What's cooking? part 4

I've had the best success with almond flour in short crusts and coffeecakes (these made with huge amounts of egg) - I've got a recipe for sandwich bread I'm sadly not even tempted to try. If you ever want to play with coconut flour, it's strange stuff. Works well in one recipe for brownies, I think because the cocoa behaves somewhat like wheat flour, but has the weirdest texture in pancakes and other batters. It's used in south Indian cooking, breading for pakora, a component in dosa - things like that. I still have to try these.

I am still on my 'fit in last of the plausible winter cooking in Arizona' marathon, so I made oxtail stew today.

Have to try them out when I get a kitchen of my own one day.

i made gluten free mac 'n cheese last night for my sister using quinoa macaroni. (it's really quinoa and corn, they act all quinoa power! but corn is the main ingredient). i had a rack of ribs from salt lick in the freezer left over from a family gathering a few months ago. also made collard greens. god, i love collard greens.

Quinoa and corn pasta are the best. Anything else just turns to creamy mush. Tried some rice and tapioca blend, ugh! Threw it away. Big Lots has had a few gluten free items at considerably lower prices lately. Bought great pasta there. It was al corn. The whole GMO thing bugs me, really does, but I don't eat GF pasta that often and try to cut down on the amount of corn chips. GRRRR GMO corn.

I love collard greens too!

Cooked up some sliced king trumpet mushrooms, which have to be my fave mushrooms ever, w/some baby bok choys and some tofu (stuff I needed to use up) w/mirin and soy sauce and garlic...yum.

Sauteed shallot & garlic in OO and butter, with some rosemary, then chicken broth, and a shitload of grated parm. Dumped in half-cooked handmade orichette pasta and finished it in the sauce, topped w diced tomato. Woah. Roasted broccoli & chicken sausages on the side, but the pasta is the thing here.

Oh, because if a little is good, more must be better, I stirred 2 forkfuls of pesto into the sauce too.

i made this mee goreng recipe a couple of days ago and it was SO DISAPPOINTING. i really miss malaysian food, i had high expectations, but it was just bland and boring, nothing like the stuff back home.

now i have a jar of bean sauce - what else can i use it for?

i also made a lentil walnut loaf that was completely diastrous - the recipe didn't specify what kind of lentils and all i had were these tiny red ones. they turned to mush and the whole loaf just never set, tasted like nothing, was kind of gritty from the oats and made me feel like i was eating prison food.

arroz con pollo, as we speak

Jus the problem with that mi goreng recipe is it is missing the essential ingredient! The kecap manis! (and the dried onion, really)

(unless thats what "sweet bean sauce" is?)

kecap manis is just sweet soy sauce, right?

and thank god i only used 1 tbsp of sambal oelek instead of the 3 listed in the recipe - it was really hot!!

It's soy sauce with carmelized sugar and some other spices (star anise for one)

in better cooking news this week: i had been craving a ginger loaf my mum used to make when i was a kid. i finally found a recipe for it, veganized it, and it turned out FANTASTIC: moist, sweet, sticky, and good crust.

yeah kecap manis is sticky and thick, im p sure adding sugar to reg soysauce wouldnt be the same.

Proportions vary for kecap manis -- I think the last batch I made was about 3 cups soy sauce, 2 1/2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup water, a hunk of ginger (sliced), 1 star anise pod, 3-4 bay leaves and 4 cloves of garlic. I also add just a little hot chili paste, about 1/2 teaspoon. No need to boil it hard, just simmer together until it's thickened into the right consistency syrup.

thanks!

That makes a really big batch though -- for the first time, maybe make a smaller amt using those proportions -- you might like it less sweet, more garlicky, etc. I'm on my 3rd batch and I adjust it a little each time. I think I added a little piece of cinnamon stick the first time, but left it out the last time. An empty ketchup bottle with a squirt top is the perfect way to store it.

I just buy mine, all the azn grocers around here have plenty of brands.

(its v good on fried eggs)

yeah our main grocery story might sell it, but there asian section is pretty small.

I just don't cook well on electric stoves...ugh! Everything I attempt to make is shitty. I was baking juicy turkeys and roasted chicken, great pastries and now...enchiladas aren't even fit for a dog. Things I made all the time on my old gas stove are severely sub par now.

Using cast iron on electric stoves seems wrong too. That's not the problem though. Envious of all the successes on this thread, envious of my previous gas stove successes.

another mee goreng recipe i found had sambal tumis listed as the main ingredient. unfortunately, the main ingredient of ~that~ is shrimp paste. i'm not really sure what a good vegan sub for that part would be - something made from king oyster mushrooms maybe?

I can't stop braising! I cut up a turnip and a daikon and braised 'em in veg stock w/ a little Golden Mtn seasoning sauce (my faves) and mirin, and then threw some miso on that mess, and it's awesome. Also p proud that I got this random root veg in my CSA share and freestyled it so well. Having it w/some dressed greens and a steamed pork/veg bao, I have to say my dinner rules.

Yesterday I caramelized like 10lbs of onions and made a lamb shank curry, both of which were cooking for several hours. Today I realized while riding the bus to work that my jacket stank like something that had spent several hours in an enclosed space absorbing 9 pounds evaporated onion juice and various lamb / ginger / garlic / cumin aromas.

you smell delicious

Eating my leftovers from the other night: baby bok choy and fresh shiitakes with chicken over brown rice

I've been making spinach and feta gozleme all week. Really easy and totally delicious.

I loooooooooooooooooooooove anything with spinach and feta -- no idea what a gozleme is though

omg i just looked it up
looks GOOD

They are!

This week I made
lemon-crusted seitan: bland and disappointing.
” tangled thai salad”: pretty good.
banana soft serve with a pb-chocolate-coconut sauce: A+

Tonight I make” chicken” lettuce wraps.

Nothing in my kitchen, but there's a 2-day barbecue festival/competition in Tupelo tomorrow and Saturday. There are some folks around here who seriously misunderstand good barbecue, but with almost 100 teams competing, I have high hopes.

I made panko crusted mahi last night that I was really proud of for not being soggy

my chicken lettuce wraps were pretty good

tomorrow i attempt tofu satay

rounding second last day of 'use up everything in the crisper' dinner. last night was chard/mushroom/red pepper sautee with leftover brown rice & some bbq tenderloin that Mr Veg made; tonight is sausages I found in the freezer with braised kale/peppers/tomatoes/garlic (inspired by Austerity/Fluffy Bear on the Olive Garden thread today)

tomorrow afternoon: forage for a new week's worth of veggies yay, rinse, repeat

I am finding that buying an extra bunch of greens or two is great for getting me all the way through a week without having to madly scramble for new veggies at the last minute

Finally got around to doing some taste comparisons with the chili powders I got from Biad last month, since I had a little bit of boneless skinless chicken breast thawed out that didn't get used. I sliced it up and sprinkled half with the medium red chili powder (+ salt & pepper) and the other half with a combination of mild red and chipotle chili powder. Sauteed briefly in olive oil. Medium = decent flavor, no heat. Mild + chipotle = huge flavor, really delicious. Noticeable heat for me, an "I can't eat that" amount of heat for my wife. Smoked up the kitchen enough for us all to be coughing and sneezing. And now I'm eating leftover couscous with chicken and chopped tomato, cucumber and onion.

Made a yummy Beef & Guinness pie for dinner last night: should yield us at least another dinner & a couple of lunches. Love that type of big-leftover meal!

-was this the thread where I mentioned that I stuck an apple in the freezer for no reason? well, a few months later, the skin has started to shrivel. I don't know why! what is going on inside the frozen apple?

-made stir-fried udon with onions, green onions, and garlic today. glad I don't live with anybody!

sounds delish, dayo!

btw your apple is shriveling because freezers dehydrate things! even with the skin on, it's bleeding moisture out.

Cool, freeze-dried apple!

wd eat your udon, dayo

Made some ersatz colcannon – mashed potatoes with some gently cooked kale stirred into them. I had the worst mashed potatoes of my life last night (chunky AND runny at the same time and with way too much Pabst Blue Ribbon stirred into them, yikes!!). I felt the need to make things right.

Whaaaaaat. PBR in mash?

Gross

pro tip: after cooking the shit out of your spuds, return them to the pot on low heat and dry them out. maybe everyone but me already knew this, but it has been a revelation and improved my mash by about 10000%

oh and i figured out my peanut sauce problem: i kept asking everyone for "peanut sauce" and googling for "peanut sauce" recipes, but i found out what i actually meant was SATAY sauce. finally nailed it last night, but the tofu i served it with was disappointing.