@Stephie tentative congratulations? The results are not worse than the polls predicted

which is something I was personally slightly worried about, because in the last years, there was a tendency for far right parties to do better in elections than in polls

Also, with BSW and FDP not getting into parliament, I feel that the people voted for stability, which is a great thing.

From my point of view, the low results for Lindner were not only about how he governed, but a punishment for betraying his own coalition.

Being a back-stabbing opportunist is something that gets tolerated and even rewarded in other political systems. So I'm glad to see the Germans know better!

@fyrepenguin what are you planning to do with that?

@rumtscho ground into make garam masala, for chicken tikka masala. Working on uploading them - kinda slow via phone

grind it to powder and season a pot large enough to feed a battle company?

The combination looks right, but the amount blows my mind :)

I also portioned out enough for 2 more double batches and put it in the freezer. I measure by weight (I got a nice little scale that goes down to the hundredth of a gram) and it’s a lot easier to do in a larger batch. This is actually a half-batch of the original spice mix recipe I’m working off of, normally I do a quarter-batch

That’s when it’s mixed with some extra coriander and cumin and turmeric, plus puréed garlic and ginger. Basically a pick of flavor that flavors the whole dish.

I'm fascinated. I never cooked Indian myself.

Ah! I was just going to ask why the end result looks so dough-like. The pureed garlic and ginger make it that way, right.

The above mixed with yogurt and salt to marinate the chicken, then it gets broiled for flavor.

With this being the end result: the same spice mix, onions, tomato paste, whole canned tomatoes (all puréed) then simmered with heavy cream

Also includes whole black cardamom and fenugreek leaves, and chopped cilantro added at the end

@rumtscho this is more or less the only recipe I know how to do well. Not a cuisine my family made dishes from when I was growing up.

(okay, except the last tomato bit :P)

Now that you're saying it, I think I once watched somebody make this. I was notionally helping, too :)

cause this confused me before, coriander seeds and leaves are different things :D

though cilantro is coriander leaves

she wasn't as meticulous about getting the spice mix right though. I think she just used storebought powder and no fresh garlic and ginger.

Yeah, I cook more like a baker than a chef ….

@fyrepenguin hah! This is an interesting idea.

Now I will probably watch myself and reflect whether I cook like a baker or like a chef.

I don’t have the instincts for getting the flavor balancing right, so I go for precision measuring instead, which at least allows me to iterate because I know what I did

Have you done any professional baking, or are you just an ambitious home baker?

Home only for sure

@fyrepenguin it's not a bad approach

actually, from what I've heard, it's the best approach

this comes from the literature on learning and acquiring expertise, regardless of domain

apparently they found that novices and maybe intermediary people do a task best if they are meticulously focused on every detail. They should have no distractions, and they should keep their mind on the steps, actively reflecting.

And conversely the experts do a task best when they aren't focusing on every detail. If they try to, it becomes counterproductive

explained by the metaphor of trying to run while directing every single muscle to do the right contraction at the right time. You'll fall down in a heap before you make one step! But if you are told to run and you just run, you can do it. As long as you don't think how your body is doing it.

I only heard it retold in an interview, so it was a very condensed version of the original studies, and I don't remember it perfectly

I think the interviewee said that there was an experiment with surgeons, where the novice doctors needed the concentration. But then they also experimented with expert surgeons, who did better when distracted (e.g. by listening to music) than when not.

Sorry, lapsing into lecturing again :)

No worries! I was reading but being stymied by writing up a long response and having the chat not want to post the message

@rumtscho yeah, a lot of it comes from experience, especially at the higher levels. Though some people can just fairy naturally cook intuitively and that’s not something that comes easily for me

For some types of baked goods (banana bread, some cookies) where you literally can just measure ingredients and toss them into a mixer in order, it sometimes baffles me at how people can say that baking is so much harder than cooking.

I mean, as long as you measure carefully it’s difficult to mess up. But pie crusts and often yeast breads are my enemy, as they’re a lot more hydration/moisture sensitive. I do need to try baking bread by weight instead of volume, now that I’ve got a proper kitchen scale

Sure, there are some obnoxiously difficult baked stuff out there, but I feel like a lot of it comes down to people not measuring precisely or trying to run before they learn to walk, making substitutions and the like

@fyrepenguin yes, I think you have a very good observation there

Regrettably I must go to sleep now, but I also wanted to mention that you weren’t entirely wrong about the volume of what I was cooking - ended up with 5 kg of meat+sauce when everything was said and done. Portioned to about 280g (10 oz) so I got about 16 dinners out of this weekend. A lot of work but also a lot of payoff in the future

Ah yes, batch cooking. I was never organized enough to do it, but I imagine it can be a great way to go about it.

Good night, and thanks for sharing your tasty pictures!

@rumtscho I love batch cooking :D Though I usually make a lot of smaller batches in a single day, not a single 16 servings batch :D

@Tinkeringbell you're also the most organized cook I know. You even keep a proper logbook and stuff.

Hahaha not a logbook... just sticky notes! And only when the recipe isn't clear or I change something :P

I take it it works well for you, the batch cooking thing? Is it something you love doing, or is it just a matter of necessity, and you'd drop it if you didn't have a full time job or whatever?

I love doing it. I only really like/love cooking when I feel like I have time for it. Which isn't at 5PM after work, when I'm starting to feel hungry ;-)

So batch cooking allows me to just get some stuff from the freezer the day before, and at most wait a few minutes for pasta/rice to boil and cook/things to heat up in the microwave.

If I didn't have a full time job though, I might just spread the batch cooking out a bit more. I do that during vacations sometimes, instead of spending a whole day in the kitchen, cook a new small batch each day (so I end up with dinner + 1/2 freezer meals)