what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

Oh that should read one liter of milk produce 1/4 inch X 3 inch square of paneer.

Maybe 1/2 inch thick. Just definitely not an inch.

Yeah, there's not much there after it all separates. It is so simple to make that it feels like a waste of money to buy it. We live by a grocery outlet that often has high quality milk at a good price with the catch that it is not too far out from the sell by date. Making cheap paneer from the fanciest milk brings me joy.

Tandoori mayo sounds like a great addition to the usual mint chutney and tamarind sauce for pakora or samosas

Speaking of indian-ish mayo things I made egg salad the other day and added some mango pickle instead of my usual Dijon mustard and it was surprisingly good

I made rice noodles for pad see ew yesterday. The batter is very simple, but it was difficult to distribute it within the pan and force a uniformly thin sheet. You have to steam them, apparently, so your sheet size is limited by the largest steam chamber you can construct in the kitchen. This is the main frustration. I wonder if you can do it in the oven with sheet pans and steam from ice cubes? Anyway, they tasted fine but were a bit thick.

that sounds fun! have a recipe. or any pics?

What was your rice noodle batter? I've only made pad see ew doing a regular all purpose flour/water noodle.

I used the recipe here. I chose it because it only uses rice flour and tapioca starch/flour, which were things I had. Other recipes I'd found use 4 or more starches and flours and might taste better. The flavor probably matters more if you aren't doing a stir fry. I'd watch the video in that link to see how she tilts the pan over the steam until the noodles first set before adding the lid. That was the trickiest part. The noodles also seemed to improve after I left them out on a covered plate for a few hours.

That looks pretty complicated.

good lord! you must have the patience of a saint to go through that

It felt quite a bit like making pancakes. It was simpler than making the spaghetti noodles which required the pasta roller/cutter.

I do knife cut noodles and just use the dowel to roll it out.

do you notice that the noodles are firmer in stir fry? It seems like it'd be a big departure, but I'd love to use a rolled out dough for this.

They are still pretty chewy but yeah a little firmer I guess. I never think too much about it because I prefer flour noodles over rice noodles. It's basically the same dough that I use for DUMPLINGS!.

Are fresh porcini mushrooms worth it?

if you mean monetarily speaking i get them for a extra-special treat sometimes - they're really unique shroom and have a pretty tiny window of availability ime. but dried ones work so well for soups/risotto i guess it depends what you want to make (?)

yeah, I meant both worth the money and the hassle of looking out for the season(s). Some recipes make a big deal about them, but I've never cooked them or noticed eating them.

I really love porcinis but I don't think they are a necessity. I actually prefer them dried because of the texture. I love all mushrooms.

if you made a pasta recipe that had them out in front, do you know what you'd sub for them? or would you use rehydrated ones?

Is it like a butter, sage sauce? I would use regular baby portabello/cremini and see if they have one of those porcini mushroom powder/graters which might be more available. If you like shiitake that might work too. I would probably add all of them.

yeah, i'd use other mushrooms and a bit of rehydrated porcini to get some of that flavor into the butter

sound like good ideas, thanks!

We, and by "we" I mean I chose a ridiculously complicated recipe and my boyfriend actually carried it out, made posole on Sunday and it is B.O.M.B. I got guajillo, costeno, and arbol chilies for the base and we used a 3lb pork shoulder for the meat.

Incredible.

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/posole-rojo

so many good things in life start with 3 pounds of pork shoulder

did you use the spareribs as well? curious if having both cuts of pork in there is meaningful. i guess you'd get some collagen and stuff from simmering the bones.

We didn't--the shoulder seemed like enough and it's delicious tbh so I wouldn't bother.

cool, thanks. the ribs seem like overkill esp. where i'd almost certainly be halving the recipe.

I guess it could have used more gelatin/collagen but tbh there's so much flavor from the chilies and the shoulder that it doesn't seem like anything is missing.

The quantity is enormous (5 qts iirc of liquid plus all the solid volume!) but it also takes like 5 hours to make so it hardly seems worthwhile for less??

That looks really really good.

could probably just add some powdered gelatin during simmering to fake it.

seems like i'd get 6 servings or so out of a half recipe which is probably all we'd need before we were sick of eating posole or needed the freezer space. maybe i'd make the whole thing if we had some guests.

I made something similar to that this weekend but with just pork shoulder, and 6 pounds of it. The vast majority was destined for the freezer from the start.

Pork shoulder is fast becoming my favourite thing to slow cook

This isn't particularly a slow-cooker recipe per se, and I've probably posted it before, but it's fairly simple but really nice with some rice, possibly one of my favourite dishes (I say that about most meals though)

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4679/asian-aubergine-and-pork-hotpot

coriander = cilantro

https://blog.workman.com/2017/12/raw-winter-squash-with-brown-butter-pecans-and-currants/

Made this tonight and hoooooly shit was it good. Maybe the highest goodness-to-simpleness ratio I've come across. You only need to know how to brown butter, toast pecans, and use a vegetable peeler.

xp that pork recipe looks like a good one, and I am always searching for good recipes that use some of the huge bag of star anise I foolishly purchased.

xp big fan of that six seasons cookbook

do you have any favorites from it? I liked the cabbage soup and late season potato recipes as well. Would like to pick it up for spring and be agressively seasonal.

aggressively g-sonal as well

emphasizing seasonal foods is always a nice approach, especially if you have a bunch of favorite recipes that fit the different seasons well, so that, for example, when spring rolls around you can break out four or five lovely recipes you haven't eaten for nine or ten months. I look forward to October for this very reason, even though it heralds the approach of winter and darkness.

Have you ever eaten at Ava Gene's, Aimless?

Nope. tbh, I eat almost no meals out -- maybe once or twice a year, tops. But even more to the point, I have not even heard of Ava Gene's. I take it they specialize in seasonal menus?

yes, it is the portland restaurant of the chef who wrote the six seasons book. He is all about seasonal cooking. I've not been there, either.

It's true enough that Oregon offers just about the best variety of seasonal and local foods in the USA. We're still behind California, but not by much, especially when we can share in the best that Washington State produces, too.

Oregon seems like a good food state. Some of the worst produce I ever bought was at a grocery store in Visalia, CA that was surrounded by farm land. Maybe somewhere in between, like Arcata, is the place.

just realized that the kindle edition of the Six Seasons book is included with amazon prime. I though it was only kindle unlimited, which I cancelled after the trial period.

sufjan i cant remember any particular faves at the moment, i havent cooked from it for a while but i really went crazy when i got it at the beginning of last year. its consistently good.

i don't know humboldt county, but i have spent lots of time in chico and the produce at the saturday farmer's market is insane. some of the best oranges, carrots, potatoes i've had. plus amazing tomatoes and stone fruits, melons and berries. And LOADS of different types of winter squashes, and yes, sublime romanesco, late-summer corn. all kinds of asian ingredients on account of a large Hmong population. they have it all. much much nicer than the handful of sf and la markets i've been to
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Sacramento farmer’s market is pretty awesome, produce-wise.

I'm trying to up my nut content, did a v delicious satay-ish/peanut butter curry stir fry last night, it was so good it felt like a breakthrough. also been scoffing a lot of gong bao chicken but haven't attempted that yet. any other hot saucy nutty favourites?