What's cooking? part 4

That does sound great, never thought to use saffron in squash or , never toasted saffron either. And what does zucchini flowers taste like??

tastes kinda floral, i guess

but not so different from spring greens either

i cut down the cheese and egg when i make that btw

Ha! I don't think I've ever use flowers of any kind in cooking. I decided to scratch the kabob idea and instead I put everything in the dutch oven, zucchini, squash, mushrooms, red onion, and potatoes with a fig walnut glaze. Not sure how it will turn out. Think I might roast peaches to serve with the pork.

Not a huge fan of yellow summer squash but I do love it stir fried with thin slices of chicken in black bean sauce with lots of garlic.

RIP beloved flower pepper ;_;

Like joygoat, I find yellow squash completely uninspiring (not to mention undelicious); it so happens that I have sour cream on hand and can give it ago a la Mama Jaq! Jaq, if you have more details of that recipe, please post them!

Squash pulp and saffron squash also sound like good ideas, but this sour cream ain't gonna eat itself, etc.

two of my favourite squash recipes:

layers of paper thin yukon slices and squash, gratin-style, tossed with lots of pesto, topped with breadcrumbs

squash and petite peas risotto with cheese and fresh basil

quincie, I've sent her a message. I thought it might be in the church cookbook my grandmother gave me (in 1986!), but no. I don't remember any cheese in it (or thyme), but this one might be close: http://therunawayspoon.com/blog/2010/07/summer-squash-casserole/

i like adding yellow squash to oven roasted root vegetables, abt 20 minutes before finish.

also adds good color to a ratatouille style pasta sauce

Sadly, my young midwestern palate tasted sour cream where there was none:

6 cups summer or zucchini squash
1/4 c. Chopped onion
1can cream of chicken soup
1 cup shredded carrots
1 pkg chicken flavored stove top stuffing
1/4 melted margarine

Bake uncovered, 350 degrees, 25 - 30 min

But I definitely think you could use either straight sour cream or the egg and sour cream mixture instead of the cream of chicken soup, and buttered bread crumbs instead of stove top stuffing and margarine and it would be damn tasty.

i'm making meat sauce with wine in it and drinking wine

Mr. Jaq picked up an unsliced guanciale from Salumi so tonight I'm making perciatelli all'amatriciana.

^^ best food on earth

Here's the pork tenderloin's with grilled peaches and pineapple
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8055/8106930810_dcf2501bf8.jpg
T made a strawberry almond Pavlova
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8048/8106916889_59cc0791bf.jpg

Wow! Those both look great. And I love that sweet embroidered tea cloth, too.

Oh my lord, wish I were having dinner with you two (three) tonight! Pairing the grilled pork with grilled fruits was an ace call.

Meanwhile, I sliced up my two yellow squash along with an onion and three smallish red potatoes, tossed them with salt and pepper and about a quarter cup of leftover sour cream, and tossed them in the over. They smell good, at least! Just topped them with some breadcrumbs and grated parm. Wish I had pork and pineapple and peaches and pavlova to go with it.

Thanks guys! I was nervous since I never grill, but I read a grilling primer online, and turned the pork every five minutes until it was 150 degrees inside. I still thought it looked dry, but after letting it sit for 10 minutes, you could cut it with a fork.

Had my lil brother visiting on a work trip so I made us all an indian dinner with tandoori meats (lamb and chicken) and a potato/kumara curry and rice. Delish.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/522981_10151049422297757_1461966731_n.jpg

Instead of spending 10 minutes peeling and grating ginger can I just cut it into chunks, bruise them with the side of the knife, and take them out at serving?

I hate prepping ginger. Sometimes I dread it for an hour before even starting cooking.

I usually shred it with a cheese grater and it works out/tastes fine. Less fuss than what you're describing or the cutting that you seem to dread.

terrible pic but one of these
http://www.wellpromo.com/upload/upimg32/Metal-Cheese-Grater-121232.jpg

grate grate grate
done

it takes like 30 sec

i almost always replace fresh ginger with powdered, it's so much easier (plus i just prefer the taste)

Yeah, I microplane it these days (and by "these days" I mean since I bought a microplane.) Used to dice it rly small like garlic. It's just fussy. :)

One of the best things about an uber-powerful blender or food processor is that you can chuck a whole piece of unpeeled ginger, unpeeled garlic, whole spices (coriander, cumin, dried chilies, etc.) with a bit of water (or coconut milk, stock, etc.) in and grind the shit out of it with nary a sliced finger.

Wait but then you have garlic peel in yr food!

Not if you run it through the VITAMIX! You can stuff shit in there with a peel (garlic, ginger, apple, whatevs) and you will have no idea because it is pureed into oblivion!

i don't always peel ginger and i never notice it. if knife is sharp enough it will get it nice and small.

or food processor, no need to peel it then

Lentil soup on the stove, Italian-style cos it didn't require ginger. I winged it, started with pancetta (I think this is non-trad?) then all the ush soup flavors plus a parmesan rind out of my freezer. Lentils are a mix of brown Goya ones and red Goya ones but I am incapable of buying nicer lentils than that.

When a recipe calls for puy lentils or French lentils or whatever, I mentally just sub the kind I can get at my local stores. Bonus: they're done in like half the time.

<3 lentils and bacon

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Green-Lentil-and-Bacon-Salad-105069

or i make this one except instead of using olive oil for the onions and carrots i use bacon drippings like in the last recipe

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/11/cheap-caviar-1/

and yeah i just use brown lentils from the farmers market too

also i was just thinking because i am slow, what do you mean peeling? any time i remove the peel i just slice it off with the knife so it ends up being like a square.

My chef friend told me years ago to peel ginger with the back of a spoon! Later I switched to a vegetable peeler because FUCK picking the bits of brown skin off a thumbs-length of ginger. It has never occurred to me to cut away like 30% of the thing to make it square, maybe that seems wasteful? Idk.

Lentil soup delicious btw.

i want to make this tonight but i am having trouble figuring out how to scale it. there's no way i can eat a cup of lentils, is there?

Vahid, you must have an amazing assortment of bookmarked recipes!

well they're mostly from epicurious

I just made 2 cups' worth of lentils into soup so...?

Admittedly I'll be eating it for 5 days but that is the plan.

if you keep your ginger in the freezer you never waste any of it, and it grates very easily. i also use a microplane, but the zesting one, and i don't bother to peel since it grates so finely.

Heeeeeeeeeey

i can't eat leftovers more than once, i get really grumpy about it for some reason on the second day of eating the same leftover

maybe 3/4 cup's worth of lentils for just me would last meals days? and use one onion and one carrot ... hmm, think i will give it a shot tomorrow