Cooking disasters

epicuric

epicuric

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A thread about when things go wrong in the kitchen, For starters, there was this vegetarian curry last week:
IMG_0927a.jpg

It had a promising list of ingredients - parsnips, cauliflower, fresh ginger - a bit of a korma type curry. All went well until I decided it looked a bit bland and would probably benefit from some turmeric. Bad idea, totally ruined the taste. I guess I overdid it.
 
epicuric said:
A thread about when things go wrong in the kitchen, For starters, there was this vegetarian curry last week:
View attachment 20917
It had a promising list of ingredients - parsnips, cauliflower, fresh ginger - a bit of a korma type curry. All went well until I decided it looked a bit bland and would probably benefit from some turmeric. Bad idea, totally ruined the taste. I guess I overdid it.
Click to expand...

It looks like scrambled eggs!

I had a disaster yesterday. I made a layered bake of thinly sliced potatoes, aubergines, tomato sauce and mozzarella. I par boiled the potato slices for a 5 minutes (they were wafer thin) and pre-cooked the aubergine. I then layered it all up and baked for 45 mins at 180 C. The potatoes were still al dente so baked another half an hour. Still al dente. Another half an hour - by which time dinner was decidedly late. The potatoes were still undercooked. So that was 1 hr 45 mins cooking in a hot oven in total. I had to serve it as it was and of course by this time the cheese had gone all 'rubbery'.

I am not sure what went wrong. I know that if you try to cook carrots in tomato sauce from raw they will never cook through properly but I didn't think this applied to potatoes. I'm still puzzled. If anyone can advise....
 
morning glory said:
It looks like scrambled eggs!

I had a disaster yesterday. I made a layered bake of thinly sliced potatoes, aubergines, tomato sauce and mozzarella. I par boiled the potato slices for a 5 minutes (they were wafer thin) and pre-cooked the aubergine. I then layered it all up and baked for 45 mins at 180 C. The potatoes were still al dente so baked another half an hour. Still al dente. Another half an hour - by which time dinner was decidedly late. The potatoes were still undercooked. So that was 1 hr 45 mins cooking in a hot oven in total. I had to serve it as it was and of course by this time the cheese had gone all 'rubbery'.

I am not sure what went wrong. I know that if you try to cook carrots in tomato sauce from raw they will never cook through properly but I didn't think this applied to potatoes. I'm still puzzled. If anyone can advise....
Click to expand...

Did you cover at first?

I discovered that hard way that you can't put Pyrex from the oven onto a hot burner.:headshake::eek:
 
I remeber the first time I made boiled corned beef, cabbage and redskin potatoes. I had just moved into my first apartment in college and decided I needed to learn how to cook. CB and cabbage seemed like an easy thing to try; just boil everything together in one pot.

After a few hours, I called my mom to see what I was doing wrong. The meat had shrunk to nothing and had become stringy, the potatoes had disintegrated into the water, but the cabbage was still not cooked through. My mother laughed and realized that I had put in a whole, giant head of cabbage into the pot with the other stuff. She told me to quarter the cabbage next time.

No wonder it took so long to cook while everything else wasted away.
 
Bread is my Achilles, last 3 times were a disaster , previously I've made it in a bread maker where we had a holiday. Perfect. But I can't make it like a bread maker.

Russ
 
morning glory said:
It looks like scrambled eggs!

I had a disaster yesterday. I made a layered bake of thinly sliced potatoes, aubergines, tomato sauce and mozzarella. I par boiled the potato slices for a 5 minutes (they were wafer thin) and pre-cooked the aubergine. I then layered it all up and baked for 45 mins at 180 C. The potatoes were still al dente so baked another half an hour. Still al dente. Another half an hour - by which time dinner was decidedly late. The potatoes were still undercooked. So that was 1 hr 45 mins cooking in a hot oven in total. I had to serve it as it was and of course by this time the cheese had gone all 'rubbery'.

I am not sure what went wrong. I know that if you try to cook carrots in tomato sauce from raw they will never cook through properly but I didn't think this applied to potatoes. I'm still puzzled. If anyone can advise....
Click to expand...
Not sure if this helps, but when I make any sort of veg bake I always roast the veg first, before adding in the sauce.
 
Not exactly a disaster as it tastes good but i always overcook the potatos for potato salad...i end up with mashed potato salad...i know what i am doing wrong but do it wrong everytime.
 
Cooking disasters for me almost always happen when I am supposed to have friends over for dinner! Probably because I always cook dishes I haven't tried preparing before and try to go over the top and 'improve' them on the spot, so I end up messing them up. Last time it was coconut curry. Thankfully there's a fabulous Italian restaurant downstairs.
 
oddduck said:
Not exactly a disaster as it tastes good but i always overcook the potatos for potato salad...i end up with mashed potato salad...i know what i am doing wrong but do it wrong everytime.
Click to expand...
Maybe a different variety of potato would solve the problem- a waxy one that is less likely to mush up?
 
Mom always used idaho potatoes so thats what i use...the taste is right...my sis says to take them off before you think they are done but that just leaves me with potatoes that aren't done. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that mom cooked a giant pot of potatoes and i am making just enough for a few meals for one.
 
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