Sam's Food Workshop

or look at it now...

- Look at you all fancey with the dishes and the wine and the fancy plates........

Comments for each shall follow:

1) Chicken Korma - Looks reallllllllly good, just an appearance thing, I would usually like the korma a darker yellow, near a brown mustard, but it might just be the lighting. But what kind of bread did you use, and is that just plain white? or did you use jasmine rice?

2) How'd it taste? French onion is probably one of the few soups that aren't a cream base that I love to have.

Did you use shredded cheese and bake it, or just throw the cheese in and mix? The one time I made it, I had little ramekin type bowl, layered the cheese on top over the bread, and the took a baking sheet, lined it with a damp towel, and put the dishes on it, and baked it for like 5 mins to melt the cheese.

^ not sure the dish was safe to do that with, but I tried to minimize the danger with the towel.


3)Mac and Cheese- Love this. Did you mix cheeses or use one type? I like adding bread crumbs to the top, and/or suing crisped bacon bits to lightly top it.

4) Tomato - Did you use a food processor, buy the paste, or used a hand blender?

Really well presented!

5) Did you add some cumin to give it some zing? looks great, is that grated cheese on top?

6) Steak - Do you happen to know the cut of steak you used and such? and did u pan it, broil it, or bake? - fun little thing, I use a small pinch of cinnamon and butter - or cinnamon butter - when I make my steak in a pan, depending if I season it or not dictates the amount of cinnamon - it creates a nice different taste to it - the salty spicy - sweet ish i guess but i consider cinnamon "spicy" - is different


7) What is cottage pie? lol

8) To fancy for me...lol - did u try to fry the rice?

9) Ahh paprika.....love it on potatoes and chicken....but how did this turn out for you?



- yes that was a lot, and some of it may seem pretty critical and boastful/arrogant

- but just wanted you to know other ways I have done some of the things you did cause I really enjoy talking about things like this, and I like to hear and learn about what others do, and not keep like "cooking secrets" and I feel like you like to learn and talk about it too.

- Good stuff, keep it up!

[align=justify][font=verdana][color=green]Oh no, it's fine. In fact, I appreciate and encourage comments like this one. If I do things the same way all the time, I won't learn and like new ways of doing things. But yeah, a nice glass of wine always sets things off nicely.

1) Hmm, well, the thing I don't like about it is the spots of red you can see - they're chilli. However, as I didn't have my blender (I realised after starting it wasn't there), I thought bugger it. If I had added more cumin and turmeric, the colour would have been deeper, but my eldest brother isn't a fan of spicy food, so I played this one very safely. It's just a plain naan bread, nothing special.

2) It was really fulfilling. As I had cooked the onions on a low heat for half an hour, they had become really caramalised, so were really sweet.

To make it, I put the bread (supposed to be croutons, but you know, effort) in the bottom of the bowl and served the soup over it. Then, I put grated cheese over this, and put the bowl into the over to melt.

3) I would have used two cheeses, but I only had one in the house, so I made do... yeah, same here; I love the crispy topping of the breadcrumbs. But, as I grated a lot of cheese in this meal, the topping was crispy as is. Had frankfurters in there as well.

4) Used a blender for it. Always easier with a blender. Little tip; some chicken stock works wonders to this soup. When I first blended it, it didn't have a deep flavour - it just hit the tastebuds and went. So, I added in some chicken stock, as I didn't have vegetable stock. Beautiful.

Why thank you. I was going to swirl double cream in, to make a spiral, but all I had was thick cream, so I figured it'd make a nice island for my basil sprig palm tree.

5) Of course. This one had a nice lot of punch to it! When I first tasted it, I was like "I swear I put mor- oh god" - the spices always catch up with you after you swallow them. Always in the back of the mouth. But yeah, some grated cheese, whack in the oven for a few mins to warm the tacos up and melt the cheese, bang on the table. Dig in.

6) It was sirloin steak. I panned it - I covered the steak with olive oil, salt, and pepper and when the pan was scorching hot (no oil or butter in the pan), I put the steaks in. To get that colour, I did 3 mins on each side, rotating every minute. I could have done 2 on each side in all honesty. After I cooked them, I left them on the side to rest, and put a nice bit of butter on each steak. I'll try cinnamon next time, thanks!

7) Minced beef with onions, carrots and sweetcorn (can be peas instead of sweetcorn), with some tomato puree, worchester sauce, garlic and red wine vinegar (didn't have red wine). They are some other ingredients, but they've slipped my mind for now. This is under a blanket of pillowy mashed potatoes. It's really very delicious. Maybe it's an English thing.

8) Trust me, Bookie, if I could do it, you could do it. You just need to marinate the lamb for 8 hours beforehand. Chilli, yoghurt, rosemary, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper, oregano and cinnamon mixed together, and then after they've done, bang on the grill or pan. I did these for 2 mins a side, rotating every minute, and they came out so deliciously pink and juicy. I love rare meat - how about you?

9)It's really nice - the red wine vinegar has a strong smell, but when you taste it, it's actually sweet like honey, with a slight spicy undertone. I do really need to buy a bottle for it though (you know the ones), as twice I've poured it out over my salad... and it's gone everywhere and overpowered the veg.

Thanks again for the comments, and I will!

I like medium, rare for tuna steak, and really really tender beef.

but the lamb is super expensive here.....so I can't ever afford it for the amount to make it worth eating.

I like that lamb and how you make the food with presentation.

Stop. Stop.

I can't stop drooling... ^^

Anyways, I liked the blueberry cake.

[align=justify][font=verdana][color=green]I've actually never had tuna steak before... I bet that's more expensive than lamb here.

I've always thought that, if I ever were to go to the US and that, if I ever were to meet up with you, the first thing I'd do would be to buy a bag of ingredients and cook with you, lol. Just a random thought.

@Suki Thank you, Suki. I know that my presentation could be better sometimes, but considering I actually want to have a fulfilling meal as well as make it pretty, I don't think I do half bad : )

@Peltor No. I will never stop. Never.

About cakes, I might be making a coffee and walnut cake tomorrow, with butterscotch and the like, so watch this space.

Tuna steak is new to my ear. can you cook and try for us?

Omg Tuna steak is really, really nice.

Dammit, now im hungry D:

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]I'll see if I find a recipe which intrigues me enough. Even though I want to try it, it costs a lot of money. Around £21/kg - that compares to £8/kg for rump steak and £13/kg for lamb. I'll like to try it though, so I daresay that I will have something posted on here in the short future.

You make items that are far more expensive and superior to anything I cook :) They all look soo delicious though

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]More expensive, certainly. Superior? Now now now, don't sell yourself short! I'm just a basic chef myself, and besides, your meals are far healthier than mine.

Really Expensive you cant try for an alternative fish :)

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Time to add another meal to the list. It's another curry, but despite that, it still has it individuality.

Chicken Madras:



[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]with dyed-rice:



[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Chicken Madras with dyed-rice:





[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Okay, so if you aren't geared up on Indian curries, this one is -pretty- spicy. It's one down from a Vindaloo, which is known to be spicy. In all of the other curries I've made in the past, they require seeding the chillis before adding them in; not this one. So 5 of my finest chillis with seeds went in this... plus a decent amount of chilli powder, cumin, turmeric, garam masala and corriander. If you leave it to infuse over the day, it becomes sweeter though.

I would very much appreciate having someone around who can cook.


Marry me, Sam.

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Ooo, my, I'll have to think about that, Pumpy~

---------

So, now it's time for something more... patient. This time, I'm making sloe gin. I do have pictures of the process but, unfortunately, they all have me in it, so unless you're friends with me on Facebook... you won't see them, along with the one in which I'm in-over-my-head picking them. Got the scars as well...

I do have pictures of the "finished" articles though. I made three, each with a different ratio, so they should come out with a nice variety of flavours.

Sloe Gin:











[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Their home for the next three months:

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]And yes, that bear will protect them

These should be ready by the 15th December. The label on the back is the schedule in which I have to turn and shake each one, the smaller label is the ratio and the front label is just a little label kinda like you'd see on an actual product. Seeing as it'd be Christmas... I think it'll make it more fun for the relatives. Don't judge me.

This is relatively boring without pictures of the process and such... but yeah. Just keeping you up to date on my activities.

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Ginger and Pineapple Beef Stir-fry with Egg-fried Rice



[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]The recipe can be found here, in my other thread.

Wow Sam, I'm now a fan of your thread. These things are delicious.

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Thanks Yuki. Glad that you like them.

Time for two more things.

Carrot and Coriander Soup:



[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]Honey, Orange, and Ginger Pork Chops with Noodles:



[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]If you wanna know the recipe to any of those, let me know. I particularly liked the pork chops this time around (well, medallions, not chops), and each flavour was in perfect balance. I also added two crushed chillis to add a bit of a kick at the back of the throat.

just a thing about this, why did the rice get kinda mushy? it happens to me from time to time when I stir fry but maybe because I need to add a starch or something to absorb the water.

nvm I know why, its the egg. we need to figure out how to make it so the egg doesn't make it like that

i think i just dropped the egg after I made a hole in the center and fried it and it worked but i keep forgetting how to do it right

Cook Seperately......maybe

[align=justify][color=green][font=verdana]It happened to me because 1) The rice was cooked too long and too much of it and 2) I didn't leave the egg to cook long enough.

With the egg, even though I say 10 seconds, it's just that I turned the heat to a lower flame and forgot to turn it up. Therefore, the egg didn't fry very much, so it spread through the rice too much. It should be left to "solidify", if you get me. Then, after it's fried a bit, you then toss that through the rice. With lower amounts of rice, the egg would have a larger surface area to cook quicker as well.

I sure you know what I mean.