What's cooking? part 4

I make kalua pork about once a month, using bacon instead of liquid smoke though. Tasty and great for sandwiches or in stews or whatever too.

it's way better cooked in a pit in the ground but do what you gotta do :)

Throw some dirt into the crock pot?

We've been trying to eat more fish and had leftover baked steelhead in the fridge. I made up a sauce of ghee, capers, and Meyer lemon juice by just barely heating the ghee and whisking in the cold juice to thicken it some. I love how capers are salty little bursts of sour. And also flowers.

oh my goodness, what is one boy to do with four pounds of smoky pulled pork?? Ideas incl: nachos, sandwiches, eating it w rice.

weirdo tacos with cabbage slaw & lime?
on a plate with some greens and roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes
????

cubanos dude: ham/pulled pork/cheese/some kind of flatbread or tortillas - cook in frying pan or panini press & put in face
mix with mac & cheese (and sriracha) = seriously it's great
put it in ragout sauce on pasta
pizza topping
with eggs for breakfast

Make stew of chopped pulled pork, tomatoes, artichokes, garlic.

Posole-ish stew starting with sauteed onion, green chili, garlic. Dump in can of hominy (rinsed) and a can of Rotel, add chick stock and pulled pork, season with cumin and some minced chipotle with adobo. Add big squeeze of lime and tortilla strips before serving. Love this stuff--hominy is criminally underrated!

I need to just continuously buy brisket, I just finished off the adobo beef that I made and then froze, and I wish I had a whole nother pot of it.

The secret, as it turns out, was some diced tomato that wasn't in the recipe, and a splash of apple cider vinegar.

It's pork day today, in prep for pork week ahead. 8 lb pork butt covered in tamarind and bacon has been in the slow cooker all day. Now making the red cabbage - apple - bacon slaw from Bittman's piece in last week's NYT magazine. 4 lbs beets roasted and 5 lbs sweet potatoes too.

I just killed a whole plate of tacos and you are still giving me the hots for tamarind pork.

i had some delicious roasted cauliflower a week or so ago, so I bought some at the store yesterday and tried to make this (it really pains me to use this term) "cauliflower rice" (aka finely chopped cauliflower pan fried with onions) and i was pleasantly surprised! i am repulsed by the idea of making this out of that, but it made a good base for a very basic tofu/veggie stir fry. would eat again. refuse to categorize as "rice" though, that's just ridiculous.

i was thinking next time i might try to roast the little tiny pieces instead of sauteeing? would they get a little bit crunchy? if so, that sounds delicious. i had to use frozen leeks instead of onion and the whole thing wound up most closely resembling cous cous.

what's your cauliflower bits w/ onions recipe???

- cut cauli into pieces, pulse in food processor til it's smaller
- saute some chopped onion (avoid frozen leeks imo) and then add the cauli bits and some salt, whatever seasonings you want (depends on what you're eating it with)
- cook for a while, but not til too mushy -- this takes a while, so if you are stir frying something else, you can do it while the cauli cooks
- top with whatever you want, eat

(i just googled cauliflower rice and read some recipes to know whether i should just chop or food process and did what i could)

i forgot to say that i sauteed in butter/coconut oil because that's what i have the most of atm but you could use whatever fat you want, i'd imagine?

yeah I only ever have vegetable oils on hand

ty!

cut cauliflower into pieces / this is my fast risotto

I tried roasting tiny cauliflower pieces - they got more chewy than crunchy. Tasty though. I used it to make a finely chopped parsley salad with lemon, mint, and olive oil dressing.

ooh, tabbouleh! tabouli!
that sounds delicious.

It was really good - we eat a lot of cauliflower pureed with ghee as well. I refuse to call it faux-tatos.

bonus -- leftover cauliflower warmed up a little, then tossed with chard, roasted beets, pecorino, and pine nuts (and a little salt) = totally delicious.

cut cauliflower into pieces / this is my fast risotto

you are such a dork

I do not like cauli except this one place in Philly (Zahav, w/o a doubt the best restaurant in town, if you are ever around and can go to only one spot, go there) has this crispy cauliflower w some sort of mint yogurt thing and it is like *omg my face is exploding* good

I think you might like this preparation more than you think you would -- I don't like cauliflower at all, really, have avoided it because its paleness kinda oogs me out a little, but I'm going to try to do more things with it now. I haven't really experimented much lately food-wise because I've been monomaniacally focused on moving, but this summer? It's on.

Here's a pic of my day 2 meal (I forgot to take a picture with the stir fry)
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8235/8593310366_3d708d9c1f_n.jpg

I'm smdh at myself for not getting the difference between kalua pork and Kahlua pork upthread.

Not my cooking but my gf's: Easter chocolate lobster!

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8247/8607134078_716285cfc4_z.jpg

Made chocolate truffles, ganache was more difficult than it sounded.

That is a really nice shine on that lobster! I don't understand chocolate making but I know the temperature stuff is really important, and large molds are not easy to get to work right! That looks like a triumph.

yeah that's a fab lobster!

Choc Lobster! (down, down)

lol

kudos 2 u!

Ljub--how did you make the ganache? Every time I've done it it's just pouring v hot heavy cream over finely chopped chocolate and whisking it after like 5 minutes.

i would like to announce to ILC that i sold all my kitchenware today. everything. i bought this and im not looking back. it was nice to know all of you. peace god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XILbEZlS0U

omg

i bet you could put cake batter into that thing. apple sauce. ranch dressing. mayo

hot dogs, brats, . . .

vertical cooking! Everyone needs a Rollie!

I put an 11 lb chuck roast in the slow cooker this morning. Doesn't look like it's gonna be done anytime tonight. It's just about to overflow too. Yikes.

It's so reassuring that that happens to experienced, amazing cooks and not just to me because I'm dumb.

xp stevie - that's what I did, but I think I whisked the cream in too slowly, so I ended up with lumps. Also my recipe said to whisk after 30 secs - I'll leave it longer next time.

Pot roast plan b is in effect. Giant (and somehow expanding) hunk of beef shifted to the large oval le creuset along with all the juice. Fingers x'd that all night in a warm oven will do the trick.

made my Patti Labelle mac & cheese for Easter dinner today.

still delicious! But I haven't made mac & cheese a whole lot, and I'm still wrestling with how to handle it if it's cooked before the rest of the food's done. I've tried keeping it warm in the oven but it keeps cooking and gets clumpy. I've tried taking it out, but then it goes cold. I'm wondering about water baths and such.

Anyone got any genius ideas?

The only thing I can think of is some kind of steam table setup, but a bain marie might work pretty well. What size pan do you make it in?

Just a normal 9 x 13 pyrex casserole

Not sure this works for everything but we tend to keep food warm on a tealight-powered warmer.

You'd need a pretty big pan of hot water to keep a 9x13 warm. I bought an electric buffet server awhile ago that's worked pretty well for dips/entrees, but that might be ott. Depending on how long the wait is, you could try setting the hot pan on towels or cork trivets in a cooler (the insulation will keep things warm as well as cold).

yeah a big cooler sounds like the way to go. those things are boss

i'll give that a go, good idea