What's cooking? part 4

fresh spaghetti all'arrabbiata

Think I'll grill some burgers today.

Also, we're in a good stretch of high pressure/low humidity, so I can make some peanut brittle.

laurel, i am watching a cooking show right now and they just put lemon cucumber in a soup!

you can't buy golden boy fish sauce

― john water (harbl), Thursday, 4 November 2010 23:18 (Yesterday)

wait you can't? i could swear a place down the road from me has it.

anyway, http://importfood.com/satc2408.html

keeping my eye out for ^

― arby's, Friday, November 5, 2010 7:07 PM (Yesterday)

i was making a joke about a song about golden boy peanuts, arby's

Wow, tza! So I guess it's not just a one-off. Does the soup look good??

it did! it was more a bright vegetable puree soup though, served w/ actual pieces of veg. it was a show about the 'new guard' of french cooking - those throwing old french cooking rules out the window and being adventurous with new techniques and flavors.

ay amon you know that fish sauce is pretty barf-y anyway right? that usually it's when you add it to stuff that it becomes magical

made a shaved brussels sprouts & parm salad last night. forgot how delicious it is! and sooo easy!

made persian recipe for lamb meatballs, butternut squash with prunes and walnuts, and arab salad last night

from claudia roden middle east cookbook and najmieh batmanglij vegetarian cookbook

lamb shanks with three types of mushrooms, puy lentils, shallots, onions, cheap shiraz and redcurrant jelly

lamb shanks!! jealous!

Tza, what's the sprouts & parm recp? Was remembering sprouts the other day in produce sect but didn't spring for them for lack of immediate ideas.

http://www.culinate.com/user/Marissa-RD/recipes/marissas_recipes/shaved_brussels_sprouts_salad_with_pecorino_romano_and_walnuts

i have had many variations - that's the one i made last night, but did not use walnuts as boy has a violent dislike of nuts other than peanuts (boo!). i think next time i will toast walnuts on the side and throw into my serving. first had this at lupa... it's on their antipasti plate of awesomeness... along w/ roasted beets in a mustardy vinaigrette, which i also love to make now.

ay amon you know that fish sauce is pretty barf-y anyway right? that usually it's when you add it to stuff that it becomes magical

― just sayin, Saturday, November 6, 2010 1:41 PM

yes i know what fish sauce is and there are different degrees of fishiness w/ each brand, the better quality ones are supposed to be less fish-stinky.

also potung had mae ploy curry pastes in stock, why didn't harbl tell me!

minestrone soup with kale and a barley/veg casserole type thing

roasting a pork tenderloin marinated in bourbon, soy, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger... hope it turns out well! this is my first ever attempt at roasting a large piece of meat! (finally bought a meat thermometer lol)

i am roasting pork tenderloin too jinx! bought it cuz it was super cheap at fancy supermkt, like $2 a lb for organic/local/etc. anyway, laid it out and dressed w/ a mashed-up combo of garlic (lots), fresh sage & rosemary, dried thyme, salt, olive oil. (plus threw in some pan drippings from chicken breast i cooked yesterday cuz i hate to let a reduction go to waste. misguided, maybe, but we'll see.) refrigerating now to marinate, will cook late tonight, along with roast brussels sprouts. pinot grigio because i lack taste.

yr marinade sounds amazing though, theresa

i made pancetta/pea risotto for dinner
+ spinach/beet salad
+ apple/pear/thyme/cinnamon/caramel+sea salt sauce puff pastry thing for dessert

thanks, daylight savings time

so... i opened the oven when my timer went off and the meat looked raw so i thought 'hmm this oven is weird maybe it wasn't hot enough' and let it cook a bit longer. when i opened it again i noticed it was not raw at all.. the color had changed from the marinade. so... the outer ends were a dried out but the center is ok. i need a light in my oven :( had some frozen 'gravy' from the last time i cooked pork (pan stuff + apple cider + brown sugar) - defrosted and added some bourbon and simmered to make a sauce to put over the dry bits, but it is too sweet. anyway.... now i know never to trust how things look in my oven!

dang la lech that dessert sounds amazzzzzzing.

i'm telling you -- TJ's puff pastry is a gift from the gods
it can be sweet or savory, small or large
love that shit and dread the day it disappears (seasonally)

i was making a joke about a song about golden boy peanuts, arby's

― john water (harbl), Saturday, November 6, 2010 11:20 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

loloops. i even have that one.

lamb shanks!! jealous!

― just1n3, Sunday, 7 November 2010 17:43 (Yesterday)

they were great, and hardly any effort

usual extent of cooking = steak or pasta

yesterday's pork roast w/ garlic & herb pulp came out AMAZING. holy shit! was worried that the fresh herbs would be too bitter, but no, not at all, so enticing. 40-some minutes at 375 til 155 or so on thermometer, et voila. some of the most amazingly best meats i've put in my mouth in quite a while. ever so slightly soft pink in the middle, juicy as fuck, unbeatable. tonight i baked some cauliflower to go with leftover slices, last night's few brussels sprouts exhausted. was epic (again).

admit the "adding chicken pan scrapings" bit was a weird idea, but it worked awful damn well. salty, but the dressing:pork ratio was so damn low that the extra salt was a plus, really. i would proudly serve this food to any people at any time. ace+

chili!

omg jinx

using a crockpot for the ~first time ever~

not sure how it's gonna turn out :-/

amazingly

it needs something

try garam masala.

just made puttanesca for the first time - don't think i've ever eaten it before - and, wow, this is an amazing combination of flavours. i never knew!

Last night: Too much beer, dry roasted dusty pissnuts and a roll mop.

Not exactly cooking I know, but a classic of the English genre, inexplicably omitted from Jane Grigson's otherwise excellent English Food.

(making up for it tonight with pork and anchovy meatballs, fresh tagliatelle with sage and butter and courgette fritters to start).

just realized i should have thrown a little splash of fish sauce in that chili i made. it's good but not amazing. not bad for something quickly thrown together on wed night. i need a crockpot for sure.

it's good but not amazing.
i feel like this about most weeknight dinners
have been soooooooooo busy with work the last few weeks that i have been relying on dull staples (pasta, salads, meat-starch-veg)
maybe next week i can bring it to get ready for t-giving

Think I'm gonna do a whole chicken this weekend as a test run for turkey. I've never cooked a whole bird before!

trussin'

hicken is piss-easy as long as your oven behaves. I've ebven roasted one in an electric frypan - actually that came out really well, nice and juicy!

hicken? Gah.

just stuck this in the oven. i added red pepper, zucchini, and some spinach, and used red onion and a lot more garlic than the recipe called for as well as some additional herbs.

Maybe it's the cold weather making me hungrier/more appreciative/craving this kind of thing, but I've been cooking lots of comfort food type stuff recently and damn if it hasn't been some of the best food I've ever eaten.

crockpot burnt my chili anyway :(

I have been trying to eat less meat – for dinner I roasted some grape tomatoes & garlic cloves and ate it with some couscous cooked w/cumin. Pretty satisfying.

My mom bought me a five pound bag of couscous almost a year ago and I still haven't gone through 1/3 of it. I feel like that is a fucking lot of couscous. I cook up a cup of it and after both my husband and me eating it, there'll still be enough for leftovers the next day. I have probably 40 lbs of white rice because of her, too.

yeah i have an enormous bag of quinoa my mom got me at costco that just won't quit!

making up for it tonight with pork and anchovy meatballs

is this a nigel slater recipe? i have a great one for this...

been using the oven a lot lately, cooked roast potatoes this week as a comfort food with some chicken wings, it was so nice, i hadn't eaten them in months and months, prob since last xmas at parents house.

here is my first chicken :)
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs562.ash2/148432_456815416588_506836588_5759511_1064929_n.jpg

Thats a huge roasting dish! (or a v small bird?)

i don't think the bird was esp small!

That pan'd never fit in my oven! I need to get one like that with a rack.