What's cooking? part 4

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.

And by monkeying around I mean I didn't have basil or jicama, I didn't use mushrooms, I subbed green beans for edamame, and I sliced a carrot into it. Topped with radish and scallion. Still gooood.

rolled about 30 unagi/avo/cucumber rolls yesterday @ work for an event. nevr worked with b-b-q eel before but it was a v v nice prepared (kryovac) product. warmed it up slightly in order to separate the skin and fat from the flesh and it was so damn dee-lish.

have black beans soaking to make some yam/black bean salad later today - need to pick up a few habaneros....

traditional coleslaw recipe, anyone? (mayo-based)

i haven't made it for a while, and for the life of me i can't remember exactly what i used to put in it.

i usually start here: http://www.food.com/recipe/the-pantry-coleslaw-136004

dial down the sugar considerably and dial up the powders/celery salt

I tweaked my chipotle mac + cheese w/ garlic bread crumbs recipe

guys

this is a mac of wonder

celery salt SO key

never have understood why there's so much sugar in so many trad coleslaw recipes

i've never put sugar in mine, def. but i always use carrot and sweet red onion so i think that's enough sweetness. i can't remember the tart part of the old recipe i used to use.

sugar in coleslaw? Woah, i'd never do that. Shredded cabbage,carrot, celery, and capsicum with a mayo/lemon juice/mustard dressing is all I ever do.

I often add a small amount (~3/4 tsp or less) of sugar to the dressing to offset some of the tartness of the lemon juice. Never more than a tiny amount like that. Seems to help, but that's just my taste.

I'm not eating enough vegetables. Looking for ways to cook vegetables such that I can re-heat them at work in the microwave as a good base for proteins, without them wilting too much on me. A few dishes that I can whip up fast at home in the evening, making enough for a few days' reheating at a time.

I roast beets on Sunday for the week ahead, but I just eat them cold. Also bags of arugula and baby kale eaten raw for salad - I keep olive oil and vinegar at my desk for dressing. Roasted root veggies might reheat okay in the microwave.

Yes, I should get back to doing beets for the week - I used to, and I love them cold. I find that when I roast a bunch of veg in the oven, they get too oily (or burn if I try to add less oil) - I need to experiment. I do take arugula and spinach as salad, but I get bored and want something with more crunch. Maybe green beans with some kind of citrus dressing?

sweet potato roasts and reheats really well ime - i cube and toss it in the barest amount of oil (maybe a tbsp for 2 large ones), so that it's only v thinly coated, roast high at 425 (oh and wash the starch off really well first, then dry). i never understand any recipe involving roasting veg that says to 'place the vegetables on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil' - you end up using way too much or not enough.

Barely blanched green beans in a citrusy vinaigrette sounds awesome. I do like yams/sweet potatoes, but we have them pretty every morning for breakfast. There was a cold eggplant salad I made a few years back, with sesame and kecap manis, that would be super for lunches - if I can find the recipe again!