Cooking outside your comfort zone

I like to cook. I also like eating. I like eating new things but more often than not I will just go for an old standby.

This I a thread for posting up your food experiments. That new thing you tried and was great or bad. Was really easy or turned out to B a PITA.

Since my wife is from Asia and I have traveled and lived in many places our cabinets and chill chests are a hogpog of things from all over the world.

My culinary adventure is going to be Beef Pinang. As it turns out there are several variants to this. I am going to go with the Asian cury and peanut version. Other ingredients include fish sauce and lime leaves (not sure where I am going to get those).

This is one of my favorite dishes when prepared properly. We are lucky to have a top shelf Asian restaurant local to us so I have a very high standard to compare to. So wish me luck.

So lets here from you all. What food have you dared to step away from the every day and tried to cook.

I made bacon gravy for dinner.

Peanut butter and bacon sandwich.

Then there are all things SPAM.

I made mango sauce on my tortellini the other day. Three (very) ripe ataulfo mangos, one large beefsteak tomato, julienned red pepper, capers, sliced pickled jalapenos (homemade, from my sister's garden last year), coconut vinegar, brown sugar, onion, ginger, tumeric, cumin, smoked paprika ... and some other stuff that I've forgotten. Sauteed in a wok in avocado oil. It was magnificent.

Next time I make that sauce it's going on a pizza.

Ive also made my own squash ravioli before. Squash behaves a lot like potatoes. I suck at making my own pasta.

One time, now follow me on this, I actually made...Cheerios instead of honey bunches of oats!

I know, I'm a rebel.

Sushi. It come out OK the first time. Now after a couple years of practice it's better in many ways than the local sushi places.

I have yet to master the cream croquette.

It helps that I have an excellent Japanese grocer nearby.

rice crispy treats from rice checks and snicker bars comes to mind right away. Melt a bag of fun size snickers and or milky ways, and mix in rice checks. Let cool, if you can, and devour.

I have actually made a spicy and spectacular BBQ sauce from cherries. Sure I sometimes smoke with cherry wood, but I don't usually think of cherries as a main ingredient.

Ramen without the seasoning pack and queso makes a great mac n cheese as well. And who can forget cheeseburger eggrolls? It's kind of a pain, but browned ground beef, diced onions and diced cheddar makes a nice change in meal, and a great on the go meal.

I was a little way outside my comfort zone tonight. I made a bison burger, rare, with a fried egg, thick cut applewood smoked bacon, mushrooms and hollandaise sauce in toasted on the grill sesame wrap paired up with a Bell's Two Hearted Ale and some thick cut kettle chips (only things from a bag were chips and beer). It was AWESOME.

I saw it on the food channel and made it. Everything was cool comfort-wise except that berkeleying hollandaise sauce. Ain't nobody got time for that. It's too thick, no! too thin... too much heat! berkeley! Next time... I'll use a chipotle pineapple jelly and it will be just as awesome and I can pour it out of a jar.

I tried my hand at some Thai food a while back, I like the curry's so I made a pineapple chicken curry. Turned out almost exactly like the local Thai place's. That was pretty far out of my comfort zone. I also tried some Indian food, made some Dal, had to get some things for it I never had, like ghee clarified butter) and Garam Masala (aromatic spice mixture) It's actually a really tasty vegetarian dish.

I need to pony up and try my hand at some General Tso's chicken or Seasame Chicken dish, the local Chinese joints is good but I think it has MSG in it as it makes my IBS flair up something awful. So if I can pull it off, I know my wallet and my stomach will thank me.

For Panang Beef Curry I used this recipe. I ended up using their suggested substitute of basil leaves for the lime leaves. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/dinner-tonight-panang-beef-curry-recipe.html

I'll have to think about something that is outside my comfort zone.

mndsm wrote: I made bacon gravy for dinner.

Go on......

My wife makes a salad that has spinach, chicken, watermelon, Bleu cheese and a balsamic reduction. It sounds weird but they all go together amazingly.

It has been a while since I've experimented. My wife has a limited palette, so I can only try stuff if I'm eating alone.

Pan seared pork chop, rare. Deglaze the pan with juice and add fruit salsa and reduce.

I come and go on my food improv confidence. I am an inveterate throw-it-in-and-see-what-happens style cook. When I'm happy and hungry, I come up with winners. Sad and stressed? Overthought crap. Successes: Mango BBQ sauce, lamb stew with Indian spices, chicken tarragon noodle soup, slow-oven pulled pork with three gift paprikas, char-braised green beans, steelcut oatmeal with apples, raisins and craisins, coleslaw with mustard and horseradish.

Failures? Too many to list--ask my kids. And since I'm such a spontaneous cook, great dishes are often one-night stands: too soon forgotten, never recreated.

For some reason this thread brings back memories of watching the Julia Child cooking show on PBS as a kid. For a spell I thought I one day would become a glamorous chef and make awesomely great creations. Well,,,,that never happened.

Tried something different with a London Broil last night. season it, sprinkle cornstarch on the outside and put it in the freezer 1/2 hour before hitting the hot BBQ. It comes out rare-medium and blackened on the outside.

Do not add dry ice when you are making frozen margaritas. While it looks quite impressive for a bit before they freeze solid, once drinkable, they taste nasty.

I went to college to learn that!

The girlfriend and I have come up with a cooking game that keeps things a bit challenging. Whenever we go out to eat, alternate picking a dish to recreate at home. Doesn't have to be exact but give it the old college try.

French Cassoulet; lots of prep but worth the effort and feeds ya for a few days

Reverse seared two bone prime rib... Who knew this was the way steak was meant to be cooked?

I tend not to bake because it actually requires semi-acurate measuring and timing.

Tried a handful of great ones recently. - 5 spice roasted whole chicken - Masala leg of lamb - Paneer Butter Makhani - Chili thai shrimp

Overall winners and with exception of the lamb leg all quite quick.

moxnix wrote: For Panang Beef Curry I used this recipe. I ended up using their suggested substitute of basil leaves for the lime leaves. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/dinner-tonight-panang-beef-curry-recipe.html I'll have to think about something that is outside my comfort zone.

Interesting. The recipe I have uses crunchy peanut butter not roasted peanuts and I noticed no lime leaves. Hummmmm

most cooking is in my wheelhouse but i'm not a big red meat cook as i do not eat beef. however, i stopped at a farm and bought a buffalo flank steak because i wanted to try carne asada for tacos. marinated and cooked almost directly over hot oak coals in the fireplace because it was cold and rainy outside netted this:

it was incredible. i tend to overcook red meats due to being out of practice but it was straight medium rare. caramelized some onions with honey and soy sauce to go on top.

My comfort is cajun and southern, me girlfriend and i like to venture out and try new things, we have perfected (in our eyes) our three cup chicken which is a chinese dish, and as of lately we have been making random italian things, i like to wing it and it ends up a very tasty "rustic italian" pasta with alfredo (from scratch) and the basic herbs with chicken and sausage. We like to make everything we can from scratch as we find it turns out better that way

In my travels i come across people of different ethnicities and i like to learn their foods from them and make them myself, its my way of broadening my horizons. Next is the random russian E36 M3 ive learned and repressed in my memory only lately have i felt comfortable to retrieve those memories. Im not a fan of their cold soups but ive got a few other things id like to try

I'll cook just about anything if I can find a recipe, but I'm not always the best at improv. I managed to come up with a story that fits this thread yesterday, though.

My wife loves stuffed grape leaves. Saturday I was at Super H looking for some dumplings and spotted some leaves in a package marked "Fresh Grape". They're heart shaped, serated, and about the size of grape leaves, and I've never seen fresh grape leaves in a store so I bought a packet. I figured they'd be better than canned, right?

I didn't take a closer look at the leaves until I started making the filling. It was only then that I realized they weren't quite the shape of grape leaves... and definitely not the smell of grape leaves. They smelled almost like mint. Apparently they'd used the "Fresh Grape" bags for convenience. Well, I'd already mixed the filling, so I decided I might as well go ahead and make a pot full of Stuffed Korean Mystery Leafy Vegetable.

Much to my relief, Mrs. Mad Scientist's reaction was, "You knocked this one out of the park!" I did a bit of searching and the mystery vegetable seems to be perilla. I'll have to make that one again.