What's cooking? part 4

Anyone have luck w this mushroom cream sauce? I am a whiz at recipe cooking but I'm still a freestyle noob. I'm thinking maybe like 3-5 pbellos, 8 cloves of garlic, half an onion, few tbs of oil and flour, 1c chicken stock, 1/2c white wine, 1c heavy cream (or more, idk)? Are any of those proportions wack? Will that coat a pound of linguine?

I have been reading Gustavo Arellano's awesome new book Taco USA and it is making me crave Mexican food nonstop.

Stevie I'd say maybe 1/4 cup of wine, but you really only need it for deglazing and a bit of flavor; 1/2 cup of chicken stock and maybe 1/2 cup of cream? With that much wine and stock and cream it'd take a long time to thicken imo

Stevie, sounds about right depending on the amt of flour. Usually when I mess up a roux-thickened sauce it's because I used too much flour and made library paste. Just googled and found this guide --
http://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/American-Woman-Cook-Book/Thickening-Power-Of-Flour-Or-Corn-Starch.html

I might print that out and keep it in the kitchen for quick reference.

Change of subject -- can y'all recommend me some good coleslaw recipes? I can't make good slaw to save my life. Creamy, vinegary, any versions welcome.

i recently made a slaw with cumin as one of the main modifiers--i can try to track it down

stevie I can give you some of my sauce, I made too much and froze some. haha.

I dont think frozen cream/bechamel sauces reconstitute terribly well when you thaw them tbh, they kind of seperate :(

haha well maybe i could throw it on the stove again? idk

I made the wmc pasta, but did not stop to get sherry a la Le Lechera; deglazed with white wine and oops for some reason did not have garlic in the house (? this never happens) and used sage as the herb; was very good. Oh also I added peas. I sound like one of those insufferable wankers leaving reviews on recipe sites now "oh I changed up pretty much 75% of the recipe and liked it/didn't like it."

Hahah, I love that about recipe sites! Every single vegtetarian recipe on taste.com.au has at least one comment of "this was delicious, I added bacon"

I love "here were my variations" comments, except when the commenter reveals that they totally don't understand their ingredients. "I don't like chicken livers, so I made a lychee paté -- it was terrible! One star for this recipe."

FWIW, Silk soy cream is delicious, but soy is thinner than milk so it's only got the constitution of 4% (famously, "homo" in Canada)

Peas are a good idea in that pasta sauce, I wish I would remember to use them more often.

love peas in creamy pasta sauces: esp fresh peas

I always whirl my peas before using them

I do peas, pink salmon, and shallot or leeks, in a creamy sauce. Delish. And so quick!

om nom nom

Gah now Im hungry.

Orzo salad w spinach, basil, feta, lemon, and tomato. Easy as pie, but the lemon imo really is the secret ingredient because it just teases you into taking the next bite.

Oh and pine nuts.

That sounds really delicious

I mean, I would be a pain and pick out the tomato because I have some sort of digestive/taste issue with raw tomato. It sucks :/

ugh made red velvet cupcakes & recipe called for way too much sugar. dammit.

I'm cooking a orange ginger beef stir fry right now, never made a stir fry before so well see. even toasted sesame seeds and used orange zest!

mr veg is cooking a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin on the bbq, and I'm making some braised kale & brown rice

I'm so hungry

so stir frying isn't as easy as I thought it would be, it had a nice flavor, but I didn't get the glaze I was going for.

I need a drink

I made a pizza from a 45 cent Fresh and Easy dough ball. Put some Putanesca tomato sauce on it (homemade from last year), with ham, mushrooms, goat cheese, and oil-cured olives. Turned out pretty well. I've found the F&E pizza doughs are easier to work with than the Trader Joe's.

And I'm finishing a bottle of Avalon Cabernaet Sauvignon that I drank with it.

my favorite italian cookbook author, never lets me down

Maccheroni all'Aquilana (w/ Zucchini)

skipped the saffron, egg yolk and scallions. substituted 50/50 thyme + rosemary for oregano cause i was out (not ideal but not bad either) and substituted parm for pecorino. used combination of stock and hot pasta water for the hot water, skipped the salt.

still turned out pretty damn good

i cut the recipe in half and cut down on the cheese even further than that

I've found pizza dough is suprisingly easy to make from scratch tbh! No raising needed like bread. This recipes good:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/25844/basic+pizza+dough

The key is using the special bread/pizza flour, which has high protein.
Made this with it:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/26426_349827582756_726857756_4088487_3437844_n.jpg

LOL looking for that pic on my FB led me to this pic which I'd forgotten: some cakes i made for my ex's b'day

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/23680_367754612756_726857756_4134761_8102713_n.jpg

whoa awesome

A+ cake

I'll confess I cheated and used storebought madiera cake, carved up, but man it was fun to make :D

*screeeeeeeeeeeeeee* *whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrp*

As S- said at the time, "better build quality than Behringer". lol.

lol! high praise!

Hahah hardly! ;P

Positive feedback!

fnarrr

that pizza looks delicious trayce (the cakes too!)

btw, do you know what happens if you use all purpose flour instead of special bread flour? how does that affect the texture? want to try the pizza recipe but don't want to buy an entire new thing of flour...already have like 3 diff flours right now...

I use AP flour for my dough, turns out good!

I do use yeast though & let it rise, might be a different technique

hmmm ok. i will try it.

I am a cooking newb and general kitchen disaster area and I made WmC's mushroom sauce and it was very good!

Misjudged a few amounts and timings on the way but it still turned out delicious. I also poured it on some not-great shop-bought fresh pasta, which is the main thing I hope to improve on next time, but there will definitely be a next time. Thank you, WmC.

Today I'm cooking the pork belly! Really excited and hope it turns out well. I'm making a beet spinach salad with goat cheese to go along with it.