Cooking Block

There are a few foods that I just love and wish I could make. Technically they may not be hard but I have psyched myself out and think they are too difficult. Maybe they require a lot of practice or I need someone to show me how ...but for years they have remained on my list of "I wish I could make...My top two are: French Onion Soup and Chicken Liver Pate. (Crepes and blinis used to be on this list but I learned how to make these in Siberia.) Does anyone else suffer from cooking mind over matter too?

Hot and sour soup for me. Even with the ingredients, I feel I'm going to mess it up.

But french onion soup is dead easy! It's just onions, butter, salt/pepper and stock! Time is the only hard part, i use a timer set for 3 min and keep going back and stirring till i get the dark color I'm looking for.



edited for typos.

my personal favorite french onion soup i learned when my college roommate did her jr. year abroad in aix-en-provence. she returned with a recipe that used equal parts chicken and beef stock. i find most versions of this soup, using only beef stock, to be harsh and unappealing. gleam is right- the only challenging part is having enough patience to cook the onions low and slow. and i'd suggest best quality/low sodium broths, some of each. justjoan

Any kind of custard, including quiche. I just can't do it. I don't know if I over-whip the egg yolks, or my oven thermometer is off, or what... I just can't get it done, and have given up all hope.

Thomas Keller's onion soup recipe in the Bouchon cookbook is actually fairly straightforward, if time consuming. The easiest way to cook the onions is in a 200 degree oven.

Hand rolled fresh pasta. I tried to follow Marcella Hazan's technique and never could get it. My wife says I need to find a friendly Italian mama.

For some reason I can't get my head around pork belly. I've got about a pound and a half in the freezer (skin off ) and I'm stalling on what to do with it. I've done Pad Prik Khing Moo Krob a couple of times with adequate success, but would like to try something that's a bit simpler (?) or, at least, doesn't require frying.

Hopefully before the big grill goes away for the winter...

jimswside?