What's cooking? part 4

Rice noodles perhaps?

i was thinking more along the lines of like how a big vinaigrette-dressed salad goes really well with a rich creamy pasta - but in reverse, for this dish. the salad is sharp and light, but it's not really the kind of salad you serve with rice or mashed potato.

xp yeah rice noodles could work

Candied lime peel, day 1.
All these lime peels seemed fairly thin as I was removing the pulp and membranes, and I was beginning to think "so that's why I never see candied lime peel for sale." But the blanching process made me realize that it's as much for making the peel plump up as for taking a bit of the bitterness out. All those nice fat water-filled cells will be nice fat sugar-filled cells in a couple of days.

You remind me, I wish to make some limoncello again. Must get lemons now while they're cheap by the kg.

Crossposted from 77 -- I rediscovered the best fruit cobbler recipe, which I had mislaid for a couple of years. I made it this afternoon with 2 cups of peaches and 1 cup of blueberries. It turned out extra juicy -- partly because I used so much fruit, but probably mainly because these blueberries are really huge juice-bags.

I made this in a 9" round baking dish, but a 9" square pan would probably work better.

- Put your fresh fruit, at least 2 cups, in the bottom of the baking dish.
- Boil together a syrup of 1 cup water and 3/4 cup sugar, pour over the fruit.
- Cream together 1 stick softened butter and 1/2 cup sugar.
- Mix in 1 cup self-rising flour, 1/2 cup milk, some cinnamon and some vanilla extract (recipe doesn't give a specific qty of these; I just eyeball it...about a teaspoon of each?)
- Spoon this batter over the fruit and syrup, spread it out more or less evenly. Don't mix the fruit layer and batter layer, and don't worry if there are some gaps where the fruit shows through.
- Bake at 350˚ until golden, about an hour. It still looked a little wet in the middle so I gave it another 10 minutes.

As the batter on top bakes into a soft biscuity topping, it'll wick up the fruity syrup from underneath. Really good.

made the bittman greek nachos tonight (i think harbl posted them originally) but used some chicken sausage (took it out of the casing) instead of lamb. still delicious but i think lamb would have made it amazing. also added diced red pepper. the sauce is really tasty! i may use it to accompany future meats (lots leftover) or to make some sort of mediterranean salad.

going to make lemon rosemary zucchini bread tomorrow. i got a ton of great zucchini from a relative's garden (local! organic! pesticide free!) last weekend and have thus far made zucchini panckaes, a zucchini ratatouille, and zucchini fritters (breaded w/ chickpea and rice flour; these kinda sucked). figured i'd use the last of it for something not savory. i am going to be so sad when it's gone, though!

I recently noticed that our grocery store has a small section in the "foreign" aisle devoted to British goods. I'm amused and my curiosity is piqued. I'm going to have to buy something. Dear Britishes, what I could do with a can of golden syrup?

YES BUY GOLDEN SYRUP!!! it really is delish.

things you can do with it:
- use it as a spread on toast ESP CRUMPETS MMMMM with lots of butter
- pour warm over pancakes
- make anzac biscuits/cookies
- make old-fashioned gingerbread loaf
- make hokey pokey biscuits
- make golden syrup steamed pud
- eat spoonfuls of it straight out of the can/bottle

Steamed syrup sponge or treacle tart (although I prefer black treacle for the latter).

Also (although the real answer is on Rowies, but nobody knows what I'm on about there) great in flapjacks.

around here it's a pretty popular biscuit (not-cookie) topping; use as you would sorghum

Biscuits make sense in the rowie use, it acts as a counterpoint to the saltiness of the other.

::googles rowie::

yesss

Flapjack:

125g / half a pack butter
120g / 8 tbsps demerara sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
220g oats - (2/3 normal, 1/3 jumbo oats in my mum's famed recipe)

melt butter in large saucepan, add sugar and syrup, stir well, add the oats, mix well, tip into baking tray lined with baking parchment (or er hmm just greased, i suppose) & put in oven gas mark 4/180c/350f for 20 mins. allow to cool but cut up while still warm. these measures just about fill my 35*20cm baking tray.

That sounds like an anzac w/o the coconut!

Justine, I've been meaning to ask - did you use sweetened shredded coconut for the anzacs or unsweet?

Flapjack a bit easier than anzacs i think? no flour or bicarb. You can put other things in though, dried fruit is a fave.

xp pretty sure it's unsweetened?? idk, i just buy it from the bulkfoods section. but there is a cup of sugar in the mix so probably stick to unsweetened.

Thanks, everybody! I can't wait for my next trip to the store!

want to make this four thieves vinegar, but have no idea where to find fresh (or even dried) anise hyssop for sale? i haven't done much searching for mail order stuff, just looked locally where i normally shop (produce markets, farmer's markets, etc) don't have a garden ;_;

http://nourishedkitchen.com/four-thieves-vinegar-recipe/

i know i could go ahead and make it without that, and that it would taste pretty great (probably) but (1) i really like the way it looks in the bottle and (2) i loooooove anise and want to infuse as much of the stuff into my life and my vinegar as possible

among other things, i am experimenting with improved condiments/garnishes/flavor pastes this year in order to simplify my life
(a boring old salad tastes a lot better with rose-infused vinaigrette or spicy candied walnuts and they're easy to make and have around without spoiling)

This weekend the new Big Green Egg debuted with a beer-butt chicken and a smoked pork shoulder, both of which came out way beyond expectations! Need to learn to control the temp better in the very low range (190-200 F); turns out there is a fine line between "low fire" and "no fire." I'd like to cold-smoke fish and cheese!

I got a couple of really nice smoked ham hocks at the Nashville Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, so I made a pot of white beans with them yesterday. While they were simmering, I took a look at all that good smoky pork broth and said "hmmm" -- pulled aside a couple big ladles full of it and used it to braise some chicken thighs, so today I have some really tasty chicken to shred up into a hoagie-roll sammich.

La Lechera, you could use fennel fronds or angelica instead of hyssop to get a similar flavor. I love the idea of infusing vinegar - have a huge pot of lavender in bloom right now as well as rosemary and tarragon doing okay in the garden. Need to get some mint planted though - I want it to take over the yard, think how amazing that would smell!

you don't think it would lose a floral edge? i guess the lavender would take care of that, and look just as pretty if i used fresh instead of dried.
i'll try it!

backyard of mint so dreamy

Exactly what I was thinking on the lavender. Angelica is a more floral anise flavor to me, too, while fennel is more vegetal?

i got an amazing present in the post today, and apparently i have jaq to thank!!!!

(i got a big pot, with a steamer basket and a deep colander type of thingy - may sound like a dumb present, but i've told ytth to stop buying me useless gifts and start buying me KITCHEN gifts. so he did. and he asked jaq for advice on what sort of pot to buy. lol.)

Hope it suits!

whenever my gf's birthday comes around i consider cool kitchen stuff, which we'd both use, but then i feel like homer buying marge the bowling ball with his name engraved on it and try to think of something else. i stress wayyy too much abt gifts though.

yeah, i used to think buying stuff like that as 'gifts' was pretty lame and mean, but i'm REALLY into kitchen stuff now, and it's not like we're made of $$$. plus, buying me kitchen stuff is a guaranteed hit.

like, sadly, i would be SUPER FUCKING PSYCHED, if i got a dyson vacuum cleaner for xmas.

Oh man, I'm just fine with Mr. Jaq buying me kitchen stuff, as long as I get to use it first (and, you know, the most).

Ditto, if I got a cherry red KitchenAid mixer. Or a couple of bits of cast iron cookware. Or a full set of the highest quality knives.

(all of which are 100s of $$$ so, it aint gonna happen sigh)

yeah, i should probably get over it, cooking together has become a pretty cool part of our relationship (unless i'm crabby, i've made it sorta unpleasant a couple times!) we've been looking at cast iron cookware the same way we look at puppies we'd love to adopt.

You'll have the cast iron longer.

jaq, those narrow metal shelving units you have in your kitchen - are they from ikea? i have been coveting them ever since we visited you.

No, I've only ever found them on-line here: http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/pantry-rack-chrome.do
They really are great, pretty much the perfect size for kitchen stuff.

garden yielding tomatoes hand over fist. what are your great tomato recipes, ILC??

Sliced, fresh from the garden, with some buffalo mozzarella. Dressed with olive oil and salt.
Seeded and chopped into ceviche.
Seeded and chopped into tabouli.
Excess crop turned into tomato paste and canned/frozen.

So jealous of succesful tomato growing. Thus far, it has evaded me :( Damn possums.

Tomato sandwich with mayo, salt and pepper, eaten over the sink because the juice is going to run down your arms.

Excess crop turned into tomato paste and canned/frozen.

― Jaq, Wednesday, July 27, 2011 10:15 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

any good method for this? or should I turn it straight into sauce?

got about 20 tomatoes today and looking at the plants will probably harvest at least 10 more tomorrow. for a 3 person household... :O

can you make a tomato relish?

i also like a tarte of crust, spicy mustard, and tomatoes.

http://www.foodinjars.com/2010/09/tomato-jam/

any good method for this?

You really want a food mill or a strainer (like this one) because it is incredibly tedious to peel tomatoes and pick out all the seeds from the pulp. And if you peel and seed, you lose a lot of the flavor (which is in those little juice packets around the seeds).

Peeling by dropping them briefly in boiling water until the skins loosen and then coring/coarsely chopping then canning might be your best bet. Frozen chopped tomatoes really suffer for texture, though can be a nice addition to soups/stews/braises.

Depending on the type (romas work best for this), you could try to dry them.

Okay, that tomato jam sounds life-changing. I'll be making some of that once I get some ripe ones on my vines.

yeah that tomato jam sounds great! lot of sugar though

what's wrong with leaving the peel/seeds in the preserves?

my dad is bringing me some fig jam he made last weekend :)

Do you have a lot of available freezer space? The last few years, I've peeled them (boiling water method), cut the cores out and cut them into quarters/eighths, then just frozen them in quart bags. Nice rough'n'ready method, quick, no jar processing needed. But you have to have a bit of freezer space.

Otherwise, canning in quarts is SOP.