Unorthadox takes on recipes and food

rejj

I love food.
I enjoy cooking it, I enjoy eating it, I enjoy sharing it with others.

One thing in “food culture” that I very much do not enjoy is the gatekeeping around “authenticity” of recipes, particularly when it comes to home cooking. I can somewhat understand critiquing a restaurant claiming to be (for example) Chinese and it only serving “fusion” dishes rather than actual genuine Chinese cuisine. However I find it unbearably tedious when those same arguments are brought against home cooking. Make what you like! Eat it! Share it!

So; I ask the fine folk here at IC: what are some of your particular unorthodox or or otherwise nontraditional recipes or twists on food?

My family is of Austrian descent, I grew up largely eating Austrian cuisine. I absolutely love goulash and schnitzel, however when I make schnitzel I do so in what I imagine is a rather non-traditional manner. I like to baste/marinade the protein I am using (pork, chicken, mushrooms, eggplant) in a combination of miso paste and gochujang, before going in for the flour/egg/crumb dredge. Also I absolutely must use panko crumbs, rather than the traditional fine breadcrumb traditionally used in Europe. I’ll mix some freshly chopped parsely and some grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese in with the crumbs also.

You won’t find anyone in Austria (traditionally) doing this. If this were a classic Roman pasta recipe, you’d see endless youtube clips along the lines of “Don’t look if you’re Italian!!” or “Don’t let your grandmother see this!” etc.

Do any of you both enjoy cooking enough to care about this, and have a strong enough disregard for tradition to know you are going against The Norm and not really worry about it?

ChardMph

rejj Many culinary innovations and beloved recipes have emerged from people taking a nontraditional approach and combining different flavors and techniques. Some of the most iconic dishes today have evolved over time through experimentation and fusion of culinary traditions. So, feel free to continue your culinary adventures and create dishes that reflect your personal tastes and preferences.
Additionally, recipes for taco salad have become a popular example of culinary innovation, showcasing the blending of Mexican and American flavors in a refreshing and vibrant dish. By incorporating traditional taco ingredients like seasoned ground beef, crunchy tortilla chips, and zesty salsa, along with fresh salad greens and creamy dressings, taco salad offers a delightful fusion of textures and tastes. Its versatility allows for endless variations, where you can customize it with your favorite toppings and condiments, making it a delicious representation of personal creativity in the kitchen. So, embrace the spirit of culinary experimentation, and let the taco salad be a canvas for your culinary adventures.

hellojed

Most of my cooking is pretty rudimentary since I work a bunch and don’t have time for anything elaborate. I’ve been getting better at making Chipotle style burritos recently. I’ve found that precooking the meat and beans and saving prepped ingredients speeds up prep/cook and cleanup. I also use minute rice instead of making rice, since it’s less waste and I don’t have a rice cooker, and I really need to only make enough rice for a burrito.

For christmas this last year I looked up how to make the taco bell quesadilla sauce and made my own chicken quesadillas! It was pretty gross! I also found you can make Baja blast at home by mixing mt dew and blue gatoraid. It was all pretty stupid but kind of fun.

My new house has a communal toaster oven and I’ve discovered that sandwiches are better on a hoagie bun instead of bread slices, and if you put all the stuff for a sandwich in a toaster oven and melt the cheese it’s actually 3x better!

hellojed

Ah while I’m here I can recommend a very good book my sister got me, Mark Bittman’s “How to cook everything”. It’s a very good general purpose cook book and I used one of the receipts to make the best meal I ever tasted (Chicken cutlets). It’s good if you don’t really cook and want to start, it’s very approachable, it has an entry for grilled cheese sandwiches! Maybe you never figured out how to make them, there’s instructions in there for em! Through using this book I basically figured out that cooking is kinda throwing a bunch of things in a pan and heating it up and adding seasoning.

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Re

tapevulture

hellojed How-Cook-Everything-Simple-Re

i’ve been working my way through this over the last year. when i started i didn’t know how to cook, still don’t (see recent post regarding a grease fire), however, i have gotten better.

the pan roasted corn with cherry tomatoes on page 286 is insanely good in burritos and tacos

i made the chard with oranges and shallots last night. really amazing

p3ters

I know there’s a lot of famous gamer ppl like kobunheat who are very vocal about their love of Japanese Curry, but for some reason they hate it spicy…

I wouldn’t call it unorthodox since curry roux comes in spice levels, and even the famous chain Coco Inchibanya has custom spice level

but when the famous gamers talk about curry recipes and you suggest “hey, I really like to throw in jalapenos and habaneros into my mix too” they immediately write it off like NO! That’s not how we do it! The Japanese don’t do that! I know this for I am an expert!

dudes are out there trying to remix this shit with chocolate bars and cheese, yet somehow draw the line when it comes to hot peppers?? I just don’t get it.

Syzygy

Wouldn’t sweet Japanese curry be the unorthodox twist there?

SuperEffective

I too love to cook and have an interesting use of gelatin packs. Basically, I’ve used it for soups and stews to make the broth taste more “full bodied.” It’s a shortcut for people who like to make stock using bones, which extracts collagen. Gelatin might not be vegan, but this may be a good option for vegetarians who want to make a tasty vegetable and dumpling soup or somethin. I’d boil some nice whole vegetables for a little to make a stock, then remove em after an hour or two, add the gelatin powder and my chopped veggies, etc. etc.

For people who like steak, try cooking it in low heat in the oven (like 200 - 250) until its 10-15 degrees below the temeprature of how well you like your meat done. Afterwards, you sear it and get it to temperature of your desired “doneness.”

For cookbook recommendations, this is my absolute favorite. 11/10. Kenji has a lot of sweet tricks, and this book is all about challenging the conventional methods.

https://bookshop.org/books/the-food-lab-better-home-cooking-through-science/9780393081084?aid=1588&listref=books-by-kenji-lopez-alt

rejj

SuperEffective Kenji Lopez-Alt is fantastic. I watch everything he publishes to youtube.

I suspect one of the reasons I like what he does so much is that he very much has a “I don’t care about the ‘rules’, here is how I am going to make this thing” approach.

…it helps that he has dedicated his career to food science and understanding exactly why he is making those choices, also

yeso

SuperEffective yeah gelatin is a good alternative to corn starch or roux that’s a good tip

I make a polish food fairly often and have had to do a fair amount of research and experimentation in order to get things right, because a lot of the common recipes were transmogrified by mid century USA over reliance on processed ingredients + immigrant thrift. In recent years there have been some attempts to go back to the old old ways I suppose and use fresh ingredients and make things from scratch. Which has also been helpful in de-meatifying polish food. Lots of mushrooms, buckwheat, fermented foods. You gotta use the whole forest which is I think a good ethos

rejj

That link is busted, this seems to be the book in question: https://www.amazon.com.au/How-Cook-Everything-Completely-Anniversary/dp/1328545431

On the topic of grilled cheese, I encourage you to watch this:

There are a few tips in here that I’ve taken on board and have loved every grilled cheese I’ve made since

xhekros

rejj I love his channel. While I love other channels, he was the one who got me interested in cooking, and there’s also another recommendation to me and that is Ethan Chlebowski (I believe his is called that way).

SuperEffective

rejj

If you’re a fan of Kenji, I think you would like his book. I got it as a christmas gift and it’s a huge, textbook sized slab of knowledge. Its got SCIENCE IN IT!!!!!

Gaagaagiins

Very much not on topic but I use Kenji Lopez-Alt’s directions to make carnitas with my sous vide circulator, and I make it traditional, just salt. It is so delicious!

It’s funny you mention fusion Chinese cooking, as something that comes to mind for this thread is bon bon spareribs, a dish that is specific to the fusion Chinese food in my hometown.

jaws

I have a “take” on food that cooking & cuisine is just literal modern day magic but that’s not the question lol

I like using a sour cream/ricotta mixture in lieu of just ricotta to make a baked ziti. I find that it goes well with the tomato sauce and makes the flavors feel a little more combined (especially if you also have a protein in there) which is what I want in a casserole-style dish.

I make Chicken Adobo unlike most other Filipino people in that I like to season the chicken first. Since the chicken itself is braised in soy sauce, pepper corns, garlic, and vinegar — I understand how seasoning can seem superfluous but I’m one of those people who adds sugar to the braise to give it a thicker glossy texture so I think the seasoning (just some additional ground spices with a touch of salt) goes well to balance the sweetness.

Moon

I loooove to cook. Usually the first time I make something I’ll mostly follow the directions, but after that I’ll start getting weird with it. Sometimes I cant even make a box of mac and cheese without turning it into a culinary experiment based on whatever is in my fridge.

My favorite appetizer to make (and to eat) is bacon wrapped pineapple. I call this rumaki but traditionally rumaki is bacon wrapped chicken liver or some shit. I like my way better. Last time I made it I experimented with wrapping differnt things in bacon before bakinging them. PROTIP: dont try to bake peices of melon they kind of just melt.

The cookbook I’d recommend is The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today’s World. This guy runs a restaurant in Denver that is the best Japanese food I’ve eaten in the united states. It’s the kind of place where when they seat you theres a little note on the table telling you that your dish comes with soy sauce already on it and if you ask for it or wasabi they will not give it to you (in the forward of the cookbook you can tell the guy is kinda anal about that stuff. There’s a whole sub-chapter about japanese table manners.) The cookbook focuses on some basic recipes using few ingredients, but has some good tips, like salting your fish and leaving it in a ziplock in the fridge for a few days before cooking it. It’s also got some interesting asides about the cultural aspects of food in japan, particularly in the northern mountainous region. It’s very much an attempt to teach the basics of “traditional” cooking from a particular region of Japan (what he calls “country cooking”) to an american audience.

beets

Moon My favorite appetizer to make (and to eat) is bacon wrapped pineapple.

This sounds a lot like a british appetizer called Devils on Horseback which is bacon wrapped prunes.

beets

My current favourite twist on a dish is adding pineapple to curry. I use spice paste for curries which often require adding coconut milk (e.g nyonya curry) so adding pineapple can make it smell a lot like a pina colada!
I use canned pinapple as I have it lying around for toasted sandwiches so I’ll add some of the juice to the curry too as it often holds a lot of flavour.
I’ve found that the pineapple needs to be added in about the last 5 mins of simmering otherwise it loses too much flavour.

If I was better I’d proabably add some stuff to garnish it maybe mint, basil or coriander.

Moon

beets

Sometimes when I want to get real crazy with my bacon wrapped pineapple I’ll make a soy sauce/sriracha mixture and let the pineapple marinate in it for 10-15 minutes.

rejj

beets Adding pineapple to curry sounds quite interesting!
I think next time I make one I might try this experiment. Perhaps just the juice first time to see how that goes.

Moon I’ll make a soy sauce/sriracha mixture

Sriracha, much like Lao Gan Ma, has the amazing property of making almost anything better.

tapevulture

anyone have any broiling tips. im serious. recently started a grease fire

seasons

My wife recently started messing with Chinese style dumplings at home, and ended up putting them in a broth that is a mix of a Japanese dashi and Korean anchovy stock. Might sound odd, but it was good enough to incorporate into the menu where she’s working and they got featured in a few publications recently!

Filipino spaghetti tends to be soggier, uses hot dogs or longonisa and the sauce leans heavily on the sweeter side using banana ketchup and some even add brown sugar. I like to keep the noodles firmer and use a less sweet sauce with some spicy heat added in.

I like to eat steamed crabs with a vinegar/garlic dip which might not be from anywhere. I dunno. It’s good though!

SuperEffective

seasons

I want me some Filipino Spaghetti everyday…