What's cooking? part 4

wow. me too

Shit, gonna try that this weekend. I'll have to substitute filets for a full loin but I don't see any reason that won't work even if it's not perfect.

i keep meaning to try it but i feel like i need an ~occasion~

humina yumina, made this super-easy and insanely delishy thing the other day
http://honestcooking.com/matcha-chia-pudding-coconut-whipped-cream/
ended up adding more matcha but excellent recipe that comes together in literally two minutes.

Time for me to just admit I'm terrible at homemade hummus and that just about every storebought variety is better than anything I can make.

so was i till i figured out canned chickpeas just don't work. i still haven't made The Best hummus yet (i don't like store hummus, but i've had amazing stuff at restaurants) though.

made this specific cacio e pepe recipe last night and it was too good. I am all for butter and oil, fuck tradition

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/02/spaghetti-cacio-e-pepe-recipe.html

canned chickpeas can work but i have to simmer them for a while, chickpeas for hummus need to be way softer than i'd otherwise want for chickpeas

made this fake korean chicken for lunch and it was pretty good. don't see the point in the baking though; i just sliced it before marinating (for 10 min) and cooked it on stovetop. also the chinese grocery didn't have gochujang so he pointed me to some other korean pepper product with no ingredients label. he said come back tuesday. i will. http://www.twolazygourmets.com/2011/08/gochujang-chicken/

Mmmmm.

I walk past multiple Chinese grocery stores every day, and I've been trying to find things I can recognize or figure out how to use. There are lots of kinds of leafy greens that I have no idea what they even are. What they call chives look nothing like our chives, and in a separate package they sell bunches of chive stalks with blossoms budding on the ends. And they have a meat counter AND a seafood counter, so last night I made Thai green curry with shrimp and scallops from the store.

It's spicy. Very spicy. I suppose the fact that 30% of the curry paste content is just green chilies should have tipped me off.

Need to cook more things.

the leafy greens are always great as some kind of saute or quick braise! even when you don't know what they are.

I like to float them in soups. One of my fave things are those pho spice sachets you can steep like teabags in beef broth for a satisfactory alternative to real pho broth. Also <3 Napa cabbage

Hey whaddya know

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/asian-green-guide.html

I will look for the pho sachets! I've been digging the rice-only ramen noodles, I add leafs/veg and a scrambled egg and some sesame oil and it's a big meal. Wish I could eat the wheat noodles because they have these cute bougie-looking ramen packages with a hank of straight noodles that look really good.

I love random Asian greens; I just bought an unlabeled bag today and feel 99% certain that they'll be delicious stir fried with some garlic and oyster sauce.

People at work are ordering these. Is it me or does this price seem sort of crazy and exploitative (of people who don't know how to cook)?

http://www.mindfulchef.com/collections/plant-based-recipe-box

lol

wait idgi do they send you ingredients and a recipe?

yup

for the price of an expensive meal in a restaurant

lol

you get to stuff a squash with some mushrooms and an avocado for $26

It's comparable with Hello Fresh, I think, who we get boxes from occasionally. Premium ingredients, exact amounts, very well packaged and delivered to the door at a convenient time, recipes slightly outside my comfort zone (about one in four of which get added to my repertoire). I wouldn't do it every week but it's an easy way to get out of a rut.

I would probably value it less if I didn't spend close to 12 hours a week commuting between home, work and childcare.

yeah i tried the purple carrot for a few weeks this winter because i thought it might actually make my grocery bill cheaper (less waste) and help with time management (medical resident) but the two recipes i tried were pretty weak (the chili was esp heinous) and i just couldn't countenance the cost. it was something like $11/serving

but would agree with madchen --- these services seem most likely to appeal/actually be useful to ppl who a) already willing to pay for premium ingredients b) like trying new stuff and c) are time-limited enough that the increased cost can be reasonably weighed against the time/cost of shopping and meal-planning

we did like 3 blue apron boxes last year just to try it and it was ok, there was always one recipe in the box we weren't that psyched about and it got boring from a technique perspective since everything was designed to be cooked pretty quickly on a range.

this is kind of an aside, but was wondering if some cheaper/subsidized version of this would be helpful for some of my patients --- lots of people i work with could improve their diet, and "better diet" is often prescribed by other well-meaning physicians, but just a little probing reveals that an astounding number of ppl simply have no idea ~how~ to cook using even the relatively simple techniques these boxed recipes require

i know some of the case managers i work with will help clients acquire ingredients and such, but i realllly don't think there's much investigation into how ppl actual prep or what they actually eat

also as an aside: some of my pts are old farts at the VA and when i ask about cooking/eating it's like 50/50 "the wife does it" and "i ran the mess tent/galley in the service of course i know how to cook sheesh"

it's a great point--you can absolutely learn to cook using whole foods from these services and that's prob of less value to the bourgie urban ppl they tend to market to.

cool imma drum up a business plan brb

if i could make a living helping people in need learn how to cook, i think my life would improve elevenfold

same!

my school has a culinary program and a social work program…getting ideas

xp - Yes, same here. We have a friend who wants one of her kids to learn how to cook and I tried to imagine how much of a drill sergeant I would be. It would be fun...potentially.

i think it's a really underrated idea, especially within a VA context

i also think about retirement communities, where a spouse has maybe lost the person who did the cooking and/or never had to

my dad's current interest in cooking (sous vide! fancy knives!) is due entirely to my parents' divorce a few years ago (he's just recently in his 70s)

thats awesome

i like the idea of teaching guys (usually guys) at the VA how to cook!

i think it would be pretty dope

Make sure you hire a person who knows how to teach (aka an out of work teacher) :)

Gbx, I *love* your cheaper/subsidised idea. Have some friends with depression/bipolar who are hopeless cooks and could really benefit from something like this (if not only as a means to learn to cook but to improve their terrible diets) . Same goes for busy parents too - I don't think the idea is bad at all, just the pricing seems pretty exploitative and unsustainable.

Just discovered 'nduja omg wow

such a popular ingredient. but it is awesome. i always feel like gochujang and nduja taste kinda similar, but i'm not a chef so i can't use that hipster ingredient crossover.

this lil number is abt 5 minutes away from being done and i'm VERY excited bcz i roasted the red peps myself!!

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014184-pasta-with-roasted-red-peppers-and-goat-cheese

I steamed a whole fish stuffed with scallions and ginger, then poured a soy sauce/sesame/garlic sauce over it, then spooned hot oil with more herbs etc. It's pretty great even though I accidentally picked up the bottle of Thai fish sauce in place of the soy sauce the recipe called for.

...

Which fish? Was it good?

I think it was porgie/bream? The market I bought it at is a Chinese one, so no signs were in English. I mangled the first one trying to open up the body to stuff scallions in, but the second one, I just used the cavity left by the organs and didn't try to filet the rest. Cut slits in the flesh of the sides in order to stick slivers of ginger in them. I think it came out better (also I didn't accidentally douse it in fish sauce). My upstairs neighbor loved it! She's Chinese and always misses home cooking so I might try to bring her things from the market I pass every day.

Recipe at http://steamykitchen.com/132-chinese-steamed-fish.html

question -- in the past, i have always determined if my tofu went bad by smelling it. this time it smelled fine and i cooked it, then i went to eat it a few days later and it's kinda...tangy? how do i know if my cooked tofu is bad?

i don't feel like sifting through google results trying to determine which ones are full of crap -- figured i'd go straight to asking trusted food preparers