

Ask HN: How many hackers (or even tech enthusiasts here) love to cook? - mdink

The Barefoot Contessa was making some awesome chicken dish while I was eating lunch in our break room and it made me really want to save a little more time for trying to cook better. I think I have mastered all thinks crockpot - it is time to step up the game! ;)<p>If you do like to cook, what do you cook?
======
eengstrom
Warning: I can write about cooking all day long. I can cook for ever longer.

Cooking is my form of artistic expression and a perfect outlet for nearly
every aspect of my personality and work experience combined.

I've been cooking seriously for years, even going so far as to have trained
formally in commercial kitchens from commis to chef as a form of vacations
from the IT world. Adding to that over 15 years of constant travel; I've eaten
just about everything and everywhere in thousands of restaurants and food
stalls. I have incredibly high standards and test myself against them
constantly.

It keeps me grounded in all things I do and gives me a way to directly please
others and gratify my own need to test for success or failure. (Try cooking
for a nationally renown chef and his girlfriend in your home several times. No
excuses and the pressure is intense, no matter how gracious the guest.)

 _Order, discipline, attention and eye for detail, intuition, physical
sciences and chemistry, good taste, a rock solid internal clock_ and ability
to spin dozens of plates with one hand - all of these skills help in many ways
outside the kitchen.

My favorites foods are too many to list, but I'm a big fan of making house
pate and terrine. Duck and rabbit rillettes. You work with me, you'll need to
watch your waist line. I'm hoping to have a full-scale commercial kitchen in
our next office location and I intend to use it daily.

How many bosses do you know want to run their own brasserie style cafeteria? I
may be totally nuts, but I have confidence I can get the job done in the
kitchen.

------
silentbicycle
I love to cook. Focusing on chopping carrots, caramelizing onions, stirring
and tasting, etc. is a good antidote to hours spent worrying about
abstractions of abstractions.

I'm also drawn to "project" cooking, stuff that involves aging and/or
fermentation. Making cheese, various kinds of pickles, growing tempeh and
yogurt, sourdough, etc. I also homebrew (beer and mead). If you like being a
mad scientist in the kitchen, _Wild Fermentation_
(<http://www.wildfermentation.com/>) has a lot of recipes and techniques.

~~~
bmelton
I love to cook, and I love cheese, but I just assume that I would need real
milk (e.g., not 4% jug milk) to make a good cheese.

I'm working my way through Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", but I keep
getting drawn back to the very early chapters on cheese and dairy, even though
it isn't particularly specific.

Any tips?

~~~
silentbicycle
I've used farmer's market milk but not raw unpasteurized etc. milk. It's not a
big issue for me, though I'm completely disinterested in milk on its own. Most
cheese is probably made with relatively unremarkable milk, though.

For cheese-making, I recommend starting with paneer / farmer's cheese, rather
than aged cheeses. Gradually heat milk in a big pot, stir in a curdling agent
(such as lemon juice), let it separate, then wrap the curds in cheesecloth and
let them drip, maybe press them after. Real directions will be more specific
(the book I linked has a great intro!), but that's the gist. Paneer is great
fried with spinach and/or scrambled eggs. Also, try making bread with the
whey.

Homemade yogurt is also good, particularly if you strain it a bit to thicken
it ("labneh", among many other names). Buttermilk is even easier, since it's
less finicky about being kept warm, and it's fantastic for baking - soda bread
with lots of rolled oats, pancakes, etc. Having a lot of large jars helps;
I've accumulated a bunch of half-gallon (~2L) jars from honey used for
meadmaking. They're incredibly versatile.

I really like _On Food and Cooking_ as a reference, though it doesn't inspire
me the way _Wild Fermentation_ does. I also wholeheartedly recommend John
Thorne's books, particularly _Pot on the Fire_ and _Outlaw Cook_. The
newsletter is good, too, if a bit sporadic these days.

------
HeyLaughingBoy
Anything. I enjoy baking more than cooking meals, but I happily do both.

Simple delicious dish: carnitas. Use cheap pork shoulder (incidentally, the
cheaper the cut of pork, the tastier!). Cut into 1" cubes and drop into a pot
and add enough water to cover. Squeeze half a lime and add some salt to taste.
Bring to boil and skim off the yucky stuff floating on top. Partly cover and
reduce to SLOW simmer and let all water boil off. You are causing most of the
fat to render out of the meat. It should cook for at least an hour. When
water's all gone and pork is starting to fry in it's own fat, add chilies,
garlic, onion and maybe more lime juice. The meat will be falling-apart tender
by this time and now crispy outside since it's been frying.

Eat as is, or add a cup of rice and let the rice partly fry in the oil, then
add 2 cups water or veggie broth, achiote (cooked, crushed annato seeds), more
onions and peas & carrots and cook until rice is done. Enjoy.

Delicioso one-pot meal! Much easier to do than to read about it. Should not
take more than 5 minutes preparation time.

Aside: in my single days, I quickly learned that one of the easiest ways to
impress women was to cook for them. Following JWZ's philosophy of doing what
gets you laid...

------
iuguy
I love cooking, and my approach to cooking is pretty much identical to
hacking. I disassemble the components, test different measurements and
combinations, and use recipes as a beach head into new forms of cuisine.

On Saturday I did a slow-roasted lamb shoulder with roasted dates, a garlic
and white wine sauce and lemon and mint couscous on the side. At the moment
I'm massively into slow cooking and fusion, particularly sweet and spices. I
do a traditional lamb shank in a red wine sauce with various veg, but also
Moroccan spices, apricots and figs, roasted for between 12 and 18 hours. Has
to be experienced to be understood. If anyone wants recipes I'm happy to post
them.

My one word of advice to any hacker that wants incredible meat dishes, get a
crock pot. You can use the cheapest, roughest cuts of meat and with very
little effort get incredible results.

~~~
petervandijck
Yes recipes please :)

~~~
iuguy
Ok, here's my moroccan lamb shank:

You will need:

* 4 lamb shanks (you can use about 1.5lb - 3lb leg or shoulder instead, but it's not a shank then)

* 2tsp cumin seeds

* Just over 1inch of fresh ginger, chopped

* 4 garlic cloves, chopped

* 1tsp salt

* 2 tbsp olive oil

* 2 large red onions, cut into wedges

* 1 and 1/2 tbsp Harissa Paste

* Small can of chopped tomatoes

* 1 pint (about 568-600ml chicken stock, hot - use beef stock if you haven't any chicken)

* 1 cinnamon stick

* 4oz halved dried ready-to-eat apricots

* 4oz halved dried figs

* A reasonable sized crock pot

Protip: if you have a very large crockpot you can add a couple of potatoes cut
into larger wedges, the odd carrot or half a swede will work but don't put too
much in or you're overpower the flavour. Note, by swede I mean vegetable, not
someone from Sweden.

I've put the measures in US imperial as the majority of the site have it - I
cook metrically, but roughly so you'll be fine with these or converting back
to metric.

Bash the cumin and coriander in a pestle and mortar for a while, then add the
ginger and salt and keep bashing till you have a nice paste. It doesn't need
to be perfect - a rough paste is fine, but it needs to be fairly mashed and
mixed up.

Heat some oil in a pan (I use sunflower or olive) and brown the shank off in
the pan - this is purely for aesthetic purposes, you don't have to do this but
your lamb might look a bit grey otherwise. If you do this, just brown it for a
minute or two and put it in the pot.

Add your onions to the pot, along with the spice paste (you might want to rub
it onto the lamb, maybe not), harissa (I generally smear this over the lamb
but it doesn't affect the taste much), tomatoes, cinammon stick and stock.

Put the crockpot on low for 8 hours or high for 4. I cannot stress this enough
- your meat will be so much better the longer you cook it. My record is 16
hours for lamb, you'll reach the point where the shank just falls apart and
the meat falls off the bone around the 7 hour mark on low. Cooking it on high
is fine, but it affects the meat more and more importantly sends the stock
over boiling point. You won't lose too much but you will lose some. If you put
it on low it really doesn't matter how long you cook it for, it simply will
not burn, so feel free to put this on the night before if you really want to,
all you'll do is get even more tenderness from the meat.

Ok, now between an hour to half an hour beforehand (closer to an hour) add the
apricots and figs, make sure they're in the sauce and put up on high if the
lid's off for a while or you only have half an hour, low if you barely took
the lid off and you have an hour.

About 15 minutes beforehand, it's time to make the accompanying lemon and mint
couscous if you want. Get a bowl and add some couscous (bear in mind that it
will swell to between two and three times it's size). Bulgur wheat or quinoa
are fine as alternatives (and may be cheaper depending on where you are).

Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the couscous along with the juice of half to
a whole mid-sized lemon (depending on how much you like lemon). Add a cup of
chicken stock, roughly enough to cover the couscous along with some salt and
pepper, cover the bowl and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. If you run out of
water add some more. It's ok to stir it up as well. After 10 minutes drain off
the excess couscous, add 3 tablespoons of freshly chopped mint (you can use
parsley instead if you want) and optionally add another two teaspoons of
coriander and mix it in with a fork. Using the fork is important as this
'fluffs up the couscous. Bring the couscous to the table with a nice big spoon
as the smell of the lamb will be driving anyone else at home wild, then serve
the lamb individually, with enough sauce, figs and apricots to get the
balance.

The thing I really love about the recipe is how the spicy heat from the
harissa complements the sweetness of the apricots and figs. The lamb acts as a
neutral balancer, but the texture is just incredible. It's an amazing modern
and exotic take on a great classical dish. Please do try it if you have a slow
cooker.

Protips for the not yet ramen profitable: Looking to do this on the cheap?
Then bear these tips in mind.

1\. Shanks are normally quite cheap, but you can get away with the cheapest
possible cuts of lamb you can find. You can also use beef if that works for
you. This dish was designed for low quality cuts - the key thing is giving it
enough time. If you cook it for 12 hours on low and use a shank I pretty much
guarantee that when you lift it up out of the crockpot by the bone the meat
_will_ fall off and back in. It's that tender.

2\. Don't be afraid to use apricots or figs near their sell by date. If it's
cheaper to get fresh or on the turn, just dry them out in the sun for about 6
hours beforehand. Apricots get squishy before going off, figs get sweaty.
They're still good for this dish.

3\. You can keep the dish in the cooker and reheat it the next day - you
should get about 3-4 days worth of shank on your own. To reheat just give
yourself an hour or two, alternatively top up the harissa, add another
cinnamon stick, put it on low in the morning before work and come home to an
even better tasting lamb shank in the evening. You can also pad it out with
vegetables like potatoes cut into large chunks on days two and three. You can
also top the sauce up with a little red wine if you want on days 2 and 3, but
don't overdo it and chicken stop is cheaper.

4\. If you're going to make this dish for someone you're having over for
dinner (such as a significant other) then it's probably best to make the dish
beforehand once. It is really really easy though, very hard to get wrong
(given that you have about 8 hours to fix anything that pops up) and is pretty
much a one pot recipe so there's less washing up. This is definitely a hacker
and newb-cook friendly dish.

5\. Most importantly if an ingredient costs a load then ditch it. Use dates
instead of figs if they're cheaper, just use less of them because they're
sweeter. Use the cheapest onions you can find, use dried herbs instead of
fresh if you don't grow your own etc. - chilli paste will taste slightly
different compared to harissa paste but if it's cheaper and cash is tight then
go for it.

I hope you enjoy that recipe, if you don't mind this took a while, I'll do my
roast lamb with slow-roasted dates in white wine and garlic.

------
anujkk
I like cooking but only once or twice in a month. I'm passionate about it but
not enough to do it daily. My work and other interests don't let me cook that
often. When my taste buds scream for something custom made to my taste I cook
my own food.

I cook Indian dishes such as Dal, Rice, Vegetable Curry, Egg Curry, Chicken
Curry, Chapati, Pulao, Biryani etc.

Sometimes I like cooking chinese dishes such as noodles.

------
jkkramer
Cooking has become a pretty important part of my life. It's a great change of
pace from sitting in front of the computer. Acquiring a very sharp knife
helped me enjoy it even more.

Here's what I've cooked recently, plus other recipes I've saved:

<http://yumtab.com/sarah-justin>

(I actually created YumTab specifically to keep track of this stuff.)

------
freshrap6
I love to cook. It's relaxing and therapeutic. For me it's a great creative
outlet. I don't have a favorite dish, but I like to cook with chicken, because
I can make about 100 different things with it. It's also helped my
photography. I started taking photos of everything I cook and putting them on
my wall as a personal menu. It's cool to look at and helps me progress by
improving on old recipes.

------
callmetwan
I'm not sure if I like cooking, or if I just like eating, but the former
results in the latter and definitely enjoy that!

I like to cook just about anything. My taste prefernece has always been more
to Latino style foods, so I tend to cook a lot fresh vegetables and such. I've
really only started to enjoy cooking (used to hate it actually), so I'm still
learning a lot.

------
yock
I love cooking. My favorite dish is braised pork tenderloin. Soak it in a
brine with citrus and herbs overnight, sear it in a stainless steel pan on all
sides, then put it in the oven (pan and all) to finish it out. Serve with
green vegetables, mashed potatoes, and a glass of beaujolais nouveau.

------
keiferski
<http://www.cookingforengineers.com/>

------
acconrad
LOVE IT. It's what keeps my relationship with my woman strong. Life is too
short to not enjoy tasty, healthy food.

I cook whatever satisfies my palate, which primarily revolves around meat and
veggies. But how can you pass on a good cheesecake or burger recipe?

------
JonathanWCurd
I love cooking. I find it relaxing. It also has the added benefit of eating
healthier.

------
swanson
You should check out: Cooking for Geeks -
<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805890>

I got a copy the other day and it is a fun read so far.

------
tjpick
Yes. Here's my own leek recipe:

[http://www.pathelectronica.com/journal/public/2010/05/02/dea...](http://www.pathelectronica.com/journal/public/2010/05/02/dead_sexy_leeks)

------
templaedhel
I love cooking. In fact, my most recent app, <http://7courses.com> was created
to solve my problem of having far to recipes to manage.

~~~
JonathanWCurd
I am going to try this out. Looks easy and just what I need to store my
favorites.

------
petervandijck
I have this one recipe for Indian chicken that is incredible. No spice mixes,
all pure spices, chicken, slow cooking, homemade masala. We make it a few
times a month.

------
shadowpwner
Leave me in a house without internet and I promise I'll either burn down the
house or make delicious food with recipes invented on the spot.

------
yock
Oh, and don't miss Seasoned Advice! <http://cooking.stackexchange.com/>

------
henryfarbles
I don't cook much, but I love to eat.

------
bmelton
To answer the question a bit -- I love to cook, and have for awhile, though it
isn't always easy finding the time for it.

Watching the common cooking shows are good, but stay away from shows like Top
Chef (at least while you're learning) as they are well advanced, and you're
not going to learn much.

On the flip side, Jamie Oliver used to have a brilliant show wherein he
focused on simple recipes that were easy to put together and tasted amazingly.

One of the shows I've been watching recently is "Worst Cooks in America"
which, while the show itself sucks, actually goes through and shows some
practical cooking basics.

I loosely copied a pork paillard recipe with a sundried-tomato herb butter,
and it was phenomenal. I tend to eat well when I eat out, and have eaten at
some very nice establishments, and can honestly say that I've never had a
better piece of pork anywhere.

Of course, the real learning is in actually cooking. Watching shows and
reading books (I recommend Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking", or Alton
Brown's books) might teach you the theory of cooking, but actually DOING is
still the best way to learn.

I have a friend of mine who had literally never cooked a meal in his life that
didn't come from a box or can, and he was talking about making something nice
for his fiancee for Valentine's Day. I gave him a foolproof recipe for filet
mignon, honey glazed carrots and asparagus, and now he's begging me for more
recipes to wow her with.

Simply put, it's a great hobby and, if you have kids, a great way to get them
involved and have some easy family time.

~~~
silentbicycle
I've been underwhelmed with most of Alton Brown's books, though his book on
equipment (_Gear for your Kitchen_) is pretty good.

Maybe I'm an overly intuitive cook, but I feel recipes are just snapshots* ,
and once you have a feel for the rough proportions + know how your ingredients
behave, largely unnecessary. A good recipe won't always work (maybe it's
really humid, the eggs are unusually small, etc.), and IMHO cooking is about
sensing and adjusting.

* Outside of baking or a few other niches, which depend on carefully executed chemical reactions etc.

