What's cooking? part 4

So my latest venture is to make a new soup every day Mon-Fri why because I am unemployed and what else to do around the house all day in crappy weather? I will eat some for lunch and then serve it as a first course with dinner.

Today's soup-in-progress is that west african peanut soup from bittman. Tomorrow will be my first attempt at broccoli-cheese soup. Thursday needs to involve cauliflower why because I have some in the fridge. Friday may be some sort of spicy tomato concoction. Please post your favorite soup recipes here and I will make them and report back!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1841660/moroccan-spiced-cauliflower-and-almond-soup
That is good btw!

Smoke #1 (pork shoulder) turned out pretty good. There's a learning curve, I didn't get it all right the first time, but not bad.

ZS I am surprised to hear you are not fond of the NoMa Teeter; my spouse certainly is. Mostly because they always have giant briskets and bargain prices I guess.

tbh i have an epic grudge against it because they have about 10-12 different kinds of DUMPLINGS!, and every single one of them is pork is chicken. i mean come the fuck on, can we get a single vegetarian option? (yes i know h mart is where i should be going for that kidn of stuff, and also for making your own DUMPLINGS! (which i'm cool with doing!), but i don't have a car so)

sorry, pork OR chicken

DUMPLINGS!

aha! don't have a car! that would change my cooking habits substantially!! i recently weighed myself with a full load of groceries in my arms and realized that it was >50% of my body weight that i carry up three flights of stairs on a weekly (or at least 10-daysly) basis. that's a lot of grocery shopping. could not do w/o a car. also i visit like 5 difft stores regularly.

people have different habits -- cook for your own taste and your own habits! that is my #1 advice.

That's a lot of food and a lot of stairs! Also why I have my food delivered to house.

yeah I shop at at least 4 diff stores, walking would change everything

beer and cantaloupes are very heavy!

I would go as crazy on bargain cans, that's for sure

wouldn't

ok, stolen from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, here is the tentative draft menu for thursday (i'm going to prepare some of this in advance):

Crunchy Corn Guacamole
Mexican Cheese Salsa
Tortillas
Chiles Rellenos
Black Beans and Chiles with Orange Juice

unfortunately i'm leaving out the Rice Salad because i don't have a rice cooker, and the buttermilk ice cream because i don't have an ice cream maker. i'm a little afraid of total failure on the chiles rellenos but i kind of want to go out on a limb and try it anyway. anyone have any suggestions to add to the menu? i feel like leaving out the rice salad and ice cream for dessert kind of leaves a hole in the dinner.

Wait...I can just BORROW a rice cooker! I'M A GENIUS

you can't make rice on the stovetop? It's v easy

Yeah, I guess I could!

WmC changed my life when he revealed the secret to stovetop rice:

1/2 c rice (2 servings)
toast a minute in a pot with a bit of oil (i usually forget this whole step, but it's a nice one)
add 1 c water
good pinch of salt
bring to boil with lid on
reduce to lowest setting for 20 mins
turn off heat and let sit for 10 mins
done

And no sticking! It really is the easiest thing ever.

I have 2 methods for rice, one is the toasting way and the other is low and slow for really gloopy rice which I sometimes enjoy too
but yeah rice on the stove is super easy

ZOJIRUSHI

Also you don't have to make that much food all at the same time. No wonder you're considering fatigue.

Yeah holy crap just make tacos with one meat item and a bunch of cut-up vegetables and some lime wedges, with rice and beans on the side.

but i want to start off with a bang, see

T/F

if a recipe serves 4, it's ok to halve all the ingredients to make it for 2

nah just make the whole lot and then you have dinner for the next night, too

^^ real talk

ZS I have both a rice cooker and an ice cream maker that you are welcome to borrow anytime. My mother gives me shit about the rice cooker ("how hard is it to cook rice on the stove?"), but I am a total convert.

That menu is way more ambitious that what I would ever tackle unless it was for a dinner party or something, but I guess it is a dinner party if you are doing a special dinner for your grill!

Wait you're not planning on making tortillas from scratch, are you? Because that is some serious next-level shit!

i'm just going to cook the rice on the stove. my previous gf always used a rice cooker so i think i forgot the stove was even an option! skipping out on ice cream because my grill is not a huge fan of it anyway, and i'll already have my hands full.

I'M BUYING 8 CHILES AT THE STORE TONIGHT, HOLY SHIT

better buy some tums too, or something

xpost no the tortillas will just be warmed up from a package. :) everything else should be from scratch though!

One of the things that took me a while to get the hang of when cooking a bunch of different foods is stove / dish / time management type stuff - knowing what you need to start first, knowing what can and should wait til the end, making sure you don't use a particular pan to cook X right now when another will do and you'll absolutely need it to cook Y later, not running out of burners, etc.

There were at least a couple dinner parties years ago when we'd start eating at 9 instead of 7 until I got better at this shit.

My prep is my safety blanket -- if I take the time to set everything up and have my ingredients chopped and ready I'm fine. But if I'm having to do too much on the fly I get kinda aaagh anxious. I'm kinda nerdy that way lol

And I hate dishes that require you to use more than 2 pots/pans. Like cook this thing and add it to this thing put it in the oven then add it to this thing. unless it's like a very slow, drawn out braise or casserole where you get time to wash dishes in between. I have teensy kitchen and I haaaaate having a mountain of dirty dishes in the middle of cooking

I would elaborate on the dirty dish thing but I have a crock pot that I have not scrubbed from NYE

i am a recent from-scratch tortilla convert, it's really not as much work as i thought it would be

I don't believe u

do you make corn or flour ones?

i make corn. i ended up with a giant bag of masa for something else so there was really only one thing to do.

1) make dough in advance and leave it in wrapped in a moistened towel
2) prepare tortilla fillings and leave them someplace where they'll stay warm
3) section and press tortillas, one-by-one, griddle for 30 seconds a side, and throw in tortilla warmer (tortilla warmer is secretly urgent and key)

next project is enchiladas

enchiladas are my favorite food and the only food i order in mexican restaurants, even though i want to try the other foods. i just love them so much i can't stop.

i'm going to make a jalapeño cheddar omelette

i alternate between enchiladas and fajitas but enchiladas are truly the best

joygoat otm up there - if I'm doing multiple dishes I write out a detailed timetable counting down to the time I want to serve.

WmC changed my life when he revealed the secret to stovetop rice:

1/2 c rice (2 servings)
toast a minute in a pot with a bit of oil (i usually forget this whole step, but it's a nice one)
add 1 c water
good pinch of salt
bring to boil with lid on
reduce to lowest setting for 20 mins
turn off heat and let sit for 10 mins
done

This is basically my rice recipe too! For long-grain white rice at least. One thing I find improves the texture is to place a teatowel between pot and lid during the no-heat phase - excess moisture that steams off gets absorbed by the towel rather than condensing and falling back into the rice.

imo the pan & how well it retains heat is the key element of rice cooking

i have a big thick enamel cast iron pot which i love but there are many paths to great rice

if i'm cooking jasmine rice i use WmC's method, but minus the toasting, and with wayyyy less water. i fill with water until it is ~maybe~ one knuckle over the rice. it's the only way i can keep jasmine from turning out mushy/weird, otherwise with most other rice yeah its the old 2:1 water:rice deal.

that and i rinse it in a wire colander obv

haha -- i do it old lady style: fill pan with amt of rice, fill with water ,(stirstirstirstir), drain, repeat, repeat.

Come to think of it I actually do something like 1.75:1 water:rice.

you know what has a weird water ratio: grits. i can never believe they are gonna drink up all that 1:4 water & they do every time. (i am actually more 1:3 but i think they keep going).

Yeah, I start with 4:1 for grits, add a little more during cooking and they still don't come out too thin.

I used to go with slightly less than 2:1 for rice, but the brand of basmati I use is happy to drink up a full 2:1 without being soupy or overly wet, and it's easier to measure.

I used to rinse the hell out of my rice per conventional wisdom until one time I attempted to make stickier rice to turn into rice pudding, so I didn't rinse the excess starch off. Came out just as fluffy as ever, so I dropped that extra bit of work immediately.