What's cooking? part 4

i have potatoes, liquid vege broth, pureed cauli, oninons, garlic, some broccoli. i want to make a soup. should i cook the potatoes in the broth and then chuck in everything else, and then blend it a little so it's chunky? i've never really made soup before.

i'd sautee the onions and garlic separately before tossing them in, but yes i think that is exactly what you should do! soup is the easiest/most flexible thing ever and that sounds good.

thank you maria! yeah i think i'll sautee the garlic/onions, run them through the blender with a little broth and then add to everything else.

spicy tempeh and cashews from Clean Food (xmas gift, thx sis)

soup was a complete success btw and super easy. except for peeling tiny potatoes. i never peel them for cooking and forgot how much of a pain it is. you think it's ok to leave the skins on for a soup or would that be a gross texture?

I love potato skin in all forms but can see how it might become grape-skinnish and slippery in a soup. I'd leave them on personally. but I'm afraid of residual pesticides and stuff

Having a kitchen in Rome was pretty awesome, and I cooked a bunch of stuff. Especially excellent was a breakfast casserole of bread, eggs, cheese, and prosciutto - like a savory bread pudding. We were a few blocks from a huge covered market (like 6x the size of Pike Place and only for fresh edibles) and got awesome tomatoes and greens and meat and fruit.

Now I'm home, I'm determined to perfect pasta amatriciana. Also, so glad to be reunited with my cast iron pans.

i pretty much always leave the skin on potatoes, even in soup

OH MAN i have a major crush on andrea nguyen's cookbooks. ASIAN DUMPLINGS! is great, great, great, and i have made the momo, a bunch of the pork DUMPLINGS!, samosas, and like half of the water DUMPLINGS! (including the delicious soup dumpling) she has written about. i am also in love with her INTO THE VIETNAMESE KITCHEN, it is the best of the best of cookbooks -- like julia child or rick bayless, but for vietnamese food, and a lot less fussy. she regularly updates content at vietworldkitchen.com and asiandumplingtips.com, which you should all go check out now. see also: steamykitchen.com's crock pot pho.

Jaq you were cooking in Rome? Dreamy!!

cooking in italy is so much fun!

i just made pad thai on a whim and i gotta say, i did a pretty awesome job! i used this as a guide but also sorta winged it.

OMG MY NEW FOOD PROCESSOR ARRIVED TODAY!!! gonna have to make some hummus and pesto this weekend ^_^

Hey I can make pesto too! I planted some basil not even a month back and it has gone KAZAM mad crazy growth thanks to our bizarre combo of bitingly hot weather and heavy rainstorms.

my ikea basil is pretty much kaput. i should throw it out but i feel bad :(

remy i love her blog! really want the asian DUMPLINGS! cookbook, it's sitting on my amazon wishlist.

i just wanna make stir-fry all the time lately. i feel like i've figured it out.

i want to make garlic soup tonight but am having trouble deciding which of several recipes i've seen i'm least likely to screw up. better to thicken with flour before adding broth, or egg after?

hey ILCooking

i sort of forgot u existed

i made boeuf bourguignon the other day and i think it's the best thing i ever made. it was so so good.

open face roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy... and blanched then grilled asparagus.

speaking of asparagus:

i've only just 'discovered' this vegetable and i could use some advice on what to look for when i'm buying it... it all looks the same to me! i've cooked it twice so far (roasted with a little oil, garlic, s&p, and then some fresh lime squeezed over it) and it's been pretty nice and tender. but tonight there was a gross, tough stalk that was inedible.

any pro tips?

roast beef was made from those chuck cross rib roasts you see sometimes for stew meat. just coat in rock salt and coarse pepper, throw it in a super hot oven for a dozen minutes then turn the oven off and forget about it.

i just like thinner stalks - they are more tender and maybe sweeter? i don't really have any protips for shopping though - i guess as long as the color is nice and it's not brown?

Asparagus: the tips should be tightly closed, stalks should snap when bent (they will snap at the point where the toughness starts, so snap each one of them before cooking - they won't all end up the same length). Buy bundles that are either all male (thicker) or all female (thin), then it will all cook more evenly. It's not in season until spring - when it's fresh picked from the field it's absolutely amazing. Eastern Washington was a huge asparagus producer when we lived there, it was asparagus heaven.

when i roast beef i ya, cover in salt and peps... olive oil... sometimes slit open little holes for thin slices of garlic. then do it on like, 350 or so for 20 minutes to brown the outside, then turn it way down to ~225 and let it mellow

bundles that are either all male (thicker) or all female (thin),
i had no idea!

my preferred asparagus prep is roasted in olive oil at like 450 F until the tips are crispy and delicious.

Weekend projects: pot-a-feu and bread baking.

I made a chuck roast yesterday as well, using this recipe. I tried slicing it, but it was too tender -- it just sort of fell apart under the knife. Variation: no chicken stock, just a quart of my homemade beef stock and a good slug of red wine; put it in a 300-degree oven after browning instead of simmering it on the stovetop.

Eastern Washington was a huge asparagus producer when we lived there, it was asparagus heaven.

Still is - the past few springs I've eaten so much ridiculously cheap asparagus that I get kind of sick of it and need a break by the time the season ends.

I'd always heard thick ones are better than thin ones for whatever reason but I haven't noticed much of a difference. Jaq's right though, as long as your bundle is consistent you're fine, and snapping them is the way to go.

I almost always roast it in a super hot oven with olive oil salt and pepper, and add a little bit of acid before I eat it. Roast asparagus topped with a runny poached egg and a squeeze of lemon is one of the best breakfasts ever.

get kind of sick of it and need a break by the time the season ends

I'm the same - so excited at the beginning of the season though, nothing like the first taste after 10 months of not having any!

There was a big deal about the only processing plant near the tri-cities closing (maybe the one in Dayton? don't remember the details) and hundreds of acres of producing fields getting plowed up and replanted with cheatgrass or something for a biofuels plant. Good to know it didn't make that much of a dent - asparagus takes, like, 5 years of growing to really be productive.

I used to go pick asparagus along the ditch banks of the small town where I grew up every spring.

my parents used to grow it in their garden. they'd be all excited about how it was fresh and from the yard and i, being really snotty, basically said "i don't care where it's from, asparagus is still disgusting." now that i realize gardening requires time and effort, and not everybody does it (and also that asparagus is delicious), i wish i'd been a bit more appreciative.

i made apple banana nut bread today, it turned out great. i think it's the first time i've ever baked a loaf of anything.

thank you first google hit for banana apple bread recipe

I made crepes like 2x this weekend. They are the fastest food!

going to a mexican food themed party and thinking about bringing some portobello caps. anybody have quick preparation tips?

Pork, lemon, parmesan, anchovy (+parsley and thyme) meatballs. Ok these are amazing.

chicken legs (70c each!) roasted in a deep dish with whole garlic cloves, cherry tomatoes, basil, sliced new potatoes and chilli.

experimenting with quinoa salads:

(1) curried with apricots, almonds, red/orange bell peppers, spice house's maharajah curry
(2) greek with kalamata, feta, sundried tomatoes, parsley

i used to make one with black beans, bell peppers, and cilantro, so these are just basically variations on that. making the quinoa in the rice cooker is a dream come true compared to how i used to do it.

also baking some falafel tbh

just made squid for the first time!! it was DELICIOUS. i want to eat this every day in every way.

Fresh or frozen?? I've never made squid.

fresh! i got 1/2 lb and first i made a little appetizer of sauteed squid in a butter-lemon-red pepper flake sauce and it was great. sopped up the sauce with some crusty bread. tomorrow i am making a salad with squid, mango, corn, spinach, cukes, maybe something else, and a lime-tomatillo dressing.

this is one of those foods i have always enjoyed the hell out of in restaurants, so i am very excited to try making it in various ways at home.

i love cooking

The first one sounds like something I could eat ALL DAY LONG. Will try it as a summer thing espesh.

I haven't had time to cook lately. This has caused me to realize it's my #1 destressing activity.

It'll work out OK though because the week after I graduate, I get to help my mom cook food for my sister's wedding reception of 100+ people...can't wait to just sit around and chop veg and ice cookies all day.

Frankie made awesome goulash of pork, onion, red bell pepper, paprika, don't know what else...over pasta. Probably a little too rich but tasted warm and great.

He started by buying a giant leg of pork yesterday for like 6 bucks and cutting it up himself -- this is something I've never thought to try because I would have assumed I had to know something about butchering or what cuts of meet I was hacking apart. But he just went to town with my biggest knife! Seems to work out juuust fiiine.

Ooh! That sounds tasty. Good for leftovers too.

The half lb of squid was about $3.50 btw.

I didn't cook much for about a week because of work but I'm glad to be back in the old kitchen.

I haven't had time to cook lately. This has caused me to realize it's my #1 destressing activity.

I misread this as "distressing activity" and had a cartoon-style visual of you with exploding pans and ovens on fire.

That's not too far off base. I once had what looked like a map of Cuba left of my bellybutton for a few months bcz of hot oil splashback while deep frying tofu in a too-small shirt.