Post: #1

Seems like there are sparse topics on making food.
just like the drunk thread, Lounge..ect. How about a thread where we say what we cooked/made.

I've always been interested in sushi.
But that shit it expensive.
I found out there are all kinds of sites dedicated to it
http://makemysushi.com/

cooked my rice in a Rice cooker 14 bucks at walmart.
Bought all the basic materials.
and made sushi and have been drinking by myself all night.

I made about 40 pieces. It cost my about 10 cents a piece
All i used was crab meat, avacado, cucumber

Restaurants charge 30+ for 20 pieces.
Fuck it..I spent about 5 dollars.

It doesnt look beautiful, but at least I can say I tried
[attachment=9298]

Post: #2

Damn dude where the hell do you live where sushi is that expensive. Here you can get 3 rolls for 6 bucks or all you can eat for 12.

Also may I suggest a smoked salmon and avocado roll. Don't forget to mix in some rice wine vinegar and sugar into the rice, gives it that good rice flavour.

Post: #3

I cooked a rib roast for Xmas dinner. So I asked thedude3737 for his advice since I was successful with his steak recipe. Here's what he said:

"Sure do, I like making a garlic/herb coating. A food processor will make your life really easy here. Just take a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of mixed herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary) and a couple cups of japanese bread crumbs and run them through a food processor. As it's buzzing away and getting ground up fine, add a thin stream of olive oil. A nice enhancement is to add some porcini mushroom powder to this as well. If you don't have the processor you can just chop the garlic and herbs as fine as you can with a knife, smear it around with the side of the knife on a board to make a paste, and then mix this in by hand with some breadcrumbs and olive oil.

Season your rib roast well with salt and pepper and then rub a pretty thick layer of these herb breadcrumbs all over the roast.

A remote thermometer like these are golden for these situations:
http://www.target.com/p/remote-check-wir...u=13308116

You can keep the probe inside the roast and see what the temp is. I'd cook it to 125 F. It will carry over to 132F or so which is a beautiful medium, medium-rare. Just make sure to rotate the roast every 20 min since even good ovens have hot spots. You want even cooking. I'd roast it at 300 or so. A large roast will take over an hour."

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product--but that rib roast was tasty! Thanks thedude3737.

Post: #4

Exactly this:

[attachment=9299]

Quarter pounder with cheese, fries, and Coca Cola.

Post: #5

high end omakase (sushi) goes for $200+ per person, usually no rolls, just all nigiri. That's at the high end of the scale. I'll type up a sushi data sheet tomorrow. Just getting off work...

Post: #6

(12-29-2012 01:40 AM)thedude3737 Wrote:  high end omakase (sushi) goes for $200+ per person, usually no rolls, just all nigiri. That's at the high end of the scale. I'll type up a sushi data sheet tomorrow. Just getting off work...

Looking forward to it.

Hey WC, you should bust out a salmon data sheet. Judging by your posts as of late you eat it for every meal.

Post: #7

(12-29-2012 01:16 AM)WesternCancer Wrote:  Damn dude where the hell do you live where sushi is that expensive. Here you can get 3 rolls for 6 bucks or all you can eat for 12.

Also may I suggest a smoked salmon and avocado roll. Don't forget to mix in some rice wine vinegar and sugar into the rice, gives it that good rice flavour.

Don't worry I went through all the steps.

Rice and seasoned it.

I pulled random stuff out of my fridge.

Crab,Salmon,...left over Turkey from Christmas dinner.

Crab and honey peanut butter.Sounds odd..but you gotta try it

but yea..sushi is expensive.
california roll, 12 pieces can easily be 8-12 dollars.

You can pay 12 dollars for a all you can eat chinese buffet,where you can get sushi.
But places like that have subpar sushi

Post: #8

Moreso then almost any other type if cooking, etc, you'll improve exponentially if u keep working at sushi. Keep in mind, you can get creative.....if you want to go even cheaper, practice with California rolls or even cook chicken teryaki, cut it into strips, and use that. Don't be scared of cooking sous vide at home too., you can do it in a beer cooler.

Post: #9

(12-29-2012 01:18 AM)sucio44 Wrote:  I cooked a rib roast for Xmas dinner. So I asked thedude3737 for his advice since I was successful with his steak recipe. Here's what he said:

"Sure do, I like making a garlic/herb coating. A food processor will make your life really easy here. Just take a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of mixed herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary) and a couple cups of japanese bread crumbs and run them through a food processor. As it's buzzing away and getting ground up fine, add a thin stream of olive oil. A nice enhancement is to add some porcini mushroom powder to this as well. If you don't have the processor you can just chop the garlic and herbs as fine as you can with a knife, smear it around with the side of the knife on a board to make a paste, and then mix this in by hand with some breadcrumbs and olive oil.

Season your rib roast well with salt and pepper and then rub a pretty thick layer of these herb breadcrumbs all over the roast.

A remote thermometer like these are golden for these situations:
http://www.target.com/p/remote-check-wir...u=13308116

You can keep the probe inside the roast and see what the temp is. I'd cook it to 125 F. It will carry over to 132F or so which is a beautiful medium, medium-rare. Just make sure to rotate the roast every 20 min since even good ovens have hot spots. You want even cooking. I'd roast it at 300 or so. A large roast will take over an hour."

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product--but that rib roast was tasty! Thanks thedude3737.

I'm not going to argue on seasonings as everyone has their preference. I would generally skip the olive oil as a rib roast tends to have a high fat content to begin with. As for technique, I'll argue about that all day.

I usually let the roast sit out on the counter until it warms up to room temperature. It helps to cook the center better without fucking up the outside.

Slow roasting at low temps is a perfect way to ruin a piece of meat IMO. I don't know why people think it's so great. It just dries it out. But then again, most people are accustomed to restaurant style prime rib that's cooked up to rare in an oven, and then boiled in Au Jus on a steam table to warm it up and bring it up to the customer's desired temp.

After it warms up on the counter, I season it. I turn on the convection oven and crank the temp up 550. Convection eliminates the hot spots in normal ovens. Turn on the exhaust fan. Even though it won't burn, any shit in the oven will smoke like hell along with the fat that is rendered out. Throw it in the oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I pull it out and stick the thermometer in. I dial the oven back to 375 and put it back in until the internal temp gets up to 125-130. If the temp goes any higher, I cut it immediately when it comes out to stop the cooking process. Otherwise I'll let it rest for a few minutes.

Doing it this way renders out a lot of the fat that's in the meat which helps eliminate a lot of the greasiness. But the cook time is so fast overall, that you don't wind up drying it out. Some recipes say that after you do the high temp cook to shut off the oven and let it sit for 2 hours in the oven. To me, that's too long in the oven. I can do it my way and have it cooked in less than 90 minutes.

Post: #10

Sushi is probably one of the best examples where the quality of ingredients is glaringly apparent. Unfortunately, it's also one of those things where, once you get the good shit, it's hard to go back. For that reason, I only eat sushi once every few months or so. Or I'll make it myself, but it's never as good, but that's because I'm not a trained sushi chef with 20 years under my belt. However, I do know a few things...

Breaking down sushi into its major components:
nori
rice
fish

...you can start to look at the quality aspect. There are different quality nori wrappers. This is one thing where buying the best you can afford will really pay off.

For nori, look for shin nori. This is the first seaweed harvest of the year and the highest quality. I buy it green and toast it myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwd3vtxbR...804687055E

For rice, you want short grain obviously. Look for sushi rice in asian markets, usually it's calrose. Cooking rice is one of those things that takes a lifetime to master...each rice has a different ratio, but I always measure using my fingers. I'll let the rice soak for 15 minutes and wash it until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a pan, cover with cold water until the water covers by one and a half inches (or finger notches), cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes I'll remove from heat and let it sit for another 15 minutes. Remove from pan, add to a bowl, and season the rice with rice vinegar, salt, and a little bit of sugar. Flake the rice with a wooden spoon to separate the grains.

For fish, look for sushi grade obviously. Before you slice it and put it in your maki you want to cure it. Each fish has a different cure, you can get really elaborate and do a kombu (seaweed) cure for fish like fluke, halibut, or flounder or a miso or vinegar cure for more oily fish. But typically I do a 5% salt cure by weight. An easy way to do this is take a large bowl of water, add just enough salt and whisk until the water is about half as salty as seawater (this is about 5%). Put your fish filet in this water and let sit for 15 minutes. This will firm up the flesh and give a nice patina of seasoning to the fish. This is a basic cure that will apply to most fish.

After that it's all assembly. Lay down a sheet of toasted nori. Spread out about half a handful of rice (wet your hands with water beforehand). You can sprinkle the rice with some toasted sesame seeds or a little shichimi togarashi (japanese pepper blend), some julienned cucumber, a few strips of sliced shiso leaf, and your strips of fish. Roll up tightly using a bamboo roller, slice, and eat. Try to find fresh wasabi root and grate it using a microplane or a sharkskin grater. Get the un-dyed pickled ginger...that pink shit is horrible.

This is just a basic on making maki. Nigiri is a whole other ballgame and at that point, better to just go to a high end restaurant and drop a hundred bucks for a badass experience.

Post: #11

(12-29-2012 06:25 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  

(12-29-2012 01:18 AM)sucio44 Wrote:  I cooked a rib roast for Xmas dinner. So I asked thedude3737 for his advice since I was successful with his steak recipe. Here's what he said:

"Sure do, I like making a garlic/herb coating. A food processor will make your life really easy here. Just take a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of mixed herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary) and a couple cups of japanese bread crumbs and run them through a food processor. As it's buzzing away and getting ground up fine, add a thin stream of olive oil. A nice enhancement is to add some porcini mushroom powder to this as well. If you don't have the processor you can just chop the garlic and herbs as fine as you can with a knife, smear it around with the side of the knife on a board to make a paste, and then mix this in by hand with some breadcrumbs and olive oil.

Season your rib roast well with salt and pepper and then rub a pretty thick layer of these herb breadcrumbs all over the roast.

A remote thermometer like these are golden for these situations:
http://www.target.com/p/remote-check-wir...u=13308116

You can keep the probe inside the roast and see what the temp is. I'd cook it to 125 F. It will carry over to 132F or so which is a beautiful medium, medium-rare. Just make sure to rotate the roast every 20 min since even good ovens have hot spots. You want even cooking. I'd roast it at 300 or so. A large roast will take over an hour."

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product--but that rib roast was tasty! Thanks thedude3737.

I'm not going to argue on seasonings as everyone has their preference. I would generally skip the olive oil as a rib roast tends to have a high fat content to begin with. As for technique, I'll argue about that all day.

I usually let the roast sit out on the counter until it warms up to room temperature. It helps to cook the center better without fucking up the outside.

Slow roasting at low temps is a perfect way to ruin a piece of meat IMO. I don't know why people think it's so great. It just dries it out. But then again, most people are accustomed to restaurant style prime rib that's cooked up to rare in an oven, and then boiled in Au Jus on a steam table to warm it up and bring it up to the customer's desired temp.

After it warms up on the counter, I season it. I turn on the convection oven and crank the temp up 550. Convection eliminates the hot spots in normal ovens. Turn on the exhaust fan. Even though it won't burn, any shit in the oven will smoke like hell along with the fat that is rendered out. Throw it in the oven for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I pull it out and stick the thermometer in. I dial the oven back to 375 and put it back in until the internal temp gets up to 125-130. If the temp goes any higher, I cut it immediately when it comes out to stop the cooking process. Otherwise I'll let it rest for a few minutes.

Doing it this way renders out a lot of the fat that's in the meat which helps eliminate a lot of the greasiness. But the cook time is so fast overall, that you don't wind up drying it out. Some recipes say that after you do the high temp cook to shut off the oven and let it sit for 2 hours in the oven. To me, that's too long in the oven. I can do it my way and have it cooked in less than 90 minutes.

-The olive oil helps the bread coating adhere and doesn't contribute any more fat.
-agree that meat should sit out for an hour before cooking
-slow roasting meat most definitely does NOT dry it out. Slow roasting emulates a sous vide effect where the gradient of doneness is more even. Cooking at high temperatures yields meat that is more well done towards the edge of the meat. As you expose meat to temperatures of 500 degrees, the surface of the meat will not exceed 212 degrees as the water content of the meat evaporates. Once this happens, this is called the dessication point and this is where that beautiful crust starts to develop and those Maillard reactions start working. This is a good thing...up to a point. Once you get that color, you want to crank the temperature way down because the meat under the crust will start to dry out as well. This is why you'll commonly see recipes that suggest starting high at 500, getting the color, and removing the roast from the oven while it cools down to 250. Whether you blast it with that high heat in the beginning or end doesn't matter. I've done both with good results.
-If you pull meat at 130 after cooking in a 375 oven, that'll carry over to 140, maybe higher. You're getting close to medium well or well done there.
-Rendering fat is great and all, but that's the whole point of a PRIME rib. Prime meat is graded on fat content, and ribeye is the fattiest cut. To me there's no point in going for that much fat content and being concerned with too much fat. Go with a new york strip steak instead, which you can roast like a prime rib as well.

Post: #12

Making sushi is one of my go-to dinner dates at home. I'm surprised how easy it is to make. The only thing you gotta cook is the rice! I usually make the rice earlier in the day because it takes some time. We chop the fish, chop the veges, and roll it up. Its quite easy.

Of course, we drink sake also.

This is the amateur version of what thedude37 does!

Post: #13

I made this Southwestern Frittata tonight, I got the recipe off T-Nation, the bodybuilding website. Very tasty and nutritious!

Quote:Southwestern Frittata
While this works for breakfast, we really like this as a dinner entree as well.

6-7 whole eggs
1 cup black beans (kidney beans also work)
Diced bell peppers, onions, and jalapeño rings (use as much as you like)
Coconut oil, butter, or some other high heat cooking oil (enough to sauté peppers and onions)
Cheese (optional)
Salsa (optional)
Cumin
Chili powder
Non-stick cooking spray

Directions: Add oil to a 10" skillet and sauté the peppers and onions. While these are cooking, crack the eggs into a large bowl and whisk. Pour the beans and the jalapeño peppers in with the eggs. Once the peppers and onions are done, combine them with the eggs, beans, and jalapeños in the bowl, and add the cumin and chili powder.

Now turn the oven onto broil and the skillet to medium heat. Coat the skillet with non-stick spray and pour the egg mixture into it.

Once the frittata starts to firm up around the edges, gently lift up an edge and tilt the skillet so that the runny top layer goes to the bottom of the pan.

Once the oven is ready and the frittata is almost fully cooked, top it off with some cheese and place it in the oven. Leave it in only long enough for the cheese to melt (~1-3 min.).

Serve with salsa.

Post: #14

Really good stuff TheDude!

I am such a sucker for sushi and it truly is one of those things where the quality is worth every penny.

I took my mother out for omakase at Sushi Yasuda(widely regarded as one of the best traditional sushi restaurants outside of Japan) and the feeling with eating "perfect" sushi is unbelievable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/dining...d=all&_r=0

Whatever the cost, expertly prepared traditional sushi is worth at least one visit in your lifetime. The next time your in NYC, LA, or SFO make it your business to splurge once for omakase at a place like Yasuda, Brushstroke, Urasawa.

Post: #15

with large fries and large Diet Coke was lunch for today.

A Culinary Delight!

Post: #16

(12-29-2012 03:44 PM)MaleDefined Wrote:  Really good stuff TheDude!

I am such a sucker for sushi and it truly is one of those things where the quality is worth every penny.

I took my mother out for omakase at Sushi Yasuda(widely regarded as one of the best traditional sushi restaurants outside of Japan) and the feeling with eating "perfect" sushi is unbelievable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/dining...d=all&_r=0

Whatever the cost, expertly prepared traditional sushi is worth at least one visit in your lifetime. The next time your in NYC, LA, or SFO make it your business to splurge once for omakase at a place like Yasuda, Brushstroke, Urasawa.

Yasuda is the shit. Never been myself but a buddy of mine went recently (he was a sushi chef at Mori here in L.A., one michelin star and a great spot). Said it was top notch, this is from a guy who did some training in Japan.

I splurged and went to Urasawa a couple years ago. It was a fortune (think I spent $750 for two) and it's even more now. But it's one of those game changers, after you get an experience like that it's almost impossible to go back to anything else.

Any dudes roll through L.A. and wanna spend a stupid amount of cash on sushi, hit me up.

Post: #17

Excellent recent posts thedude3737, keep them coming .....

On a separate note is that Chef Marco Pierre in your picture ?

Post: #18

(12-29-2012 04:19 PM)Lothario Wrote:  Excellent recent posts thedude3737, keep them coming .....

On a separate note is that Chef Marco Pierre in your picture ?

yes indeed. One of my few culinary heroes.

Post: #19

I just made some next level hot chocolate. Heat a can of coconut milk up whisk in a few tablespoons of coco powder, pinch of salt, vanilla or almond extract. Bring it all to a boil and sweeten. I added some vanilla maple syrup I had. Shit is like drinking melted chocolate

Post: #20

(12-29-2012 03:04 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  Sushi is probably one of the best examples where the quality of ingredients is glaringly apparent. Unfortunately, it's also one of those things where, once you get the good shit, it's hard to go back. For that reason, I only eat sushi once every few months or so. Or I'll make it myself, but it's never as good, but that's because I'm not a trained sushi chef with 20 years under my belt. However, I do know a few things...

Breaking down sushi into its major components:
nori
rice
fish

...you can start to look at the quality aspect. There are different quality nori wrappers. This is one thing where buying the best you can afford will really pay off.

For nori, look for shin nori. This is the first seaweed harvest of the year and the highest quality. I buy it green and toast it myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwd3vtxbR...804687055E

For rice, you want short grain obviously. Look for sushi rice in asian markets, usually it's calrose. Cooking rice is one of those things that takes a lifetime to master...each rice has a different ratio, but I always measure using my fingers. I'll let the rice soak for 15 minutes and wash it until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a pan, cover with cold water until the water covers by one and a half inches (or finger notches), cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes I'll remove from heat and let it sit for another 15 minutes. Remove from pan, add to a bowl, and season the rice with rice vinegar, salt, and a little bit of sugar. Flake the rice with a wooden spoon to separate the grains.

For fish, look for sushi grade obviously. Before you slice it and put it in your maki you want to cure it. Each fish has a different cure, you can get really elaborate and do a kombu (seaweed) cure for fish like fluke, halibut, or flounder or a miso or vinegar cure for more oily fish. But typically I do a 5% salt cure by weight. An easy way to do this is take a large bowl of water, add just enough salt and whisk until the water is about half as salty as seawater (this is about 5%). Put your fish filet in this water and let sit for 15 minutes. This will firm up the flesh and give a nice patina of seasoning to the fish. This is a basic cure that will apply to most fish.

After that it's all assembly. Lay down a sheet of toasted nori. Spread out about half a handful of rice (wet your hands with water beforehand). You can sprinkle the rice with some toasted sesame seeds or a little shichimi togarashi (japanese pepper blend), some julienned cucumber, a few strips of sliced shiso leaf, and your strips of fish. Roll up tightly using a bamboo roller, slice, and eat. Try to find fresh wasabi root and grate it using a microplane or a sharkskin grater. Get the un-dyed pickled ginger...that pink shit is horrible.

This is just a basic on making maki. Nigiri is a whole other ballgame and at that point, better to just go to a high end restaurant and drop a hundred bucks for a badass experience.

have you attempted or do you have a good spicy tuna recipe? I've got a few restaurants that I frequent that make killer spicy tuna but most of them have some horrid mayo filled pink mush blend that I can't stand. Best ones i've had had no mayo in them and I'd like give that a shot but don't know what to mix in.

Post: #21

(12-29-2012 04:04 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:  

(12-29-2012 03:44 PM)MaleDefined Wrote:  Really good stuff TheDude!

I am such a sucker for sushi and it truly is one of those things where the quality is worth every penny.

I took my mother out for omakase at Sushi Yasuda(widely regarded as one of the best traditional sushi restaurants outside of Japan) and the feeling with eating "perfect" sushi is unbelievable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/dining...d=all&_r=0

Whatever the cost, expertly prepared traditional sushi is worth at least one visit in your lifetime. The next time your in NYC, LA, or SFO make it your business to splurge once for omakase at a place like Yasuda, Brushstroke, Urasawa.

Yasuda is the shit. Never been myself but a buddy of mine went recently (he was a sushi chef at Mori here in L.A., one michelin star and a great spot). Said it was top notch, this is from a guy who did some training in Japan.

I splurged and went to Urasawa a couple years ago. It was a fortune (think I spent $750 for two) and it's even more now. But it's one of those game changers, after you get an experience like that it's almost impossible to go back to anything else.

Any dudes roll through L.A. and wanna spend a stupid amount of cash on sushi, hit me up.

The secret for Yasuda is to hit their $28 lunch menu. While not omakase style, the quality is every bit as good as you'd expect from a place like Yasuda. It is singlehandedly the best dining value in NYC.

Post: #22

In contrast to yesterday...today I ate more leftover christmas dinner

Post: #23

(12-29-2012 06:42 PM)Sourcecode Wrote:  In contrast to yesterday...today I ate more leftover christmas dinner

I've been eating Christmas leftovers everyday since Tuesday. Probably have four or five more meals worth of ham left.

Post: #24

This thread seems to be the right place.

Keeping my dinners to veggies and meat I've been trying various spices to change the flavors to keep my taste buds from getting bored. I had been seeing a Korean born Japanese girl for a bit and she loved to cook for me whenever she'd come over. One of the times I took her to Costco she picked up some gochujang.



After things fizzled out I still had a good case or two of this left in my fridge. Really liking the taste I've began experimenting with adding it to my meat n veggies dinner as the only spice I add. Not that I won't be trying to put more in in the future, but currently this alone is very delicious with what I make.

My typical dinner these days is something like:

1 onion
1-2 stalks of green onion
3-5 small green peppers(think have the size of about 4 oreos stacked on top of eachother)

Since I like to do other things in my apartment while I cook if possible, I boil the vegetables in a frying pan then drain the water add in a very generous spoonful of gochujang and stir the mixture until it turns almost a bright red color. If it isn't very red I add more, korean food = red food.

200 grams ground meat
1-2 eggs

I've started liking the texture of browned ground meat and then adding an egg or two cooking it very fluffy so that it pulls the ground meat back together. I add in the gochujang again when cooking the eggs as both require constant stirring to reach the desired outcome.


Here are some health facts people say about gochujang, keep in mind Koreans always talk like their food is the healthiest in the world so these facts may be off [by a lot] but I greatly enjoy the taste and considering it's a red bean paste I figure it's at least not bad.

Quote:Gochujang has numerous health and dietary benefits.

Protein: Gochujang contains plenty of protein, essential for building lean muscle tissue. Protein promotes fat loss when used in conjunction with a healthy, well balanced diet. According to Donald Layman of the University of Illinois, a high protein diet also reduces appetite.

Vitamin B2: An essential vitamin for processing calories from fat and carbohydrates, vitamin B2 ensures healthy functioning of the thyroid and stabilizes the metabolism. A lack of vitamin B2 causes issues with the thyroid.

Vitamin C: It is also a rich source of vitamin C, which is essential for preventative health. Vitamin C provides the body with antioxidants that protect cells from free radical damage, a leading cause of cancer. Vitamin C also helps prevent cardiovascular disease.

Capsaicin: A powerful chemical found only in spicy foods, capsaicin increases the metabolism and fat burning processes. According to several Japanese studies, Japanese women who consumed foods with capsaicin increased their metabolism and lost weight.

Calories: Although it varies, the calories in gochujang range from 10 to 45 calories per tablespoon.

Fat: It contains less than one gram of fat per serving.

In summary, it is healthy for a person's cardiovascular system, boosts the metabolism, and contains less than 100 calories per serving. Very few condiments contain the same benefits as gochujang.

http://www.healthguideinfo.com/dieting-tips/p36814/

I'm curious what other spices/condiments members use to keep their food delicious and healthy.