What's cooking? part 4

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.

satay sauce! yes, I need to have this!

1/2 c peanut butter
3/4 coconut milk
1.5 tsp curry powder (i think it could use a little more, tbh)
1 tbsp lime juice
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp neutral-flavoured oil

blend! the original recipe has garlic and soy sauce, but i left those out, bc all the other peanut sauces w/soy really grossed me out - pb and soy just taste like the worst combination in my mouth.

yuuuuummo

thank you!

How did you cook the tofu?

can of tomato/chard/chickpea cooked down w/garlics & seasonings, plus toast
yum

I make pretty good toast, y'all!

mmm toast

Toast is weird -- I can grab it straight out of the toaster and butter it with room temp butter and it's still cold before I get it to the plate! English muffins are better imo.

I was looking for an alternative to rice for a friend who was planning to come to dinner and is off carbohydrates so i roasted some cauliflower florets with a teaspoon of haldi, some fennel seeds and a bit of chilli oil for ten minutes in the oven and then put them in a food processor until they were roughly the same consistency as cous-cous. The end result was quite good, i thought.

I just fried the leftovers with some onion, garlic, coconut milk and garam malasa and use the mixture to stuff pancakes - fantastic.

that sounds awesome!

Cauliflower is fantastic as a starch substitute - steamed and mashed, grated and mixed with shredded parmesan then baked to make a pizza base/crust, grated and roasted to sub for rice/couscous

except that, y'know, it's still cauliflower.

milder than broccoli! comes in orange, purple, and/or white!

I like the green fractal cauliflower with the awesome conical shapes all over it.

Eat it? fuck no. but it's pretty.

Romanesco!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Fractal_Broccoli.jpg

Whoa, large! Sry!

<3

so beautiful

country ribs rubbed with salt, pepper, garlic, and loads of 5 spice powder, steamed for an hour with a tablespoon of rice vinegar and finishing now uncovered in a slow oven - smells incredible.

yuuum

Mr Veg is bbq'ing a flatiron steak marinated in worcestershire/soy/ginger/tequila ... served up with a heaping pile of sauteed spinach, mushrooms and zucchini on the side.

Oh, that sounds delicious too!

Tomorrow, I'm going to make a meatza.

Hosted brother in law for brunch yesterday: eggs hollandaise, home fries, sausage, bacon and a fruit and spinach smoothie. The men looked so happy - though my husband layer begged for a dinner with "no spinach." I made stuffing, chicken, roasted carrots, cauliflower & mashed potatoes. Finally used up the bag of potatoes from Christmas, heh.

There was a sale and I now have right red/yellow/orange peppers. (bell) what to make? Bonus points if freeze able.

Right=eight :P

roast peppers and then blend with walnuts, butter beans, basil and garlic for a good pasta sauce

Oooh! I'm not much of a pasta eater but roasted peppers in general are a good start - I always mix peppers into things without considering they're good on their own.

roasted, pureed with kalamata olives garlic/basil or whatever herbs you like/evoo gets you a nice tapenade for crudites/crackers

yah the walnut/bean/pepper mix makes a good dip or sandwich spread, too

re our earlier convo about kitchens, we have been house-hunting and OMG there are some almost-mansions with amazing kitchens (kitchen islands!! dishwashers!! garbage disposals!! walk-in pantries!! tons of counter space!!) for ridiculously cheap prices right now BUT they're a. just too far from a train station for me b. too much of a commute for ytth c. HOA fees (DNW to be part of any HOA).

my inlaws just moved into a huuuuge mcmansion out in a new farflung suburb...huge kitchen with island counter/sink, dishwasher, walkin pantry, separate "wet bar", granite counters. It's pretty O_O

But the whole house is kinda, ott. Like a 5 star hotel. Not that I'd say no to it, it's just a little much.

I haaaate my kitchen. But I have learned to "love" it , we're so underwater here we'll be in our little house for the foreseeable duture

I made these inordinately cute Scotch eggs for dinner. Stoked to take leftovers to lunch so other people can see. I hope they reheat well.

Oh my. Those look delish.

I wouldnt have a clue in heck where to buy quail eggs from, though! the markets, I spose.

I got them at an Asian grocery store. About the same price as a dozen regular eggs, I was surprised!

Made that spicy tempeh/broccoli/pasta funk from Veganomicon and having Stevie D lovewaves.

Lasagne for dinner tonight. Bolognese sauce from scratch, bechamel with mozzarella, Australian-style lasagne. None of this red sauce and ricotta nonsense.
Also instant lasagne because I will never understand boiling lasagne noodles. It's just weird to me.

Weird, I'm making lasagna bolognese tomorrow because I haven't eaten it in forever and had sudden massive craving for it. But I'm boiling the noodles cause the non-boil ones are weird and strange to me and I'm sort of afraid of them not working or something.

I've never had a problem with non-boil. They always work. Just have to make sure you put enough bechamel/liquid on top so the top layer doesn't turn into a crusty iron roof

i scored a dutch oven at home goods today! so excited.

sweeeeet. someone snatched a cast iron dutch oven from under my nose when i was shopping at work a few weeks ago. i haven't completely recovered.

yay dutch ovens rule

in fact, there were 2 at the store and i was so excited in telling the bf about how excited i was to find it and how it was a good deal that the woman browsing nonstick pans next to me decided to snatch up the other. i think i should get a commission from the store, tbh.

i love my dutch oven!
i got 3 herbs for $5 at farmers' market today so i am gonna marinate some chicken in balsamic and have roasted potatoes and carrots and salad. i have suddenly been cooking less though. i did make another kind of chicken curry with peanuts the other day.

I tried making salmon croquettes today but despite using two eggs the salmon would not stay together in the pan

Did you use any breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs? My mom always used crushed saltines.

In a comfort-food mood today, I made rotel chicken spaghetti, but with egg noodles instead of spaghetti.

my lasagne turned out great! Maybe my best ever. I must have simmered the sauce at the perfect temperature bc it was perfectly cooked down at the end of its simmer time, and when the lasagne came out of the oven and I cut it, it didnt collapse or spread AT ALL. Usually its kind of a goopy mess the first night and firms up the second day. So i guess i did something right. Yay me!

Opted for plain bechamel and sprinkled mozzarella on as I went, because dealing with stretchy cheese sauce just makes me angry. Maybe put too much mozzarella on top though, I'm not a big cheese person. But otherwise, success!