... tell you to use things like pre-mixed spice mixes, buy pre-made dough and such things.

I've decided to try and make empanadas today, and I've been trying to find a recipe that mainly uses either ingredients that are easy to get, or at least ones that are easy to replace with similar ingredients. And several of them had things like "use 1 pack of pre-made pizza dough" or "use one bag of *specific spice mix*". One recipe even went as far as to consist of meat, olives, spice mix & pizza dough.
You know, part of the reason why I was looking for a recipe in the first place was because I wanted to make things myself, and not use pre-made stuff.

That's like a math book telling you that in order to evaluate a given expression you should first take out your calculator ;P.

I guess that book (or was it an internet site?) is aimed mainly at the stereotypical youth of today, who are supposed to want everything pre-made, even when "making" something themselves :-D.

Useful: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com
Very useful.

In that case I go out and look up the recipe for the item they tell me to buy, but I know what you mean. It takes the fun out of things rofl, I'm so stealing that quote XD

I understand what you're getting at but usually those recipes are aimed at people who want to cook something and are short of time. It's about whipping something together relatively quickly. I HAVE seen a chef on TV explain how to do roasted chicken and that the first thing she tells you is to buy a cooked chicken. THAT... is not helpful.

I always cringe when I see chefs recommending peanut butter to make satay sauce.

People! Hear me! You do not use peanut butter for making something that is as sacred as satay sauce. :P I miss the days when Martin Yan dominated the cooking shows here :(

Now you have to post a good satay sauce recipe.

Martin Yan still dominates cooking shows here. ;) "*SHPAAAAAKLING SHAMPAIN!!!*"

While we're on the Yan talk, I used to watch Stephen Yan back in the day. I think Martin Yan used to work for him.

Just because I know e=mc^2 does not mean I can derive it :3 Btw this forum lacks a much needed cooking recipes thread. :salute:

Did channel 5 air his programme? I didn't know :O

That's too bad :-( I do love satay sauce, but my own attempts at making it have not turned out so well.

I don't actually remember now. But Martin Yan still airs on Asian Food Channel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok_with_Yan

f(m)=mc^2
f'(m)=c^2

:P



The cookbooks I own all seem to be pretty good at not telling you to "use spice mix" (as long as they are not common things like curry (when saying curry in Sweden most people think of a specific kind of curry powder, if it is not that one, you need to specify further)). Its the online ones that quite often suffers from the problems detailed above.

This is so true :D I couldn't find any gyoza recipes on the web that wouldn't used pre-made dough/dumplings :D

Sometimes, I'll admit that using pre-made stuff is quick and easy...when I'm making stuff solely for myself. If anyone else is eating it then I refuse to use the crap. I'd have to be running severely late to need it. It makes Christmas and all of my work so much fun though :).

I see those types of recipes a lot as you get recipes from blogs and such. And I do get frustrated by them, it's just a point where I go 'Ummmm, why? This isn't a hard step, nor is it really time consuming to do it fresh.'