What's cooking? part 4

^seconded for coleslaws

I do a really basic lime slaw that I like -- for every 1/2 head of cabbage, grate a couple of carrots and mince some sweet onion really small. Add zest and juice of 1 lime -- don't skip the zest, it brings a lot. Salt, pepper and just enough mayonnaise to bring it all together. Great with fish or on fish tacos.

WmC are you still in NoMS?

yeah

::curses fate::

hahaha, hang in their brudda. kudos.

shasta that sounds _crazy_

it's not that so much is cooking (it is, but nothing interesting) but that i got a new kitchen storage unit thingie and now I have more counter space with which to make more space-hogging things, like bread, etc.

CAN'T WAIT

honestly, it's right about this time of year that i get tired of simple summer salads and i get the itch to make something more (1) labor intensive (2) COMPLICATED and (3) roasty.

but summer salads it is until october probably :(
at least i will have more room to work when bread-and-soup season returns

Make fresh rolls! They meet criteria 1 and 2, and take up lots of space for assembling. Hooray for more counter space! We got a kitchen island and a rolling butcher block cart thing at Ikea a few weeks ago and it just makes so much difference to have that extra room.

man, you KNOW it! it really does. my new storage thing has a butcher block top and lots of storage for cuisinart, mandoline, dutch oven, etc. in it. every thanksgiving i make butter rolls, but maybe i'll make some special for my birthday (which is coming up.)

or pretzels! http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/382294403_68e24ba976.jpg

I wanted to make a pan of cornbread yesterday but I didn't have any buttermilk, so I decided to substitute a couple of Tbsp of plain fat-free yogurt and a couple of Tbsp. of sour cream, with the remainder of the liquid being 2% milk. Worked really well.

PORK PIE

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95905148@N00/4893496841/

F'in A. Home-made pork pies are the best. That one looks a cracker, c#m.

A couple of weeks ago I made pork loin braised in milk. One of the very best things I think I've had. To quote the recipe book I got it from -

If from tens of thousands of dishes that constitute the recorded repertoire of Italian regional cooking one were to choose just a handful that most clearly express the genius of the cuisine, this one would be among them. Apart from a minimal amount of fat required to brown the meat, it has only two components: a loin of pork, and milk. As they slowly cook together, they are transformed. The pork acquires a delicacy of texture and flavour that leads some to mistake it for veal, and the milk disappears to be replaced by clusters of delicious, nut-brown sauce.

Today it's a Provencal beef stew, very light, and a couple of parings of orange zest give it an unusual but pleasing taste.

Roasted five more sheet pans of anaheim chilies this morning -- stunk up the house real good.

I am pretty into the America's Test Kitchen tuna noodle casserole lately...such frigging comfort food. It's all the peas that do it for me.

Makin' my mom's recipe for chicken & DUMPLINGS!...I have been craving it for approx. nine years so let's hope this satisfies! I called her for the recipe and it is classically mom-style vague. "Just put your vegetables in the broth, then the chicken, then the DUMPLINGS! on top." Arrrgh. Oh shit, I just realized I forgot to put in peas. Let's hope this doesn't suck.

Oh man dumpling5 sub...I live a silly life.

i haven't been cooking much because this hot weather just makes me want to eat nothing but this

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4939344371_5ecfdacafa.jpg

and this

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4889386473_9b98d6955b.jpg

but at the moment those two things are enough
i can't wait for fall -- that's primo cooking weather, there.

you guys like my bike riding goggles?

Not as much as I'd like to eat those spring rolls....oh man.

all you have to do is soak the wrappers for ~10 min and then stuff them with whatever you like. i think i had pea shoots, beets, carrots, thai basil, arugula, and green papaya in mine. dipping sauce is hoisin, sriracha, peanuts.

i know they are not *traditional* but i'm not one for sticking to straight authentic
i made some with mung bean noods as well

pro tip: double the wrappers so it won't tear as easily

man i gotta pay attention to ilc more for ideas. i'm a total cooking n0Ob but my gf cooks a lot and has been getting me into it with her. a friend of ours is some kind of evil wizard in the kitchen and that gets me pretty into it, too.

lately i've finally veered from my usual bastard thai curries and tried my hand at some gai pad khing, which was excellent. by which i mean i don't think i ruined it. i subbed in some ponzu because i couldn't find any golden mountain sauce, which worked?

i really need to branch out tho. i've been pretty thai fixated for a while, on top of which once i discover a few things that work i just make them over and over.

potato korma and naan
salad
blueberry muffins for the morning

kitchen smelling gooood!

ponzu sauce is the bomb. I put it on fried eggs instead of wocestreshire sauce. It works so well.

PONZU SCHEME

if a recipe calls for scallions, can i sub spring onions? are they pretty much the same thing?

yep

i'm about to eat some vegetable burritos made w/ black beans, corn, 2 types of peppers, yellow squash, and onions plus guac and i made way too much so it looks like i'm having this all week!

yeah i fucking love ponzu

harbl that sounds like it would freeze ok (except for the guac), if you get tired of it mid-week

yeah i was thinking that too. turns out it's not quite too much, maybe 2 more meals. it was really good though! and i didn't make too much guacamole.

It sounds super tasty!

Suddenly got a lot cooler here so I've been eating stuff like beets and braised lamb shanks and other things I've had no desire to eat for months. Farmer's market is pretty great right now too.

too much guac

These words are recognizable but make no sense.

mom-style vague

Haha, so true, but also ILX cooking threads make me (hungry and) sad because to a kitchen disaster like m'self all cooking instructions short of a full recipe are "mom-style vague", you guys all with yr delicious-sounding meals and yr nonchalant "oh I took (2-3 major ingredients) and some other things, y'know, the usual, and cooked them in the usual way - it was excellent"

(I kid, but it's true, too! ;_; )

Anyhow while I am replying to posts from too long ago to reply to, in Britisherland scallions and spring onions are not only "pretty much" but exactly the same thing, can't speak for the US though

Sunday night I made a big pot of chix soup w tomato & white bean & arugula, but I haven't actually had any of it yet because I've been finishing off:

A tri-color pasta thing with fresh tomatoes, thyme, basil, and sliced chicken breast. This was far fresher and more interesting than the soup, but I think next time I will add: a little lemon zest to wake things up, and some red pepper flakes in the simmering olive oil with the garlic.

laurel that sounds fresh and delicious

as for me, i made the most delicious curry last night using methods i learned from watching this program, i mean programme
http://www.bbc.co.uk/indianfoodmadeeasy/

i feel like i haven't cooked in a while since i haven't made anything warm or hearty very recently. but last night i was inspired and made sweet potato-garbanzo-tomato curry to go with some tilapia and simple mint sauce/chutney/chimichurri/whatever you want to call it.

the curry tastes even better today, like a LOT better
i put the mint sauce on it and it has sweet-spicy-salty-warm-cool all wrapped up in one bowl

uh

i want that

sorry, i ate it all :-P
for the first time i made indian food that tastes as good as my favorite fancy indian restaurant

also convinced myself that i could not live without mint
what a glorious plant

my gf has been cooking with mint more lately. mint has my full support.

i came home from work v hungry and wanting to have those burritos again.
spacecadet i think it takes everyone a long time using full recipes to get to be able to throw things together w/o thinking about it & have it taste good. there's no need to be sad.

I'm so glad the hot weather has broken enough to get in the kitchen and cook. I'd never survive as a raw-foodarian. (I have a meatloaf in the oven and am going to start the mashed potatoes right now.)

amen to that. it's still 90 degrees here, but i can see the end. or rather, the future of cooking season. after eating so many salads and cheese-meat-crackers type quasimeals i almost felt like i had lost my appetite, but...no. it's still there.

The first day we get where the high is below 80, I'm going to get 10# of beef neckbones to replenish my beef stock supplies. I'm down to my last quart.

spacecadet, you should check your ilx webmail!

question: what is the best way to go about roasting either a) a whole bulb of garlic or b) a few cloves?

cut the root ends off, drizzle w/ oil, wrap in foil, put in slow oven (300 deg or so) until they feel soft (approx. 1 hr)