a thread full of my cooking misconceptions.

[Dantrag]

It's braising, a common technique. Nom nom nom beef stew. Hell it's how I cooked this a few days ago -

I'm sure we can go back and forth all day on this but braising isn't exactly what you would do with steak for a salad or stir fry.

[wop]

^ Raise you with Wagyu beef in TRUFFLE teriyaki sauce.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7667933_n.jpg

went really well with my Krug 1998

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7882693_n.jpg

[Dantrag]

I've never had Wagyu, but it doesn't seem to stack up to Kobe. But I cannot argue with a truffle teriyaki...

There's a restaurant here that has a uni spaghetti on the menu, last time I went in to try it they had taken it off the menu <3 uni.

This is the wine we had w/ the kobe:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...CIMG0670-1.jpg

[Ksandra]

IDK why people are getting on a hate train over well done meat, and saying it's dry etc. I like my steaks well done, red in the meat makes me feel sick when I eat it. (dunno if that's mental or because my body doesn't like it).

And I rarely go to any place that gives me a "dry" steak. It's really not that hard to make a well done juicy steak.

[Daydreamer]

I'm sure we can go back and forth all day on this but braising isn't exactly what you would do with steak for a salad or stir fry.

Agreed. I thought you meant in general.

Oh and Wagyu and Kobe are kinda the same thing. Kobe is the place, Wagyu is the beef (or maybe the opposite, I can't remember).

[Daydreamer]

IDK why people are getting on a hate train over well done meat, and saying it's dry etc. I like my steaks well done, red in the meat makes me feel sick when I eat it. (dunno if that's mental or because my body doesn't like it).

And I rarely go to any place that gives me a "dry" steak. It's really not that hard to make a well done juicy steak.

It may just be what you are used to, and that is fine, but if people that are used to mid rare go to to a steak house and get a well done steak to them it will taste much more dry. It's all relative to what you are accustomed to.

[wop]

Matsusaka Kobe Wagyu whatever same shit... it comes in grades that's all you have to know.

Class #1 Wagyu etc....

[Dantrag]

Agreed. I thought you meant in general.

Oh and Wagyu and Kobe are kinda the same thing. Kobe is the place, Wagyu is the beef (or maybe the opposite, I can't remember).

Nah, I was speaking at the time solely about sirloin for those dishes.

Matsusaka Kobe Wagyu whatever same shit... it comes in grades that's all you have to know.

Class #1 Wagyu etc....

For some reason I thought that wagyu was the American version. My mistake. I'm not sure how all the other places rate it but I know where I got it from it was on the scale from A1 to A5. A5 having the most marbling.

On a different note, has anyone had baked uni(sea urchin)? Shit is fucking good.

[Judai]

So anyone have some good sites with "everyday" dinner type recipes? I know how to cook decent but I could get better. Just looking to improve my recipes for like spaghetti, kielbasa, etc... there are a million sites and most of the ones I looked at weren't helpful.

[wop]

On a different note, has anyone had baked uni(sea urchin)? Shit is fucking good.

People cook uni because it is not fresh enough.

If it's SUPER fresh, like the day it was caught, there's no fishiness taste is it, on the contrary, it's has a sweetness to it when eating raw.

Then again, you will be paying super premium for it, even in Japan.

I had this last month,

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7166683_n.jpg
Uni topped with beluga caviar.

Divine. Go try it Dantrag.

[Ksandra]

So anyone have some good sites with "everyday" dinner type recipes? I know how to cook decent but I could get better. Just looking to improve my recipes for like spaghetti, kielbasa, etc... there are a million sites and most of the ones I looked at weren't helpful.

My favorite site for recipes is http://allrecipes.com/

I've had really good luck finding stuff there. Big thing is though is take the time to read the reviews as a lot of people make changes to them that are usually good.

[Dantrag]

People cook uni because it is not fresh enough.

If it's SUPER fresh, like the day it was caught, there's no fishiness taste is it, on the contrary, it's has a sweetness to it when eating raw.

Then again, you will be paying super premium for it, even in Japan.

I had this last month,

Uni topped with beluga caviar.

Divine. Go try it Dantrag.

1) That looks ridiculous... but I would eat the hell out of it lol.
2) It was cooked because the sushi chef wanted to try something different. We had some of the same supply raw as well. I love it raw too. I will usually order at least one order when I go get sushi if they have it.

[vagus]

You don't make friends with salad.

[Daydreamer]

Wop, do I even want to know how much that cost you? That looks like at least an ounce of caviar...

[Dantrag]

How about asparagus pesto risotto with seared sea scallops :D?

[Daydreamer]

Lose the pesto in the risotto and we'll talk.

[Dantrag]

I do it several ways lol. With the asparagus puree it was actually really good.

[Daydreamer]

Hmm, the idea of a puree sounds interesting. I will have to try that one sometime.

[Dantrag]

Yeah, I got myself mixed up with puree and pesto since I was thinking of making a pesto/walnut crusted filet mignon if i could find some on sale.

[Talus]

There are a lot of misconceptions about pasta.

I've seen people add salt to the water, I've seen people add olive oil to the water. They usually say it's to help keep the pasta from sticking together, or that it raises the boiling point and makes it cook faster.

Look up "colligative properties" sometime on wikipedia. It's true that if you add "stuff" to a solvent, that the "stuff" will lower the freezing point and raise the boiling point of the solution. This is why roads are treated/pre-treated with salt and sand, not for traction all though you could argue that the granules of sand/salt on the road increase the surface area your tires come into contact with and allow a greater coefficient of friction/better grip, it's mainly that the "stuff" added to the solvent, in this case the precipitation, will depress the freezing point so the roads will be wet. They won't ice over.

The amount of salt people typically add to a pot of water to prepare pasta is not an appreciable enough amount that you are going to raise the boiling point of the water and cook the pasta any faster. You have to add way more salt to get a noticeable increase in the boiling point of the water in the pot, to the point that your pasta is going to taste saltier than an old Italian guy's ballsack after he's been sweating in the sauna for 20 minutes.

Salts are by definition a metal and a non-metal element sharing an ionic bond, which dissociates in water or any polar solvent, really. And makes stuff delicious. Adding oil to the water isn't going to do much to keep the pasta from sticking together, because water and oil DO NOT MIX. Water is polar, oil is nonpolar. If you've had basic chemistry you understand that this means, but if you haven't, then you can understand the simple rule "like dissolves like," which means if you want to dissolve oil, you need something similar to oil, and water isn't similar to oil.

If you want the pasta to not stick together, after you strain it, toss it lightly with olive oil. Problem solved.

Thomas Keller may be a big asshole, but I love his cookbooks.