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

MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made POTATO SALAD. Extremely yummy. Consists of ham, garlic, mayo, potatos (ORLY), onion,...

I made cow's milk mozzarella yesterday because there was none at the grocery and I had some lovely roma tomatoes and fresh basil and gallons of organic milk were on sale. This morning for 1st breakfast, I made myself a caprese omelet. Mmmmm.

I also started a biga last night using some of the whey from the cheese as the liquid. I'll bake a loaf of bread this afternoon. Here's the last one I did, which was very toadstoolish:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/498781793_aed50f2cde.jpg

How do you make mozz, Jaq?

Mr. Jaq got me a kit a few years ago from these folks. Basically, you add citric acid or lemon juice to a gallon of non-ultrapasteurized milk, then warm it up in a stainless steel pot to 88 deg F. At that temp, you remove it from the heat and gently stir in a tiny amount of rennet, then let it sit for 5-7 minutes for the curd to develop and solidify. It looks like a soft white custard in a yellowish clear liquid (the whey) at this point. You run a long knife through the curd, cutting it into 1" x 1" long rectangles, which helps the whey to drain out of the curds. You ladle the curds out as gently as possible, trying to drain out more of the whey.

After all the curds are out of the pot, they need to be gradually heated up to 135 F and kneaded and stretched into mozzarella, with some salt worked in. I use the microwave (zap on high for 1 min, knead and drain, then zap for 35 secs, knead some more, then zap again for 35 secs and knead and stretch). You can also just heat the whey up and dip balls of the curd into it to heat it up, which is more trad, but a lot tougher to control. After it's all a nice smooth ball, you cool it off in some ice water and start eating it.

1 gallon (about 4 liters) of milk makes about 3/4 lb (about 1.5 kg) of cheese. Making it's sort of technical and also magical so pretty fun on a weekend, as long as milk's on sale.

Banana pancakes. Not bad, but not a big success with Ophelia and DH. (hah I just typed DH)

FRENCH FRIES. well, deepfreeze ones so not really anything special. :-)

Simple black bean salad tonight - delish.

canned black beans (well washed)
avocado
chopped tomato
chopped red onion
chopped cilantro
fresh lime juice
salt & pepper
shredded cheddar cheese
(served with blue corn tortilla chips)

Perfect meal for hot evening

banana ice cream
mint ice cream

i've cooked two real meals in the past week: grilled colombian chorizo, avocado salad, garlic spinach, and fried plantains last saturday, and grilled steak/chicken thighs with tomatillo sauce, red/orange pepper salad, wonderfully fresh asparagus with lime, and mashed plantains last night. i'm on a slight latin kick.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
fudgy mocha brownies

(I guess that's more "baking" than "cooking," though.)

so much grilled stuff! i spent saturday night grilling for TWO HOURS. it's because i don't let people near my grill, it's sad.

Work has been taking its toll on my cooking, plus I am STARVING when I get home from work so more inclined to eat massive quantities of CHEESE instead of making something for dinner. But last night I made a nice pork roast (black pepper and thyme) and some blistered asparagus (get a cast iron skillet hot, add oil, toss in asparagus spears, sprinkle with crushed red chilis, flip about with tongs until bright green and getting some blackened spots).

Yes! I have been doing that to asparagus all week, bought some cheaply in the supermarket.

Last night I made a shepherd's pie as we both have horrible colds and needed some comfort food. Served piping hot with some buttered green cabbage and a big glass of milk = dinner like my mum did when I was a little girl and feeling poorly. It was brilliant. I saved some of the lamb mince and shall be making it all spicy and stuffing an aubergine with it tonight.

(I had bought the aubergine for doing moussaka and then couldn't be arsed because I was feeling like crap)

Nothing! In Tokyo so eating out a lot. HURRAH! I just miss Schweppes Tonic, really. I can't find it anywhere. :-(

i made a very improvised "moroccan" saute to go with some quinoa i had hanging around. onions, carrot, chickpeas, pine nuts, raisins, dried apricots, and ginger, and an odd but tasty combo of kecap (indonesian condiment) and pomegranate molasses for the sauce.

(lauren, that sounds really great.)

Went to the market this morning, there were no eggs to be had but got a nice chicken instead. Also, 2 lbs of Chelan cherries which will make a tasty clafouti if I stop snacking on them.

Mr. Jaq has been reading bits of a New Yorker article about sushi to me ALL RQ#$%!$T#$R@ DAY LONG and it's warm out, so damn it we are going to a sushi-go-round for dinner.

My parents dropped by on the way home from a party in Brechin and brought me a giant organic steak they'd bought from a farmers' market up there. I cooked it to perfection for once in my life (ie. rare but not cold in the middle) and ate it with some grainy mustard on a plate of its own. I didn't want to sully the dish with veg.

I think the expression is 'nom nom nom'.

damn, i have a savage craving for kale right now!

i used up the last of the ramps i had from the Union Sq. green market. they're probably all gone for the season =(

i'll miss those little stinkers till next spring!

B.L.T.

Nothing but plain seared meats lately - burgers, steaks, chops tonight. And asparagus. I ate all the cherries, so no clafouti. Nothing baked, nothing involved or the least elaborate. Simple simple simple. I stared at the cast iron pan I was about the cook the chops in tonight and thought about a nice pan of cornbread, but that's as close as I got.

last night i made a thai curry with very fresh squid from the greenmarket. their skate always looks really nice, so this week i plan on getting some. i didn't get any ramps this year, sadly.

going shopping in flushing today, YAY!

Used a birthday gift cert to buy a new cookbook: Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. I didn't have the exact ingredients for any of the recipes, but have an inspired braise of lamb, onion, currants, dry-roasted pine nuts, and cubed butternut squash in the oven now, seasoned with cumin, paprika, allspice, cloves, turmeric, saffron, and some of the preserved lemons I put up a month ago. I'll serve it with couscous I think.

Damn, that was GOOD! And enough left over for lunches tomorrow. The lemons are insanely tasty.

I am cooking roast dinner for everybody once a week and really getting into it. Chicken, sweer potatoes, parsnips, roasties, yorkshire pudding, stuffing, gravy - in June!

Extra thick pork chops, brined in brown sugar and salt, then stuffed with bacon, smoked gouda, walnuts, green apple, and sage. Pan-seared and finished in the oven. Definitely the best I've ever made.

Mmm, a Sri Lankan-style curry with monkfish, tomatoes, a heap of coriander and a big dollop of dijon mustard, among other things. Thank you Madhur Jaffrey and your Curry Bible, it was just what my flu needed tonight.

Wait, Lauren, where are you that you'd go shopping in Flushing?

bklyn. if you've got a car it's a pretty quick trip.

Asparagus risotto (sp?). It's way out of my league. Risotto, have some patience with me.

Actually it was actually quite tasty but risotto sure is an attention seeker: you can not leave it alone for one second.

I just cooked a giant bundle of rhubarb down with sugar into a syrup, fuel for a summer of rhubarb margaritas, rhubarb prosecchi, rhubarb sodas.

3 cheers for rhubarb. i want to get some in the country this weekend and make a pie.

Hello all, I'm a long-time lurker on ILC but I thought now was a good time to take the plunge and register so I can talk about ASPARAGUS and RHUBARB and all the other delicious stuff that's going on at the moment. Nigella has a great rhubard recipe - just a basic fool I think, but she used cooked-down rhubard stock to make a syrup to go over the top (yum).

Rhubard = rhubarb, duh

mmmm rhubarb.

i made hummus the other day and ate it with raw green beans (my favorite) and other delicious vegetables. i need a better food processer, though :\

Some mint 'n'coriander yoghurt chicken concoction. Turned out quite well. Even Ophelia loved it.

It's an even quicker trip if you're in Bayside for the summer, is all.

Eight people for dinner at mine tonight. I've almost unintentionally gone a French route for it, mainly for ease - moules marinieres, lamb ragout and creme brulee (which I only do so I can use my blowtorch). Moules may be swapped for some simply cooked asparagus and hollandaise for starters if I can't pick up mussels later on today.

I wish I hadn't said today for it though - who wants to cook dinner for eight after the first day back from a weekend?

I have never cooked for more than four people. It seems daunting really.

Didn't cook today (not yet anyway), but I did buy... well, the other week: BBC Good Food. I tried to find a thread on cook books/mags but in vain. Anyone better at finding the thread?

When I'm cooking for loads of people I try to minimise effort on the day. I made pudding yesterday so I just need to sugar and blowtorch the top today. I'm putting the lamb on at lunchtime - I'm stewing it slowly in red wine, stock, rosemary and onions, to minimise work-intensiveness. All I'll need to do when I get in from work is put veggies in the stew and do the starter, which involves steaming mussels and not a lot else (serving bread with first two courses as well so no effort there). I think the most important thing when cooking for loads of people is to have pots big enough for the job. This sounds stupid but if you're short of capacity in pans everything takes longer and is more risky/precarious.

There again, if I had a toddler in the house and another on the way, I dare say I wouldn't be inviting seven people round for dinner!

For cook books/mags, try putting "recipe" in the search function - it brings up some useful stuff.

cas, i'm jealous. bayside is so close to so much amazing shopping/eating.

I made egg noodles on Saturday in order to make beef and noodles with the leftover pot roast from earlier in the week. After watching the Julia Child DVDs (highly recommended!), I tried her technique of bashing the dough out with my rolling pin. MY GOD THAT IS FUN!!! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Now, I want a cleaver.

Roast chicken last night with a big skillet of cornbread.

Another tip for cooking for large groups - make stuff that is forgiving - things that can sit on the stove/in the oven for awhile without suffering.

You're kidding me, right? What is the amazing shopping around here? There are some new restaurants opening up that are much nicer* than what was around before, but...

Really, if there are localish places I need to go to, I want to know!

Take your time answering because I'm about to spend 90 minutes or so travelling to meet up with a friend in the East Village.

I think I will be making pizzas soon.

* By "nicer" I mean "Portlandish", affordable and tasty and pleasant to be in, rather than "fancy/expensive".

i'm obsessed with asian food, especially korean, so that colors my feelings towards the area that you're in. bayside is just a short bus ride from murray hill, which along with the edge of flushing is basically the queens koreatown. then you've got chinatown, the main st/prince st area of flushing, which gradually turns into a strip of indian/pakistani stores and small cafes/sweet shops. but i just remembered something - you're vegetarian, aren't you? that knocks a lot of my recommendations out of the water.

i know this is a cooking thread but until i have time to go buy good seafood, lauren: i need recs for someplace w/ really good ceviche cause i've been thinking about it all day and must go get some soon!

i have a recipe for a shrimp and crab ceviche that i've been putting off since november-ish. must make soon! i've never done it before but i successfully grilled salmon last night so i'm feeling better about my seafood cooking skills.