So what have you cooked lately? (Year three!)

I made a stir-fry last night. Simple thing. Some beef strips, some onions + garlic, a completely random sauce/marinade of oil, hot chili paste, soy, orange juice & ginger. Served over leftover rice.

Was fine, but a bit overdone. Wanted to let the sauce cook down and stick to things, but by that time the meat was quite tough. Any suggestions on how to keep stir-fry meat somewhat tender?

***

Oh, and I made a carrot + parsley + potato soup the other day.

Basic mirepoix (carrot, onion, celery) baked to a deepish brown in a cast-iron pan, low oven. Then I boiled those vegs for 45 minutes or so w/ standard soup herbs to make a stock. Later, I sauteed potatoes in butter w/ vermouth, added this to the stock, along w/ carrots, LOTS of parsley & more herbs. A bit of fresh parsley, some black pepper and a good dollop of heavy cream at the end.

Really damn good.

Is there an ideal cut of meat to use?

Diaphragm:

Good idea. I suspect cooking it too long was the only real problem. Meat was very tender after a couple minutes of cooking. Didn't want a lot of sauce, in fact I wanted it kinda dry. Cooking off the liquid excess just took to long. Cornstarch or arrowroot would've made liquids a non-issue.

If we ever do the kitchen remodel I'm hoping for, one must-have is going to be a wok burner capable of singing eyebrows in the next room. In the meantime, I stir-fry less often.

And pulling the solids out while the sauce reduces woulda been the way to go. Thaks for the advice.

wild halibut, coated in minced parsley, juice and zest of one meyer lemon, juice and zest of two yuzu, normandy sea salt, coarse black pepper topped with a teeny drizzle of truffle oil...

served with steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and brown rice.

it was a big hit!

aside from cheese products, the other thing i've been fond of recently is baking vegetables. the inspiration came from a bittman recipe involving parboiling then baking with butter and parmesan. it seems to work with various flavors, spices, and veggies. i want to try broccoli baked with wasabi butter for the next go-round.

(It's Burns Night tomorrow and I don't like haggis, so Neil is getting a haggis and I'm doing my favourite Scottish thing I don't eat often enough because he doesn't like venison, the freak)

since my bf has been off all month, i've been pretty lax on the cooking front (giant cheese balls aside). tonight i'm going to get back into it with a chicken stew since we've got the incredible non-shrinking bag of boneless thighs in the freezer taking up way too much room. i'm more excited about the superbowl cooking, though. in addition to the football-shaped port wine cheese thing, we're going to make asian pigs in a blanket. the cocktail-sized chinese sausages we found are to be credited/blamed for this inspired idea.

http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/cardscans/salmonmousse.jpg

I had Mr. Jaq taste the final product. He took a big slurp of it, which surprised me 'cause I'd mentioned I thought it was hot. He was all mmmmmm, tastes nice but needs salt, OMG WOW!!!

Peeled and cut 1 eggplant into small dice (ended up maybe 2 cups?). Destem and chop the caps of 8 largish crimini mushrooms, also small dice. Saute eggplant and mushroom in olive oil until browned and eggplant is going mushy. Chop 3 sundried tomatoes (in olive oil). Chop 3 chipotles in adobo small and add to eggplant/mushroom. Add in a teaspoon of the adobo sauce from the can. Stir and let simmer for awhile. Add 2 cups of water, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. epazote, 1/2 tsp ground cumin. Let simmer for an hour or so, remove from heat and partially whiz up with an immersion blender - not too smooth. Add 1.5 to 2 cups cooked beans. Bring back up to a simmer and stir in 1 tbsp masa whisked into 1/3 cup cold water. Bring to a boil, drop to a simmer for 30 minutes. Adjust seasonings and add a dash or two of cayenne.

Thick, meaty texture from the eggplant and mushrooms, smokiness from the chipotles, not a whole lot of beans, and lots of chili heat.