Is your cooking improving in isolation?
 

Initially I thought I would work on my baking. I have baked very little in my life and thought this would be an opportunity. However shortages of basic ingredients in the baking aisle put the kibosh on that.

i continue to grill 3-4 nights a week and have stuck to basics with maybe a little more fish and a little less beef.

i did make a nice peach salsa last night for the mahi-mahi.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...64b4037a4.jpeg

Yes! I’ve cooked things that I’ve never made. I’ve followed some recipes well.

ive found baking ingredients in convenience and gourmet shops. Even inflated prices don’t cost that much when the recipe needs a tsp of cinnamon. I’ve loved our cooking so much and I’m excited to try other dishes.

we have a le creuset dutch oven and I’ve made some Moroccan chicken dishes (Kitchn recipes) as well as some comfort food stews. We also have a roasting pan with a rack for turkey, so I used it for Pessach brisket. Both items had been new in our cabinet for 7 or so years until March 2020.

It takes time for prep / cook / clean but I’ve loved it so much and want to continue this yummy cooking.

I've been using the Weber kettle every day. Getting the fire started etc gives me something to do, and I find it somewhat cathartic. Once a week or so I do a long slow cook like a lamb or pork shoulder. I did some wonderful rump cap (picanha) steaks for Easter lunch today. Reverse seared, so started them indirect on a very low heat and then finished for a minute or so a side over the coals. Turned out magnificently. Better than usual? Marginally, I guess in that I'm tinkering on tried and trusted techniques. Even when I was 11 or 12 and Dad was working late, I was on grilling duty – and we always used charcoal or beads, never had gas outdoors. So I have a fair bit of experience! Back then I think it was more about playing with fire than the actual cooking. ;)

My weak point has always been seafood, so I have been trying my hand more at that. And with the lack of Chinese tourists, and no export demand, seafood is ridiculously cheap here in Australia at the moment.

Definitely cooking more; I cannot say if I am getting any better, though - I have always been a recipe-follower. What I find makes things much easier for me nowadays is doing any kind of prep work - peeling, mincing, chopping, etc. - before I start. Then it's just a matter of throwing everything together, which I can manage. :)

I won't say my cooking has improved - IMHO, I was already pretty good at it. But one interesting thing I've noticed is due to rotating supermarket shortages, my typical diet has changed. For example, there were a couple weeks where I couldn't find chicken, but there was plenty of pork (no idea why people hoard the things they hoard). So I've already made pork chops several times in the last month, where I typically might make them only 4-5 times per year. Also, during the great chicken blackout, I decided to try something similar, a bone-in turkey breast. I've probably roasted a turkey breast twice in my life before that.

This is similar for us. We are working through our freezers, so we have a wide variety of meats that we are using.

I never thought yeast would play such an important role in my life!

Interesting. I can not find yeast anywhere. Is everyone now baking bread? I haven't baked bread in years but decided that it would be nice to do again. Alas, no yeast to be found. Guess I'll go with banana bread.

I’ve gone through a lot of yeast recently. Live and dried. Pizza dough, bread, naan, you name it. It around the world dining here!

I used to grill/bbq any time I wanted to, regardless of the weather. But now that I'm an old person, I'm less enthusiastic about keeping up a grill regimen when it's 40 degrees, windy, and rainy. In this nutty weather we're having in the DC area (well, it's always nutty here) I've taken advantage of the occasional 70 degree day to fire up the grill. In the meantime, I've become better at using the cast iron grill pan on my stove top, but I have to disable the nearest smoke detector when something's cooking there. ;)

I was always a reasonably good cook but was often too tired after work to do more than the basics. I’m finding I have more energy and interest now. But one thing that is still hard is spending an hour or more on a nice meal and having my three sons scarf it back in 5-10 minutes. We always have a nice time at our dinner table and chat quite a bit for 30 minutes or more, but the food is gone so fast.

I managed to get a pound of yeast for $8 on Amazon the other day. Looking forward to making Bittman’s no knead bread for family and try some homemade gluten free for me. Boys want to make big pretzels too. flour is hard to come by though and I have only one bag now. Grocery store perennially sold out.

My work (from home) is slowly down some and so I will need some family cooking projects.

Due to yeast shortages in the store, I have started a sourdough starter and now have a plentiful supply for daily baking (if I want to do it). and yes my diet has changed; eating supplies from shelves and freezer with rare shopping trips

Basically everyone has decided it would be nice to bake bread again. Shortages on yeast and flour in Chicago. I don't have much patience for baking, and try to limit my bread consumption, so it doesn't really affect me, but interesting to see what people turn to.

We have found that sourdough discard can be easily used to make very tasty crackers; there's tons of recipes online.

Overall, +1 was a bean hoarder via the Rancho Gordo club before all of this went down; we're now expanding into our cookbooks for new ideas for them and whatever else we have on hand. We did a virtual joint baking session with family in Oregon and that was a nice diversion.

I have always been a pretty damned good cook. Have great skills in the kitchen... thanks in part to my mother and being single into my 30s and not your typical "carry out and pizza" kind of guy. I always loved great food.

I was "hobbled" while in Thailand in February. After hiking around the Railay Beach area in 90+ degree heat, Kachanaburi, Earawan National Park, and the streets of Bangkok -- my feet were destroyed. I ventured out one evening heading towards the Artbox Night Market just to listen to some music and get some Mango and Sticky Rice and I couldn't get past the lobby of the Conrad Bangkok. I resigned myself to the hotel bar and a hefty tab. The next morning, I decided to give myself a break and sat by the lovely pool... and by noon I was a bit stir crazy.

So I called Silom Cooking School and got into an afternoon Intro to Thai Cuisine class and hopped a cab for the 1.5 mile trip. It was a few Baht very well spent. At Silom, it's a required class before you can take any other classes. I learned a bit and realized why I love cooking... <Cut To Covid-19 Lockdown>

If I don't come out of this lock down 200 lbs. heavier with a destroyed liver... it will be a miracle.

As I am no longer commuting... I am sleeping a bit better and later and my commute from my master to my workspace takes 20 seconds. I have standing conference calls where I am not a primary participant. Although I have a home office space, I prefer to work at my kitchen table because when I don't have to look at my screen or pay too much attention, I am prepping.. chopping, dicing, chilling, washing, seasoning...

I have smoked a 6 lb. brisket, rotisserie'd chickens, made Tom Yum Goong, Tom Yum Gai, home made dumplings (pork, chicken, and vegetarian), home made spring rolls, fried rices, mangos and sticky rice, hand made pastas, a variety of American Chinese dishes, Chicken Curry Coconut soups, salads of a variety offerings, eggs a dozen ways... too many cocktails to mention. Was supposed to be in Dublin at the end of March so since that was canceled by the Irish authorities... every afternoon was Irish Coffees (ala Buena Vista in SFO) and Guiness. Then Hydroxychloroquine was all the rage so Vodka and Tonics were a medical necessity. Then there's bourbon... and being a Manhattanite relocated to Wisconsin you must drink Bourbon and Rye Manhattans (one for each region) and Bourbon Old Fashioned's and good beer.

This has to end soon because my gas and electric bills along with my booze bill is going to destroy my savings... (and please note -- this last line was a bit of levity. I do know that there are millions who are under serious fiscal duress. My wife and I are doing our part to help by buying local carryout to help our community businesses and contributing cash and items to our local food bank and Second Harvest).

AGE

I usually cook when I am not on the road, so that means I am going pretty much in the kitchen 'round the clock now. I follow a grain-free, sugar-free, nightshade-free diet, but that hasn't stopped me from scratch cooking some really good things. Almond and cassava flour tortillas (tortilla press was best kitchen tool I ever bought), green plantain tostones, soaking dried garbanzo beans before pressure cooking them for hummus, 30-hour sous vide pork shoulder (so tender!), whole roasted turkey, and a lot more, including no-sugar, 90% dark chocolate almond flour walnut brownies! Today's schedule is another batch of hummus (beans ready to go), lamb chops, and cauliflower fried rice. Bon appetite!

Ok, what is a "nightshade-free" diet? I was under the impression nightshade was a deadly poison...presumably we are not eating it I hope!

We eat lots of it. Tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant ... the list goes on. I used to grow tomatoes and touching the plants made my skin burn to the point of wanting to rip it off. Cooking nightshades helps the toxicity for those that are sensitive. And I am.

I decided to try and replicate Chipotle burrito bowls at home. Marinated steak cooked medium-rare. Cilantro-lime rice. Pico de Gallo. Corn salsa with jalapeños and fire-roasted poblano peppers. Guacamole. All imitation recipes prepared from scratch. Delicious... way better than Chipotle... I hadn’t realized just how much the bold freshness of their ingredients has changed since they started to prepare some of their ingredients in central kitchens. But I think it took me close to 90 minutes. Now it’s back to spaghetti.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedhttps://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedYeah, I don't know if I'd be up for grilling in 4c degrees. Thankfully, here in Sydney only in the dead of winter just before dawn would it ever get near that.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedI feel your pain on the smoke when cooking indoor. I don't have an extraction fan on the range just one of those filter things which seems to just spread the smoke around. I much rather cook outdoors. And the beauty of cooking with charcoal, as opposed to gas grills, is clean up is just putting a load of coals in there and lettin' it rip to 300c+ and the fat burns away.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/undefinedFirst, your post made me laugh as it felt like I was looking in the mirror.
But more importantly, you drink bourbon in your Old Fashioned??? If you live in Wisconsin, there's really only one choice -- do you want your BRANDY Old Fashioned sweet or sour? :)

And for those who think it's crazy...I love good whiskeys and bourbons and drink both regularly. But just try a brandy old fashioned (I prefer sweet, but depends on my mood), especially at the bar in a Wisconsin supper club, and tell me you don't love it.

I've always enjoyed cooking but my repertoire has changed. I now shop exclusively at the farm store, which is strong on its own meat (I do have to stare the cow or lamb's sister in the eye as I'm walking back with my meat), and its own vegetables. It has fabulously expensive store cupboard items (but I'm not eating out any more, so that's a huge saving). Otherwise, any other ingredients need to come with online delivery as I don't want to set foot in a supermarket.

In many ways, my diet has improved. The quality of the meat and vegetables is beyond compare, and I'm using nearly no additives. This allows simpler cooking as the flavours of the prime ingredients are so much more intense. The celeriac I had yesterday was like none I've ever bought from a supermarket.

How true! Simple dishes using honest and fresh ingredients. What can go wrong?

BTW, I think you need to update your 1K status to 2022! ;)

Homemade is always better than in a restaurant, IMO. For the real fast food junkies, this guy has some great hacks of famous dishes:

https://topsecretrecipes.com

Why? Most of the things you made can be made in volume - enough for a few meals, and not necessarily the "same meal in a bowl." While you're watching water boil for the spaghetti, you could make half the meal.

I've always loved and preferred cooking at home vs going out so the stay at home orders have had minimal effect on my dining habits. However as me and my wife are trying to minimize trips to the grocery store its becoming a challenge sometime to make food when we are lacking all ingredients and trying to find substitutions instead. Like the other day for lunch I wanted something quick so was going to do a BLT, but we are low on bread so I just made a BLT burrito instead and it was great.

Next trip to the grocery store I'm going to pick up some brown sugar and lemon juice, its the only things I need to be able to make the Hilton Doubletree cookies at home.

Comfort food to a lot of us, the Doubletree cookies, now can be made at home!

https://newsroom.hilton.com/static-d...kie-recipe.htm

Similarly we’re accessing recently established delivery services for high quality local veg, meat and fish.

Most of the suppliers I get the impression didn’t sell to retail pre Covid, they relied primarily on high end restaurants but now needs must and they are doing what they have to to survive. So we’re getting access to day boat caught fish, live lobsters etc. which would’ve been very difficult to get before, not least because of the hours we worked in the office.

I suspect even at high volume the suppliers are not making anywhere near the money they made selling large orders to restaurants (and in many cases they are swallowing the delivery charges) so if/when that business starts again and crucially everyone isn’t home all day every day to receive the fresh food packages I wonder will it fall away.

But as it stands, we’re cooking more, with better ingredients and expanding our repertoire of dishes.

we also have a local Michelin starred restaurant which is doing “complete at home” meal kits which we’ve tried a couple of times. They provide detailed instructions for finishing the dishes along with Instagram pictures and It’s been fun getting the tweezers out to place the edible flowers and smear the various sauces and gels on the plates.

So true. I find myself making Mexican or Tex-Mex often because it's flavorful and fast. javabytes - you'll likely get faster each time you make it, the first time I make anything always takes longer. Instead of marinating the meats, try a rub instead (chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper is a simple one that works well on beef or chicken, not quite as good on pork but still works). I will often make that rub, with some variation, and store in my kitchen to have it handy. And buy a good quality salsa as another shortcut. I like several of the Frontera salsas, if you have them available.

All that said, there are no shortcuts for good guacamole!

An emphatic "yes" to the question posed by this thread! I've been a keen cook for about 7 years now, but haven't always found regular time for it, between running my own small business and all my other life commitments. Right now, with all this home time, I am powering through 2-4 recipes per day. This week, I've even upgraded my kitchen setup by investing in a fancy bluetooth-enabled Vitamix A2300i blender, plus a KitchenAid mixer (the "Queen of Hearts" centenary edition) and a Cuisinart Elemental food processor.

As a lifelong vegetarian, my cooking obviously focuses on vegetarian and vegan food. For tonight's dinner, I made a slow-cooked onion and apple cider soup served with Gruyère croûtes (using a delicious block of Gruyère which I had brought home from Switzerland).

Other interesting things I've made recently include: "sopa seca" Peruvian pasta bake (in which the pasta is fried, cooked, then baked); choc chip rosemary sea salt cookies; tortilla soup; chocolate pâté topped with toasted fennel seeds and EV olive oil, served with toasted baguette; Sriracha tempeh alfredo pasta. I also enjoy making drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic ;) e.g. in the past week, I've made raspberry-basil lemonade; jalapeño lime-ade; sangria; mulled wine.

Tomorrow, I'm going to make horchata (one of my all-time favourite drinks), as well as vegan mac n cheese.

If I can't travel physically...then I will travel through my cooking and eating! On that note, I think that travelling all over the world and trying the best food at every destination - from Michelin-starred fine dining to Italian delis to taco trucks - has been the very best culinary education that I could have ever asked for. Whenever I cook at home, I think back to all of those amazing flavours and I try to hold myself to those standards.

I made a banana / chocolate chip bread today for the first time ever. Super yummy. NY times cooking. Omg.
I’m very pleased with my cooking and baking work.

I have a NYT online subscription, but it seems like cooking requires a separate payment. Do you know if that’s right or is there a workaround?

I believe that is correct.

I’m sure my wife just bought it and it’s great. But there are so many free online recipes and I’ve loved my Moroccan chicken dishes from Kitchn that I would’ve been fine without any paid recipe site. We also have dozens of books with recipes. Either way, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve cooked and baked. Mega fun.

I’m sure that I can copy / paste if you really really want the chocolate chip banana bread. I made it on Friday and feel that I need to make it tomorrow since we are near low! I still want to make blondies with butterscotch because I love love love butterscotch!

Since your word has never been verified by other FTers, and since you couldn't be more than 15 or so miles from my house, you might consider a contactless delivery of samples of these products to my porch, when you can deliver them in a sanitary condition, I can retrieve them from my porch, and I can be the judge of your unverified baking deliciousness. If the products are, indeed, delicious, you might consider making larger quantities and freezing them. This stuff freezes quite well, and I recall reading somewhere that your new freezer full of meat may want some dessert as company.

Just ran out. I’ll make some today.


Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread

This recipe uses four bananas, which is more than is typical for a single loaf. The natural sugars from the ripe, brown bananas keep the bread incredibly moist for up to one week, even sliced. The high moisture of the batter can make it tricky to determine doneness, so take care not to underbake the the loaf. It should have a dry, shiny, cracked surface, and a tester inserted into the thickest portion should come out with a few moist crumbs attached.


INGREDIENTS
Nonstick spray, as needed
4 very ripe medium bananas, peeled
6 tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, melted
1⁄3 cup/80 milliliters plain Greek yogurt
1 cup/220 grams light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups/255 grams all-purpose flour 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup/135 grams finely chopped chocolate or mini chocolate chips



Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
Step 2
In a large bowl, mash the bananas coarsely using a fork. They should be fully broken apart, but it’s OK if some larger lumpy pieces remain. Whisk in the melted butter, yogurt, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
Step 3
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt to combine. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir to combine using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. Scrape the sides and base of the bowl well to make sure the mixture is uniformly combined.
Step 4
Gently stir in the chocolate until combined, then pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread into an even layer. If using, sprinkle the surface generously with coarse sugar.
Step 5
Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the edges of the loaf start
to pull away from the edge of the pan, and a tester inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 60 to 75 minutes. If the top of the loaf is becoming too dark before it’s baked through, loosely cover with foil.
Step 6
Transfer from the oven to a cooling rack and run a thin knife around the edge of the banana bread to separate it from the pan. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding and cooling completely.
Tip
To make chocolate chocolate-chip banana bread, reduce the all- purpose flour to 1 3/4 cups/225 grams, and whisk in 1/3 cup/30 grams cocoa powder with the other dry ingredients in Step 3.

Remarkably, I have all of these ingredients. But would have to sub in coconut Greek yogurt. Seems like would be good actually. To accommodate all family members may need to make a GF version too.

Thank you for the recipe!!

it’s really good - i assume you can swap the flour for almond flour. I think blanched almond flour will be fluffier (thus similar to flour) than pure almond flour.
let us know how it is with the coconut yogurt.

I've found the in the banana bread we make, cutting most of the sugar (calls for 140g, we use 40-50g) doesn't materially change the taste, and removes some of the sickly sweetness. If your bananas are very ripe, it is sugar overload.

I cut the brown sugar recipe (in the above-posted recipe) to half and I’m tempted to reduce to 25% from original recipe.
the chocolate chips have adequate sugar as it is :-)

The purpose of sugar in baked goods is not just for sweetness. It also provides moisture.