What's cooking? part 4

Xps, biriyani is traditionally not a curry dish. It's often eaten with a curry sauce though. In most restaurants what's sold as biriyani is just pilau rice mixed with whatever curry the chef happens to have handy.

Behold: pan-roasted chicken thighs with harissa chickpeas

http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad184/sdolnack/42310C94-B3C9-4F5C-AC2A-CAA23307F041_zpsfwc4ueln.jpg

#winnerwinnerchickendinner #iwokeuplikethis #harissaexplainsitall

#flawless

recipe please WilliamC?

I looked at 7-8 recipes online and combined/freelanced it this way:
First I toasted about 2.5 cups of raw peanuts on a baking sheet at 350˚ for 25 minutes, giving them a shake a couple of times during to make sure they didn't get over toasted on one side. Divide them in half; salt one half liberally while they're still hot and shiny from the oils coming out, leave the other half unsalted.

1 large onion, rough chopped
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
a quantity of fresh ginger, grated -- I wound up with about 1.5 tablespoons

Sweat the onion in just enough olive oil until sweaty, add garlic and ginger and give it another minute. Then add spices:
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
some hot chili paste. I have to make things pretty mild because meds blew my wife's taste buds up a few years ago. 1 tsp of sambal oelek gave it a barely noticeable heat -- 1.5 or 2 tsp would be better, I think
1 tablespoon of tomato paste

Stir it all around for another minute, then add:
3 large sweet potatoes cut into 3/4" dice
one 15 oz. can of diced tomatoes
Enough unsalted vegetable stock to cover, 4-5 cups
the unsalted half of your toasted peanuts

Low simmer for 45-50 minutes
At this point I pulled out a couple of cups of potatoes/onions/peanuts, pureed the rest with the boat motor and put the rest back in so there would be some chunky bits, but you can puree the whole thing if you want.

Then whisk in some peanut butter -- I think I used about 1/2 cup, more or less to suit you. Taste it and adjust the salt if needed, simmer at low for another minute or two, and it's done. Throw a small handful of the salted peanuts into each bowl for a nice crunchy surprise.

Stevie I made that lentil stew for my sick Mama - A+! I forgot the vinegar and didn't have fresh spices, but it still worked. Added Tabasco sauce.

#winnerwinnerchickendinner #iwokeuplikethis #harissaexplainsitall

^^^^^^^^^^

about to bake off a GIGANTIC pizza. half of it: clams and garlic, nice Italian fontina and chopped habaneros; b/w blanched broccoli/sundried tomato/mozzarella/habanero.....

habs packed no punch but the garlic/clam/fontina part killed.
salad day today - baby kale, mango slices, toasted hazelnuts with simple lemon/honey/extra virgin dressing

adventures in leftover gravy day 1 : shredded leftover chicken, sauteed veggies, brown rice + gravy.
day 2: turkey burgers on bread smothered with gravy
day 3: profit

Can anybody help me identify this vegetable

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/SH/86EB40F5-6091-4875-8C48-77D221818672_zpsoiqc96uv.jpg

I think that's a seed/bean in the middle

I can't get it to zoom in for detail, but it sort of looks like a split open bitter gourd? Kind of ridged exterior? Those don't have seeds like that though. Maybe tepary bean in the pod?

Not tepary bean, but winged bean I think. Can't copy the link on this phone, but check the wiki image - pretty sure that's it.

Ty Jaq!

Did you eat it? What was it like?

making rogan josh with half of this huge leg of lamb roast i got at costco

Yeah it was at this banquet lunch I went to

Vinegar/soy vinegraeittteete

Tasted nice, good texture, not stringy, would have again xp

i wanted macaroni and cheese, so i made my first roux, but i didn't have flour, so i used some cornstarch, it didn't seem to matter

woo my cheese sauce is getting better, i started putting cayenne pepper in it too, i think next i'll try mustard

Oh mustard is a great addition. Happy trails!

Made this yesterday as my 'take to work for the week' lunch:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/01/slow-cooker-chicken-40-cloves-garlic-fingerling-potato-recipe.html
So yummy and easy. I hope everyone loves my garlic breath.

It is by far the classiest thing thing I have ever made in a crockpot. OTOH I feel like crockpot recipe books have ruined their image for me as they're usually half recipes like 'hey why not just pour a 2-liter bottle of Dr Pepper into your crockpot and heat it up for six hours?'

Ugh, yeah. Or a couple of cans of chicken soup.

leftover lamb means shepherd's pie for dinner. haven't had it since i was a kid :D

I have a friend who is going to Singapore on a Fullbright, and for his birthday yesterday he instigated a potluck by requesting that people claim and prepare recipes from this Malaysian / Singaporean / Indonesian cookbook (he sent scanned recipes out, but I have my own copy).

It was pretty cool - perhaps a bit presumptuous to invite people over and demand the cook a specific thing but everyone was into it and it turned out really well, a good spread, all thematically similar, more than anyone would be sane enough to attempt on their own. It also gave me an excuse to make fried chicken that had been soaked in coconut milk and spices overnight.

made tomatillo habanero salsa last night. so tonight tempeh and cheese tacos w/avocado and the aforementioned (roasted habs, tomatillos, onion & garlic, lemon juice, cilantro, salt). salsa excites me to no end

shepherd's pie turned out fantastic - used an alton brown recipe and it was v flavorful without being too far off what I grew up with. The only difference really is that I didn't grind up the leftover lamb the way mum used to, I just cut it into chunks.

though I did have a horrible 'y can't VG read' moment, where I made the mashed potatoes according to mr brown's recipes (or what I thought was his recipe)... added the liquid and the butter thinking 'wow that's a lot of liquid' but of course I didn't double check the recipe because I'm in the zone. I mix it all up and it was like soup! I was all "WTF Alton Brown your mashed potatoes suck--"
....ohhhhhhhhhh wait you said 1/4 cup not 3/4 cup liquid looooooooooooool.

So I cooked up another lot of potatoes, mashed them and added them to the 'soup' and bob's yer uncle

note to self. READ recipe.

and it was totally stupid, I make mash all the time I had every reason to doubt that I was putting WAY too much liquid in and I didn't pause for a second thought, so much facepalm

When I make it I melt some butter in a pan and sizzle garlic in for a minute or so and add chopped rosemary and put that in the mash :)

lunch today:
barbequed seitan slices on habanero coleslaw atop some nice sliced crusty white bread. #nomnomnom

I have perfected pancakes, just fyi. 3/4 unbleached flour to 1/4 almond meal, plus a lot of cinnamon added to the regular recipe, cooked in butter in a cast-iron pan for a perfect velvety surface.

Also somehow I got the mix/don't overmix level just right on these so they're fluffy and soft and...I'm so happy.

Oh also more salt and less sugar than the recipe calls for, obv.

Taking pancake notes here. How much sugar does your recipe call for and how much do you actually add?

I use this recipe bc I never have milk in the house: http://mormonmavens.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-milk-pancakes.html

So I skimp on the sugar, and since we only have sea salt and it doesn't mass the same as plain salt because of the flake shape, I actually use a whole teaspoon and not the 1/2 it says there. Substitute 1/4 C of almond meal for part of the flour, plus you could use whole-wheat flour for the other 3/4 if you had it, that would be even better. Then accidentally dump in what you think is way too much cinnamon--I went a little crazy yesterday but it was perfect...maybe a tablespoon or more?

Then I mixed with a plain steel teaspoon, not a whisk or a big cooking spoon, which seemed to minimize the stirred-ness (I usually overstir and things get heavy).

Usually I'd dump a glug of nice vanilla in with the wet ingreds but I'm out of van so I didn't and they were still wonderful.

Fabulous. Trying these at the weekend - thank you!

made waffles last night. loving the sort of time consuming (melt butter, whip egg whites) recipe that came with this nordic ware stove top belgian waffler. pretty simple to make just takes dishes/cleaning. highly recommend the nordic ware though. leftover waffle for brekkie with peanut butter and banana. think i prefer just maple syrup

i read a japanese mystery novel where the detective had eggs on rice for breakfast, so i made eggs on rice. cooked the rice in chicken broth and fried the eggs. some tarragon and soy sauce.

i didn't have any little japanese pickles.

How was??

I still crave fried egg on top of leftover thai curry p regularly. I should whip up a batch of something.

was nice, good balance i think, could possibly omit broth (mine was not that flavorful) if you want the delicacy of the eggs on the rice more. runny eggs (not what i usually eat) impt.

forgot, i used some cornstarch in the rice too, to get the broth to stick to it.

Home from Atlanta with crazy amounts of groceries -- I found almost everything I was looking for except for Szechuan peppercorns and, weirdly enough, grits. The awesomeness of the product they sell at the Dekalb Farmers Market must be getting around, because there wasn't a grit anywhere to be found in the building.

Made a mushroom ragout yesterday, served over sourdough toast with gruyere melted on top under the broiler. Tonight, my first stab at braised veal shanks. They were ok, not amazing.

hey i've got some szechuan peppercrons if yer jonesin', shoot me a email. i know they were banned for a few years from us markets for some reason. picked some up @ rainbow co-op not too long ago.....

anyone have any advice re: making chili in the crockpot? i made the best chili i ever made on super bowl sunday (it was coincidental bc i did not watch the super bowl) by adapting this recipe and i want to do it again in the crockpot. i have a 3.3 lb chuck. just brown it first, drain it?

btw my adaptations were to add 2 cans of kidney beans against the recipe writer's advice, used regular ground beef, used paste i made from soaked dried anchos, added a can of beef broth, made tomato puree in the food processor, didn't have any masa harina

i made some ramen, i added rice wine vinegar to it, so my advice is, add a splash of rice wine vinegar

mine had garlic floating in the bottom of it

just brown it first, drain it?
yeah maybe with some onions?
i add a little cocoa powder to my chili too, not sure if it does anything but i always add it

I made Mole Poblano from scratch last night for valentines and it turned out much better than I thought. I loosely followed this recipe http://www.patismexicantable.com/2010/03/mole_poblano_de_los_angeles/
Except I didn't have chiles mulatos, and I used a few chipotle chiles in adobo. Once the mole was finished I cooked boneless thighs with nopales and stewed tomatoes in the sauce, served over Tera's mexican rice.

outdoor miner, I might take you up on that! Thanks for the offer.

What were you planning on doing with grits? I was thinking of making fried grit cakes with braised turnip greens in a few days.

Through a series of lax communications I casually ended up buying a whole pig which we will be picking up today. The "hanging weight" was 130 pounds so it should be like 90-100 pounds packaged? I have no idea what this will actually look like when I see it.

I am making Beef Picadillo and spinach casserole from The Great American Cookbook. Have tried a few things from it before so have reasonable confidence that these will work out too.

I just love grits as an alternative starch to potatoes, pasta or rice. They're easy to modify with veg or meat stock instead of milk/water, good with some cheese whisked in at the end a la risotto. They spatter like hell when refried in cakes or slices unless they're dredged in egg & flower, and that's usually more work than I want to go.

My Atlanta pal who's going to Big Ears next month is dropping by DFM for me sometime between now and then and bringing me a few pounds, assuming the Atlanta Grit Famine is over.

captain obvious here but you can decrease splatter quite a bit by patting dry with a clean paper towel or whatev prior to frying. oh, and also if you are making it specifically to not serve soft you can use a fair bit (like 20-25% less water when you make it. it will finish rehydrating as it cools and sets ime. (less moisture less splatter) i LOVE that stuff when it gets a wee bit crispy, eh.