What's cooking? part 4

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.

yeah cabonara is super easy isnt it, it's one of me + my gf's go-to meals when its the end of the week and we're feeling lazy. and it's always delicious.

i can't believe i'd never tried it!
well, maybe i can. it's not partic healthy!

shhhhh yr not meant to mention that

god that sounds so delicious right now
don't know why i've never tried it either?!?! i guess i thought my mom's carbonara was magical and i could never do it.

Made a crazy amount of al pastor marinade this morning -- will freeze it in 2-cup units for future use. Now the question is, do I want to slice up this pork shoulder and marinate it in strips for quick grilling, or marinate it whole and cook it in the marinade until it's pull-apart-with-forks tender?

Isn't it usually slow roasted (dry, not in a mop or w/e it's called) and then carved off in pieces gyro/shwarma style? That's how I've seen it. Since that might not be an option, maybe strips for grilling might be the best alternative?

Also yummmmmmmmm

Yeah, I don't have the gear for gyro/shwarma style. I think I've decided on slicing the meat and grilling it.

Man, that sounds good.

Come on down, you can get here by dinnertime tomorrow. Bring pie.

btw, after looking at a dozen recipes, this is what went into the blender:

about 15-16 reconstituted guajillo chilies
1 large onion
about half a head of garlic
half of a pineapple
(I didn't have any orange juice, so) a peeled and segmented grapefruit
about 2 oz. of chipotle chilies + adobo sauce
about 1/2 cup cider vinegar
freestyled spoonfuls of cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, salt
palmful of dried oregano

After letting it sit for a while, it smelled a bit "hot" with raw onion and garlic, so I simmered it (covered, didn't want to reduce it) for 30 minutes. Much sweeter now, and the Scovilles are farther out front.

Okay, my official ramp to-do list / ideas for anyone else picking up ramps:

Preserving: ramp kimchi, pickled ramp bulbs, a few frozen bulbs.

Easter weekend ramp feast: ramp deviled eggs, ramp dip, ramp / bacon / ramp-sausage pizza, leg of lamb stuffed with ramps, ramp cheeseburger possibly with truffle cheese (if we have any leftover from Caitlin's birthday), ramp/bacon/asparagus/fried spaghetti frittata

And then ramp falafel with whatever ramps I have left.

i need some advice re brownies:

i made these vegan brownies and while they were completely delicious, they were a little too dry and not gooey in the middle. any tips on how i can retain a crunchy crust on top but allow the middle to be nice and fudgey?

i also need some advice on pan frying:

i dredged some oyster mushroom chunks in chickpea flour and dried tarragon and pan fried them in a mixture of peanut and safflower oils. they tasted great but they were really oily. now, this creation was my version of a dish i had at a fancy vegan restaurant, but theirs were pale and crispy and not oily at all. what am i doing wrong? i really have no clue about proper frying techniques.

My instinctive guess would be they need to be rapidly flash-fried in very hot oil, so they dont get a chance to soak it up? I'm not sure tho.

Generally fudgeyness vs cakeyness has to do with the ratio of fat to flour (less fat -> more cakey). (I don't know if you'd have to increase the margarine, necessarily - that recipe seems to get most of its chocolate from cocoa powder with only a little chocolate and therefore only a little cocoa butter, so maybe you could change that part.) Crust I'm not sure of - egg is a major contributor to forming a crust on brownies, and I don't know how vegan recipes usually make up for that.

I thought I had a McGee article bookmarked, but it's not McGee - it is food science, though: http://acselementsofchocolate.typepad.com/elements_of_chocolate/ACSBrownieChronicles.html

the egg in vegan cakes is usually replaced by flax meal or some other pea protein-based egg sub. the crust on top of these was fine - the problem was the fudgey part was pretty minimal. what about covering the dish with foil for 2/3 of the cooking time?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/5614861222_94ce2d0b2d.jpg

Yuzu pie, huckleberries.

Had to google that. Never heard of a yuzu! It looks like custard pie tho!

It is - it's just key lime pie with yuzu juice instead of the key limes. You can see where the custard separated from the crust at the edge because I left it in too long (no timer, no watch, and when I switched to HD I found out my cable box no longer has a clock on it).

The weather's calling for slow cooking so I'm gonna throw on a pot of bolognese sauce for dinner tonight. I think to change up my usual I might add a couple good italian pork sausages to the mince mixuture if I can find some quickly after work.

The only disadvantage on a weeknight is I can only cook it down for about an hour (or we'll be eating at 10pm!) but thats ok.

Made this caramel chicken tonight after my mom suggested it would be a good way to take care of surplus chicken thighs. I was worried it would taste like, you know, caramel, but it is more fish saucy rich nom.

ooh i was just thinking about something like that the other day - there's a local vegan restaurant that does an amazing caramelized chicken i was wondering if i could imitate it. what do you think i could sub for the fish sauce? i have vegan hoisin sauce... would that do?

maybe soy mixed with something else?

soy is the usual substitute i think....i also think i've seen vegan fish sauce for sale, made from mushrooms or something.

so not fish sauce really.

According to The Internet, veg fish sauce is available commercially (this link I am reading says Vietnamese stores are a good source).

http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/.a/6a00d8341ef22f53ef013487c816d1970c-500wihttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3249/2946691780_e49aca8507.jpg

I think soy + a little of the hoisin sauce would be a good sub in that recipe if you don't want to do Asian grocery detective work.

Recipes for cherry clafouti say to leave the pits in for the smell boost. Here: "Clafouti aficionados claim (and I believe them) that as the cherries bake, the pits give off a sexy, sensual scent that is missing from the pitted version." Ok ––– is this something that actually shows up in the flavor, too? I guess you guys wouldn't know? What a mysterious world we live in.

Maybe I could do a side-by-side of both & do the science for y'all. I have to say this is the #1 most vexing part of cooking for me tho.

It does, a bit like the difference in flavor between boneless meat and that cooked bone-in. More depth or something. Have you had the Armenian pastry from Costco that's made with mahlub? That's ground sour cherry pits, slightly almondy and nutty. Leaving the pits in adds some of that.

can i use all butter for a recipe that calls for butter + shortening?

Yep, might be more greasy but will taste awesome.

hmm any way to cut down on the grease? probably not...

i just don't feel like going to buy shortening

Try replacing a few tablespoons of flour with either rice flour or cornstarch. What are you making?

how is rice flour for baking? i have some sitting round from another recipe and was wondering if it would work in brownies.

If you mix it with wheat flour, it adds a lovely short crispness. Not sure if it can be baked with on its own. Have you tried coconut flour? It makes interesting brownies.

sandwich cookies!

i have some rice flour so i'll try that.

Recipes for cherry clafouti say to leave the pits in for the smell boost.

If you want the smell and flavor without spitting pits out later, you can crush the pits with a hammer and fish the little kernel out. That's where most of the flavor is - it'll smell like amaretto. I keep a bunch of cherry kernels in the freezer - frozen cherries come pitted, so I can toss a few kernels into a cherry pie or what have you and get a fuller flavor.

For that matter, you can use the kernels of any member of the prunus family - cherries/peaches/plums/almonds - to make creme de noyaux by steeping them in vodka. You'll find a lot of blog commenters claiming this is poisonous, and a lot of responders pointing out that they've done it for generations without being poisoned; believe who you like.

The cherry kernels are a major part of the flavor of maraschino liqueur, which is why fake maraschino cherries have almond flavoring added. Likewise the relationship is why you see a lot of cherry/almond pairings in desserts.

korean-inspired pancake tonight with baby bok choy, shrimp, scallions. i think there was too much flour in my batter (half reg, half rice), but still pretty easy and not bad on a saturday night.