Recipe Remedies: In which I attempt to document my experiments with food

[ChefBryan]

 

[ChefBryan]

View attachment 66019

 

[chrislehrer]

Korean rice cakes shouldn't have gluten. They're the same as Japanese mochi, but usually formed into a stick and then sliced into shapes. If you get them frozen, they usually have just rice for ingredients.

 

[rittenremedy]

I did a special not too long ago that was chicken and waffles with a Korean twist, Seoul food if you will. I made a watermelon gochujang glazed chicken thigh on top of a kimchi jeon in waffle form, using only rice flour and cornstarch. The recipe wasn't perfect, but it was good. It could have probably used a third starch to cut some of the rice flour flavor, but I think you're on the right track.

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Adorable! Watermelon gochujang glaze? Yes, I want to eat this.

Actually, the store was out of potato starch, so even though that was supposed to be the first (relative) attempt, I went straight for the 50% Bob's GFAP 50% rice flour. What a winner! I made the batter just slightly too thick, but it still came out deliciously savory, light, and so crispy. I probably will never try the potato starch. I'm not a fan of overly starchy flours anyway, so I'll leave that to others. Like ChefBryan's it wasn't perfect; a little thinner batter and a pinch of xanthan gum would probably be about as perfect as a gluten free pancake can be. And, man, was it tasty. When I make it again for dinner tonight, I'll take pictures.

 

[rittenremedy]

As promised: pictures. I tried to make them look pretty. This thread needed something that wasn't a hot mess of yum.

View media item 141702The flour mix:
35 grams Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
40 grams white rice flour
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

View media item 141703YUM.

The one issue I'm still having is retaining the level of crispy from pan to table. The edges are all crispy and wonderful. The sides? top and bottom? the flat part is crispy when I straight from the pan, but softens within a minute. Morning sure if anything can be done about that. Thoughts?

 

[ChefBryan]

As promised: pictures. I tried to make them look pretty. This thread needed something that wasn't a hot mess of yum.

View media item 141702The flour mix:
35 grams Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
40 grams white rice flour
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

View media item 141703YUM.

The one issue I'm still having is retaining the level of crispy from pan to table. The edges are all crispy and wonderful. The sides? top and bottom? the flat part is crispy when I straight from the pan, but softens within a minute. Morning sure if anything can be done about that. Thoughts?

Try adding some cornstarch

 

[rittenremedy]

Try adding some cornstarch

Cool, I'll try that next. I've heard from gluten free writers that cornstarch is crisper than root starches like tapioca and potato, but I haven't tried any comparisons. Any experiences there?

I made another tonight; same flour, slightly thinner batter, slightly lower temperature, and a couple minutes longer cook. It was noticeably crispier. Even the center pieces were lightly crisp. I think it's finally gotten to the point where I'd serve it to other people.

 

[ChefBryan]

Cool, I'll try that next. I've heard from gluten free writers that cornstarch is crisper than root starches like tapioca and potato, but I haven't tried any comparisons. Any experiences there?

I made another tonight; same flour, slightly thinner batter, slightly lower temperature, and a couple minutes longer cook. It was noticeably crispier. Even the center pieces were lightly crisp. I think it's finally gotten to the point where I'd serve it to other people.

Yes, I have added cornstarch to many different waffle batters to make it crispier. That's why I put it in the kimchi jeon as well, I was having issues with the extra moisture from the kimchi. I never did work out any sort of ratio though, I just experimented on one off bases with each batter depending on composition. My struggle is no matter what I do they won't stay crisp for long as I am serving them out of a hot well for employees on break.

 

[rittenremedy]

Beans!​

How do you cook beans so they aren't dry inside?

I'm sure this is answered somewhere on the internet, and probably here, already, but search results all turned up "how to cook dry beans." No, I mean how do I cook NOT dry beans? Am I missing something here? I didn't grow up eating beans outside of chain Mexican restaurants. Is that a quality of beans, dryness? Or am I just supremely unlucky when buying beans? I mean from-the-can beans as well as the few times I've cooked them myself from dry. They're never quite how I expect or want them to be, textually, even in soup!

This is a more open ended post than my usual... meddling, but I feel like I'm missing out on a whole type of food. I'd like to give beans the best chance with any of your suggestions. Help?

 

[butzy]

Half the trick is finding dry beans that are not too old.
I like to soak mine, but it is not really necessary. It does make them softer in my opinion, and obviously they cook quicker.
You can try using a pressure cooker as well.
Just whatever you do, some types need to be boiled vigorously for the first 10 minutes to get rid of some potential toxins. At least that's what I've been told. Hope it is not an old wife's tale

 

[rittenremedy]

Half the trick is finding dry beans that are not too old.
I like to soak mine, but it is not really necessary. It does make them softer in my opinion, and obviously they cook quicker.
You can try using a pressure cooker as well.
Just whatever you do, some types need to be boiled vigorously for the first 10 minutes to get rid of some potential toxins. At least that's what I've been told. Hope it is not an old wife's tale

From what I've heard it is NOT an old wives tale. Certain beans contain ricin, which can make you sick and, when enough is ingested, can kill according to the CDC. Since most people eat canned beans, it's not really a huge problem in homes, but apparently people do occasionally get sick from slow cooking kidney beans. Just to be safe, I'd boil them. They're little pebbles at first anyway; it can't hurt.

 

[butzy]

Since most people eat canned beans, it's not really a huge problem in homes,

Maybe in the states, but here, I guess about 90-95% of the beans (and peas) are cooked from scratch.

Other thing: have you tried lentils and split peas (for dhal, pea soup and the like)? They don't need cooking for that long and they do get a creamy texture.
Yes, I know, they are not beans, but to me, sometimes the difference between dried peas and dried beans becomes a bit vague

 

[rittenremedy]

Maybe in the states, but here, I guess about 90-95% of the beans (and peas) are cooked from scratch.

Other thing: have you tried lentils and split peas (for dhal, pea soup and the like)? They don't need cooking for that long and they do get a creamy texture.
Yes, I know, they are not beans, but to me, sometimes the difference between dried peas and dried beans becomes a bit vague

Correct, I was assuming canned based on what most recipes I encounter use. But since I live in the US, I'm sure Google doesn't prioritize recipes from Canada or New Zealand or other English speaking countries.

I have cooked lentils before from dried, but I didn't really know what I was doing. Care to post some instructions?

 

[butzy]

Ah, instructions....
I'm no expert. I figure beans and lentils are best done by the Indians and my favourite there is Madhur Jaffrey. Just google
And I am giving you this one as welll https://indiaphile.info/guide-indian-lentils/
They can explain better than I ever can

 

[rittenremedy]

Beans! Part 1, Brining​

Just started a batch of beans to soak for cooking tomorrow. I used pintos because they're the ones I've had the closest sort of success with, they're going into leftover chili, they were on sale, and they're pretty. I used:
4 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 pound pinto beans

When I stirred the beans around after adding them to the brine, I noticed the skins almost instantly began loosening. Uh oh?? I've never added salt to soaking water before, so I don't know if that's usual, but I quit agitating them as soon as I noticed. Tomorrow I'll cook them, but I'm not sure if I should cook them in plain water, lightly salted water, or the stock I'll be using to bulk out the leftover chili. Ideas?

 

[butzy]

As said, not an expert at all, but I never use salt when soaking beans.
Whether it really makes a difference or not, I do not know.
In theory though, you want the beans to take up water. Water moves from the lowest osmotic potantial to the highest (water and salt).
I also do not use salt when cooking, as I normally add a lot of savoury things to the beans, so I feel it is unnecessary

 

[rittenremedy]

As said, not an expert at all, but I never use salt when soaking beans.
Whether it really makes a difference or not, I do not know.
In theory though, you want the beans to take up water. Water moves from the lowest osmotic potantial to the highest (water and salt).
I also do not use salt when cooking, as I normally add a lot of savoury things to the beans, so I feel it is unnecessary

I've never used salt when soaking before either, but since every other time hasn't been worth repeating, I thought I'd experiment. If it's awful, there's always the other half of the bag.

 

[ChefBryan]

I've never used salt when soaking before either, but since every other time hasn't been worth repeating, I thought I'd experiment. If it's awful, there's always the other half of the bag.

I don't know if anyone here has tried this or has any experience with it, but what about nixtamalization?

http://nordicfoodlab.org/blog/2015/8/13/nixtamalisation-the-secret-of-the-tortilla

This is a blog about nixtamalizing different grains. They had a chart with different things and different soaking times. One of the things on there was black beans, but it did not talk about the results with those. they were grinding everything to make tortillas, so if you wanted to keep the beans whole and intact you may have to play with the soaking time and lime ratio so they don't just fall apart when cooking. it would be an interesting experiment. Acid toughens up the starches. Maybe to get the perfect bean you could try several different steps. Nixtamalizing, brining, then acid soak to toughen up the outside so they don't fall apart? or adding some acid in the beginning of the cooking process?

 

[chrislehrer]

I've never used salt when soaking before either, but since every other time hasn't been worth repeating, I thought I'd experiment. If it's awful, there's always the other half of the bag.

Brining beans works. The old notion that you can't add salt until the beans are fully cooked turns out to be false. But it does make cooking times a bit longer, and consistency across all the beans a bit trickier. You have to be a bit more stable with boiling temperature, in fact, which is one reason why a pressure cooker does such a nice job.

 

[rittenremedy]

Well, I cooked them, a couple day ago actually but I had a midterm and no time to write a coherent post. I boiled for 10 minutes and cooked on low for 1 hour. I started with that time because most recipes estimate 1-3 hours cook time, but after 1 hour, they were a bit overdone! They went into soup anyway so not a big deal. They were okay taste- and texture-wise. They look a mess though.

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