♨♨♨♨ Dave P's Amateur Home-Cook Log/Thread/Dump/Whatever ♨♨♨♨

[Dave P]

Good god....



HHHnnnngggggg thats making me moist in so many places right now.


Every time i've been in Costco I see this sitting there and wonder "what if" I just said fck it and grabbed it and chopped up my own steaks

[ctownballer04]

Think I'm going to try this after finals end next week

[Dave P]

I love lamb shanks but I get butthurt when I realize how much actual meat you're getting per dollar because of how much bone there is. It's one of those "If you buy it I'm cookin it" kinda things for me.


Friends comin over in like 2 hours, got some stuff cookin.

[Skeletor666]

lives in Oakland, and is the ideal suburban dad.

You just posting pics of food or the recipes you created/used to make said food items?

[Dave P]

I post the recipe once I'm happy with it and dont think it needs tweaking, if its something thats kind of a work in progress its just a "this is what I made" kinda thing.


If there is no recipe it means I wasnt 100% satisfied, will be trying again. You'll see that alot for sauces, dressings etc that require alot of experimentation. Tried to make that Japanese dressing 3x now and still can't get it.

[Skeletor666]

i just watched that ramsay vid about slicing an onion. I've found the if you make those two horizontal cuts first, then the vertical slicing onces. makes it a lot easier to keep the onion together while dicing it.

Thanks for the response, was pretty curious. Chef brah checking in, If there are ones you aren't completely satisfied with would you mind posting them aswell/ voicing what you don't think you have right with them. Always keen to try new things or tweak some one elses recipe in order to make something to suit myself.

I don't take photo's of my food, but i do have a lot of recipes. Was considering contributing to this thread with ones that really stand out to me. But i don't want to hi jack/de rail the thread.

[Dave P]

I do, if you notice at the end of each one I kinda say my thoughts on it, especially if there isn't a recipe. Either its dry or overcooked or something.



Sometimes its something that I just intuitively throw together though so I dont know the proportions...like my Balsamic/Pomegranate reduction...ive never actually measured it.



Feel free to contribute but post pictures of recent attempts at making it I'd prefer any contributions be in the time frame of right now so if myself, or anyone else, has a question you can really answer it instead of "trying to remember".

I want to encourage people to join in, but at the same time I don't need a fcking recipe dump of grandmas entire book. If there is something that you're just like "dude you have to try this" then I'll try it, go ahead and post it. Plenty of the stuff I've posted has been a result of one poster saying "You ever make ____?" which I kinda take as a challenge to go try it.

[WeekndOrNah]

So I'm no trained cook, everything I've learned ive just kinda learned by either doing or picking up random bits of info from watching/reading.



Gordon Ramsay kinda gave me a "I feel so dumb" lesson today, I'm sure legitimately trained chefs learn this day 1 in cooking school. Today I used this method to chop tomatos and onions for Salsa....it was mind blowingly better than anything ive ever done.
[youtube]dCGS067s0zo[youtube]
The idea of leaving the bottom of whatever im slicing un-sliced so that it holds in place while I cube never even dawned on me.

If I accidentally cut off the root, I get pissed off and usually throw the onion in the trash or in a plastic baggy for someone else to use at work, and start over with a fresh onion.

Another way to do it is to cut into the onion at angles towards the center... like spokes on a bike towards the center hub if that makes sense. Makes for very even and fine minced onions, but a bit more time consuming.

I find that GR's technique is perfectly fine without the two inward cuts.

---- (separate thoughts) -----

This place I used to work at would get all of their beef from Costco. We would get those big bags of unbutchered cuts and I would have to break them down for steaks. We later switched to big bags of whole tri-tips that I had to break down into more manageable tri-tip strips.
We always had one type of cut that we would leave whole and throw into the slow cooker after hash cutting the fatty side, with water/salt/pepper/herbs/whole garlic. Cook overnight or all day, and it led to ****ing amazing braised/shredded beef. We sold it as Korean braised beef by tossing it with minced herbs and Korean BBQ sauce

If only I could remember what cut of beef it was that we braised...

[Dave P]

Appreciate a real chefbrah chiming in with his bits and pieces, gotta learn somehow.





So I gotta admit....I think im getting hooked on wrappers. So many possibilities. I made Fajita/Taco cups last night and they were epic.



I followed the food-lab/serious eats guide to fajita meat.


The night before I sealed some cheap Flat Iron Steak in the marinade, which I think is going to be my go-to marinade from now on for Fajita style meat...I've tried a couple different combos and this one was my favorite. Flat Iron steak was something like $3.99 a pound, stupid cheap.





Let the meat sit overnight. I pretty much refuse to cook any other way now so I threw it in the Sous Vide cooker for like 90 minutes at 135 degrees. Then I hit it with the standard pansear + blowtorch method but I really hit it hard so that it had a real burnt crunch on the outside.




Came out perfect






Then the assembly line began.


I took the gyoza wrappers, and put them into this mini-muffin tin I have. There was alittle bit of technique to get used to, you cant just drop em in. You have to kind of pre pinch/fold them alittle so they dont take on a weird shape. Threw them in the oven at 375 degrees until they started to brown then voila. Crunchy cups.





After that I just started a full blown assembly line. Chopped up the fajita strips into small cubed steak bites (kinda like chipotle), laid out the cups, put 3-ish pieces of meat in the bottom, topped with fresh home-made pico de gallo salsa, a quick blast of sour cream on top, and serve. Showed a pic of one next to a sharpie so you can see the size.




Nom






Things were amazing. No real tweaking necessary. I think I might start buying the cheapest steak available and putting it in this marinade, eating with alittle salsa/cream for a daily protein meal that is low-carb.

[WeekndOrNah]

bruh if Flat Irons are 3.99/lb you might as well stick to them. They're the GOAT steak that isn't an expensive porterhouse or dry aged ribeye.

Now I'm tempted to buy wonton wrappers...

[Jallalabadbad]

Think I'm going to try this after finals end next week

I have made this before and can confirm it's good as fuk.

I would try his pressed pork also....I actually made this today for the second time to refrigerate over night and have tomorrow. He doesn't mention in the vid that you should remove the foil half way through which I found to be essential for good crackling (I have the book the recipe is from). Also takes a bit longer than 2 hours closer to 3.







hnnng.

[Dave P]

Gotta be honest, I think im about to go on a full retard wrapper binge right about now. So many possibilities.

[Dave P]

Mirin' fresh Beef Knuckle bones?

[ctownballer04]

Mirin' fresh Beef Knuckle bones?

what on earth?

Unaware. What are you gonna do w/ this?

[Dave P]

Going to try to make some Pho actually.


My girl is a Keto person but she has been fiending for noodles and Pho for like a week now, we picked up some Shirataki noodles and I've been trying to figure out what to do with em. Figured I'd try out a healthy low-carb Pho. Been wanting to try to make it for a while anyway.

[WeekndOrNah]

I made Pho from scratch a few months ago and I'm a Viet brah.
I just looked up a million recipes and asked my mom and just went with whatever I felt like. Everyone's pho broth comes out differently and you can easily adjust broths to taste during the cooking process or in the eating process. As long as it has the beefy body (chicken pho GTFO) and clear broth, you're good to go.

Let me know if you want any tips or advice.

It's not a recipe I would be willing to repeat though, unfortunately. It's not a cost efficient recipe, and I had my restaurant's kitchen to make it. Not something I would make at home.

[Dave P]

Feel free to send it my way.


I looked at like 5 or 6 recipes and the basics all seem the same. Minor tweaks here and there.


Pot is simmering now, will post up results in like 3 hours after dinner.

[WeekndOrNah]

Basic tips (but it seems like you're past this point)
Blanch the beef bones (oxtails are optional but phucking expensive) for 15 min or so before starting the pot of pho for a clearer broth, and skim throughout the process
Char your onions and ginger
Herb satchel for sure. Many recipes differ on when to add the herbs. My mom advocates 30 min before serving, I like to have it for the latter 1/3 of my cook time, which ended up being close to 6 hours.
Don't be afraid to let the pot/broth cook down to intensify/concentrate the flavor. I used a ton of chicken base and salt to make my broth stronger.
The more meat, the merrier. Beef meatballs (VN: bo vien), brisket that has been cooked in the broth (VN: thit chin), raw thin sliced steak (I use round, VN: tai). I also had chunks of cheap steak in my broth, separate from the whole brisket that I threw in there.

Fresh pho noodles are the best (found in refrigerated sections), but dried is fine. I like mines medium width... boil for ~7 min.
As for serving, FRESH BASIL and CULANTRO (Saw Leaf) and lemons and thin sliced onions are essential for me, along with green onions and some cilantro. Hoisin and Sriracha.

SeriousEats has a really good Pho recipe. They also have a 1 hour pho recipe too I'm pretty sure

I have a big tupperware of broth still in my freezer that I want to make a Pho Risotto with.

[MrBungle11]

Every time i've been in Costco I see this sitting there and wonder "what if" I just said fck it and grabbed it and chopped up my own steaks

Was at CostCo yesterday and was staring at the meat thinking the same thing. One day I will...one day

[Dave P]

Yea just trying to get the basic down right now, I picked up those beef knuckle bones from the butcher for like 2 bucks a pound, I can see how Oxtails would be expensive.

[Jerma]

hey dave was talking to a guy the other day about sous vide, dude stop wasting vacuum sealer bags, just get a 2 gallon freezer bag leave it open and cant it over the side the water will pressure all the air out sufficiently.

Also for all you poverty aspiring sous vide-ers if you have a cuisinart crockpot you can use the warm setting and adjust water levels to get anywhere from 125-140 degrees
edit:
this is my crockpot

[bezarker]

I haven't had a chance to make this yet but check out these rib eye chicharrones:




and tacos de tuetano (bone marrow)


One of my customers in Monterrey Mexico always takes me to a restaurant called "La Nacional" and this is usually what we eat for dinner along with some queso menonita con carne de puerco (melted Mennonite cheese with pork):

[yoCasmu]

I'm about to move into a new apartment, any tips on best/cheap food. I'm looking to meal prep 1-3 times a week and currently on a meal plan type thing.

Anything easy to make that has them tastes?

[Dave P]

I'm a big fan of making some easy marinade, sealing it in a bag with cheap round-steak type meat, and cooking it up when you want a fast meal. Tastes good, add alittle fresh salsa/sour cream and you're golden. Could eat that daily.

[WeekndOrNah]

I'm about to move into a new apartment, any tips on best/cheap food. I'm looking to meal prep 1-3 times a week and currently on a meal plan type thing.

Anything easy to make that has them tastes?

Slow cooker / crock pot is your best friend brah.

Buy pork shoulder/butt for dirt cheap and cook it down overnight / throughout the day. It's impossible to fuk up and comes out ridiculously tender which can be tossed in whatever sauce you want.
I did ^ today after reminiscing on a previous job where we did it with Costco beef and tossed it in a korean bbq sauce. I got enough meat to last me at least 3 meals from a 2 lb pork butt. Bought some korean bbq sauce from the store and tossed it with the pork, green onions, chopped basil and cilantro, and mix with rice = HNNNNGHHHHHH bowl.

of course BBQ sauce works.

[Dave P]

Ok so my Pho experiment went pretty well, turned out really good. Couple things im gonna tweak next time but overall it was a success.

I followed this recipe for the most part

Broth:

2 medium yellow onions (about 1 pound total)
4 oz chunk of ginger
5 pounds beef soup bones (marrow and knuckle bones)
5 star anise
6 whole cloves
3-inch cinnamon stick
1 pound piece of beef chuck, rump, brisket or cross rib roast, cut into 2-by-4-inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 ounce sugar


Started off by putting the two onions on the grill for about 12 minutes, all the recipes I read called for "softened" onions after kinda charring them on the grill. While I did that I filled up the pot with water, enough to cover the bones, and let it get to a boil. For some reason every recipe calls for boiling the bones for 3-5 minutes, then straining it immediatly and cleaning off the bones and scrubbing the pot. Not sure why but I just followed orders on that one.

Then I got my spices ready, put in the 6 quarts of water, and started cooking it. I got it to a nice simmering boil and spent some time using a spoon to skim off the foam that came up.

Note on the meat, every recipe I read called for putting the meat into the broth, then letting it cook alittle, then removing it and putting it into some cold water and storing for later so it doesn't overcook. I'm just going to say that I also tried sous-viding some meat while the broth was cooking and I also tried this method. It turned out way better to just cook the meat separate from the broth entirely and just add it in the end. Boiled meat is pretty meh.




Let that simmer for like two and a half hours.

Putting the soup together I used this


1 Package Shirataki noodles
1/2 pound medium rare Sous-Vide London broil + The meat from earlier
Chopped Green Onions
chopped cilantro (ngo)
Bean sprouts



I just poured it out through a strainer into a bowl to get the broth out.



I put the Shirataki Noodles into another strainer and rinsed em really quick, poured a good amount of broth into the bowl, then added the noodles. After that I just added the rest...put some meat in, put in the onions, put i in the srouts and cilantro and wham bam it was done.


Note about Shirataki Noodles, they dont require cooking. The heat from the broth is enough to get them firm and right where they need to be. Couldn't have been easier.


You can see the difference between the Sous-Vide meat and the Boiled meat. Consider this a modern touch on a classic dish to step its quality up alittle.






Finished Product:




Some bites






Yea I know... I need to get some chopsticks...oh well.




So I thought the Pho came out pretty much perfect. I'm just going to handle the meat alittle different next time. Will Sous-Vide all of it and just let it rest in the broth at the very end to soak up some salinity...either that or just cook it with some broth in the pouch.


Overall it was a smashing success because all in all one huge bowl only had about 10g net carbs because the noodles have almost nothing. Next time I'll try it with Splenda instead of sugar to really try to squeeze all the carbs out of it. It turned out to be extremely macro + health conscious. Definitely a smash hit.


...also need to look into better soup bowls for Pho and chopsticks...salad bowls isnt crackin.

[Dave P]

Also, the Dogs were super stoked to get their bones after

[evobrahh]

So my attempt at Sous-Vide roast beef to try to make some french dip quality roast beef for sandwiches was a complete fail. It came out so dry that I couldn't even swallow it.







I feel like you made this post at 2am after drinking so I can't tell what you're saying. At first you sounded like you thought it was expensive and difficult, then you sounded like it wasnt.

i was actually drunk as fuk. i meant all this product that youre buying is pretty damn expensive and not easy to prep

[evobrahh]

Good god....



HHHnnnngggggg thats making me moist in so many places right now.


Every time i've been in Costco I see this sitting there and wonder "what if" I just said fck it and grabbed it and chopped up my own steaks

I go through 4 of these every friday at the restaurant i work at. pretty crazy to think about all the money you cut into

[Jerma]

Good god....



HHHnnnngggggg thats making me moist in so many places right now.


Every time i've been in Costco I see this sitting there and wonder "what if" I just said fck it and grabbed it and chopped up my own steaks

if i'm reading that right and it says 12 bucks a pound for prime? then ya I'd say go for it. I'm a butcher its pretty easy to do if you have a sharp knife. However if you want bone in steaks they're gonna be 2.5" thick.

basically you start at the bottom of the rib (bottom as it's showing in the picture) and just use your knife to run along the edge of the bones all the way across, cutting like a half inch at a time and follow it all the way down. then you can slice the boneless ribeyes however thick you want. Then you'll have 7 back ribs that IMO blow pork back ribs out of the water when cooked and seasoned the same way.

Christ sometimes CHOICE rib is 14 bucks COST for us.

EDIT: derp jsut realized you posted a pick from christmas 2 years ago. On that note though we sell rib roasts for like 6 bucks a pound around christmas, If you're cool with freezing your steaks then ya its a good deal but once you break that cryo seal you got like 4 days in the fridge before its starts turning dark if not frozen.