I’m sure there must be a few budding chefs on OA. Without turning this place into mumsnet, I thought it might be interesting to share photos of our culinary efforts, maybe a few recipes and tips.
My gf started dragging me into adulthood kicking and screaming six years ago, and I actually really enjoy cooking these days, when I’m not in a lazy mood.
Bulgar wheat with roasted peppers, plum tomatoes and cloves of garlic. Finished off with the juice from half a lemon, a load of feta and flat leaf parsley.
I’m still at a fairly rudimentary cooking level but I’m starting to venture out try new things. Will be handy to hopefully come across dishes that inspire me a little
I’m a chef, love doing it in work not so much fun when it’s expected at home, Unless it’s steak, I fucking love steak. My dad is a director of a meat wholesaler in Glastonbury so I’m lucky enough to get whole cuts of meat very cheaply and having always grown up with meat because of my dad I’m meat obsessed.
Some who don’t understand how it works may think its over kill and “poncy” but there’s no better way to cook a steak than in a water bath and then sear it in a hot pan or over a chargrill.
I leave the Chinese cooking to the missus as she really enjoy’s it and is doing pretty well mastering it through various recipe books.
I love playing around with fish and do a lot of curing and smoking at home with it. I enjoy cooking Indian food aswell, playing around with different spices and you cannot beat fresh naan bread that you’ve made yourself.
It absolutely a legit picture, done with the help of the girlfriends iPhone X. A lot of people struggle with steak but it takes a few little things like leaving it out an hour or two before you cook it so that it’s room temperature and also out of the packaging so that it “breathes” and isn’t sat in any blood which will make it taste a bit like liver. then there’s the part where you have to make sure the pan is smoking hot and the most important bit is resting it so that it gets a chance to de-tense, when your putting heat through it via cooking it tenses up, the same way a fish will curl if you put it straight into a hot pan skin side down.
So I don’t bake as I much prefer cooking, but a few of my female friends have been challenging me for a while to give it another go. Then recently my girlfriend bought me a customised apron for Valentine’s, so decided today would be a good day to give it another crack.
Today I’m attempting a clementine and almond cake. I’m still at the prep stage.
So, managed to get some really nice beef cheeks from the butcher this morning and he also did a decent price on some beef ribs, so just started making ox cheek bourguigon and will cook the the same. Got some beef bones for stock aswell.
It’s all now in the oven on a low heat for the next 3.5 hours, I’ll remove it from the braising liquid (beef stock, chopped carrot, onion, garlic, celery, red wine and thyme) then I’ll reduce the fuck out of it to make the sauces, then caramelise some baby onions and bacon lardons and add to the sauce.
Gonna serve it with horse radish mash, roasted shallots and roasted chatennay carrots.
Will post pictures up of the finished plate later.
