Food and Cooking Thread

[smurphy]

Feck is soylent? Some pissed pants?

http://soylent.me/

What a crock of gooseberry fool. I easily spend less than $10 a day on food, and I'm eating tasty meaty meals, with delicious snacking, not drinking grey sludge. You're going to be eating out either way, so that doesn't factor in. I remember some guy coming up with this on a blog or news site a while ago, fair play for him selling the idea/turning it into a business. I hope he gets rich off of suckers.

[No:1 Final Fantasy Fan]

Making some biscuits atm but just realised I put double the amount of butter...no wonder it was so soggy. Hope it turns out well...in the oven atm.

[BTB]

Making my first paella this weekend. Won't be the most 'traditional' paella as it will have chicken, chorizo and seafood in it. But goodness i'm excited.

[OldSoulCyborg]

What do you guys reckon about Soylent? Would you try it? I'm very tempted once it is available in the UK.

I've been living off of DIY soylent for the past few months. Horrid tasting recipe (the official Soylent is apparently quite nice, but even if I could get it shipped here in Iceland at the current price it's a little too expensive), but it's allowed me to lose weight super easily because I know exactly how many calories I'm consuming. It's also way healthier than what I would otherwise be eating, and costs me less than half of what I was spending on food before.

Here's my current recipe (though I substituted a vitamin k substitute for the basil and spearmint):
http://www.cookingfor20.com/2013/11/16/ ... nt-recipe/


I did some cooking tonight for a change. Found a video on Youtube on how to make a KFC Twister at home (link).
Picture:

Yeah... that looks way better than it tastes. Reminds me why I hopped on the Soylent train and left recreational food behind (at least my own cooking).
I'll continue experimenting with it. I have some ideas about what went wrong. Maybe I can get it right before I run out of chicken.

[Ironhide]

What do you guys reckon about Soylent? Would you try it? I'm very tempted once it is available in the UK.

I've been living off of DIY soylent for the past few months. Horrid tasting recipe (the official Soylent is apparently quite nice, but even if I could get it shipped here in Iceland at the current price it's a little too expensive), but it's allowed me to lose weight super easily because I know exactly how many calories I'm consuming. It's also way healthier than what I would otherwise be eating, and costs me less than half of what I was spending on food before.

Here's my current recipe (though I substituted a vitamin k substitute for the basil and spearmint):
http://www.cookingfor20.com/2013/11/16/ ... nt-recipe/


I did some cooking tonight for a change. Found a video on Youtube on how to make a KFC Twister at home (link).
Picture:

Yeah... that looks way better than it tastes. Reminds me why I hopped on the Soylent train and left recreational food behind (at least my own cooking).
I'll continue experimenting with it. I have some ideas about what went wrong. Maybe I can get it right before I run out of chicken.

If it does actually contain all your daily nutritional needs then that 'natural' Soylent recipe isn't too bad, It's not really that different to things like Slimfast or Complan.

[OldSoulCyborg]

If it does actually contain all your daily nutritional needs then that 'natural' Soylent recipe isn't too bad, It's not really that different to things like Slimfast or Complan.

I certainly feel way better physically than I did before, so that's something.

I made the homemade KFC Twister thing four more times this weekend (two lunches, two dinners), each time a little better than before. By the end it was damn tasty, though not as good as the real deal.
I felt it was mostly the sauce that made it really work. The chicken itself didn't taste that good, kind of bland. Was it the oil I used? Did I leave the chicken in too long? Maybe the flour mixture wasn't spicy enough? No matter how much of the herbs and spices I added the flavour didn't seem to come through.

[elite knight danbo]

What do you guys reckon about Soylent? Would you try it? I'm very tempted once it is available in the UK.

Yes, in a heartbeat. I hate cooking. (I clicked this thread by accident.)

[Boo!]

Your kfc wrap needs msg

[Poser]

Reminds me why I hopped on the Soylent train and left recreational food behind (at least my own cooking).
I'll continue experimenting with it. I have some ideas about what went wrong. Maybe I can get it right before I run out of chicken.

This is the first time I've really been aware of what Soylent is. I can see why it might work, and I can see the appeal as a food solution for famine/poverty-hit countries (but it's not used for that, I assume...). I can even see why it might appeal as a weight-loss aid, so in those cases, fair enough, go for it.

But holy strawberry float why would anybody choose to eat that? It has no texture and I certainly can't imagine it tastes that good. If I tried to live off that I'd be shitting through the eye of a needle in about two days.

I gave you the smilie above, mainly because 'recreational' food, as you put it, is a big part of my life and I couldn't go without. Cooking is fun and you should practice more. It's easy to be healthy and not spend a great deal without particularly restricting your ingredients, as long as you don't fry everything and as long as you use your own ingredients (ie avoid processed meals, etc)

Sorry, only just seen this post:

I made the homemade KFC Twister thing four more times this weekend (two lunches, two dinners), each time a little better than before. By the end it was damn tasty, though not as good as the real deal.
I felt it was mostly the sauce that made it really work. The chicken itself didn't taste that good, kind of bland. Was it the oil I used? Did I leave the chicken in too long? Maybe the flour mixture wasn't spicy enough? No matter how much of the herbs and spices I added the flavour didn't seem to come through.

Ok, KFC is very hard to recreate because they use a pressure fryer, which cooks the chicken faster, retaining the moisture but making the outside crisp.

Deep frying the chicken is the closest most people could get in their own homes, but yes, as you've guessed, the amount of time it'd take to cook the chicken properly will destroy pretty much any of the flavour you've managed to get into the batter.

Perhaps you could forgo having crispy batter? I know it's lush, but while you're messing around with cooking, spices, etc, you're better off using methods that won't wipe out the flavour - otherwise you'll never develop a knack for seasoning.

You could cut the chicken into much thinner strips and shallow fry it? This way it will cook in a couple of minutes and you get to figure out what quantities of spice will achieve the flavours you want. I know this is basically stir-frying rather than deep south KFC-type frying... I think what I'm, trying to say is you've picked a very ambitious project and it will be very difficult to get the results you are after.

[OldSoulCyborg]

Cooking is fun I enjoy cooking

To be perfectly honest with you sometimes I enjoy it as well. But not every meal of every day, and I certainly don't enjoy the cleanup (which is minimal with soylent). Cooking to me is kind of like RTS games. I can see why other people enjoy it, but I'm not really interested unless I have a particularly good reason to be. Like this weekend when I was excited about trying to recreate the KFC Twister, or when I bought Sacrifice because it looked like an interesting game even though it was an RTS. Sometimes I'll be in the mood for food, but most of the time it's just fuel to me. The less time, effort and money that goes into it, the more satisfied I am with the experience.

As my mom always says: "Thank strawberry float we're all diferent." (paraphrasing)


Thanks for the KFC advice, I'll keep it in mind the next time I try to make it.

[Dual]

I sometimes wish you could take a pill at meal time and get all your nutrition and fill you up. I am time poor. I love cooking a big meal at the weekend when I can spend time on it and pull everything together.

[KB]

Food experts, if I am cooking this Chicken Fricassee, should the skin be on or off?!

[bear]

I'm no expert but it looks like the skin is intact in the picture so I'd leave it on.

[KB]

I'm no expert but it looks like the skin is intact in the picture so I'd leave it on.

Grazie.

[jamcc]

Is anyone here on a wheat / gluten-free diet?

I'm trying to avoid the two as much as possible and I've lost a lot of body fat. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same outcome?

[Fatal Exception]

Is anyone here on a wheat / gluten-free diet?

I'm trying to avoid the two as much as possible and I've lost a lot of body fat. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same outcome?

Unless you have coeliac disease then you're just wasting your money/time and latching onto a pseudo science fad.

People with coeliac disease absolutely need to avoid gluten, but non-coeliac intolerance to wheat is probably just a fad diet. http://www.care2.com/causes/new-study-q ... ivity.html

Avoid carbs, not just gluten.

[bear]

Do you any of you have a good use for Rice Flour?

I bought a bag of it for making Tiger Loaf at home which worked out well but it doesn't need much of the Rice Flour. If I just use it for Tiger Loaf it'll take me months to use the bag of flour I bought and I'm afraid it'll go manky if I keep it that long.

[No:1 Final Fantasy Fan]

whats this rubbish about microwaving food being bad for your health? My cousin is like anti microwave and refuses to use them and told me I should avoid it.
I'm not concerned at all though, just think its crazy how everything can be bad for you these days.

[SandyCoin]

They probably mean microwave ready meals. They are on the whole pretty bad for you. If they mean using a microwave in general then they are idiots. As far as I've seen there are no health risks with using a microwave.

[Chocolate Jim]

Sandy's correct. Microwave meals are notorious for being packet full of things that aren't great for you if consumed in mass quantities e.g. salt sugar etc.

There are also studies showing that microwaving things like vegetables can destroy some of the nutrients in them say vs boiling them. I wouldn't let that concern you too much tbh. I think you can safely assume microwaving a potato is going to be better for you than slicing it up and sticking it in a deep fat fryer.

Look when it comes to food that is 'good' for you or 'bad' for you ... just don't over consume anything and you will be fine. Everything in moderation = a balanced diet. That's the way forward.