What's cooking? part 4

Because you are not kidding about the 1000 pieces.

The plastic handles of Le Creuset pots are oven-proof, right? I mean it's not even very hot in there.

i looked it up once. i think they are safe to 375 or so. i was making no-knead bread and it was hotter than that so i unscrewed the top and put a piece of aluminum foil in the hole to plug it up.

that wasn't a handle though, the little holder thing in the center? i think they're the same material

i decided to try making ratatouille in my crock pot and it was disastrous - i timed everything all wrong and ended up letting it cook for like 10 hours. i actually managed to completely cook all flavour out of it. it literally tasted like... nothing.

Trying to eat more beans because
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6EX0GepzOA

I made the awesomest batch of pintos: garlics, cumin, tons of the CHILE FROM HATCH, and that smoked sea salt + pepper just chilling in the pot liquor. I have eaten them every day for over a week and I'm still not tired of them. Think up next are some Anasazis!

Made menemen for the first time. Ridiculously simple and so, so good. Perfect for an excessive breakfast.

Abbott, I wish more ilxors understood the amazing power of the CHILE FROM HATCH. I don't build whole vacations around just any foodstuff.

I bought a 40 lb bag of roasted hot Hatch hiles from the farmer's market & it was defs my best investment of 2011. What's left is taking up 1/4 my freezer.

So jealous!

I bought a bunch of chile powders (mild and hot green, mild and medium red, chipotle) from Biad Chili, the processor that NMSU uses. Can't wait to get through current work deadlines so I can get into the kitchen and tinker.

my coworker was raving about hatch chiles! they sell them canned at whole foods but they are so freaking expensive.

does chile from hatch get auto-capped like DUMPLINGS!?

it probably should.

Yo that beef stew up there was straight magic. I'm making it again this weekend as a ragout for some heavy egg noodles.

trying to decide what's cooking tonight. i want vegetables.

OH so that's what hatch chillies are. Someone gave me like a half-pound frozen bag of them for Christmas, already washed and slivered and in some kind of green sauce. I haven't decided what to do with them yet, I don't even like spicy food that much.

Or maybe they're not specif Hatch chillies but the New Mexico green ones, anyway, that NMers love.

There's not a single chile variety called the Hatch chile, actually, per the FAQ at the Chile Pepper Institute -- the Hatch/Las Cruces area is just the biggest growing area. The Anaheim chile is usually the variety grown and sold as "Hatch chilies."

gonna walk to the chinese store and see if they have eggplants or if not that baby bok choys and i will eat them with my leftover "spicy sauteed fish" from last night's chinese

i always forget about baby eggplants. the chinese ones. i love those.

where is the thread about roasting chickens?

they had eggplant! a pile of them. gonna make an honest attempt at this because chinese eggplant is my favorite vegetable and i am always wanting it

Laurel, if you got your chilis in a sauce, they are already done and you don't need to do anything with them. This is just called green chili in NM/CO. You scoop it up with tortilla, or pour it over a burrito, etc.

at my chinese grocer's, I was looking for frozen DUMPLINGS! but noticed the pickings were very sparsed. then I noticed they had giant freezer coolers in the back. when I opened one, it was filled with bags and bags of DUMPLINGS!, all by the same company! I bought one and made them today, and I can see why this store would keep bags and bags of them. they're really good for frozen DUMPLINGS!!

i was gonna buy some DUMPLINGS! too but most of them were porky and i wanted some nice vegetable DUMPLINGS!

I will check to see if this brand also makes vegetable DUMPLINGS!

this eggplant isn't perfect but it's pretty good for first try guessing at the recipe because all the internet ones had something wrong with them imho

is it the really long and slender eggplant? that is the best kind of eggplant

can you tell us the brand name or is it a secret?

oh totally! it's called wei-chuan. the logo is red with white lettering.

the cooking method is so interesting - you add the DUMPLINGS! to a pot of boiling water. when the water boils again, you add a cup of cold water. wait for it to boil again. repeat 3 times. then it's done! so interesting.

yes the long and slender kind! it's like it doesn't even matter if my recipe is right because their texture and taste are so perfect to me

that is weird, when i got DUMPLINGS! from the chinese store i was just using my steamer basket

my dad makes this sweet/sour/salty chicken at home, I recently made it with eggplants, it's just as delicious perhaps even more delicious w/ eggplant, I'm glad to have a vegetarian version

oh cool

http://www.weichuanusa.com/

oh yeah i think chinese store has that kind, or i'm thinking of seeing them in h-mart which probably has a whole aisle of different DUMPLINGS!

no vegetarian options : (

Wait, you can take a steamed bun and pan fry it??
http://www.weichuanusa.com/panfrybun.html

*nods slowly*

that's possible with only certain kinds of bun wrappers and not others

Bit like a gyoza in that sense, perhaps?

Wow. So would it be like steamed pork buns? I have been able to make those at home.

Oh, wait, I don't mean like the big picture of gyoza, but like the picture at the end of the second row here:
http://www.weichuanusa.com/products.html

you can probably panfry something like this kind of wrapper

http://www.wensh.net/up/2/img/701.jpg

but not the fluffy, bready kind

http://i.imgur.com/jBn6I.jpg

Yeah they'd just stick to the pan and break apart wouldnt they?

argh fluffy bready kind in the rice cooker leaving flakey scabs all over the rice argh!

xp, yeah, that's why I was surprised, seeing that photo. It would never occur to me to pan fry a steamed bun! Well, maybe the next time I make a batch, I'll give it a try.

yeah trayce. but maybe if you coat them in egg first like french toast *hmmmmm*

nonstick frying pan ftw

omg french toasted steamed pork buns! D:

Thats like strongos nuevo cuisine next level, man.

*pours maple syrup over french toast pork buns*