Cooking Anecdotes (｡◕‿‿◕｡)

[Sir3n Song]

Have any entertaining or silly bits to share about your ventures in the kitchen? By all means, share away! No ones perfect, and we all trip up every so often, but usually you feel like a solo doof for doing so. Its nice to know other people make mistakes too! If you learned something from your experience, put that at the end! That way we can learn from each other while having a good time blaugh

For example; One time I wanted to try to make tamagoyaki b/c I super love it at restaurants... but I was lazy and didn't want to look up ingredients or quantities ::shakes head:: I knew it was egg, sugar and soy sauce, so I figured I'd just eye it sweatdrop

My first batch came out sloppy looking b/c I need to practice on rolling it and I was cooking it in a regular frying pan not the square ones you're "supposed to" use stare Anyways, it tasted bland so I was like "Oh, I should add more soy sauce!" ...the cap was not one of those lil drip-drip soy sauce ones, it was fully open and I forgot about that so I went to drip some in and waaaaay too much came out surprised pps: I didn't want to waste the egg so I tried adding more sugar to balance it out, cooked it, and OMG it was awful xp xp xp

Moral of the story! Its best to measure things out ahead of time before cooking! Also, check your bottles to see if they're free pour or not! sweatdrop If you're cooking by eye and not by a recipe, always add a little bit at a time... you can always add more, but you can't take it back once you've added stressed  

[Sir3n Song]

OOOOOMGGGGGGGG gonk So I just tried making daifuku and JEEZUS mochi is the STICKIEST substance I've ever worked with! JEEZ!!!

I made strawberry daifuku tonight and I have a few points to mention;

arrow Make sure to chill your bean paste! It will work so much better that way. Mine was not and it was very mushy/sticky.

arrow DEFINITELY make sure to dust your hands as well as the mochi with flour before handling it. If not you're going to drive yourself crazy and curse a lot... if you're anything like me anyways sweatdrop

I did it in the microwave, which took a lot less time than steaming it, but I wonder if theres a difference... My first ones are sooo not pretty crying I envy the people who get them to that perfectly round shape. One day, I will... but at least it still tastes good!  

[Friskit_Geeba]

Tried making the thin omelet for an omirice ball today on the stove.

NOTHING went right, when I tried flipping it the first time it tore, the second time it didn't cook everywhere evenly (I realized this was because I have an electric stove).

I think next time I'm only going to add soy sauce and make it using the microwave omelet method that Biggie talks about.  

[Friskit_Geeba]

Make sure when you're making them to use warm or freshly made rice. Short to medium grain rice is stickier and will hold a form a little more easily than say, brown rice.  

[Captain Slow]

One fine morning, I decided to make Pork Buns from scratch. I found a recipe off the internet, shopped for the ingredients I needed and even set out a workflow for the damn thing.

The recipe said it would take 2 hours, plus proving time for the dough.

I started the recipe at 2pm. I was still steaming the buns at 7pm.

Moral: Just buy the darn things. sweatdrop  

[Sir3n Song]

While making rice in my rice cooker I was uber lazy and just poured it in from the bag instead of measuring it out and washing off the extra starch. While cooking, it bubbled over as I've never seen it do before and made a big ol' mess.

Moral; Don't be lazy, wash your rice first or be prepared to clean up afterwards  

[Nakadai Futaba]

i was trying to find a jello like vegetarian dessert, i found a recipe for a almond "jell" that called for powdered agar agar (seaweed).
the only agar agar my oriental store carried was whole agar agar, so being the smart person i am, i added one packet of agar agar (whole) thinking it would equal the powdered. it took awhile for all of it to encorperate so after it was smooth i poured it in the mould and came back a few hours later, i took the "jell" out of container and was like "WTF" my result was a grey (instead of milk white) hard, soapy brick. then i realized what i did i added like X20 the agar agar sweatdrop .
morale of the story: research before substituting sweatdrop  

[evilncute]

I have made cream puffs quite a few times without having a problem, but there was this one time I used a different recipe and they didn't puff up at all. Instead a had little balls of not poofy, hard bread. They didn't taste bad, but they weren't cream puffs D:

 

[Akame-Sama]

I have so many stories...
Here's one of my favorites:

I had recently bought 'The Manga Cookbook' and was working my way through the recipies. Everything had gone well, I had some experience with Japanese cooking beforehand and was pretty confident around my kitchen.
Finally, I got to the recipie I was waiting for.

Dango

I loved the way these looked, always. And I couldn't wait to make my own delicious balls of awesome.
I followed the recipie exactly. At least, I thought I did. Once I began to boil them....Well, things got ugly. The dango began to fall apart, right in the water.
Now, rice flour makes water thick...And apparently, once one dango ball melts, all others must follow suit.
I nearly cried. I felt so defeated. Here I was, someone who could make killer stir fry and decent sushi...Taken down by boiled balls of flour.

Moral: Somethings are simply...Unobtainable. sweatdrop  

[Symbolon]

Akame-Sama

I have...several things to say about this one.
First, I don't trust The Manga Cookbook- its recipe for tamagoyaki, for one, is completely incorrect. Rather, the ingredients are mostly right- but it has you roll it up in aluminum foil. Somehow.

Yeah, no.

As for the dango, there are a few points that aren't stressed that have to be stressed.
One, don't mix up your flours. Just. Don't. Bad things will happen.
Two, don't trust the ratio given in The Manga Cookbook, and find one online. (I have a link to the recipe I use below.)
Three- and most important, in my opinion- MAKE SURE THE WATER USED IN THE DOUGH BEFORE BOILING IS HOT ENOUGH. If it's not, put it in the microwave until it is thick and doughy- it can't even be slightly mushy, or it will fall apart/be too sticky/have no form.
Finally, I suggest making mitarashi sauce whether or not you color the dango (though if colored, use it as a dipping sauce instead of pouring it over so you don't mess with the look) because to my American taste buds, them on their own aren't sweet enough to count as dessert.

My favorite recipe for all this is here: [x]
It has the recipe for both dango and mitarashi sauce.