Have any questions when it comes to cooking? I'm here to answer them π³
Aaron O'Leary
28 replies
A bit about my experience:
Apart from a few pivots, I have worked with food for around 7 years, I have left the food industry to work at Product Hunt but it still has a massive place in my heart.
Within my experience, I trained as a cook (Italian), a bread baker and during my Italian training I also was a pizzaiolo
Currently I'm teaching myself Indian cuisine, which is probably the most exciting thing for me right now.
I also cook at the Product Hunt off sites for the team
Ask me anything you want about cooking, the industry, technique, the culture within a kitchen, anything really!
Replies
![Abadesi](https://ph-avatars.imgix.net/269621/original.jpeg?auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&auto=format&w=36&h=36&fit=crop)
Abadesi@abadesi
Love this! What do you do when you want to make a quick dinner that's a hot meal, low carb and high in veg/fibre?
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What dish can we expect at the next offsite? I'm already hungry just thinking about it. π
@ejsnowdon Haha! Love this one. Well I know you love fish, so miso soy honey salmon is a must do, with caramelised pineapple slices and boiled rice
Planning on doing a pasta night with a home made basil pesto and a home made roasted cherry tomato and walnut pesto.
Because it will be cold, also planning on a roast chicken, noodle soup and a spiced chickpea soup.
Open to any suggestions though π€
@ejsnowdon @aaronoleary love a hot soup on a chill day! I learned how to bake bread recently so I could make some focaccia to go with it. π₯³
@ejsnowdon @abadesi oh yes I adore focaccia! The thing I miss most about the food industry is the time I spent as a bread baker (maybe not so much the 4am starts)
@ejsnowdon @aaronoleary oof that's too early for me. I try to not eat too much bread but oh my its so tasty.
I'm also starting to focus on Indian cuisine! What's your favorite Indian dish as of now?!
@lindsay_fuce loving chicken vindaloo lately! Love Indian cuisine so much, the complexity in flavours is such a treat when used to primarily European flavours!
@lindsay_fuce I love Indian food but am too much of a wimp to try cooking it at home. I'd love to try making black daal one day and maybe a rich spicy curry.
This is super basic... but how do you cook with stainless steel pans? I've always used non-stick, but got some beautiful All-Clad stainless as a gift... Even cooking things on medium heat, the pan gets super blackened. Huge pain to clean, so I've just gone back to using my cheap non-stick for a while π¬Maybe it's not a problem, and I just need to stop worrying about the cosmetics, but would love your input!
@jwby Oh no, the blackened is flavour my friend! What you should do is:
1. Cook your proteins or whatever on the pan, medium high - high if protein to sear.
2. After cook, turn to low or no heat, add wine or another alcohol or a stock,
3. scrape the pan (this is now called de-glazing it will lift all the blackened foods bit)
4. Add a third of a cup more of the same liquid and reduce down until it thickens a bit
5. Profit from your amazing pan sauce you just made with honestly the most amazing flavour thanks to those bits of food and jucies
@aaronoleary Awesome! So excited to try this. Thank you!
hey @aaronoleary
I'm cooking for myself for a long time and recently moved to "healthier food", curious to know your thoughts on several questions:
1) Do you believe in "food for brain" and "super food"?
2) What's your top dishes which you can cook under 30 min?
3) What's you favourite YouTube channels or podcast about cooking?
Thanks π³
@lisadziuba Hello!
1. Yes completely, the age old one being fish is a super food, kale, quinoa, legumes, berries, also eggs by the way, why? Because of how nutritionally balanced they are and versatile.
2. Anything pasta! carabonara, cacio e pepe, alfred fettucine, pasta limone, spaghetti alla vangoule (Pasta is constantly one of the cheapest, quickest dinners ever)
3. I don't listen to podcasts, for youtube, typically anything around the culture of food peaks my interest, so First We Feast, Munchies, Street Food Ranger, Keeping it Canada. I also like Babish and Matty Mathesons new show.
@dqmonn1 Personally I hate them, little to 0 margin of error, chips way too easily and although they advertise "sharpness for ever" they lie. You need a diamond sharpener to sharpen them, you can buy automatic ones.
If you aren't super skilled with knives / hobby cooking I recommend getting a stainless steel one at the start, the fibrox range by Victorinox is great, I still use that professionally the odd time Im in a kitchen. Then upgrade to a carbon steel knife, I have a carbon steel Gyuto as my main and I adore it.
Browning meat is all about heat and the pan, don't use non stick, use stainless steel or cast iron on high and do not put the meat in the pan until the pan is ripping hot, you will know it is when you see the oil shimmering and moving around, then put it in and dont touch it for about a minutee, flip and reduce heat to mid high once you have a good sear :)
I want to start making my own bread. Is there an easy, beginner recipe you could recommend?
@laura_pompeu For sure! The first loaf I ever learned was a simple whole wheat loaf, heres a good recipe for it https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to... after that maybe move on to something more challenging like brioche, you'll then learn a lot about shaping and proofing dough correctly.
Eventually you will get to sour-dough and you will become a true bread master!
Have fun!
@laura_pompeu let me know how it turns out!
Great topic! I would be interested in how you manage all your recipes? π©βπ³
I'm trying to build a platform that will help foodies to start their own online "business". But it's hard for me to validate the market - find out the way how to move forward. My goal is to create set of modules/blocks - like lego blocks - and share them for free with community. and my users will be able to save time by using those blocks.