What's cooking? part 4

Mr Veg got me a new wok for my birthday :D :D

as the better the wok, the cheaper it is, I hope he spent a buck oh five.

I dunno from how much he spent, all I know is it's silver, kinda heavy, and from the Wok Shop in San Francisco.

sounds legit

i want a g-fruit tree!!!!

I want to go nuts making g-fruit juice.

otoh i feel pretty juiced to make grapenuts

cashier lady at whole foods asked if i was a chef? i don't know if she meant pro or just "do i do the cooking at home." i guess maybe because my shopping basket was basically all raw ingredients except for a loaf of bread? idk, i'll take it.

what are y'alls favorite things to add to steel cut oats for a hearty and nourishing (but most imptly delicious) breakfast?

almond milk
ground flax
honey (just a little)
small pecan pieces if i'm feeling nutty
raisins/other dried fruit if i'm feeling fruity
both if i feel like really going crazy

chopped fresh apple (cooked with the oats) or dried fruit (cherried, cranberries, raisins, apricots) for me

I am feeling nutty and fruity tbh

I need to up my dried fruit game, I think.

The huge losses in Michigan's 2012 cherry crop has made one of my favorite fruits insanely expensive. I noticed that a 14 oz. can of Kroger's store-brand cherries was $4.50+ the other day.

dried apricots and/or cranberries/tart cherries are good

what are y'alls favorite things to add to steel cut oats for a hearty and nourishing (but most imptly delicious) breakfast?

I subtract the oats and add eggs and bacon.

xp Oooh, my mother brought me a bag of dried cherries that I'm hoarding. Now I feel even hoardier.

I made a beef & barley soup today that turned out great, even though the stew beef my wife had gotten was ridiculously lean -- I think it was cubed-up eye of round. Simmered the beef on low heat in homemade beef stock, red wine, worcestershire and a bit of tomato paste for a couple of hours before I made any moves toward turning it into soup. I haven't used barley much before -- gotta put it into heavier rotation.

I think I'm on my way to making chorizo a household staple. I found an awesome Mexican spot that sells it for $4.99 a pound which I mean isn't dirt cheap but seems perfectly reasonable (and also it is gooooood). I like to make this recipe and keep it in my fridge all week and then for breakfast I fry up an egg and put it on a tortilla and add a few big scoops of this and some cheese and salsa and YUM CITY U S A

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/sauteed-potatoes-with-chorizo-recipe/index.html

also I am rediscovering yukon potatoes (Abbott I <3 you so much but why you hate on these wonderful nuggets of flavor?)

Spouse made a HUGE (I mean HUGE HUGE) pot of refried beans, except I think maybe the pot of beans is the first "fry," and then we will portion them out and re-fry in LARD and/or CHORIZO FAT to order. I have never really done the refried bean thing, so thoughts on the process much appreciated (Stevie I seem to recall you did refrieds?).

Yes yes!! I am a v big fan of Bittman's recipe who says you can fry in butter, which I do bcz it is always in the house and I've never fucked w/ lard before.

I actually brought "How to Cook Everything" (as in, my hard copy) to Mexico, along with Diana Kennedy's "The Essential Cuisines of Mexico," James Peterson's "Fish and Shellfish," and a ceviche book.

Will check the Bittman recipe post haste.

Some things I have not yet tracked down in La Paz (the nearest city, which is about forty minutes away):
-ginger
-cornstarch
-canned beans that are not refried or otherwise seasoned (spouse started from dried)
-pine nuts (ok lol like I can't live without pine nuts)
-golden raisins
-chick peas and tahini (gonna make my parents pack these when they come to visit because c'mon, I need to make hummus!)

tonight was my first attempt at DIY Indian food; I made Cooks' Illustrated's Tandoori Chicken and my god is this flavorful. I also made *perfect* brown basmati rice in my rice cooker. This is a v exciting dinner.

yay!

I tried out my wok last night...overloaded it with too much stuff & it all kinda steamed, so doing a do over tonight with less ingredients & more conscientious effort

fun though!

do you have a proper gas range? you can wok away happily while pitying those of us with electric stoves

I dunno about 'proper' but I have a gas range yes

Put out chix breasts to thaw today because I knew it would force me to cook them. Put olive oil over some heat, dumped in garlic until it just started to smell, took off heat and added chix broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, and sage, poured over chix in pain. 400 degree oven for 40 minutes. Then while the chix rested I reduced the pan sauce a little. Holy mother of all poultry.

"...poured over chix in pain..."

What's going on over there?!

I got given a cool wok cookbook, so I went to the azn grocery to get exciting ingredients like chili bean sauce & black vinegar

On Monday I might be making kung pao chicken from scratch weer

I'm in the process of trying to cook my way through the extra stuff in my kitchen before we move, so tonight it was chicken w/ sherry reduction (goodbye frozen chicken, goodbye sherry), green beans, and couscous.

My first go at chile rellenos. Pain in the ass tbh.

*weee

I'm excited for your wok adventures!

Today is kitchen day - 6 lbs of kerrygold butter in the oven for ghee, slow cooker chicken with leeks and shallots on, first batch of coconut butter treats hardening up. Cat food, roasted beets for a week of lunches, and maybe some sweet potato muffins coming up after lunch.

Cat food, roasted beets for a week of lunches

;)

Heh! Well, it is chicken and pumpkin mostly ;-)

drudge sirens i am moving and i am getting a new stove and it has 6 burners drudge sirens
---------> WATCH OUT, STOMACHS <-------------

it has been an ordeal. i bought a normal 30" stove at a normal price and then realized that the stove i'm replacing (which is about as old as i am) is 36" and those stoves are waaaay more expensive

for a few days i thought, oh i can live, i can fill those extra 6" with something
and then i realized

i spend hours every week -- every day! -- standing in front of this thing
do i want it to look like shit or do i want to pay a little more and get a good one
i got a good one
i feel good about it

also two different salesmen called me amana

6 burners!! Oh man I am envious. Post pics please!

when I moved into my new place it had a range with 5 burners and I thought *I* was the shit! 6 is awesome!

this is it -- bottom end for 36-inchers
i'll take a photo once it's installed because that's just about how excited i am about it

this is just from the website
http://content.abt.com/image.php/big_P36S148BP.jpg?image=/images/products/BDP_Images/big_P36S148BP.jpg&canvas=1&quality=100&width=285&height=200&ck=252

i am gonna go to town on that thing

I'll be honest and say I sometimes have a tray with oil, salt, pepper etc covering 1.5 of my back burners (I have no adjoining surfaces)

also two different salesmen called me amana

― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Sunday, April 21, 2013 4:31 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahahaha

what is that side cabinet thing btw??

i think it's a storage area? seems like a good place to keep large flat baking sheets/pans, etc so they don't take up as much storage real estate as they would in a cabinet?

omg LL that is exciting! 6 burners :D

xp oh ok, that's what i suspected, but never seen one built in like that

My, that is gorgeous!

The house we are currently renting has a 6 burner gas stove, and it is gonna be hard to go back.

Our stove at home is OK--big (old school 36", probably like the one you are replacing) and gas, but instead of two extra burners it has one flat-grill thingie in the middle. If it got evenly hot, that would be cool and useful; instead it is just kind of cumbersome and difficult to clean.

Congrats on your new stove, totally the right move to upgrade!