What's cooking? part 4

last time i made hummy i did it in a blender with enough oil/water to get it moving. took ~ 20 seconds and came out SO fluffy and "light"

xp, yeah i think my dashi bags are well old but haven't gotten rancid or anything. Eggs rule and i freaking LOVE that Morimoto guy - he's a genius but so playful too

made my first beef shortribs last night
-- they seem pretty expensive for the amt of meat they yield. why are they worth it? are they not?
-- the meat they yielded has been delicious so far, but i think that's in large part to the sauce, which caramelized in a tasty way
-- is there another cut of beef that i could use that is not as $ but good in a crockpot?

the sauce was a ancho chile mole-type sauce with coffee in it
delicious the next day though!! maybe better than last night.

-- they seem pretty expensive for the amt of meat they yield.

I've thought the same thing about short ribs when looking at them in the store, so I've never cooked any. A very marbled chuck roast is my go-to cut for braising and slow-cooking.

My wife cut a recipe out of her Oprah mag for me that I finally made today -- lemony shrimp DUMPLINGS!. They were awfully good.

I love them but yeah they aren't cheap - I get the feeling they were one of those cuts nobody cared about and were cheap until restaurants started making things with them because they were so cheap.

There's so much fat and connective tissue and cartilage that the sauce always turns out really good, but I've made, I think, a cooks illustrated recipe that use chuck plus some gelatine to fake that and it was really good and a lot more reasonable.

wmc otm - marbled chuck loves a long slow cook, it rarely disappoints

alright, i think i'll try that next time. these shortribs are delicious but the cost/fuss was not worth it.

yeah i like them but i have never found them
a big deal

I really got into using unflavored gelatin via America's Test Kit recommendations, to enrich sauces, even bolognese for inst.

i've never tried it but maybe now i will! i'm looking forward to summer foods/grilling/having more time to try new ideas. it has been ages since i've tried to expand my horizons. i guess they were sufficiently broad enough to sustain me for a while but i'm ready for some new stuff.

I have this tub of russian sour cream and it is SO THICK, like spackle. And delicious. It is so high in fat it makes ice cream look like silly diet food. Ideas for how to use?? So far I've just dropped a blob in borscht (also from the russian market) and thinned out to sauce some pelmini (ditto).

Spread on bagels like cream cheese? Sounds delicious!

Make blini, obtain herring! Or smoked salmon.

blini is a great idea! Also I could probably cheat and get them ready-made.

bought a pressure cooker, so I'm cooking everything in it. gave better bean results than my slow or saucepan cooking. also, I will roast the garlic that I put in hummus from now on.

making madhur jaffrey's chicken tikka masala for dinner tonight :D

i want that!

cmon over :D

separate matter, RFI:

mr veg is turning 50 at the end of june. he's not wanting a party or anything so i thought i might cook something kinda fancy.
but i only have a few go-to fancy dishes & was looking for inspiration: what are yr go-to fancy/special dishes you like to make?

no seafood - preferably red meat or chicken, or maybe a pasta something

steakhouse-style ny strip? roast tenderloin?

Lamb of some kind is my special occasion meat - chops or slow-braised sharks or a tagine.

rolled lamb loin is a wonderful roasting cut

ooh lamb is a good idea, we both love it

lol lamb sharks

in like a lionfish, out like a lamb shark (sorry)

lol

Heh :-)

At Veg house, dinner eats you!

>:)

just had a major breakthrough tonight

I am a fairly competent cook but ONLY when I study or follow recipes; all of my attempts at experimentation have produced mediocre-to-bad results.... until tonight, when I decided to throw some fridge leftovers together and came up with CHIPOTLE MISO CHICKPEAS

My goodness, ppl, these are so good w a rich and supple umami bang. Proportions were:

--2 cloves of garlic, sautéed briefly in oo
--Half can of chickpeas plus one minced chipotle pepper, without any addt'l adobo sauce
--keep sautéing for a few min til it's all warm, and then in a teensy lil bowl forkwhisk like btwn 1/2 and 1 tsp of miso w like 2 tbsp of water to make a sauce
--take the chickpeas off the heat and add the miso slurry and stir it, it should just coat it

do what I did and fry an egg and put it all together in a tortilla w some sharp ched and Monterrey jack

yes ma'am, yes Pam, yss Pauline, yes Felicia

dedicated this afternoon to proper rendang, smells fantastic so far. I'm trying frying it with coconut oil, which I generally find to be delicious

I wanna mess around with this a bit

http://luckypeach.com/the-contorni-matrix/

Ooh, hello pretty chart.

made some pesto from a bunch of garlic scapes i got at the farmers market, it is amazing!

eating with pasta, throwing some on toast, on eggs, on some fresh mozzarella slices

I used this recipe to make some steaks,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgHx0zA_dS4
Turned out great but if you need to go out afterwards understand that you will hear "what's that smell? I smell onion" every time you walk into a room.

poor dog doesn't even get to try it

It's not really stew weather, but I had a chunk of pork loin that needed using, so it's green chile stew with pork and hominy today.

mr veg made spareribs last night, so i tried making emeril's "delta slaw" - it's no mayo, which i tend to prefer with ribs. you boil vinegar & sugar, let it cool & pour it over the vegetables. quite sweet, and reeeeeally juicy once you let it all steep.

tried that onion-steak-soy biz last night&it is indeed deliciously tender

taco of sorts - corn tortilla with melted cheese, cast-ironed smart dog (takes the plastic-y edge off), chopped habanero and kim chee. somehow i think it works. . .

Indian black-eyed peas & mushroom dish, substituting fresh purple hull peas.

Nothing. It's too hot. I'm having a cooked chicken and some cheese and almond milk delivered to my house, making spinach salads, and not using the oven again until September.

threw some baby kale, broccoli and corn in with this nice Japanese pasta dish that feat. (y)umeboshi
http://www.food.com/recipe/japanese-style-ume-shiso-pasta-323048

I need to make a 70th birthday meal in August for about 10-12 people, to be eaten outside (that's the British outside, though). I'll have from about 5pm the previous day when I get home till 11am on the day to get it ready. I'm thinking of something like this seafood stew that can be part-made the day before, but I've never made a summer seafood stew. Anyone got any tried and trusted recipes along these lines?

in the process of making chocolate babka for the first time in ages. never used the flax/vegan egg substitute before but i've watched my niece do it successfully. so, to counteract all the delicious heart-stopping butter in this thing i went with that. dough seems to have come out perfectly. now it's a process akin to making danish/croissant dough: rolling out douhg, folding in the butter, doing book fold, rolling out, letting rest for a half hour each time in-between, etc. for a total of 5 times. so about 3 hours away from being able to bake this baby off. . .

I got a mandoline and I'm never eating another Apple that hasn't been shaved into 3mm-thick discs.

mandolines rule

i have a safety-sam v-slicer & its the best

anyone cooked with salted duck eggs?

i bought some this week and made a recipe for salted duck egg and pickled mustard green soup with pork, it was so good. i am seeing people say they are often steamed over minced pork but google is a bit inconclusive...

the only time I had duck eggs I poached them for mega dipping! yum

I made these last night and they are delicious and a great way to use up random greens: http://food52.com/recipes/37163-fried-greens-meatlessballs

ah these are like chinese - they are kind of preserved and have a very rich flavour. i think you can eat them as is but they are more often used in soups annd stuff.