Cooking: Failed attempts

[Nanohedron]

I love me some udon. Never made it, but the real Washoku deal (homemade) is rolled out and cut, not pulled. I was checking out some recipes, and it seems like the main thing is simplicity itself. Abridged version: just white wheat flour (I would err on the side of unbleached bread flour for the gluten content and least processing), water, and salt; you have to let the dough rest for @ a half hour; then you knead the daylights out of it. Harumi Kurihara suggests putting the dough in a gallon ziplock bag and doing the kneading on the floor with your (unshod) feet as the dough is stiff, but she's a tiny slip of a thing, so if you're a big strong guy this may not be an issue. Take it out of the bag, fold it over, and do it about 3 more times. Then roll it out 1/8" thick, roll the slab up for cutting ease and cut into 1/8'' wide strips and shake 'em out. They only take a couple of minutes to cook into those wonderful fat ropes of noodly goodness.

I searched around trying to find out how they made the round-profiled udon, but it must be a commercial trade secret or probably something less exotic, like extrusion. Pulling definitely didn't come up. Udon are supposed to have some body to them and be just a tad chewy, so I'm just guessing, but don't think you could get the right texture for them by the pulling method.

[I.D.10-t]

(I would err on the side of unbleached bread flour for the gluten content and least processing)

I have a feeling that was one of my mistakes. Low gluten seems to be noodle friendly.

[Nanohedron]

(I would err on the side of unbleached bread flour for the gluten content and least processing)

I have a feeling that was one of my mistakes. Low gluten seems to be noodle friendly.

With bread flour I was erring on the side of higher gluten content, actually. If you want low gluten content, then you want cake flour. I don't make Asian-style noodles, so I don't know what's best. I do recall one udon recipe mentioning that any wheat flour ought to do, which strikes me as counterintuitive, but it it's true, that's pretty handy, then. I wonder how whole wheat would turn out.

[I.D.10-t]

Yep, I understand gluten levels and still don't understand why cake flour seems to be better for pulling long noodles. Frankly, it's counter intuitive to me.

Udon is pretty simple and doesn't require much work. Mix, wait, roll, cut, boil. I bet udon would be great using whole wheat, in which case it would be worth making since I doubt that you can buy it that way.

It looks like I am making hotpot for dinner this week...

[ancientfifer]

Back in my college days, it was my turn to cook for my three other housemates one evening. I thought I'd impress them all by preparing stuffed green peppers. Oh they looked delish! But no one told me you were supposed to brown the beef BEFORE stuffing it into the peppers and sticking them in the oven. YUK!

[mutepointe]

Back in my college days, it was my turn to cook for my three other housemates one evening. I thought I'd impress them all by preparing stuffed green peppers. Oh they looked delish! But no one told me you were supposed to brown the beef BEFORE stuffing it into the peppers and sticking them in the oven. YUK!

What?

[Nanohedron]

"Eh? 'Uncooked'? Oh, dear...I see you've never had Peppers Tartare."

There. Sorted.

[mutepointe]

dwest could confirm this recipe for me, it's Slovak. My Mom, mixed uncooked ground beef, rice, onions, & spices. Stuffed that mixture into green peppers. Put those stuffed peppers in a roasting pan, poured in tomato juice that she canned to top if off, maybe added some tomato soup, and let that simmer for hours until dinnertime.

[Nanohedron]

dwest could confirm this recipe for me, it's Slovak. My Mom, mixed uncooked ground beef, rice, onions, & spices. Stuffed that mixture into green peppers. Put those stuffed peppers in a roasting pan, poured in tomato juice that she canned to top if off, maybe added some tomato soup, and let that simmer for hours until dinnertime.

This is a familiar dish to me, too. I've never made them myself - I'm not a fan - but I would say that the "for hours" part is key. I'm guessing an hour and a half minimum in a 350 degree oven, give or take.

[ancientfifer]

dwest could confirm this recipe for me, it's Slovak. My Mom, mixed uncooked ground beef, rice, onions, & spices. Stuffed that mixture into green peppers. Put those stuffed peppers in a roasting pan, poured in tomato juice that she canned to top if off, maybe added some tomato soup, and let that simmer for hours until dinnertime.

"simmer for hours"? Now I know what I did wrong by broiling for 20 minutes....but don't worry, I don't cook for anyone else anymore, so yer all safe!

[Katharine]

There was that time I was gifted some rhubarb so decided to make pie... never made it myself before and my mum couldn't find her recipe, so I googled it.

"That's an awful lot of sugar," my mom commented as I dumped it in. "It's what the recipe said," I told her.

Um. Yeah. It was an awful lot of sugar. Like, crunching on lumps and I bet the dentists of all of us who were eating it were planning their next vacations. (Yes, I fed it to friends, because they happened to be over that night. Poor things. And yes, I made two because I had lots of rhubarb. Poor me.)

And that is how I learned that it is okay to get recipes off the 'net, but you should probably read several and make sure they tend to agree as a general rule...