What's cooking? part 4

trying to eat out vegan is such a headache esp if it's American food

iirc literally nothing -- even the salad -- is vegan at Friday'S

having been in said establishment, I would not feel confident claiming a glass of water is vegan there

I don't even know if New York HAS a Thai or Vietnamese neighborhood!

saw this article just yesterday... http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2012/08/bangkok-center-grocery-chinatown-thai-market.html?ref=title looks like they have them

I need to check out some of small groceries in a neighborhood north of downtown, here. It's an interesting mix in that it's been economically depressed for a long time, and also a common area for immigrants to move. I think I saw vietnamese, mexican, and ethiopian groceries within a few blocks, including one combination mexican/asian grocery which has to be intriguing.

going to ethnic groceries is one of my favourite things ever tbqh

having been in said establishment, I would not feel confident claiming a glass of water is vegan there

― your native bacon (mh), Tuesday, August 21, 2012 11:10 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

have it on good authority that the bacon-infused spring water uses all-vegan flavorings

going to ethnic groceries is one of my favourite things ever tbqh

― just sayin, Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:18 AM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

i live and work in the right part of town for it too, so that's convenient

going to ethnic groceries is one of my favourite things ever tbqh

you been to to the chinese shop near stepney green tube?

no! i usually go to the vietnamese ones on mare st (which still have a lot of chinese & thai ingredients). is the one in stepney green better?

also love the TFC in dalston

anyone wanna share their favorite crockpot recipes?

coming upon frugal times, need to dust that sucker off imo

can of beans
can of stewed or fire roasted or whatever tomatoes
broth or stock
potatoes or rice or pasta

dump in crockpot with your choice of spices

8 hours later: dinner!

i got passionfruit today! lots and lots of it! can't tell you how happy i am! what should i do with it, apart from just eat it all right now in one sitting??

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3126/hot-passion-pina-coladas
I always wanted to make these but could never find passion fruits!

i made chicken salad with homemade rosemary mayonnaise holy crap. i love my food processor btw.
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/food-processor-mayonnaise/

I must have another go at making mayo from scratch with my food processor, I hardly ever use the darn thing! Rosemary mayo sounds delicious.

I have a dinner date at my house tomorrow, I am thnking of making silverbeet + ricotta cannelloni - that seems reasonably simple to build and shove in the oven while someone comes over for dinner, doesnt it? Perhaps I can pre-make the cheese/greens filling tonight and have it ready to go in the fridge...

...and thats what I did! Ive prefilled some lasagna sheets with a ricotta/feta/silverbeet/green onion/dill mix, rolled em up into a lasagne dish, and covered them in clingfilm and shoved back into the fridge. I've never really done much "pre prepare" cooking before so I am hoping this goes ok - the plan is, pull it back out when I get home, coat it in tomato passata and cheese, and bake it. Add a salad, and throw it at my hot date.

Well er not literally, cos that would be rude.

aha, silverbeet is chard! now i get it. sounds delicious!

i just bought a bento box for myself and am trying to brainstorm stuff to put in it for work lunches. i have seriously been wanting one for YEARS and i just decided now was the time. i've been looking at justbento/justhungry forever too, so now is the time to start trying new things.

excited, but i have to take a trip to the japanese grocery with my friend who knows what she's doing. she reads cookbooks in japanese (she is not japanese herself)! i'm super impressed by that.

anyway, bento.

wasn't there an article that said the secret to good artisanal was a teaspoon of water?

making burgers again tonight so I think I'll whip up some homemade mayo

did you mean "artisanal mayo"? i don't think it was artisanal. but maybe i could have a new career as a mayonnaise artisan. i did see an article re: adding water. i didn't add any but i used the whole egg instead of just the yolk because something said it would make it more fluffy.

I am caving and making white macaroni w butter and paprika tonight, don't judge

no way dude, that sounds delish

we had pulled pork on hamburger buns and corn on the cob last night, sometimes simple is awesome

I frequently make pasta with just butter, or butter and cheese. Carbofatlicious

I've been pretty excited about this Indian-ish beet concoction that I saw in the NY Times last fall:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/dining/roasted-beets-with-chiles-ginger-and-yogurt-recipe.html

I've made this this a bunch of times over the past year and now that beets are pretty regular at the farmer's market I anticipate this at least once a week for the next couple of weeks.

tonight was kinda fun; seared sea scallops + arugula + melon/avocado salsa + brown rice. scallops were sweet and delicious and there was no way i could botch them.

those beets look GOOD

marconi w/ butter and paprika is much blander than the last time I had it (which was like 4 yrs ago). Will switch back to buying local grass-fed butter and also buying quality Hungarian paprika.

tell me about nachos

like, what do you do with the beans? how do you prep them? i have a good cashew cheese recipe, i make a pretty good basic salsa, and we're watching football this weekend - i feel like making nachos for the first time ever.

beans you refry. I like Goya the best bcz they are filled w/ sodium and yum; I usually do 1 can of black beans, drained but not rinsed (you need a bit of liquid left) and 4T butter (but I'm sure earth balance would work great) in a skillet and just mash them with a fork and fry them

basically exactly what say Stevie. I add some spices like cumin and epazote and Mexican oregano b/c I like them.

oh yes, cumin! and garlic! so:

Saute a few cloves of minced garlic in 4t Earth Bal
add beans
mash and cool for like 5 min
and eat

thanks!

Have stooped even lower than mac + butter and paprika: frozen pizza. Though much to my delight, the one I happened to buy (Freschetta Brick Oven 5-cheese) is by and far the best frozen pizza I've ever fucking tasted, like in-a-league-of-it's-own good. So if any of you like just cannot bring yourself to cook a whole meal, pick one of these jawns up and then thank me later

http://freschetta.com/images/thumb-brick-oven-pizza-5-italian-cheese.png

my vegan nachos were DELISH

awesome!

Oooh!! Did the beans turn out ok?

delish!!!

got the makings for tampeh reubens. inspired by that vegan cookbook and also from taking the pastrami off a reuben that was on the menu at work the other day. thousand island slathered on the bread interior, grilled marinated tempeh, sauerkraut, sliced pickle and some nice French reaclette, buttered outside bread and then grilled.....it's gonna be gooooood

The Kitchenaid mixer is a bit of a pain (hell, it's a huge pain) to rassle around the kitchen, so I've gone back to the high-moisture, long-rise, low-yeast, no-knead bread recipe that I imagine everybody knows about by now, via Lahey or Bittman or whoever. Got a loaf coming out momentarily, and it looked really good when I took the lid off the dutch oven for the last few minutes of baking.

yum!

I've got jambalaya workin in the slow cooker. 3 more hours and we'll be eating the good stuff

Cooking bread in the Dutch oven! That never occurred to me; will have to investigate.

i made a vegan ground-beef version of nachos tonight - added onion, can of muir glen tomato sauce and a package of gardein fake ground beef - also incredibly delish!!

Jambalaya turned out pretty good! Chicken was a little...mushy? I think I'll pre-brown it and the sausage before cooking, it might help the texture.

brb moving to just1n3's housr

<3

i also made reallly super extravagant vegan french toast for ytth recently (FT is not my thing at all) - it was ripoff of the real food daily's FT (ytth's favourite LA restaurant) which i found with a little googling.

i also bought 30 ball jars in different sizes, threw out all my recycled marinara jars and non-airtight containers, so now i have a beautiful 'rustic' kitchen

standing in front of my open kitchen shelves is now a mesmerizing experience (and i still need about 20 more jars!!)