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Cooking pictures!

BenderRodriguez said:
Magna: I've been planning for a while now to make kimchi but didn't quite get around yet. Everything you make looks great, have you been cooking since you were a kid or is it a more recent interest?

Karamazov: how did the cake come up?

Barbecue sauce simmering:

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An Italian friend is sending me a box of local stuff once in a while (I do the same) and this time I had a fresh truffle and girasoli that needed using and made bruschetta to go with it as an entree:

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And, of course, my lovely assistant for the day:

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Thank you for the compliments, Bender. I'm very envious about the truffle. I've never had anything other than truffle infused oil. Maybe I'll get to try some at some point in my life.

Yes, I've been cooking since I was a kid. It started with getting cookbooks for children from the library and having a Mom that was willing to let me experiment in the kitchen and make messes.

I got a great Kimchi book years ago that I've used. It's amazing that there are so many different types of Kimchi. It's really putting a name to the fermentation process in general rather than naming a specific kind of recipe. It helps that I like spicy (molten) foods!
 
^ My mother started me off too, as soon as I was judged old enough to handle the knives and hot pans I was taught the basic essence of how to cook one dish at a time. :)
 
That's a beautiful Dauphinoise, Stuart, I really love them and they freeze well too :)

Truffles are easy to find here, but they are not cheap. You can also get them in a jar, they are usually very good and due to the strong taste one tiny jar (1 oz) is enough for 2 or 3 portions:

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I'm always happy to hear about parents who still teach their kids to cook, in my opinion, it's an essential life skill and both our kids enjoy it a lot - my son makes the kitchen look like the site of a natural disaster but at least I don't have to worry about him feeding himself with frozen pizzas when he leaves for uni!
 
The sourdough bread I baked yesterday - we had a lazy evening and sliced some next to a board of cold steak, garlic butter, cheese, and fruits. It's a bit uneven as I shaped it a bit bigger than the baking pan :D

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BenderRodriguez said:
The sourdough bread I baked yesterday - we had a lazy evening and sliced some next to a board of cold steak, garlic butter, cheese, and fruits. It's a bit uneven as I shaped it a bit bigger than the baking pan :D

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The bread looks excellent, Bender. When Covid hit and the baking shelves were bare, I started a sourdough starter with some organic rye berries I had on hand. I have a grain mill so it was an easy task. I haven't been baking too much bread with it since my wife has been baking yeast bread more often. I have been saving the discards though and usually once per week I've made sourdough pancakes for breakfast and it's hands down the best pancakes any of us have ever eaten.
 
Cheers, it's fun, isn't it? My son helped with feeding the starter and put a label with "sour face" on the jar:D. Right now, I'm even more fascinated with the discards and already made pancakes, waffles and crackers with it but I still have a long list of things I want to try in the future: dinner rolls, buns, bagels and even pastry. Some of it can also be used along with a bit of yeast: it makes a mean french baguette.
 
^ Looks delicious :yum::yum:
Might have to try out the caraway & cheese combo: Mrs K loves a little cheese pastry to snack on. :)
 
Cheers, Carraway seeds are very popular here and if you like them, they do go great with cheese, particularly stronger ones.
 
Mmmm... I feel a session of folding pastry round mature cheddar coming on. :)

Hopefully I’ll fit it into tomorrow. ;)
 
When I'm short on time, I make something similar to a shortcrust dough, pressing the butter into the flour into flat bits without mixing it all the way, then add the finely grated cheese and the wet ingredients and incorporate them by hand - it's ready in cca 10 min, doesn't need laminating but the result is very similar due to the small bits of butter keeping their integrity. Another 30 min resting in the fridge and it's ready for shaping.

(200gr pastry flour, 125-150 grated cheese (any hard cheese: cheddar, parmesan, pecorino, gruyere etc), 125gr cold cubed butter, 2 egg yolks, 75gr full-fat Greek yoghurt or sour cream, teaspoon baking powder. Give it an egg wash and put whatever you want on top and bake with lining paper for 20 min at 170 C)
 
BenderRodriguez said:
Couldn't agree more! During summer I prefer light dinners and I often just make a platter with crackers, cheeses, fruits and a few nuts. The occasional glass of red wine makes it even better :)
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I like to do that, too, in hot weather. We're eating meatless tonight so I'm going to make eggplant parmesan, yellow squash planks with Panko coating, and a spinach salad. I've already made deviled eggs this morning to go on the salad. And red wine is non-negotiable for me. :) I enjoy my glass or two of cabernet or Merlot every day and think about Julia Child's famous statement that she loved to use wine when cooking and sometimes she even put it in the food!

Our son is coming by to see us today (yay!) so I'll make him some treats to take home: what I call jalapeno pizza poppers - my homegrown jalapenos filled with diced pepperoni, minced onions and sharp cheddar, wrapped in thin bacon, and cooked in the oven for 90 minutes at 300 degrees F. Kielbasa pigs-in-blankets with puff pastry with mustard dipping sauce. And my home chickens deviled eggs which he loves.

It is so hot here this week - 110 heat index most days - so we've been staying inside and finding things to do to stay cool. That means I bake bread and cook a lot of things to entertain myself.
 
Speaking of being a meat-eating savage: I don't know how common this is in the US, but tartare is very popular in several European countries and something I make every other week when it's too hot to turn the stove on or we're just lazy.

I'm sure some people find it gross and eating raw meat or eggs is a very controversial subject, but it's delicious and healthy if you have good and fresh ingredients.

The preparation

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I like mine on toast:

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I plan to try the Ethiopian version next time: they use slightly browned butter in which they toast the spices lightly and it's ridiculously good.
 
^ I've never tried tartare, Bender. You're correct though, it's not something that's consumed in the U.S. as a rule. I do recall it had a short lived consideration here perhaps 50 years ago when dinner parties were more of a common occurrence.
 
How about Carpaccio? You guys seem to really like Italian cuisine.

I'm wondering how much is lack of exposure, how much convenience (it's not something you can easily make with supermarket-bought ingredients), or just aversion to raw meat. The Brits don't seem to have it either, despite liking their roast beef and steak quite raw.

And ironically, the Dutch and the Belgians call it "filet americain" instead of steak tartare, a bit of a nasty trap for tourists :D
 
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