What's cooking? part 4

I have found my new comfort food and it is colcannon.

Any other good recipes w/leeks? I am now in love with them.

leeks in white sauce is basically one of my favouritest foods ever

As some of you saw on facebook I made hummus in my new food processor and it came out really garlicky - not so much due to too much but more of a sharp raw garlic taste, I think. I've had suggestions of removing the centre germ and also of cooking the garlic... wondering if roast garlic would be too subtle, though.

Oh and leek and cauliflower soup with heaps of fresh thyme and a bit of potato and cream = NOM.

trayce it may have to do with the procesing, too. bc your pulverizing it and letting out ALLLLL the garlicky burny goodness - i've had this issue with salad dressings.

Yeah thats a good point! Also one of the cloves was lol hueg so next time I'll try less.

Next stop: rocket pesto. I wont be sticking any knives in blenders and coating myself in green goo though ;)

oh also, fresh garlic is less intense than dried, in my experience.

Ah I'd always use fresh anyway though! :) Nummy fat purple aus garlicks.

t do you mean fresh like green garlic? i used to have this hummus problem too. i've never used roasted garlic but it would probably work. what i do is just remove the germ and add it 1/4 clove at a time.

yea i dont think you can get fresh garlic all year round can you?

if you want to mellow out garlix for yr hummus, take a couple tablespoons of olive oil into as small a saute pan as you have, add the minced garlix and place over low heat. when yr kitchen smells lovely or the garlic starts to get golden turn off the heat and add to garbonzos etc

You can also just microwave the cloves for a few seconds. Heating garlic tones down the sharp flavor, no matter how you do it.

i think roasted garlic would taste good in hummus, though, so that'd probably be my heating of choice.

How should I prepare green beans?

Chinese-buffet-style -- blanch them for 4 minutes or so, drain them, stir-fry with plenty of garlic, soy sauce, a little sliced onion, a dab of sesame oil.

or, blanched with a drizzle of vinaigrette, feta crumbles, dried cranberries, and little chopped nuts.

i eat them plain and raw mostly!

i like them steamed w/ some lemon juice on top. boring but good.

yes. but i usually add garlic w/ the lemon. classic combo.

I make blistered beans - get a skillet hot, add oil of your choice, toss in beans (dried off as much as possible to minimize spattering) and 1 dash of crushed red pepper flakes, stir fry quickly until beans are bright green with a few charred looking spots. A sprinkle of toasted sesame oil is nice to add as dressing.

oh i forgot diced red onion is v v key in the feta/vinaigrette/cranberry one.

oh god i thought that said fetal vinaigrette

eeeeeeew

sorry :(

Oh sorry when tza said dried garlic, I assumed she meant garlic granules in a jar as opposed to garlic cloves! My bad - kneejerK "lol americans eat freezedried processed crap" thing I should rly stop thinking :(

I've never had fresh garlic if by that it means "straight out of the soil, not hung and dried", no.

Also I am thinking what I might do is make a kind of confit from cloves poached slowly in olive oil, and see how that turns out.

yeah that's what i meant. raw/fresh, not dried. i don't know what garlic granules are? is that garlic powder? or is it some kind of garlic crystal???

made the zucchini-chickpea flour pancake and it is GOOOOD

I've always wanted to try besan flour in something! Theres an indian store in my local shops, they'd have some, I should try it.

Granules - kind of like, you know, freezedried instant coffee... only garlic instead. Never used it myself. I've seen dried garlic like that and completely powdered. I'd never use it; whats wrong with regular cloves!?

ok so i work in a restaurant and we roast garlic for a few things - a chive dip, a couple sauces, hummus - but like last thursday or something we started saving the oil from the pan and roasting the next batch of garlic in it! and now we have this fucking super garlicked oil that we've been using for our caprese salads holy shit.

as an added bonus any vampire we come into contact with bursts into flames immediately

also, mosquitoes will evaporate within 10 ft of you

Hm, besan... Socca/farinata? Pakoras! Pseudo falafels? Besan barfee?
Does besan go rancid? I think I have a bag somewhere in the back of the cupboard, but it is probably pretty ancient by now.

I sauteed my green beens with olive oil (didn't have canola) and sesame oil. And then dressed with a touch of soy sauce. I wanted to sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds but I was too lazy to stop at the store to get those. They were good but a little too slippery--not sure if I should have dried them off after I washed them--or if it was too much sauce.

I bought bok choy for the time--how do I make this. Can it be combined with a yellow squash (I think that's the only other vegetable I have at home right now.)?

oh i use olive oil for sauteeing i meant stir-frying--too hot for extra virgin olive oil (and would explain your burning problem)
bok choy is cooked like any other cabbage-like green. maybe saute with some garlic and ginger?

have this fucking super garlicked oil

otm

Nicka - yeah thats what I was getting at with my garlic confit idea! I'll poach a bunch of peeled cloves in EVOO for ... however long, and then store the lot in a jar. The oil! Oh my god, the oil will be nectar from gods teat on a salad.

And bokchoy I find cooks very quickly - the thick stems take longer than the leaves so sometimes I'll sautee them for a while first then throw the leaves in at the last 30 sec. I've always been vaguely disappointed with the stringiness of bokchoy stems, though.

Should I make a meatloaf with pickles embedded in it?

http://www.mom-mom.com/rouladen_meatloaf1.htm

favorite bok choy is with soy, ginger, and a tiny bit of something sweet (i've been using a tamarind simple syrup i made but you could use honey or brown sugar very sparingly).

My roommate bequeathed me some kale. Should I add it to the bok choy or cook it on its own? And how?

If you add kale to bok choy I'd start cooking that first as it takes a bit longer. On it's own I really like it sauteed enough to wilt it or braised with some liquid. I've read about chopping it and roasting it at high temps with oil and salt and want to try this because basically any vegetable tastes good this way.

As for bok choy I really love adding a squirt of hoisin at the end.

Roasting kale makes it like kale chips. Really tasty, but you get a bit tired of it after a while, a bunch of kale makes a lot.
I sprinkled it with some spicy ground chili powder, pretty good.

Warning to anyone making garlic oil: Don't store it at room temperature unless you love botulism.

http://cecalaveras.ucdavis.edu/garlic.htm

raspberry pavlova I made last week:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3934920020_0acf0ecacd.jpg

such a perfect summer dessert

it was good :)

i'm thinking baout soup today. it just seems soupy.

It's very soup today. Or stew. I'm thinking about baking bread, have mixed up a biga. Also might try a batch of the red herrings from that doodad/knick knack poll thread...

aw pavlova!! makes me feel nostalgic for home

NB i don't even like pavlova, except for the cream/fruit

that seems like something i would fail at. i can never beat eggs properly.

i made cabbage/potato curry yesterday though!