Food and Alcohol

[physicsfactor]

Also, my wife is not allowed to make her curry in our house. It makes the entire house smell like shit for days.

 

[dkst0426]

My wife is the primary breadwinner in the family (there's another challenge to traditional roles for ya!), so I actually end up doing the majority of the cooking.

Trust me - there have been failures. Some rather spectacular, but thankfully involving nothing more than a spray bottle of water instead of an extinguisher. It's all about trial and error and finding out what suits the family's tastes. Having kids makes it a test at times, because I get "I don't want to eat...." or "I want (insert pizza/mac and cheese/nuggets) instead". They're learning, though - and name substitution (e.g. Cars Land Chicken for BBQ chicken) helps.

 

[rome8180]

Well, most famous chefs are male. It seems a little nonsensical to me that women are supposed to do the cooking at home but men dominate the world of high-end cuisine. Also, men always do the grilling because...? Men like burgers and steaks? Basically I think the person who enjoys cooking more should do it. If you both enjoy it, you should do it together or trade off.

 

[rome8180]

As for cooking for kids, my parents never gave a fuck whether I "liked" what they were cooking. And it worked. I was asking to go to an Indian restaurant for my birthday by the time I turned 10.

My dad has two kids by a second marriage. They are much younger than I am. I see what their mom feeds them and how she completely caters to their tastes. Their palate is incredibly limited and not very healthy.

 

[skins]

I have very little in common with my mom but she loves to cook so that's given us something to talk about. Two years ago she gave me a pressure cooker and a bread baking book which have both been instrumental in making myself better meals in this post-college/dining hall world.

 

[Topher]

I do roughly 80% of the cooking in our house, mostly because I find it really enjoyable to create a good meal. Last week, I taught myself how to make shrimp properly (which is easy) and its just a small dose of accomplishment.

 

[rome8180]

I love finally figuring out how to do something properly (or at least in a way that works for you and you can consistently re-create). I didn't really get good at cooking a thick steak until last year.

I still haven't mastered stir-frying as well as I'd like. I want to achieve that level of crunchy-but-totally-cooked that you get in Asian restaurants everywhere. I've worked in Chinese restaurants and I've seen the cooking process. Extremely high heat, just a couple minutes in the wok, tossing constantly. I just haven't been able to make it happen at home. It may be a matter of the proper equipment. I know steaming the vegetables for about 30 seconds before the frying can help.

I've had the same problems making fried rice. I hear it's best to use old, kind of dried-out rice.

 

[aiw]

I've really started to get into cooking lately. I've always been the breakfast/omelet person, but have moved into dinners. Usually something Italian at this point.

My 2 oldest will eat anything (minus some weird eccentricities) but my daughter eats only chicken or pizza at this point. She'll go without eating by choice rather than eat most of the things we make.

 

[skins]

I've had the same problems making fried rice. I hear it's best to use old, kind of dried-out rice.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/02/...se-thai-wok-technique-right-type-of-rice.html

 

[skins]

Serious Eats is definitely my favorite cooking site. The culinary director's book 'The Food Lab' is fantastic and available on Amazon for around $25. With so many great recipes and tips/techniques it's well worth it.

 

[physicsfactor]

My 2 oldest will eat anything (minus some weird eccentricities) but my daughter eats only chicken or pizza at this point. She'll go without eating by choice rather than eat most of the things we make.

This is how I was as a kid. My dad's rule was if you won't eat what your mother makes, then you can make your own dinner. I ate a lot of salads growing up because I wouldn't eat what she had cooked.

To Lhys's point about kids' palates being shaped, I was an extremely picky eater into my 20s because my mother was a picky eater. We didn't eat anything "ethnic" other than TexMex or spaghetti. To this day, I still won't eat most Asian dishes. Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, and most Chinese foods are out of the question. I'm not sure they will ever taste good to me at this point. I do try them every once in a while just to see if my tastes have changed.

However, I think part of the palate is something you're just born with as well. My dad is coffee drinker, and I grew up trying his coffee all the time. I've tried coffee a million times and still hate it. I've tried several different kinds of beer in hopes of fitting in at get-togethers when everyone else is drinking beer, but I just can't like beer.

 

[dkst0426]

My dad has two kids by a second marriage. They are much younger than I am. I see what their mom feeds them and how she completely caters to their tastes. Their palate is incredibly limited and not very healthy.

Precisely what we're trying to avoid. At this point with a 5, two 7s, and a 9, they like dim sum, a variety of vegetables, tacos, different noodle dishes, and among the meats they have tried are beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, venison, elk, and bison. I'll take it, given the horror stories I hear/read about.

Last week, I taught myself how to make shrimp properly (which is easy) and its just a small dose of accomplishment.

Well dang, share your recipe(s)!

On a whim once upon a time, I put together a sorta scampi (I say sorta because it doesn't look like scampi I've had in restaurants) with a creamy white wine sauce. My wife's first marriage was to an Italian family, so I'm always happy to hear when she likes my pasta dishes.

I still haven't mastered stir-frying as well as I'd like. I want to achieve that level of crunchy-but-totally-cooked that you get in Asian restaurants everywhere. I've worked in Chinese restaurants and I've seen the cooking process. Extremely high heat, just a couple minutes in the wok, tossing constantly. I just haven't been able to make it happen at home. It may be a matter of the proper equipment. I know steaming the vegetables for about 30 seconds before the frying can help.

I've had the same problems making fried rice. I hear it's best to use old, kind of dried-out rice.

The high heat is always the key. So difficult to replicate at home with an electric wok. My mom actually found a traditional stone hearth at an Asian store in Queens that she ran a gas line into for the burner. Alas, my sister claimed it after my mom passed.

The rice thing depends on your own preference, really - creates kind of an interesting dynamic in my house, since my wife prefers dryer rice, and I like mine soft. Jasmine rice cooked with a pinch more water than usual gives us a happy medium. Per that article, using fresh rice isn't really an issue at all if you let it sit for around an hour.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

What kind of sauce are you guys using for stir fry? I've tried oyster, hoisin and a sauce called "Stir Fry Sauce." I liked oyster the best, even though I would eat straight spoonfuls of hoisin if it weren't an instant kidney stone. I don't use much oil.

For Indian, those premade grocery curries aren't great but there's no way I'm getting all the ingredients and spices necessary to do it myself. It's pretty easy to cut up some chicken breasts, pan fry them and throw the premade vindaloo or tikka masala sauce over them.

I'm going to try to recreate the halal street meat white sauce and pour that over some shredded chicken and ground lamb.

 

[aiw]

I was extremely picky until I was in my 30s. Now, I'll eat anything (no broccoli).

 

[aiw]

What kind of sauce are you guys using for stir fry? I've tried oyster, hoisin and a sauce called "Stir Fry Sauce." I liked oyster the best, even though I would eat straight spoonfuls of hoisin if it weren't an instant kidney stone. I don't use much oil.

There is a great, great, great Asian supermarket in the old Circuit City at Southsquare. I use some stuff from a bottle that I can't read. It has been a bit uncomfortable being in there as the only white guy with everyone staring at you, but it's one of my favorite places. First time in there I went with my oldest kid and we spent 2 hours just looking at all the weird things we've never seen before. You can buy duck uteri if you want or an entire spinal column of some mammal. They will smash the head of a fish that they pull of out the tank for you. The veggies are amazing. It's incredibly cheap. One of my favorite places.

 

[rhfarmer]

SM, you can get curry paste, which is concentrated, and make your own curry sauce using coconut milk. You just add coconut milk to taste. It goes much further than a jar of sauce.

dkst can probably attest to this being from Malaysia, but some of the cuisines from SE Asia have been heavily influenced by European culinary traditions, particularly those countries/areas that were colonized by France. Any part of French Indochine would have traditional ingredients paired with French cooking techniques.

If anyone really wants to get better at cooking without reading Gastronomie or going to culinary school, just learning how to cut meats and vegetables properly and in what order to add them to a dish will make your food miles better.

 

[aiw]

You know nothing about about meat, vegger

 

[aiw]

j/k

 

[rome8180]

What kind of sauce are you guys using for stir fry? I've tried oyster, hoisin and a sauce called "Stir Fry Sauce." I liked oyster the best, even though I would eat straight spoonfuls of hoisin if it weren't an instant kidney stone. I don't use much oil.

There is a great, great, great Asian supermarket in the old Circuit City at Southsquare. I use some stuff from a bottle that I can't read. It has been a bit uncomfortable being in there as the only white guy with everyone staring at you, but it's one of my favorite places. First time in there I went with my oldest kid and we spent 2 hours just looking at all the weird things we've never seen before. You can buy duck uteri if you want or an entire spinal column of some mammal. They will smash the head of a fish that they pull of out the tank for you. The veggies are amazing. It's incredibly cheap. One of my favorite places.

Li Ming's is the shit. And while you'll sometimes be the only white person, I've been surprised at the diversity.

And yes, it's by far the best price option for buying Asian vegetables, tofu, rice, Asian noodles, etc.

 

[dkst0426]

What kind of sauce are you guys using for stir fry? I've tried oyster, hoisin and a sauce called "Stir Fry Sauce." I liked oyster the best, even though I would eat straight spoonfuls of hoisin if it weren't an instant kidney stone. I don't use much oil.

For Indian, those premade grocery curries aren't great but there's no way I'm getting all the ingredients and spices necessary to do it myself. It's pretty easy to cut up some chicken breasts, pan fry them and throw the premade vindaloo or tikka masala sauce over them.

I'm going to try to recreate the halal street meat white sauce and pour that over some shredded chicken and ground lamb.

I stick with oyster or hoisin.

As suggested, you can get curry paste in cans. You can also get bags of curry powder. This one is my old standby:

On it's own, the curry powder does not have much kick, so you'll want to get red Indian curry powder and add to taste. Fry the paste for a little bit, add the coconut milk, some pieces of chicken or shrimp, fried tofu, onions, simmer until the chicken's cooked and you're good to go. Great over rice or noodles.