Aside from brewing beer. Food stuff.
Ive become obsessed with making food products that I think more house holds probably used to make say 200 years ago.
Im currently obsession over sausage, and meat curing. Im building a dry cure box in my basement to make some fermented stuff like salami, etc.
I was for a brief period obsessed with bread and I feel I have a couple of pretty solid recipes and techniques to make some pretty choice crusty loaves at home.
I would like to make cheese.
I made some queso fresco about 2 weeks ago. It was nifty, and only takes about 45 min.
Beef Jerky... A few flavors I made recently are Carribean Jerk(awesome), Mint(came out gross) and Ghost Pepper. The Ghost Pepper was good but man that shits hot. I know you said aside from beer I also brew beer. I make beer very similar to Harpoon.
I don't bake bread any longer since I bought a bread-maker but I do bake cakes, at least twice a week. Plus cookies, pralines/chocolate candies and make my own relishes and pickles when I can be bothered. It goes without saying that I cook all my meals from scratch. No packaged bought-in goods in this house, no sireebob.
B&T...You have a place to stay in Los Angeles, as well as a kitchen to cook in :)
Last year i went nuts on huge batches of canned Jam. I made three kinds from farmers market fruit flats when they were at their peak - strawberry, black berry and raspberry - it's really easy and we still have 6 jars left. They are in our basement fridge and are excellent.
i love roasting corn on the cob and jalapeno peppers on the grill. throw a ny strip on the side and i think you know what im getting at..
Quote from: mertz on March 07, 2012, 10:10:43 PM
B&T...You have a place to stay in Los Angeles, as well as a kitchen to cook in :)
You might choose to retract that kind invitation once you discover that I don't eat meat any longer. ;)
Invitation retracted.
Quote from: MadJohnShaft on March 07, 2012, 10:41:27 PM
Last year i went nuts on huge batches of canned Jam. I made three kinds from farmers market fruit flats when they were at their peak - strawberry, black berry and raspberry - it's really easy and we still have 6 jars left. They are in our basement fridge and are excellent.
i need to do this.
we used to make pomegranate jam when i was a kid, from fruit from my grandparents bushes. soooo good...
also reminds me of a good joke.
whats the difference between jelly and jam?
I cant jelly my dick in to you.
Shit more like what don't I make. I make soups like crazy, I make carnitas to rival my Mexican brother in laws, kimchi, sauerkraut, i pickle damn near anything, small amounts of meat curing (would like to get into sausage and salami making), bread, cheese......
I've never been a big jam or jelly person. I'm not a fan of slathering sweet stuff on bread so I wouldn't know what to do with it.
I would like to get more into smoking too.
I just make aboot 90% of what I eat. the other 10% is restaurant cuisine exploration.
Quote from: RAGER on March 08, 2012, 12:26:16 PM
Shit more like what don't I make. I make soups like crazy, I make carnitas to rival my Mexican brother in laws, kimchi, sauerkraut, i pickle damn near anything, small amounts of meat curing (would like to get into sausage and salami making), bread, cheese......
I've never been a big jam or jelly person. I'm not a fan of slathering sweet stuff on bread so I wouldn't know what to do with it.
I would like to get more into smoking too.
I just make aboot 90% of what I eat. the other 10% is restaurant cuisine exploration.
The last time i tried to make carnitas, they got kinda dry. I'll have to find a new recipe.
I think I'm gonna make some Giardinara today.
It's important to salt the meat and let it rest for a while before browning.
Quote from: mertz on March 08, 2012, 09:22:02 AM
Invitation retracted.
Might you be inclined to reconsider that retraction once you knew that I've cooked full-on Sunday and Christmas dinners for friends and family? AND ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE MEAT WITH MY BARE HANDS?
^^Bold and Beautiful.
I've made and canned salsa with tomatoes and peppers I grew at home. The salsa was delicious, but time consuming. This was done pre-kid. Now I'm too tired/lazy to do that sort of thing.
My father in-law used to make homemade tamales.
I make tamales on occasion but it's not something I do with any regularity. super time consuming but very rewarding.
hot sauce, kraut, assorted fermented things, deep soups, sourdoughs, including injera. jerky. made a batch of niter kibbeh this evening - spiced ghee for ethiopian stuff. wild foods stuff too. my wife's a glutard, so she's been getting more into pies, cakes, cookies, biscuits...amazing what can be badass gluten free.
wanna do cheese stuff at some point. meat curing, but i wanna be hunting/raising meat for it...
Quote from: RAGER on March 08, 2012, 04:22:32 PM
I make tamales on occasion but it's not something I do with any regularity. super time consuming but very rewarding.
Me too but only at Christmas time. Very, very time consuming!
By all accounts, my mother-in-law makes super good Mexican food: posole, chicken mole, and, yep, tamales from scratch. My deal is, though, I don't like much of that stuff (especially not tamales and mole).
I love Mexican food, but not that stuff.
I don't make anything, food wise.
I have a love hate thing with tamales. They're so goddamn good but they're so goddamn filling that I can only eat one and am almost too full to enjoy anything else. At my sisters restaurant they make tamales every other week and when they do they make 250-300 at a time.
khoomeizhi, you need to post more pics. Sounds like you do some cool stuff.
Quote from: BitterAndTwisted on March 08, 2012, 02:47:24 PM
Quote from: mertz on March 08, 2012, 09:22:02 AM
Invitation retracted.
Might you be inclined to reconsider that retraction once you knew that I've cooked full-on Sunday and Christmas dinners for friends and family? AND ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE MEAT WITH MY BARE HANDS?
Retraction retracted...but only if you wash your hands first ;)
Quote from: RAGER on March 09, 2012, 09:54:54 AM
khoomeizhi, you need to post more pics. Sounds like you do some cool stuff.
i have fun. mostly cameraless these days, though. one day maybe pictures.
I make a mean sandwich...
1) Ham & Swiss on English Muffins. Defrost and toast two english muffins, regular variety. Slather mayo on all sides, don't be cheap with it. Take two slices of honey ham (the thin sliced variety that comes packaged in tupperware) and put one on the top and one on the bottom. They're bigger than an english muffin so sorta fold it into itself. Then your swiss is definitly usually bigger than one muffin, cut it in half and use only one slice per two muffins. BAM, lunch.
2) Italian sandwich. Take a nice italian torpedo roll, hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Open 'er up. Slather mustard of your choosing on both sides, not too much is necessary when using both sides. Take six slices of genoa salami and put them across the length of the sandwish, 3 per side, meeting in the middle. Take two slices of provolone, run them up the length of it. Then two slices of prosciutto de parma across that. Top with roasted red peppers. Now take that whole bad boy open-faced and pop it in a toaster oven, or conventional oven. BAM, lunch.
3) Tuna sandwich on whole wheat with iceberg lettuce. Everyone makes their tuna differently so I won't describe this one, it's pretty self-explanatory. BAM, lunch.
Also make a mean bagel with cream cheese and lox and a mean bowl of cereal. ;0
guacamole and fart soup. fart soup is actually lentil soup which I boil down to stew consistency and later reduce that down to practically zero water and bake a casserole out of it. you won't fart all that much more than normal if you eat the suggested serving size, but eat too much and look the fuck out. more fiber than Colon Blow. one of these days I'll post the recipe and see what RAGER thinks
I'm aghast. I like my lentils intact. But hey if you dig it you dig it.
surprisingly, the French green lentils stay intact at a rate of maybe 50-70% throughout the whole process. been using red lentils lately cuz there's practically no sorting time involved (I have yet to see a pinkish/ orangeish rock) and those disintegrate almost instantly
The Indian food stores here have more kinds of lentils than I ever could have imagined. Dunno what the English words for them are but I have some brown, black and white and also cream-coloured ones. They don't break up when being cooked either. Mostly found in this house in a lentil pate. Or dhal, of course, eaten with wholewheat chappatis