What's cooking? part 4

Made a really good 'Tropisk Aroma' Norwegian spiced chocolate cake yesterday. Absent mindedly started doing some brownies this evening, got half way through the recipe and realised i didn't have any plain flour. Suspect that substituting pasta flour may not work out that well.

actually curious as to how that turns out--keep us posted

i'm making sri lankan chicken curry

What makes it Sri Lankan?

no clue except the name. i've made this recipe a few times. it's awesome. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sri-lankan-chicken-curry/

i went to the indian grocery today and got an assortment of things. including 4 cans of chaokoh because the chinese store is always sold out of it.

Coconut milk, for sure! Sri Lankan curries are kind of a hybrid of Thai and Indian curries, with some specific Sri Lankan stuff included (like dried Maldive fish for seasoning). I have a Sri Lankan cookbook that has been really great to cook from--I can find basically all of the ingredients from Indian grocers.

I want to make that. Time to find curry leaves.

yeah that looks great

I used a can of panang curry paste that I bought in Chicago with LL and it is HOT but good! Added the ush, more onion, garlic, ginger, diced tomatoes, coconut milk, and veg. I'm so glad I have another can to look forward to. :)

actually curious as to how that turns out--keep us posted

Not great. Tastes ok but is too dense and claggy.

I had an embarrassing freezer related incident with our Christmas venison so it's been all deer round these parts for the past few days. So far we have had venison mole and a recipe using Lewis & Clark's marinated, but I jugged the remainder on Thursday so it's about ready to eat.

"bœuf" is such a great word.

-bought a badass wok, feel like a badass

I've put in a request to Mr Veg to get me a wok for my birthday

Baked a big batch of tamarind-dipped bacon-wrapped chicken thighs. Some for dinner and plenty left over for next week's lunches. Giant beef roast is on the slate for tomorrow.

!

I <3 tamarind. The sour fruitiness is really nice with bacon (but then, what isn't?).

Can I move in?

I mean, I love what I cook but you always cook the most amaaaazing things!

Come on up! We'll have a great time and cook up a storm :-)

I've been getting ideas from all these paleo cooking sites lately. Lots of meaty goodness and piles of tasty vegetables.

any favorite sites? I'm not paleo but I love the recipes

Nomnompaleo.com and theclothesmakethegirl.com are my two very favorites right now. Paleomg.com has some good stuff too!

Giant beef roast in the oven with a window and the back door wide open and my industrial squirrel cage fan going at top speed to clear all the damn smoke! !!

does anyone have (or know a source of) good ice cream recipes? especially anything unusual/different. we came into possession of an ice cream maker a couple years ago and it's just occurred to me recently that we should actually use the damn thing.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/category/recipes/ice-creams-and-sorbets/ has a lot of cool recipes

thanks! those look excellent.

If y'all want the perfect massaman curry recipe, look no further (I halved it and it was perfect; the proportions of beef/potato/shallot were spot on)

http://recipe.radafsechina.com/recipe/rick-stein-s-mussaman-beef-curry-geng-mussaman/1775

emergency dinner of brown rice kale edamame and chicken/apple sausage - crisis averted.

pumpkin and crispy sage risotto. halved the parmesan and added feta. it's tasty but i prefer mushroom or chorizo and pea.

ooh, hafta try and make that grapefruit campari sorbet! thx for that link seandalai!

(xxxpost)

Brined a pork shoulder Thursday night, got up at 8:00 and put on the rub, in the oven for almost 4 hours now...

Good food day yesterday! Fruit for breakfast, some snacks I don't remember, then for lunch I made a combo warm-cold salad with sauteed leeks and fennel and green beans over a bed of raw baby spinach (I do this with virtually everything -- put some spinach under it and then the spinach wilts a little when everything is stirred up) and then for dinner I splurged on some scallops for me and steak for the mr and I FINALLY got my scallops to have the perfect crust on the outside and not get overcooked.

Here they are with the kale-bacon-pecorino salad I always eat because it's the best

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8499865408_28f30f17d3_n.jpg

(Note: I worked from home yesterday, hence the lunchtime cooking. After the day I had on Thursday, you're going to have to trust me that I deserved a treat on Friday.)

yuuuum

that looks fantastico!

thank you!

this was the lunch thing. I KNOW lotsa people don't like fennel, but I love it, and with the leeks/some salt/oo it was all the flavoring I needed. It was warm and comforting.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8498759261_ec156485ac_n.jpg

Fennel is great! We're going to try growing it ourselves this year.

In fairness though, you just have to mention any vegetable X and I'll reply "X is great!".

Haha, totally. Not sure what it says about me, but I ate two full leeks and an entire fennel bulb in one lunchtime sitting.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8379/8500918039_161a858f3e.jpg

The photo is pretty bad but this is how I get myself to eat vegetables: chicken panang curry with saffron rice. There's a handful of fresh spinach leaves hiding under that rice, waiting to wilt, too.

yum!! that looks great. i can assure the world at large that your curries are delish.

This one is extra so because I used the last can of panang curry paste from the Chinese store.

And hey, thanks! I only cook for myself so I don't really know whether something is "good" or not, has good flavor balance, that kind of thing.

lambballs
fattoush
roasted potatoes

wiiiiiiiiiiine

That looks soooo tasty, io!

It was! I ate too much and now I have to get ready and go out in my beached whale incarnation. The ocean is my stomach full of curry coconut broth.

tomorrow i am going to attempt slow-cooked korean short ribs :D

Making a couple of pounds of smoked shrimp today.

Do you smoke them with the shells on or off?

I made homemade sriracha from this recipe and is it ever good. I made 1/2 the recipe because we only had 3/4 lb of peppers - but it was the exact right amount for my food processor.

Today is also the day of roasting yams and beets for the coming week, and dinner tonight is slow-cooker chicken and gravy (the one made from leeks and onions and chicken drippings that is to die for).