I had it 2 different times, once after it had been sitting in the semolina for 2 days, and one after it had been in for 4 days. It says in the recipe to do a min of 18 hours, and a max of 3 days, but honestly the 4 day one was WAY better. The 2 day one was kinda meh/underwhelming. Also what they say about the ricotta quality being key seems true, and I also undershot on the parmesan quantity, so next time i'd shoot to do both right (first was lack of choice, second was lack of planning). They're pretty delicious, although they definitely take a lot of time to make.

DW,

Thanks - very good to know about the improvement in the 4 day version before I go for it!

Its very much a feel thing. After 2 days, they felt solid with still a little give, but after the boiling part, they squished easily in the pan and the skins often cracked and oozed out. After 4 days, they felt like stones, but held shape way better. YMMV.

Starting to get some activity

Aside from rocking the grill, I'm a pretty novice cook, and recently started Blue Apron - has helped a lot in terms of using a range of ingredients and understanding the composition of sauces, marinades, etc.

Above is a "Chicken Schnitzel", covered with lingonberry jam and chives with a potato salad in a mix of dijon mustard, champagne vinegar, shallot, chives and demi-glace. Came out surprisingly well.

don't put the jam on the schnitzel, defeats the whole purpose of the breading.

Was kind of following instructions there - no jam altogether or keep on the side?

lingonberry is a traditional side for schnitzel as the sweetness and light acidity completeness it really well, plus adds some "juiciness".
just put it on the side next time so it doesn't soak up the breading

What are your thoughts on Blue Apron? I don't really cook but am considering getting into it with the help of Blue Apron or something similar.

tried it, had no interest in doing it on a regular basis, but it's fine and seems pretty ideal for someone in your situation

Looks good nyc999.

Lingonberry is my family's default with turkey at Thanksgiving. One day we had no cranberry sauce, and substituted lingonberry sauce from Ikea. It was awesome.

im german and while lingonberry sauce is popular here, i never heard of putting it on a schnitzel

Schnitzel crust looks pretty legit for a first try!

http://imgur.com/gallery/3pfYK

neat post about knife sharpening

was surprised how quickly I got sharpening with water-stones down, it's actually kinda fun and not much work at all. can recommend a 1000/3000 to start out.

15 strokes over a 3000 1x a day enough to keep it razor sharp, for comparison german knives need about 4-5x a day on a wedge stone.
strictly for home use 1x a month probably enough

i have probably linked this before somewhere, but i think this is a decent video on how to use stones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TPDgdo7jfM

i went to a group lesson hosted by this guy and will watch this video when i'm about to sharpen as a refresher. he had some pretty cool stories about elite sharpener guys pulling in $10-20k in a weekend sharpening hundreds of knives at industry meets and then just having totally destroyed shoulders afterwards.

I can never get my knives razor sharp. They get sharper, like I can slice paper easily, but not razor sharp. I only have one stone, a King 1000 grit whetstone. Should I be able to get it razor sharp on this and my technique is off, or do I need a finer stone too?

I also never really feel a burr form, even after doing it for several minutes. All the videos I've watched online, it seems like they made 10 or 15 passes and then yep, there's the burr. This is with a couple of cheap 10 dollar knives that are presumably made out of soft steel, and then a Tojiro DP that was recommended on a knife forum as a good entry level Japanese knife. I've only had that one for a few weeks, it arrived able to slice hair easily, but after breaking down a chicken, it lost that right away. I just gave it a touch up on the stone yesterday to get it sliding through paper really easily again, but it's not close to razor sharp

0 shot you can get a razor sharp blade on such a coarse grit. 1000 is the first one I use but I have a doubled sided stone and my second one is 6000.

All right, I'll have to pick up a finer grit. I still worry a little about the lack of a burr, I thought that the course stone was used to form the burr, and then a fine stone polished it away?

Your may need to work on your technique to develop a burr. Check your angles and press a little firmer. Or maybe you're looking for something bigger than it needs to be, a burr is really pretty minute.

1000 grit is as low as I use regularly anything coarser is for major blade repair or reprofiling.

1000-6000-green strop compound is what I use if I'm feeling really ambitious. 6000 alone is really enough for finishing to most purposes though.

This thread makes me seriously reconsider my canned tuna dinner <3

Right but... mostly Wrong.

It really all depends on which knife (specs?) you have. 6000 grit is more about polishing most knives.

Details on knife are necessary first.

Thanks, going back to the recipe I notice only a small amount was supposed to be on top for presentation, your explanation makes total sense.

I really like it. My wife & I get 3 meals per week for 2, it works out to $10 per person, per meal. Some benefits:

- If cooking for 1 or 2 people, it's nice because you get exactly the right amount of each ingredient included (e.g. a single lemon, 2 tablespoons of sugar). You would normally need to buy a lot more of each ingredient than is necessary, particularly items which can go bad.

- For a novice cook, you are forced to prepare pretty much everything from scratch, learning how to chop/mince/etc. a range of items, create sauces, and cook food you normally would not.

- It has prevented me and my wife from cooking the same 5-7 dishes which was our normal rotation. In the past few weeks we've cooked chicken, pork, beef/steak, salmon, cod, tuna, some of these in multiple ways.

- What could be seen as good or bad (I view it both ways depending on the day), the average serving is 500-700 calories. It's great for healthy eating, though there are definitely days when I wish I had a little bit more. Each meal is typically an entree and one side dish.

- It has an app which has videos on how to handle various tasks when preparing a recipe (e.g. I watched videos on how to properly peel carrots and different methods to cut potatoes by size in the past few weeks)

The drawbacks:

- It can take a while to prepare. They say 30-60 minute depending on the dish, nothing as taken me less than 45 at this point and I've had others take 80-90 minutes. I'm getting better, you learn to not always go in the order they provide (instructions are kind of like Ikea, 6 boxes with pics and written direction). The first couple times I ended up with a finished side dish before the protein was even in the pan.

- It's mostly stove top. There have been a handful of oven-based recipes, but almost everything else is in a pot or pan on top of the stove.

- Everything comes frozen. Not the worst, though you have to remember to thaw well in advance of preparation

In the end, I assume I'll be using it for at least 3-6 months before I decide to venture away with the tools & knowledge I've picked up.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. It definitely sounds like it would be a good tool for me to at least get started with cooking.