What's cooking? part 4

I am a total feta newbie; I just bought Whole Foods' 365 brand crumbled feta for $2.79

:(

i always get the whole foods big block of feta

It wasn't bad! I used to think I didn't like feta but I don't mind it in certain contexts but I'm waaaaayy too newbish to be discerning.

I like feta that has real bite and *character*. You don't have to use very much when it is good!

My kitchen had a ceiling failure and until I get a new kitchen I have to cook on the cheap. :{

But I made an easy gnocchi dish that I am addicted to: one package of gnocchi, one cup of peas, and one can of cream of mushroom soup. Add salt to taste.

I am really into making curd. I've been reading a lot of different recipes and the sugar/juice/butter ratios vary so wildly! If you add too much butter it's still good but it'll just taste like lemon bars (r.i.p. grapefruit ginger curd). There was a very excellent article I read a few months ago that was v scientific and talked about all the different ingredients and what they did and whole egg vs yolk and etc but I spent 2h looking for it last night and I can't find it ;_;

My department is having an Olympics-themed buffet tomorrow with food from various participating nations. My latent Trini pride has just forced me to spend two and a half hours making aloo curry, buss-up-shut and tomato choka. I have no idea how my aunts do it every day. It turned out wonderfully, although i'm not sure how it'll stand up to the office microwave tomorrow.

please post recipes! I have never made any of those things, but I swear I will!

Reposted from the tacos vs. burritos thread, where I accidentally put it:

what should I do with like 8 fresh apricots

― quincie, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 8:57 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Save 2-3 for eating fresh, turn 5-6 into an ice cream topping?

― Neil Jung (WmC), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

trade them for tacos

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:02 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no ice cream in the house, and even if there were, I am not much of an ice cream person why because apparently I hate america

anyhoo I really like this recipe, so I think I'll do it up with apricots instead of rhubarb/strawberry:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Rhubarb-Strawberry-Pudding-Cake-238103

question: do I have to peel these fuckers god I hope not

xpost oh hell I thought I was on What's Cooking thread; apologies

― quincie, Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tldr; basically my question is do I have to peel fresh apricots before quartering them and baking them with batter containing a ton of butter?

I just scored a delicious, huge, apricot tart OH SORRY I MEAN 'tarte aux abricots' from Marks & Spencers for 50p. Some jealous losers were admiring it (& the reduced sticker) in the checkout queue.

b-b-but were the apricots in that tarte peeled or non?

First few recipes I see after googling say don't peel.

made this hot and sour prawn salad on monday, it was so good, and even better after a day in the fridge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hot_and_sour_prawn_64962

thanks WmC, tbh even if I was supposed to peel I probably would have said to hell with it anyway

pretty sure you don't peel - apricot skin is v v v thin and delicate, barely a skin at all.

the apricots are caramelised - I can't really tell! I think they probably are peeled?

Here's my recipe for what I've had for dinner the past two days - it's an attempt to copy what I used to get for lunch from Mixt Greens.
- butter lettuce
- cherry tomatoes
- chopped cucumber (british kind I guess)
- thin chopped slices of red onion
- avocado
- mango thinly sliced
- crushed macadamia nuts
Mix up in a bowl with either some lime juice & mango dressing or attempt to make your own from mango, lime juice, yoghurt, oil, something like that.
- tuna steak, rubbed with oil & ground coriander & salt & pepper, seared on hot heat then sliced. Put the salad on plates then the tuna on top with MOAR macadamias.
Sounds kind of not that exciting but really it is amazing!

got a banana bread cooling on a wire rack, counting the minutes until it might be cool enough to eat. I never bake so I am excited but resigned to the possibility that it may be largely inedible

(drums fingers, vibrates with anticipation)

Turned out pretty well, at least given my fear of baking! I used this recipe should anyone care: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

Bone-in pork shoulder currently a couple of hours in to smoking. Spouse was in charge of the rub, which was tasty upon sampling; now my job is to keep him from over-doing the hickory smoke (he thinks there is no such thing as too much smoke; he is wrong).

Thinking about making blueberry ice cream if I can pull it off without a trip to the store for ingredients. Have never tried to make ice cream with less-than-whole milk and cream, but maybe some extra egg yolk in the custard will compensate?

OK I'm gonna try this Mark Bittman cornstarch-thickened ice cream recipe:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/dining/011mrex.html

someone gifted me some squash blossoms the other day. did a scallop mousseline (pureed the hell out of bay scallops, added 1/2 egg white, dash cream, tarragon salt and white pepper) and piped into blossoms. steamed for ~4 minutes and it was really nice. neighbor friend inhaled a couple too.
even though it's frigid in sf this morning i'm jonesing and will get fixins for vietnamese spring rolls w/nuoc chom here in a bit.
i absolutely lurve those little salady things

that scallop thing sounds amazing!

hey ILC, here is a real good sandwich i make sometimes:

it's avocado, adzuki bean & aubergine. the adzuks are smushed into kind of a paste, so they can be spread on one of the pieces of bread (i throw in a little cumin and nutmeg, but that is hardly noticeable, really). the aubergines are thinly sliced & grilled, w/a little smoked paprika. two of them is super filling (this bread's pretty small, but it makes a really neat, tall, colourful sandwich). depending on how into sweating yr aubs you are, it takes like twenty minutes or so to make. pro-tip: once you've grilled the aubergines, half them again, otherwise they're one of those sandwich ingredients that you bite into & disassemble your sandwich by dragging out with your teeth.

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8428/sandwichc.jpg

xxpost: re: the scallop thing - that probably isn't my favorite way to prepare what are my favorite seafood, but it is a classic French preparation and i'm glad chef @ work gave me the idea to try it. was elegant and really simple to make. might try stuffing with mint/egg/ricotta and frying if those blossoms are still forgotten about and in the walk-in when i get to work on Monday.

that's a interesting sammie idea schlump. never really thought of combining avo and eggplant together, and don't think i've ever had adzukis....

adzuki beans are great! really flavoursome but they're also kind of apart from other beans consistency-wise, less starchy/chalky, so good for doing weird stuff with/refrying/puréeing, &c.

(they are kind of a motherfucker to soak & cook, btw, so they're easier out of a tin imo)

ok just realized mochi with red bean paste is adzukis so i've had that many times but never a savory adzuki. thx for the headsup

black beans and rice
fried ripe plantains
so satisfying!

^ classic

oh man I can't find canned black beans here. Is it a pain to buy dried and soak them and do they taste the same?

Takes some time, but not a pain. They taste better than canned, imo.

it's much better! i don't use canned black beans anymore because they are too mushy and do not taste very pleasant to me. if you cook them yourself you can throw in some epazote, which is supposed to aid digestion. (it's the main ingred in beano iirc?)

i think i think mushy is a plus w/beans, that might just be me though. i am not together enough to soak beans on the regular.

I will say Goya canned black beans are great but yeah if you have the time, dried is p much always superior. Just be sure to soak

I cook all beans in a crock pot now, some take a while but the beans soak up the spices.

Also threw allspice in my last batch of curry and it was out of this world!

Made Rama Curry for the first time tonight and it was so amazingly good. I had it for the first time on Sunday while visiting a friend in Atlanta and wanted to give recreating it a shot while it was fresh in my mind.

Help me plan a menu for my bday party! I want small finger-foody snack things w/ 1 or 2 vegan options, something cheap and easy w/o skimping on flavor (and NO HUMMUS, that is too played). Any suggestions?

vietnamese fresh rolls with a strip of either jicama or broken rice cracker in the center for awesome crispness

omg jaq that is so amazing

cheap, fun to make, ppl will be all "whoa"

I never did this but thought it would be cool for a party... if you have access to these: http://www.bolaniandsauce.com/home.php you can spread them with the spreads (I really like the cilantro and garlic mint cheese together) and then maybe cut into strips and roll up to make little rolls? Bonus because most are vegan iirc? Anyway you can change up the combinations and they are tasty! Maybe veering to near to hummus though....

They had lots of them in my local Whole Foods and also at farmers markets

Mmmm, kinder that sounds tasty!

Stevie, I think it is la lechera who repped for Trader Joe's puff pastry - you can cut it into shapes, put some delicious stuff on it, bake it, and it's amazing. I made tiny little shells full of triple cream blue cheese and fig spread for one party, so good. For that I baked the pastry first, then filled post-puff.

we just bought some of that bolani stuff for the first time yesterday! the jalapeno spread is really really good.

PUFF PASTRY is my jam
you can put anything on it and people think it's fancy

well maybe not ANYthing but lots of different things -- you're limited only by your imagination

also they can be sweet or savory, yr choice