What's cooking? part 4

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

the answer to a fasting person’s prayer!

sold

favorite new recipe for dressing kale or for other purposes:
Ume Dressing
combine in blender:
1/4 cup onion
1 T sesame seed
1 T ginger
1 1/2 T umeboshi paste
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white miso (optional)
pinch o' salt & pepper
commence to blend and drizzle in 1/4 cup neutral flavored oil

ooh yum

5/7 of my most recent dinners have been vegetarian i have no idea how nor why but it only just struck me

I think I can call the pear & leek pork chops I make a "signature dish." Very very good last night.

Grilled some chicken (marinade: lime juice, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, S&P, oil). Rice, black beans, glazed carrots as go-withs. I'm going to burrito-ize some of those with green chiles, because I've been craving a grilled chicken + green chile burrito for weeks now.

i would like to preface this post by saying that we should just be real with ourselves and admit that burmese tea leaf salad is the best food ever invented. the asian market in town improbably sells a box of fermented tea leaves and even has all needed nuts included -- all you need to do is shred some cabbage and chop a tomato and you have heaven in your mouth

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BTlJOOTCQAAfWrk.jpg

Can you get a pic of this box of magic? I would like to track some down, but wouldn't know where to start without a visual.

What's Cooking here is soft foods for the dentally impaired (me atm). Soup has been done (and done, and done), as has shakshuka; we are moving on to black beans and rice.

here it is (the other 2 panels are in burmese)

http://i41.tinypic.com/aakaop.jpg

it's pretty great, tastes just like i remember it from over there. nice and spicy too

I've only had this once but I loved it
Burmese food is one of the best foods!

are you west coasters? i've heard there are some places you can find it in the bay area

otm btw

I meant tea leaf salad in general btw, not that stuff, but I did eat Burmese food in SF :)

yeah "it" was referring to the dish in general. tough to find it in the northeast, which is why i was pleasantly surprised the shop carried it

ingredients list on the box is v persuasive
what's in the box? shredded leaves, & you cooked them or?

there are just two bags inside, one with the tea leaves and the other with all the nuts. the tea leaves look pretty gross by themselves (almost like a wad of wet chewing tobacco) and have a strong flavor if you try it by itself and aren't accustomed to it. the ingredients are all very moist (and triple-wrapped) so all you gotta do is mix the bags together in a bowl. when i lived on the burmese border of thailand it was always served with cabbage and tomatoes in there too, so i added that myself. you can also add chillies and squeeze a lemon or lime over it

Well I'm not even going to try finding such a thing in Mexico, but when I am back in DC I'll have access to tons o' groceries that carry all manner of SE Asian stuff, plus there is a burmese restaurant that I have yet to try!

That sounds amazing! No Burmese restaurants in Seattle but maybe I can find that salad at the giant pan-Asian supermarket.

Cooked for the coming week today: chipotle rubbed pork shoulder, 5 pounds of roasted beets, a quart of macadamia nut/port wine vinegar mayonnaise, a stack of grainfree crepes/wraps.

when i lived in thailand my friends and i took a burmese cooking class, and they gave us a little recipe book afterwards. here's what i made tonight:

1) veggie curry with dal beans, red peppers, okra, onion, long beans, cauliflower, potato, and garlic
2) "festive fruity rice": white rice with carrots, green peas, onions, garlic, and pineapple (i would probably go easier on the onion next time tbh but it's good)

Some friends were in burma last month and actually brought me a bag of fermented tea leaves, amongst other random foodstuffs. I had never heard of them and had no idea what to do with them.

I've made deviled eggs twice this week for cookouts and they're the best snack ever

at work they make really good deviled eggs. best part being the flavorings they add to the yolk mixing in Dijon, a little mayo, parsley and a little relish for some lovely tang.

another hot day coming so gonna make "sushi" rolls. feel like getting some raw almond butter in there; will also probably add asparagus and maybe some avocado if I can find a ripe one

Whoever once posted at making egg cakes with leftover rice, you have changed the course of my life. Thank you.

it's not cooking but

I've been making lots of iced jasmine tea, which is good enough on its own, but I recently decided to blend it w/ some frozen blueberries and ohhhh my god, this is maybe the best beverage I've stumbled upon since I put espresso in horchata. I cannot wait to try other fruits! Also I wonder what the best way to incorporate a fresh fruit component into jasmine tea would be w/o a juicer? I could try buying juice concentrates but idk how good they would be.

Stevie: espresso and horchata? Must try! I put eggnog in chai tea and it's great in winter.

I have been looking up recipes for gajar halva, the Indian carrot pudding. I don't want to screw it up first try so if anyone has a recipe they swear by, let me know. I had it everyday at this Indian restaurant in Baltimore.

This Burmese fermented tea leaf is intriguing me. Is it anything like kimchee, but a tea version?

Xp yes!! You essentially make an iced latté but w/ horchata instead of milk (just don't call it a "horchatté")

Man I haven't made horchata in ages :-( prob bcz I made it a ton in the course of a month or two and every single time straining it made a huge mess and took like 20 minutes of squeezing a Thai tea sock as it sloooowly trickled out

Ha!

Is it better to grind up the rice, almonds and cinnamon sticks before setting it in water? Don't think it would make a difference but saw that some recipes called for grinding the ingredients first.

I don't think it makes a difference; I just plop it in and puree it after like overnight or whatever

the secret though is getting Mexican cinnamon

such floral!
very taste!

Tons of it here, Stevie, I can send you some if you'd like.

omg!! I would say "yes yes!!" but the real truth is that there is some at this lovely Mexican grocer that is also near a butcher that has the best chorizo in town

They are kind of far from my new apt but this will motivate me to make a ceylon-cinnamon-and-chorizo run sometime soon and STOCK T F UP

We need the best chorizo in town. You don't find good chorizo in east Texas. Or we haven't so far.

(wishin I could share this chorizo w/ y'all on thread; giant logs of it on sheet trays in a cooler that they cut huge ropes of and put in a plastic bag like a giant chorizo poop; $4.99 a lb which is not bad for SO GOOD CHORIZO)

http://media.tumblr.com/37ae241437db7a74d15a651a2217b629/tumblr_inline_mlrtcuCVpx1ril95z.jpg

It is hard to find a resource to locate excellent foodstuffs in a city. Yelp and Chowhound work sometimes but not always; I KNOW there must be A+ chorizo closer to my apt than 5 miles away but HOW DO I FIND IT??

That is a super good price! In OKC we tried veal chorizo from Whole Foods and it was divine. Still felt uber guilty until I looked up the company and read all about their humane way of treating their animals. It was so delish but we never found it again.

I just bought some pine elixir, which is apparently the sap of pine trees + sugar and has a host of health benefits?! I think I am going to drizzle some on thin slices of some kind of aged cheese, like parmesan or w/e. It tastes exactly like pine trees. I bet it would be amazing in lemonade or a gin drink.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7338/9711725765_5f92e94611_n.jpg

Weird! Is it like piney honey?