Thought I'd take El D's advice and create another thread for cooking discussion, as steak is wonderful, but pork, meatballs, chicken, pasta, sausage, greens, and charcuterie deserve love too.

Also an appropriate place to discuss cooking equipment from knives to boards to ranges to sous vide setups, smokers, etc.

I'll get it started with a few pics of some of my current favorite dishes including:

Fennel Braised Baby Back Ribs



These things are amazing, and EASY. Absolutely delicious, easy to make in quantity, and a crowd pleaser for sure. I make em at almost every bbq (though the great thing is that you can do them indoors during the colder months)

Pork, Panchetta, Veal Meatballs



These are not a fan favorite, but only because when I make them, I horde them and eat them for a week straight. They're a bit time consuming, but once you have em, you're set for a few days.

Orecchiette with Fennel Sausage



This is a new favorite dish and I don't really even know where to begin describing how amazing the texture contrast between the breadcrumbs, semolina pasta, and sausage is, or how this dish singlehandedly sold me on the value of fennel pollen. It takes some time, but the steps are pretty simple.

My Masamato Gyuto



I love this knife, and while it's a bit pricy for your average housewife, it's a steal by japanese steel standards, and you'll walk away with a whole new definition of sharp from the moment you remove it from the box.

Just some random stuff to get this thread started. I know others have been chastised for posting pork in the steak thread, and the BBQ thread doesn't get much love, so get in here and post about food!!!

A food thread would be nice to motivate me to start cooking finer food again. Was really interested for a while when Top Chef and the like were popular, but it tapered off and I'm mainly just cooking simple things again, although they do taste much better now.

Seriously, your pictures make me want to lick my monitor.

Amazing pictures can you post the recipes

I'd be careful, that knife looks sharp.

All the recipes are posted on my blog, along with more pics. Definitely happy to discuss any questions you have on them, or cookbooks, or DIY sous vide machines, or food photography, or anything really.

I basically spend almost every evening going home, experimenting with a new recipe, cooking for my gf and I (she does all the pastry stuff), and trying to photograph / write about it.

I also do my best not to post recipes that suck (which other bloggers seem to do simply to produce more content). If it isn't one of my favorite things to eat, I tyr not to post it.

Those pictures are fantastic! How do I find your blog?

(location)

nice pictures!

tx! now where is the facepalm.gif?

Snipe,

Great thread. Everything looks and sounds awesome, though I'm not as big a fan of fennel as you are.

Not a fan of fennel either, might be acquired or just takes some time to actually use correctly. I've only used it for lamb or lasagna, and I feel like I can never get the taste completely right.

OOT cooks,

This isn't cooking, but it's so damn good. Heirloom tomato + avocado + red onions + salt/pepper/olive oil. If I had some basil and mozzarella it would be perfect. But it was still awesome.

salad looks delicious ELD. I don't see why that's not cooking. Where do you draw the line? Is guacamole not cooking? Ceviche? Who says you need heat?

Snipe, what kind of DIY sous vide rig did you build? I have put together the normal PID controlled relay setup but to make it modular I installed an outlet for the heat and an input jack for a thermocouple so I can switch it between smoker control and sous vide.



Plugs above are PID, always on, thermocouple.

The only thing I struggled with is proper circulation, I had aquarium pumps fail at 170F, so I use a bubbler now. Do you use any circulation in your setup?

Jack,

I pretty much agree w you, I was just a little timid following Snipe's stuff in this thread.

great thread! A+

Masamato Gyuto now on the wishlist

I was hoping somehow someone threw in gorgeous steak by accident...

awesome idea for a thread, subscribing!

"God's Butter"!!!

With regards to fennel, I never thought I was a fan until I started cooking from the Mozza Cookbook, and now I'm a convert.

Pre Mozza Cookbook: "Fennel? Isn't that the black licorice flavored bulb? Pass."
Post Mozza Cookbook: "Fennel? You betcha. You add fennel to any pork product and suddenly it tastes like you're eating italian sausage pizza."

I only ask that you reserve judgement on the fennel until you make either the ribs or the orecchiette (ribs are much easier and fantastic, though you could always sub a premade shape in the orecchiette and save the trouble of making fresh pasta to get the flavor).


With regards to the PID, I bought a JLD612 as well, and took a similar, modular approach.



I went with Auber RTD quick connect and an extruded aluminum case that was a PITA to make the cutouts in with a Dremel.

I used the Seattle Food Geek blog schematic, and found various other resources useful for parts list (creativespark engineering), etc. I keep going back and forth on doing a post as there's a ton of resources out there, and I don't have too many pics of the project, but I'm happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.

As far as more steak pics, here is some beef tagliata I made that I don't believe I posted in the steak thread. This is extremely easy and delicious as it's hanger steak marinated in olive oil, balsamic, rosemary, and garlic (the balsamic is why it looks a bit dark around the outside).

Nice! I've been loving the farmers market tomatoes lately. As pointed out in my farmers market post, I'd never really realized that many Americans have never had a vine ripe tomato as the ones we get at the super market are picked green for transport before being gassed to gain the red color. Completely different flavor and texture than truly ripe tomatoes. I did them with blanched beans, a sherry vinaigrette, basil chiffonade, and some feta (didn't have feta for the pics), and of course some salt.

Scooter: I LOVE bone marrow. Luckily for me it's a super popular SF restaurant menu item now.

Snipe: I'm not anti-fennel. As you prob know, lots of places here make tasty dishes with fennel in them. I just think it's a little overused and sometimes can be a little overpowering flavor.

Snipe

No kidding. Good lord. Did Hattori Hanzo take an oath to stop making them or something?