Favorite cooking method?

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Yeah, what are your favs & why?

Braising - yeah man, low n' slow moist cooking crushes tough cuts of beast and I love it- especially around now when it gets cold and snowy and those early nights. Braising seals the deal for me.

Grilling - Hot n fast med-high indirect dry heat though the summer makes so much great food without heating up your casita - from the ubiquitous sausages, dogs n burgers to chicken, steaks, chops, even pizza, calzones and other traditional hearth oven foods. Nothing better than a nice strip steak or fat local bone-in pork chop caramlized to medium rare perfection on some grill grates both finished with a dollop of melty herb compound butter.

Stewing - Simply put, I can make dinner and then make tomorrows dinner at the same time in the form of a stew or soup or chowdah and then let it simmer away to perfection that evening (2-2.5hrs or so). Stewing and braising are great multi-tasker cooking methods (cooking multiple days meals at one time). Best part of right now as it's cold (at or below freezing) at night, I can take it right off the fire, sit it outside in its dutch oven or crockpot, or pressur cooker sleeve on the back deck table and the sub 35-32F evening outdoor temps crash that internal cooking temp of 250-350F to 50Fs with in an hour or so which is fantastic as it minimizes bacterial growth to a minimum and keeps from heating up all the other foods one may have in the fridge or freezer as the refer unit struggles feverishly to cool itself back down.

Frying - because Fried chicken and Im a southern boy at heart.
 
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adamgracrrgv

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I generally like to cook every day. I mean, I cook a new dish every day. For example, I can prepare an omelette for breakfast the next day, as well as for lunch and dinner. although I used to cook for several days, which I did in my spare time, but I realized that I love to cook and therefore cook something new every day.
 

Kai Robinson

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I have a few staples I cook on rotation - today was one of them - chana saag chicken curry with turmeric rice - been really trying to perfect more indian cooking as both my wife and I love it and takeaways are expensive!

The rice, i've got perfected, using the cups method and taking sufficient time to prep it properly.
For basmati rice, wash it til the water in the pan runs clear, then LEAVE IT ALONE for 20 minutes, this pre-soaks the rice and starts the process of the rice absorbing water. Then, strain the water off and dry the rice for 20 minutes. Then sautee it in ghee and a heaped teaspoon of turmeric.

2 cups of rice = 2 1/2 cups of water.

Once sauteed, add the water, along with a soup spoon (level) of salt and the juice of half a lemon or lime - this stops the rice sticking. Then, when the water level starts to go down and gets level with the rice, put the lid on the pan, turn the heat down low and then leave for 23 minutes. After 23 minutes, turn the heat off, but leave the lid on for 10 more minutes. Then take the lid off, add a tablespoon of butter and then leave to STEAM DRY for 10 minutes before you try and fluff the rice. When you steam dry it you get perfect grains of rice that aren't too greasy, or stodgy - just perfect rice.
 

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I just finished making and canning a grip of cinnamon apple sauce. The apples were a variety from my wife’s aunts apple orchard up north - mostly Macintosh, Golden delicious, Gala and some other one I could not identify - about 30 pounds worth before processing.

Cooling the jars as we speak and will be ready for my pantry shelf tomorrow morning.
 

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Forgot to mention. I had one of my quart mason jars crack in my water bath canner dispersing its contents into the bath. Made a big mess lol but got it cleaned up. That is the first time in decades of canning where I’ve had that happen. I’ve had lids fail but never the glass itself.

This has little to do with cooking methodology, rather preservation but figured I’d share here. Perhaps a canning and preservation thread would be fun.