What new techniques, skills and even new recipes (or dishes / baked goods, etc.) are you looking forward to mastering in the year ahead?

I want to lose my fear of puff pastry. I shall make it this year.

Still haven't gotten around to making Arun Sampanthavivat's Thai Red Curry. I'm determined to make it SOON! (Actually have never made any Thai curry so far...)

I want to learn how to de-bone a whole roasted fish so that it is easier to eat. I don't want to filet the fish before roasting. I like to roast it whole (insides cleaned out) wrapped in foil in a hot oven (475.) The fish comes out juicy and delicious but the bones are a pain!

One more thought: vegan yoghurt that tastes like yoghurt and is neither soupy nor jelled

Sorry I missed your comment about sheet pan dinners. I don't see to be receiving notifications as I should. You may be right about timing and clean-up issues. I suppose I'll find out. Still in the aspirational phase.

Well, I have a new project in the works, sort of related to this . . . I’ve decided to create my own blog. The format will be quite different from any other food blog I’ve ever seen. I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time, but won’t be able to get it up and running until I “semi-retire”, i.e., reduce my client workload systematically, to allow me to pursue more non-client projects during the day.

I’ll post a link in my Food52 profile when that happens, which I have planned for Q3 or Q4 2018. ;o)

Its the fad thing that bugs me. I use parsley and celery leaves in my own cooking and it drives me crazy when supermarkets cut the tops off. Fear of food and flavor seems to be endemic to our culture unless it's disguised as something else.

I do need to improve my pastry skills. I have all the tools. There is no excuse.

Guessing what this year's fad ingredient will be. We are so over kale and kambocha! Kimchi has come and gone too. Why do people eat this BS up?

Sheet-pan dinners --especially vegan ones.
Tofu -- all kinds of recipes, savory and sweet.
Vegan candy.
Yeast baking with whole grains -- possibly raisin pumpernickel.
I don't have any links yet. Some things I'm in the process of just making up.

I would like a successful flourless chocolate cake... I just received some hopeful info on this & I am going to sidestep the oxymoron of altitude adjustment and try it this weekend! Cross your fingers😇

I’m so inspired by all of your answers! My look-back, look-forward is still a work in progress, so I’ll post several answers, as I formulate my plans.

First up, baking.


I’ve wanted to start making more crackers (other than these, my standbys: https://food52.com/recipes/30539-dukkah-dusted-lavash-crackers ) since coming across these recipes by Stella Parks:

Homemade Carr's-Style Whole Wheat Crackers

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/09/whole-wheat-crackers-recipe.html

Homemade Wheat Thins http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/03/homemade-wheat-thins-recipe.html

Crispy Whole Wheat Graham Crackers

https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/crispy-whole-wheat-graham-crackers

I bought Parks’ “BraveTart” cookbook shortly after it was released (went to a book signing on the Peninsula co-hosted with Kenji J. L-A), and have been looking forward to digging in, but haven’t had the time, yet. I did use Parks’ technique for apple pie filling when making a pear pie the other night. The pie was sensational.

Croissants and similar pastries: I’ve never made croissant or any other laminated dough. One of my sons is an avid and increasingly skilled baker; he wants to learn this, too. We enjoy working together in the kitchen, so we’ll embark on this adventure most likely when he’s home next.
;o)

Gluten-free crackers. I have so many friends eating gluten-free now that I have a freezer filled with interesting flours. Starting with the (super!) recipes in Alice Medrich's Flavor Flours, I'm determined to master them. While not difficult, there's always a possibility for thinner, crisper, and even more remarkable!

The older we get, the less we eat, however still want to eat well. Will continue to experiment and adjust my skills to making smaller, healthy, meals for two.

Fermentation is my new interest. I've had Chad Robertson's book since the first day it was published years ago but never made time to make the starter. Also, I read Sandor Katz's the Art of Fermentation last summer and I've been wanting to get started on some fermented veggies.

Baking, specifically more long fermented bread and puff pastries (croissants and Kouign-amann).

- Peking duck, or anything duck recipe that would results in non-oily, non-gamey, and still moist meat.
- Cantonese-style roast pork belly with a very crackly skin, want to know how to make a very crackly skin one. I can't give recipe because I don't know yet which one I should follow, but google would give lots of webpages of good-looking ones.
- Pattiserie that have mousse. I have been wanting to do that but each take would be a project and I haven't got time to try it.

I am probably the last person on the face of this planet to receive one, but I am now the proud owner of an Instant Pot! Woohoo! Would love to learn how to use it better and in a greater variety of ways. I've done oatmeal and slow cooked ribs already but I don't find myself reaching for it in the way some folks do. I want to make this part of my regular weeknight rotation so I'm looking for inspiration!

I don't have any specific recipes, but I want to find some low carb breakfast dishes that my kids will readily eat and can change up my current routine of eggs on the weekends and just coffee during the week.

I was very intrigued by the Modernist Bread technique of "baking" brioche in a pressure cooker. They claim the bread is shelf-stable for 3 months!

Mostly refining or going back to some old techniques not used in a while, like:
* baking some RETRO CAKES that have one batter, but which separate during the baking into a baked crumb and some kind of automatic filling or sauce (fruit, chocolate, whatever).
* baking protein in SALT CRUST, which is then cracked and remove to serve. I think this is also done with chicken, but I've done it mostly with whole fish.
And using the SHEET-PAN-for-one-meal technqiue, which involves some care and refinement as it roasts several (different temp-needing) foods together.

that is a good question. i haven't decided yet. but, within the last two days i mastered two things that i have been working on: one is asian spareribs marinated in soy, garlic, mirin, honey, sesame oil and plum sauce. baked and turned until there are nice charred bits. second is my persian rice. finally, decided i needed to add more oil and use my steel lined copper pot for the heavy bottom to get the crust on the bottom rice and wonderfully pillowy soft and fluffy steamed rice above. i'm really into chinese and japanese and mexican cuisines so maybe something along those lines. i love tamales but am terrified of trying to make them even with some great videos on youtube.

After baking through some Bravetart recipes in the baking club, I made my very first real, layered cake. While cakes are not my favorite desserts (which is why I never bothered to make them until the baking club), I really enjoyed baking it. I'd like to get better at cakes. There's a really yummy sounding one I didn't get a chance to make sometime this year: red(wine) velvet cake. Though to be perfectly honest I could close my eyes, point to random page in Bravetart, and be happy to make whatever I landed on.

I'd also like to get better and making things look nice! I can bake and cook a lot of things, but I always seem to fall short on the decorating. I can't pipe for the life of me and I'd like to change that!