What's cooking? part 4

xp oh ok, that's what i suspected, but never seen one built in like that

My, that is gorgeous!

The house we are currently renting has a 6 burner gas stove, and it is gonna be hard to go back.

Our stove at home is OK--big (old school 36", probably like the one you are replacing) and gas, but instead of two extra burners it has one flat-grill thingie in the middle. If it got evenly hot, that would be cool and useful; instead it is just kind of cumbersome and difficult to clean.

Congrats on your new stove, totally the right move to upgrade!

this is the old one
there's just a big space in the middle of it, no idea why
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8258/8669064977_65dc527ca0_m.jpg

Dang I'm super jealous too! 1 of my large elements doesn't even work :(

To be fair I usually max at at two simultaneously, maybe three, but roasting chilies now has be going full-bore with four, plus it is nice to have a space to shift pans off for a bit when needed.

made my Grace Young kung pao chicken last night and it turned out great! definitely glad I decided to dig back and consult some 'hand rail' beginner wok recipes; kind of clear out what I thought I knew and approach it as though I'm completely new to it. It's already helping me get into the groove of the methodology, get a better feel for what to add when and how, etc.

the only thing is that the recipe didn't have much heat - I used dried szechuan peppercorns, and dried whole chilies but I guess I didn't use enough of either.

my next experiment will be szechuan beef with flatiron steak later this week. :D

I think my problem was I had learned quite a bit from my Mum growing up, but she had the kind of suburban 80's chinese cooking in an aluminum wok, and most of my methodology was based on that...so I was very adept at stirfry braising :( but not stir fry frying.

tonight: pork tenderloins marinated overnight in pinot noir, juniper berries, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, i forget what else. + roasted red potatoes w too much butter bcz i'm rubbish at paleo.

i forgot the gf was going out of town for the entire weekend so this feels completely absurd to be making for just me.

holy shit also mad jealous of lechera's stove. would slave over.

i bought a small bunch of ramps (like just a handful), any suggestions on how to cook??

in the past i've just sauteed 'em up, separating and chopping the fat scallion-like bits and starting them first, then adding the leaves at the very end.

one of my goals this spring was to find other stuff to do with ramps.

ramping up for spring

sorry

haha I was gonna say "I like to put them in the road and do sweet kickflip 180 off of them"

loool

-panfry organic, varietal potatoes from farmers market. admire their delicate taste and difference from big supermarket potatoes. then slather in sriracha + kewpie mayo, because that is how i do things.

ramps are really nice, there's sort of a sweetness to them that you don't get with scallions

Mr. Jaq is wrapping asparagus spears in prosciutto to grill for dinner tonight.

ramp recipes seem to by and large call for pickling them, turning them into pesto, or eating them with fried eggs. was hoping for more variety.

i'm happy to eat them straight

cooked broccoli raab last night, a real treat as well

So, you wanna be a Breakfast Rockstar??

-heat some butter in a non-stick skillet
-crack two eggs into the pan, and crumble Trader Joe's soy chorizo on top
-after a few minutes, flip that bad boy over to finish it up
-when its all done fryin', slide that sucker onto a flour tortilla, and top with shredded Mexican cheese and black bean + corn salsa
-fold it up like a gnarlyrad burrito

This powerful pocket is packed with protein and filled with flavor and is sure to give you the PowerBoost you need to shred ANY riffs life throws your way!! Rock on, dude; you just became a BREAKFAST ROCKSTAR!!

xp yeah, theyre fine straight. might make some ramp compound butter, sounds like it would be amazing with toast and soft-boiled eggs

Just thawed out some adobo/barbacoa brisket I made last month and shit, I shd just keep 4lbs of brisket on my permanent grocery order because hot or cold, in a taco or in eggs or just off the spoon out of the fridge, brisket is effing amazing.

I've never fucked w brisket; in my mind it's just like what ppl eat if they don't eat pork

Ideas for half a pound of tomatillos besides salsa? I have 3 chicken drumsticks in the freezer too.

tomatillo/white bean chili
chicken tinga

tomatillo chili! fuck yes!

do you have a partic fav recipe?

nah, i made one from the whole foods website a while ago that was ok

OK this is from Cooking Light (not my fault! A friend made it, I liked it and asked for the recipe! Ignore any low-fat BS!):

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/white-chili-10000000222124/

Just ignore all the canned stuff and BSCB (which I will have no part of)--the basic flavors are great.

I am down with brisket in some circumstances, but as a go-to meat for anything and everything, I am loyal to skirt steak!

cooking light recipes are p. good! they usually just need a few tweaks.

yeah i have got a few good ones.

Putting my kitchen together this morning! Nevermind that I have no idea where my clothes are, the people must eat!
So far I'm happiest about my little coffee station but that's because it's not even 7am and I've been up for 90 min already.

I have a tea- and toast-making corner in my new house!

just dropping in to say sunchokes rule

quincie, I love skirt steak a great deal but it's gotten really expensive in the last few years?? It used to be cheap, I don't understand. It's fifteen dollars a pound now!

people want to make "cool" dishes with skirt steak

it started with fajitas, and it's been downhill since

wtf $15 for skirt steak??

need to price check next time i go to the store.

That's from the uh grocery delivery service, which doesn't have the best prices. But even at other places it's gone way up.

Hmm I don't remember what I paid for the last batch, probably because the kg to pounds and pesos to USD made my brain hurt. Next time I will check.

This morning I made cat food, which is kind of a chore. Today's human menu will be ropa vieja leftovers for lunch and good ole spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

I also need to figure out how to make a mint julep-type drink with tequila.

you're eating something called "old clothes"?

Yes, and it is tasty indeed.

pork shoulder in the crock pot, carnitas tacos for dinner tonight

didn't get to go shopping last week so this was a big trip. was able to score some ramps, but no fiddleheads yet.

chicken meatballs with pomegranate sauce, orange/almond/carrot/sultana rice, and two kinds of green beans (one with egg, one with walnuts) last night. Someone else brought a chocolate cake that somehow involved milk in the preparation, with raspberries.

New stove is awwwwwesome
Made scallops, steak, couscous blend thing, bacon/kale/lemon salad (that same old one) and now there are choco chip-pecan-salted caramel chip cookies a-bakin.

No pics yet because AT&T is holding me hostage. Tonight I'm making pizza. Good times!

so awesome

i just made a recipe that called itself "assertive green salad" which is cracking me up.

lol

Making mustard greens for the first time? No idea what I'm doing yet.