I’m trying to self teach myself cooking. And I’m doing pretty well. No complaints from the SO. My best work friend (with a French mother who said I was a peasant b/c I’d never had oyster dressing ! ) Well–They’ve BOTH asked for my recipes. And these aren’t fancy things.
These things aren’t food porn looks-wise, but if people keep are eating it up and asking for more? Yay.
Today I made Tom Kha soup (I am insanely in love with that soup from a local place.) Using a spice packet and the ingredients suggested–coconut milk, chicken stock, mushrooms, etc I made an okay soup.
And I’d also gotten some frozen spring rolls from HEB. And they were pretty good–I am not about to start doing the wrapping of spring rolls.
What I love on the spring rolls at every thai place I’ve been to is this peanutty/ lightly spicy/sort of sweet dipping/drizzling sauce. So I went looking for recipes.
And as I say? I’m teaching myself cooking. So I have watched LOTS OF COOKING videos online and on tv.
And there is a LOT of bs extra steps in some stuff, I’ve learned.
You don’t want to make peanut sauce out of peanut butter. The vegetable oil will make it come out like mud.
The linked video looks like a perfectly delicious recipe; the instructions for shelling peanuts are a bit idiotic, but then again it’s not targeted to Michelin Star winners, ya know?
ETA: And she does mention the fact that one can buy pre-shelled peanuts.
LOL if you think that’s “way too labor intensive” then you don’t want to come to my house. To me, that was a pretty simple & easy recipe, though I would probably start with shelled peanuts.
And I’ve learned that the “bs extra steps” are the difference between OK cooking and really wonderful sublime cooking.
Most of us who like to cook have a story about someone at our house, tasting something we’ve made. “Ooooh, that’s delicious!” they’ll say. “Can I have the recipe?” Sure, I have no problems giving out recipes. A month later I get a call - “I made that recipe you gave me, but it didn’t taste like yours.” So I ask if they changed it at all. “Oh yeah, I used peanut butter instead of fresh peanuts, and I didn’t have any butter so I used spreadable margarine, and cutting up all those vegetables takes too long so I used a package of frozen…” :smack:
The higher quality, freshest ingredients usually end up making a huge difference in the final outcome. No doubt you could make a thai peanut dipping sauce starting with peanut butter, but I’d go out on a limb and say that the one started with fresh peanuts is probably tastier in the end. But the real kicker to me is that when you start with the basics, you can make it taste exactly how you want - you’re not stuck with too much sugar because the peanut butter you used was too sweet or whatever.
But cooking is my hobby, and I understand that not everyone wants to do it to the level I do. So take the shortcuts, chances are you’ll end up with pretty good food. But don’t assume they’re BS or completely nutso; a lot of the time, there’s a reason to do it the hard way.
I agree about the freshest ingredients make things better and that kind of thing. I tend you yammer on when I post, so rereading what I wrote, I realized I really didn’t make it clear.
It was more a shock that showing a ‘step’ being ‘how to shell peanuts’ blew my mind. Especially when I’ll watch videos, read recipes where they’ll assume you know something.
Tons of recipes I’ve read start with “first make a roux”. Once I figured out what that was–no problem.
I was surprised I’ve watched a lot of how-to videos, but shelling peanuts? To me, it seemed like “how to put on socks”.
Heh, I’ll give you that. I would think most people would know how to shell peanuts. Then again, you never know… stuff that comes easy to some people is rocket science to others!
Yeah, I watched one that gave detailed instructions on chopping vegetables–here is how you cut an onion, here is how you cut up a carrot. Honestly, if people need detailed instructions on cutting up a carrot, they need to look up said instructions. I’m sure they’re out there. But assume basic knife skills when doing a video recipe, please.
Actually, I know a lot of people who don’t know how to chop an onion effectively. There’s a technique to it that if you know, it’s easy, and if you don’t… you get a pretty badly chopped onion.
Carrots are easier if you want simple rounds. But if you want them julienned or in small dice or whatever, some people might not know how to do that. But I agree, just let people look up how to do it if they need to.
Yeah, I know. Every time my husband tries to chop an onion (maybe once a year) I have to sit on my hands not to take it away from him to do it properly.
IIRC, the problem with this video was that it didn’t just tell me up front what the ingredients are so that I could decide whether I had any interest in the recipe to begin with. So I’m sitting there watch some guy describe chopping up a carrot, and I don’t even know where we’re going, here. This is why the only time I like cooking vids is when it’s some completely unfamiliar food that has an unusual preparation or something. Otherwise I’d prefer a printed recipe.
Same here. Although I have to say that I’ve occasionally watched videos of techniques that are just hard to get through with words alone - yesterday, for example, I ended up watching a video of someone trimming a rack of lamb, because the written description just wasn’t doing it for me.
I’m pretty much that way with anything - I’d much rather read it than see it. In general, videos don’t have high enough bandwidth - they take too long to get to the point and you can’t just skip through the boring parts quickly.
I enjoy making bread. When I mention it, everyone says “Oh, do you have a breadmaker?” No, I gave mine away. I enjoy MAKING bread. The dumping of ingredients and the eating? Not nearly as much. The bread machine does the part I like.
I’m with Athena, many stupid steps can make the difference.
! ) Well–They’ve BOTH asked for my recipes. And these aren’t fancy things.