What's cooking? part 4

i only used the white and light green parts, they were just fine. like spring in a pan.

i was kind of hoping for a more lentily dimension to the sauce i anticipate existing

gumbo tonight

:D

A pastitsio here tonight, but a slightly odd vegetarian one with lentils in place of meat, from a recipe in Vegetarian Epicure. Plus a green salad.

made red lentils w/ mushrooms and carrots, with beef broth, unfortunately the beef broth had salt in it for real and i added too much, so i made my first dish that legitimately is too salty

I was jonesing for a ridiculous sandwich yesterday so I bought a small pack of beef short ribs and braised them in stout until it all fell apart and I reduced it down and ate it on grilled bread with caramelized onions, horseradish and the surprisingly delicious canned cheddar from the university dairy. It was kind of over the top actually.

that's a lot of work for one sandwich -- i hope you had another one today

i bought my first brisket (i saw them at ti's and found the smallest one, which was $12 -- that's kind of a lot for a weekly meat purchase for me, usually I'm in the 6-8 range)
it is currently in my crockpot smeared with a paste made from garlic, ginger, berbere spice (from my local Ethiopian market!), tomato paste, fenugreek, and salt and then doused with a little soy sauce and rice vinegar because i figured they couldn't hurt. hopefully i haven't ruined this particular cut of meat. i plan to shred and then crisp under the broiler before serving however i plan to serve (over vegetables, as tacos, a sandwich, whatev)

it smells unbearably good

GOT SOME PORK SHOULDER
RUBBED IT W FENNEL AND CUMIN
STUDDED IT W GARLIC
LET THAT SHIT MARINATE A TIME
BROWN THAT SHIT
PUT IT IN A DUTCH OV W/ A BOTTLE OF FLANDERS RED ALE
BRAISE THAT SHIT FOR HOUURRRRRSS

$$$ €€€ £££ PROFIT £££ €€€ $$$

WE CALL IT "PORK SHOULDER WITH GARLIC AND FENNEL AND CUMIN BRAISED IN LIKE BELGIAN SOUR BEER"

FUCK THAT SHIT'S GOOD

MAKE SOME FUCKING GARLIC MASHED POTATOES FOR IT TOO OR SOMETHING

yeeeeahhhh

LL, tell us how that brisket turned out?! It sounds like a beautiful work of art, and a leap forward in the "cooking meat" area!

Yknow, it was ok. The flavors were great, but the meat itself was not really to my liking for how $$ it was. Maybe I cooked too long? I'll probably stick with pork and chicken in the crockpot and just make beef on the stovetop.

I ordered a brisket sandwich at a traditional diner the other day and it was pretty bad and flavorless, tbh. Simply being a giant piece of meat is not enough.

Brisket is, ime, the single most difficult cut of meat to do well.

Skirt is my all-time favorite cut! Works on the grill, works in the crockpot--it just works!

I have a recipe for skirt that first involves boiling the skirt with aromatics, then shredding it, then frying it with onions and stuff, and it is *delicious* despite being boiled meat.

skirt is awesome, yeah

I've made brisket twice and it was disappointing both times, I should try it again during my upcoming summer of leisure.

that's a lot of work for one sandwich -- i hope you had another one today

It actually wasn't that much work - I keep a ton of caramelized onions in the freezer, and just had to brown the ribs for a couple minutes. I had stray carrots and celery and half an onion and beer for the braising liquid so it was 15 minutes of setup and three hours of dog walking, drinking and playing scrabble til it was falling apart.

why does fkn beef need to have so many different names?!

i'm just going to give up on beef til i get the grill back out -- that's the only way i really like it anyway

chard fritters with shiitakes and chevre. dollop of creme fraiche

Whoa, sounds awesome. How do you fritter a chard?

You'd need some kind of batter or other binder I suspect.

I made red wine poached pears in a pressure cooker. They're aight.

xxpost
steamed and chopped chard. cooled. sauteed sliced shiitakes adding garlic and green onions towards the end.cooled. mixed egg yolks with ricotta in a bowl. whipped egg whites that were separated. to yolk mixture added flour/baking powder/salt and crumbled chevre just to incorporate. gently folded in veg., then even more gently folded in whites.
thought they came out quite nice

that sounds great!!

^^ I can't imagine that not being particularly nice. (exudes waves of envy)

i'm making a vegan cheesecake with a base made from crushed triple ginger cookies and plain filling. i'm also gonna drizzle some vegan caramel sauce over top (maybe a coconut-based one?) but i want to add nuts - is there a particular nut that goes best with ginger? i have pinenuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, and some probably-stale pecans and hazelnuts.

Of those, I'd probably go for pecan.

maybe toast the pecans if they are stale? Otherwise, almond or cashew imo.

Coconut milk makes really decadent caramel btw.

My caramel turned out fuckin DELICIOUS! Way better than I expected. The only problem is that the recipe said it would make a thin runny sauce, but I ended up with rock-hard candy! I poured some over the cheesecakes while it was still hot, then spread the rest out on parchment and will smash the shit out of it later todayand sprinkle on top.

Those ginger cookies from trader Joe's make an amazing base btw.

I'm relieved it turned out so good bc 25 mins of continual stirring really sucks

Do you have a candy/deep frying thermometer? Essential tool, imo.

Isn't the thing with caramel meant to be that you don't touch it, otherwise it crystallises?

I don't know, I stir the shit out of mine, but I also like grainy fudge.

I've heard Jacques Pepin say not to stir caramel at all, but I also have cookbooks that say to stir constantly.

The recipe I used said

1 cup granulated sugar + 0.25 tsp salt into pot on high heat, stir till all clumpy, reduce to low, stir till smooth (I gave up after a while and just thought fuck it if it has some small lumps), add half cup coconut cream slowly, stir till smooth.

I turned up the heat bc low was not doing shit to melt the sugar.

I have a candy thermometer but I didn't use it because it's shit and also bc it wouldn't work in the big stock pot I had to use(my only heavy-bottomed pot).

caramel makes me kinda nervous since I witnessed a saucepan full of it boil over as a kid

i like to to go with lower heat personally bc I'm paranoid, and I only stir it early on to help dissolve the sugar, then I leave it

everyone makes it different though

It seemed like it was melting faster when not stirred but I was paranoid about burning it so I keep on going

ignorant question:

can i fry potatoes in a pan but end up with them more dry than wet? is it just a matter of a balance between too little/too much oil?

too many potatoes in the pan will cause them to steam more than fry, and yah, too much oil can leave them pretty wet as well

Easier to oven fry if you want them drier, and possibly the type of potato. Toss some peeled and sliced russets with oil to coat, put in a single layer on a baking sheet (on top of parchment paper if you have it), bake at 350 F until tender inside and crisp/browned outside , depends on how you've cut them - maybe 20 min or so

potato water inside the potatoes, zounds

i always roast small chunks at a higher temp (after soaking or rinsing them really well so get the excess starch out) - dry them thorough in a tea towel, toss in a little oil and spices roast for 25 mins at 425F

e.g. i did the above method on a bunch of golf-ball sized red potatoes that i quartered and they came out super crispy but mushy and creamy in the middle.

my mini ginger caramel cheesecakes were AMAAAAAAZING btw

imo reds are a more boiling type o' tate, so ideal for potato salad (i.e. nice and creamy like you said). i know people roast 'em but i think you can only achieve what you said (i.e. mushy). i much prefer russets or yukons for roasting. why do you want less starch?
that cheesecake DOES indeed sound brilliant

i find that if i soak or really rinse potatoes/sweet potatoes first, the come out less dry and mealy, and are instead more creamy and soft on the insides. i rinse them till the water is clear.

my next vegan cheesecake experiment:

homemade hokey pokey cookies as the base
plain filling with homemade hokey pokey pieces mixed in
thin choc layer on top, more crushed hokey pokey

hokey pokey is honeycomb, right?
sounds amazing

(Mary Berry has a 'hokey pokey' coffee cake but it is a kind of hard caramel with walnuts thing, like a praline maybe)

It's a light puffy candy like honeycomb but it's made from golden syrup and baking soda. like a violet crumble (that's a uk candy bar, right?)

No, it's an Australian one.

bought this interesting (dry) rice mix today that I'm going to cook up for dinner -- smoked basmati rice with dill and saffron etc etc

super excited to try it out