Have you tried removing the garlic germ and seeing if that makes it more palatable to your partner? It can mellow the flavour depending on the age of the garlic you're using.

LOL. Don't ever let me father near your kitchen. He doesn't read a recipe, could burn water, but fancies himself a bit of a gastronaut. He literally can do not much more than fry an egg, but he tries all these weird combinations and tends to find an ingredient and then use it on absolutely everything (hi, truffle oil). When I visit him, I insist we go out for dinner or I cook.

I also don't like baking. Too much patience and preciseness required. I've been pretty impressed with the home baking some guys are doing on here. I think I'd need to be at lockdown level 9 to really get into it.

HAHA....your father . Well I admire the guy's confidence! I know people who get obsessed with one ingredient too...so funny.
Here's the thing ...if lockdown level 9 and you start baking then you will also be eating the baked goods. I don't need to be polishing off a pan full of lemon bars or carrot muffins or chocolate bundt cake myself .

just bake a fractional amount and it’ll be less to eat. Or freeze dough if you have the freezer space. Then enjoy. Yummy yum yum. You deserve the yummy treats.

Freezing doesn't stop me if I know something is in there. And I wouldn't go to the trouble of baking and only making a small amount. I am best just leaving well enough alone especially since I am well into the covid 15lbs and the gym is closed. And I have girl scout cookies in the freezer that call my name. This week a box of Tag-A-Longs called out to me. :p
And actually since I do not have a cute red freezer in the garage space is limited!

Same. I figure they are recommendations and not specific amounts.

Tossed some ripe peach slices into melted butter, sugar, cinnamon, pinch of salt on stovetop. On vanilla ice cream was very yummy. Perfect for hot summer day. And super easy.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...baa79d62a.jpeg

This is my favorite method too. It seems to bring it up to a slightly higher level...not transformational, but a little extra. I only do it when I'm grilling other items too.

Same here. My wife, however, is a recipe follower. She's a very good cook, but occasionally her recipe-following has disastrous outcomes. She made a lasagna once. After it was in the oven, she joined me in the living room and said she thought it was odd that the recipe called for cinnamon. ???. You guessed it, we could taste cinnamon in every bite. I would have just seen it in the recipe and ignored it (and maybe questioned the whole thing).

Surprisingly, given her recipe following, neither of us are really bakers. Although if it must be done, she's the one who bakes.

I've been silently impressed too. And I'm with you, it would take a lot for me to get to that point. It's not so much the preciseness of the recipes, it's things like repeatedly kneading, or waiting hours for yeast to do something that drive me crazy. Definitely the patience part I guess. We have 2 ovens in our new house (2 months in). One has never been used, and the other has seen a few pizzas and some toasted sandwiches. Come fall, it will likely see some roasted meats and veggies, but not much else.

The germ is also what gives you gas and general intestinal discomfort. If you remove it you'll never have those issues with garlic.

Yeah, I usually look at the Joy of Cooking or America's Test Kitchen, or a few random internet recipes, to get the idea of how it's done and then I play around with it. Baking is a chemistry experiment and must be precise, however. I like doing them both but I just don't usually want/need a full batch of baked goods sitting around the house.

My mom is a great baker and used to love baking but hasn't done it in years because she doesn't want all those desserts sitting around the house.

happy new house! I boosted my cooking due to Covid and societal results. I also think that we save money by supermarket shopping. I also have the time to cook.

i have frozen dough or things when needed so that there’s less pressure to eat something just because it’s there. Sometimes we are forced to dispose of food. It’s not ideal but it’s not an awful thing to do often.

ok kids what is the garlic germ? I’m intrigued.

I always learn good stuff on flyertalk, not just related to airline refunds. But the maui refund truly helped much.

I didn't know what garlic germ was either! Here's a link:

https://www.google.com/search?client...&q=garlic+germ

thank you pal! My spouse might enjoy this new tidbit of info. The onion / salt tip from LapLap is already highly appreciated :-)

Bought a fantastic box of yellow peaches from Costco this week and made this again. Bc damn it is so good. Sons toasted some of those Costco Belgian waffles, topped with ice cream and stewed peaches. So good. But I digress. I’d like to finish off the rest of the peaches by making this and freezing for future use when peaches aren’t in season. Don’t want to freeze cut up peaches and don’t have a pressurized canning set up. Do you all think this peach, butter, sugar reduction would freeze okay? Any tips?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5863b837f.jpeg
Baked striped bass

Caught a huge striped bass yesterday and baked about 60% of it on the grill last night for dinner. The recipe is basically using skin-on fillets you bake it on aluminum foil on the grill so the skin stick to it. Easy to make, easy to serve. The marinade varies based on what's available but in this case included:

Coca-cola
Italian dressing
An onion bbq sauce my dad brought with him
onions
mushrooms
worchestershire sauce

Bake over medium/hot in a aluminum trays (disposable in our case) and serve directly with the jus and crusty bread.

I think the texture would change when frozen but since you like them mushy anyway, i say go for it. Try a small amount first and see if you like it.

I’m trying to cook a basic curry stew (like a yellow thai or japanese curry with potato and carrot) and it’s just not adequately spicy. Besides curry powder and paste, what should I add? I’ve read suggestions for paprika and Serrano Chile. Do I need more Serrano Chile or is there a better solution?

I used to keep two different blocks of Japanese curry roux, one was a “sweet mouth” mild version, another was hotter kind, because my daughter couldn’t tolerate a moderate spice level. Rather than make two batches, I’d make it with “sweet mouth” roux first, scoop out a serving for her, then add the spicier roux for us adults. She’s caught up with us now (to a degree) so I no longer need to buy the mild style of curry roux.
Personally, I think that merely adding intense chilli oil to a mild curry isn’t enough, curry should be about balance.

First of all, have you tried Japanese Curry in different heat levels?
Here’s a post by a regular contributor to the Japan Forum who prepared an “extra hot” curry in the USA:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32260373-post58.html
Even with an “Extra Hot” curry roux, he still prefers to customise it a little with extra flavours.

You also have kids at your table, so another trick to individually adjusting heat levels for a bland curry is the accompanying pickles or chutney. Japanese curries REQUIRE a sweet/sour accompaniment. The standard in Japan is called Fukujinzuke, but we’ve had Atchara recommended to us (@Gradfly) and I suggest pickled beetroot. But you could use really spicy condiments instead as a way to introduce heat - a spicy beetroot relish or an intensely spicy mango chutney would work.

I love those curry roux blocks but fear the high sodium levels. I don’t think the curry powder and paste has as much sodium. I have this idea that sodium daily limit should be 2000mg and I think the curry blocks are considerably higher. So I’m hoping for another solution to spice up a curry - if adding more Serrano peppers works, that’s fine. Mentally I consider Serrano peppers to be an ingredient for Mexican and Latin American food, and not Asian food. So I’m torn because then I’m pondering if I’m just eating something that is more Latin American as opposed to Asian.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4978bdb8b.jpeg
These are huge carrots I bought at the korean grocer Kukje in Daly City. At 9a for camp dropoff, they weren’t busy. Before the 2p camp pickup, they were so busy that there was a queue for people to enter the store.
anyway, how do these carrots get to be so huge? They’re not organic. Is it a carrot chemical? Is it just for korean grocers? I’ve never seen such big carrots. I assume that big carrots are sweet. I bought them for a short rib curry stew except the curry wasn’t adequately noticeable or hot but the stew was still yummy. I just want heat but I do really need answers on these huge carrots. Colossal. Colossal carrots.

Actually I think smaller carrots are more likely to be sweet but these will be just fine in a stew. I doubt if it is chemicals...just big carrots. Is there fresh ginger in your curry? Ginger can be hot.

I bought a cast-iron skillet last weekend. Just been playing around with eggs etc with it. It's a lot of fun to cook on. I think it's the culinary equivalent of flying a 747; small adjustments to the engine and wait a while for anything to happen. It is great how it holds heat though, you can pretty much get it hot then cook eggs on it with the burner off.

And also, totally OT, but it is the weekend:

https://www.sadanduseless.com/radish-hotness/

I think it’s just genetics. Every once in a while I can find them this big. Maybe they’d all be that big if the farmers just left them in the ground longer.

Bird's eye chilies sliced thinly. Or turned into a sambal (smash them up with garlic, shallots, and a bit of salt, sugar, and vinegar, then add to the curry). You'll get all the heat you want and maybe more.

More southeast Asia than Japan, but you did say Thai curries, too.

thanks - I’ll look into birds eye chili. Yeah, I just want more Asian than Latin for curry. A spicy curry or vindaloo that doesn’t need to blatantly have high sodium. I love the Japan curry blocks but they’re so high in sodium. I guess I could also google vindaloo or similar hot India curry.

I think the top carrot has an STD. ;)

I just bought this beautiful cookbook ( ). It is incredible - 550+ pages of well-researched history, stories, photos, recipes, templates, and advanced baking advice. It contains Norwegian, Icelandic, Sami, Faroese, Finnish, Swedish and Danish recipes; some well known and some very obscure.

In "normal" times, I visit the Nordic region almost every year and I have developed a great love of Nordic food and culture. I can't wait to recreate all those amazing cardamom buns, cinnamon scrolls, rye breads etc that I have tried over there - although I feel like it will be well past my 100th birthday before I get through every recipe in this book...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e0839bc3a8.jpg

And while I'm on the subject of baking: this is a pretzel which I recently baked - sprinkled with Maldon sea salt flakes and served with whipped wholegrain mustard butter:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...60049284cf.jpg

gorgeous baking :-)

Beautifully done. A work of tasty art.

Mrs BamaVol just looked up from the other room to see what I was snickering at.

How long do russet potatoes last? I get the corky special at Safeway - not a free rotisserie chicken but a free 10-lb bag of russet potatoes (value $5). I got it in May or June and just got it again. I can’t NOT use it because I make oven fries so often including today for our July 4 family bbq (family as in my immediate family that lives in our house).

plus I want to make hash browns or home fries for egg cooking. How have I not yet grated potatoes for home hash browns. They’ve always been a diner or restaurant favorite. Omg so excited.

Ha! I won a free pizza when I went to redeem my free chicken coupon. Nothing since then.
They will keep for a long time in a dark cool place. How about baked potatoes sometimes? Or mashed? Or really stick your neck out and make potato gnocchi! You can stuff baked potatoes with all kinds of goodies for a complete meal....like broccoli with cheese and ground turkey. Or instead of pasta...some of your Rao's sauce with sausages & cheese. Latkes? I am doing sweet potatoes on the grill today but I precook russets and grill sometimes.
And since it is the 4th of July, shouldn't you be having the classic BBQ side dish---potato salad!!
Potatoes don't freeze well so use what you can. if they go dark or too many sprouts I would toss them out.

My family has been up for two weeks and finally left this morning .

I was feeding a small army so my short order cooking skills had to get dusted off a bit.

My menu was mostly crowd favorites:

Chicken parm
Lasagna - One pesto, one tomato basil
Some big London Broil (top round) steaks marinated overnight in various different flavors
Burgers by the dozen, pasta by the bucketful
2 huge clambakes (Got a new burner/stainless pot/strainer bucket setup from Bayou Classic)
Steamed lobsters

The fish I posted above was also a part of the army feeding.

Wow, I’d say they were pretty lucky to have you cooking for them.

I love to do it. We also live up here and making their trip easier and more enjoyable is a no-brainer for me.

I also had a gaggle of helpers from age 2-70 so there was no lack of hands to do mise en place!

My curry attempts are still not packed with heat.

1 tbsp curry powder
1-2 tsp curry paste
1-2 tsp dried ancho chili powder (Albeit circa 2012)

with 3-5 pounds or so total of short ribs, potatoes, and carrots. In a blue dutch oven.

I need advice. The stew is definitely tasty and I love it for the fun comfort food but I want it spicier because I love hot curry.

Add cayenne, you don't have any real hot spice in there. Anchos aren't going to do much. Start with 2 tsps and work your way up.

For reference, ancho peppers are less spicy than jalapenos by a large margin. Chipotle would be spicier but going straight to cayenne is going to add the pop you're looking for.

Whoa! That menu looks like a damn near mirror for what I have planned for this week since my brother is passing off his two kids (5 and 9) on me for four nights when they celebrate their anniversary.
I might make the ragu tomorrow a Tuesday cook.
Replace the London Broil with either a Tri-Tip or picanha (I have a vacuum-sealed top sirloin in the fridge needing to be used).
Replace clambake with a fish fry.

And the 9-year-old turns 10 at the end of July so I might have to bake a cake for her too so her grandparents can have a celebration with her. Then again, Granny loves a cake from Publix, BJ's or Costco.

I leave the baking to my better half. She's a magician at pies and cakes. She makes a key lime pie that changes lives.

danke. I didnt ancho were so weak!!

How about cookies? Scones... anyway you obviously are already a top chef.