The Official Food Porn Thread

[hoverfly]

Originally Posted by jobleau

I never found anything even close. The richest commercially available here is 35%. I came across some home made cream a couple of times. They were probably around 40 to 45%. But it's not easy to get unless your best friend is a milk producer.

Yes, the woes of living in the Third World.

I wonder how difficult it could be making your own clotted cream? I must investigate that.

+++

Update:
Just had a quick peek at startpage.com and searched for 'making clotted cream'. Jeez, tons of links just pop up and from what I can gather it is really easy to make yourself. Cream in jar, into the oven, out comes Clotted Cream. Doesn't get much easier then that, does it?

Here are a couple of links to pages mentioning different recipes:
Cupcake Project: Making Clotted Cream at Home is Much Easier Than You Think

wikiHow: How to Make Your Own Clotted Cream

There are tons more out there, so feel free to research and try other methods. Oh, and don't forget to tell us about how it went.

[jobleau]

Originally Posted by hoverfly

Yes, the woes of living in the Third World.

Yeah, right. Thanks for remembering us.

Originally Posted by hoverfly

Update:
Just had a quick peek at startpage.com and searched for 'making clotted cream'. Jeez, tons of links just pop up and from what I can gather it is really easy to make yourself. Cream in jar, into the oven, out comes Clotted Cream. Doesn't get much easier then that, does it?

Here are a couple of links to pages mentioning different recipes:
Cupcake Project: Making Clotted Cream at Home is Much Easier Than You Think

wikiHow: How to Make Your Own Clotted Cream

There are tons more out there, so feel free to research and try other methods. Oh, and don't forget to tell us about how it went.

Gee! That looks too easy not to try!

For once I'll be happy for not having a doctor, who would probably have a fit if I had to tell him/her I had some of that gorgeous cream.

[jobleau]

@Hover: A tid bit to add to your "Some useful hints on reducing Food Waste" post, which incidentally, was excellent and to the point.

Whenever you cook sea foods with a shell like shrimps, clams, lobsters, etc. keep those shells, cooked or not and freeze them until you have enough to make a broth. Pretty much what you say about vegetable peelings. Actually, mix both shells and peelings for an even better broth. This will give you an awesome base for asian type soups or a clam chowder.

Another note, about freezing this time. Indeed, freezing is the best way to keep food for a longer time. But if you want to make the best of it, vacuum pack the food, either before or after freezing it. Vacuum packaging will easily triple the freezer storage time for most items if it's done properly. And vacuum packaging machines are not too expensive considering what you save in food and the convenience of long time storage. For example, last time I bought a whole beef tenderloin, I cut it in 200g pieces, froze them and once frozen, vacuum packed them. That was over a year ago. And last weekend, I used one to make a steak tartar. As good as fresh.

The reason to freeze first and vacuum pack after freezing is that the blood in the meat won't be extracted when you vacuum pack it. So when you'll thaw the meat it's still in the meat,making for a moister and tender piece of meat.

Same with soup or other liquids. Freeze them first in a small plastic container. I use 3 cups Ziplock ones. Once frozen, vacuum pack them for years of conservation. One time I found one of those I had forgotten. The date on the pack was 4 years earlier.

Another advantage of vacuum packing is to use the plastic rolls instead of pre-cut bags. They come in different widths and can be cut to the needed size, thus reducing their consumption. And don't listen to what the maker says about not reusing the bags. They are in business and make a lot of money selling that plastic. But the bags are perfectly reusable several times. Just wash them properly in a soapy dishwater.

A note on reusing those bags. If when you pack something you notice it is not completely vacuumed, toss the bag and use another one. If you still have air in there you have zero benefits. Also periodically check you packaged food and if you notice it lost its vacuum, repackage it in a new bag.

Also, if you freeze a lot of stuff, weight and date it and keep that information in some sort of inventory so you know what you have stocked. It makes it much easier when you plan for a meal. You don't have to empty the freezer to know if you still have some of the stuff. But don't forget to remove it from the list when you use it. Otherwise, you'll end up thinking you have something when you don't.

Vacuum packaging can also be used on refrigerated and non-refrigerated items as well. Cheese come to mind. And oxidizing metals. That beautiful silver cutlery you have to shine at every use, well, wash it, let it dry thoroughly and pack it. Next time you need it, it will be ready to use.

[PaintItPretty]

Tandoori Butter chicken:



http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/4849...butter+chicken



My favorite pad thai recipe:




http://thaifood.about.com/od/oodleso...ith-Shrimp.htm

[PaintItPretty]

I'm going to start taking pictures of my own food and post them. Now, I just need to find the time to write all of my own recipes down to on my computer so I can post them.

[PaintItPretty]

Do you know how awesome it is that you men cook? Your wives are LUCKY!

[hoverfly]

Originally Posted by PaintItPretty

Do you know how awesome it is that you men cook? Your wives are LUCKY!

I just showed this to my wife and she just laughed out loud saying: 'No, he's the lucky one.' LOL

No, quite a number of years ago we were watching a programme about the differences in sense of smell in women and men and one of the scientists stated that in general, women have a 100x better sense in this area. Upon which I managed to produce the Freudian slip by saying: 'See, women are supposed to smell 100 times as good as you do.'

She just burst out laughing. But seriously, her sense of smell is quite bad, she often fails to even recognise when a tomcat has come into the house and given the kitchen a good old spraying. This in turn then leads to her not recognising flavours too well, after all, both senses are so intimately entwined. They did a test with noses clamped tightly shut and found that the majority of persons tested were unable to tell the difference between an onion and an apple. Only goes to show there might be something to it.

I on the other hand, I could get a job as 'sniffer dog' any day. My mother-in-law knows her way around most of the wild mushrooms in Germany and when we used to go gathering them, I would just poke my nose in the wind and point in a direction and sure enough, there would be a patch of them.

Same applies when we walk through the town where we now live. I can tell exactly who is growing weed inside their house and who isn't. If I wasn't in favour of decriminalising cannabis anyway, I would have offered my services to the local police a long time ago. LOL.

[jobleau]

Originally Posted by PaintItPretty

Do you know how awesome it is that you men cook? Your wives are LUCKY!

Not so sure of that. I did loose some prospective girl friends over the years when they found out I cook better than they did.

Thanks for the pad thai recipe. I'll have to try that soon.

[hoverfly]

@JoBleau: LOL. Got me there again. Remember the emails when you pointed that out to me and I said 'we've been using a vacuum machine for ages'. Just as I initially said, you end up taking things for granted, so, much obliged for pointing out this omission. With you permission, I will add a link to the index for easier reference.

Same actually applies to the shells of shell fish or chicken leftovers you mention. Just this morning I started defrosting a ton of veg peelings, drained cooking water and some chicken stock with all the bones still in. Just the smell of the slowly defrosting 'waste' was enough to make my mouth water. Good point, well put.

As for the reduction is plastic bags... What can I say? The last time I bought a pack of freezer bags (100 x 3 litres), was about 5 years ago. They've been washed and reused so many times, I lost count. Even the ones with small holes in are still good enough for freezing bread rolls for up to a week or two, which I constantly do since, as you know, I bake all our bread and rolls myself.

[jobleau]

Originally Posted by hoverfly

@JoBleau: LOL. Got me there again. Remember the emails when you pointed that out to me and I said 'we've been using a vacuum machine for ages'. Just as I initially said, you end up taking things for granted, so, much obliged for pointing out this omission. With you permission, I will add a link to the index for easier reference.

Sure, go ahead.