Meet the meat!

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machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Oct 05, 2016 8:31 am

^ no, "foreign cuisine" on the mainland is actually an insult to the Europeans. You can get excellent Western food in Hong Kong and Macau, prepared by people who know their stuff and use imported ingredients.

http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2016/07/ ... zza-maybe/
http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2016/09/03/cheese-tea/

These two articles hit the nail on the head -- for complete China (and I dare include Shanghai and Beijing)
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ivanovnegro
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Wed Oct 05, 2016 2:46 pm

wuxmedia wrote:^ so no Chorizo in Paella then ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37555389
Now this is really an abomination. It looks not bad though, but it is definitely not paella, it is just rice with a ton of stuff. Everybody can do that.
You know, paella in reality is a poor man's dish. Valencia is a country of rice and they put only what the soil offered, that was some vegetables and snails with rabbit and chicken. Yes, they have a coast but seafood came in by the Catalans because the dish originates from the Valencian countryside, not the sea, where most people where just farmers. I stop ranting. :)

But let me re-post it, because we made one of course recently, in Valencia, my better half's village.
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I was just sitting in front of it. Traditionally men eat from the paella (Valencian pan).

In Mallorca we made rules, no restaurant or bar where they served paella or put the menu only in German. Of course it was not easy.

And because we are at it, some more meat, the traditional Valencian barbecue, on fire.
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Only salt, no additional fats, no fucking marinades.
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Lamb and bacon with self made alioli.
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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Wed Oct 05, 2016 2:54 pm

^^ I'm guessing might be as different as a 'black bean' beef dish from a place here, to a Chinese native.
^ fucking yummy looking Ivan:)
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machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:00 am

^^ wow cool, I somehow missed your post! love the fireplace and ... damned, I should *not* visit this thread when I'm hungry...

Now that winter has unofficially entered the province (still nice 15C here, though), I decided to get back to the oven and start baking. The result of the last 3 days: one whole wheat bread, one chocolate swirl sweet bread (just for fun, it goes well with coffee) and a very standard high-gluten white bread. Quite hard to get really good flour here in the South, but the almighty internet helps. Also ordered some funny things like cheddar and parmigiano for future experiments like lye rolls baked with grated cheese, or this beauty with garlic and cheese.
Got to admit, I am cheating a little: I bought a bread baking machine which I use to mix, knead and rise the dough - but I still bake manually in the oven. I don't like the brick-shape and the lack of crust on the sides. Nice side effect: the bread maker also has a yogurt function (use evaporated milk and the same amount of water [both lukewarm] plus your starter for a very creamy yogurt), and it can make Kimchi, fruit jam and dried fruits (all of which I haven't tried yet).
Does anyone here have some recipe (baking) to share?
..gnutella..

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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:30 am

baking - apart from a stew - is not something I've ever been good at.
The wife bakes little aperitif nibbles by getting a sheet of puff pasty and spreading ham and pesto (or whatever really) then rolling it up, chopping it in ~1cm slices laying flat on baking paper and err... baking it.
what do the 'natives' think of nice baked white bread?
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by pidsley » Wed Nov 23, 2016 3:52 pm

I bake bread every few weeks (depends on how long the last batch lasts.) I can't eat bread from the store, except in emergencies (if I run out of my own.) Sorry, no recipe -- I have been doing it for so long I just start with two cups of water and add things until it is the right consistency. Mostly whole-wheat flour, some white, a tiny bit of gluten flour, and sometimes rye flour. I knead by hand. I usually add some soaked five-grain cereal, sometimes some cooked whole grain (barley or millet) sometimes cooked mashed potato or squash (potato cooking water works well for the liquid) sometimes seeds (sunflower, sesame, and/or flax.)

Here is a batch from a while ago -- I freeze all but one loaf and take it out when I need it. The "cloverleaf" rolls are just three rolled balls of bread dough in a muffin tin. I can take a few out of the freezer at a time and they are nice to have with soup. I eat a lot of soup and beans in the winter.
DSCF1327.JPG

machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 23, 2016 4:00 pm

^^ good idea with the puff pastry, completely forgot about that. well, bread in China is ... it has nothing to do with bread, more like cake or challah. But once they try our Western variant they don't like the local version anymore.

^ thanks pidsley, of course I remember your breads :) I guess I'll try potato as next, maybe some oat. And these cloverleaf rolls look phenomenal!
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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:07 pm

^ yeah the puff rolls are nice and simple easy for the kids to help with too - tasty.
yeah pidsley nice loaves!
do you 'glaze' with anything or is that colour au naturel?

oh Father in law bakes the best flapjacks, oats and seeds and things, all baked with butter and syrup. Can't really go wrong, but he is searching for perfection and varies his recipe per batch.
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by pidsley » Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:22 pm

^ Glaze with soymilk. Still turns out fine if I don't have soymilk or forget.

machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:40 pm

^ wow, I didn't know this. Just today I wanted to find a replacement for egg white. noted.

^^ wux, are those flapjacks cereal bars as mentioned on wikipedia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapjack_(oat_bar)

man, this forum is inspirational. fuck Linux, long live the kitchen!
..gnutella..

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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by pidsley » Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:58 pm

^ A little sugar dissolved in water also works as a glaze, if you have nothing else.

machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:08 pm

^ thanks!

Do you inject steam into your oven when baking? Some ovens apparently have such function. One guy uses a tray with pebbles, preheats the oven on maximum, then puts in the bread and pours a half cup of water onto the tray. I am using the old-fashioned pump bottle with water to spray a couple of times in the first seconds, works OK (haven't had any problems so far, but can't compare to doing nothing)
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by pidsley » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:26 pm

Sometimes I use a spray bottle to spray water into the hot oven when I first put the bread in (like you do) -- I guess it is supposed to help let the bread rise a little bit as it starts to bake before the crust sets too much.

But sometimes I don't do this, and it doesn't seem to matter that much.

Never tried a pebble tray. I used to have a baking stone (for pizza crusts and such), but I don't have one now.

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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:16 pm

^ how did the baking stone beneficially affect the pizza? we have round metal trays with holes in, I normally stick them onto the bare grillwires.
IMAG2361.jpg
Serious flapjacks, ooh just found these one have some ginger powder in.. :)
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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:18 pm

Seeing as we have a hot wok going on here,
Bacon any good pak choi recipies? I have recently stir fired them on their own with some thick and strong black bean and garlic sauce (lee kum kee brand), quick splash of rice wine to steam 'em a bit.
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ivanovnegro
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by ivanovnegro » Thu Nov 24, 2016 1:40 am

wuxmedia wrote: what do the 'natives' think of nice baked white bread?
The best thing on earth. How I miss real good white bread here in Germany where everything is mostly dark and sour. I know the Germans miss the latter when they are abroad.

I was raised with mother's white bread. She still bakes bread every day!

machinebacon
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by machinebacon » Thu Nov 24, 2016 6:23 am

wux, they usually just quickly fry them with a hint of say sauce and garlic, if you are lucky. For cabbage recipes, please ask pidsley :D
But your way sounds really really good. Better than the native version, for sure.
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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:34 am

^ oh nice, well thanks.

RE: bread, I miss the French stuff, all crust and almost no crumb.
The dough is practically liquid before they bake it, from what I've seen.
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wuxmedia
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by wuxmedia » Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:38 pm

Kale. fucking Kale. We get a veg box with it in now and again and I think "oh yeah that's good shit isn't is?" Let's stir fry that fucker....Oh crap tastes like green cardboard. Let's steam it with some lemon - oh man cardboard again...
So forced with needing to use it up I found out about Kale crisps. Anyone who has ordered Chinese 'seaweed' from a Chinese restaurant will recognise this taste, and it's awesome even the kids like it!
So get your Kale, get rid of the big 'rib' in the middle and cut it into 2cm ish squares (yeah it's not square, so just littlish bits man) toss that with some nice oil and a bit of salt, cover a plate with that mix and microwave the shit out of it. Time is depending on your machine really, it's done when it's crispy (no shit) protip: make sure your plate can take the heat, one of ours didn't and it kinda fucked the glaze on it.

So pile it in a bowl and get a few more going, for 7 i have to do at least 7 plates.
I thought it was worth sharing.

EDIT:
You can deep fry 'em too, sort of like this (I wouldn't bother with the blanching though):
http://carolinesfamilykitchen.com/colla ... ant-style/
microwaving it is a much cleaner prospect, that plate gets damn hot though!
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franksinistra
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Re: Meet the meat!

Unread post by franksinistra » Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:03 pm

^ Nice tips wux, will try that thing with kale. I usually just boil them and eat them with a lot of sambal to neutralize that cardboardy taste.
rice no more.

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