Thread: Ask The Chef

Well said David its all about practice, I know many competition Chefs that do the same recipe 100s of times but with different technique's.

Originally Posted by Chico

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Originally Posted by Chico

MC ds for breakfast again the coffee was ok though.

Fail as a chef. No more credibility. Not that you had much to start with.

Now that's funny coming from Willy.

English Doctorate ring any Bells.?:

English Doctorate or Doctorate in English... there's a a slight difference.

However, please point me to a slight post when I have ever claimed either...

Originally Posted by Chico

scones baking powder is sacrilege.

First time I have heard that.
How do you get them to rise?

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Originally Posted by Chico

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Originally Posted by Chico

MC ds for breakfast again the coffee was ok though.

Fail as a chef. No more credibility. Not that you had much to start with.

Now that's funny coming from Willy.

English Doctorate ring any Bells.?:

English Doctorate or Doctorate in English... there's a a slight difference.

However, please point me to a slight post when I have ever claimed either...

Willy as you well know,the Thread got deleted very quickly when you got outed,back in the days when either you where a Mod or one of your Buddies was.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

Originally Posted by Chico

scones baking powder is sacrilege.

First time I have heard that.
How do you get them to rise?

There are alternative ways, cream of tartar, self raising flour etc.

Originally Posted by Chico

Originally Posted by Maanaam

Originally Posted by Chico

scones baking powder is sacrilege.

First time I have heard that.
How do you get them to rise?

There are alternative ways, cream of tartar, self raising flour etc.

Yes, depending on how one likes their scones.
Alternative rising agents might be adequate, yet baking powder will help yield a less dense and "doughy" product.

And gives a slight after taste.

Originally Posted by Chico

self raising flour

ie flour that has had baking powder and salt added to it.

Baking powder will only give that bitter after-taste if you overdo it. And as Thaimeme said, the alternatives don't produce nearly as light a scone.

Well you must be a master baker,Pastry ain't one of my specialites.

I have a question for the chef:

Why is it I feel that if I have a food related question I should ask Luigi. Or CSFFan. Or AO. Or, well, basically anyone but you.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by Chico

Well you must be a master baker,Pastry ain't one of my specialites.

Hey, you posted the thread calling for people to ask you cooking questions, and so far your answers have been poor.
If you can't bake, answer as such.
"Not sure, pastry and dough is not my forte" is a far better response than winging it with nonsense, for both scones and for the pie pastry question.

You stated,all-knowingly,that baking powder in scones is sacrilegious. Genuinely interested, I asked what alternative and you reply with flour-that-has-had-baking-powder-added (SRF). Sounds rather silly, don't you think?

Surely they taught you the basics of food science such as how to get gluten forming (or avoid it) and what SRF is?

Chicojack always come back from a time away going full speed. Post as much as he can> Who gives a shit about quality its all about quantity.

But then this always happens.

Ant sorry you have the wrong thread, may I suggest you find the Agony aunt thread.

I hope you find a way to lose your fear of strangers.

Originally Posted by Chico

Ant sorry you have the wrong thread, may I suggest you find the Agony aunt thread.

I hope you find a way to lose your fear of strangers.

Ah I see, asked and answered.

The reason is your unsatisfactory answers that lead me to believe you don't actually know what you're talking about.

Thanks.

maanam I seriously doubt your sanity,I read your opening thread when you started posting you seem to be a serial whinger, best to toddle off and do your whinging elsewhere.have fun with your negativity.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

Originally Posted by Chico

Well you must be a master baker,Pastry ain't one of my specialites.

Hey, you posted the thread calling for people to ask you cooking questions, and so far your answers have been poor.
If you can't bake, answer as such.
"Not sure, pastry and dough is not my forte" is a far better response than winging it with nonsense, for both scones and for the pie pastry question.

You stated,all-knowingly,that baking powder in scones is sacrilegious. Genuinely interested, I asked what alternative and you reply with flour-that-has-had-baking-powder-added (SRF). Sounds rather silly, don't you think?

Surely they taught you the basics of food science such as how to get gluten forming (or avoid it) and what SRF is?

Originally Posted by aging one

Chicojack always come back from a time away going full speed. Post as much as he can> Who gives a shit about quality its all about quantity.

But then this always happens.

Sorry Bob not have any recipes for caged mice or hamsters or whatever it is.

seen as your here Bob always been intrigued,considering most of the forum don't stimulate your intelligent,why oh why do you interact with the inferiors.?

Originally Posted by Chico

Sorry Bob not have any recipes for caged mice or hamsters or whatever it is. seen as your here Bob always been intrigued,considering most of the forum don't stimulate your intelligent,why oh why do you interact with the inferiors.?

Who the hell is Bob?

Originally Posted by Chico

you have the wrong thread, may I suggest you find the Agony aunt thread

Originally Posted by Chico

seen as your here Bob always been intrigued,considering most of the forum don't stimulate your intelligent,why oh why do you interact with the inferiors.?

.....

Originally Posted by Chico

Pastry ain't one of my specialites.

Probably save time if you give us a short list of what *are* your specialities.

Think you said flipping burgers a while back. Anything else? Heating up fries maybe?

Originally Posted by aging one

Who the hell is Bob?

Your uncle??????

Top cooking tips -

1) Damp cloth or tissue paper under a chopping board. Stops it slipping a treat.

2) Bang some peeled garlic and throw on some salt. The abrasion from the salt, against the flat of a knife, helps get nicely crushed or into a paste.

3) To skin bell peppers, roast/grill them (no oil) until looking charred all round, then put them into something airtight (zip bag) and into the fridge. The steam will force the skin off and the soft, cooked peppers left over go great in a salad.

4) To skin tomatoes, carefully cut out where the stalk is attached to the tom, and score a cross on the other side. Drop into boiling water for maybe 30 seconds, then drop into ice cold water. The skin should just fall off.

5) Brine meat. I only just really looked into this recently and it works a treat, especially for poultry that goes dry easily. There's loads of recipes, but most recently I boiled up water, salt, peppercorns, bay leaf and 1 cut lemon. Cooled it right down then then placed a whole chicken in it over night.

* Patted the chicken down dry.
* rubbed a garlic/parsly butter under all the skin and into the cavities
* shoved herbs, onion wedges and garlic cloves up its arse and corked with half a lemon.
* Layed some smoked bacon over the top of the bird for the first half of cooking, then took it off for the remaining time to give the skin a chance to crisp up.

I love garlic but hate peeling it, and I don't cook enough to get through all the garlic I buy. I have heard/read lots of ways to preserve garlic in oil, but that still has a pretty limited shelf life. I tried something a bit different, which worked out well.

Peel a load of garlic, trying not to crush, bruise or disturb it too much.
Put it into a glass gar and cover well with rock salt. Mix it all up.
Top up with white wine, throw in a few sprigs of rosemary and seal it up.

The garlic was still fine months later (though obviously had lost some of its garlicky flavour, had taken on a new flavour from the wine and rosemary.

Also, the wine that the garlic had been sitting in made a great cooking liquid, to deglaze pans and stuff.

finally - an informative post about cooking.