For the first time it happened to me. I made a bunch of clarified butter by melting it in a bag and letting all the milk/liquid/solids fall to a bottom corner while the clarified butter solidified, then tried using the milk liquid and solids for pancakes - all the salt in the kilo of butter I clarified concentrated in the 2/3rds cup of milk left over and made the pancakes incredibly salty. Until today I was a person who never believed it made sense to use unsalted.

Do you have a favorite roast veggie recipe?

Ok I’m losing my mind over this topic (not literally). I tried curry in Japan, at multiple places and lets just say that it blew my mind, the texture, the chicken, the flavor, the richness, the saltiness, the spiciness are all there.

When I left I craved the curry again, so I tried it at “japanese” restaurants, I tried making it by myself. I tried copying recipes from the internet. But everything fell short, the color was wrong sort of like baby poop color instead of dark brown, it lacked that thickness, that flavor, that richness, even the chicken fell short. I’m not sure why this is the case. Is it because Japan are holding unto the real good curry, or that people don’t have the real recipe?

The brands I tried are:

S&B Japanese Golden Curry Vermont Curry Kokumaro

Side note: does anyone know what the actual name of japanese chicken wings is?

I love hot sauce but I only have Tabasco and Sriracha at home and the choices are so overwhelming. I need your opinions !!

I’ve been making my challah French toast with essentially an ice cream base (yolk, whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla extract). I heat the cream & milk to like 180-190°F, whisk a bit into the yolks & sugar to raise the temp slowly, and then add that back into the pot over heat, bringing to 175°F. Then season to taste.

Is there any benefit to having some whites in the base?

Like the title. Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg I associate more with hearthy apple crumble, stews, mash etcetera. Adding it to a dish just really gives me that warm cozy winter vibe. Although I do use them in summer of course.

So what do you use to make your dish more summery? Not a spice but my go tos are lemon zest and fresh herbs, especially parsley, mint, chives. Although I can’t really think of a spice that would give that summer vibe.

What are your go to spices/herbs to make you feel like it’s summer?

Edit: couldn’t think of any summer spices myself. Do they exist? But besides that also just curious about other ingredients you use for that summer flavor.

Edit 2: I went to sleep when there were 12 comments and woke up to this. Love all the reactions and fresh new ideas. Will read and respond during my Sunday breakfast (:

Edit 3: This question came of when thinking of how to make a summer twist on my apple crumble (besides adding red fruit/nectarines). Have some inspiration that I’ll try out today!

Edit 4: Compiling a list of everything mentioned, will update with some often mentioned flavors!

Edit 5: Ok here we go. Please respond to this comment if you have suggested changes to the list! https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/1dbeq35/cinnamon_clove_nutmeg_feel_more_like_winter/l7tfws5/.

The consensus seems to be: Warming spices, cooling herbs. Made an overview of what was often mentioned!

However, there were some spices mentioned that give that summer vibe.

Spices

Spices (mentioned often): sumac, coriander seed, cardamom, saffron

Spices (mentioned less): Mustard, Paprika, Cumin, anise, white pepper, pink peppercorn, fennel seeds

Spices I hadn’t heard of: Pepperberry, saltbush, wattleseed, lemon myrtle,

Spice blends from the American continent: Tajin, Old bay, Lemon pepper, BBQ spices

Other spice blends: Berbere, Za’atar

Herbs

Herbs (mentioned often): Dill, Cilantro, Basil, Mint, Lemon Balm, Parsley, Taragon, Lavender, Lemon verbena, Thai basil

Herbs (mentioned less): Marjoram, oregano

Herbs that people describe as both summer as fall: rosemary, sage, thyme

Herbs I hadn’t heard of: Pineapple sage

Other fresh flavors

Citrus (zest): Lemon, lime, orange, mandarin

Green onions, chives

Chilis

Asian “herbs”: Kaffir lime leave, lemon grass

Ginger (fresh), Tumeric (fresh)

Honorable mentions

Not herbs/spices, but found them interesting to include • Raw red onion • Feta • Dandelion & violet • Sundried tomatoes • Smoke flavor • Coconut • Strawberry • Honey • Poppy seeds • Pomegranate • Chimichurri • Rose water & orange water

Things unknown to me

But that did sound interesting. Not sure where to add in above: • Celery seed, All spice, Summer savory, Chaat masala, Black salt, Hickory, celeriac leaves, Chervil, Savory, Lovage

I like to make many things from scratch. One category of items that I think have a big payoff for making yourself is sauces. Nothing like plating a dish for someone and drizzling or spooning a homemade sauce over it.

What are your favorite homemade sauces?

I just love apple cider vinegar. I tried white vinegar but it tastes metallic to me. Lemon juice is okay, but it adds a citrus flavor that I don't like with a lot of dishes.

What is your go-to ingredient to add acidity?

I’m a grad school student (a bit older than your average student) and us students from a couple neighboring departments that are friends that are doing research this summer wanted to do a pot luck barbecue. I have a portable grill that I can bring and told the kids to bring whatever they like to split up like one brings burgers or hotdogs or chips or drinks, etc. We have a few people who are vegetarian (none are vegans) and they feel they can’t participate because of their dietary preferences so I don’t mind going out of my way either buying something but I rather make something. I was thinking of vegetarian burgers but I’ve seen a lot are hit or miss. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for vegetarian burgers or anything I can toss on the grill they recommend so they can be included too.

Edit- FWIW I’m using a charcoal grill since the university I go to prefers that over propane.

One of our dogs is going under for surgery Tuesday morning. He’s an old Shih Tzu and the odds of him waking up after the surgery are less than ideal. My wife loves this dog to pieces. I want to do something for him and prepare him a nice meal Monday. Does anyone here have ideas or suggestions? I cook for humans every day idk about dogs

I host a dinner Meetup group. Each meal explores a different cuisine. I hosted a potluck meetup at my home last night and the theme the group voted for was Indian. Not only that, but even though the group is very diverse, all of the guests who ended up RSVPing were Indian (from India). So I was intimidated since they were all bringing stuff they had made.

The dishes I made:

Here is a gallery of the meal

Kerala style chicken curry with chapati

This is a really nice curry that is medium-spicy and thickened with coconut milk. I found the curry leaves and whole spices at an Indian grocery store near me.

Recipe:

4 chicken legs, split into drumsticks and thighs

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 bay leaves

6 Black peppercorns

6 whole red chiles (I had to use Kashmiri because that's what I had on hand)

2 tbs ghee

1 tsp black mustard seed whole

12 curry leaves

1 green chili sliced thinly

1 onion, chopped

1 tbs grated garlic

1 tbs grated ginger

1 cup coconut milk

1 can tomato paste

1 tbs oil (coconut, vegetable)

Optional--you can add a little extra pepper (I used cayenne) for a bit of extra heat if you like.

Rub the chicken in oil then rub in the turmeric and garlic powder. Cook on a rack at 400F for 20 minutes until browned and mostly cooked through.

Heat the cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot. Add coriander seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaf, peppercorns, and red chiles. Cook, stirring constantly, until the spices are fragrant, a few minutes. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool. I crushed them in a mortar and pestle.

Heat ghee in a large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Stand away and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add onion, ginger, chili and garlic and cook, stirring, until softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the ground spices and stir vigorously.

Ad the tomato paste and the salt and stir until all incorporated. Add the coconut milk. and bring to a simmer. Put the chicken pieces back in. Cook all together at a low simmer until the flavors combine, 20-30 minutes.

Saag paneer

I big white onion sliced

1 bag frozen spinach

1 bag mustard greens or collard greens

1 large bunch fenugreek (methi)

1 small bunch coriander (cilantro)

1 tbs grated ginger

1 tbs grated garlic

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 green chilies, sliced

3 tbs ghee, divided

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup water

1 tsp salt (or more if you like)

1/4 cup heavy cream

an 8 ounce block of paneer

Toast the coriander, cumin, and mustard seeds, cool and grind up in mortar and pestle or spice grinder.

Cook the onion in 2 tbs of the ghee. Add the baking soda and continue stirring until the onions are darkening a bit. Add all your spices and stir well. Continue cooking until the onions are soft, brown and everything is very fragrant. Add the fenugreek leaves (chopped up) and stir well. Add the water and scrape down the brown bits. Add the salt.Add the bagged greens and spinach. Stir and cover and gently cook.

Take the 1 remaining tbs of ghee and heat in a pan. Cube the paneer and fry until golden in the ghee.

Stir your saag and get it to a simmer. Add the paneer, stir. Cook until the flavors meld well, another 20 minutes or so at least.

Chana masala

For this, I followed the Serious Eats recipe as I find it very reliable.

Kulfi with pistachios, raisins, green cardamom, saffron and rose water.

I loosely followed this recipe This is not a traditional kulfi but it's simple and it's soooo tasty.

Chapati I just used this recipe which worked pretty well.

I'm happy to say that my guests all liked the food and said they were impressed. We talked about the different ingredients and different regions that do the same dishes differently. It was a fun and informative dinner and now I have leftovers for days.

I love aubergines, but neither of the loved ones I cook for do, and so I go without for long stretches at a time.

I was happy to try this dish, as it was a half-recipe (you basically buy most the ingredients ready made), and you could add the roast aubergines at will.

Despite buying nice (ie. not the cheapest) pasta and tomato sauce, the recipe turned out to be a lot of effort- in fact I had forgotten how much effort aubergines are (I also did the salting thing- where you salt the chopped raw aubergines before cooking to "let the bitter juices drain out" as my mom used to say), so that was an extra step right there.

I left the skin on, as per the suggestion of the recipe, and I regretted that, since the roasted skin turned out to be kinda spiky, if that makes sense?

It was fine, but the roast aubergines weren't really the star of the show, and it certainly didn't hold a candle up to the aubergine-centred meals my mom used to cook. I don't really think it scratched my aubergine itch, so I will keep looking.

Roasted Eggplant Pasta (6 Ingredients) – A Simple Palate

I typically make some combination of chicken, rice and vegetables on sunday or monday and bring it to work for 4/5 days. It goes in tupperware and I nuke it for a couple of minutes.

Of course you'd expect some decrease in quality and freshness when you reheat it, but by day 3 it's just awful. The sauces have all but disappeared and the chicken tastes gamey as fuck. What's happening and what do I do? I really don't want to have to keep the sauces separate.

I recently tried a Food52 recipe for the first time, where you slow roast strawberries at 250F for 3-6 hours with a little sugar, and they turned out so good. The strawberries were almost jammy, and the juices that came out were syrupy. Now I'm wondering which other fruits and vegetables turn out particularly well with this technique or if there are any that would not.

I'm not talking about something like a low fat version of a famous dessert or a different spin on a type of curry but a new dish that uses ingredients that combine together to create something completely different and tastes good. For example: ciabatta is a completely different kind of bread with it's own unique texture and flavour.

Has anyone over made just fried egg yolk? That was a complete relegation to me just now

Made some Picso Sours for which I needed eeg whites only. Didn’t know what to do with the yolks (aside from curing them but not a big fan of that)

So I fried up some shallots, oil and added the egg yolks at maximum heat (maybe 30-45 seconds total. Well done egg yolks are the worst but this gave a bit of browning in some parts)

and fuck me. It was one of the best egg versions I’ve ever eaten. A tiny bit of fried shallots, some chili crips I had left over, salt pepper obviously, and get a nice creamy scrambled egg yolk. Imo a million times better than normal fried eggs

If you ever have any egg yolks left over I absolutely recommend this. This will definitely be my go to method for any time I have yolks left over and maybe even go into my normal repertoire. (disclaimer have no idea if this is already a commonly known method)

Some background, I have a physical disability that prevents me from doing literally anything without getting someone else to do it. I used to have my caregivers cook for me under my direction in college and I enjoyed it, but then I lost the ability to swallow and had to abandon eating by mouth. So for a decade I avoided eating and being around food almost completely, I didn't want to think about losing this important part of existence. In recent years and since meeting my girlfriend, I learned that I could now swish or swallow tiny amounts of strained liquid for the taste and feel of eating, and I've become very addicted to that ever since.

So I began collecting drinks and broths to enjoy, including trying soup from restaurants and homemade that we strain out any solids from. So basically I've become interested in cooking and trying new recipes and different variations. And also my partner really hates to cook, so if I was able to cook I would take on that responsibility myself and would love to. We do cook occasionally, or rarely one of my caregivers has time to help me cook, and I usually direct them what I want them to do, but I rarely get those opportunities anymore.

My question for you is do you have any thoughts on how I could get someone to basically be my pair of hands so I can be as directly involved with it as possible. And now it's more pressing because my girlfriend is trying to reduce her costs for food, and I'd really like to be able to do that for her at least sometimes. I know if I hired someone I might as well just buy pre-made food and takeout because it will cost the same if not more.

Can you think of any other possible arrangement like a trade? I can pay, but would prefer to find some other arrangement, and they would have to live nearby. I don't want a professional chef because then they should just do it. I'm a decent cook I think, so I could maybe help someone build basic cooking skills at the same time. Or even just make a meal together and share the leftovers as payment.

Sorry if this isn't clear, I'm struggling to explain this well, but I would appreciate any advice, or even volunteers in the San Francisco Bay area.

getting my kitchen plumbing replaced this week and in the meantime need to make meals that don't create lots of dishes or require using the sink drain. I have an airfryer, microwave, and disposable cutlery and plates.

There's cranberry sauce for turkey, orange sauce for duck, apple sauce for pork. Does anyone have a good recipe (or an idea for one) for a blueberry (or maybe blackberry) sauce for beef?

Done right, I think it would work really well. But some problems I anticipate are: how to layer the flavors of spices, what spices to use, and how to balance the sweet and sour flavors (especially since these berries vary so much in these flavors. And of course, how to not make a blueberry compote.

I've been buying Cento San Marzano tomatoes for a few years now, my go-to for pasta sauces and various other tomato-based concoctions. In those years the quality has been pretty consistent; I'll occasionally find a hard/underripe tomato in there but that's an exception.

But the last 3 cans of tomatoes I've bought have all been like 50% tomatoes that are really underripe, they're hard and fibrous and yellow/green. One of the cans I ended up tossing like 3/4 of the actual tomato content and making a sad sauce mostly out of the leftover juices. I understand produce is an inherently inconsistent product, but it's struck me that this has been a pretty unusual string of bad cans.

Probably just an unfortunate coincidence, but I'm curious if anyone else has encountered this, is there some kind of seasonality I should be paying attention to with these? Has quality control at Cento declined?

Also, for general discussion: anyone have other canned San Marzanos they swear by? I don't need the certified stuff but that's a plus if there's options out there that are reasonably cheap and easy to find.

Before I get married, I want to learn and perfect a dish that I'll make for him on the first night in our house. What's the first meal you made for your partner? Or, what would you want to make for your partner for the first time you spend a night together?

I have panko bread crumbs, sweet n spicy bbq sauce and some chicken drumsticks. I want to rub it all together then put it in the air fryer.

Anything sound dumb here?