What's cooking? part 4

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.

Looks great! I haven't roasted a chicken in a while.

Tonight I made a weird cold squid salad that combines Indian and Latin American flavors and could be served over salad greens (or baby spinach), tostadas, or fried unripe plantains.

Looky:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/5176993128_fa4cf08c30.jpg

It was really tasty and not all that complicated if you have access to various types of chile en polvo (ancho and guajillo) and squid that someone else has taken the trouble to clean. (O.47 lb cost me $2.31)

yummmm!

i am currently working on a butternut squash risotto.

mmm that roast chicken looks nice, i can never get skin brown & crispy

would order that squid salad in restaurant

Ikea do a pan like that, it's pretty good and cheap. How did you get the chicken skin like that? I'm lazy and never bother putting anything on the chicken except olive oil or butter but I'm making one for Thanksgiving and feel like I should make an effort.

would like some advice on cooking a couple of lamb chops, as it seems after 3 years i've completely forgotten how.

ive been making calzones from scratch, remarkably easy

i hope you're freezing them and defrosting when starving! that is the best thing to do with homemade calzones, aside from eating them.

i rubbed a little bit of butter between the skin and the flesh and then sprinkled salt and pepper and squeezed a little lemon juice over the bird. then i put a tiny little pad of butter on top as i put it in the oven. then i basted it regularly. it sounds so crazy but there really was not that much butter.

I think a hot oven's also key? I only put butter and a few herbs on mine, some "chicken sprinkle" (salt and paprika I think it basically is) or whatever, but I roast it at 200C for at least the first hour.

i put half a lemon and a few sprigs of rosemary in the cavity. helped with moisture!

we were talking earlier about easy southeast asian stuff that doesn't require too many weirdo ingredients? i made this stuff the other night and it was great (i used basil instead of cilantro). if all you can get is fish sauce you can probably sub for a different chili of some sort and everything else involved is pretty readily available anywhere iirc.

though the toasted rice powder is a little gritty and kinda freaks out the part of me that's been rendered paranoid by having a dental hygienist mom. will probably grind it finer next time in spite of the recipe recommending otherwise.

xpost yeah tza's lemon trick is good (i've done it with a few orange halves, and then a weird orange/miso paste i spread under the skin which i think renders with the fat or something or other and continually bastes it while roasting)

cooked a chicken tonight w some little reddish-purple potatoes (even purple on the inside, and one was shaped like a heart <3). stuffed the chicken with leftover vegetable stuff: some celery leaves and the tiny stalks from the middle of bunch, onion ends, garlic, sage leaves and rosemary twigs. rubbed the skin w butter and put lots of S&P overtop. then just let it roast: first at 375 for about half an hour, then up to 400 or so for another 30 min. skin came out all nice & brown & crispy by the time the thigh meat hit 165. easy and really, really good!

also ate some bok choi i had lying around. was gonna sautee it, but i just wound up eating it uncooked and dressing-free, along with some green pepper slices. turns out it's an excellent raw crunching vegetable, just never thought to eat it that way before.

basting periodically helps brown the skin, as does raising the oven temp towards the end of your cooking time. careful with that, though, or you'll overcook the bird. really good trick is to work the breast skin free with your fingers and spread butter around under there, too. almost never do that though, too much bother.

would like some advice on cooking a couple of lamb chops, as it seems after 3 years i've completely forgotten how

don't know if this is too late but i would season them, salt and pepper, sometimes i add a bit of herbes des provences if you have that banging around, then put a tiny bit of oil onto them. get a griddle pan really fucking hot and sear them for about 2 mins each side, leave the middle pink, if you like add a drop of balsamic vinegar when they're done. others may have diff advice but that's how i like them if i'm having them straight up.

made a really nice rocket salad tonight and had a steak as a sort of self reward for doing well at job interview...it was such a good steak, LOVE my griddle pan and i have this one gas ring that is fucking huge and ridiculously hot which i use for nothing else but steak....it fills the entire flat with smoke but fuck it...

Yeah raw bok choi is a nice salad ingredient actually! My sis in law made a really ace asian crunchy noodle salad last xmas, the recipe she had called for wombok cabbage but she decided to use chopped bokchoy instead. You mix it with a bag of those crunchy fried Changs noodles, some nuts, and a dressing of soy, chili, vinegar/miso or something like that. Utterly delish. Though being a crunchy salad you have to eat it when you make it or it goes all soggy.

http://www.changs.com/recipes/view-recipe?id=90e1d9544e2a624ad5a9838d57a3ca5b

it fills the entire flat with smoke but fuck it...

Oh good! So it's not just me....

Tonight -- BLTs with young tender leaves of mustard greens instead of lettuce -- A++++.

bmgt

My grill pan does that too, but I still love it.

so i bought some turmeric root on a whim today...what do i do with it?!

eat it eat it

(unless it's poisonous like that)

clearly one minute too late with that

cook up some dal, T!

I have a ton of beets. What do I do with them?

borscht

roast them, toss in a mustardy vinaigrette, serve over greens, sprinkle of goat cheese on top.
or borscht!

had an amazing dinner last night, slow roasted pork belly with sweet/white potato mash, and a rocket salad with some olive oil/balsamic...so fucking good!

this recipe is really good, i just made it http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sri-lankan-chicken-curry/Detail.aspx

except i used chicken thighs and pre-cooked and sort of shredded them

Picked the remaining apples from the tree today - 15 quarts, now quartered and steaming for processing into apple butter during the week.

got one of the best compliments ever today --

made squid/shrimp/red pepper/corn/lime/chile salad/tostadas for class party today and someone told me that i'm the first white person he's met who knows how to cook con sazón.

*bow* you're welcome

proud

will freely admit that i am the kind of cook who thrives on well articulated compliments

I made some mashed potatoes for a work potluck today – 10 lbs of spuds (plus one pound of butter, heh heh) and still not enough for everyone (19 people). A coworker told me I "make bomb-ass mashed potatoes," and then asked if I put scallops in them. Is that a thing? Did he mean scallions? Is he confused about the idea of "scalloped potatoes"? So mysterious.

oh he must have meant scallions, scallops would be on some dr strongo ish

i love mashed potatoes so much. what's actually amazing is to mix sweet potato and normal...so good with a salad and a lamb chop or something.

i actually had a scallop dish with mashed potato and some kind of creamy sauce that was amaaaaaazing - but it was a really super fancy restaurant.

a while later i was at another restaurant that had a similar-sounding dish on its menu which i ordered, and it was absolutely disgusting.

what's actually amazing is to mix sweet potato and normal

an under-deployed favourite. I enjoy this w/ green beans and rich tomato sauce

Tonight I made mahi-mahi, marinated in some ginger something, and coconut rice.