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ArjinFerman  Tinfoil Gigachad  2d ago (text post)   113 thread views

Tinker Tuesday for December 30, 2025

This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service

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Trying some recipes again:

  • Savory puff pastry rolls. Dice and partially caramelize a small white onion, about 10 min high heat, 20 min on low. Toss in and brown at high heat a pound of ground / minced lean beef or turkey, drain off any excess grease. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin to taste, optionally throw in a tablespoon worchestershire sauce or throw in and simmer off a quarter-cup of sherry, port, or red vinegar. Once crumbly and well-browned, turn off heat and immediately transfer to a plate with paper towels on top and below. Prepare two puff pastry sheets, unroll, but keep them as close to fridge temperature as possible. Scoop half the meat-and-onion mix in a flat line along one of the short edges of each puff pastry sheet, at least a half-inch in, and spread it shallow. Apply a line of 2- to 4-ounces of goat cheese, sharp cheddar, or pepper jack cheese, very shallow, along the same axis. Roll each sheet back up. Cut each puff pastry roll into pinwheels, six-eight per roll. Place onto parchment paper on a baking sheet, apply an egg wash. Cook at 450 F for 25-30 minutes. Serves four to six people, best served with a hearty salad, roasted vegetables, and a chutney or mustard sauce. You can put these into hand pies or more complicated shapes, but the roll works a lot better imo and are much easier, even if it's a bit messier. It's not quite as interesting a result as the chicken-and-cheese-and-apple pie, but it's been a lot more acceptable to most other people.
  • Bobotie (sp?). Ground beef/turkey, onion, spice as above, toss in some curry powder to your preferences. Add a half-cup chutney or jam, four slices of white bread torn into tiny pieces, and either a cup of unsweetened applesauce or a cored and diced large apple, optionally a half cup of raisins, dried cranberries, or dried cherries. Layer into a baking dish. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. When that's almost done, mix three eggs, a cup of half-and-half (or a half-cup of cream and a half-cup of milk), a tablespoon of tumeric in a bowl, and beat the everliving shit out of it. Pour on top of the meat in the baking dish, cook for another twenty minutes. Most Official Recipes say add bay leaf, but even as someone that loves bay for rice, it doesn't seem to do much here. Serve with rice and some greenage, but expect three servings for most eaters.
  • This recipe modifies to work in a rice cooker surprisingly well -- I basically just pan-fried the chicken in its marinade instead of partially-cooking it in an instant pot -- though I don't think it would have passed an authenticity test. Still pretty good, and outside of the (looooong) marinade time, a lot easier than I expected.
  • Lazy man's burritos mix. Pan-fry a pound of boneless skinless chicken, allow pan to cool, then dump in drained pre-cooked kidney or pinto beans and a cup of salsa (salsa verde and peach salsa work weirdly well, but even your standard gringo salsa does fine). Simmer for thirty minutes covered on low heat, adding water if it starts to dry out. In a separate pot or a rice cooker, cook three cups rice in four cups water without rinsing the starch off, drain, and then dump the chicken-salsa-bean mix. Mix aggressively, let sit and cool for ten minutes to let the rice absorb as much as it can and get as sticky as possible. You can go really nuts with this recipe in a slow cooker, and it's great and gets rid of the pan-fry step (and can let you use bone-in chicken)... but it takes six hours and a crock pot. Either way, serve on a tortilla or lettuce wrap with iceberg lettuce, a sharp cheese, top with sour cream or greek yogurt and a drizzle of the remaining salsa.

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