What's cooking? part 4

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.

yum, i love mahi.

i made bulgogi and attempted to make lettuce wraps w/ the bulgogi, sriracha, and rice, but i only had romaine heart leaves. i think i may try this again for my department pot luck on tuesday using a broader, more wrap-able lettuce because it was super tasty! would probably be even better w/ coconut rice. hmm...

dinner:
soba noods with orange peppers, edamame, onions, oyster & mushroom sauce (just a little of each left), ginger, black/white sesame seeds
and
spinach salad with beets, oranges, onions, orange peppers, walnut oil

for husband's work xmas party:
orange-cardamom cake (from cooking light, best holiday cake recipe ever, always use freshly crushed cardamom, i cannot recommend this cake enough) http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001687711

ok perhaps i was hyperbolizing -- maybe not best holiday cake recipe EVER but i still come back to it all the time and people seem to like it. v moist and easy (no butter involved, you just have to have oranges and lemons and pretty regular other stuff on hand)

that spinach salad sounds right up my alley.

Who here knows what do do with

a) radishes
b? cabbage

we get organic delivery and sometimes I have to deal with these curveballs

shave radishes and make a salad?

cabbage: stir fry, slaws, japanese pancake

cool thanks! will research "japanese pancake"

sorry, okonomiyaki
someone posted a great blog/link to a recipe on one of the nn threads, but i can't find it now. but it's super easy! like a japanese latke!

WOW that sounds great

Yah theyre like a big flat bubble & squeak, but with Bulldog sauce and mayo slathered on.

I've never heard of such a thing, thank you for turning me on to this okonomiyaki. I'll ask my friend Luci about it, she is from Japan.

raw shrimp?

i've actually never used mayo on them. i really just shred cabbage, mix w/ rice flour and egg, and fry in a pan.

Also we seem to get a million kinds of squash and need to expand our squash skills. Like...butternut, summer, basically all of the squashes

we've made squash spaghetti and I've sauteed it in butter

you can make an asian-ish spaghetti squash salad w/ scallions and veggies and a touch of sesame oil.
stuffed acorn squash is great. as is roasted butternut squash, and roasted butternut squash risotto, soup, with pasta, etc.

tza: oko are huge in Melb as a junk food/fast food thing, and the sushi joints all slather them in baby mayo and that dark sauce (bulldog sauce? the fruit sauce, the one a bit like HP)

Mmmmmm.

http://www.pref.osaka.jp/en/attraction/cuisine/konamon/img/okonomiyaki.jpg

yeah, they are 'japanese pizza' iirc. i know ppl put mayo on em, i just never have. not a fan of mayo. at all.

Saute the radish tops like any other green, mmmmm spicy good.

roast radishes are also yum imo

sorry more boring se-azn food posts, but i found kaffir lime leaves! i like them a lot. this my thing i do. as sort of an alternative to curry. (also sorry for mom-style recipe, it's how i cook most of the time)

lime leaves 3 to 5 (depending on size/how much i'm cooking)
chilies - 5 or 10 or 12? (again depending on how much i'm cooking and whether or not gf is eating it too, also smaller ones are hotter, it seems?)
some lemongrass, or galangal, or ginger, depends on what i have/feel like.

put that all in a food processor and go BUHZANG until it's all in little bits, simmer all the bits in a few tbs of peanut oil a few minutes, and from there it's about what you'd do when making curry. add sliced up chicken or whatever. and green onions maybe and whatever other vegetable or something you wanna have with it. tbs or two of fish sauce. nuts to sugar, don't need that junk. simmer a little while. i add a bunch of mint or basil at the end but cilantro probably works too.

really distinct from any curry i've had. lighter. fresher kind of liveliness or something like um. that?

my friend made us all a big four course christmas meal the other day and i died so good.

baked pear with chevre and bacon on it. no idea how this was so incredible.
pasta thing with roasted peppers and idk what else but it was so good.
cornish game hens, old butter under the skin and stuff it with citrus routine. side of mashy parsnips w/ heavy cream and oh man great.
arugula salad to cleanse palette before desert, had pine nuts and some balsamic vinaigrette mixture she concocted.

i forget the desert. just bunch of different kind of cookies iirc? i'd had a lot of wine by this time!

arby's your curry sounds great, will try.

fresher kind of liveliness or something like um. that?

have you made your own curry with fresh ingredients before? they're like that!

nah i've just used the mae ploy stuff cuz i can never get all of the ingredients at once.

dunno how key this is to what i like about the stuff i've been making, but: i've never used more than three ingredients in the chili mixture (i'm going to experiment more though), and i never grind to a paste. just little visible bits.

We got a cheap nut assortment as a Dirty Santa present last weekend. The almonds were very underseasoned, so I threw them in a skillet with some butter, brown sugar and a pinch of salt -- much better. Next time, maybe a pinch of cayenne as well.

i got a mandolin for my bday (and a super cute apron, too, and some new potholders and dishcloths)... must think of thinks to SLICE!

fennel is one of my favorite things to slice on a mandoline! <3 fennel so much.

Careful not to slice yr fingers off! I have done that so many times. I am terrible and never use the hand guard, haha. I'm all "la la la, slicing up the carrots ow ow"

xp

haha my dad had a friend whose fb pic is of her hand w/a bandage bc she didn't use the hand guard on her xmas present mandoline

Have never used my hand guard with mandoline and have not shed blood, but have done so on microplane/box grater repeatedly!

i mean, i chopped my thumb a few weeks ago w/ a regular knife so i should probably at least start out by using the hand guard

shit tza you should have told me you wanted one - we have a fancy cuisinart one we never use! i would have sent it to you.

oh i didn't even ask for one, it was just given to me as a bday present.

They are excellent for making scalloped potato bake. Thin slices of tato = cooked right thru.

i make omelettes with sliced potatoes all the time w/ mandoline. lay them in the frying pan and fry them until cooked, add chopped onions, cook, pour in eggs

ooh like tortilla style

yeah i think i was making that first and kept not having all the ingredients in the winter, so that's my pared down version

i am going to have a week or so to plan some recipes bc i have to have it mailed to me. no blades on the carry on baggage!

i know that i could just slice veggies for this but maybe i will use mandolin to make perfectly cut quick pickled veggies.
http://tinyurl.com/253fp9s