What's cooking? part 4

*snicker*

sorry

no no i want the mushrooms!

SORRY I ONLY GIVE MY MUSHROOMS TO PEOPLE WHO LIKE MAYONNAISE.

i would like to have an infinite supply of cilantro and put cilantro on all my food

I'm wearing a jacket made of cilantro right now.

currently making a coffee cake with walnut praline and the praline is awesome! who knew hot sugar water could turn into such a thing!
accidentally made the icing with too much coffee (read tablespoons instead of teaspoons)
next up: steak and shallots in red wine reduction

That is my ideal meal.

:D

i made a vegan chocolate mousse from a paleo website that turned out really good - but definitely not mousse-like, more like frosting: http://guiltykitchen.com/2013/05/22/chocolate-avocado-mousse/

I bought two monkfish strips and I'm thinking of pan roasting them! Any ideas or tips?

DUMPLINGS!!! FoetusPork and chive, using composite recipes for maximum flavour. Displayed utmost restraint by not posting all about it on fb, but basically they were the essence of China. Instead of folding and crimping as I usually would, I made pouches, which held their shape surprisingly well. I made enough for two dinners in a row, and I'm going to freeze the rest.

― squishy Welshman hissing about the lambs (qiqing), Sunday, May 26, 2013 5:19 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

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They were so good, I just kept whipping up batches and practically inhaling them straight off the wok. I can't remember exactly what I used, but the ingredients were something like minced pork, Chinese chives, spring onion, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, mushroom soy sauce (key to my success), rehydrated shiitake, garlic/ginger paste, Chinese five spice, shallots, white pepper and salt. Maybe something else I'm forgetting. Probably nothing fancy to you, dayo, but for me it was a one-way ticket to Flavourtown. I don't have a fancy wok either, but my shitty eroded one did the trick for crisping.

xpost I made pancetta-wrapped monkfish skewers with sage recently and they were A+

I have never fucked w/ mushroom soy sauce before! So it's worth investing in, eh? Also jeez that's a lot of ingredients.

'investing' like $1.69 for a huge bottle I'm sure

Stevie - yes, it's worth it, if only for the purpose of making DUMPLINGS!. It will pay dividends if you don't have any mushrooms at hand, and you want richer flavour. The bottle I bought wasn't even very big, like 300-400ml maybe, and I used about 1/4C for about 80 small DUMPLINGS!, so it's not as if it's going to waste if you make DUMPLINGS! often enough (or stir-fries, for that matter). The cooking wine was more of an 'investment', and will force/inspire me to try out some new Chinese recipes.

Idk, I don't think I used that many ingredients. I mean, I could have left out the spring onion, the five spice, shallots, and maybe the shiitake (considering I already had mushroom seasoning), and they still would have tasted good, but I went over several recipes, and some had even more than I used. I just went with what I thought would max the flavour and be complementary instead of overpowering. Oh yeah, I also used fish sauce #stickthatinyourwokandsmokeit

wtf, why are my DUMPLINGS! capitalising?

Also, *corroded not eroded. Now I'm turning into that guy dow who always posts three times in a row.

your durnplings are capitalising bcz "What's cooking? part 4" senses your durnpling excitement.

something tells me dayo's up to no good

It is 3:00 a.m. my time and I have been up cooking several Indian dishes, which has been super fun and I'm gonna serve them up to a bunch of people who will be super happy to have it because as best I can tell you cannot get Indian food within five hours of here!

OMG I have also been drinking all of the wines while cooking OOPS!

Chana masala
Palak makai
Tasty green dal
Cilantro-mint chutney (mint that I grew my own damn self!)
TK chicken tikka masala (husband's project tomorrow)
Fishie curry (curry made by moi; fishie speared in the a.m. by our spear-fishing friend Nick!)

Only prob is that I could not find basmati rice (lol rural Mexico), so will have to sub jasmine.

speared fish! omg. you are living my dream

Roasting 14 lbs. of beef neckbones for stock today; going to smoke a 14 lb. brisket tomorrow.

What to cook when it is over 100 degrees outside and A/C is so not gonna happen?

Cold pasta salads, tuna salad, tossed green salads big enough to call main courses...

Nothing, just assemble stuff that doesn't need heated.

SLAW

I have to admit that I have ever encountered a cold pasta salad that I thought was really tasty. Do you have a recipe that you like???

Slaw is a good call, though I am absent a food processor, which I find U&K for shredding. Guess I can just knife it. What shall I dress it with? Something Asian--y would be nice. I have fish sauce and limes, what else should go in to make it Thai/Vietnamese?

*never* encountered a cold pasta salad I much liked, is what that should say

i'm actually looking for a mexican cabbage salad bc i'm making mexican tonight & i love cabbage

quincie - cilantro, mint, chopped peanuts, ground toasted rice if you can bear to heat up a skillet.

For mexican, I'd do lime, cilantro, cumin, epazote (lightly minty sort of oregano-ish...)

i did lime, cilantro, jalapeños, olive oil, oregano w/ cabbage and radishes and onions. i also made a diana kennedy recipe for tomatillo salsa i think i'm going to finish eating before dinner :(

but i can excuse it by eating scrambled eggs with it for lunch

harbl, that sounds so good. what's in the salsa?

I've got a 6 lb tamarind rubbed pork butt in the slow cooker with bacon, a couple chipotles in adobo and a smidge of vanilla.

also, for quincie:

What to Eat when It's so Hot out you can't think straight?

and

Hot weather food ideas?

i think it's the same as this, which i copied and pasted from some blog. i charred the tomatillos in an empty skillet and let them cool, and used jalapeños and red onion

Salsa de Tomate Verde
Barely adapted from The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

1/2 pound tomate verde (sold as tomatillos), husks removed and well rinsed
2-3 serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 heaping tablespoon white onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Place the tomatillos in small saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally so they cook evenly. They should be pale green and tender but still whole, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

While the tomatillos cook, combine the peppers, white onion, garlic and cilantro in blender and pulse until well chopped and combined. Add a little water as needed. Add the tomatillos one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add water if needed to reach the right consistency. Add salt to taste and serve.

I have made that very tomatillo salsa! I love it.

Jaq, I had totally forgotten about those threads--thank you!

Maybe gonna try this Cooks Illustrated pasta salad. Wish me luck:
Dressing
6 T olive oil
3 T red wine vinegar
3 T lemon juice
1 medium shallot
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T fresh oregano leaves, minced (1/2 t dried)
1 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t ground black pepper

Salad
salt
1 lb farfalle
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated on large holes of grater
1 yellow bell pepper, 1/4 in. strips
8 oz crumbled feta (2 c.)
1 c pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarse
1/2 c minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk all dressing ingredients together in medium bowl. Set aside.

Boil the pasta with 2 T salt and cook until completely tender. Reserve 1 c of the cooking water, then drain in a colander. Transfer the pasta to a large bowl.

Stir the reserved pasta water into the dressing. Pour half of this new mixture over the pasta and stir to coat. Stir in the carrots, pepper, feta, olives and parsley. Scatter the tomatoes on top.

To Store: Cover the salad tightly with plastic wrap and poke several holes in to vent. Refrigerate the salad and dressing separately for up to 2 days.

To Serve: Microwave the pasta on high power to remove the chill, 1-2 minutes. Shake the reserved dressing to recombine, then pour half over the salad, toss to combine. Add remaining dressing as needed to keep salad moist.

Ain't got no shallot (seems not to be a thing in Mexico? I have yet to see them, even in the big city grocery stores). Ain't got no kalamata olive, but I do have some green ones with pits, which will be a pain in the ass but oh well. Ain't got no feta, but queso blanco will work OK. Ain't got no fresh oregano, but I have dried, and fresh thyme. Ain't got no cherry tomatoes, but I oven-dried (actually grill-dried overnight after we turned the gas off-worked OK) some romas.

stuff that doesn't need heated

Jaq, you're in Seattle, right? Are you native to the NW? Just curious because this particular phrasing - which does not have a "to be" between "need" and "heated" - is something I'd never heard before I moved to WA but I see it all the time, like in Craigslist ads, for instance. I feel like I might have even asked you or someone on ILX about this before.

Sorry for the derail, food is good, cabbage slaw with lime/fish sauce/garlic/chile/peanuts/cilantro/mint is great, especially with grilled meats and such.

we were just talking about that at work. i had always heard it from people from western ny, but not eastern. and people from pennsylvania. it's all over.

Yeah I'm from central Indiana, only been in WA since 1999. I've gotten rid of "crick" for creek, but not all my lazy language ways.

I also say stuff like "I took myself to the movies" which drives some people in my family up a tree.

I think it's a Great Lakes trait iirc. The floor needs swept etc.

Weird, I lived most of my life in Michigan (and some in Arizona) and spent spent a lot of time in / know a bunch of people from MN / WI / IL and had never heard it until I got to WA where it seems pretty common. Carry on.

Yeah, I don't think I've heard a person say it aloud to this day. I only know it exists from ilx. Unless for linguistic purposes West Michigan is not "Great Lakes area."

Maybe it's confined to the lower great lakes area/rust belt?

Based on my family, the wellspring would either be Pulaski County KY or Scotch-Irish heritage.

The pork turned out great btw, just the right amount of heat from the chipotles. Today is catfood resupply and roasted beets and sweet potatoes for the week ahead.

This week on Breakfast Burrito Jawns with Stevie D:

1. TJ's chicken andouille sausage, broccoli, and red bell pep all cut into like 1/4-1/2ish inch dice and sautéed in butter w some garlic, cooked up nice w some roasty browned bits

2. Scramble two eggs in a bowl and add a handful of sausage mixture; dump in skillet and cook on both sides (basically an omelette)

3 Delicately plop onto a warm flour tortilla and top w shredded Mexican-blend cheese and double roasted salsa

Ugh I totally need to do a cat food re-up, but I forgot to pick up chicken thighs the last time I was in town. They're gonna be delighted to get trashy dry food for a few days.

This morning I boiled the noodles for lunch today--a cold sesame noodle recipe from that doyenne of Chinese food, Martha Stewart. Totally looking forward to it!