Oliver's recipe is great.
Regardless of what recipe you use it's all down to practice. Getting the feel for the dough on the different stages, humidity, the room temperature all affects the rise.

Don't over work it. Use more olive oil than you think you need.same goes for making pizza sauce.
Loads of garlic, fresh basil with the stalks, fresh oregano and the best quality tin tomatoes you can get.
Also when whizzing the sauce add another good pour of olive oil as you blend it.

Some people use a pizza stone, I don't.
I use a sheet of parchment paper and whip it out half way through.
When shaping the base don't beat it silly, firm but gentle movements.

Fair play man, you know your stuff. I didn't factor in the shaping of the base so much as the ingredients but of course getting that technique down is at least as important. Now I have to weigh up am I willing to put in the necessary effort to get that down, if you can get a decent premade base for 2 quid. 

You obviously do different breads too?

[Circlepit]

I do indeed.
It's a constant source of frustration and joy. A lot of the time it goes according to plan. There are times when it goes to shit.
I find the best recipes are on BBC good food. A variety of chefs post on it and when they are wrong or need tweaking the public don't hold back.

When there are no time constraints I can get lost in the process of baking, especially bread . Such simple ingredients can make something that can stop you in your tracks.

Having a separate thermometer you out in the oven as well is a big help if you are unsure.  I can pretty much guarantee that if you were to go door to door Okna your  street or whatever and take a reading of all the ovens set at 180 degrees there would be discrepancies.
It's fine for roasting a chicken or the lies but if a pastry/baking recipe says 180 degrees they don't mean 180 or whatever you think yourself!
My oven runs way hoter then the dial indicates.
Grand Magus, modern Testament or Terror all have a steady chug, great for kneading.

[Eoin McLove]

Can make kebab bread with just yoghurt and flour though, which is fantastic

Interesting...

Yeah that's delicious. My wife makes it from time to time and it's really quick to put together.

[Emphyrio]

I do indeed.
It's a constant source of frustration and joy. A lot of the time it goes according to plan. There are times when it goes to shit.
I find the best recipes are on BBC good food. A variety of chefs post on it and when they are wrong or need tweaking the public don't hold back.

When there are no time constraints I can get lost in the process of baking, especially bread . Such simple ingredients can make something that can stop you in your tracks.

Ya, I've had more time in the kitchen the last year or so and I'm familiar with BBC recipes (and comment section  )

It started out wanting to cut down or eliminate buying jars/packet sauces and now my Indian and Mexican stuff is from scratch.

Re: baking; banoffee, key lime, lemon meringue pies are what I tend to do. The odd crumble too.

I had notions of being a chef as a nipper til I worked in the kitchen of a big hotel. I realised chefs are lunatics!

[StoutAndAle]

I had notions of being a chef as a nipper til I worked in the kitchen of a big hotel. I realised chefs are lunatics!

I love cooking too and also harboured thoughts of going into it as a career.

My mam trained as a chef in the 1980s after she became a single parent and needed to earn money to keep the house. She was chef de partie in a local hotel, then sous-chef and ended up being the head chef of a place before becoming her own boss and running a catering company doing weddings and stuff.

My mam is not a lunatic like other chefs, she rarely raises her voice or changes tone (though I am afraid of my life of her if she gets cross). When I decided to put down "culinary arts" on my CAO form she offered me a job in her kitchen for the summer - up til then I had only ever cooked with her, for her or to feed my younger siblings while she was at work. Fuck me - you need to either have ice-cold blood in your veins or have the hide of an elephant to work in that sort of environment. People telling you to work faster, hovering over you while you do things and then fucking you out of it for not being able to repeat the trick 90 times over a 4 hour period - only to have to do it again the next day and the day after that for average wages and absolutely no social life.

It's not like "The Bear" - if it was, you could batter (no pun intended) the fucker shouting at you and then get on with it. It's way more subtle but it gets to you.

Thank fuck I picked more than one thing on that form!

I use cooking as meditation. Headphones on - get into the rhythm and make something. My wife bought me a pasta maker for my birthday a few weeks back. I have yet to try it, but I am looking forward to it because I've taught myself a fake of Italian sauces but I still use dried pasta.

Yesterday I did a beef bourguignon - I use an entire bottle of red wine and a full cut of beef rather than pieces. Bacon lardons, a lash of onions, carrots, green beans, herbs - get the cocotte to temperature and then into at 100°C oven for several hours. Served with creamed mash potatoes (non-negotiable), baguette (essential) and twice cooked marrowfat peas (optional - but NEVER the canned or no-soak version). 

[Circlepit]

The next time you make that bourguignon do all of that but a few mins before you serve it zest an orange into it.
I would put  the juice in as well but you may not like it.
The zest will give it a lift you and cut through.
Not all chefs are mad. It's definitely not like the bear.
The abuse is long gone from it. Nobody takes that shit anymore and getting staff is hard enough as it is.
There are times when tempers fly and voices are raised.
With me if I lose my shit it's down to somebody making a really stupid mistake that leads to a back log trying to fix.
A lot of the time there isn't the time for a long drawn out roaring match, also it just makes everyone more stressed particularly me.
A thick skin is needed mainly because the slagging and general banter would have is in court if it was heard outside the kitchen.

I'd imagine that the same for lots of jobs.
You have tip be able to work hard and have a serious laugh.

[Anvil]

I enjoy cooking (made chilli for Saturday, roast lamb yesterday) but I don't have the patience for making bread or baking and making your own pastry can just go fuck itself, life is too short for that shit.

[StoutAndAle]

The next time you make that bourguignon do all of that but a few mins before you serve it zest an orange into it.
I would put  the juice in as well but you may not like it.
The zest will give it a lift you and cut through.

Oh, nice one - I'll try that! I never even considered it. I use Anthony Bourdain's recipe (slightly adapted) from his "Les Halles" book. I have also tried the Larousse Gastronomique version from an ancient copy of the book.

There are times when tempers fly and voices are raised.
With me if I lose my shit it's down to somebody making a really stupid mistake that leads to a back log trying to fix.
A lot of the time there isn't the time for a long drawn out roaring match, also it just makes everyone more stressed particularly me.
A thick skin is needed mainly because the slagging and general banter would have is in court if it was heard outside the kitchen.

This is it. The only time I saw my mother raise her BPM was when someone made a costly, time-consuming error or wantonly wasted produce.

[Emphyrio]

I had notions of being a chef as a nipper til I worked in the kitchen of a big hotel. I realised chefs are lunatics!

Yesterday I did a beef bourguignon - I use an entire bottle of red wine and a full cut of beef rather than pieces. Bacon lardons, a lash of onions, carrots, green beans, herbs - get the cocotte to temperature and then into at 100°C oven for several hours. Served with creamed mash potatoes (non-negotiable), baguette (essential) and twice cooked marrowfat peas (optional - but NEVER the canned or no-soak version). 

I did a beef bourguignon just the once. The missus isn't into stews too much and the one I made had the full bottle of wine too. Very rich, borderline overly so. I felt like a proper chef though!

Not all chefs are mad. It's definitely not like the bear.
The abuse is long gone from it. Nobody takes that shit anymore and getting staff is hard enough as it is.
There are times when tempers fly and voices are raised.
With me if I lose my shit it's down to somebody making a really stupid mistake that leads to a back log trying to fix.
A lot of the time there isn't the time for a long drawn out roaring match, also it just makes everyone more stressed particularly me.
A thick skin is needed mainly because the slagging and general banter would have is in court if it was heard outside the kitchen.

I'd imagine that the same for lots of jobs.
You have tip be able to work hard and have a serious laugh.

Ya, it's going on 30 years since I was in a kitchen. Doubt it's the same environment now. My uncle, who is normally quiet as a mouse, was a prick in the kitchen and having done a coupla catering gigs and working in his restaurant put paid to me following through on that as a career. 

[ochoill]

I gave about six months working in a pizza place in Vancouver years ago and it was demented.  For many reasons but just focusing on the work - I was the longest lasting lad there that wasn't family of the owner.  It was absolutely cruel fast, I worked kitchen and tills, it was fast food by-the-slice but it was fuckin delicious so he was constantly busy, queues out the door on a drinking night before and after pubs.

You just couldn't stop.  Not for a second.  And your downtime was used to clean so you might get away early (I worked 6pm to 4am usually six nights a week anyway).  Owner liked me but was STRICT.  I constantly felt like I could be gone in two days if I didn't keep up, and he often did pull lads aside after a week or two and just let them go, hand them their wages and be done.  Everyone there was an immigrant working cash in hand (myself included) so you wouldn't have much of an argument.

Anyway I forgot almost everything I learned but his dough was fantastic, his toppings were made from scratch where possible.  He also made his own kebab from scratch and we made doner pizzas in there, still some of the nicest I have ever eaten.  He'd marinate the lamb himself then we would build the skewers, shrink wrap them then deep freeze them for a day or two.  Back out and onto the spit.  90% of the meat was for pizza with only one or two lads getting an actual kebab but by fuck it was so scoff.  He taught me how to use the two swords for it too, used to get great sport from that.

Anyway yeah I won't work in a kitchen again but I enjoy cooking.

[Emphyrio]

Character building.