What's cooking? part 4

refined coconut oil doesn't really have a flavor, i think.

Yeah refined = little scent or flavor of coconut, also much higher smoke point

Not sure what the refining process consists of. Does it make it less healthy?

Not necessarily - as long as it's not hydrogenated I'm sure it's fine.

what are some good appetizers or small plates to serve during a casual new year's eve party? prefer something easy

Thinly sliced serrano ham. Puff pastry with savory or sweet toppings. Dates stuffed with pecans.

can't go wrong with good cheese and charcuterie

belgian endive leaves with a gorgonzola or roquefort "mousse" tucked inside.
i think classic stuffed mushrooms are easy
dunno how hard vietnamese spring rolls are to you but they can be made at least a couple hours ahead of time and sauce options are aplenty
nice cheese platter always seems to be a winner but that's pretty obv
crudites with a nice healthy dip can be nice, too. my sister made Nava Atlas' recipe for dill miso tahini dip the other week and people went crazy for it

interestingly spiced almonds or peanuts

thanks everybody! great suggestions

we are gonna have some variety of good cheeses, these amazing alphonso olives my dad brought me, roasted delicata squash rings, sauteed arugula, pan-fried baby bell peppers, some crusty bread, roasted spiced chickpeas. it should be good!

Amazing! What time should we be over?

I'll bring wine.

Cooks of ILX:

I cannot find the sardine thread.

Was it sandbox?

Is anyone still eating sardines?

Or was this A Brief ILX Phase.

haha bring wine and whiskey all

Quincie, wasn't it a nutrition Nazi thread with all the sardines?

i love sardines loaded with calcium and omega 3's; inexpensive; and according to Monterey Bay Aquairium they're sustainable/"best choice"

Yeah all the sardine talk was on the nutrition Nazi thread.

I've got this jawn going in the slow cooker for new year's dinner as we speak - http://www.bowenappetit.com/2011/01/05/chicken-with-tomatillos-potatoes-jalapenos/

ahhhhhh yes of course NN, thanks! Thanks to that thread I bought many different tins and ate none. May give it another go in 2015. I really like fresh sardines!

ha! i recognized that recipe from the url!!
This recipe is from Everyday Mexican, by Rick Bayless, which is our go-to Mexican food cookbook.

i made it a few years ago and it was really good iirc but i never made it again! weird. maybe i will.

I a deeply creeped out by Rick Bayless. TV show with his daughter somehow even more creepy than without.

the only food i had yesterday was five slices of toast and a couple of tins of parmentier sardines, which weren't very good although usually they are

i am going to make dill pickle dip

also hot toddies i think

toddys?

idk

i've never seen his show at least not maybe more than 1x?
i just have the cookbook

it's ok for easified Mexican recipes, although I know they aren't the same ones he uses because i doubled the chiles once and it was like 5x better tasting than when i followed his recipe. i think he waters them down!

There is something a little weird about Rick B., quincie, I agree even though I like his show and generally enjoy his food (in both pre-packaged, restaurant, and recipe form). For me it's a cross between his voice and his ultra-lean yoga bod. I kind of love Lanie, though, although I don't know whether that's because I legitimately like her or because I feel some weird sense of protective loyalty towards her.

LL, I have that cookbook and go through phases where I make some of those recipes tons. It's been sitting on the shelf so long, I actually had to wipe dust of off it this time. I'm glad that you liked that one! What did you serve it with? I'm thinking black beans and rice.

in both pre-packaged, restaurant, and recipe form

Both of those three things. Sheesh.

anyway, there is no way that this translates to a retelling but I'm telling it anyway because I it made me inordinately happy then and now, so:

Jeff, Jesse, and I were at Frontera Grill for dinner once and Rick Bayless happened to be there. We hadn't lived in Chicago long so I was way too excited about a real live celebrity chef sighting, and kept looking around for him, when Jesse pointed towards the kitchen and semi-yelled, "Here comes Rick Bayless! And he is ANGRY!"

Neither of which were true, but for some reason it made me LOL and LOL.

i don't think i served it with anything? i might go with something lighter tasting, like something with lime or avocado. cucumber-onion-tomato-avocado-lime juice salad would be good. i don't remember honestly -- it was a long time ago. i do remember it was pretty heavy, like a stew.

Oh, cucumber-something-something would be perfect. I'm delightfully close to numerous grocery stores rn, too. Thanks!

a la orden

hahaha that Jesse quip is making me LOL, too

Jesse plus Rick Bayless scenario would be awesome

in terms of gringo mexican cuisine experts i prefer diana kennedy though i like bayless just fine. something about the unwavering no-bullshit thoroughness and attention to detail that kennedy has is very appealing when i'm learning a new cuisine

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7480/15972237589_91511b99ae_b.jpg

NYE feast (lunch edition)

Bf wanted all Ottolenghi all the time so it's herb pie, cauliflower salad with walnuts, root slaw with labneh, cod cakes with tomato sauce and mint, burnt eggplant salad. Chilling out with black veldts atm. Dinner edition coming soon.

*velvets, not veldts (mental note for a future drink name tho)

btw these were all first-time attempts for me and everything turned out grand-slammer and was super cheap on the grocery end of things, highly recommend this dude

looks great!

I second marcos on Diana Kennedy.

If you like Ottolenghi, you should check out Sally Butcher, who runs my local middle eastern foodstuffs emporium. Veggiestan and Snackistan are awesome and her writing style is funny and cool. Haven't read Salmagundi, her newish salads book, yet but it's pretty much guaranteed to be reliable imo.

In other news, tomorrow I'll be making the trad Scottish NYD meal of steak pie for the first time. I always bought my pies when I lived in Glasgow but here in London all the pies seem to have shortcrust pastry on top and that is just rong.

Cooking a Joel Robuchon recipe for beef cheek stew...should be ready before midnight! I hope.

wow yum

probably some roasted roots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMabBGydC0

oh sweet jesus no

i am making little tofu pockets full of (1) mashed sweet potato + spinach, (2) cucumber + avocado and maybe some miso soup. it's going to be -1 outside, no way i am going out again unless there is a medical emergency in my home.

Smoked a big pork shoulder on the 31st for yesterday's prosperity meal. Every time I do one of these huge hunks of meat I think I'll portion it out, vacuum seal and freeze at least half of it, but it's so versatile we wind up eating the whole thing without getting tired of it. Barbecue sandwiches, smoky pork with noodles, omelette filling, tonight's pork tacos (with mushrooms and garlic-sauteed spinach). About the time we get tired of it, it's gone.

i am not deliberately being clueless just too lazy to google - what is a prosperity dinner plz?

I think it's just a New Year's Day dinner that is supposed to set the tone for the coming year. I usually cook salmon, as that (to me) is a sophisticated main course. This year I made a pizza.

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10891874_10204900270480314_8292578345244461771_n.jpg?oh=7a600f19559ab542271146f9477670c9&oe=5523692C

For me and for my parents--all of us spent time in the deep south of the U.S., "prosperity dinner" was a New Years meal that involved 1) hoppin' john, a black-eyed-pea and rice dish (with pork, natch) and 2) slow cooked greens (collards, etc. With pork, natch). Greens represented U.S. cash, I guess? And hoppin' john I think was also supposed to be symbolic of cash in some way (coins, maybe)? Anyhow I like both of these dishes so no probs for me to eat them on any and all New Years.

Pork and cabbage is another traditional New Years dish, but I don't know if it ties in with the "prosperity" theme in some specific way. Many years ago I was in the habit of ordering mu shu pork on New Years--easy way to get my pork and cabbage.

That's a tasty looking pizza.

My parents always eat black eyed peas and collards on New Year's. I hate black eyed peas, though, so this year I did a slow cooker eastern NC-style pork barbecue, barbecue slaw, and corn bread. It came out really good. Like wmc, my plan was to save leftover meat for whatever but instead we just ate the rest of it for dinner tonight. So good you guys.

Speaking of the slow cooker, the Rick Bayless chicken and tomatillo thing was.... pretty bland! LL was OTM about needing to up the amount of flavor in that sucker.

My wife and I ate some black-eyed peas, so we got that part of the equation correctly, but the greens we ate were kale and chard -- and nothing else on the menu yesterday matched the correct items according to quincie. And yet, I still expect a certain amount of prosperity for the coming year, regardless. I am an optimist.