the_siobhan: (SCIENCE!)
[personal profile] the_siobhan
Inspired by [personal profile] luzula who was posting about new cooking experiments.

I had my first major cooking fail last week. I tried a new a pasta dish and it was awful. Ended up throwing it out.

I'm still playing with the curry recipe. I made a batch without any habanera and mixed it with my first too-hot batch and I thought it came out perfect for me - but probably still too hot to feed to my gf and I'd like to have a version I can cook for her. I tried some of the no-habanera at all on it's own and it's definitely missing something if I make it that way.

My next round of experiments will be to adjust the base spice mix - maybe keep the habanera and reduce the red chili, or reduce both and ramp up one of the other ingredients to offset. More roti for me to eat, alas.

The other thing I have been making in big batches is soup. When it's hot out I always want salads for lunch, in the winter I crave soup. So far I have found recipes for a pumpkin, a carrot-thyme, and a curried sweet potato that I really like. I've also tried a variety of squashes combined with various other things - apples mostly - but I found those ones pretty meh. The ones I like the most also seem to be the ones that freeze the best, so I make big pots of them and then spend the rest of the week fishing them out of the freezer to nuke for lunch.

I did try the garlic noodles, with bok choy. They were pretty good? But not enough by themselves, they need to go with something and I haven't quite figured out what yet.

I obviously need to watch more youtube videos.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-14 08:58 am (UTC)
greylock: (Default)
From: [personal profile] greylock
What was wrong with the pasta?

. I made a batch without any habanera and mixed it with my first too-hot batch and I thought it came out perfect for me - but probably still too hot to feed to my gf and I'd like to have a version I can cook for her

Aside from adding coconut milk to hers to cool it down, or yoghurt, could you make the bland version with a pinch of chilli for general heat, and then add diced chilli/hot sauce/minced chilli/extra powder to give yours a kick?

So far I have found recipes for a pumpkin, a carrot-thyme, and a curried sweet potato that I really like.

These are my favourite soups. When I get my extra freezer, I will absolutely get back into soup making. I used to make a killer brown windsor soup too.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-15 06:42 am (UTC)
greylock: (Default)
From: [personal profile] greylock
Just remember: red is a warning. Usually. :P

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-14 12:02 pm (UTC)
lil_m_moses: (cooking)
From: [personal profile] lil_m_moses
When dishes are missing something, I often try a little sprinkle of either ancho chili powder to add warmth and umami without any real heat, or MSG for straight umami (or both). These don't always work, but do work surprisingly often.

Here you can get MSG as a small canister product called Accent in the spice section, though I've also seen giant bags of generic MSG at the Asian grocery. It just makes things taste more like themselves, and a tiny bit goes a long way. I keep a reused spice jar with a mix of salt, black pepper, and Accent in my 'right next to stove for frequent use' stash (which also contains garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper). That mix is great on chicken before roasting, too.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-15 07:01 am (UTC)
greylock: (Default)
From: [personal profile] greylock
I've got a big generic bag from the Asian supermarket. Would recommend. Would also recommending going halves. It's a lot.

I think the rule is something like never exceed a 1:1 ratio to replace salt?

(It's great for velveting meat for Asian dishes too).

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-14 05:15 pm (UTC)
trobadora: (Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan - domestic)
From: [personal profile] trobadora
Oh, it sucks so much when you try a new recipe and it just doesn't work at all. :(

Yay for soup!

(no subject)

Date: 2025-03-19 06:03 pm (UTC)
disastrid: (Default)
From: [personal profile] disastrid
Rainbow Plant Life (website and youtube) has great curry recipes, as does Vegan Richa. Everything is vegan as the curries involve beans/lentils, but they're delicious and you can add in meat if you want to. Both also have loads of recipes for tasty things that aren't curry (TONS of soups!), and RPL is especially committed to recipes that have steps to increase umami.
Edited Date: 2025-03-19 06:03 pm (UTC)

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