What's cooking? part 4

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?

yup
it tastes way more tree-like than the forest honey i bought at the same place. this store has all kinds of international foodstuffs that are unknown to me. i love it.

lunch yesterday

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/p320x320/1002215_10151567177292890_933044014_n.jpg

tempeh reuben with a teeny tiny kale salad

YUM!!! Time to make a teeny tiny kale salad...

any cooking tips on how not to light parchment paper on fire? especially when it results in you panicking and grabbing an oven-hot sheet pan with both hands?

what are u cooking

i was making little turkey/zucchini burgers from jerusalem--they finish in the oven (parchment-covered sheet pan). i took the pan out and put it on the front half of the stove. there were glazed carrots on one of the back burners, and i turned the heat on them to high and walked away for a minute. when i came back the parchment paper was totally on fire, i tried to move it away from the carrots which resulted in the sheet pan almost falling on the floor. i saved it with both hands and two hours of ice and aloe later it is still v. painful.

this is the second time i've lit parchment paper on fire--basically i just can't put it on the range top like i would a tin foil-covered sheet pan

yeah just don't put them on the range
or if you HAVE to for space reasons or w/e, cover the edges or the whole thing with foil so the paper doesn't catch

not so much a cooking problem as common sense :)

sry bout yr hands though, that sounds nasty

eek be careful CAD! I never use parchment in the oven, no judgement, just don't run into recipes that ask me to. But if I have a burner on the stove going, I just balance hot stuff from the oven on the edge of my sink, if that's an option for you. Of course, you can also get hot pads at the dollar store or similar. Stay safe!

made this Filipino dish at work today and it came out nearly right on. it involved fish, ginger, other vegetables I found lying around (eggplant and bok choy) and this bean paste that is a abnormally reddish/pink. mostly was half a shot in the dark attempt to make something new (to me) that was awesome; and opportunity to feed ~7 coworkers just 'cuz... made it with some ling cod that was just lingering (a couple weeks) in the freezer (been @ my job 3 years and the chef has nevr minded me experimenting/feeding coworkers, which is pretty darn cool)....this bean paste is hard to describe beyond saltysaltysourlysaltilysour, so user beware, but man I could eat this dish every other day

Making chicken mole tacos with an avocado tomatillo salsa, with chorizo refried beans and tex mex rice.

sounds wonderful.
found some won ton wrappers in the freezer so today we're gonna do:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Artichoke-Ravioli-with-Tomatoes-236983
with the wrappers in place of making dough from scratch....and maybe vegan alfredo in place of the cream

treated myself to some scallops yesterday. I think scallops, prawns, with some lemony cream, cherry tomatoes, rocket with spaghetti or similar is one of my favourite things to cook and eat.

House guest cooked thai scallops yesterday - they were superb.

Today I want to use a rump roast and make carne guisada, should I cube the roast before cooking in the dutch oven or let it cook whole and just fall apart?

I've always seen it cooked whole. and supposedly it'll benefit from a quick sear on each side prior to the time it spends in the oven but I don't know if that's absolutely essential

I take it back. not familiar with this dish so I googled after the fact - was just going by the way I've normally seen that cut of meat prepared

Yeah I've seen recipes that call for both ways, and I'm unsure which works better. For some reason I'm scared of cubing this roast. I'm afraid I will ruin it, not sure why.

I'd cook it whole.

I am reattempting a modified chipotle mac and cheese based on this recipe (but w/ less sauce bcz there is way too much sauce for the amt of pasta that there is) (or maybe I should just up the macaroni and make a ton and have leftovers for years idk)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Macaroni-and-Cheese-with-Garlic-Bread-Crumbs-Plain-and-Chipotle-102738

made scrambled eggs with bacon, peppers & mushrooms & bacon leavings all mixed in...whoa good

one trick I've learned the last couple years w/mac&cheese is that the pasta comes out better and it helps the dish overall to only cook the noodle halfway before cooling. was hard to resist taking it further the first time I tried it this way, but it really seemed a improvement to cooking it to al dente....don't worry the mac will hydrate perfectly when you go to bake it in the sauce.

xpost

Oh yeah I love that trick!! Having perfectly al-dente baked mac n cheese wows ppl bcz many are used to only having mushy mac n cheese. Best tip.

otm

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/transpacific-routes/the-asian-american-supermarket-more-than-just-a-grocery-store.html

disappointed by the lack of mention of south asian supermarkets tbh

This recipe may be a bad Americanization of actual Japanese soup but even with some monkeying around w the ingredients, it's damn good.