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[Arx]

The only time I've ever had qiuiche was horrifically salty. Not a huge fan, really.

And now I'm craving pie.

[Bauglir]

Let's be honest - craving pie is simply a sign of your humanity. Truly, it is the beautiful tie that binds all cultures together.

[RedKing]

Finally got off my duff and tried that homemade satay peanut sauce thing.

Took peanut butter and mixed with about an equal amount of coconut milk, then thinned it with a small amount of fish sauce.
Then added ground ginger, a few drops of chili oil, some minced garlic, and some soy sauce.

Turned out pretty damn good. Not really that similar to a traditional satay sauce (a bit TOO peanut-y) but tasty. Unfortunately, my GF and I were just tossing stuff in, tasting, then figuring out what else to toss in, so I don't have a real recipe per se.

I'm betting it would make a kickass pad thai by mixing it with noodles, bean sprouts, egg and a little chicken or tofu.

[DJ]

I tried making corn tortillas for burritos, but they wound up a bit too brittle to roll. I didn't have masa harina, though, only plain corn flour, so I mixed it with an equalish amount of wheat flour hoping it'd give it some stretch. Is this the issue? I'm also thinking that maybe I didn't use enough oil, could that be it? What does actually determine elasticity of tortillas?

[Bauglir]

It's got to do with the state proteins are in, I believe. In wheat, it's gluten forming a sort of meshy network, IIRC. You'll need masa harina for corn tortillas - something about nixtalamization is what lets it even form a dough, and it still won't be as elastic as a comparable wheat dough. Wheat flour will help make stretchier corn tortillas, I expect. I also expect that oil will do the opposite of what you need. Depending on how it's incorporated, fat can make a flakier or a softer dough, but if it's anything like wheat, it'll interfere with the protein interlocking that supports stretchiness. Never tried it, though, so all that about the oil is theorycrafting - might be totally bonkers.

[DJ]

OK, I've made a second batch from the same dough, and they turned out much better. Turns out I was overcooking them. I was waiting for brown spots to appear to consider them cooked, but apparently that doesn't happen soon enough in a teflon pan.

That bit about oil is weird, though. I used to make bread without any, and it would crumble like crazy, but when I started adding oil it held together much better.

[RedKing]

Actually, oil acts as a lubricant, allowing for stretching without breaking the proteins. To envision how it works, think of the protein strands as wires, and the oil as rubber insulation on the wires. You can still tangle them, just not as tightly. And movement/stretching the tangled bundle is less likely to rip the wiring if they're insulated.

It also acts as a water barrier if you are adding toppings/fillings which contain moisture which might leach into the dough and make it runny during baking. This is why pizza dough is frequently oiled.

[Comrade P.]

I found this bizarre quiz about food Russians eat

[Caz]

Though pies can also (and are sometimes, in some places, only know for) being filled with meat/gravey/veggies as a main dish/entree. Meat pies (only one that I know by name is sheperds pie) are just great

Shepherds pie is a lie. It's just mince with potato on top.

Pastry is required for a pie to be a pie tbh. At least the bottom crust. "stew with puff pastry" is also not a pie. But the pastry type is less important. Usually shortcrust for normal meat pies or apple pie, cherry whatever else that is a fruit. Though you put some sugar in the sweet pie pastry usually. Shortcrust is good for steak pie, chicken pot pie, pigeon pie (do they still do that?). Then you get watercrust which is commonest in Scotch pies, though since you can get the cases anywhere people put all kinds of things in them. Chicken curry pie, 'breakfast' pie ( don't ask), macaroni pie (horrible. avoid), etc. Any pie that comes out of a tin is a bad investment.

Also doesn't need to be in a pie dish to be a pie. See: bridies, cornish pasties, jamaican patties etc. Imo the pastry turns out even better this way, but sometimes it's hard to get the pastry to filling ratio right. Though you can have too much - if you put too much filling in spanakopita for example, it just turns into a mess, but is really good if you do it right. Same goes for the other flaky pies made from phyllo like meat borek etc.

Things in bread are also not pies. Kare-pan, pirozhkis etc. Imo, pies are only pies if they contain a crust that is made of some sort of pastry. If you go beyond that rule, all sorts of strange things start to happen.

[DJ]

Wait, are you saying borek is a pie? Over here it's a subclass of pita (which confusingly enough has nothing to do with pita bread, we call that lepina), and in movie translations they always translate pie as pita too because we don't really have anything resembling your pies. This translation always irked me because an apple pie is nothing like a borek, but if you're saying they fall into the same food class in pies' native lands I'll have to rethink my position.

[Caz]

Wait, are you saying borek is a pie? Over here it's a subclass of pita (which confusingly enough has nothing to do with pita bread, we call that lepina), and in movie translations they always translate pie as pita too because we don't really have anything resembling your pies. This translation always irked me because an apple pie is nothing like a borek, but if you're saying they fall into the same food class in pies' native lands I'll have to rethink my position.

I'd consider it a pie. I mean, it can have multiple layers but it's still some sort of filling with pastry crust on the outside. Though with that definition I guess an éclair is a pie too. What has science done?

[Skyrunner]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Second time I made 'japchae'. It involves chopping up the bell pepper, chili pepper, onion, shittake mushroom; boiling and tearing the oyster mushrooms, boiling the shrimp, salting and notchijg then cutting and boiling the squid, boiling and ststirfrying glass noodle in a soy sauce/sesame oil/sugar mixture... *takes deep breath* then stirfrying the mushrooms and vegetables and seafood in another soy sauce based mixture. Finally miz it all together with sesame seeds and oil. The first time I made it the noodles were undercooked and the mushrooms overcooked but this time it was just right.

[Reudh]

Night before last I made myself and my parents some laksa, as the two people in the house who hate laksa (my two siblings) were out of the house that night, and parents felt too tired to cook anything complex.

It's an absurdly simple dish - fry the tofu, fry the shrimp/prawns/whatever meat you're using, though we used chicken, dump water or vegetable stock, coconut milk/cream and laksa paste and stir it over a medium heat, cover and bring to the boil.

That's literally all I had to do.

It was super delicious, but next time I might make the paste from scratch.

And yesterday I helped make beef rendang, a super delicious spicy curry. I didn't really do much except stir and make sure the rendang didn't boil 100% dry (it's a dry curry, but if it gets too dry, it burns).

[Bumblebee]

Since it seems to be a day of Asian cuisine...
My dear frieds, I need help. I bought something supposed to be tom yum base paste. At least the seller lady told me it is. But all the wrapping is covered in strange symbols and the only thing I could understand there was "350 g". So is there anyone who can read this (not even sure which language it is) and tell me what it really is?

Spoiler:  Upside down pictures (click to show/hide)

 

Also, any recipes of the soup itself will be much appreciated. I know the general idea, but never tried to cook it myself before.

[Comrade P.]

Those hieroglyphs are Chinese, Bumblebee. But that's the extent of my knowledge on the matter.