What's cooking? part 4

I really really like granola with coconut jam as the sweetener - the Filipino kind (not kaya, which also has eggs). Haven't made that for ages.

Coconut jam?! ::makes note for Atlanta shopping trip::

The Filipino kind is really more like coconut dulce de leche - just coconut milk and sugar cooked down. Malaysia and I forget who else makes it with added eggs, more like curd in texture. Both are really good - but the Filipino kind is easy to add to stuff as a sweetener. I used to use it in my coffee all the time when I had a lot of Filipino stores around.

That sounds goooooooooood. Never had coconut jam, but there is a Filipino shopping center (like a warehouse with little stalls inside maybe?) just south of me. Maybe I'll go in there someday!

ive got kaya in the fridge but ive never seen the filipino one!

I made my own granola for the first time recently, too, and it's amazing! I eat with a soft serve kind of thing made from blended frozen banana, unsweetened soy milk and a 2nd fruit like mango or blackberry.

There's also coconut treacle, which I've gotten from Indian places - coconut sap boiled down, I think. It's a thick pourable syrup. I've made a chess pie with it, and this weekend we're having pig tails cooked and boned and roasted in a "barbecue" sauce of coconut treacle/tamarind/curd chiles/curry powder.

I bought onions, not realizing my wife and daughter had also bought onions. I have lots of beef stock in the freezer, and the weather is getting cool enough to make more. Lee has brought cool wind and lots of rain. Obviously, that makes today French onion soup day.

yum!

i have a kind of overgrown pattypan squash that bf brought home (grown by a coworker) and i'm not really sure what to do with it...

http://vegantester.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/potato-squash-gratin/

yum!

my mom had devised a casserole recipe for yellow crookneck but i talked to her earlier and she said this would work ok so i'm going to try it out. it has a milk/egg/yogurt custard and is pretty simple in terms of seasoning.

I tried to make sardine furikake like I always do but this time with a stainless steel pain. even though I used sardines from oil, the damn things stuck to the pain! grah

Tonight, we're having a ginger leek soup with kale and sliced boiled eggs.

I went to Abe's Barbecue in Clarksdale this past Tuesday, and their coleslaw was a revelation. (The cue was great also, of course.) I may never make a mayo-dressed slaw again. This was strictly vinegar, a very small amount of sugar, a very small amount of oil, a bit of salt and plenty of black pepper.

vinegary coleslaw >>>>> mayo-based

sorry to hijack the cooking thread, but

making black beans for the first time - some bean juice got on my countertop and left a stain that I can't remove w/ alcohol or vinegar or soap and water. tips??

bleach?

or maybe baking soda w/vinegar

bleach turned the stain red +_+

will try baking soda + vinegar

will also buy some hydrogen peroxide soon

What kind of surface is this stain on?

some kind of formica/plastic countertop. definitely not granite or enamel

baking soda paste didn't do much... will need to go to the pharmacy and buy some peroxide, I guess.

I had no idea black beans could stain like that!

It's the brief window right now where there's a lot of local produce - tail end of tomato season, ridiculous amounts of okra, the corn is finally good (it sucked for the first month), lima beans are here for their brief 2-3 week window, summer squash and winter squash will overlap for a little bit, there's so much watermelon I've been juicing and clarifying half of them, etc etc. I've got pickles going, kimchi, and a crockpot full of all the okra that I didn't get to picking until it was too big/tough to eat.

Tomorrow, succotash and okra-and-tomatoes.

I poured some peroxide over them and let it sit, and that seems to be doing the trick

back on topic: made bittman's 'my mom's peppers and onions' which is good! the onions caramelize and you get this sweet savory combination of onions and bell peppers. I'm going to put that in a tortilla with beer glazed black beans and rice tonight.

Making tom kha gai, simmering the galangal/ginger/lemongrass/garlic, and the smell is driving me mad with desire.

vinegary coleslaw >>>>> mayo-based

― excuse me you're a helluva guy (m coleman), Sunday, September 11, 2011 8:06 A

Making a late night snack curry - tofu, sweet potato, curry spices, onion/garlic/ginger, a bit of honey and some coconut milk, so simple and tasty.

Oh and chickpeas! forgot that.

I need a good recipe for a savory bread pudding, I think.

ooh i would love that. i don't like sweets so much but a savory bread pudding seems great for this time of year. actually, i made a butternut squash/kale/foccacia "stuffing" for thanksgiving last year that would almost qualify as a bread pudding. i wonder if it could be adapted...

during my 2 hours in the car dealership service waiting area today, i read this month's bon appetit cover to cover, and decided to make the korean steak tartare tonight. i've never attempted a raw dish at home and the bf was nervous but it was really good and we're not dead yet! had it with sticky rice and a mushroom/zucchini/green onion saute on the side.

haha I ordered steak tartare once because it sounded fancy and when it came I thought "did they just open a can of potted meat and upend it onto my plate"

mine was a little bit more loosely spooned rather than formed into a pretty circle.

when I made hamburgers from scratch this summer I couldn't stop myself from eating bits and pieces of the raw meat after I had seasoned it. u_u

well I bet they cheated with a cookie cutter! xp

true!

to be fair, the recipe just said to spoon the mixture onto the pears, so pooey on them for making me feel less than fancy.

haha I ordered steak tartare once because it sounded fancy and when it came I thought "did they just open a can of potted meat and upend it onto my plate"

had this exact same experience. was in France as a high schooler (on a sxhool trip) and thought the waiter was taking the piss. esp since he and the other waiters watched me eat it from a distance with smirks on their faces

q to you both: did you like it?

i had no idea that it would taste so good before i first tried it!

i had it for the first time earlier this year and i have to say i loved it. vinegary, rich, was great. would be scared to make it myself i think, tho there's no logical reason why. might buy mince from a particulrly good butcher.

I liked it! but I like raw protein in general. sushi is probably my fav food, too bad it's killing the planet. xp

I have a pork loin roast that I was thinking about braising low and slow in heavily spiced and seasoned stock like a chuck roast, but I'm not sure that's the best approach. It's a very lean cut, whereas chuck roast is well marbled, and I'm afraid the pork roast will just turn out tough. Any opinions?

I would also be wary with such a lean cut, but if you carefully monitored temp maybe you'd be OK? I pull pork off heat at 145. Living on the edge here.

Even a low temp braise will get the meat too hot too fast. I'd roast it in a low oven (250-300 F) until the interior is around 140/145. Coat in a nice dry rub of your spices first.

^^^I defer to Jaq on all cooking matters, but I've adapted a "no roasting below 450" stance a la Barbara Kafka.

Pork is so good when it's cooked low and slow! Beef and lamb are better done hot and fast to be sure.

any tips on using frozen corn? thaw first, or straight into the pan?

I throw straight into the pan, usually

My mouth wants some coffee ice cream but my body says "don't do it."

tried out the banana soft serve in my food processor. omg!

roasting a beautiful variety of beets
about to eat some prosciutto with fig jam and this crazy delicious aged sheepsmilk manchego
feel like a g with all this classy food