What's cooking? part 4

my friends make pho from scratch every new year's day. since I hosted the NYE party they usually host, I get to join them in the pho-eating this year

heading over there shortly!

I would trade in the prosperity dinner for from-scratch pho...maybe.

But not this year! Peas, cabbage and cornbread have been eaten, with sweet Italian sausages grilled out back in a 45-degree pissing rain.

This cornbread made with ghee is possibly the best thing ever.

Soup: I'm just in it for the barley.

Argh. Making a classic awld zucchini and carrot slice (a kind of frittata I guess) but I forgot to put milk in with the egg and cheese. Its gonna be... very omlettey, I guess? Urgh Oh well.

I am going to try massaman curry tonight, I think! There are so many different recipes! Help!

I want to do more things with beets but I need ideas. I roasted a bunch if golden beets this week, just ate them with greens and balsamic, was just kinda :/

throw them away

just kidding; I am such a beet hater. I love you though.

Ask Lechera. She loves beets.

I do love beets.

Have you considered trying them raw? I love them julienned with fennel, orange bell pepper, pea sprouts, a light vinegar, some roasted nuts, greens.

There's always a root vegetable roast, rustic borscht or fancy pureed borscht -- I just asked my coworkers (Russian, Ukrainian, Slovak) and they all agreed that people could argue about different/best ways to make borscht/beet soup for days. :)

I also like a beet slaw on a sandwich or as a side

(i only mention soup because it's winter. one of my coworkers said that beet soup was the first thing she was taught to cook in home ec class!)

Pretty sure I posted this before but this is my favorite beet thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/dining/roasted-beets-with-chiles-ginger-and-yogurt-recipe.html

I also like making a warm-ish salad with lentils, roast carrots, roast beets, goat cheese, a little bit of bacon, and a slightly mustardy vinaigrette.

oh yeah, that too!! that's a good one. haven't made that in a while!!

I tried steaming them this week, til just tender. I think I def prefer them roasted. Something about the consistency was just a little ick to me

i've never steamed a beet

still takes about half an hour so it's not ridiculously faster than roasting. i imagine a good option if you're just plopping them in a salad with other stuff maybe

i just eat them raw in that case, but i like raw veggies about 100x more than cooked ones usually

Yeah something with lentils would be good

I don't want to do them raw bc it's too cold right now

I think I need to experiment with making some vegan cheeses, to go with the beets, cheese and beets really is the best combo

Cold sunny day today, so a pot of beef stew is in progress.

a batch of curry lentil soup simmering and nearing completion. hadn't considered adding tamarind to this dish before but i remembered a (sri lankan curry) recipe that called for it that i've made in the past and it adds such a nice depth of flavor, another layer, and is another acid (some tomato is in the soup too) to cut through the fat of the coconut milk (which i don't like to add until the end to try not kill its sweet flavor). been my favorite soup to make for the last year and a half.

xpost: on a hot day, a big salad that includes beets and bleu cheese is my idea of flavor heaven no doubt. cold and rainy here now hence: soup!

I bought golden beets and a 3-lb loin roast. I hope roasting chunks of beets under a large piece of beef is a good way to cook them, I'm looking for some roasty meat juice effect on my vegetables.

made chicken meatball soup for lunch, from the Stanley Tucci cookbookI i got for christmas

a little bland, but pretty tasty with some extra salt & lots of shredded parm

I got a grow-your-own-oyster-mushrooms kit in a box for Christmas and I think they're ready for harvesting! Going to do so tomorrow. Any suggestions for quick and simple oyster mushroom recipes?

Otherwise I'll probably just do the simplest recipe on the website of the company who sell the kits: http://espressomushroom.co.uk/espresso-oyster-mushrooms-on-toast/

those kits sound cool. buddy @ work harvested his first batch the other day. forgot what he said he did with them, but the recipe you posted looks like the sort of thing i enjoy - simplicity and letting the integrity and flavor of the ingredient shine through

Yeah, I def want something where the mushroom flavour isn't drowned out, as well as simple because of my limited cooking skills.

The kit was easy and fun - I am the kind of person who kills pot plants just by looking at them and who can always find 2 different interpretations of any set of instructions and worry about which is right, but my mushrooms grew no problems

Made a decent nasi goreng with this paste I wasn't too sure about beforehand but it was good. Except I used tons of rice and not enough of the paste.

Making slow cooker chicken and gravy right now. Used leeks + garlic + onion for the alliums. Smells pretty amazing so far, should be ready around 6.

Also steaming a pumpkin pudding/custard/souffle thing: whipped eggs, coconut cream, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spices.

wow jaq i'm going to have to try that slow cooker chicken! let us know how it turns out

i made chili in a way i have never used before and 2 things happened for the first time

• i used the muir glen fire roasted tomatoes jaq loves (v good)
• food processed onions and garlic did this when sauteed, which i have never even heard of before! i was scared!

Oh wow, I've never had that happen! I have had onions baked into breads turn a blue-green color though.

oh man, VG - this chicken! I thought the gravy would be okay, but it's SO FUCKING GOOD, I can not believe it. I want to drink it. The chicken too - perfect. No crispy skin, but tender, juicy, perfectly cooked meat permeated with rich allium flavors and chicken essence.

Here's the chicken, resting. I didn't take a photo of it plated because there was, you know, (whispers) broccoli.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8508/8355624697_a4ab5e1757.jpg

For the alliums, I used 5 leeks, 2 medium white onions, and 5 cloves of garlic. I also used a full tablespoon of tomato paste. And the chicken was rubbed with kosher salt, cracked pepper (mix of black, white, green, red) and thyme.

oh wow. okay you convinced me

I might give this a shot next weekend. how big of a bird did you use, and how long did it take to cook?

It was a little over 5 lbs - I cooked it for the full 6 hours on low. I was worried at the end that it wasn't cooked enough, but I checked the temp - 160 deg F, which raised to 170 while it rested.

excellent!

I'm afraid to be a lesser being in Lechera's eyes but I tried golden beets roasted in marinade and meat juices and they're just too sweet for me to like them. I kept one raw so maybe I'll try a slaw this week or next. ;___;

Awww, very sad.

rip

It is sad. I've come around on broccoli (well, a long time ago) and avocados and brussels sprouts and asparagus and kale, for the love of god, but beets are beyond me.

haha beets are kind of my last vegetable frontier too

I like beets but can't figure out the appeal of cauliflower.

i've never really understood cauliflower either -- it's too white. i like my vegetables to be as colorful as possible and cauliflower is just blah looking. Maybe the purple kind or the romanesco or w/e it's called would be more appealing.

sorry about your beets, l -- just be content to like what you like and stop trying to force stuff on yourself!?

No, when you grow up in the Midwest and your natural preference is to subsist wholly on roast beef and cheese, you kind of have to force things on yourself. It's okay, I'm a big girl. I gave beets a chance, I gave spaghetti squash a chance (holy mother of gross), I won't choose them but I don't have to fear them, either.

Spaghetti squash is the worst - a big F U to all these people who were like ” it's just like pasta!”

ppl who say that clearly don't like pasta. that spaghetti squash shit is gross

It took me a very long time to undo the Midwest meat and starch only thing and I'm sad it took so long. I went from mushrooms being basically the only vegetable that I ate to essentially having no vegetables that I won't eat.

This is reminding me of the recent stories of my grandfather's diet, as he lives alone and my parents drop by every week or two to pick up around his house and get his laundry. Without anyone else around, he's been eating pretty much one thing at a time for a few weeks before moving on to something new. My dad has informed me that grandpa is currently eating about eight Oreos and a glass of orange juice for breakfast.

I grew up in the midwest too, but I think the difference is that you guys maybe actually saw people cooking and grew up eating "meals" with "family", whereas I had never really seen a full meat-vegetable-starch meal prepared for more than 2-3 people who were all eating that meal until I was...12? 13? My mom would make things sometimes, like rice-a-roni or mac & cheese, but we p much never ate together and never all ate the same thing. I've had to learn how to eat new stuff too, it just wasn't a particularly grueling process because I didn't have a set off assumptions to offset. I just knew I needed to eat food and I was kind of tired of the handful of things I was eating.

Anyway, I'm sorry you don't like beets, but it's not like I give a shit what anyone else eats or doesn't eat. It's not a mark of valor or anything. (Some of the pickiest eaters I've ever met have been students who grew up eating their own ethnic cuisine and turn up their noses - hard! - at basically anything/everything else) In sum, I would never assume anyone is a lesser being based on their food preferences. Do you not know me?

Poor grandpa. My dad eats green beans for lunch sometimes. Just raw green beans on a plate.

That's probably healthier, although not as fake-prepared as me stir frying them with a little soy sauce and seasoning for a couple minutes and eating them with rice.

I should start a thread reporting the horrors my parents report about my grandfathers. It's always something.