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The goals I've got were spawned, in part, from a series of pretty innoucuous culinary faliures - some chicken that came out of the oven pretty fucking raw (which still surprises me, actually, since there's no reason it should have. I'm still thinking on it.), watery hummus, and a complete disaster of a tahnini-based dressing. All of this stuff was bad enough that it was basically thrown out, even after trying to salvage it. I do okay for the most part, but it was bas enough and close enough together that these fuckups really had me questioning if I really had even the most rudimentary knowledge of cooking.
So I thought, well, as long as I'm having an existential crises, I might as well learn something from it. If I'm concerned about basic cookery, let's get to some real basics and build up from there, right? I wrote about that already, but I decided to start with the tomato sauce since it is, frankly, the easiest. Or, at least, the easiest to find all the ingrediants I needed, which is good enough. I tried to find a really basic recipe, but one that was still a little different from the shit I was pulling before - all it asked for was a pound of whole tomatoes, a little salt, 5 tablespoons of butter, and an onion. It was barely a recipe - more of a method and an exhortation to practice patience. At the end, it was still a little chunkier than I wanted, so I hit it with an immersion blender to smooth that shit out (Kay's idea, actually), and it was actually terrific. Could not have gone better and actually went a lot better than I'd hoped.
Complete success. Very nice.
The meatballs were way more complicated. I know my way around meatballs pretty well, actually, and thought about going super basic with them, but they were actually something of a secondary objective and I felt I could be more elaborate. So, I went with recipe from Martha Stewart, and I feel like I understand the basic principles. The beef I got was the best I could find - grass fed, whatever - but the fat content wasn't exactly right. I felt like the egg and panko I was adding as a binder would probably be enough to make up for that and I was already adding ricotta as part of the recipe - I'm honestly not sure if they could have come out much better. They were moist enough in the center for sure, so... I dunno. I guess it doesn't really matter if it's 5% one way or the other on fat, frankly.
The pasta was a bust, though - I'm glad I had dry backup pasta. I just... lost control over the eggs in the well of the flour in a complete and total fashion, and I'd never made it before. I think it was a mistake to halve the recipe, and it was probably a mistake to try to make fresh pasta for the first time at the same time I was making scratch meatballs (and I'll never go back to frozen - ever, even before this. There isn't a comparison, and I'd rather go meatless) and making a sauce in this way for the first time. You know, I got too ambitious.
So -
Primary Goal: Tomato Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Use Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Make Fresh Pasta - Failed
Tertiary Goal: Meatballs - Achieved
Still looks pretty good, to me. I'll get the pasta another time.
Right now, I've got my trial batch of home-made mustard in the fridge, chilling. (Illing.) I've made condiments before - mustards, a sweet chili ketchup, mayo a few times. But, nothing really systematic - either the result of a one shot requirement where I needed mustard and only had some powder, or some kind of elaborate recipe I don't have a good grasp of the practicals on. If the mustard turns out, then I'll never really need to buy mustard again, because it's easy as hell to make. So, we'll see.
So I thought, well, as long as I'm having an existential crises, I might as well learn something from it. If I'm concerned about basic cookery, let's get to some real basics and build up from there, right? I wrote about that already, but I decided to start with the tomato sauce since it is, frankly, the easiest. Or, at least, the easiest to find all the ingrediants I needed, which is good enough. I tried to find a really basic recipe, but one that was still a little different from the shit I was pulling before - all it asked for was a pound of whole tomatoes, a little salt, 5 tablespoons of butter, and an onion. It was barely a recipe - more of a method and an exhortation to practice patience. At the end, it was still a little chunkier than I wanted, so I hit it with an immersion blender to smooth that shit out (Kay's idea, actually), and it was actually terrific. Could not have gone better and actually went a lot better than I'd hoped.
Complete success. Very nice.
The meatballs were way more complicated. I know my way around meatballs pretty well, actually, and thought about going super basic with them, but they were actually something of a secondary objective and I felt I could be more elaborate. So, I went with recipe from Martha Stewart, and I feel like I understand the basic principles. The beef I got was the best I could find - grass fed, whatever - but the fat content wasn't exactly right. I felt like the egg and panko I was adding as a binder would probably be enough to make up for that and I was already adding ricotta as part of the recipe - I'm honestly not sure if they could have come out much better. They were moist enough in the center for sure, so... I dunno. I guess it doesn't really matter if it's 5% one way or the other on fat, frankly.
The pasta was a bust, though - I'm glad I had dry backup pasta. I just... lost control over the eggs in the well of the flour in a complete and total fashion, and I'd never made it before. I think it was a mistake to halve the recipe, and it was probably a mistake to try to make fresh pasta for the first time at the same time I was making scratch meatballs (and I'll never go back to frozen - ever, even before this. There isn't a comparison, and I'd rather go meatless) and making a sauce in this way for the first time. You know, I got too ambitious.
So -
Primary Goal: Tomato Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Use Sauce - Achieved
Secondary Goal: Make Fresh Pasta - Failed
Tertiary Goal: Meatballs - Achieved
Still looks pretty good, to me. I'll get the pasta another time.
Right now, I've got my trial batch of home-made mustard in the fridge, chilling. (Illing.) I've made condiments before - mustards, a sweet chili ketchup, mayo a few times. But, nothing really systematic - either the result of a one shot requirement where I needed mustard and only had some powder, or some kind of elaborate recipe I don't have a good grasp of the practicals on. If the mustard turns out, then I'll never really need to buy mustard again, because it's easy as hell to make. So, we'll see.
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