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[Parsely]

I like my saurkraut Fatherland-style. With potatoes the size of Hindenburg.

That sounds pretty okay too though, since I love mushrooms. So whats marmite?

[Carnwennan]

So whats marmite?

A thick, black/ brown sandwich spread. It is really, really salty. I tried it once on toast (I have no idea how to use it, by the way), not very pleasant but hey, different tastes. Might have used too much or something.

[Sirus]

We don't seem to get a lot of bad food experiences in this thread, so here's mine:

To provide a little context, In the past year or two I've been enjoying increasingly spicy hot foods. I used to hate the stuff, shunning even pepper flakes, but not so much recently.
Well, today we stopped for brunch at a small diner. My original plan was to get some sort of wrap, but then I saw this buffalo chicken sandwich on the menu and decided to try it. I was thinking "Why not? It can't be worse than that chipotle stuff I like, right?"

Never. Again.

I couldn't even eat half before my stomach began churning and I had to ask for a to-go box. The fumes from the sauce went right up my nose with every bite and I still feel slightly woozy. Dunno if I'm just a wimp when it comes to the Scoville scale or if they had some really nasty home-made sauce, but I'm not having that again for a very long time.

Sounds delicious. Where is this place?

Truck stop in Nevada, north of Vegas. Right next to an Air Force base, actually; you can sometimes see Predator drones being test-piloted.

[Tellemurius]

We don't seem to get a lot of bad food experiences in this thread, so here's mine:

To provide a little context, In the past year or two I've been enjoying increasingly spicy hot foods. I used to hate the stuff, shunning even pepper flakes, but not so much recently.
Well, today we stopped for brunch at a small diner. My original plan was to get some sort of wrap, but then I saw this buffalo chicken sandwich on the menu and decided to try it. I was thinking "Why not? It can't be worse than that chipotle stuff I like, right?"

Never. Again.

I couldn't even eat half before my stomach began churning and I had to ask for a to-go box. The fumes from the sauce went right up my nose with every bite and I still feel slightly woozy. Dunno if I'm just a wimp when it comes to the Scoville scale or if they had some really nasty home-made sauce, but I'm not having that again for a very long time.

Sounds delicious. Where is this place?

Truck stop in Nevada, north of Vegas. Right next to an Air Force base, actually; you can sometimes see Predator drones being test-piloted.

Im on this

[MadMalkavian]

The latest title of this thread makes me want to go out and buy a Chia Pet herb garden.

Also has anyone else here tried breaded and fried tilapia in chocolate sauce? It doesn't sound like it would taste good but it's quite delicious in my opinion. I buy the filets already breaded and then fry the up in some oil while I make a chocolate sauce out of hot cocoa mix, milk and water. I then lather the filets in the sauce and enjoy something that is deceptively delicious in my opinion. I can sometimes get enough to serve six to twelve for just $12-$15 USD - if everything is on sale. Fish is expensive in California.

Right about now I also kind of want to make a nice curry with rice. The way I've done it in the past is I would buy a brick of mild Japanese curry from the store, the kind that is just about the right kind of sweet and savory, then I would make the sauce while I was boiling the rice. I choose long grain white rice grown in the United States though sometimes I'm able to get my hands on imported Japanese rice, though that is very rare. I'll often times brown some ground beef to go along with the curry sauce and rice and throw in a couple diced carrots and chopped yellow onions and then proceed to after draining the beef and boiling the rice throw it all together into one big pot and cook it kind of like either stew or Hamburger Helper. I end up making enough for about twelve people whenever I do it and since I don't know anyone who likes curry I end up eating it all myself over the course of a couple weeks. It sounds real good right now.

[Sappho]

Mmmmm chia seeds... I've been having breakfast with them every day. Those things are magical. You put them in liquid and leave them for a while, and they turn the liquid all thick like jelly. If you put them in apple juice or chocolate milk and leave them in the fridge overnight, you can have pudding for breakfast. And they're super healthy too. Usually I just mix a couple spoons of them into my yogurt each morning, along with some fruit-flavored baby food, and let it sit while I make toast or something. Only takes about 10 minutes for it to get thick. Yum yum yum.

Today I re-discovered black beans. It's tough to find them canned in this country, and anyway the cans are full of salt and preservatives, but you can get them dried pretty cheaply and easily. I soaked them overnight and boiled them this morning and was astounded to find they got perfectly soft in just over one hour! (The soybeans are still going - they take about 3 hours.) I sauteed some onions and mushrooms and fresh jalepeno, then dumped in some beans and poured eggs over the top, and it was a mighty tasty breakfast, let me tell you. I will certainly have to make some refried beans with part of them (there's a couple cups left I think).

[Sappho]

Hm... Today I made my first attempt at homemade bagels, using this recipe: http://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com/2009/10/new-york-style-bagel-recipe/

I halved the recipe because I have a tiny oven, and also because if they turned out awful I would prefer 4 shitty bagels to 8. I followed the directions exactly, and excitedly tasted the first one after they had cooled a bit.

It was... terrible. Absolutely awful. Too hard on one side, too soft on the other. The texture was not quite right, and even the taste was wrong. Even the shape - they turned out a bit lumpy.

Clearly I have messed up something serious, but I have no idea what. I don't have an enormous amount of experience with baking, but I've never had any problems either. Do any of you guys have baking experience? Has anyone made bagels? Does the recipe look ok? It has good feedback in the comments section. It seems like a pretty simple procedure. What could I have messed up?

[Mesa]

Whats bigos? And whats marmite?

Sauerkraut + meat + tomato sauce = bigos.

That's the most basic recipe, anyway.
Bigos is also known as hunter's stew, FYI. The more you know the less you care.

[Parsely]

Whats bigos? And whats marmite?

Sauerkraut + meat + tomato sauce = bigos.

That's the most basic recipe, anyway.
Bigos is also known as hunter's stew, FYI. The more you know the less you care.

Tomato sauce eh? This just sounds better and better. I'd still put potatoes in it.

[MaximumZero]

Hm... Today I made my first attempt at homemade bagels, using this recipe: http://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com/2009/10/new-york-style-bagel-recipe/

I halved the recipe because I have a tiny oven, and also because if they turned out awful I would prefer 4 shitty bagels to 8. I followed the directions exactly, and excitedly tasted the first one after they had cooled a bit.

It was... terrible. Absolutely awful. Too hard on one side, too soft on the other. The texture was not quite right, and even the taste was wrong. Even the shape - they turned out a bit lumpy.

Clearly I have messed up something serious, but I have no idea what. I don't have an enormous amount of experience with baking, but I've never had any problems either. Do any of you guys have baking experience? Has anyone made bagels? Does the recipe look ok? It has good feedback in the comments section. It seems like a pretty simple procedure. What could I have messed up?

The recipe looks decent, but a touch bland. A) Turn down the oven, it may not be accurate. B) Roll the dough out before you knead it, and then shape your bagels. C) Toss a little bit of salt in the water. D) Boil them for a little longer after they float. E) USE MORE FLOUR. F) I'm not the best baker in the world, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

[Bauglir]

I've heard that boiling bagels in a weak lye solution is key to the texture, but that recipe seems to omit it. Not sure if relevant.

[Sappho]

Thanks for the tips. I think I may have identified the primary culprit: I'm so used to Americans using "all-purpose" flour for everything that I didn't even notice this recipe calls for bread flour. That's very easy to get here, so I'll use that next time.

And I did use a lot more flour in the end. While I was kneading I worked in what seemed like maybe even a whole cup more. I'll try a lower oven temp next time, and I'll work the dough a bit before shaping the bagels. I think the problem there might have simply been that there was too much oil on the dough from the bowl I was rising it in, and it was too hard to change its shape because of that.

Actually, my bagels didn't sink at all, maybe because of the flour being wrong. I boiled them for 1.5 minutes on each side to try to make up for it.

[MadMalkavian]

Whats bigos? And whats marmite?

Sauerkraut + meat + tomato sauce = bigos.

That's the most basic recipe, anyway.
Bigos is also known as hunter's stew, FYI. The more you know the less you care.

Tomato sauce eh? This just sounds better and better. I'd still put potatoes in it.

Call me half-Irish but I think almost anything savory is better with potatoes. When I get to making that curry and rice I'm going to throw in a couple potatoes to see if that happens to be the case. I know it is with hamburgers - whenever I eat out at McDonalds or Burger King I put french fries on my cheeseburgers and have since I was a child. My mother may have scolded me for it once or twice but it was delicious all the same. Nowadays if I make burgers in the oven at home I might fry up some hash brown patties, toss on some sharp cheddar slices and throw in some sliced turkey, ranch and mesquite smoke barbecue sauce and put it all together with two patties on three slices of either toasted wheat or sourdough.

Come to think of it all it needs are some strips of bacon and a couple slices of pepperoni pizza and it would be a perfect form of mindless self indulgence. That reminds me though that apparently according to some people I eat like a stoner despite my not being 420-friendly. Some of my favorite sandwiches are peanut and barbecue sauce, peanut butter and ranch dressing, peanut butter and Alfredo sauce, peanut butter and macaroni and cheese, and pepperoni pizza and Alfredo sauce. A pothead I once associated with for a while may have suggested we hang out because of these sandwiches I make. I just happen to have an unusual set of taste buds that's all.

[Tellemurius]

Whats bigos? And whats marmite?

Sauerkraut + meat + tomato sauce = bigos.

That's the most basic recipe, anyway.
Bigos is also known as hunter's stew, FYI. The more you know the less you care.

Tomato sauce eh? This just sounds better and better. I'd still put potatoes in it.

woah woah, i don't remember tomato sauce in any Bigos i ever had.

[Sappho]

Chemistry question for my fellow chefs! I've got a bad cold and a pile of super-spicy little fresh chilis. I've been making loads of tea with ginger and lemon and honey, and I know adding chili powder is also good for immunity, but I want to use my fresh chilis. I tried cutting them up and boiling them in water for about 15 minutes with the ginger, but I can hardly taste them at all, which means not much of the oil found its way into the water. I know oil and water don't like each other too much, but does anyone have any ideas on how to get the capsaicin out of the fruit and into the tea? These chilis are really very hot, which I like, and I want that in my tea! Would boiling longer help, or do I need to add something to the water?