What's cooking? part 4

think I will attempt a different soup and do the overnight soak next time

Re salt, I've heard that the tough-skin thing is a bit of a myth, but I haven't done a Cooks-Illus. style test with multiple trials.

why bcz we have LIVES, cook's illustrated, LIVES

My no-fail method for great northerns is soak overnight, drain, bring to a boil and simmer low 1 hour with salt/pepper/bay leaves, then add whatever else and simmer low until done. They're generally tender enough to eat after that 1st hour + 20 minutes or so and then it's just a matter of how broken-down and starchy do you want the cooking water.

xpost to Jacob--our first brisket attempt (it was a team effort, thus the "we") was kind of a failure; we thought that ~300-350 for 9 hours or so was sufficiently "low and slow" on the smoker; we were wrong.

Second attempt was much more successful: 250 tops for ~12 hours.

You are in TX so you will not have trouble getting a good fatty brisket (a good fat cap is U&K); a lot of the brisket you see around here is what I refer to as Jewish brisket, which is no good for smoking (sorry Jews, u know I love u otherwise). It's been trimmed within an inch of its life, which may be OK for corned beef, but no good on the smoker.

If I had been smart enough to lay in some potatoes prior to this hurricane, I would do a smoked pork hash; because I failed on the potatoes, I am thinking of doing a hash-type thing that involves hominy instead of potatoes and pulled pork shoulder instead of corned beef. But I do love corned beef, and you can get great corned beef in Baltimore. Have never corned it myself, but it is on my list of things to try!

xpost to VG: I have found dried beans to be tempermental. Like, I can get them to where I want them tenderness-wise, but it may take +/- five hours or so. In my limited experience, a pressure cooker yields more consistent results.

Veg, salt is not the same as acid, I think it's okay to salt them! Just don't add any tomato or vinegar or anything until they're soft.

You guys and your meat projects amaze me! I was telling Laurel that I need to up my meat game this winter. I used to make a lot more meaty dishes than I do now. I think meat kinda stresses me out?

The basics of meat are so easy--so much easier than baking imo!

mr veg cooks almost all of our meat - mostly on the bbq. I reap the delicious rewards.

no you can't salt beans until they're cooked! salt slows them down too.

Oh, okay. I never use dried beans, only canned, and they don't seem to have any prob w salt but maybe I just haven't noticed.

yeah I think the salt thing only applies to dried beans. canned beans = totally cool

I haven't cooked meat in years but I have a huge leg of boneless aussie lamb for me and a friend - what should I do with it?? I just want it simple - garlic and rosemary,.roasted, but I've totally forgotten how to cook any kind of neat

#meat

I make chicken and steaks and stuff, little portions, but large pieces of meat just ... I don't even know how to handle them or what they are. The only large piece of meat I can handle is a pork roast --> nc style bbq (but not on a smoker or anything)

I think part of it is that I just don't really enjoy eating meat all THAT much, so putting a lot of effort into cooking large amounts of it is just kinda...not a good use of my time. But I want to improve, so I guess I have to dedicate myself or something.

This was my tofu kale beet thing from earlier btw. It was really tasty!
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8195/8135646895_5c20b8d4df_n.jpg

Boneless leg o' lamb: marinate in garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, and good olive oil; grill on charcoal grill or grill pan; pull it at like 115-120 F max interior temp--rest and it will get up to 120-125 or so which is perfection imo.

hey justin3, if you're doing the oven I've used this Jamie Oliver before and it turned out p great - good simple beginner-y method. (Except I put it in a roasting tray instead of straight onto the oven rack, hate cleaning the oven as it is, lol)

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/best-roast-leg-of-lamb

(sorry I'm kind of a recipe person vs a wing-it person)

that looks great LL!

now I want some BEETS.

Thanks! I got a new phone so now the camera is a lot better and doesn't make everything look like greasy slop.

yeah that is a v appetizing photo

Yeah I can't grill it, gotta go with the oven method. Lamb is my fav meat, so excited!

love lamb so much

Me too! My favorite meat, or maybe that is pork? But lamb and pork tops!

yeah, definitely nature's beasts

Lamb is my favourite too! Slow-cooked is amazing.
I like putting bits of leftover roast lamb with couscous and either roasted veg, bit of red wine and spices, or halloumi, olives, red onion, pine nuts/almonds and probably other stuff I can't remember. Leftover roast lamb always looks dry and horrible but then softens back up immediately when you heat it ime.

Lamb and pork are my favorite meats to cook, for some reason I hardly ever cook beef. I'd like to cook a beef roast for stew or even beef tips and rice, but when ever I look at the beef at the grocery store, I end up just getting flustered and walking over to the pork.

i need to cook lamb sometime soon, haven't really done lamb at all since i started taking cooking seriously.

i like cooking beef but the problem is nothing seems as good as the sear-roasted n.y. strip recipe from all about roasting so that's all i ever want to make.

this is what i wound up making with the sweet potato i roasted yesterday
my favorite tofu company has these little fried puffs you can float in soups or, as i found, stuff with whatever you like. i mashed the sweet potato with some spinach, cut off the the top and stuffed the puffs, and then warmed them in the toaster oven. served with cukes/soy sauce/wasabi. it was really good and virtually no work at all. AND it tasted just like a sweet potato tempura roll.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8188/8136842869_cd86a38246_n.jpg

that's v. creative!

are those tofu skins? i bought some to try awhile ago but they went off before i had the chance

they looked like these, and then i cut off the top and cleared away the inside (just kinda pushed it out of the way) to make room for the filling
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Db3qWGi5F_s/TagszTBhjuI/AAAAAAAAI-Q/v3xvFpJRG0Q/s1600/tricken+tofu+puffs.JPG

also ty!

they weren't as square though, more rounded edges
my tofu co doesn't have pics online afaik

that does sound/look like a really good dinner! i'm making a veggie tart thing tonight, hope it tastes good.

emergency: we bought some fresh pasta (gemelli I think?) but don't know the cooking time

I googled around -- saw a Batali recipe that said because they're denser than normal fresh pasta cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
Give it 3 and starting checking doneness from then on?

fresh gemelli sounds good. love those twisty noodles mmm

yeah I was thinking 5 min and then see if they get the white tips?

good luck!

oh it's fresh? just wait till a bunch of it floats to the top and starting tasting. i'd start tasting at 3 mins.

oh okay thanks!

I made a bastardized hoppin' John: Swiss chard, chicken sausage and black-eyed peas with rice.

made a massive not-quite-vegetarian pinto bean chili (cooked pinto beans in chicken stock early on) and very inauthentic cornbread (baked in a tin in the oven, using sugar, no lard or butter, etc etc). it's really nice having someone to cook for again but I'm already feeling like I don't have any new ideas about cooking and am just making variations on the same three dishes.

Imma track down some Mae Ploy curry paste and Chaokoh coconut milk and start currying more. I am excited abt this tbh.

chaokoh coconut milk rules

accept no substitutes

finally FINALLY my local sfway has started stocking Chaokoh -- used to be only the $avemart across town had it.

I've never had it but err'one seems to love it

I think I might make a batch of gumbo zeb (gumbo aux herbes) base this weekend. Depends on the freezer space.