What's cooking? part 4

That looks great! What do you use in place of fish sauce?

nothing (i don't think)! it's some veganized recipe i found online - it's probably missing some... umami or something, without the fish sauce, but it's pretty good, esp for such an easy/quick meal.

I made boiled kale and then cracked eggs into it and we had it on toast for breakfast and it was RAD

That sealed the deal for me: I am DEFINITLEY making shakshuka next weekend.

I bought some salmon yesterday to make gravlax. Unwrapped it today and it did not smell fresh at all. I went ahead and did the preparations and it's wrapped and weighted, but should I cook it instead? Or will curing the fish be better than cooking it?

Hmmmm that is a good question. If it is still "good" but not "perfect," I think my strategy would be to cook it and serve it as a component of a dish, not the main event. One way I really like cured or cooked salmon is tossed with pasta with goat cheese, capers, lemon juice, herb of some sort (dill would be ace).

In case that didn't make sense: big chunk o' fresh goat cheese thinned out to sauce consistency with the pasta water.

I just made shakshuka this morning for me + my roommate (who is not my boyfriend) (yet)! He loved it a ton!

i just got one of those infamous all-clad skillets (12") today!! so excited to use it, my MIL bought it for me as an overly generous gift for helping her sell a bunch of her handmade jewelry.

Nice! I have an all-clad steamer insert - it's built like a tank. What wil you cook first in it?

made a delicious stir-fry with carrots, jicama, and watercress last night. mixed it with rice noodle threads. really good, the cress is delicious

Made these eggs baked in avocado because of a facebook post of kenan's. They're yum! If you like eggs, runny yolks, aguacates, and hot temperature foods, they're as good as you'd expect.

I have also taken to seeding an avocado and filling it with NM green chile salsa!! Which is the best!

Made some spring rolls the other day (wet rice noodle no cook kind). They're easy but I think I chose an underwhelming combo of veggies in the middle. Or maybe needs something more robust in the middle than those goofy k-krab logs. Highlight: using mint from the only plant I have raised and not killed within one month's time; its name is Christopher Mintz-Plantze.

I also learned how to make an awesome, not too sugary blueberry pie with an incredibly thin crust. I am seriously stoked on myself for pulling it off (easy because I had a very clear guided lesson). I have been having a little thin slice with breakfast every day and it makes me feel awesome, and decadent, like some hard-working and hale resident of Dogpatch who can afford to do so.

xp to jaq - i'm making the pad thai again tonight, so i think the all-clad's first trip out will be browning some tofu crumbles.

i also bought a pretty salt cellar, and it's making me inordinately happy.

baking chicken leg quarters for dinner...and this afternoon I made a warm strawberry crumb cake for dessert with today's haul of ripe today-gone tomorrow strawberries (and a handful of blackberries)

Just put a giant pork shoulder (from a pig that lived down the road from my mother in law) in the crockpot with orange and lime juice, an onion, garlic, some chile, cumin, oregano, and a corona. Eight hours til dinner with pickled onions that I made yesterday.

I also still have a bunch of lake superior whitefish roe that I might have to eat with scrambled eggs

that sounds delicious!

but some chile,
fresh? dried? type? whole? seeded? en polvo? more deets on the chile! (unless you mean chili and that's a difft set of questions)

I'm 20 miles from the nearest town in a cabin on a lake full of ancient spices in a part of the country with essentially zero latino population so I had to improv a bit - there was a little chipotle powder that I probably left here years ago and a mystery bag labeled "chile powder". I didn't use a whole lot of either.

aha
just wondering! i have some various chiles and was wondering if they would do. let us know how it turns out!

I made crockpot adobo chicken last night

in the fridge waiting for me to get home and reheat it mmmmmm I can't wait. It smelled so good last night I almost abandoned dinner plans and had a late adobo chicken dinner

I feel comfortable saying adobo is the best.

it really is amazing and comforting

I haf to go groshry shopping this weekend

haf 2 make things that I can make lots of and eat throughout the week (which I mean ok is p much any recipe I will find bcz most recipes make more than 1 serving)

what are you into right now?

i feel like i have lost my cooking ability. too tired.

Ranchero beans/charro beans served as a soup or over rice!

Soba noodles with peanut or sesame sauce, add different julienned veggies to change it up, also SRIRACHA

Crockpot chicken or pork served various and sundry ways--tacos, omlettes, sammich, pasta

a good nutritious tasty dish that keeps well:

http://chubbyvegetarian.blogspot.com/2012/06/spicy-quinoa-black-lentil-salad-with.html?m=1

I usually sub couscous for quinoa and basil for cilantro.

Also: cooking a bunch of lentils and grains of your choice and serving with some roasted veg + salad + different vinaigrettes

I grilled kebabs on Friday based on this interpretation of a cook's illustrated recipe, with mushrooms, red peppers, onions, and sirloin from the University of Idaho meat counter which is amazing and wonderful to have around.

I just chopped the leftovers up and fried them in a pan and cracked two eggs into the mess at the end; anything fried with eggs on top is my favorite sort of breakfast thing.

OK so my idea for a nice summer soup for the next couple of days is to make a blender full of "basic" gazpacho, then vary it up with a different theme each day. Basic today, add chipotle with adobo and avocado for the next, then, er I dunno need ideas! Wish I had some red curry paste because that would be ace. Maybe I can Indian-ize it somehow.

Maybe kick it with some Vietnamese flavors - lime, mint, fish sauce? With some cold shrimp added?

not cooking but made bomb-ass sandwiches

big hunks of crusty bread
prosciutto
ripe beefsteak tomato
olive oil, salt, pepper
basil
smoked cheddar

eat & smile

That sandwich sounds sooooooo good! I miss all those fancy-pants sammiches you can get in the US, or even just a good italian cold-cut. Cold cuts don't seem to be much of a Mexican thing. Oh god now I'm thinking of a delicious reuben, which is so not gonna happen sadly.

I finally made shakshuka, using the smitten kitchen recipe

It turned out pretty good, except it took WAY longer to cook the eggs, like at least 10-12 minutes before the whites stopped being clear, which seemed v weird to me. So some of the eggs were overdone etc. If anyone has any good tips for finishing off the eggs, I'd love to hear them

but in general it was pretty yum, I will try again.

I found it took a while too, I tried to speed up the process by spooning some hot sauce over all but the yolks?

Have the eggs at room temp in their shells instead of straight from the fridge?

had some habaneros and cilantro to consider in the fridge so currently simmering a batch o' salsa. I think is gonna be hot and nice. something like quesadillas for din-din with a salad.....

xpost - never made this dish but assuming you basted and kept lid on to help steam? why nao spooning over yolks if I may ask? they'd take a bit more heat to coagulate than the whites since they're mostly fat and the whites are mostly protein

yeah I basted the whites with the sauce occasionally, kept the lid on except when basting, and I used room temp eggs.

*shrugs*

I've made a similar dish lots of times and the eggs have always taken about 3x longer to cook than the recipe says.

Not much more you could do then!

does anyone finish their eggs in the oven?

btw, yolks start to firm up around 140 F while whites are completely clear and liquid until around 160 F, a fact which came as a surprise the day I took the 140 F sous vide eggs (12 hours @ that temp) to work for lunch.

ooh that is good to know

I really really hate snotty whites

in life as well as cooking imo

Agreed!

Today, there was very little cooking because I decided to re-org the kitchen by getting another (longer narrower) ikea kitchen island. Just finished building Norden. Groland got moved back by the windows and the little rolling storage bins are now hanging out in the dining room. Photos if I can ever stand back up.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3706/9542907438_b1592d8e83.jpg

Needed to get up for aspirin anyway. It took about 2 hours to put together, and only one minor injury (little finger stabbed by screwdriver).

I actually have the exact same butcher block Norden here that I've been meaning to sell!

well, better do something with this purple yam

hmmm

this sounds nice and looks easy. http://www.tarladalal.com/Grated-Purple-Yam-with-Roasted-Peanuts-36104r

you could make yam and spinach latkes