What's cooking? part 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carapulcra

Carapulcra is a Peruvian cuisine stew of pork and dehydrated potatoes, with peanuts, aji panca and mirasol peppers, garlic, and other spices. It is a modern adaptation of a traditional Andean dish.[1] It is usually eaten with rice, boiled potatoes or yuca.[2]

(not my photo but i looks pretty close)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Carapulcra.jpg/1280px-Carapulcra.jpg

that sounds/looks awesome

From my Peruvian experience "It is usually eaten with rice, boiled potatoes AND yuca."

yea it's good xp! it's a very rich stew and in retrospect i think some kind of peruvian salad would accompany it well -- there is this combination of sliced red onion, lime, fresh aji or chilis, and cilantro that is often served as a table condiment that would brighten this up a little bit.

aldo yes! there are always starches of various kinds served. rice and potatoes always, yuca often too.

do you have a local source for the dehydrated potatoes and chili pastes?

There is no such thing as too many starches/carbs in a Peruvian meal. You could add cancha and bread to the list of those three, plus thee might be potatoes or camote in the stew (but undeclared).

for the dehydrated potatoes i can't remember, it's possible that i got them in this mexican/latin american market in cleveland and brought them back. the chile pastes are available at a few latin foods markets in boston -- i just saw them at el patio mercado in JP up the street from whole foods & the blue nile ethiopian restaurant, on centre street. i think they may have had the dehydrated potatoes as well. they also had jarred ajis and chilis, as well as dried ajis and chilis that you can make your own pastes from.

xp cancha is so good! my dad calls it "peruvian popcorn" and it is like all those little half-popped kernels at the bottom of the popcorn bowl that are so crunchy and good.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Cancha_corn_snack.jpg

cad there is also tropical foods (el platanero) in roxbury, it has a small selection of peruvian foods (probably more than el patio though) and tons of other latin american and caribbean foods. there is like a whole aisle that is 20-lb bags of different kinds of beans. it's amazing.

there are some other markets for latin american foods in the east boston/chelsea area too iirc, i am just hardly ever there

thanks yeah none of those are easy for me to get to but maybe i'll make a pilgrimage one of these days. there's a little latin market in union sq. somerville that's good for cheap dried chiles and stuff but i don't think they get very esoteric.

today i learned about berbere spice blend:

http://www.feastingathome.com/2012/11/crispy-berbere-chicken-with-ethiopian.html

it's a tasty spice blend. also if you just need some recipes this lady's recipes are dialed the fuck in, she should write a book.

rad, yea berbere is amazing. i used to live in dc and where there are a ton of Ethiopian places and that blend of spices is so good. haven't tried my own cooking with it though.

I like to make "kitfo-style" hamburgers with berere and feta (closest thing to Ethiopian crumbly cheese imo) mixed into the meat and cooked rare, of course!

made some harissa last night, it's such a good condiment to have around, i make it here and there but should more often. it's good with so many things, stews, soups, sandwiches, eggs

i make lots of things with berbere -- i feel like i probably yakked about it years ago itt?!
i have pics of my large arrays of homemade ethiopian foods but they all look rather unappetizing so i won't post them (anymore)

hey i was worried that people would scoff at that carapulcra photo, could easily see people thinking it looks gross but i was pleasantly surprised. post them!

nah
i was just looking back at my flickr set/visual menu and it made me depressed because i thought about all the cool foods i used to make. where has the time gone?! why don't i cook like that anymore?

:(

(some of these pictures are really horrible but i think the volume/good ones make up for it. there are almost 300 different meals! i started taking pics of foods i made bc i wanted to remember them and writing things down takes too long http://bit.ly/1nW6qzc)

I adore your food pics and I used to use them so much! You like way more vegetables than I do, and I have all these limitations now, but I should use them again. I think I just internalized the Frankentaco and now I make them out of whatever, lol.

it made me depressed because i thought about all the cool foods i used to make. where has the time gone?! why don't i cook like that anymore?

yea, it is so easy ime to get into ruts with my cooking, when i feel like i am not being creative or i'm cooking just to get by and i am not trying new recipes or new ingredients. usually the start of a new season helps invigorate my cooking and allows me to feel more adventurous because i have new vegetables to experiment with. but by the end of that season i am getting tired of the same produce. e.g. right now in october i am psyched about cooking stews and hearty dishes but i know that in february or march i am going to burned fucking out on winter squash and root vegetables. similarly by september i don't want to look at another salad or light pasta.

the mainstay i feel like is mexican cooking. i can cook mexican all year long and i am very satisfied with it.

yeah same
but the transition takes effort and energy and i guess i am putting those elsewhere now rather than into cooking

I make a lot of food sometimes but I only rly come here when I have found something rly great and I am here today to share w/ you two of these ~great~ things. They both have LOTS OF GREAT FLABORS and are both also p easy imo.

The first one is KALE & CRISPY PORK BELLY which you make by buying like 5 things at Trader Joe's and mixing them together and then ~blammo~ u got some great food goin on! It gives me an opportunity to use my Better Than Bouillon Reduced Sodium Chicken Base which, in turn, gives me an opportunity to tell everyone abt it on this thread (it not only tastes the best/freshest out of all of the broths, but it is the cheapest bcz it is a concentrated paste, and the original has way more sodium than most broths but the reduced sodium contains abt the same amt of sodium as other broths and it's just the best). Also they tell you to make the cornbread in the recipe and they are right: it goes v v well with TJ's cornbread (which is like the best cornbread, it's insane how good it is)
http://www.traderjoes.com/images/recipes/269MainImage.jpg

The other one is CREAMY PAPPARDELLE WITH LEEKS & BACON, which is basically Carbonara Plus and is also way easier than anything that tastes this good and restauranty has any right to be. My friend and I were both kind of dumbfounded by how good it turned out. Like, guys, it's REALLY good.
http://www.bonappetit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/creamy-pappardelle-with-leeks-and-bacon-940x600.jpg

guys i love food so much, omg

that pappardelle is def getting bookmarked.

bookmarking both

Stevie we are foods soulmates love you boo

btw i added berbere to hash browns for breakfast this morning, i'm hooked on that shit

not gonna lie - i sometimes lick the spoon after doling out some of that BTB chicken base (the vegan version).

This charred cauli/brussels sprouts rice dish is super simple and v v tasty.

Stevie we are foods soulmates love you boo

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Sunday, November 2, 2014 9:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmfmfm

xp i do too!!! i did that last night and i was like "damn i shd be makign cups of warm broth more often!!!!" but i mean drinking salty liquid for no reason is prob not the best for your body

no it can be very good! i drink a mug of miso when i'm hungover or dehydrated and it helps a lot

oh yeah actually when I worked at this small natural foods store that sold miso in bulk I wd always buy like just 1 tbsp of it and then fill it w/ hot water and sip miso broth, so cozy

Drunk breadmaking last night not a success, it didn't rise at all and came out extremely dense (which I happen to like but I wasn't the one eating it).

I think we used a recipe for activated yeast and maybe our yeast wasn't activated yet? (NB I did not pick out or purchase the yeast or know there was a difference.)

Yeasties could have been dead, or too cold to gas up properly. Activated yeast gases up faster than normal yeast.

It was left out for several hours beforehand to reach room temp, but I'm sure we did something else wrong.

But I mean after sitting for an hour on a warm stove with a towel over the bowl, the dough baby hadn't risen at all. At all.

If the water I added was too hot could it have killed the yeast? Recep said 120 deg but bf didn't have a thermometer.

it should be v v warm like a great bath but not hot (like hot as in it hurts if you hold your finger in it for 5+ seconds)

Xps chicken flavored chips are really common in new Zealand, that BTB stuff tastes just like them

(Why no chicken flavored chips here in the US?)

There are chicken flavored crackers.

and they're so flaborful

Yep, one of my guilty pleasures.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RFHfzsiYL._SY300_.jpg

Yeah I made fun of those for years and years and then tried them and was like oh shit, I'm an idiot, these are great.

Anyway, I would very much like to try chicken flavored potato chips. The US is way behind in many important metrics, including healthcare, maternity leave, and potato chip flavors.

The wasabi-ginger Lay's potato chips are really good, but I think they may have been a temporary thing.

ok nerds

i made a crockpot casserole out of chicken thighs that turned out like pot pie filling

i want to turn the leftovers into a pie

if i just use storebought puff pastry do i blind bake it first?

xp i believe the wasabi ginger ones won the contest and will be available going forward.

they were good but i think i liked the mango salsa ones better.

we got lamb&mint flavoured chips in nz too!

My cousin used to get a box of chicken in a biskits and a can of easy cheese as one of his gifts from my aunt and uncle every chistmas and I have no idea why this was a thing.

And yeah I got really sad about US chips after seeing so many insane chip flavors in thailand and singapore this year, I had no idea. These ones were the best, I had no idea they had such an extreme commercial for them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsJgSpFeZ-g