Gravy's Cooking Thread

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,709
3,211
You do know you're supposed to move that handle on the right side to move the bowl up, right?
Lol, sure do. I'm pretty sure we just have to calibrate it. Even with the handle up, it doesn't reach the bottom of the bowl. But you can calibrate it even further, and we never bothered to do that.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,709
3,211
Any of you ever make their own red(tomato) sauce? Made a little pasta over the weekend, and put some Prego sauce on it, and man it was just not good.

Maybe it's not worth it, and I just need to pick a different flavor of Prego/Ragu/Classico, whatever, but given how many tomatoes the wife keeps picking from the garden, I figure it might be time to whip up a batch.
 

Vitality

HUSTLE
5,808
30
Any of you ever make their own red(tomato) sauce? Made a little pasta over the weekend, and put some Prego sauce on it, and man it was just not good.

Maybe it's not worth it, and I just need to pick a different flavor of Prego/Ragu/Classico, whatever, but given how many tomatoes the wife keeps picking from the garden, I figure it might be time to whip up a batch.
Onions carrot celery and roasted tomatoes blended + herbs (fresh basil etc) maybe some garlic. Whipped up a marinara sauce for a grilled chicken parmesan dish I made for an event this weekend. (Because fuckin Wildstar Queues got me good, had to do something)
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
42,457
184,747
There are a million recipes out there for tomato sauce/pasta sauce. Look them up, find one that looks good to you, try it. Keep trying different ones until you find some that you love. Use nothing but fresh ingredients, and you'll be happy.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
16,466
7,492
I would NOT recommend attempting your first batch from fresh tomatoes. Removing tomato skins will kill any motivation to see the sauce through properly. Use crushed canned tomatoes.

Vitality's recipe is a good base. You can go with that or modify it. My wife does practically the same thing, but adds tomato paste, red wine, and a bit of sugar.
 

Vitality

HUSTLE
5,808
30
I would NOT recommend attempting your first batch from fresh tomatoes. Removing tomato skins will kill any motivation to see the sauce through properly. Use crushed canned tomatoes.

Vitality's recipe is a good base. You can go with that or modify it. My wife does practically the same thing, but adds tomato paste, red wine, and a bit of sugar.
Agreed, roasted tomatoes are a bit of a pain for skin removal. I usually roast them and then take a paper towel and gently rub the skin off. Kinda sorta works like doing charred peppers.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
42,457
184,747
I don't always remove the skins of myenemiestomatoes. This is true both for tomato sauce and soup. Roast them nicely in the oven, puree them with an immersion blender. I can make a nice tomato sauce for pasta from nothing but fresh ingredients in just a few minutes efforts (more time in reality, of course, because of cooking time, but not much effort).
 

Vitality

HUSTLE
5,808
30
About as basic as it gets:



Sub in fresh roasted (peeled) tomatoes + paste + white wine/vegetable stock and simmer. Instead of canned (will likely need to immersion blend/blend it if you don't want it chunky.
 

Gravy

Bronze Squire
4,918
454
I usually just use canned tomatoes for sauce, and tomato paste. Most jarred/canned sauces are way too high in sodium for me, so I make sauce often. I'd use fresh more often if what we could purchase was of a decent quality, but they usually are not.

We planted 8 tomato plants, but it will be a month at least before we have fruit.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
61,399
135,494
A quick word on liquid smoke. There is only one:

http://www.wrightsliquidsmoke.com/
no where near me to buy (if you use the where to buy button)

good ol amazon tho

Amazon.com: wright liquid smoke: Grocery Gourmet Food

tomato sauce:

is prego bad? i think it's pretty good, along with barilla.

I'm looking at it from a cost/time thing.

prego is usually 2.50, sometimes it's on sale for 1.75 a jar.

most home made tomato sauce recipes call for lots of tomatos and time. even canned tomatos cost more than a jar of prego. a 32oz can of whole peeled tomatos is usually 2 to 3bucks, you'll sometimes find it for .99

i'm just asking, how much better is like your own home made sauce compared with like prego.

cuz like ever since i tried to make pasta dough twice with my kitchenaid mixer and juicer, fuck it, i will stick with the dry kind.
 

Vitality

HUSTLE
5,808
30
I usually just use canned tomatoes for sauce, and tomato paste. Most jarred/canned sauces are way too high in sodium for me, so I make sauce often. I'd use fresh more often if what we could purchase was of a decent quality, but they usually are not.

We planted 8 tomato plants, but it will be a month at least before we have fruit.
Don't have any farmers markets you can make it to on the weekends? Heirlooms etc usually run at a decent value for the quality there. Atleast they do here in Seattle.

An hour east out at Maltby has fresh morning picked tomatoes (among other things) at a rate very competively priced. Worth the trip for sure considering we get Eggs and berries and herbs and stuff for the week.
 

Gravy

Bronze Squire
4,918
454
Don't have any farmers markets you can make it to on the weekends? Heirlooms etc usually run at a decent value for the quality there. Atleast they do here in Seattle.

An hour east out at Maltby has fresh morning picked tomatoes (among other things) at a rate very competively priced. Worth the trip for sure considering we get Eggs and berries and herbs and stuff for the week.
Hehe, yeah I have access. During season, though. All the farmer's markets here only allow produce grown within a 50 or 75 mile radius. So when they have tomatoes, I'll have tomatoes. They will obviously have them sooner than me, though, and I'm glad you said something, because it's time to start going.

In years we don't grow tomatoes, it's usually not a big deal though. We are in rural Missouri, and there are at least 4 farms within a three-mile drive that sell tomatoes roadside.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
42,457
184,747
Man, I dunno...sauce from fresh tomatoes comes off so much better in this house than when I use canned tomatoes. Yeah, my kids seem to taste the difference. Perhaps I'm raising the next generation food snobs.

So, for a fast, basic sauce, here's about what I do:

Dice tomatoes finely
chop basil finely
shred some onions
finely chop a few stocks celery
add other spices you want

Put it all in a pot. If you want it to be a bit lighter, add some milk. You can also add a bit of white wine, or a bit of red, depending on your flavour preference. Season.

Get that shit hot. Let it simmer. Add a bit of sugar. Cook it uncovered until you like the consistency.


If you want a bit more work:
quarter roma tomatoes, peel many cloves of garlic, put both under your broiler or on the grill until the skins have a nice char
put them in your sauce pan, add some white wine, some veg/chick stock, celery, and blend until the consistency you like.
Add basil, spices you want, season.

Very basic, not a lot of hands on work, but better than what you'll get out of a jar, in my opinion. Especially if you use your own, home grown tomatoes.

Damn. Now I want our plants to hurry up and grow some fruit, already.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
16,466
7,492
I don't think anyone is arguing the quality difference between canned and fresh. It's quality vs time, when even a sauce made from canned still needs to cook all day.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
42,457
184,747
1Zc9BPi.gif