A *Literal* Zoo Cafe

StoppableSan

StoppableSan

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Welp, you read the title - I ain't a one-trick pony, after all! :p

Cooking is a skill that I'm absolutely proud to have. I've always had a propensity to create things ever since I was little, and cooking became one of those avenues for me. I've learned fundamental techniques from my family and my part-time job as a line cook during sophomore year of college, and since then I've been not only making Indian dishes on the regular, I've also branched out to making Italian dishes (e.g. carbonara, puttanesca, aglio e olio), Chinese dishes (yuxiang qiezi or "fish-fragrant eggplant" alongside some choice recipes from channels like foodiechina888 on YouTube), standard continental fare (blueberry pancakes, recipe by Nat's What I Reckon) and even baked goods like flourless chocolate cake!

For this thread, I'm going to be showcasing various dishes I've made over the years and highlighting whether I've followed a recipe or utilized my own technique. Let's start with something simple, a good steak.

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For this recipe, I used grass-fed sirloin steak, which I dry-brined in salt and white pepper. (I forget whether I also used coriander powder in this particular steak, but I do highly recommend that too flavorwise! :)) I also used a little bit of baking soda to not only tenderize the meat a touch further, but also speed up the maillard reaction and create a solid crust. I then seared the steaks on my pan with some avocado oil, and then butter-basted after an initial resting period. For this particular butter baste, the usual suspects of garlic and salted butter were employed, but I also decided to use the white portion of some green onions, chopped finely and used to add more of an earthy flavor. After garnishing with the green portion of the green onion, the dish was finished!
 

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To quote the Ghost with the Most, "I hope you like Italian". Carbonara!

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Carbonara's deceptively simple, but not impossible. The ingredient list is simple enough (1 egg yolk per person, freshly grated pecorino romano, guanciale (pig's cheek), salt, black pepper and your pasta of choice), but it's the technique that separates a Roman classic from scrambled eggs with a side of pasta. Admittedly, I made both when I was still figuring out my technique! :D I eventually learned that pouring a ladleful of pasta water in with the egg yolk and pecorino mixture prevents curdling, and if you turn off the heat for the pan with the guanciale/guanciale fat and the pasta a bit in advance, even better.

As far as what the best pasta is for carbonara, in my opinion it's bucatini. I found out about bucatini from the litany of YouTube cooking shows I follow (either Vincenzo's Plate or The Pasta Queen) - bucatini is very similar to spaghetti but has a hole running through the length of the pasta so more of the egg/pecorino mixture can be infused throughout the dish. Spaghetti's traditional in Rome, me personally, I like bucatini better.

(On a side note, the reason there's less pasta in the pan for this picture, I forgot to take a picture before I served myself and my family. Oops!)
 

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This is a dish that may scare people in terms of its inherently indulgent nature, but I'm proud to say I've successfully pulled this dish off for a couple holiday dinners - beef wellington!

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For this recipe, I mainly stuck to the script that has been perfected by individuals like Gordon Ramsay, with minimal adjustments other than the accoutremental - rather than just serving this with mash, I've amped up said mash by mixing in garlic and chive cream cheese, and serving alongside a chili oil, which I'll highlight properly in a future post. In the second picture, we served the wellington with a cranberry chutney, which I'm happy to say complemented the dish beautifully! In retrospect, the only things I'd tweak about this recipe would be to let the beef (or lamb if necessary) sit overnight in the fridge with a dry rub of salt and pepper, and maybe incorporate some crepes into the recipe to prevent the bottom from sopping up too many juices from the tenderloin, prosciutto and mushroom duxelles.
 

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I should say, let’s turn this thread into a zoo café recipe book. :D

Here is my recipe for ‘my perfect’ bolognese sauce. I always make this in big portion, to eat from and also for the freezer when we want to use some for another time we do spaghetti or another pasta. Normally this recipe is good for 5 to 6 liters of bolognese sauce.



The ingredients I use:
500 gr of cherry tomatoes
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
4 carrots (depending on how big they are)
A red, yellow, orange & green bell pepper
1 red sweet pointed pepper
1 green zucchini
500 gr of mushrooms
100 gr of leek
1 can of diced tomatoes
3 big bottles of passata
1.500 gr minced beef and pork, you can also use minced beef or minced chicken when you don’t eat pork
4 leaves of laurel
Some parsley
Some basil
Some tarragon
Some oregano
Some rosemary
Some thyme
Some black pepper
Some chili pepper
A dash of an Italian white wine
Some olive oil

Preparation time:
Around 2 hours.

How to prepare it:
1. Before I begin to cook the vegetables, I rinse them and then cut them. The first vegetables that we will cut are the onions and garlic. Remove the first layer of the onion and also the root end. The garlic will actually be grated, so it is reallly tiny. After that it is time to slice the carrots. First I peel the carrots, I remove the ends and slice them in half. After that, the carrots will be cut in small pieces. Before we bake these, we will cook them in water, because they need to become soft first. Then it is time to cut the mushrooms. We will not cut them too small, but in nice fine slices for a better result. We won’t remove anything from the mushrooms. Also cut a little bit of leek, around 100 grams. Then we will cut the four different colours of bell peppers and the red sweet pointed pepper. These will be cut in nice cubes. We remove the stems and ends of the vegetables and also the seed frames and all the seeds from the bell peppers and the sweet pointed pepper. We are not peeling the zucchini, it gives a better taste when it’s unpeeled. Some people would peel the zucchini, but I prefer not to actually. Finally, there are the cherry tomatoes. Throw the green away and cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Here you go. Our vegetables are ready to be cooked. Don’t turn your furnace too high.
2. We take a big cooking pot to begin the cooking of our vegetables and warm some olive oil. We start with the onions and garlic. Bake them to a glassy colour before adding the next vegetables.
3. While we are cooking the onion and garlic we also cook the carrots. Like we said before, they will be cooked in water until they are soft enough to prick through them with a fork.
4. Next we will add the mushrooms to the baking vegetables. Turn them enough to prevent them to burn.
5. The next step is to add the peppers, the leek and the zuccini to our pot of vegetables we are cooking. Just like the mushrooms, turn the peppers and zucchini around enough to prevent them from burning. If needed add some extra olive oil or water.
6. When the carrots are soft enough to prick through, drain them in a colander. Then you throw the carrots together in the pot with the other vegetables that are already baking. Mix all the vegetables through and start spicing with parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme and black pepper. Do this according to your own feeling.
7. Throw the four leaves of laurel in and put a lid on the cooking pot for a while, so it can stew for a while. Put your fire also higher for this.
8. After you have stewed the vegetables for a while it is time to make the sauce. Take a frying pan for the minced meat and take your bottles of passata and your can of diced tomatoes. Throw the bottles of passata over the stewed vegetables and stir everything through with a sauce spoon.
9. You also mix in diced tomatoes and the cherry tomatoes at this moment and keep stirring through the sauce. Spice again according to your own wishes. Also add a little bit of chili pepper, also according to your own wish.
10. Take your Italian white wine. Some people prefer red wine over white wine, but personally I like white wine better. Pour a small amount of wine in the cooking sauce. Do this with some feeling, so you don’t screw up your sauce with this, so be careful not to use too much wine.
11. Time to cook the minced meat. Pour olive oil in the pan and throw in the minced meat. Not on a high furnace, so the minced meat doesn’t burn. Also don’t use too much olive oil. Push the meat to pieces and bake it until there are no raw pieces in the meat anymore. Make sure your pan is big enough, otherwise it’s better to bake the meat in two or three times.
12. Mix the meat in the sauce now and let it simmer until it’s warm enough to eat.
13. Serve with a pasta according to your own choice when it’s ready.

So, this is the recipe. Normally I eat it the most with spaghetti or cappelini, but penne, farfalle or fusili are also nice alternatives to use. You can also use the sauce as a topping for a croque monsieur. Actually, like this… you will turn it into a… croque bolognese! Also very delicious. And of course you can use this sauce to make lasagna too.

Before I put the leftovers of the bolognese sauce in the freezer, I let the sauce cool down for an hour and put the sauce in cream boxes or storage containers for the freezer.

So, this is how you prepare my favourite spaghetti sauce actually. :D

Like they would say in Italy: buon appetito!
 
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Since the pasta spot was already taken, my addition will be for the coffee hour.

There's a lot of baked goods I can make that I'm very happy with, but my very best recipe will always be the humble chocolate chip cookie.

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It's crunchy, it's fudgy, it's sweet, and I've already eaten way too many of them.

They're also quite easy to make in very large amounts, for better or worse
 

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Mr Gharial said:
Since the pasta spot was already taken, my addition will be for the coffee hour.

There's a lot of baked goods I can make that I'm very happy with, but my very best recipe will always be the humble chocolate chip cookie.

View attachment 772498

It's crunchy, it's fudgy, it's sweet, and I've already eaten way too many of them.

They're also quite easy to make in very large amounts, for better or worse
Click to expand...

Would you be so kind as to share the recipe that you use? Thanks in advance!
 
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