What's cooking? part 4

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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

One of my default cheap easy finger food party items is to brush olive oil on good bread and run it under the broiler for a minute, then rub each piece with a halved garlic clove. Lay these out on a plate with a bowl of tomato mixed with some garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe a splash of sherry vinegar and a little smoked paprika. Grate tomatoes if you can get good ones or food process a drained can of diced ones if you can't.

It's basically assemble-your-own pan con tomate. Vegan by default but you can add slices of manchego or jamon Serrano (or more realistically prosciutto).

Spain has the best food.

I am getting so many good ideas itt

One of my favorites is small mushrooms marinated in a lemon-thyme vinaigrette.

a couple weeks ago i bought some pork ribs from this specialty market and had no clear plan for what to do with them (i don't own a charcoal grill or smoker so the obvious options were out). dug around online and found a recipe that calls for oven braising them in tightly-wrapped foil with herbs, then broiling briefly with a sweet/sour balsamic bbq sauce.

we ate late tonight but damn if that wasn't a satisfying meal to make.

That sounds great. Smoke is good, but the oven is always amazing when done right.

How do you make chex muddy buddies/puppy chow a bit more interesting? sub almond butter instead of peanut? or maybe hazelnut butter?

that sounds like a great idea! maybe add some garam masala and/or other spices? is that gross?

unsweetened coconut?

garam masala might not go the best w/ almond butter and chocolate but i AM making roasted chickpeas w/ curry also which i am excited abt

ok, how about cayenne pepper then?

that could be good!

coconut otm

I biked to a Bangladeshi neighborhood to look for kafir lime leaves, since it's the nearest thing to "Indian" that I wouldn't have to go to Manhattan for (and I didn't feel like biking to the Atlantic market). There were no lime leaves. When I asked people about them, they laughed. One woman said they were "very rare to find" and that if they ever had any, they would sell right away.

Did buy some whole nutmegs and some green cardamom pods and 10lbs of basmati rice in a bag. Fish curry is for dinner if the fish ever thaws!

Yeah I've been trying to get my hands on kaffir lime leaves for ages! Some kinda customs restriction appaz? I found them once years ago at my food coop in a little plastic coffin, never since then. :(

yum fish curry!

i got them at a thai grocery store once

Is there some recent change in availability of these? I've never really had problems finding them, though it's been a while since I've looked. I know I've bought them in the past year at the small Asian grocery in town here, and I'm in the middle of nowhere.

I don't know, but I've been in like 4 Asian & Bangladeshi stores and nobody had them.

Huh...I used to be able to find them pretty easily at the Vietnamese market in Memphis, but I haven't been there in a while.

Not me doing the cooking, but my daughter has been picking the bumper crop of muscadines on the vine running on the fence between our back yard and our neighbor's. The neighbor is just renting the place and is hardly ever there, so we're getting them all. So far, at least 3 gallons of grapes on one vine. She made her first batch of jelly today, and I'm starting to think about muscadine pie, muscadine hull pie and muscadine cobbler.

I used to get these little jars of kaffir lime leaves - they definitely had them in Whole Foods.
These! (apols if huge) http://www.melburyandappleton.co.uk/ekmps/shops/melburyapple/images/preserved-fresh-kaffir-lime-leaves-114g-668-p.jpg

I'm not sure how much they taste like actual fresh leaves but I've used them for years.

sort of unintentionally been partly vegan lately. started with our sweet 14 y.o. vegan niece being in town and having a bunchof leftovers from a nice vegan Asian joint here called Golden Era. i think my taste is changing a little re: animal products. i normally crave fish now and then (been "pescatarian" for ~30 years) but lately what i ate i wasn't loving. anyways got turned onto this pretty cool cookbook Vegan with a Vengeance and making my second recipe from it for dindin - Black Bean, Mushroom and Quinoa Stuffed Peppers (i got poblanos for this).
highly recommend the book. it's informed me, too(besides the recipes which mostly look like things i'll enjoy); for example ground flax mixed with water can be a egg substitute in certain recipes.
lime leaves are fairly easy to come by here in SF. they seem more of a Thai/Vietnamese ingredient than Indian to me (i.e. wouldn't expect to see them in a Indian-specific market but what the hell do i know)

VWAV was my first vegan cookbook and oh man it is so so great

i always thought vegan had/has too many rules and maybe it does but that book makes it seem a lot easier and more fun