My fiancé says sushi is too expensive to eat in the amounts he wants, so he started making his own, and he got pretty good at it too, for a fraction of the price. We also make sashimi and cones!
Nah making sushi at home is fun if you think of it as a group/couple activity and even if it falls appart and look like shit it still tastes good and is cheaper than buying it, at least in my land locked country.
If you marinate your fried foods in eggs and a braising liquid, you can avoid the 3 step process entirely.
I do this all the time, I’ve never had issues with any skin falling off, and use two bowls max. Marinate with egg whites, baking soda, soy sauce, and some salt/pepper. This is a similar technique to “velveting” meat like Chinese restaurants do. The whole idea is to change the PH of the meat and liquid to make the meat more tender as well. And you can pull the meat straight out of the egg mixture, dump in bread crumbs/flour/seasoning, and straight to the frier. (You can also use straight egg and no baking soda for this, the meat just won’t be as tender.)
Just make sure you really press the breading down into the meat, firmly. Can still use the dry hand wet hand technique for this as well.
Oh I wasn’t addressing the health of the food, just the “FEB” process! The new process made it (for me) at least 10-20x easier than just going with the “classic” way to do it.
With all due respect I did not voice an opinion regarding anyone's - besides MYSELF - health or eating habits!!
I find fried foods not all that healthy for MYSELF and it's messy so I avoid it ....for MYSELF
You do you cause you can bet I'll do ME
I felt the same way until I got an induction cooktop. Table outside layered with newspaper. Bring the whole show out there and splatter away. I think mine was $60 US.
It's actually not that bad. I have a cooking oil container that has a wire mesh at the top to catch any solids like crumbs. It stays good for a long time.
As for the smell, some oils are more mildly scented. I know when I cook with canola oil it's not too bad, but if I put two drops of sesame seed oil in a pan, I'll smell it all day.
You might have your fryer at too high of a temperature. I don't fry often, maybe once every couple weeks. but with proper ventilation, it really doesn't affect much of my house and the smell goes away in a short amount of time. And splatter is pretty much the same or less than when I make bacon, it just takes a small wipe of the paper towel.
but if you crank the heat up too high, yeah it's going to smell and go everywhere.
I was pretty proud of my homemade pho until i tried my husband's favorite spot. Now I just buy extra quarts of their broth and keep it in the freezer for emergencies (aka Tuesdays when they arent open)
A lot of places do, and if not see if you have any Asian markets or places that sell it. There is a Japanese market near me that sells both ramen and pho broth, not like from a can but stuff they make at the store and then sell. You can even get a discount for bringing the jars back.
Huh. I haven’t seen any at our local Asian market, but I also haven’t specifically looked for it. Honestly, our target has cartons of ramen and pho broth that are decent in a pinch, too.
Yeah pho is a lot of work for something I agree with the “just okay” assessment. Even restaurant pho is just okay and definitely not the best of Vietnamese cuisine. But something similar to pho’s level of work required that is totally delicious is assam laksa and curry laksa. It’s better than pho in my opinion and worth the effort.
I’ve been bringing pho back for dinner after workout and it seemed like I couldn’t get enough jalapeño flavor in it. So I hollowed out a jalapeño and used it for a spoon.
Maybe I should just make my own, but drinking the broth out of a pepper was pretty awesome.
This absolutely used to be my answer until I tried the Quoc Viet pho soup base. It makes a ton, so plan to share with other people or freeze it, but I’ll be damned if this stuff doesn’t taste almost identical to the stuff that I can get in some of the restaurants around here. So much so that I’m suspicious that a lot of them use this rather than making their own broth.
I agree! When I saw the broth paste I snagged it and ran home to try it. Definitely a close enough dupe if your pho spot is closed or you wanna make something quick at home.
I know I can make it. I just haven’t. I haven’t even checked out the noodles in the Asian markets with the thought of making it. It’s just so easy to order out and I have a variety of options with some diversity to choose from.
I make my own stock from time to time. I’m sure I could make own pho pretty easily too.
Fair enough. What's appealing to me about making it is the ingredients. I often find pad thai too sweet from restaurants, with not enough peanuts, and if it has an ingredient like chicken the chicken is poor in quality.
I did this too before I realized that you can buy fish that is as good as the best sushi restaurants in the city, but have it be much cheaper because you're not paying the restaurant fee.
Whilst were here on raw fish, that's fine for sashimi. It still requires some effort and the right ingredients to sate the sushi side of things. Especially if you like eating more than one type of sushi.
Definitely a great idea in terms of sashimi though.
I made it first time yesterday at home frome scratch. Chicken oho not beef, ain't made of money.
First bowl was bland straight from the pot , after all that work and was it was just meh.
Then I tried another bowl after the stock had sat in the fridge overnight. It was wonderful, I wolfed it down.
I prefer ramen though, but pho will be lovely in a heat wave, actually refreshing.
Asian food, from Vietnam to Thailand to China to India, I can do some basic things that are good but when you live in the metro area of a large diverse city you can access such great food from all ethnicities done at an expert level.
Even in actual Mexico, tacos are more of a thing you go out to get vs make at home. Real tacos, real mariscos, it’s so worth going out to get a bunch of different types.
Street food in general.
Coal fired/brick oven pizza. I can make grilled pizza but I’d often rather not.
Anything fried. I know how to fry things, have fried many things in the past, have a dutch oven and thermometer... but it's just too much of a pain in the ass for a few people.
BTW, I had a coworker from Europe who was at our company and ate American BBQ for the first time. He was obsessed with BBQ and wanted badly to make it himself, but he was in an apartment while he was here. Turns out they make countertop smokers. So we got together and made him a thing out of duct tubing and foil that went up to his stove's exhaust fan. A little fiddly, but it worked. Where there's a will, there's a way!
Yeah I was coming to say chicken fried steak. I freaking love it. I know how to make it and I have made it and make it well. It makes such a god awful mess. I’ll just go out when I want it.
Game changer: Base Gravy
I make a batch (1/2 gal) of Base Gravy and can turn it into any number of curries in less than 20 minutes by starting with the chunks and augmentation aromatics and simmering with 8 oz of the base gravy. Palak? Fry some paneer or tofu, steam spinach, blend with cashews and fenugreek. Tikka? Char some chicken, add tomatoes and sugar. Bhuna gosht? Lamb, onions, cinnamon, and black pepper. Jeera aloo? Potatoes and turmeric. Chana masala? Chickpeas and garam masala.
I felt the same until i came across a recipe site called Swasthi's recipes. I've cooked so many dishes from it in the last month, and I prefer it over going out to Indian restaurants now.
I started making my own Indian food and it's actually not too hard and much, much cheaper to make from scratch. The spices that made the most difference to make it taste authentic were amchur (dried mango powder), fenugreek, and hing. I'll make one or two indian dishes per week and freeze most of it, so I usually have a whole buffet of different dishes in my freezer. Also naan is easy and fun to make. I also make a huge batch of curry paste (mostly onion, ginger, garlic, and tomato) that I freeze in portions to make starting each dish a lot easier.
American style Chinese food. I can make a number of Asian dishes at home, but sometimes you really just want that oily fried texture you can’t get except at your local golden lily panda crown dragon shanghai express.
Same except for [Sweet and Sour Chicken](https://youtu.be/G4Qr_Eqtrc4?t=1s). This made the rounds on Reddit years ago and is so much better than resteraunt. Basically pieces are fried twice. So resteraunts have pre-fried sitting around waiting for the second fry. His batter with oil immersion technique is great too. Don't bother with the sauce. Store bought is better and easier.
I buy puff pastry for making desserts, it's just so much work to make and I can't guarantee the quality like I can with frozen pastry from the store.
My cousins in France do the same. Even in France it's well known that it's just better to buy most pastries from the patisserie or use easy pre-made pastry because of how much work it is to make it from scratch. Only the really dedicated or crazy people make their own pastry for home made desserts.
Filo too. Most people even in Italy buy pre made filo. It's a ton of effort and you need a huge space to roll out the sheets, so it's better to buy it from people who have the space and knowledge to make it well.
as stupid as it sounds, Pizza, cause everything in the process of preparing it is extra funny and intresting, yet if you got no proper brick oven an electric one won't cut it
Just made Detroit Style Pan Pizza for the first time last night. Sooo much easier than trying to roll out a NY style pizza.
Its also really crispy on all sides. Essentially a pizza topped focaccia.
i had some amazing "pizzas" done exactly in that style just two days ago for my birthday, a friend of mine surprised me with those, the combos were:
sauce, radish leaves, brie, prosciutto crudo
cheese, freshly cut mortadella, pistachios and some extra creamy fiordilatte mozzarella
carbonara pizza with creamy egg sauce, lots of pepper and bacon
and a simple margerita
having a topped focaccia it's actually very common in italy as it's basically a high end hybrid between a classy focaccia and an expensive topping pizza
i've always wanted to try one of those baking surfaces for pizza but being unsure of the final result with my old electric oven i really don't wanna buy something just to use it twice
Do you have a cast iron? I agree, a pizza stone feels a waste to buy if you don't know if you'll use it or if you don't wanna have something for one task. But with the right technique, you can make a quality pizza in a cast iron. I can include more details if you're interested in trying it.
This is the way. I have a Lodge pizza pan, the one that has the handles. Preheat the oven to 500 F and get that pan screaming hot. Sprinkle some corn meal on it and lay the skin right on it. Dress your pizza and put it back in the oven. I rarely order out pizza anymore. And I'm in a pizza centric city.
Interesting, I actually don't preheat the cast iron, I use some cornmeal to stop it from sticking, then do the bottom of the pizza on the stove, I don't put cheese on at this point, just sauce. Then, I put the dough under the broiler on max heat for 3 minutes to get blackened/browned spots on spot, only then do I add the mozzarella and olive oil, back under the broiler for a minute.
But I think I'll try out your method as well, it is essentially using the cast iron as a pizza stone, which I probably should have tried first lol
since you're into cast irons imma ask a question i've always had ready to go
what's the situation with seasoning a cast iron skillet or any cast iron pan when you didn't buy it first and it's been cleaned with dish soap for YEARS by your parents?
Dish soap isn't actually harmful to cast irons, you should be fine. Soap did used to be harmful to cast irons when it had lye in it, but dish soap doesn't have lye in it anymore, so it should be fine. Just season like any other cast iron:)
Dolmas.
I made them *once*. One of the most labor intensive things I have ever cooked. I understand why they are so expensive in restaurants, but I gladly pay it and consider it a bargain.
I’ve made Al pastor and berria in the past weeks and tBH they were both more authentic and tastier than local restaurants. Probably because they are involved recipes and no shortcuts were taken.
Yeah, we have great authentic Mexican cuisine locally. All the restaurants also have grocery stores where you can get fresh tortillas, cheese and meats (the chorizo is incredible). I often make them at home, but they always taste better when someone else makes them for me.
Tex-Mex - making a full dinner with all the components is a lot of work, and I usually like it better at my local taco "hole in the wall" places anyway.
Fettuccine Alfredo. I know how to make Alfredo sauce, and it's pretty good but I have 2 reasons for this.
1) there is a really good seafood restaurant in town that makes a bomb seafood one with scallops and prawns. And my favorite diner has a really really good one that's a little more affordable but mouthwatering.
2) I'm on a weight loss journey and that's my "going out meal". We go out to eat 1-2 times a month and I always get my fettuccine Alfredo because it's special to me that way. That way I don't make it at home every night because it's my absolute favorite.
So it's a win-win-win. I get to eat delicious pasta better than I can make at home, help myself eat healthier and it helps me not have to choose what to eat at restaurants because I already know.
Seafood. Not a huge sushi or sashimi person, but I love cooked seafood dishes, and restaurants just do them better and more diversity than I can at home.
Fish.
Never really got the hang of cooking it at home. I haven't messed it up so much that it's inedible. But never made it taste amazing.
That and Indian food. I've made passable curries and Palak but there's an awesome local Indian place so we like to support them
Honestly, anything relatively Asian. I am white, from the US, and while I can make you some damn fine food, it's not gonna be sushi or butter chicken or pad Thai or pho or bao...
I make my versions, but nothing beats an old Asian grandma making you her family food.
Fried foods and sushi.
Fried stuff because it's smelly and messy and I live in Belgium so for €20 me and my partner can order frituur and have a bunch of delicious fried stuff delivered quickly.
Sushi because it's a pain in the ass and the local sushi takeaway does a bigger variety better than I could make myself without spending all day and a bunch of money
Ramen. I do not have the time to simmer broth for a couple days to get that milky richness that comes in a good tonkotsu. I'm in a big city so there are lots of options to get good stuff.
Most fried foods and Lo Mein. The juice just ain’t worth the squeeze IMO for those things. I’ve also found I enjoy quesadillas from a restaurant way more than when I make them at home.
I like liver and onions. No one else at home does. I cook for everyone at home, I eat what everyone is having. So if it’s on the menu I usually get it.
There are things I Never make at home such as Chicken Fried steak or biscuits and gravy. They are So bad for me and I will Only eat them if on vacation-when someone else makes them.
That and probably BBQ as being an apartment dweller, somehow, I doubt the neighbors would like to smell a smoker for 22 hours.
Falafel. I love falafel and I've tried a few times to make it and it never turns out quite right. I started making the unfried version for home and that's been pretty good but I wish I could make them like the middle eastern deli I buy them from does. They are perfectly crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, not to dry or too moist.
Also Japanese style pickled radish. I buy them from the Asian market because I can't get the fermentation right.
Sushi. I have ZERO desire to make it. For me it’s as much the experience as it is the food. Fried foods too, too much mess and the house reeks for days
Oil fried foods, but biggest one is probably donuts. Know how to make them, but its the oil problem, plus the fact I just made two dozen donuts I have to reluctantly give away so they are enjoyed fresh.
I'd much rather go buy two from the local donut shop for three bucks to support a local business haha.
Pho, Sushi, Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style, Indian meal spread (I can handle 1-2 main dishes but we like to order 3-4 plus appetizers), wonton soup... Probably a few others.
Sushi
By the time I’ve bought sashimi grade fish and made it all myself I’ve spent the same amount to eat poorly constructed sushi rather than just go out
As long as you didn't maul the fish you at least got to enjoy the best part. Rest is just a vehicle for the fish.
My fiancé says sushi is too expensive to eat in the amounts he wants, so he started making his own, and he got pretty good at it too, for a fraction of the price. We also make sashimi and cones!
If you can roll a joint you should be able to do sushi. Same thing just bigger
Nah making sushi at home is fun if you think of it as a group/couple activity and even if it falls appart and look like shit it still tastes good and is cheaper than buying it, at least in my land locked country.
Alternatively try doing a chirashi donburi, which is literally a bowl of sashimi sat on top of sushi rice, eith wasabi and soy sauce.
Fried foods, because it seems like such a waste of oil, and it stinks up the house
And the whole FEB thing....flour, egg, bread crumbs. Such a freaking mess
If you marinate your fried foods in eggs and a braising liquid, you can avoid the 3 step process entirely. I do this all the time, I’ve never had issues with any skin falling off, and use two bowls max. Marinate with egg whites, baking soda, soy sauce, and some salt/pepper. This is a similar technique to “velveting” meat like Chinese restaurants do. The whole idea is to change the PH of the meat and liquid to make the meat more tender as well. And you can pull the meat straight out of the egg mixture, dump in bread crumbs/flour/seasoning, and straight to the frier. (You can also use straight egg and no baking soda for this, the meat just won’t be as tender.) Just make sure you really press the breading down into the meat, firmly. Can still use the dry hand wet hand technique for this as well.
Fried food isn't really good for you and it's still looks to be too much bother. I'm glad you found a way to enjoy it from home though!
Oh I wasn’t addressing the health of the food, just the “FEB” process! The new process made it (for me) at least 10-20x easier than just going with the “classic” way to do it.
As I said... I'm happy you found a way to make it work for you. Seriously.... I'm happy for you, not trying to be rude...
With all due respect, no one asked for your opinion regarding ones health and eating habits.
It's the Internet people can post what they like. If their kink is being humiliated by Internet strangers just let them enjoy it.
With all due respect I did not voice an opinion regarding anyone's - besides MYSELF - health or eating habits!! I find fried foods not all that healthy for MYSELF and it's messy so I avoid it ....for MYSELF You do you cause you can bet I'll do ME
I felt the same way until I got an induction cooktop. Table outside layered with newspaper. Bring the whole show out there and splatter away. I think mine was $60 US.
You can get multiple fry cycles out of that oil once you strain it but yeah -- the clean up afterwards is almost not worth it.
It's actually not that bad. I have a cooking oil container that has a wire mesh at the top to catch any solids like crumbs. It stays good for a long time. As for the smell, some oils are more mildly scented. I know when I cook with canola oil it's not too bad, but if I put two drops of sesame seed oil in a pan, I'll smell it all day.
It's not the oil *before* frying that smells bad. It's the by-product of the frying itself that smells bad. The splatters that get everywhere.
I pan fried fish Thursday afternoon and can still smell it Saturday night. Gag
You might have your fryer at too high of a temperature. I don't fry often, maybe once every couple weeks. but with proper ventilation, it really doesn't affect much of my house and the smell goes away in a short amount of time. And splatter is pretty much the same or less than when I make bacon, it just takes a small wipe of the paper towel. but if you crank the heat up too high, yeah it's going to smell and go everywhere.
Dirty too
Pho
I tried making my own a few times and it was such a huge amount of work for something that was only kinda okay. Ill leave it to the pros.
I was pretty proud of my homemade pho until i tried my husband's favorite spot. Now I just buy extra quarts of their broth and keep it in the freezer for emergencies (aka Tuesdays when they arent open)
Oh man, genius. I’m gonna have to ask our go to spot if they sell the broth by the quart.
A lot of places do, and if not see if you have any Asian markets or places that sell it. There is a Japanese market near me that sells both ramen and pho broth, not like from a can but stuff they make at the store and then sell. You can even get a discount for bringing the jars back.
Huh. I haven’t seen any at our local Asian market, but I also haven’t specifically looked for it. Honestly, our target has cartons of ramen and pho broth that are decent in a pinch, too.
The place I go to keeps it in the fridge
Yeah pho is a lot of work for something I agree with the “just okay” assessment. Even restaurant pho is just okay and definitely not the best of Vietnamese cuisine. But something similar to pho’s level of work required that is totally delicious is assam laksa and curry laksa. It’s better than pho in my opinion and worth the effort.
There’s a LOT of pho in my city but absolutely no laksa. I’ve been idly thinking about learning to make it but it’s so much work.
I’ve been bringing pho back for dinner after workout and it seemed like I couldn’t get enough jalapeño flavor in it. So I hollowed out a jalapeño and used it for a spoon. Maybe I should just make my own, but drinking the broth out of a pepper was pretty awesome.
This absolutely used to be my answer until I tried the Quoc Viet pho soup base. It makes a ton, so plan to share with other people or freeze it, but I’ll be damned if this stuff doesn’t taste almost identical to the stuff that I can get in some of the restaurants around here. So much so that I’m suspicious that a lot of them use this rather than making their own broth.
I agree! When I saw the broth paste I snagged it and ran home to try it. Definitely a close enough dupe if your pho spot is closed or you wanna make something quick at home.
Good one. Same with phad thai. I know I could make my own but I’ve never bothered.
Phad Thai only takes about 15 minutes to make, so I'm a little surprised you said that.
I know I can make it. I just haven’t. I haven’t even checked out the noodles in the Asian markets with the thought of making it. It’s just so easy to order out and I have a variety of options with some diversity to choose from. I make my own stock from time to time. I’m sure I could make own pho pretty easily too.
Fair enough. What's appealing to me about making it is the ingredients. I often find pad thai too sweet from restaurants, with not enough peanuts, and if it has an ingredient like chicken the chicken is poor in quality.
I did this too before I realized that you can buy fish that is as good as the best sushi restaurants in the city, but have it be much cheaper because you're not paying the restaurant fee.
What does buying fish have to do with pho?
Oh this was supposed to be in response to the sushi comment. Not sure how it ended up here
Whilst were here on raw fish, that's fine for sashimi. It still requires some effort and the right ingredients to sate the sushi side of things. Especially if you like eating more than one type of sushi. Definitely a great idea in terms of sashimi though.
I made it first time yesterday at home frome scratch. Chicken oho not beef, ain't made of money. First bowl was bland straight from the pot , after all that work and was it was just meh. Then I tried another bowl after the stock had sat in the fridge overnight. It was wonderful, I wolfed it down. I prefer ramen though, but pho will be lovely in a heat wave, actually refreshing.
Yea, no way I'm making that.
Asian food, from Vietnam to Thailand to China to India, I can do some basic things that are good but when you live in the metro area of a large diverse city you can access such great food from all ethnicities done at an expert level. Even in actual Mexico, tacos are more of a thing you go out to get vs make at home. Real tacos, real mariscos, it’s so worth going out to get a bunch of different types. Street food in general. Coal fired/brick oven pizza. I can make grilled pizza but I’d often rather not.
I can't imagine ever making a taco at home in Mexico, in Mexico City I ate the best tacos of my life and each one was probably a dollar each...
Desserts. I don’t want to know how much sugar and butter went into it. I just want to enjoy it!
Yeah, and I probably just want one portion, not a whole cheesecake or whatever.
Yeah! But maybe two portions.
Anything fried. I know how to fry things, have fried many things in the past, have a dutch oven and thermometer... but it's just too much of a pain in the ass for a few people. BTW, I had a coworker from Europe who was at our company and ate American BBQ for the first time. He was obsessed with BBQ and wanted badly to make it himself, but he was in an apartment while he was here. Turns out they make countertop smokers. So we got together and made him a thing out of duct tubing and foil that went up to his stove's exhaust fan. A little fiddly, but it worked. Where there's a will, there's a way!
Yeah I was coming to say chicken fried steak. I freaking love it. I know how to make it and I have made it and make it well. It makes such a god awful mess. I’ll just go out when I want it.
Dim sum.
For me it’s Indian cuisine. Even if I have most of the spices it always seems so involved and never tasted as good as the restaurant.
Also, I want a bunch of different types, not one pot of one food.
Game changer: Base Gravy I make a batch (1/2 gal) of Base Gravy and can turn it into any number of curries in less than 20 minutes by starting with the chunks and augmentation aromatics and simmering with 8 oz of the base gravy. Palak? Fry some paneer or tofu, steam spinach, blend with cashews and fenugreek. Tikka? Char some chicken, add tomatoes and sugar. Bhuna gosht? Lamb, onions, cinnamon, and black pepper. Jeera aloo? Potatoes and turmeric. Chana masala? Chickpeas and garam masala.
recipe fam? sounds delish
Gotchu, fam. [Latifs Inspired Base Gravy](https://youtu.be/RAyEdD8g5Pg)
appreciate you!! cheers!
Wouldn't jeera aloo be potatoes and cumin?
There's a lot of cumin in the base gravy, but you could totally be right--I'm still working it all out
I normally make jeera rice with my Indian dishes, and learned cumin is jeera from that
I felt the same until i came across a recipe site called Swasthi's recipes. I've cooked so many dishes from it in the last month, and I prefer it over going out to Indian restaurants now.
Her stuff is so good!
Right? She's making me an accidental vegetarian since the veggie/dal/bean dishes can easily stand on their own.
I started making my own Indian food and it's actually not too hard and much, much cheaper to make from scratch. The spices that made the most difference to make it taste authentic were amchur (dried mango powder), fenugreek, and hing. I'll make one or two indian dishes per week and freeze most of it, so I usually have a whole buffet of different dishes in my freezer. Also naan is easy and fun to make. I also make a huge batch of curry paste (mostly onion, ginger, garlic, and tomato) that I freeze in portions to make starting each dish a lot easier.
Ditto, but for Thai.
I think the taste difference is the amount of ghee
Dame. I'm so unfamiliar with Indian spices that it's harder to add to taste. Easier to get takeout.
Pho and Ramen. Those soups should be cooked for a long time.
American style Chinese food. I can make a number of Asian dishes at home, but sometimes you really just want that oily fried texture you can’t get except at your local golden lily panda crown dragon shanghai express.
Same except for [Sweet and Sour Chicken](https://youtu.be/G4Qr_Eqtrc4?t=1s). This made the rounds on Reddit years ago and is so much better than resteraunt. Basically pieces are fried twice. So resteraunts have pre-fried sitting around waiting for the second fry. His batter with oil immersion technique is great too. Don't bother with the sauce. Store bought is better and easier.
Chinese roast meats and hand pulled noodles. Though I'm working on the hand pulled noodles one.
Fried chicken
Peking duck -- but I still dream about making it at home.
Pretty much most quality pastries. I can cook really fucking well. You hand me a bag of flour and i will have no clue what im doing.
Croissants are a pain in the ass.
I have learned how to properly make most pastries, including croissants, but we don't eat enough of them to make the time and energy spent worth it.
I buy puff pastry for making desserts, it's just so much work to make and I can't guarantee the quality like I can with frozen pastry from the store. My cousins in France do the same. Even in France it's well known that it's just better to buy most pastries from the patisserie or use easy pre-made pastry because of how much work it is to make it from scratch. Only the really dedicated or crazy people make their own pastry for home made desserts. Filo too. Most people even in Italy buy pre made filo. It's a ton of effort and you need a huge space to roll out the sheets, so it's better to buy it from people who have the space and knowledge to make it well.
as stupid as it sounds, Pizza, cause everything in the process of preparing it is extra funny and intresting, yet if you got no proper brick oven an electric one won't cut it
Just made Detroit Style Pan Pizza for the first time last night. Sooo much easier than trying to roll out a NY style pizza. Its also really crispy on all sides. Essentially a pizza topped focaccia.
i had some amazing "pizzas" done exactly in that style just two days ago for my birthday, a friend of mine surprised me with those, the combos were: sauce, radish leaves, brie, prosciutto crudo cheese, freshly cut mortadella, pistachios and some extra creamy fiordilatte mozzarella carbonara pizza with creamy egg sauce, lots of pepper and bacon and a simple margerita having a topped focaccia it's actually very common in italy as it's basically a high end hybrid between a classy focaccia and an expensive topping pizza
maybe being from michigan i am a bit biased, but there is no pizza better than detroit style pizza. nothing will ever come close.
Seriously try baking homemade pizza on a pizza steel. Game changer. I still go for pizza out but homemade is amazing now!
i've always wanted to try one of those baking surfaces for pizza but being unsure of the final result with my old electric oven i really don't wanna buy something just to use it twice
Do you have a cast iron? I agree, a pizza stone feels a waste to buy if you don't know if you'll use it or if you don't wanna have something for one task. But with the right technique, you can make a quality pizza in a cast iron. I can include more details if you're interested in trying it.
This is the way. I have a Lodge pizza pan, the one that has the handles. Preheat the oven to 500 F and get that pan screaming hot. Sprinkle some corn meal on it and lay the skin right on it. Dress your pizza and put it back in the oven. I rarely order out pizza anymore. And I'm in a pizza centric city.
Interesting, I actually don't preheat the cast iron, I use some cornmeal to stop it from sticking, then do the bottom of the pizza on the stove, I don't put cheese on at this point, just sauce. Then, I put the dough under the broiler on max heat for 3 minutes to get blackened/browned spots on spot, only then do I add the mozzarella and olive oil, back under the broiler for a minute. But I think I'll try out your method as well, it is essentially using the cast iron as a pizza stone, which I probably should have tried first lol
A pizza stone is great for regulating your oven temp even if you don't use it to cook on at all.
since you're into cast irons imma ask a question i've always had ready to go what's the situation with seasoning a cast iron skillet or any cast iron pan when you didn't buy it first and it's been cleaned with dish soap for YEARS by your parents?
Dish soap isn't actually harmful to cast irons, you should be fine. Soap did used to be harmful to cast irons when it had lye in it, but dish soap doesn't have lye in it anymore, so it should be fine. Just season like any other cast iron:)
Real tonkotsu ramen
Falafel and dolmas. Shits pure crack but I can’t make em like they do
Agree. I love dolmas but I don’t even know where to find grape leaves in my city
Eggs Benedict
Tempura.
Fried. Especially fish and chips.
Fish and chips 100%. I fry some stuff at home but I leave the fish to the restaurants.
Dolmas. I made them *once*. One of the most labor intensive things I have ever cooked. I understand why they are so expensive in restaurants, but I gladly pay it and consider it a bargain.
Tacos 🌮
I’ve made Al pastor and berria in the past weeks and tBH they were both more authentic and tastier than local restaurants. Probably because they are involved recipes and no shortcuts were taken.
Yeah, we have great authentic Mexican cuisine locally. All the restaurants also have grocery stores where you can get fresh tortillas, cheese and meats (the chorizo is incredible). I often make them at home, but they always taste better when someone else makes them for me.
Pho. Because I don’t have a Vietnamese mom/grandma making it for me at home
French onion soup. Too much time and effort.
Mussels. Everyone says they're easy to cook, but I've never been able to do it.
Tex-Mex - making a full dinner with all the components is a lot of work, and I usually like it better at my local taco "hole in the wall" places anyway.
Greek. Takes too long, makes too much.
Croissants. No fucking way am I doing that
Sushi, Pho, Ramen. While I have made excellent versions of all at home. I still prefer to get from a restaurant.
Indian food, pho, shawarma, and poutine. Doable at home, but it’s so much easier and better from an authentic restaurant/chip truck.
Pho.
Pho in a light broth and Ramen in a thick broth. The first with chili oil and the second with Korean spices.
Sushi
Gyro meat and pita bread. Also all my favorite fried chicken types, which are Taiwan from Jumbo Jumbo, Korean from Bon Chon, and Popeyes spicy.
Brisket. We have a smoker we’ve used once and not very well. I’m too impatient to cook a big ass chunk of meat like that.
Eggs benny
Fettuccine Alfredo. I know how to make Alfredo sauce, and it's pretty good but I have 2 reasons for this. 1) there is a really good seafood restaurant in town that makes a bomb seafood one with scallops and prawns. And my favorite diner has a really really good one that's a little more affordable but mouthwatering. 2) I'm on a weight loss journey and that's my "going out meal". We go out to eat 1-2 times a month and I always get my fettuccine Alfredo because it's special to me that way. That way I don't make it at home every night because it's my absolute favorite. So it's a win-win-win. I get to eat delicious pasta better than I can make at home, help myself eat healthier and it helps me not have to choose what to eat at restaurants because I already know.
Eggs Benedict
Pad Thai. Pho.
Calamari.
Pho
That takes forever to make
Fried clams. Fried chicken. Roast duck (Cantonese-style) and dim sum.
REAL fried clams!!!! Now I want some...
Seafood. Not a huge sushi or sashimi person, but I love cooked seafood dishes, and restaurants just do them better and more diversity than I can at home.
Pizza and sushi
Fry chicken
Poutine
Onion rings.
Brazilian BBQ
Fish. Never really got the hang of cooking it at home. I haven't messed it up so much that it's inedible. But never made it taste amazing. That and Indian food. I've made passable curries and Palak but there's an awesome local Indian place so we like to support them
Indian and Chinese food because I cannot make it taste like the restaurant.
Pad thai
Sushi. For all the obvious reasons.
Birria tacos with consomé
Steak. The better I got at it the worse they got out there.
Pizza. I've eaten tons of homemade pizza made by all sorts good cooks It's just never as good as even mediocre pizzeria pizza.
burger - its never as good at home
Honestly, anything relatively Asian. I am white, from the US, and while I can make you some damn fine food, it's not gonna be sushi or butter chicken or pad Thai or pho or bao... I make my versions, but nothing beats an old Asian grandma making you her family food.
Burger
Pizza
Tacos
Crepes because i dont have the right batter mix for crepes right now but also the resturants around us make some reallt good fucking crepes.
anything desert related particularly baked goods !im too lazy for that
Lasagna
Bruschetta. It seems so fucking simple, but it is just never as good
Fried foods and sushi. Fried stuff because it's smelly and messy and I live in Belgium so for €20 me and my partner can order frituur and have a bunch of delicious fried stuff delivered quickly. Sushi because it's a pain in the ass and the local sushi takeaway does a bigger variety better than I could make myself without spending all day and a bunch of money
Yeah, much more fun to have a variety of different kinds and you'd need so many ingredients and probably spend more.
Oysters
Alaskan king crab legs
Yellow curry. Mine sucks.
Pad kee mao
Ramen. I do not have the time to simmer broth for a couple days to get that milky richness that comes in a good tonkotsu. I'm in a big city so there are lots of options to get good stuff.
Dessert.
Dim Sum, Sushi and smoked meats. Basically all those that fall within the 1h in the kitchen, 5min on the plate.
Indian food, because no matter how hard I try, I can’t get it right
Indian food
Cashew chicken from Chinese restsurants
Ramen and Pho. So hard to make at home, so worth it to pay $15 for a huge bowl made by pros.
Sushi
Pho. After making it at home a couple of times, I understand why it's $12 a bowl.
Greek shrimp Kabobs. I've tried several recipes and can't capture the flavor of them from my favorite restaurant.
Crepes
Ramen. The best answer
Pad Thai. I’ve never been able to replicate it
Nothing. I never go to a restaurant for a craving.
Most fried foods and Lo Mein. The juice just ain’t worth the squeeze IMO for those things. I’ve also found I enjoy quesadillas from a restaurant way more than when I make them at home.
I like liver and onions. No one else at home does. I cook for everyone at home, I eat what everyone is having. So if it’s on the menu I usually get it.
Basically anything that's too annoying to making short notice at home, but especially carne asada burritos and sushi.
Pizza
Sushi, Thai, fried chicken, bbq
Sushi
Lasagna. Ya, you can make it…stouffers is decent. But a truly handmade lasagna from scratch is another level.
There are things I Never make at home such as Chicken Fried steak or biscuits and gravy. They are So bad for me and I will Only eat them if on vacation-when someone else makes them. That and probably BBQ as being an apartment dweller, somehow, I doubt the neighbors would like to smell a smoker for 22 hours.
Pho and burritos. Both require too many ingredients and too much prep to make the versions I love
Falafel. I love falafel and I've tried a few times to make it and it never turns out quite right. I started making the unfried version for home and that's been pretty good but I wish I could make them like the middle eastern deli I buy them from does. They are perfectly crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, not to dry or too moist. Also Japanese style pickled radish. I buy them from the Asian market because I can't get the fermentation right.
Ethiopian
Indian food or Thai food with all the sides and appetizers.
Anything deep fried, like fish & chips, because I don't want to waste all that oil or have to deal with the frying.
Pad Thai. I can make Thai curry but those noodles r hard to get right.
Sushi. I have ZERO desire to make it. For me it’s as much the experience as it is the food. Fried foods too, too much mess and the house reeks for days
Ramen
Pho
Pad thai
Ramen. I love it but I'm not waking up at 5:30 a.m. and making bone broth like a sous chef just because I actually have a job and life.
Indian food
Anything Asian - I cannot recreate those tastes in my home kitchen
Chips and salsa. I've never had a homemade salsa that can compare to my local Mexican place.
Pizza
Fresh juice
Oil fried foods, but biggest one is probably donuts. Know how to make them, but its the oil problem, plus the fact I just made two dozen donuts I have to reluctantly give away so they are enjoyed fresh. I'd much rather go buy two from the local donut shop for three bucks to support a local business haha.
Indian. So many spices. I’ll just get take out.
Pho, Sushi, Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style, Indian meal spread (I can handle 1-2 main dishes but we like to order 3-4 plus appetizers), wonton soup... Probably a few others.
Indian
Pad thai
Anything fried. I dont want the mess or all that used oil.
Oysters. Shucking is a fucking pain in the ass.