flip

Some unsuccessful cooking experiments: because I know enough to not cook with a beginner's diligence but don't know enough to actually not pay attention to recipe instructions.
aka I deserved it, blah.

 soda farl, which is a thinner soda bread cooked on the stovetop

Mistake: not adjusting the quantity of buttermilk to account for varying thickness between mine and Joe's. I think it would actually turn out well if I used all the buttermilk and added some milk as needed. Right now it's very dense and chewy, which is in the right direction of how I like my breads. Also need to half to halved portion (so ¼ of the recipe quantity) since it's so filling. Might try shaping it into rectangles so the shape is more appropriate for sandwiches.

手抓饼

Another flatbread that I ruined by rolling it too thin, I'm quite the idiot to make the same mistake twice. One out of the batch of four was thicker than the rest, and accordingly it was more chewy and flaky. I used too high of heat and not enough steam, which creates the chewy texture. 

I recently watched a lot of Chinese food documentaries (舌尖上的中国，and one about 顺得 and 中山 each), and there's a lot of emphasis on 火候 which is heat level. Admittedly it's not a factor that I've given a lot of thought to, in fact I just cook everything on the highest heat level. That is very very wrong and I'll be paying more attention to this. It is difficult with an unresponsive electric stove, which means it's all the more important to use an appropriate heat level. Another related piece of knowledge I learned from /u/mthmchris on /r/cooking is that responsiveness is the actual reason why gas stove is preferable over electric for stir frying, and not because gas stove have higher heat output.

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Brussel sprout salad has evolved into a hash in order to clean up my fridge before leaving for Edinburgh:

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I have a new favourite from Bertinet Bakery: cinnamon buns. It's a layered but yeasted dough (my guess) that's the perfect level of chewy and flakey. I much prefer this texture to a laminated pastry that shatters when you bite into it.

I need to eat lots of good pastry as a benchmark for when I start making them hue hue.