What's cooking? part 4

yep

i'm about to eat some vegetable burritos made w/ black beans, corn, 2 types of peppers, yellow squash, and onions plus guac and i made way too much so it looks like i'm having this all week!

yeah i fucking love ponzu

harbl that sounds like it would freeze ok (except for the guac), if you get tired of it mid-week

yeah i was thinking that too. turns out it's not quite too much, maybe 2 more meals. it was really good though! and i didn't make too much guacamole.

It sounds super tasty!

Suddenly got a lot cooler here so I've been eating stuff like beets and braised lamb shanks and other things I've had no desire to eat for months. Farmer's market is pretty great right now too.

too much guac

These words are recognizable but make no sense.

mom-style vague

Haha, so true, but also ILX cooking threads make me (hungry and) sad because to a kitchen disaster like m'self all cooking instructions short of a full recipe are "mom-style vague", you guys all with yr delicious-sounding meals and yr nonchalant "oh I took (2-3 major ingredients) and some other things, y'know, the usual, and cooked them in the usual way - it was excellent"

(I kid, but it's true, too! ;_; )

Anyhow while I am replying to posts from too long ago to reply to, in Britisherland scallions and spring onions are not only "pretty much" but exactly the same thing, can't speak for the US though

Sunday night I made a big pot of chix soup w tomato & white bean & arugula, but I haven't actually had any of it yet because I've been finishing off:

A tri-color pasta thing with fresh tomatoes, thyme, basil, and sliced chicken breast. This was far fresher and more interesting than the soup, but I think next time I will add: a little lemon zest to wake things up, and some red pepper flakes in the simmering olive oil with the garlic.

laurel that sounds fresh and delicious

as for me, i made the most delicious curry last night using methods i learned from watching this program, i mean programme
http://www.bbc.co.uk/indianfoodmadeeasy/

i feel like i haven't cooked in a while since i haven't made anything warm or hearty very recently. but last night i was inspired and made sweet potato-garbanzo-tomato curry to go with some tilapia and simple mint sauce/chutney/chimichurri/whatever you want to call it.

the curry tastes even better today, like a LOT better
i put the mint sauce on it and it has sweet-spicy-salty-warm-cool all wrapped up in one bowl

uh

i want that

sorry, i ate it all :-P
for the first time i made indian food that tastes as good as my favorite fancy indian restaurant

also convinced myself that i could not live without mint
what a glorious plant

my gf has been cooking with mint more lately. mint has my full support.

i came home from work v hungry and wanting to have those burritos again.
spacecadet i think it takes everyone a long time using full recipes to get to be able to throw things together w/o thinking about it & have it taste good. there's no need to be sad.

I'm so glad the hot weather has broken enough to get in the kitchen and cook. I'd never survive as a raw-foodarian. (I have a meatloaf in the oven and am going to start the mashed potatoes right now.)

amen to that. it's still 90 degrees here, but i can see the end. or rather, the future of cooking season. after eating so many salads and cheese-meat-crackers type quasimeals i almost felt like i had lost my appetite, but...no. it's still there.

The first day we get where the high is below 80, I'm going to get 10# of beef neckbones to replenish my beef stock supplies. I'm down to my last quart.

spacecadet, you should check your ilx webmail!

question: what is the best way to go about roasting either a) a whole bulb of garlic or b) a few cloves?

cut the root ends off, drizzle w/ oil, wrap in foil, put in slow oven (300 deg or so) until they feel soft (approx. 1 hr)

huh - would that work in a toaster oven?

i guess so, right? why not? i love my toaster oven.

I'm sure it would!

a few cloves would probably only take 30 min or so, btw. But it's so good and can go in so much stuff, I usually do the whole head.

Man no kidding, I have a hard time not just eating the whole thing on bread the minute I take it out of the oven.

do you think it's freezable once it's cooled down?

freezing might make it impossible to get the good stuff out of the skins, so I'd squish out the paste and freeze that.

i made some disastrous indian filo puff things tonight... they are in the oven now. i have never cooked with filo before but i must have done something wrong: the recipe said to use two sheets and to put 2-3 generous spoonfuls of the filling on top before rolling up tightly... well, the whole thing melted! so then i panicked and just started grabbing a bunch of sheets and kind of mushing everything together.

ok these are half gross, half good: all those layers of pastry remained pretty much uncooked - i think i needed to oil them? but i don't have a pastry brush.

yeah, when you layer phyllo, it's the butter or oil between the layers that lets it get crisp and puffy. If you have an oil mister (like the Misto), that works better than a pastry brush (for oils, not for melted butter).

Man no kidding, I have a hard time not just eating the whole thing on bread the minute I take it out of the oven.

Tell me about it. I'm dreadful at just standing in the kitchen squeezing the cloves onto the bread - just take them to the table and sit down! Must admit I tend to do them w'out the foil, but I can't see as how it would make any difference other than taking slightly longer.

valuable lessons with the habanero

An oil mister! what a great idea.

It'll go great with my oil missus.

Oh, dadpaws.

why is my hand and face still burning from this

omg

eek

index and naughty fingers still slightly burning iirc

Let that be a lesson to you then.

I once got chilli in my eye - this was after I'd washed my hands, too - man, it hurt.

on a complete standoff w/ my genitals btw

I planted a bunch of chilies this year for the first time and got a 100-pack of plastic gloves for the peeling and destemming and stuff.

That reminds me, I need to pull up last years jalapeno bushes - theyve gone all feral and end-of-seasony.

one more post and i'll shut up about my habanero disaster

so my girlfriend stopped by after work, while i was cooking still, and just sort of helped herself to my milk (straight out of the jug, as both she and i are wont to do), and immediately goes WHY ARE MY LIPS BURNING!!!

lol

hahaha damn, you must have been rolling in it

lunch co-op has been awesome! trying to convince coworkers to start a blog so we can share recipes. one made an amazing moroccan pot pie with a phyllo crust this week. omg nom.

things i have made so far:
gazpacho
tuna, white bean, and arugala salad
veggie/chicken masala
quinoa summer salad
ratatouille
build-you-own spinach salad (ie lots of containers of goodies to throw on the spinach)

can not wait for soupy season!

last weekend i roasted some beets (omg hot kitchen but it was worth it!) and tossed them in a mustardy vinaigrette, served over spinach... made me anxious for fall!

coconut rice pudding mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm