What ingredients do you not know what to do with?

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Rangen

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I can't be the only one who has observed people getting excited about special versions of ingredients for dishes, but without a clue how to properly use them to make it all worth it. What are yours? Mine are:

Sun-dried tomato
Moroccan preserved lemons
Chinese preserved olive
 
simona said:
Like this black mushroom?
Mostly used for the texture as they do not have a lot of flavour. Blanch for 5 or so minutes, cool and slice thinly. They give a crunchy texture.

https://www.drakfrukt.se/produkt/to...xoA_o1YEswVtH-xH4-_phgZz4Hiy8dxsaApO3EALw_wcB
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There seem to be two kinds. That one, the one with the white on the back, I have not figured out how to use either. It's very tough. I assume that there's some way to mitigate that.

The other kind, that is thinner and black on both sides is essential for Yu Xiang Pork and many other dishes. It's a wonderful texture food.
 
dried lily bulb AKA 'toe nail clippings' just found them ...expiry date of 2016 and no I don't blame the asian supermarket for that ;-)

20230406_185955.jpg
 
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with the internet, I think I would try darn near anything. maybe Sweetbreads I would avoid and farm out to the pro's.


those lily Bulbs are delicious..and super bummer if your toenail clippings look like those. maybe see a foot doctor? lily bulbs and the dried flowers are great in steamed dishes. I have the flowers now in a jar because I use those most often.
 
Only thing I could never figure out how to cook was kidneys. I know plenty of people butcher and cook and eat them, did plenty of reading and watching, but could never get them to not smell like P and not make the kitchen smell like P.
 
You should water the kidneys in the fridge overnight. Some people use milk instead of water. Pork, lamb, and veal kidneys are milder than beef kidneys, which are a bit too strong for many people. At any rate, soaking them removes the off odours. Trim out the white centre part, and get rid of any blood vessels that might still be attached.

There are plenty of ways to prepare them. For example, breaded and fried, or make heart and kidney stew, or a lamb’s fry, or a beef and kidney pie.
 
Preserved lemons

Gently sauté a little garlic and red pepper flakes in oil, add some kale and a splash of water. Salt as you go. Let it reduce in volume, maybe three minutes. Add some spinach and give that another three. Finely dice the rind only of a quarter of a preserved lemon and toss it in for the last 30 seconds just before you serve it up. You’re going for just cooked greens with texture here, not mushy spinach

Ps- preserved lemons are way better home made than store bought. Serious eats has an exhaustive article about a two minute technique to make them. Author got paid by the word!
 
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Michi said:
You should water the kidneys in the fridge overnight. Some people use milk instead of water. Pork, lamb, and veal kidneys are milder than beef kidneys, which are a bit too strong for many people. At any rate, soaking them removes the off odours. Trim out the white centre part, and get rid of any blood vessels that might still be attached.

There are plenty of ways to prepare them. For example, breaded and fried, or make heart and kidney stew, or a lamb’s fry, or a beef and kidney pie.
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Sautee the lightly floured lambs kidneys, which have been sitting in milk, remove from pan, add fine chopped shallots, de-glaze with cognac, add double cream and whole grain Dijon, season, return kidneys, coat, serve on toasted brioche. Breakfast nr.1 ;)
 
Borealhiker said:
Lol…Black garlic.🤫 Saw and bought some without a clue of what I could do with it. But alls it takes now is a quick online search and 👍
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My local robatayaki does an amazing garlic fried rice involving layers of fried garlic, soft cooked garlic, and black garlic. (front)
05F5EFC3-9C66-4840-9130-9B2C9CB239BD.jpeg

(rear: dried shrimp fried rice)
 
I tried black garlic a few times, maybe four or five years ago. I can't say I was impressed then. It was really expensive and I bought it because I was curious. What I got was deeply black and very soft garlic cloves that had almost no taste at all and were very bland, no garlic taste that I could notice. There was a decent amount of umami, but that was about it.

I haven't tried using black garlic again since. Are there dishes where it actually makes a noticeable impact? From my one foray into black garlic, it seems like a very expensive ingredient that tastes almost like nothing.
 
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IME black garlic adds umami but not the garlick breath, and that is pretty much it. I sometimes use the stuff to give sauces some oompf
Not worth what it usually commands but I recently found fermented black single clove garlic in a jar at an Asian foodstore for very little money.
 
boomchakabowwow said:
with the internet, I think I would try darn near anything. maybe Sweetbreads I would avoid and farm out to the pro's.


those lily Bulbs are delicious..and super bummer if your toenail clippings look like those. maybe see a foot doctor? lily bulbs and the dried flowers are great in steamed dishes. I have the flowers now in a jar because I use those most often.
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I'll give them a try...
 
MarcelNL said:
IME black garlic adds umami but not the garlick breath, and that is pretty much it. I sometimes use the stuff to give sauces some oompf
Not worth what it usually commands but I recently found fermented black single clove garlic in a jar at an Asian foodstore for very little money.
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If it were cheaper, I'd use it as an umami source, no hesitation. Just not at the price I have to pay for it here. There are other options to get umami, such as Vegemite, Maggi seasoning, fish sauce, kelp, bonito flakes, or shiitake, all much cheaper.
 
Michi said:
If it were cheaper, I'd use it as an umami source, no hesitation. Just not at the price I have to pay for it here. There are other options to get umami, such as Vegemite, Maggi seasoning, fish sauce, kelp, bonito flakes, or shiitake, all much cheaper.
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Just make it yourself, then black garlic and fresh garlic are the same price!
 
deltaplex said:
Just make it yourself, then black garlic and fresh garlic are the same price!
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I did look up how to make it. I don't have a slow cooker, and I'm not going to have my rice cooker occupied by garlic for several weeks. If the black garlic were amazing, I wouldn't hesitate to go out and get a slow cooker just so I can make it. But, at the moment, I still don't see the compelling advantage black garlic would have over other sources of umami.
 
I paid something like 3 euro for 100g, making use a lot more interesting than the 3-5 euro per bulb I usually see at Hanos
 
MarcelNL said:
I paid something like 3 euro for 100g, making use a lot more interesting than the 3-5 euro per bulb I usually see at Hanos
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At that price, I'd buy it, too. Last time I saw black garlic here, it was around 7 or 8 dollars per bulb. Come to think of it, I haven't seen it in quite some time, maybe two or three years. It might just be one of these things that are like a one-night stand and fall out of fashion.

For a while, smoked garlic was all the rage here, at similarly outrageous prices. Smoked garlic is nice, the smell is wonderful. But, once worked into a dish, it's exactly like normal garlic because all the smoke flavour is on the skins. I still do use smoked garlic every now and then, and I can make that easily myself. When I cold-smoke something (usually salmon), I throw in a bulb of garlic or two if I happen to remember, along with a block or two of cheese.
 
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yeah I recall buying a whole string of smoked garlic, to find out the taste is the same....turns out the smoking used to be done to preserve it better, but even that does not work well as the cloves still started to preduce shoots.
 
Michi said:
If it were cheaper, I'd use it as an umami source, no hesitation. Just not at the price I have to pay for it here. There are other options to get umami, such as Vegemite, Maggi seasoning, fish sauce, kelp, bonito flakes, or shiitake, all much cheaper.
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Marcel too… as usual you have some good takes on ingredients/foods. I found a small pack of individual cloves. Don’t remember what I paid but I don’t think it was too much or I would’ve passed. Haven’t even opened it yet which also might say something about the usefulness of it regardless of price. And if it is an umami ingredient ,well yeah, there are way more options already in the kitchen. I do love dried shrimp🤷‍♂️ so I’ll give it a go in Mengwong’s dried shrimp fried rice. Black garlic week coming up🧄
 
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