During the quarantine what are you cooking? (onion, vanilla, fish)
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Bleck! I hate fish skin, but it cooks better and the fish tastes better if you cook it (at least partially) with it on.
I once make a bouillabaisse to die for, the best I ever had and one of the best things I've ever eaten, but alas the recipe is lost to me now. It was very expensive, but I lived by the sea and the fish monger got the morning's catch in and I went for it: shrimp, scallops, some fish I can't recall, and more. And they gave me the heads, tails, etc for free. While cooking it I thought...gross...as the eyes peered out at me and tails floated about.
But I swear, it was *fabulous*.
I've fished in my life, and from hook to plate I can't tell the difference between store bought or home caught. I just hate cleaning fish. But it's so easy to cook. (Frozen is awful in comparison.) I wish I could find fresh trout....been hankering for trout almondine which I've only had via my own catch.
In the south of France, along the coast there are small stalls cooking it to order, you select which fish you want and they quickly cook it off , adding red wine, tomato sauce and fish stock, leeks etc.
On a day boat trip out of boston we caught some mackeral, capt took one and filet, sauted it in butter, it was the best fish I ever tasted, I was working in a French restaurant at the time ( Autre Chose) and we couldn't touch the flavor of that fresh Mack.
Not much has changed but lunch. My grab something lunches are history and we eat together with the works. The company is well worth the fuss.
A mod will probably move this -
I answered my mother's question on how to bake a lemon cake with the least effort. Cake mix!!!! So I went on line and found a Betty Crocker recipe.
1 box of lemon cake mix
3 eggs
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup milk
Grated lemon cest
325 preheated, 5x9 pan greased on the bottom only
Lemon juice and powdered sugar for frosting.
SO who is a very harsh critic LIKED it.
Next time it will be two loaf pans which means smaller slices and one for someone else or the freezer.
I was looking for a picture of a mix for her as that is her easiest way to shop. That mix had a best by date of two houses ago
Like you, I've been using foodstuffs that made their way through my own double moves as well as food that my overly date aware boyfriend gleans from his fridge and pantry and sends to my kitchen to be fed back to him when he's at my table.
Yesterday evening, I used a jar of artichoke hearts to make spinach, artichoke, and chicken risotto for supper.....the jar had a "best by date" of 2012 in a packaging style that Aldi hasn't used for several years.
Both boyfriend and I survived to tell the tale, but I didn't tell him just how old those artichokes were until after he'd polished off his second helping!
I see stuffed grape leaves in our future since I also found a jar of leaves and have plenty of rice, lemon, and seasonings on hand...
From scratch pastry cream takes all of 7 minutes til done.
I'll prove it , put your apron on and follow along.
I made this to debunk the videos on youtube that are full of drama, its a non event, like making a cup of tea.
Thanks for posting the link. Do I understand correctly that only a little milk is taken from the pot while it is steaming but not yet to boiling point? And then the eggs-sugar-flour mix is stirred in with the hotter remaining milk when it has reached a boil, and then shut off?
I remember making a tasty dessert in home ec called Snow Pudding (lemon) with Soft Custard. The custard required some careful treatment and, IIRC, a double boiler. The pastry cream looks easier to make. I’d like to make it and eat it with fresh berries and nothing else.
Another Q about pastry cream: I have bread flour (and whole wheat flour) at home, not AP flour. Would bread flour be inappropriate for this purpose? I can buy AP flour next shopping trip...I think I can buy it...who knows, these days. I do have cornstarch also.
Also, would subbing molasses for granulated sugar screw it up? I don’t have any dry form of sugar around, just molasses. I think it tastes good in small quantity but the switch from dry to liquid forms I wonder about. If it only means the base is thinner, that doesn’t bother me. I could use it as a sauce for fresh fruit.
Didn't make the ribs. Went instead with a box of Suddenly Salad from my pandemic stash.
It
Was
Awful.
Even with add-ins of carrot and cucumber. Just horrid. Some chemical-y taste. Bleck. Think I'll foist off the other box on a friend who doesn't seem to care about these things.
Thanks for posting the link. Do I understand correctly that only a little milk is taken from the pot while it is steaming but not yet to boiling point? And then the eggs-sugar-flour mix is stirred in with the hotter remaining milk when it has reached a boil, and then shut off?
I remember making a tasty dessert in home ec called Snow Pudding (lemon) with Soft Custard. The custard required some careful treatment and, IIRC, a double boiler. The pastry cream looks easier to make. I’d like to make it and eat it with fresh berries and nothing else.
Yeh its exactly as you saw, just a small ladle of hot milk to loosen the base, that way it can be poured into the boiling milk, the whole process is done at high heat, no simmering.
Whip the base in vigorously , not stirred in.
It will be done almost as fast as it hits the boiling milk, I was juggling the camera around but it was already boiling/cooked.
You were probably making a lemon creme anglais, its a bit finicky.
If you just want to eat pastry cream with fruit I'd thin it down with more milk otherwise its thick and clumpy.
Actually creme anglais is easier to make if you know how, I've never seen the proper way to make it anywhere, not on TV , youtube or pastry books, not even so called professional books.
Whip the scalded milk into the base and leave it in a crock to thicken by itself, no need to touch it, temp has to be around 120F, a shelf above a working stove is what we used, place a folded towel under the crock when it starts to thicken to arrest the cooking process. Give it an occasional stir to even out the temp.
If it overheats and breaks just whip a blob of butter into it. It couldn't be any simpler.
Another Q about pastry cream: I have bread flour (and whole wheat flour) at home, not AP flour. Would bread flour be inappropriate for this purpose? I can buy AP flour next shopping trip...I think I can buy it...who knows, these days. I do have cornstarch also.
Also, would subbing molasses for granulated sugar screw it up? I don’t have any dry form of sugar around, just molasses. I think it tastes good in small quantity but the switch from dry to liquid forms I wonder about. If it only means the base is thinner, that doesn’t bother me. I could use it as a sauce for fresh fruit.
Use corn starch, it makes a smoother custard anyway, I use what I have on hand. Same amounts.
I'd try molasses if thats what you have.
Another Q about pastry cream: I have bread flour (and whole wheat flour) at home, not AP flour. Would bread flour be inappropriate for this purpose? I can buy AP flour next shopping trip...I think I can buy it...who knows, these days. I do have cornstarch also.
Also, would subbing molasses for granulated sugar screw it up? I don’t have any dry form of sugar around, just molasses. I think it tastes good in small quantity but the switch from dry to liquid forms I wonder about. If it only means the base is thinner, that doesn’t bother me. I could use it as a sauce for fresh fruit.
duplicate post duh
Use corn starch, it makes a smoother custard anyway, I use what I have on hand. Same amounts.
I'd try molasses if thats what you have.
The dessert from junior high home ec class was a two-part dessert. Part I consisted of Snow
Pudding made with gelatin, lemon juice, and beaten frothy egg whites folded in. Part II was Soft Custard, which contained no flour or starch at all. Just eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla or other flavoring. The stuff had to reach the consistency that it would coat a spoon smoothly.
The thin custard was the sauce for the lemony light part.
My memory from way back then is not THAT good—I found that this pair of dessert parts is in my ancient Fanny Farmer cookbook. The home ec teacher probably took it straight out of the same book! But the double boiler and the constant checking for spooncoatworthiness stuck in my mind all these years.
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