What's cooking? part 4

I've got a doozy.

I was 19... Friday night in a college town... $10 cover and all you can drink... I'd been on the road all day and hadn't eaten... nuff said.

Drank a whole bottle of Gordon's on my 21st birthday, partied like a (sloppy) rockstar.... spent most of the next morning hugging porcelain & holding on for dear life

Gin and I are still bros though. I can't stay mad at gin

Ooh I recently made some basil & cucumber infused gin.
IT WAS AWESOME.

Somehow gin is one drink I've never had a bad experience with.

Yeah, me neither. Gin is my friend.

Same here. Tequila, though? Well, we're not seeing each other any more.

Gin and I fell out way back but now we cool
Sloe gin, I could never be mad at

i made some slow roasted tomatoes. any ideas for what to do with them? like, sauce ideas? i was thinking about making some sort of vinaigrette.

Just made the kookoo sabzi, without the saffron because I didn't have any. Love it - can't wait to try it cold for lunch tomorrow.

recipe? coincidentally was just investigating this dish 'cuz it's on the menu @ work on Saturday. the recipe I was looking at online yesterday called for fenugreek leaves which i'm not able to get....

It's from LL upthread:

toooooootally gonna make this green fritatta/Persian herb quiche/kookoo sabzi
i was trying to remember what it reminded me of, and i figured it out -- sometimes when i order dal palak there's so much left over that I have to make a quiche out of it, and of course it's totally green. serve with ham for good time family yuks!

http://familyspice.com/recipes/recipe/?recipe_id=140

thx! my search proved fruitless

oil that dish v well. it took me a very long time to get all the egg off.

we have dishwashers! kidding. i'm not the chef or person that will prepare it but will pass along that tidbit and i'm really looking forward to tasting this. even bringing my own personal fenugreek supply to work to help make it be what it should. also, I've found butter to be a better lube when cooking at home to assist in non-stickness. anyone else ever notice this?

Got my first good homegrown tomatoes of the summer from a couple of my mother's friends, who always have a big garden. We'd already made a tomatoes-for-peanut brittle deal during the winter, so now I just need a sunny day to gin up some brittle. I had three tomato sandwiches for lunch.

I want to make some homemade DUMPLINGS!. Can you help me think of ideas? I want to do a mexican style chorizo-based one, maybe chorizo and leek? Chorizo and _____? Also maybe beef and potato masaman curry, or some sort of curry one?

you could just use a samosa filling recipe -- that's what i did when i was going through my "make my own hot pockets" phase (dough surrounding savory fillings of various types)

You could try pork or beef chili or ground pork in a spicy mole. Just reduce the sauce so the filling will be more robust. If you finely dice the chorizo, you could also add some chopped, steamed kale and mashed butter/cannellini beans/chickpeas. Mix with fried, finely diced onions or shallots, add chicken stock and reduce. It would basically be the classic stew combo in dumpling form. Chorizo would also go well with something like artichoke hearts, to which you could also add chopped parsley or fennel.

what are all yr favourite summer salads?

spinach + all the raw vegetables + avocado + evoo/balsamic

- seared tuna (rub with salt, pepper, ground coriander) with leaves, avocado, MANGO, tomatos, cucumber, red onion, macadamias. Used to make my own mango dressing but every supermarket sells it now so that.
- roast chicken, spinach, goats cheese, strawberries, almonds, raspberry dressing
these both sound like they'd be dead sweet but they're not really

- grilled peppers and whatever else + chicken (used to cookthose spicy chicken wing things from supermarkets) + lemon, sour cream, OO dressing
- lentils, halloumi, coriander, lemon and usual veg

I could go on for ever I think

i could go on forever too, not even gonna start

i think i posted a bunch of pictures the last time someone asked this q

tabbouli
cold sesame noodle
ceviche w/avocado

would eat all the ceviche right now

Making a chicken + veg stew for tonight.

Making papri chaat (does that count as a summer salad? It involves chickpeas and yogurt, so maybe?).

Also gonna make a potato salad.

Also gonna make ropa vieja (actually spouse will make this, but will require coaching).

Day of foods.

korean carrots

^^^recipe, pls

Day of foods sounds greeeeat

I made bizarro tacos for dinner and have some bread pudding (cinnamon raisin bread from last week w nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom) in the oven. It's in individual ramekins! So appealing.

i was looking all over for a recipe, including russian cookbooks at the library, but not finding one that was similar to what i had at an uzbek restaurant here. i basically did this http://shesimmers.com/2010/08/russian-korean-salad-%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%8C.html but omitted the onions because i don't think they were there, they take longer, and are messy and not necessary imo. also i don't use enough flavorless oil to justify keeping it anymore so i used olive oil. i added chopped dill but parsley would be good too. the uzbek restaurant puts dill on everything.

we had some leftover steelhead in the fridge plus some carrots from the CSA that needed used up. Yellow curry with carrots and chunks of steelhead was very good.

Now I wish I hadn't used all those carrots up - want to try that Korean carrot salad

i've finally been actually using the carrots i get at the farmers' market. 2-3 large carrots makes a huge bowl of salad. i can't stop eating it.

i made almond & orange cookies and a decadent caramel slice. also eating leftover roast chicken sandwiches. any good ideas for roast chicken apart from that delish-looking salad kinder posted upthread?

You can do anything with leftover roast chicken! Anything!

I'm just fishing for exceptional ideas. I've used it in risotto, salads, pasta bakes, pies, just wondering to what other uses people have put it.

Chicken turned out great, btw. Za'atar made another guest appearance, as did its neighbour sumac. Love those spices so much.

got up close and personal with a whole lot of fava beans tonight

Make a tower with arepas, vegetables of your choosing, and your leftover chicken.

Make Vietnamese spring rolls?

My bread pudding just came out of the oven (why am I baking?! Too hot) and they look beautiful.

I was boiling a chicken breast and my power went out only ten minutes into cooking it, for two hours. RIP noble chicken breast, you coulda been a pizza.

i'm not all into burgers, veggie or otherwise, but these look gooooooood http://www.thekitchn.com/restaurant-reproduction-bestev-96967
i keep thinking of other things i want to put in/on them -- basil, stilton?! various chiles? something crunchy? oh man.

my friend just made those--they were pretty good, not amazing imo.

Recipe for success:

Trader Joe's turkey burger, sauteed, on a
Trader Joe's British muffin, toasted, and topped with
Trader Joe's Xtra Xtra Sharp New York Cheddar which is a bit bitter on its own but turns into magic when melted on a burger and gives a wonderful and straightforward cheddar POW! w/o wacky notes (like that grassy New Zealand shit, yuck!) and is reasonably priced
add some sliced scallions

omg

english muffin is secretly the best burger container

deeply proud of the ribeye i grilled tonite (i am a nervous griller)

I've a very nervous griller too, but I've had success with 30 secs on each side and then 1.5 mins on each side in the oven (sets the smoke alarm off less often too). Is this heresy?

not if it works :)

It seems to! It was so long since I'd had a steak and I was so happy to end steak-drought that I doubt I'd be able to tell if it was slightly sub-par.

I had the most amazing spring roll thingies yesterday from my local banh mi shop -- the spring roll wrapper contained a few rice vermicelli noodles, a lot of lettuce, mint, some crunchy fried tofu strips and thick avocado slices with sriracha on them. they were so good i think i'm going to try it at home. the crunchy tofu bits can probably be replaced by something else i have lying around, right? surely. everything else i already have! i totally lose my appetite in super hot weather, so it's good to find something appealing.