I wish you luck with your issue! I’m just here to say that, I bought dirt cheap Walmart cast iron pans which I abuse, and they are so much better than non stick pans in my experience.
If you already have the cheese on hand, do an experiment. Cut off a piece and freeze it overnight. Next day, defrost it and see how it is. Because the issue you’re concerned about is change to texture or taste after freezing and thawing, you only need to leave it long enough to be fully frozen through - not as long as you normally would for storage.
(You wouldn’t want to buy a bulk size piece of meat/cheese just to experiment, but if you already have some on hand it’s worth trying for yourself to find out if you’ll find the result satisfactory.)
I don’t really know anything about cooking Asian food past a curry, but in general I tend to just skip out on unhealthy stuff I won’t miss when I cook at home for my family.
For example, if I was making barbecue chicken for a gathering, I’d use a good amount of brown sugar for a nice caramelization and depth of flavor. I made it at home for myself last week, however, and just didn’t add the sugar. Was it worse? Sure, a little, but I likely wouldn’t have noticed if you didn’t tell me and it’s one less meal full of sugar.
I am trying to train myself that not every meal I make has to be a treat, and that sometimes just being healthy and filling is enough.
Going a different direction with the flavors is another option. Lemon pepper chicken instead of barbecue chicken, or a vinaigrette dressing instead of a cream sauce. Some of these alternate recipes still have plenty of intense flavors without being as intense on the calories.
I had a pair of $40 knives from ikea that lasted years (more than a decade, maybe close to two). They were moly steel so they didn’t loose edge quickly, and had decent balance.
I eventually upgraded to Whustoff ikon classics (the POM handle,) for the 3 knives I use (8” chef, boning, pairing.)
The reality is you can sharpen a shitty Walmart butter knife to a razor’s edge very easily. Being sharp doesn’t make a good knife- it’s the steel quality that affects edge retention; as well as the balance and the grip’s contour/shape; the stiffness and thickness of the blade, etc.
Imo, the cheapo ikea knives performed just fine. For their value… they’re quite probably better than whustoffs, no question. They’re both made with reasonable quality steel, both full tang, with similar contours in the blade profile and handle, etc.
But if you consider side by side, the whustoffs do perform much better. It’s not any one thing- the balance is better, the blades are thinner, stiffer where they they’re supposed to be, etc.
There are a lot of small things that add up to that. The distal taper, the taper from spine to edge (in the ikeas they’re flat in both directions,); the steel is better and holds edges longer while being more easily, less strain on my hand;
Ultimately, you don’t need whustoffs or anything expensive- and a lot of your expensive knives are shit knives with marketing (especially “japanese” knives of dubious provenance).
But if you can afford them, they are better. Especially if you cook a lot. If they’re “better enough” to justify their cost is a personal decision. My mom uses Costco steak knives for everything. (And in part because they can’t keep knives sharp so don’t see the point. They float around the sink… get stuffed in the dishwasher, etc,)
My favorite knives are vintage MAC. The handles suck, the tip is rounded, and they have a stupid hanging ‘cross’ thing at the tip which just catches debris. Use a magnetic knife rack like a normal person. They were $90 new. If blood clots on the brain were your thing I’m sure that was a good deal. It’s a $20 knife.
I had a few from the flea market. I ground tips on them and made new handles. They have a great balance between whippy and thin enough to do nice slices of Shitake mushrooms or Shallots, and strong enough to break down Squash.
That’s an example of an overpriced Japanese knife, yes.
That doesn’t mean all knives more than $20 bucks are overpriced, however. I would also contend that the modifications you made; make it no longer a MAC.
Chili is much better the next day. There’s even a chili restaurant in Virginia that makes their chili the day before, refrigerates it, then heats it back up specifically because of this (the name of the restaurant escapes me at the moment, but I used to love going there).
I’ve actually made a pretty similar gravy (I like it with meat loaf). One thing I’ve done is, rather than thickening with corn starch, try a roux made with beef tallow as the fat.
This looks great, and I appreciate that you didn’t just casually mention butter paneer pizza without following up with the details! I’m trying this soon.
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