Iron Chef WAYCT - What Are You Cooking Today
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Damn, @seawolf, that looks amazing. You could probably cook for a living doing stuff like that.
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That looks great! We do the vegetable puree thing to thicken curries and other stews, as we avoid most ingredients that thicken.
Piqued my interest! Which ingredients that thicken do you still use? I feel like the onions in this dish cook down to nothing and really add a lot to the thickness of the sauce.
Thanks @Chris ! I'm actively trying to avoid it at this point
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We try to avoid wheat flour and corn starch and the like, but masa, potato starch, rice flour, and especially almond flour are some examples we use in addition to the immersion blender technique as you did here. I am interested in trying ancient grain flours (amaranth, sorghum, etc), but I have not gotten around to it.
One other thing we really love is cashewgurt (cashew "yogurt," which can be made at home but we typically just buy it). It has a thinness and a sourness that is reminiscent of crema, so we will use it in lieu of dairy such as heavy cream, and also to bind things–we'll use that in lieu of mayonnaise in a ranch dressing, for example. That can thicken or provide a base for a sauce too.
I know there's a lot of anti-gluten-free stuff going around and the science is not settled, but some of what I've read about it is enough for me to err on the side of caution at least enough to reduce our intake, particularly for possible neurological effects that would be difficult to detect until it's too late.
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Awesome. I'll look into cashewgurt (that was a weird word to type out). Arrowroot is a really good thickener too if you're looking for something similar to corn starch that isn't corn starch.
I love how coconut milk thickens a sauce as it reduces. Such a great base for curries and the like.
Sounds like a smart and healthy approach.
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Awesome. I'll look into cashewgurt (that was a weird word to type out). Arrowroot is a really good thickener too if you're looking for something similar to corn starch that isn't corn starch.
I love how coconut milk thickens a sauce as it reduces. Such a great base for curries and the like.
Sounds like a smart and healthy approach.
Yeah, cashewgurt is a weird word to type, read, and say.
Ah yes, interested in arrowroot but haven't used it yet. I also do use a lot of coconut products, though unlike a lot of ancestral eaters, I eschew coconut oil, as in the past it really drove my cholesterol high. Our house uses avocado oil, olive oil, ghee, and sometimes bacon fat for our lipids for the most part.
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Arrowroot is way more powerful than cornstarch.
We primarily use olive oil, butter, and bacon fat if it's available. I have ghee on-hand, but can't be bothered most times and reach for the butter instead.
Here's the requisite Shepherd's Pie with the leftover pot roast, sauce, and mashed potatoes.
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Shepperd's pies are awesome. This one looks delicious.
Another thickener is gelatin. You can just make chicken broth using leftover bones from everyday roasted chickens, and boil it down a bit, and it will ad a lot of body to any (wet) dish. Of course, it's not as powerful as cornstarch and arrowroot.
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Delicious, @seawolf !!
Agreed @JDelage , we don't use it all too often, but we probably should save some when we make stock, which we always do with bones and vegetable fragments.
Speaking of stocks, we don't throw away vegetable or herb stems (like for onions or peppers, or thyme) and other supposed refuse, we instead throw them in an airtight bag or container and keep them in the freezer, as we also do with leftover bones. Those can then be used for stock. When we meal plan, we spend far less on groceries and we waste almost nothing. If we ever get into gardening and composting as we plan to do beyond the herbs we grow seasonally today, we will press this efficiency further still.
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@mclaincausey I've learned how to make stock from two different chefs, and I've made my decision on how I want my stock to be after seeing two very different sides.
The first chef put anything and everything into his stock. He was very concerned with his food cost (as he should be) and wasted nothing. Onion skins, onion scraps (root, etc.), pepper remnants, carrot peels, carrots trimmings, celery leaves, etc., etc., etc., and added whatever chicken bones he could find.
The second chef used only peeled onions, peeled carrots, and cleaned celery, a carefully assembled bouquet garni, and a hefty amount of chicken bones.
Want to take a guess which one came out better?
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Probably the inefficient and wasteful version, based on how these things usually work
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I often will just make broth with leftovers from chickens and nothing else, but it's because I keep frozen broth in the freezer to use in any recipe that calls for it - it's "generic" broth. I also like a cup when I'm cold, with lots of pepper.
If you're making broth for something very specific, like a clear soup, you have to be deliberate…
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Want to take a guess which one came out better?
All those weird bits and pieces add flavor…
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Since we buy a lot of cooked rotisserie birds (c'mon, they're delicious, cheap, and convenient), which often have pathetic wings, I'm a big fan of not eating the wings and using them with the carcass in the stock. This gets you some gelatin and body in tbe broth.
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@Chris They sure do add flavor. Bad flavor. Onion skins, peppers, carrot peels, etc. add bitter/off flavors. The old saying "shit in, shit out" applies here. If I'm going to go through all of the trouble making a stock, and ultimately making a soup or cooking with it, it had better be consistent and tasty. I wouldn't eat pepper pith and onion skins, so I'm not putting it in my stock.
@mclaincausey If you want to make good stock and not be wasteful, compost your vegetable waste and make beautiful topsoil. Our compost bin in VA turned out the most beautiful, richest soil I've ever seen. Most of it was from lawn clippings and kitchen waste (stuff that I won't put in chicken stock
, coffee grounds, banana peels, etc.), but never any meat or dairy so it never attracted animals.@JDelage If clear soup like consommé is on the menu, a strict mire poix, bouquet garni, and an egg white raft to collect the impurities are all that stock is getting.
Sorry guys, if we start talking about food, I get pretty serious and even more opinionated than usual
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Yep composting is on our roadmap, but we have to put in the garden first.
I definitely wouldn't use onion skin, but I don't mind the flavor of carrot peel and typically don't peel them when I eat them raw.
