Do you cook all food using convection? do you modify recipe times
markbr
14 years ago
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rhome410
14 years agoRelated Discussions
How do you spend your cooking time?
Comments (10)I'm a whole foods person and consider whole foods the original "FAST FOOD". Why peel, boil, or "cremate" it when all you need to do is wash, slice and serve. I'm more likely to be found in the kitchen baking bread and other baked goods, so between a large variety of homemade breads (fresh and stored in the freezer), cheese, an assortment of fruit and veggies, add a meat or meat substitute, and you're ready to eat. I like to use a lot of whole grains and legumes in foods. The freezer is my friend. Cook once and freeze in user-friendly size containers. Take out the night or morning before it's needed and thaw in the refrigerator. Heat and eat. I use a loosely structured menu pattern for the evening meal only. Breakfast and lunch generally don't take a lot of planning at our house. I can switch up any one night for another without upsetting the whole thing, but it gives me a general idea for meal planning and grocery shopping. MONDAY: Big Meal (this could also be during the weekend when you have more time). This includes a large portion of meat (roast beef, turkey breast, meat loaf, etc. and all the trimmings. From the leftovers, I provide for other meals during the week. The meat is sliced, ground, or shredded to be used for sandwich meat, added to salads, casseroles, soup, etc. TUESDAY: Leftovers from Monday. It may or may NOT look like the original meal. Roast beef may become hot beef sandwiches, bbq beef, hash, etc... Mashed potatoes are made into potato patties, etc.... I also freeze dollops of mashed potatoes for easy fixin' for another meal. WEDNESDAY: Stir-fry. This can be a good way to use bits and pieces of veggies and leftover meats. Cook extra chicken or beef and use it in salads and wraps later in the week. THURSDAY: International. How about tacos (with taco meat from the freezer), or taco salad... Meaty Spaghetti sauce from the freezer. I cook ground beef stroganoff and freeze the stroganoff in small containers. All you need to do is prepare the pasta of choice for spaghetti or noodles (I also like penne pasta) for stroganoff and heat the topping. FRIDAY: Vegetarian. This can be everything from a great salad with beans to breakfast-type foods. I make bean burgers and keep a stack of them in the freezer and they make a great vegetarian meal served on a homemade multi-grain burger bun (found in the freezer), a tossed salad or sliced veggies and Ranch Dressing Dip, plus fresh fruit and cheese. SATURDAY: Soup and/or Sandwich. I keep a variety of soup/stew/chili in the freezer in single servings so we always have a variety. They make quick suppers or lunches. Top a baked potato with chili. Chili can also be used in a taco salad (similar to Wendy's). Use tortillas for a wrap. Good old tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.... SUNDAY: Homemade pizza (I use a simple whole wheat sourdough dough recipe for the crust) or a salad meal. This is a good way to use up small amounts of veggies, pre-cooked hamburger or other bits of pre-cooked meat. We also have "scrounge night" on Sunday. That's another way to clean out the leftovers in the refrigerator and freezer.... Eggs are also a Sunday night choice. If they are already hard-cooked and in the refrigerator, use them for egg salad or sliced eggs to top a salad. Toast and boiled eggs or toast points and poached eggs, scrambled, veggie omelet or fritta. Add some tomato slices (or other veggies) and some fruit and you've got a meal. -Grainlady...See MoreHow do you cook chicken for a recipe?
Comments (23)There is a difference between poaching and simmering. I would not poach a chicken but simmer it. Found this online. Poaching Cooking in liquid with a temperature ranging from 140F to 180F is called poaching and is typically reserved for cooking very delicate items like eggs and fish. At the correct temperature, the poaching liquid won't show any visible signs of bubbling at all, though small bubbles may form at the bottom of the pot. This means that the best way of checking that the temperature is correct is with an instant-read thermometer. Simmering Simmering is cooking in liquid that's a bit hotter than poaching from 180F to 205F. Here we will see bubbles forming and gently rising to the surface of the water, but the water is not yet at a full rolling boil. Because it surrounds the food in water that maintains a more or less constant temperaure, simmering cooks food very evenly. It's an excellent choice for culinary preparations including stocks or soups, starchy items such as potatoes or pastas, and many others. One of the downsides to cooking this way is that it can cause the food to lose vitamins and other nutrients by leaching into the cooking liquid. Boiling The hottest of these three stages is boiling, where the water reaches its highest possible temperature of 212F. It's actually the least likely of the three to be used for cooking. That's because the violent agitation caused by the rolling boil can be too rough on food and will often damage it. Water at a full boil would be a bad choice for cooking an egg outside its shell, as we do when preparing poached eggs, because the agitation would cause the egg to fall apart. The same holds true for delicate fish as well as some pastas. Sue...See MoreDo you prepare and measure your food before cooking?
Comments (26)It depends on what it is and if I am going to have help from my husband to do the cutting and chopping. I try to plan things like that when he is around to do the chopping. I just can't do much of that anymore. For some things I can use my food processor or slicer chopper. Baking which I don't do a lot I do follow the directions and do exact measurements but regular cooking I rarely measure which is why it is hard for me to give someone one of my recipes I have to stop and think about how much of each thing I use. I cook by feel and experience, been doing something so long you just know it, I do it my way. I do at times buy the containers of fresh chopped veggies and onions etc at the grocery especially if I think I will need it and he won't be there to help. Today I have a huge roaster pot in the oven filled to the brim with fresh cut okra(they had it all cut and ready at the grocery) and onions and tomatoes, cooking it down to have some for dinner but mostly to divide up into portions just right for making gumbo then put them in the freezer. Time for gumbo grab one and toss it in the pot of gumbo voila perfect okra gumbo. Did I mention how much we love smothered okra onions and tomatoes? OMG and it is smelling really good. I picked up the containers of fresh chopped onions at the store since I knew I would be starting this while he was at work. I like those much better than the bags of the frozen ones. When you have those kinds of problems you have to do what it takes to deal with it. It cost more to buy them cut up, I'm willing to pay it when I have to....See More"Chinese Food" - What do you cook at home?
Comments (65)Glad you like them, CindyMac. Now I "want" one of those portable IWATANI butane cookers. We have smooth top electric, but it heats up quickly and works well. My _problem_ is that, although we have a robust kitchen-stovetop exhaust fan, cooking certain things like a dozen fresh Thai basil leaves makes a fine splattery mess. It's easy to clean up and wipe down the visable or stovetop oil spatter, but there is a lot that gets "around". I was thinking that perhaps the IWATANI butane 35 whatever might help me fry outdoors. But, we are in New England, often have a 30 mph breeze. A friend thinks that it would not have sufficient heat in those conditions. If I used it on en enclosed, unfinished, un insulated and un heated porch just off the kitchen, it would still be chilly while cooking, but as there is NO exhaust fan, would probably GOP that up in short order. For a while (30 minutes) I had visions of my cooking SE Asian noodles and meals at outside summer markets. But New Engand ain't Saigon or even Mexico. Lots of hoops and regulations and Inspections. Yadda yadda. End of that whimsical notion. Not to mention to restricted diets -- no gluten, no peanuts, no this or that. QUESTION- what do the Chinese and Asians do about gluten and gliadin and peanut allergies? Do they have as many picky eaters as we have in the US? What about other places? In my household, we can eat about everything. I have some degree of (age-related) lactose sensitivity. But I just eat aged cheeses or yogurt and restrict the volume of whey, lactose-laden foods. We also get lactase drops for milk....See Morewekick
14 years agosara_the_brit_z6_ct
14 years ago
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
14 years agodatura-07
14 years agosegbrown
14 years agosegbrown
14 years agofrancoise47
14 years agomomotom
14 years ago
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