Equal parts pork, lamb, and beef for me

Oh and the expert play with the turkey loaf would have been to sneak in a third ground pork.

So did my 48 hour momofuku style shortribs over the last week. You can check the full post here .







Going to post the crust and EMC in the steak thread. Overall though, these were epic. Which plating do you prefer?

looks nice but i would have wraped it in bacon. i wrap most meatloaffs in bacon but with turkey its pretty much a must in my oppinion.

So, slow roasted Blumenthal chicken is underway. Made a 6% brine (300g kosher salt, 5L water) last night, put the chicken in about midnight, and took it out this morning at about 10am. Drained it and patted it dry, left it in the fridge uncovered for about 2.5 hours. Removed it to get it close to room temp at about 12:30. Stuffed it good with 1.5 lemons, softened and pierced, a bit of ground pepper and a good handful of thyme. Smeared all over with about 1.5 tbsp of unsalted butter. The cast iron pan was swapped for a big stainless saute pan. With this style of cooking, I don't see a need for a big roasting pan. The chicken is on a small rack, and is not touching the bottom of the pan.



Will update in about 3 hours.

Snipe,

Def first plating.

they both look outstanding, I like the sliced presentation best, great job on both

I can confirm - YOU CANNOT blowtorch the chicken, unless you are some sort of blowtorch genius. The skin bubbled and almost burned instantly. I probably had the torch on one test area for about a half second, and it was probably about 3 times as long as needed to properly crisp the skin. I backed off about a foot and a half further away, and gave it a good 1/3 of a second, and still, way too much power for what I am aiming for. Going to put it in a 500 degree oven in 45 min.

Here is the chicken out of the oven:



And, here is the test spot on the bird, where I torched it a bit:



By the way, the pinkish areas, they are not actually pink, they are just shadows. There is a concavity between the drumstick and the body of the bird, and for some reason it looks pinky in the photo, but it is totally the same color as the rest of the chicken.

Finished product:




Excellent. Very juicy, great flavor. The brine ensures everything is seasoned well. The gravy is really good as well, simply the reduced pan juices, with some stock, wine, mustard and herbs.

That chicken looks fantastic.

I have never had chicken as juicy nor tender as this. This may become my default recipe for chicken.

how do i make good ground beef for tacos?

Funny, I made the exact same chicken recipe last night minus the brining part because I didn't have time. The chicken turned out perfectly. Insanely moist. I've literally never had chicken that moist before in my life. But I failed utterly at butchering the bird. Never done it before, tried it just from some guides online and I couldn't get through a few of the bones. Fail.

But the people I cooked for said it was delicious. Made it with some garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli soup.

Great Thai food thread in the lounge:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/63...hread-1234703/

Pic heavy, makes me hungry every time I open it.

What are the best food blogs/something new to cook a day recipe sites that you guys go to? Have been cooking a lot lately and might as well get good at it.

I like these three:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/
http://www.anotherpintplease.com/
http://www.dailyunadventuresincooking.com/

The last is probably best for recipes, although despite the title it isn't daily. But heck, they're all good. I just have them (and others) on my RSS feed.

Edit: also for lols read http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandfo...e-recipes.html

lol spot on

el d, if i want to make your meatloaf recipe but w/ beef, should i just substitute the same amount of beef (what kind of beef do i want btw, 90%?) for the turkey? sorry if that's an extremely dumb question

Simple recipes are good in theory, but I've never really made one I've enjoyed. I think that's the problem with a lot of blogs. They focus more on being a blog and putting out content daily than really teaching you how to cook, giving insights, explaining their reasoning behind things.

If your goal is to improve your cooking, I'd suggest buying a cookbook from amazon, and starting to make things from it. While I use internet recipes all the time, the reason I suggest a book is because many of them tend to use the same techniques and ingredients in many different ways and recipes. I know I reference it a lot, but the Momofuku cookbook, for example, uses usukuchi, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, scallions, and roasted pork, about a zillion ways. Working with those ingredients a few times over will not only add them to your repertoire, but will help you understand their range and where they might be good in other recipes.

Again, I've always been someone who fully (perhaps over) commits to my endeavors, so take this advice with a grain of salt, but again, I recommend staying away from 'simple' recipes as they often yield poor results and will leave you wondering if you did something wrong (versus the writer overselling the deliciousness of their new barbecue sauce....)

foodgawker, click on images for recipes

I think it depends on your definition of simple but I generally agree following simple recipes without a basic understanding of making you way around the kitchen isn't that helpful. It is important to understand flavors and ingredients but it doesn't take too much time to get the hang of it with cooking. For instance I often make a "simple" meal on Sunday's w/ my GF. She is a vegetarian so a lot of times no meat involved. Two years ago this involved me making pasta and my own sauce and a simple salad. Now after eating at restaurants and figuring out flavor combinations I have a bunch of simple great recipes. For example:

Salad
- Arugula
- Scallions
- Pistachios
- Avocado
- Parmesean
- Tomatoes or fruit (peaches or apples)
- Dressing 50% EVOO and 50% lemon juice with salt and pepper (add cayenne if sweet fruit used in salad)

Toss with dressing and serve

Balsamic Carrots
- Heirloom carrots
- Aged balsamic
- EVOO
- Salt / pepper

Toss carrots with balsamic and EVOO, roast in oven on cookie sheet until soft and tender.

Rosemary Potatoes
- New potatoes (heirloom if possible)
- EVOO
- Rosemary
- Whole grain mustard
- Salt / pepper

Have or cube potatoes depending on size, toss in EVOO, rosemary and mustard mixture. Roast in over on cookie sheet until crunchy.

In NYC I get a ton of seasonal stuff at the farmers market and just kind of take it from there (i.e. ramps in the spring, good mushrooms at various times, heirloom tomatoes, etc.). Once you get a good idea of basic flavor combinations / profiles, I pretty much just google and mix / match recipes and ingredients. That being said, I grew up with a mom who cooked and have actively cooked since midway through college. Early on I had to call mom and ask things like how much EVOO do you dress the pasta with whereas now I just take canned San Marzanos and make my own sauce in 15 minutes. Seems simple not but in retrospect what I do took time to learn.

For instance I might google balsamic carrots, look at a few recipes and try variations on mine. Of using the above seasonal ingredient example I might just google chanterelle mushroom entree and end up with some fairly easy to make mushroom crostini. That being said what I consider above as "simple" likely isn't simple to someone who has only made mac and cheese.

Note: Will get pictures of the above plus lots more of my GFs iPhone soon and put up here.

Chef John on Youtube is awesome. That is all.

How have i not seen this thread until now

5 stars

Snipe,

While the sliced short rib presentation is nice, I like the unsliced better both aesthetically and likely for joy of eating. One of my favorite things about well cooked short rib is the way it flakes/crumbles apart under fork, and I feel like that would be sabotaged by slicing.