Kitchen Failures, Mishaps and Downright Discouragements

@Mame,

Mame wrote:

I've tried those noodles and I hate them.

I haven't tried those noodles. I have made my own fresh lasagne noodles, in an effort to reproduce the Montagliari vineyard trattoria lasagna which was nothing like the usual lasagna - incredibly good but too much damn work.

Here's a great Yorkshire Pudding recipe I found on the internet - these two UK Chefs had a contest for the highest one:

1 1/4 c. flour
some salt (1/2 tsp?)
6 - 8 eggs (this is the one chef's secret, usually they call for 2 or 3 eggs)
2 c. milk

All ingredients at room temperature (this goes for ANY baking) - cakes will rise much higher if eggs and liquid are at room temp.

Put about 1 T of drippings in each muffin tin then into a hot oven for 10 min to get piping hot. This is the secret to the crispiness on the bottom as the batter starts cooking (bubbling) immediately when it hits the drippings. He cooks his at 400 for 30 min, but I've always done 450 for 20, then 350 for 10.

Doesn't matter how you mix the ingredients together - just make sure it's not lumpy. I made these last night in a 9x13 baking pan (no muffin tins) and I should have cooked them a little longer - 5 - 10 min, but they were fantastic.

Ok, ok, I'll try this, that sounds delicious. Plus I just recently cooked down some pork fat to make my own lard and haven't used it yet. Might try it.

I cannot get my meringue to rise those incredibly lofty heights. I don't know if I'm adding sugar too soon or what, but I've just never been able to do that.

Decades since I tried making meringue. Don't remember trouble when I did, but maybe I'm easy on acceptance of what meringued.

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@ossobuco,

When I was a stay at home mom, I made pasta often. Didn't for a number of years because making pasta for one is a little silly. Some Italian chefs, like Lydia Bastianich, insist that there is a time for fresh pasta and time for dried pasta.

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Another thing I do poorly is fry anything in a breading.

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@plainoldme,

Oh, sure, I agree with her.
The one I made was a riff on something by Marcella Hazan.

I'm a very lazy cook, even as I am drawn to learn to cook all sorts of stuff from around the world. Much of the homemade pasta I made was somewhat dried, a few hours. (Whereas, in my italian class - the language, not a cooking class), my teacher (from Padova/Bologna) tossed this and that together, did not knead, forced the blob through the machine, tossed the resultant clump around to separate strands, put the strands on hangers. And we each followed her in that. Sort of no **** tagliatelle, with butter garlic lobster sauce (whatsername, the woman from Badia a Coltobuono, Lorenza di Medici) and my Hazan copied bolognese.

Speaking of best meals... but that was local. Other students brought salad, one provided the house with patio, some brought wine. We all got to play in the kitchen after we finished taking our finals.

But this brings up,

I've never personally made a good batch of ravioli. But, again, I only tried that once. The pasta wasn't squishy enough to meld, thus leaked during cooking.

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@ossobuco,

I never allowed homemade pasta to dry. I sometimes made it in the food processor, sometimes by hand and shoved it through the Atlas machine. I have a new Atlas and I still shove it through but I cut the ends now. I like mine really fresh, which is why I limit drying time to the time it takes water to boil.

I've seen Asian chefs spin and twist dough into noodles and I am in awe of them!

I tried to make ravioli with a hopper shaped ravioli maker and cried over the process. I gave up, cut the rest of the pasta dough into strips and cooked the filling with wine and cream to make a sauce.

This last Christmas, I made a ravioli by hand, flattening the dough with the Atlas. It was filled with diced mushrooms and a puree of chestnuts (purchased puree). We had it in broth as a first course.

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I am ashamed to admit it, but I cannot make fudge from scratch. It always turns into chocolate-covered sugar.

But that's okay. I like the foolproof marshmallow fudge recipe better anyway.

So there.

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The popovers I made today were pretty bad.

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@plainoldme,

I've avoided real frying. Earlier, I was afraid of fat, even though I know frying at correct temperature is not all that bad (or is it?) healthwise. Later I got more clumsy, plus I've always had almost no sense of smell, thus I'm chary about me having burning grease in a kitchen.

I don't usually like breaded fish as much as I like really good grilled, baked, poached, sauteed fresh fish. That is sort of a longtime quirk. More recently, I've run into concrete breaded fish at cafes in New Mexico, thus clueing me to quit even trying to order fish. (Maybe ok, at two places.)

I sound snotty, but it's more of a fear thing mixed with some bad meals. I'll admit to having some good fried/battered fuchow oysters in LA's old chinatown.

I don't honestly know if I'd like battered shrimp now, except for tempura.

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@plainoldme,

Quote:

I've seen Asian chefs spin and twist dough into noodles and I am in awe of them!

Me too.

I'll agree quick fresh and a couple/three of hours dried vary. I like both, but I think different things may work better with each. Not that I am swift enough to elaborate on that.

So you conquered ravioli. I am tempted to try it again. They can be my favorite food, I really should get in gear.

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@plainoldme,

In case you haven't seen this before...

Alton Brown's Good Eats 2-part episode on popovers:

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@Eva,

That's okay, eva. I'm an old fudge turned into some kind of gruel person. I never mastered the hard, or was it soft, ball in glass of water thing. And no, I never tried to make fondant.

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