Learning to Cook - Stove top and oven

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Haram Exercise said:
What is the secret to the perfect french fries?
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Lol, I personally can't stand them, but I certainly know how to make great fresh cut fries...
Takayuki Yagami said:
Frying them twice and seasoning immediately after they come out of the oil. First is to cook through, seconds is at higher heat to crisp them up.
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Yep. First, use a good neutral oil with a high smoke point. Peanut oil is probably the best thing to use, unless you really want to be decadent, in which case use duck fat. Second, make sure that you're using a Russet or other variety of very starchy potato. Varieties like Yukon Gold or Red Bliss make not so great fries.

Cut your fries not too thick, not too thin. The size of a fast food fry is about what you want to go for. Heat up your oil to 275 F (and make sure you're using a thermometer or a digital control fryer to get the temp right), and add in your cut potatoes. Fry them for about 5-6 minutes, and then take them out of the oil, drain on a wire rack or paper towels, and let them cool completely.

Heat your oil back up to 350 F, and fry for another 5-6 minutes. When they look golden brown and delicious, take them out of the oil, give them a shake to drain off excess oil and immediately season them with fine salt. Kosher salt grains are too big to stick really well, so use table salt or a similarly fine grained salt.

Then enjoy your fries, that I'm sure you will find delicious, but I think are fucking disgusting.
 
Some Badger said:
I like to marinate my chicken cuts in hoisin sauce and cook them over the stove. I'll use 'em for sandwiches, curry, etcetera. I am however curious as to what hoisin chicken might taste like if I baked it in the oven.

Also, if anyone could give tips on how to use panko crumbs, that'd be super. Even dipping my chicken cuts in egg batter first doesn't seem to keep the crumbs on.
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I know your post is a year old, but if you want to properly bread your chicken (or bread anything, for that matter) you need to give the chicken a light dusting of flour, and I do mean light, before you dip it in the egg wash. The flour helps the egg to adhere to your food and the egg helps the outer breading adhere. Also, you need to make sure that you really beat your egg well, and that there are no strands of unbeaten egg white, because that can cause problems as well.

Basically, get out three wide shallow bowls or plates, put some flour in one, and lightly season it with salt and black pepper (fresh cracked is infinitely better than pre-ground), your very well-beaten egg in the second, and your panko in the third. Put your chicken in the flour, both sides, and then shake off the excess flour. You really just want the lightest coating of flour possible. Then, into your egg, again, both sides, and let any excess drip off. Again, light coating is the goal. Finally, into the panko, and make sure that you give the chicken a firm press into the panko, both sides, and any parts that are bare of coating, take a pinch of panko and press it in.

Bake or fry, and enjoy!
 
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JULAY said:
I know your post is a year old, but if you want to properly bread your chicken (or bread anything, for that matter) you need to give the chicken a light dusting of flour, and I do mean light, before you dip it in the egg wash. The flour helps the egg to adhere to your food and the egg helps the outer breading adhere. Also, you need to make sure that you really beat your egg well, and that there are no strands of unbeaten egg white, because that can cause problems as well.

Basically, get out three wide shallow bowls or plates, put some flour in one, and lightly season it with salt and black pepper (fresh cracked is infinitely better than pre-ground), your very well-beaten egg in the second, and your panko in the third. Put your chicken in the flour, both sides, and then shake off the excess flour. You really just want the lightest coating of flour possible. Then, into your egg, again, both sides, and let any excess drip off. Again, light coating is the goal. Finally, into the panko, and make sure that you give the chicken a firm press into the panko, both sides, and any parts that are bare of coating, take a pinch of panko and press it in.

Bake or fry, and enjoy!
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You can also go the Asian route of coating in almost pure cornstarch.
 
Back again!

One lesson I learned tonight: pot roast. Apparently, you bake it at 500. Then, put it on a pan with butter and let the juices drip out of the roast into the pan. Reheat the pot roast at 500 for a couple minutes, then glaze the juices.
 
The Last Stand said:
Back again!

One lesson I learned tonight: pot roast. Apparently, you bake it at 500. Then, put it on a pan with butter and let the juices drip out of the roast into the pan. Reheat the pot roast at 500 for a couple minutes, then glaze the juices.
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Today's brunch was biscuit style French Toast with leftover pot roast seared for an extra few minutes. I had to be frugal with the egg mixture as biscuits absorb more than regular bread.
 

Follow this guide, it takes a few minutes of extra work but even store bought jarred sauce can taste like something from a good restaurant if you do this instead of just draining and dumping sauce on your pasta.

Also

don't use pre grated cheese, buy blocks and grate it yourself. The pre grated stuff has starch added to keep it from caking, which also keeps it from melting properly. It also loses flavor because a lot of the compounds which are locked in with a block of cheese are exposed to the air once grated, much like how ground spices are weaker than whole ones. Grating is not that hard or time consuming unless youre preparing enormous amounts of food or you consume as much cheese as lifebyjen. I have a microplane grater and it's great
 
Sometime soon, I will be doing chicken Alfredo with penne and bread. What does whipping cream do?
 
The Last Stand said:
Sometime soon, I will be doing chicken Alfredo with penne and bread. What does whipping cream do?
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While I am no alfredo afficionado, I have often made a creamy mushroom sauce for rigatoni, which omits the butter but also incorporates parmeggiano and cream - overall, I consider it a superior, less one-note sauce and I would recommend it, especially when paired with chicken.

Add some neutral oil to a stainless steel or cast iron pan. Fry sliced mushrooms with a generous pinch of salt on medium high until properly browned. The mushrooms will release a lot of liquid and only start frying properly once it has evaporated. Do not underfry the mushrooms. You want browning. Once the pan is dry, make a well in the middle of the mushrooms, add another small dollop of oil and fry finely chopped garlic for 30 seconds to take the raw edge off. Add a touch of thyme and rosemary, then deglaze the pan with some chicken stock or, if times are tough, water. Briefly boil the mushrooms in the stock, then add cream. Stir, allow to come to a simmer.
The cream when briefly heated (do not simmer for an extended period or overheat) will thicken quite quickly and adhere to the pasta very well if it is finished in the sauce. As always, add pasta straight from the pot, just under al dente. Add freshly grated parmeggiano to taste, as well as copious amounts of freshly ground black pepper.

Alfredo is just overall "fat" and to be frank, I have yet to see it gain any sort of following outside of the United States. Cream, butter, cheese - very one note. Mushrooms add nuance and earthy savoryness and pair very well with chicken. Omitting the butter makes what would otherwise be a borderline unpalatable sauce quite balanced.
 
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Essentially for any and all sauces: if you know you like the pasta when it has boiled for 10 minutes, take it out at the 9 minute mark and let it finish in the sauce for that last minute. Just whatever your preferred cooking time is for a given pasta minus a minute. Just put them in the sauce straight from the pot with tongs or a spider, no need to strain - a bit of pasta water in the sauce is helpful, as the starch makes the sauce stick to the noodles better.
 
Thanks for the advice. Will post results of my chicken Alfredo later.


Who wants me to recreate Poorly Cooking with the King with breakfast sandwiches?
 
I'd strongly suggest just getting America's Test Kitchen cookbook for current year. They scientifically test and refine all their recipes and I have never had a failure following the directions.

Breakfast sandwiches should be hard to fuck up, so please post results.
 
Bloitzhole said:
Essentially for any and all sauces: if you know you like the pasta when it has boiled for 10 minutes, take it out at the 9 minute mark and let it finish in the sauce for that last minute. Just whatever your preferred cooking time is for a given pasta minus a minute. Just put them in the sauce straight from the pot with tongs or a spider, no need to strain - a bit of pasta water in the sauce is helpful, as the starch makes the sauce stick to the noodles better.
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Also... follow the cooking time posted on the box. Every box is different, even if it's the same size and shape. A while back I was hungry as hell and wanted to eat asap, i had two packages of penne in my cabinet from different brands but realized one of them said to boil for 7 minutes vs 13 minutes. Following what it says has never let me down.

The Last Stand said:
Sometime soon, I will be doing chicken Alfredo with penne and bread. What does whipping cream do?
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True Alfredo is just enormous amounts of butter and freshly grated parmesan tossed with hot pasta and a bit of cooking water, plus salt and pepper to taste. I've always found American versions difficult to eat but after making the OG version it's pretty good. It's still one of those things you can only eat once a year without blossoming to 600 lbs, though.

Bloitzhole said:
Alfredo is just overall "fat" and to be frank, I have yet to see it gain any sort of following outside of the United States. Cream, butter, cheese - very one note. Mushrooms add nuance and earthy savoryness and pair very well with chicken. Omitting the butter makes what would otherwise be a borderline unpalatable sauce quite balanced.
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Many Italian dishes take for granted that the ingredients you use are high quality and tbh, Alfredo is one of those things. If your cheese and butter is high quality, it's quite delightful, but most American supermarkets sell ingredients that are dog shit compared to the stuff you'd get in Italy.

It's the same reason why Americans love to bloat simple tomato sauce recipes with a billion random extra ingredients. If you buy good quality canned tomatoes, you should only need garlic, olive oil, red pepper, salt and herbs, maybe a tiny pinch of some sugar or wine to balance things a little more when necessary.
 
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