What are the most favorite epic recipes in your rotation?

Haha, I’m so grateful I started crying! Thank you, I will treasure this.

  • My version of chili that has chorizo and chocolate in it
  • Hanoi fish with lots of dill (cha cha Hanoi)

that’s two

Don’t cry until you’ve tried it.

Haha, I’m sure it’s delicious, it looks great. I’m just overwhelmed by the kindness, that you would share your treasured recipes with me.

Well - it’s not like this is something my family developed over centuries, and you’re the first to see it :smiley:

Plus, this being a food site & all… you get the picture. It is mighty tasty, for sure.

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Not sure if they’re epic. However two favourites are:

crab linguine with roast tomatoes. Recipe here. (Post 29)

Also red lentil and spinach daal. Link below. (1st reply)

I don’t know if they are “epic” but Julia Child onion soup and boeuf bourguignon were fascinating projects on their own:

I made my own vegetable stock for the onion soup and used “Gruyère de grotte” (Cave Gruyère in english?)

Ingredients (makes approx 3 litres)
 1 pound onions, keep the skin
 1 pound leeks
 1 pound carrots
 ½ pound fennel (the bulb)
 ½ pound mushrooms (white or Portobello without the gills)
 4 tablespoon tomato paste
 24 cups water
 2 bunches of parsley
 2 bunches of thyme
 2 bay leaves
 Salt
 Whole spices (To taste I used star anise, mustard seed, allspice, coriander seeds, 1 cinnamon stick, whole pepper, cloves)
 Stockpot
 Cheese Cloth
 Strainer
 Wooden spoon or potato masher

Method
 Chop all the vegetables roughly and put them in the stockpot
 Cover with water
 Put your herbs and spices in
 Bring the water to 180F (less important in case of vegetables because there is no animal fat to emulsify)
 Simmer for 1 to 2 hours (2 is better for me)
 Strain the result and press on the vegetables to get all the flavor out
 Salt to taste (it will need a lot of salt)

Other interesting challenges were (some videos are not in english, I could translate from french in needed. I can’t understand portuguese but I could get the gist of it from the video)

Paris Brest (be carefull, it takes 31/2 american eggs to get the result they have from 4 french eggs)

St-Honoré cake
The video I used got taken down but that one looks ok?

Flemish Carbonnade

Pasteis de nata

Beef wellington
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uXIPhxL5XA

Rhum baba

Gâteau marjolaine
http://captmtl.tumblr.com/post/134682945446/le-gâteau-marjolaine-de-fernand-point-pyramide

Coq au vin

Bolognaise sauce:

Key lime pie (easy easy recipe!)

You take your egg whites and make italian meringue to go for the key lime pie!

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1/2 cup water

  • 4 egg whites

  • 1/2 teaspoon tartar cream or the juice of 1 lemon

  • Put water and sugar in your saucepan

  • Heat it up until it boils, get it to approx 240F (big bubbles)

  • Start the egg whites with the tartar cream in a mixer, get it to soft peak (shaving cream stage)

  • Add the boiling sugar drip by drip while still mixing

  • Put the meringue on the pie

  • Burn it with a torch or under an oven at broil (careful with the oven, it burns fast, I prefer a torch)

See Gordon Ramsay

Kouaig Amann

The recipe I’ve tried:

The one I want to try, if I had the balls one day:

1 Like

Hanoi fish with dill looks awesome! I’ve never had it, but am crazy for dill. Thank you for the recommendation–is there a particular source for that recipe you recommend?

The chili sounds very interesting, too–I personally would skip it because of a chocolate allergy, but if you are in the mood to share it, please do!

Awesome! I’m sure they are great, and I really appreciate you sharing! I will be trying both!

The dal reminds me of a favorite of mine:

http://tasteoftanzania.com/blog/swahili-beans-maharage-ya-nazi/

My taste buds say these beans are EPIC! I always like to add a little extra of ginger, tomato, and cilantro.

Wow, thank you so very much for taking the time to do this. These all do look epic, like, just, I want to eat every bite of them all! I’ll definitely be adding these to the list…

Caneles are definitely on my list of epic desserts, though I’ve never attempted them myself. Looks like you might be a fan, too, based on your recommendations.

Hazan’s bolognese is in our rotation already, good choice. :wink:

“Might tasty” is an understatement :slight_smile:

“Will Owen’s pork shoulder roast (as adapted from the LA Times.”

I can’t count how many times I’ve made it and generally once some one eats it they want the recipe and then THEIR friends want the recipe :slight_smile:

The beef bourguignon, onion soup and coq au vin are a bit long but not that hard.

The stock is pretty easy, its just a question of finding a recipe you enjoy because it makes a lot.

Beef wellington is pretty easy if you buy the flaky pastry and use a thermometer for the meat. At first I made my flaky pastry by hand but now I just buy one or two sheets of it at my baker.

Paris brest and st-honoré’s most difficult thing is the choux pastry. The recipe in the paris brest video is now my standard whenever I need to use choux pastry. The only thing you need to remember is that not all eggs size are the same.

Rhum baba is pretty easy.

Gâteau marjolaine is very involved and long. There are a lot of elements to do separately. The buttercream can be a challenge if you are new to it.

Flemish carbonnade is similar to boeuf bourguignon but with beer. It didn’t come out like I wanted and its on my list to do again because I believe I know what I did wrong.

Pasteis de nata is probably the toughest pastry to try with the kouaig amann. I’m still working on it.

Key lime pie is the easiest dessert you’ll make. I’m almost ashamed on how easy it is. Turns our fantastic.

Kouaig amann is hard because you have to work the butter pretty fast. I guess its difficulty level is similar to the flaky pastry and I still have to do some practice to get there. David Lebovitz’s recipe is pretty safe and forgiving, making you use the fridge between layers to make sure you don’t mess up but something tells me the true bakers makes it like the second video.

I forgot another recipe I have in my sleeve. I love this shahi paneer:

I also like manjula’s kitchen. Its interesting to me to see someone cook in a regular kitchen:

Wow, this is perfect! It looks delicious and like something I could tackle this coming week. Thank you so much!

If you can think of anything else you’d like to share, please do!

Great, thanks for the more in-depth review. I’ve definitely wanted to try many of the things listed, this is the push I needed. The names make them sound intimidating!

Thanks for the tip on eggs, I knew there were different sizes here but didn’t realize how it could vary between countries.

Just curious, what went wrong with the Flemish carbonnade?

The Shahi paneer looks great, and reminds me of a Persian chicken recipe I really enjoy, Fesenjan. It’s basically walnuts, pomegranate molasses, and chicken. The combination is so easy and so addictively good.

The chef used a bigger dutch oven than me. My beef got a bit too crowded and lost a lot of moisture while it was browning. I tried to make it in a couple batches but it didn’t brown as well as I wanted it to. It also took a solid 3 hours plus to get it where I wanted.

I’ve looked around and will make the following adjustment for my recipe:

  • I won’t marinade the meat. I’ll just use room temperature stewing beef cubes.
  • I’ll make it in my dutch oven but ill do less at a time or will do in batches
  • I will keep the step where they introduce the onion and the flour after the beef
  • I will try another recipe for my spiced bread (the one I did wasn’t satisfying, I’ll go back to David Lebovitz with this recipe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/pain-depices/)
  • I will introduce the mustard spiced bread at the same time
  • I will eyeball the beer to make sure the beef is covered “à fleur” (just barely)
  • I’ll keep the seasonings but will add them after the beer (bay leaf, thyme, genever berries, salt, pepper)
  • I will give myself at least 3 hours covered (I could even borrow julia child’s technique for boeuf bourguignon and finish it in a 325 oven for 3 hours!

Got it, the beef didn’t brown as well in the smaller Dutch oven. As for everything else, I like your style! You are quite the perfectionist, quite methodical in thinking through the execution of the Flemish carbonnade. I will double check your notes before making it. Thanks for the tips, they are much appreciated.

http://theculinarychronicles.com/2011/05/09/cha-ca-thang-long-vietnamese-style-fish-with-turmeric-dill/ as much dill as you want

Looks so good, thank you! It’s on the list for next week!

Wow @catholiver, you’ve started or commented on over 6,000 threads on chowhound, I am impressed. Haha, you’re like a celebrity to me! You are one of the ones I’m talking about!