What's cooking? part 4

Ah! Now, I did wonder if one could make paneer with soy milk. So it does curdle succesfully if you add citric/vinegar to it then? I must try some scientific comparison tests w/milk version.

I also soaked some rice...

... and salt-cured some egg yolks. Threads like this make me realize how much I have in progress at any given moment, and what a pain in the ass my kitchen will be for my survived-bys in the event of my untimely demise.

Ramp season! I've got five pounds coming from my ramp guy. Deviled eggs, falafel, kimchi, dip, and a ramp-filled leg of lamb for Easter. I'll figure out what to do with the rest of them when I see how they are this year.

I've never had ramps. Maybe I should find a source this year.

Should definitely be in season by you - if you want to go the mail-order route, eBay is the best bet, and sellers generally won't insist on the unnecessary overnight shipping that online stores do. A lot of the stuff that comes to my mailbox, I might not get if I had to pay for it, but ramps are a staple. Whatever I don't use fresh, I freeze the greens and pickle the bulbs. Or this year, make kimchi out of them.

I always know when my ramps have arrived because I can smell them as soon as I get out of the car - even before I open the parcel locker, nevermind the actual package itself.

Going to get a fresh pineapple and some guajillo chiles and make a pork shoulder al pastor, probably Sunday.

guajillo is one of my favorite chiles!

Guajillos are awesome. I under-ordered the last time I got them, I'm never good at converting ounces into number of chiles.

I have three 12 oz bottles of Japanese citrus juices to play with, and am preheating the oven for "lemon" bars with one, and about to make a cocktail with the other.

q for bill: are you on erstwhile ilxor that once made pop rock bacon?

q for bill 2: is this yr work - http://okaycheckitout.blogspot.com/

if so, it is awesome, and an inspiration

Yes to both! I mean, someone else might have made pop rock bacon too ... bacon got huge. But yeah, I'm the ilxor formerly known as Tep, the blogger okaycheckingitout, etc. Thank you!

I found an interesting Indian currypowder mix at the markets labeled "special" and it says it has ramps and Methi in it. I'm not sure what flavours that adds but its a nice spice mix.

Whoa, I've never seen ramps dried - they'd account for a garlicky pungency, though.

Kabosu bars in the oven, some peeled grapefruit sections freezing to plunk into a Hemingway daiquiri with the ... yuzu, I think.

thought it was you! Welcome back---always enjoyed yr food ~thoughts~

xxxpost awesome! and speaking of yr blog, i am totally on board w/ 2011 being the year of the amaro, we just came back from italy w/ bottles of ramazzotti, averna, fernet branca & aperol (maybe the last one doesnt count as an amaro tho)

Thank you both!

I am so behind on my amaro posts! February was not only a - well, it's April now, isn't it. February and March were both busier than anticipated. I'll catch up. I haven't had Ramazzotti (I think it's carried in NY, so I'll order it sometime this year), but I'm a big fan of the others. Aperol especially is crazy flexible - you can substitute it for orange liqueur, so it makes an interesting margarita, etc.

yeah for sure, even my gf likes aperol despite not being really down w/ bitter things (btw you shld check out cad's mixology thread if you havent already - in the 2k10 i am learning to make cocktails. this is my mixology thread)

Yeah, it's much more user-friendly than Campari, and I think the bitterness is more in the range we're used to in food (grapefruit etc). Man, a whole mixology thread - will do.

holy shit, Tep!!!!!!! Very excited to see you here again! I think of you every time I make your vinegar chicken!!!!!

i just bought some amaro too! weird.

oh i like amaro nonnino or whatever it's called!

I don't even remember talking about vinegar chicken on ILX! That's very cool.

Nonino's another one I can't get here. New Hampshire's state-run liquor stores have an eclectic selection (one of the only states where you can get Root, but I can't get maraschino), so I wait until there's $100 worth of stuff I need so I qualify for free shipping from DrinkupNY. But there's a lot I haven't worked my way around to as a result.

The yuzu daiquiri is very cool but I need to remember that exotic citrus juices often aren't as tart as lemon/lime.

I don't even remember talking about vinegar chicken on ILX!

Seriously!? Dude thats one of them things you was KNOWN for.

Well. I know me for DIFFERENT things!

Hhaha <3

waht is it maed

i made my first carbonara last night (egg yolks, no cream). it would have been amazing, but the recipe called for 1 tsp red pepper flakes, which seemed excessive... but i put them in anyway. BAM. too much.

Oh man now I want carbonara for lunch but I will NOT get something like that cos I know I will be ill.

trayce i made that mushroom pate and it was really disgusting - i guess i don't like porcini mushrooms!!

i counted the vinegars in my cupboard the other day and realized i have TWELVE DIFFERENT KINDS. 6 months ago i had one.

oh snap

i have...two? apple cider and balsamic. i don't have reg vinegar around for some reason. but i use lemons/limes all the time?

i have cider, red wine, rice wine, balsamic, white, and an orange muscat.

i actually use limes/lemons way more frequently, too.

trayce i made that mushroom pate and it was really disgusting

Aw bums! It seemed like such a great idea on paper! I wonder if it'd work with field mushrooms?

yeah i think it was mostly the porcini - i've never had them before, and just opening the packet up had me feeling a little gaggy tbh.

i have:
ooh la la fancy balsamic
cheap balsamic
white balsamic
rice
malt
red
white
white wine
sherry
champagne
ume plum
apple cidar

cider, even

the supermarket we go to has an insane variety of flavoured vinegars - i want to buy them all!

They're crazy expensive, but Gegenbauer vinegars are worth at least gawking at. Instead of infusing a wine vinegar with something, they take the something, ferment it, and then turn that into vinegar - so the apricot vinegar is all apricot, the tomato vinegar is all tomato (and was tomato wine at one point), etc. I really want to make shrub with the sour cherry one.

hey btw what is the vinegar chicken recipe!?

Oh! Weirdly, I don't think I have it on my blog, but -

Vinegar chicken, a likely Italian precursor to Buffalo wings

Chicken parts, bone-in, skin-on
Crushed red pepper
Red wine vinegar or any other kind of vinegar
Salt
Heavy metal cleaver, or at least a good strong chef's knife

Chop each chicken part into several pieces, whamming the cleaver through the bone. They're hollow, it's fine. If the bone splinters a bit, you can run it under some water to make sure you rinse off any little bone fragments.

Brown the chicken in a pan, sprinkle with salt and crushed red pepper (it always seems to work better with crushed red pepper than powdered chile), add enough vinegar to come about halfway up the chicken, and then cook the vinegar off until it's become infused with the peppers and reduced to a sauce that's now clinging to the chicken.

You can add onions, garlic, etc., but it seems to work best when it's kept pretty simple. Tangy, spicy, a little sticky from the gelatin in the skin.

ooh. how much pepper do you use?

tehresa the recipe i use for carbonara just has cracked black pepper in it rather than red pepper, maybe worth giving a go

Yeah tbh I dont think ive ever had carbo with chilli. Its meant to have black pepper cos its meant to imitate miners coaldust.

I just bought one of these on student recommendation, but there's one fatal flaw. Anyone care to guess what it is?
(the flaw or the thing)

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/5599910025_f180a92cd8.jpg

chocolate frother?

yup, molinillo

the only problem is that it's kind of huge -- i don't make hot chocolate for 5 ppl at a time (usually just one, two max), and it's not fully submerged. still, it's a fun little thingie to have.

also my mom never cooked (like pretty much EVER) but she would occasionally make carbonara and OH HOW WE WOULD FEAST. It never had cream, just egg and bacon and parmesan. I still have no idea how she did it, but I would love to eat it again.

ooh. how much pepper do you use?

A liberal shake - you definitely want pepper flakes on every piece.

Damn, this looks interesting.

i would def use red pepper again in carbonara! just not as much. i also used black pepper.
amanda, it's totally easy! you just saute the bacon, throw in garlic + red pepper, deglaze w/ a touch of white wine. mix 2 egg yolks w/ a ladle of the pasta water, then put pasta in the bacon/garlic, add yolk mixture, and fold it all together. then fold in cheese, salt and pepper. garnish w/ parsley.

last night i sauteed a piece of chicken to throw into the leftovers. nom.