Are you a cook?

[richb]

@ richb Doesn't look very sanitary all sprawled out on a varnished table like that, but that's just me...yes. I is a cook :)

It is mostly on a cutting board. I ate tons of this as a child and still kicking at 74 with no diseases. So will stay with the family tradition,

[JayM]

Currently, I'm toying with spices (mainly cumin, mild Madras curry and 5 spices powder) and have been cooking for a week

Now I'm hungry for Chinese ngohiong. (There are many places one can buy ngohiongs here, but Chinese Ngohiong (the name of the shop) is arguably the best. Unfortunately it's over an hour away. They're basically lumpia (spring roll) wrappers stuffed with sliced palm hearts that are seasoned with ngohiong powder (Five Fragrant Spices) and deep fried, served with a spicy, ngohiong-seasoned dipping sauce.

Next project, baking my own bred, without kneading, in a covered cast iron pan in oven, T65 flour, salt and fresh baker yeast (don't know the exact English term).

That sounds almost like Australian damper although I believe they used cream of tartar for a leavening agent as it was easier to store and work with in bush conditions than yeast. You might want to experiment with sourdough some day instead of using yeast. Just mix some sifted flour, water and a pinch of sugar into a batter and let it stand uncovered and hope that your local wild yeasts are good ones. When it looks bubbly it's ready to use. Just mix half of it in with your bread dough, and add more flour and water to the starter to keep it going. The only thing about sourdough starter is you have to use it regularly and keep feeding it with more flour and water or else it will die. When I was young a schoolmate's mother gave me some starter that had been in their family since her grandfather went to the Klondike-Yukon gold fields in the early 1900s. He didn't come home with sacks full of gold, but he did bring his sourdough starter back. I used to make doughnuts with it. Unfortunately, being a kid I didn't commit myself to cooking with sourdough often enough to keep that starter going and it died on me.

[jj1j1]

@ richb I was mainly referring to a petroleum based finish coming in contact with food. Some foods/ingrediants contain acid that can break down finishes, and mixes into the food being prepared on it. Cutting or chopping on a varnished surface can cause chips of varnish in the food being processed. Considering some finishes contain toluene which is a cancer causing substance I wouldn't chance it. When I prepare food on wood it's always bare wood, and I give it a good scrubbing with a bleach water solution, (1Tbsp bleach per gallon of water is enough to kill most germs), for good measure. Food born illnesses are a bitch. I suppose what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger, but go through a case of Staphylococcal, and it will leave an impression on you that you will not soon forget. What makes it worse is preparing food for someone else, and they catch something.

[scottr954]

@ richb I was mainly referring to a petroleum based finish coming in contact with food. Some foods/ingrediants contain acid that can break down finishes, and mixes into the food being prepared on it. Cutting or chopping on a varnished surface can cause chips of varnish in the food being processed. Considering some finishes contain toluene which is a cancer causing substance I wouldn't chance it. When I prepare food on wood it's always bare wood, and I give it a good scrubbing with a bleach water solution, (1Tbsp bleach per gallon of water is enough to kill most germs), for good measure. Food born illnesses are a bitch. I suppose what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger, but go through a case of Staphylococcal, and it will leave an impression on you that you will not soon forget. What makes it worse is preparing food for someone else, and they catch something.

Do you happen to know what natural wood that's not too expensive that I could use for a cutting board? I want to make my own because I want a really large one (for rolling out dough). But I've been unsure what should and shouldn't be used.

[scottr954]

Home made macaroni (spaghetti). Simply eggs, water and flower..

I have that exact machine/maker! I've only used it once. I definitely want to get in the habit of making my own pasta.

Do you make your own sauce? Bolognese?

[Cristobal]

Now I'm hungry for Chinese ngohiong. (There are many places one can buy ngohiongs here, but Chinese Ngohiong (the name of the shop) is arguably the best. Unfortunately it's over an hour away. They're basically lumpia (spring roll) wrappers stuffed with sliced palm hearts that are seasoned with ngohiong powder (Five Fragrant Spices) and deep fried, served with a spicy, ngohiong-seasoned dipping sauce.

I see, it's like a battered roll, I didn't know that kind of roll. My Asian family usually does the rolls made with the Vietnamese Bánh tráng, deep fried.

That sounds almost like Australian damper although I believe they used cream of tartar for a leavening agent as it was easier to store and work with in bush conditions than yeast. You might want to experiment with sourdough some day instead of using yeast. Just mix some sifted flour, water and a pinch of sugar into a batter and let it stand uncovered and hope that your local wild yeasts are good ones. When it looks bubbly it's ready to use. Just mix half of it in with your bread dough, and add more flour and water to the starter to keep it going. The only thing about sourdough starter is you have to use it regularly and keep feeding it with more flour and water or else it will die. When I was young a schoolmate's mother gave me some starter that had been in their family since her grandfather went to the Klondike-Yukon gold fields in the early 1900s. He didn't come home with sacks full of gold, but he did bring his sourdough starter back. I used to make doughnuts with it. Unfortunately, being a kid I didn't commit myself to cooking with sourdough often enough to keep that starter going and it died on me.

The yeast I was talking about is baker's yeast (compressed fresh yeast)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker%27s_yeast
Isn't it sourdough? (you start the sourdough aside in a glass of water, that you mix with the dough later in the process, does it sound right?)

EDIT: after reading the French sourdough Wikipedia page, it appears that some sourdough is added to the fresh compressed yeast, so it's not totally sourdough, especially as yeast takes over sourdough during the leavening process.

[JayM]

Now I'm hungry for Chinese ngohiong. (There are many places one can buy ngohiongs here, but Chinese Ngohiong (the name of the shop) is arguably the best. Unfortunately it's over an hour away. They're basically lumpia (spring roll) wrappers stuffed with sliced palm hearts that are seasoned with ngohiong powder (Five Fragrant Spices) and deep fried, served with a spicy, ngohiong-seasoned dipping sauce.

I see, it's like a battered roll, I didn't know that kind of roll. My Asian family usually does the rolls made with the Vietnamese Bánh tráng, deep fried.

Not battered. It's wrapped in a spring roll or eggroll wrapper, sealed up like a Mexican burrito when it's folded, then fried in palm oil or coconut oil. Sort of like fried egg rolls in Chinese restaurants but bigger and with no meat or bean sprouts inside, just the seasoned palm hearts.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chinese- ... 9269304379

Those green triangular things you see in the pictures are puso or "hanging rice". It's just rice that's been wrapped up in woven banana leaf strips and cooked in the wrappers. They're usually eaten to accompany street foods/finger foods like barbecue, at places that don't serve food on plates and offer eating utensils. You just open the puso and eat the rice while holding onto the wrapper. They're called "hanging rice" because they're strung together for transporting, usually by bicycle or motorbike, hanging from the handlebars.

Here's the delivery man.

The yeast I was talking about is baker's yeast (compressed fresh yeast)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker%27s_yeast
Isn't it sourdough? (you start the sourdough aside in a glass of water, that you mix with the dough later in the process, does it sound right?)

No, you always soak dried yeast in some warm water to revive it before use. I'm talking about a 50-50 flour and water batter that's left out to sit at room temperature, loosely covered, until the airborne wild yeasts or any wild yeast that happens to already be in the flour start growing in it. It's best to use distilled, purified or filtered water to remove any chlorine that may be in your tap water, and to cover the container (a glass jar works well) with a layer of cheesecloth. You use a half cup, more or less, of the starter instead of baker's yeast to leaven the bread dough. It adds a slightly sour tanginess to the bread vs. using a pure baking yeast, yielding a bread that's great for sandwiches among other things.

[richb]

Home made macaroni (spaghetti). Simply eggs, water and flower..

I have that exact machine/maker! I've only used it once. I definitely want to get in the habit of making my own pasta.

Do you make your own sauce? Bolognese?

I do not. I tried once or twice, but did not taste like Mom's so sauce comes from the grocery store. I am not really a cook. The board I have, and it is a wood cutting board, not varnished, is over 80 years old. I would think you could get one at a place like Bed, Bath and Beyond. Perhaps our real cooks have a source.

[turtlebay777]

I do not. I tried once or twice, but did not taste like Mom's so sauce comes from the grocery store. I am not really a cook. The board I have, and it is a wood cutting board, not varnished, is over 80 years old. I would think you could get one at a place like Bed, Bath and Beyond. Perhaps our real cooks have a source.

Is that a source for the sauce ( forgive me being saucy!) or the the cutting boards? You can buy them in large pieces from a timber supplier and saw them to whatever size you prefer. Much cheaper (and better quality!) than buying ready made ones. Most butchers buy them that way.

[richb]

I do not. I tried once or twice, but did not taste like Mom's so sauce comes from the grocery store. I am not really a cook. The board I have, and it is a wood cutting board, not varnished, is over 80 years old. I would think you could get one at a place like Bed, Bath and Beyond. Perhaps our real cooks have a source.

Is that a source for the sauce ( forgive me being saucy!) or the the cutting boards? You can buy them in large pieces from a timber supplier and saw them to whatever size you prefer. Much cheaper (and better quality!) than buying ready made ones. Most butchers buy them that way.

For the cutting board. Good idea getting them from a timber supplier.