Deceptive recipies

[Chibi Youkai]

So, randomly, it was decided that I was going to make risotto for the boyfriend and myself. Went online, found a recipe, and looked it over. Decided that it didn't look too complex, so why not? By the end of it, I was wondering who actually had the patience and took the time to do figure out how to make this stuff. At least it ended up tasting pretty good. Anyone else out there just randomly decide to try a recipe only to find it being deceptively harder than what first glance says? And how did it end up?

[Night Fury]

Mmmm. I haven't had risotto for a while but it's one of my favourites - so comforting and warm. I honestly find that it's really easy to make a risotto once you've made one once and have the technique down. I make a garlic mushroom risotto, and Pheesh makes a really classic Italian one but they're both delicious and we both make them differently! I just pour in stock from a jug to my pan of rice whereas he boils the stock up in a separate pan and ladles it in throughout cooking!

The last time I was caught of guard was when I made a tiramisu layer cake. I made all the sponge layers myself and the zabalgione cream filling but just the sheer amount of time it took me to make the whole thing.... about 4 hours! I wasn't expecting it to take me quite so long!

[Shorty]

No, because lately I only care about making anything that can be put into the oven with ten minutes of preparation.

[metagloria]

I have extremely limited cooking skills, so I can't afford to attempt anything explicitly or deceptively complicated. I was about to make waffles the other morning, and the recipe was all "Step 1: Separate two eggs" and I was like NOPE next recipe thanks

[noxious.sunshine]

Not really...

But I love cooking and I love complicated techniques and recipes. The more labor intensive, the better for me.

My lasagne is a monster. It's probably way more complicated than it should be simply because of how much stuff is in it, but oh man it's yummy. Ha.

[Chibi Youkai]

Oh, Lasagne. I think all of those recipes are monsters. The noodles are such a pain. I started using egg roll wrappers in place of noodles, just to make life easier.

[noxious.sunshine]

I buy the no-boil noodles and par boil them for like 3 or 4 minutes.

I haven't made it in ages though as it's pretty expensive (in the $40 range total) and it makes a ton and yeah.

[Pheesh]

Anything that has a lot to do in a short amount of time is what will stress me out. It's not even that a recipe may be particularly difficult, but if you're having to check on more than two things at once it can be really hectic.

[qwertysaur]

The first time I made Hamentash I thought it was easy, just a folded butter cookie with jam in it, how hard can that be? I took too long spooning out the filling and folding them so they didn't bind at the corners and they were terrible. :(

Keep practicing though and you get better. For Lasanga just remember 2 rules. Undercook the pasta and layer everything. Pasta, sauce, meat, cheese, pasta, sauce, meat, cheese.

[Night Fury]

Now I want to make lasagne which I CAN'T BECAUSE MY DAMN OVEN DOESN'T WORK.

[qwertysaur]

Now I want to make lasagne which I CAN'T BECAUSE MY DAMN OVEN DOESN'T WORK.
If you really want to make lasagna, you can always use the microwave. :p
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/microwave-lasagna

[noxious.sunshine]

SHHHHH Lucky.... I wanna make it too now.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

I find doing challenging recipes fun, but then again I cook for a living so my idea of difficult is skewed. Though there are things that turn out to be more time consuming than you realize!

I used to be scared of making gnocchi but I leanred a few tricks (like the potatoes can be cold when ricing them) that make it easier and less stressful (being told I had to use hot potatoes and mix while still hot made it much more stressful than it should be). Now I don't bat an eye when I make them.

[noxious.sunshine]

TSoL ... Learn me how to make gnocchi !!

I tried it once and the dough just kept being really gummy and I had to throw it out and give up

[Chibi Youkai]

I second noxious. You should totally do a cooking class TSoL. Bet you'd be awesome at it.