What are you cooking right now?

[Lander]

Playing, Listening, Reading, Watching... Here at Shmupsfarm, we have a thread for almost every human need.

But what of the most fundamental need of all: Sustenance?



Post what you're cooking - before or after the fact, with or without pictures, artisinal or otherwise. If it's tasty, it fits
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I'll start off:

Just finished my first attempt at a go-big-or-go-home american style pancake breakfast; one full-pan cake with homemade batter and fresh raspberries, topped with bacon and lashings of maple syrup. Simple and yummy, in theory!

Not as big of a disaster as you might expect from someone who's never made their own batter before; good taste, and my hands knew that the flip would work out, but going full-pan was too ambitious. Ended up with a too-gooey interior and too-charred exterior, so lower-and-slower with early raspberries will be the way for future attempts.

Busy day for cooking; gotta assemble a lasagna for proving later, and then fall back on the classic something I prepared earlier for dinner in the form of George Foreman style quesadillas; chicken, jalapeno and salsa filling, with the cheese on the outside to form a crispy sarcopha-crust. Delicious!

[BIL]

The low n' slow vs MOEROOO distinction was one I came to a bit late; many a good filet steak charred before my grandma asked me WTF I was doing with these nice English people's prize livestock

The Theme Of Young Biruford In The Kitchen (Explicit Ver)

That's still my go-to treat; ain't fancy, but it's homey and substantial. Will typically marinate 30mins with lemon and garlic for a bit of zing; the cuts here are so excellent, I suspect more time's not needed. Typically accompanied with chips n' Guinness / lightly sauteed fine beans (or another suitably crisp green) and a glass of wine, depending on context. (went with mineral water tonight, was at a wedding earlier in week and still a bit worse for wear )

Culturally I should be more into seafood, and the usual West Indies staples like plantain and cassava, the latter of which I avoided with fury as a kid (hated the molasses-esque texture), before warming up to later on. But being half-white with a family history full of nautical fuckery, I never shook the feeling I'd end up speared to the deck by a marlin or wahoo aka Iron Mackerel, like one of those poor bastards you hear about occasionally, so I'm end-user only there. Equally anglo cousins who regard their sport fishing rigs like we do the most ineffably prized NTSCJs call me a wiener. Gratefully received some customarily excellent red snapper and cassava cake from an aunt last time I was home. I should probably pay more attention to this stuff tbh, Burger King ruined my little boy brain.

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That perfect George Lucas sidemouth mumble

[Lander]

Just polished off what I'm calling the first pancake success story - same again, but with blueberries, refined batter, and an extra spoon of care. Lovely!
Turns out the trick is to make two rounds of batter per egg to improve the consistency and avoid going too savoury, with the added bonus of having one premade for tomorrow.
Never thought I'd be excited to own tupperware, but here we are

Was never much a fan of blueberries, likely on account of awful artificial renditions of the taste, but I'm starting to see why they're so popular for brekkie; a nice suble way to add some natural sugars without dominating the entire dish as per stronger fruits.

The low n' slow vs MOEROOO distinction was one I came to a bit late; many a good filet steak charred before my grandma asked me WTF I was doing with these nice English people's prize livestock

The Theme Of Young Biruford In The Kitchen (Explicit Ver)

That's still my go-to treat; ain't fancy, but it's homey and substantial. Will typically marinate 30mins with lemon and garlic for a bit of zing; the cuts here are so excellent, I suspect more time's not needed. Typically accompanied with chips n' Guinness / lightly sauteed fine beans (or another suitably crisp green) and a glass of wine, depending on context. (went with mineral water tonight, was at a wedding earlier in week and still a bit worse for wear )

Ha, yeah - there was a time when I didn't consider meat cooked until it was super crispy, almost burned, cremated though still a good rule of thumb for bacon now I'm older and wiser.

Wish I had a good butcher nearby; used to live a few doors down from one, so getting good cuts was a cinch. The local supermarket is fine enough for chicken, but I was a touch miffed to try my hand at Birria Tacos and discover that their frying steak is tough as old boots!
I'll have to take a gamble on a fillet one of these days and see if it holds to a proper standard, a medium-rare steak dinner is a great fundamental meal.

I tend to go the full nine with marinating; common-or-garden chicken being the flavour sponge it is, I do a butchery session after a shop run and prepare diced, oiled, seasoned bags of the stuff that can sit absorbing overnight in the fridge and be thrown straight into a pan.
Manually spicing the oil makes for some nice trickery too - dip a tortilla or other bread in it toward the end of the cook, and once toasted it'll take on flavours that otherwise don't make it through in the meat alone.

Culturally I should be more into seafood, and the usual West Indies staples like plantain and cassava, the latter of which I avoided with fury as a kid (hated the molasses-esque texture), before warming up to later on. But being half-white with a family history full of nautical fuckery, I never shook the feeling I'd end up speared to the deck by a marlin or wahoo aka Iron Mackerel, like one of those poor bastards you hear about occasionally, so I'm end-user only there. Equally anglo cousins who regard their sport fishing rigs like we do the most ineffably prized NTSCJs call me a wiener. Gratefully received some customarily excellent red snapper and cassava cake from an aunt last time I was home. I should probably pay more attention to this stuff tbh, Burger King ruined my little boy brain.

The local chippie tends to be the closest I get to seafood; a haddock here, some scampi there. A fateful christmas with shredded-crab-served-in-shell starter rather put the pin in that one; this isn't just crustacean horror; it's M&S crustacean horror

BK and the other fast food franchises baffle me now I'm an adult. They present a tricky philosophical question as to whether they really were better in the old days, or just seemed it on account of not having experienced the finer things.
And seeing as the recipes will have changed over years of food industry legislation, it may even be unsolvable absent time travel, or a highly illegal iron chef tournament under the tokyo dome that brings The King out of retirement for one last course!