What's cooking? part 4

Saute the radish tops like any other green, mmmmm spicy good.

roast radishes are also yum imo

sorry more boring se-azn food posts, but i found kaffir lime leaves! i like them a lot. this my thing i do. as sort of an alternative to curry. (also sorry for mom-style recipe, it's how i cook most of the time)

lime leaves 3 to 5 (depending on size/how much i'm cooking)
chilies - 5 or 10 or 12? (again depending on how much i'm cooking and whether or not gf is eating it too, also smaller ones are hotter, it seems?)
some lemongrass, or galangal, or ginger, depends on what i have/feel like.

put that all in a food processor and go BUHZANG until it's all in little bits, simmer all the bits in a few tbs of peanut oil a few minutes, and from there it's about what you'd do when making curry. add sliced up chicken or whatever. and green onions maybe and whatever other vegetable or something you wanna have with it. tbs or two of fish sauce. nuts to sugar, don't need that junk. simmer a little while. i add a bunch of mint or basil at the end but cilantro probably works too.

really distinct from any curry i've had. lighter. fresher kind of liveliness or something like um. that?

my friend made us all a big four course christmas meal the other day and i died so good.

baked pear with chevre and bacon on it. no idea how this was so incredible.
pasta thing with roasted peppers and idk what else but it was so good.
cornish game hens, old butter under the skin and stuff it with citrus routine. side of mashy parsnips w/ heavy cream and oh man great.
arugula salad to cleanse palette before desert, had pine nuts and some balsamic vinaigrette mixture she concocted.

i forget the desert. just bunch of different kind of cookies iirc? i'd had a lot of wine by this time!

arby's your curry sounds great, will try.

fresher kind of liveliness or something like um. that?

have you made your own curry with fresh ingredients before? they're like that!

nah i've just used the mae ploy stuff cuz i can never get all of the ingredients at once.

dunno how key this is to what i like about the stuff i've been making, but: i've never used more than three ingredients in the chili mixture (i'm going to experiment more though), and i never grind to a paste. just little visible bits.

We got a cheap nut assortment as a Dirty Santa present last weekend. The almonds were very underseasoned, so I threw them in a skillet with some butter, brown sugar and a pinch of salt -- much better. Next time, maybe a pinch of cayenne as well.

i got a mandolin for my bday (and a super cute apron, too, and some new potholders and dishcloths)... must think of thinks to SLICE!

fennel is one of my favorite things to slice on a mandoline! <3 fennel so much.

Careful not to slice yr fingers off! I have done that so many times. I am terrible and never use the hand guard, haha. I'm all "la la la, slicing up the carrots ow ow"

xp

haha my dad had a friend whose fb pic is of her hand w/a bandage bc she didn't use the hand guard on her xmas present mandoline

Have never used my hand guard with mandoline and have not shed blood, but have done so on microplane/box grater repeatedly!

i mean, i chopped my thumb a few weeks ago w/ a regular knife so i should probably at least start out by using the hand guard

shit tza you should have told me you wanted one - we have a fancy cuisinart one we never use! i would have sent it to you.

oh i didn't even ask for one, it was just given to me as a bday present.

They are excellent for making scalloped potato bake. Thin slices of tato = cooked right thru.

i make omelettes with sliced potatoes all the time w/ mandoline. lay them in the frying pan and fry them until cooked, add chopped onions, cook, pour in eggs

ooh like tortilla style

yeah i think i was making that first and kept not having all the ingredients in the winter, so that's my pared down version

i am going to have a week or so to plan some recipes bc i have to have it mailed to me. no blades on the carry on baggage!

i know that i could just slice veggies for this but maybe i will use mandolin to make perfectly cut quick pickled veggies.
http://tinyurl.com/253fp9s

i never got the hang of using our mandolin - i found it easier just to slice with a knife.

i use it more in the summer when i make nonstop salads
in the winter i don't have much use for it and tend to cut matchstick sized things with a knife

I made risotto tonight with shrimp and peas. When I have the time to do it, risotto might be my favorite thing to cook. Maybe bcz in part it says "you have free time & cool weather"?

yeah, i think i like cooking risotto more than i like eating it! it's just a fun process.

I wonder why I never made parmesan biscuits before - so easy! 4.5oz plain flour, 4.5oz butter, 1oz grated parmesan, a pinch of cayenne and a hefty grind of black pepper. All store cupboard ingredients, only 10 mins in the oven and HIGHLY addictive.

It always makes me feel like such an old lady, but reading the weekly grocery circulars is really a weekly peak for me. Avocados 8 for $1!

^^^^one of the few things I miss about Texass is avacado deals like this all the damn time!!!

Potato soup and cornbread, perfect to go with the winter storm rolling in.

so i want to cook this recipe that involves a mushroom sauce - shiitake mushrooms, garlic, sake and lemon. but i don't have sake. i have close proximity to a corner store where i could get some kind of wine.

what would be a suitable replacement?

most recipes say you can sub dry sherry for rice wine

but i guess a recipe that asks for sake is not asking for rice wine

i bet it's too late but thinking about this, a rice wine substitute would probably be fine in that context. i don't really get why a recipe would ask for sake if it's to be cooked because sake doesn't taste like much to me except alcohol. it's like half-strength vodka so you could probably even add that (and then the alcohol just cooks off). can you tell i don't like sake.....
someone who cooks with that could probably answer better but that's how i would guess

yeah see sake and vodka dont taste anything alike

they both taste like alcohol and water to me, i really have no taste for sake at all

yeah i was gonna say try mirin?

oh also if you have a korean grocery/liquor store you could use soju, which i know is not like sake but it also tastes the same to me! this is how i cook by substituting things that aren't real substitutes

i do that all the time :)

soju http://www.rabbitsonline.net/images/emoticons/disgust.gif

i had a pretty awesome soju bloody mary once at a korean place. they serve it with a cucumber kimchee garnish and fresh horseradish!

ehh i already sent jordan out for dry white wine - i think i will add 3/4 dry white and 1/4 mirin, since i have some of that.

ok that might be good; i've only downed it straight.

xpost

sounds good to me - white wine would work well w/ the rest of the ingredients anyway.

Dry vermouth, too.

fuck amazing dinner just now. rubbed some harissa on two chicken thighs and griddled them nicely, then had them with chickpeas which i roasted with a crushed clove of garlic or two then tossed in cumin powder and a pinch of chilli, salt, and pepper. so fucking good!

so my dad got me an induction cooktop for my 30th, and judging from its maiden voyage its streets ahead of the electric jobs i've got in my apt

woah cool!

yeah i just gotta figure out where to ~put~ it

Induction is so great - I love the single burner I've got. I was really worried at first about putting it on top of the metal stove (magnetism!), so kept it on the butcher block. Which was a pain, so now it lives on the stove where it gets used more than any of the official stove burners.

btw, happy birthday, gbx!

i'd love to put it on one of my burners, but there's no outlet on that side of the room :-/