Finally made some sea salt caramels, a bucket list item checked off. I didn't realize how long it would take for it to cook up the 260˚F after adding the cream, forgot about the fact that all the water needs to evaporate before the temperature can raise. Next time I'll probably just cook it to about 240˚F so the final texture is softer. I also didn't realize how many caramels this made, I doubled the recipe since my pan is about twice as big as the recipe's and actually thought I made too little while cooking the sugar syrup. But what you see in the photo above is only ⅓ of the yield durr.
...
Sort of carbonara, mostly without bacon. The egg-based sauce is quite simple to make with a double boiler set-up, and dare I say foolproof as long as you never stop stirring. It took a while for the sauce to start thickening so I stepped away from it twice, but the second time the egg just started to scramble in the time it took to throw in some salt and pepper. So never stop stirring.
How do you take nice photos of extremely sauce-y dishes? It just looks blurry even in focus...@_@ although this bowl was extra sauce-y since 1 egg makes enough sauce for two portions whereas this amount of pasta is barely one.
I've also regrettably been convinced of the value of mid-range pasta, or at least ones that advertise bronze die. The al dente texture is very snappy / has a bite to it...or "jing" (not sure which Chinese character it is), which I love in noodles. But I do find that it's harder to get this perfect texture, there's a lot less leeway before it overshoots to just meh. There goes another escalation in grocery budget.
...
I've never cooked any beans to a satisfactory creamy texture...and I ate a quite a lot of beans. Sometimes I wonder if its just because I haven't cooked them enough, but the times when I've cooked beans until they've fallen apart still results in a...chalky but fallen apart texture "orz Are my beans just too stale? Perhaps...one day I'll suck it up and buy Rancho Gordo beans to compare. Do I need a pressure cooker? Do I have unrealistic expectations of how beans should feel...unlikely since canned beans are acceptably creamy. *shurg*
On the other hand I am so forgiving of bread texture. Made some whey flatbreads to go with these chickpeas and oh boy that didn't turn out well. I partly question the recipe but also know that I've added too much liquid because US cup =/= 250ml like the rest of the world and I used dry measure cups. The whey does make the bread taste great, I might just keep making ricotta so I have whey ah ha... But the bread dough was so wet that the only way I could handle it was to stretch it directly in the hot pan. So some turned out thin and crispy, others turned out chewy, but they all tasted good to me. Why do I even love bread so much? I didn't eat it with regularity until maybe middle school when I accompanied my mom grocery shopping and got to pick out breads from the adjacent asian bakery. Ugh I still haven't tried making milk bread yet, but that was always included in my choice.
Speaking of making bread, I've given up on keeping a small pantry here in Bath. Just bought some yeast today, which will soon be joined by various flours. In addition to the 4 types of oils, 3 types of vinegars, 2 types of sugars and I-haven't-dared-to-count amount of spices.
No comments:
Post a Comment