Food Thread - Obsidian Gormand's Edition

[Keyrock]

Never had any particularly traumatic experience getting viciously attacked by a crawfish, but I think I'd be more inclined to eat them had I been assaulted by one of them buggers, just as a way of getting back at 'em.

[Gfted1]

Ive never eaten crawfish but the thought of sucking the goop out of the head sounds grody to me. Related, wth is up with soft shell crab? You just eat the whole thing down the hatch shell, organs, and all? Nasty.

[ShadySands]

Made tacos because it's always Tuesday somewhere. Kroger has a ground beef/pork mix that we enjoy when making ground meat tacos, so we went with that. 

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, majestic said:

Dry eggs are a slippery slope guys, stop paying attention and you'll wake up eating well done steaks some day. Just say no to dry eggs, and embrace the warm and wonderful runny, gooey goodness.

Runny eggs is like eating a thick gob of mucus straight out of your disease-ravaged lungs. No. Luckily, well-done steaks isn't a problem for me, since I just don't care for steaks period.

4 hours ago, majestic said:

You could try to get a Japanese snack box.

Dietary issues aside, I despise snack boxes. A random assortment of worthless garbage-tier junk food made out of chemicals not yet deemed unfit for human consumption - marvelous! Truly, I am the greatest appreciator of this type of delight, .

4 hours ago, majestic said:

It's not the taste, but the texture much of it gets by cooking.

It's the cooking that gives it a texture that isn't just soft and slimy chewiness, .

Edited January 15, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Luckily, well-done steaks isn't a problem for me, since I just don't care for steaks period.

that is the saddest thing we has seen or heard today.

HA! Good Fun!

[Bartimaeus]

20 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

that is the saddest thing we has seen or heard today.

HA! Good Fun!

I'd rather have the lamb, thank you.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Bartimaeus
Technically, it looks more like mutton...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

21 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Mexican ceviche is so good you can even forget to put meat in it entirely and it's still great. I mean, it's basically just big mode salsa at that point, but it is still great. ...I have to be honest though, I have eaten shrimp in ceviche and it is really good. Authentic (i.e. Peruvian) ceviche, on the other hand...I'm not going to touch that one.

As for sashimi, I have pretty much zero appreciation for authentic Japanese cuisine as a whole, so I really don't care, . Any time I look at Japanese cuisine, it's always like...please give me any other east Asian cuisine - Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Korean, I don't care, just not Japanese please and thank you.

I've never had Peruvian ceviche and after reading up on it, I've made the very hard decision not to change that. Mexican ceviche is damn good though, damn good.

I'll say that in terms of preference, I'd go for Vietnamese (Viet-Cajun, which as far as I can tell is a Houston thing, is insane top tier) because ca phe sua da is great, but really as long as the ingredients are good most of that cuisine appeals to me. I have a stomach of iron and my taste in food is a lot like my taste in cinema, so you can factor that in as well.

16 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Ive never eaten crawfish but the thought of sucking the goop out of the head sounds grody to me. Related, wth is up with soft shell crab? You just eat the whole thing down the hatch shell, organs, and all? Nasty.

It's great, the goop absorbs all of the spice from the boil and it can be like getting kicked in the mouth. But the tails are where it's at at the end of the day, and you can't go wrong with etouffee or gumbo.

You can eat the soft shell whole, I don't have it too much because it's usually expensive but fried is really good.

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

since I just don't care for steaks period.

I see your hater game truly is vast. Even if I think that's bad, I got to respect the game.

Honestly, while I love steak, smoked brisket is my personal favorite way to eat beef followed closely by smoked beef ribs.

[Keyrock]

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Luckily, well-done steaks isn't a problem for me, since I just don't care for steaks period.

I thought I was the only one that didn't much care for steak.

[Malcador]

Made some kolaches, with ham, cheddar and jalapenos. Came out ok, but not sure it is acceptable for the effort.

[Hurlshort]

I'm not really a steak guy, either. Chicken all day.

[majestic]

[Keyrock]

I like steak as in a steak (carne asada) taco but not steak as in a slab of beef on a plate.

Speaking of beef I made a smash burger but I'm back on the diet so no bun.

Edited January 15, 2023 by Keyrock

[Gfted1]

I could eat a medium rare ribeye (I like the fat!), salt and pepper only, every day. My wife prefers a well done NY strip and I cry a solitary manly tear every time I cook it for her.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

I could eat a medium rare ribeye (I like the fat!), salt and pepper only, every day. My wife prefers a well done NY strip and I cry a solitary manly tear every time I cook it for her.

I would cry too.

Ribeye is probably my favorite steak, bone on if possible, medium rare seasoned with salt and pepper, hit with a bit of butter after it's done.

[majestic]

18 minutes ago, Space KP, Baby said:

Ribeye is probably my favorite steak, bone on if possible, medium rare seasoned with salt and pepper, hit with a bit of butter after it's done.

+1 for tomahawk steaks.

Edited January 15, 2023 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

14 minutes ago, majestic said:

+1 for tomahawk steaks.

Around here it's more like x2, if we're talking about price. Because of that I usually settle for just the bone in. Not as fancy as a tomahawk, but it's better than the boneless cut.

[ShadySands]

I've been lucky to have some really great steaks and IMO a really good steak is tough to beat. I've also had a lot of meh to sub standard steaks that if that's all that I'd had then I'd probably not like steak either. For me it was when I branched out beyond the well done stuff that was the family standard that I really started appreciating a good steak.

[Gromnir]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I've also had a lot of meh to sub standard steaks that if that's all that I'd had then I'd probably not like steak either.

poor seasoned, poor aged, poor quality meat and poor cooking is all far too common for something which should be relative ez. if the local family restaurant or your uncle phil's backyard grill is your only experience with steak, then am thinking is understandable why chicken or salmon is gonna be preferred. am knowing is sounding snobby, but you literal cannot buy the best grade o' beef in local grocery stores here in the US and how many o' us is gonna dry age for a month or more? 

a perfect porterhouse is a thing o' beauty but almost impossible to find as is functional two different cuts in one steak and the strip v. tenderloin is gonna cook at different rates. better than 90% o' the time we order ribeye. 

our last meal menu might fluctuate a bit, but chances are a constant top-three selection is gonna be an end cut prime rib from someplace we know does right. same cut as ribeye.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

Lets see if the forum will let me post something in this thread this time:

For me meat is often just this flavor I like combined with other flavors. I rarely eat it if it's not in some sauced sitr fry, soup, sliced marinated small pieces, jerky Edit-or smoked/sausage meats. I do like a steak once in a while - and ribeyes are good yes - but even then I tend to marinate mine in something first. Or I'm the plebe that would drown each forkfull in A1 or teriyaki sauce on the side, whatever. I don't like too much direct blood taste, so no bloody plates for me, but the cooked flavor of meat in combo with salt, marinades, veggies, etc is what I like, and each meat goes with different things.

Edit: and yet the forum still will not let me post about the simple lowish carb yogurt dessert I've been making. Go Figure.

Edited January 16, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Bartimaeus]

Growing up, eating big slabs of meat was never really my thing (I avoided ham, turkey, porchettas, hamburgers...really anything of that nature where you just have large chunks or slices of meat served to you), so that probably enters the equation a bit. I know I've mentioned upon a number of occasions the critical importance of protein, but I'm really more of a...rice and stir-fry kind of guy, where the different elements are flavored and balanced together, like @LadyCrimson said. As an adult now, yeah, I could eat a hamburger if I need to (...minus the bun, my issues with bread notwithstanding), or fry up a whole chicken thigh for myself...but it's still not really my preference. Even if I had a steak I liked, and I'm not certain that I like the cut of meat at all to begin with, it still wouldn't really be what I'd want to go to.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I know I've mentioned upon a number of occasions the critical importance of protein, but I'm really more of a...rice and stir-fry kind of guy

That's not a mixture I'd associate with protein man. Not bad, but a far cry from the protein centric diet I imagined back when you were talking about the price of eggs.

You've made a mockery of obsidianstalking.txt

[majestic]

17 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I don't like too much direct blood taste, so no bloody plates for me, but the cooked flavor of meat in combo with salt, marinades, veggies, etc is what I like, and each meat goes with different things.

Nitpick: there's no blood in the meat. The color comes from the meat's myoglobin, the more myoglobin it has, the redder the meat is. Meat eventually turns greyish as myoglobin contains iron and is no longer repaired in dead tissue, thus naturally undergoes oxidation. To prevent that, stabilizers are added more often than not, particularily for sausages - a rather common one used is ascorbic acid.

Hilarious fun fact: Some sausages contain more vitamin C than (citrus) fruits.

Anyway, it's not blood coming out of a rare steak, just water with myoglobin.

[LadyCrimson]

58 minutes ago, majestic said:

Nitpick: there's no blood in the meat

Ok fine, maybe it's the taste of iron I don't like. Or myoglobin whatever that consists of. No clue. Whatever it is, if the meat looks half raw/very red and there is "blood" bleeding all over my plate, since it tastes similar to what I suck out of my finger when it gets stabbed with a needle or sliced with a knife, I won't like it.   Edit: I also don't like the smell of "blood" all that much. It doesn't make me ill or anything, I just don't like it. And yes that includes when I'm prepping meat, at times.

Smell is the main reason I dislike almost all common/popular seafood and refuse to step inside a major or pier/wharf fish market where it's overpowering (which does make me utterly nauseous). That said, not saying some cooked or fried or steeped in a casserole seafood doesn't taste all right. But I've tried many times over the years to try and like seafood enough to eat it more regularly, but I fail every time.

EditEdit: I feel like I should emphasize I'm not trying to put down seafood per se. It's just hard to enjoy something if you don't like the smell of it, even when cooked, most of the time.

Edited January 16, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Keyrock]

I decided to make curry chicken. I've never made curry before and I'm not adventurous enough to make the sauce from scratch (yet), so I cheated and used this paste:

Boneless chicken breast cut into roughly 1 inch cubes, red onion, garlic, and diced tomatoes from a can.

No rice since I'm back on the diet.

That paste has the perfect amount of spice. You absolutely feel it but it's not brutal.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Keyrock

[Gromnir]

@Keyrock

if you are gonna use the premade stuff and chicken breasts, we got two minor suggestions which should improve without too much extra effort.

1) marinade the chicken.

for 2lbs chicken--

1C plain yogurt (or buttermilk if you don't  have yogurt)

2T lemon juice

1t salt (1/2t salt if you use buttermilk) 

let sit in mixture at least a couple hours... possible overnight.

grilling chicken probable is adding most flavour for breasts and you don't need to pat the breasts dry if you grill. bake is probable ok. if sauté, then you want the breasts as dry as possible before adding to your pan/pot so pat the breasts dry and let sit in the fridge a few hours more before cooking.

may also consider using boneless and skinless chicken thighs. maybe don't even need marinade, but a nice marinate won't hurt neither. if cooking for self, it takes hardly any time to cook four thighs (~ 1lb) in a dutch oven and that should be enough for a couple servings.

if is some kinda health concern, the fat in thighs v. breasts is not as significant as many people assume and the fats in thighs is mostly the healthy variety anyway. our sister insisted on breast meat when eating chicken, so when we were taking care o' her we got in the habit o' using the tasteless variety o' chicken, but as long as you remove the skin, the health benefits o' breasts v. thighs is extreme minor and probable not worth the loss o' flavour. 

2) food processor the garlic and onion (and ginger)

is possible your spice mixture has powdered ginger which would explain why you ain't adding, but the ginger is kinda necessary from our pov. 

1 medium onion (at least quarter it... rough chop)

2-3" ginger, cut into a bunch o' coin sized pieces. 

6 (or more) garlic cloves

process until you got a nice paste. since you are breaking down the veggies to a significant degree, you don't need peel the ginger-- timesaver tip. 

...

this is also where we ordinary add most heat to tikka masala kinda curry. add 1 seeded serrano chile for a lightweight, and go up from there. if am not having serrano, then am likely adding a 1.5 teaspoons o' cayenne pepper per replaced serrano to our spice mixture. 'course you got the heat already incorporated for your spice mix. 

you are gonna end up with a smoother and more incorporated sauce by going with food processor veggies. do processor means you don't even need worry 'bout getting a restaurant quality fine chop. 

sidenote: canned and diced tomatoes has an additive which alters the taste a bit but more significant is the function which makes the tomatoes not break down in the can or even when cooking. the thing is, you want your tomatoes to break down a bit while cooking to proper infuse flavours. am recommending use o' tomato paste and tomato puree or whole tomatoes (canned or fresh) and then chop yourself. am knowing is a bit messier to chop whole canned tomatoes, but use canned and diced tomatoes is something you should do only in rare circumstances when you are serious 'bout not breaking down the tomatoes save after considerable cooking time. 

another tomato alternative is to use a box grater on fresh tomato. is quick and not near as messy as it appears.

more unsolicited cooking advice, and if you want easyish tikka masala recipes we got a couple one o' which is slow cooker. 

HA! Good Fun!