What's cooking? part 4

harbl, that sounds so good. what's in the salsa?

I've got a 6 lb tamarind rubbed pork butt in the slow cooker with bacon, a couple chipotles in adobo and a smidge of vanilla.

also, for quincie:

What to Eat when It's so Hot out you can't think straight?

and

Hot weather food ideas?

i think it's the same as this, which i copied and pasted from some blog. i charred the tomatillos in an empty skillet and let them cool, and used jalapeños and red onion

Salsa de Tomate Verde
Barely adapted from The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy.

1/2 pound tomate verde (sold as tomatillos), husks removed and well rinsed
2-3 serrano peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 heaping tablespoon white onion, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Place the tomatillos in small saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally so they cook evenly. They should be pale green and tender but still whole, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

While the tomatillos cook, combine the peppers, white onion, garlic and cilantro in blender and pulse until well chopped and combined. Add a little water as needed. Add the tomatillos one at a time, pulsing after each addition. Add water if needed to reach the right consistency. Add salt to taste and serve.

I have made that very tomatillo salsa! I love it.

Jaq, I had totally forgotten about those threads--thank you!

Maybe gonna try this Cooks Illustrated pasta salad. Wish me luck:
Dressing
6 T olive oil
3 T red wine vinegar
3 T lemon juice
1 medium shallot
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T fresh oregano leaves, minced (1/2 t dried)
1 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t ground black pepper

Salad
salt
1 lb farfalle
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated on large holes of grater
1 yellow bell pepper, 1/4 in. strips
8 oz crumbled feta (2 c.)
1 c pitted kalamata olives, chopped coarse
1/2 c minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Whisk all dressing ingredients together in medium bowl. Set aside.

Boil the pasta with 2 T salt and cook until completely tender. Reserve 1 c of the cooking water, then drain in a colander. Transfer the pasta to a large bowl.

Stir the reserved pasta water into the dressing. Pour half of this new mixture over the pasta and stir to coat. Stir in the carrots, pepper, feta, olives and parsley. Scatter the tomatoes on top.

To Store: Cover the salad tightly with plastic wrap and poke several holes in to vent. Refrigerate the salad and dressing separately for up to 2 days.

To Serve: Microwave the pasta on high power to remove the chill, 1-2 minutes. Shake the reserved dressing to recombine, then pour half over the salad, toss to combine. Add remaining dressing as needed to keep salad moist.

Ain't got no shallot (seems not to be a thing in Mexico? I have yet to see them, even in the big city grocery stores). Ain't got no kalamata olive, but I do have some green ones with pits, which will be a pain in the ass but oh well. Ain't got no feta, but queso blanco will work OK. Ain't got no fresh oregano, but I have dried, and fresh thyme. Ain't got no cherry tomatoes, but I oven-dried (actually grill-dried overnight after we turned the gas off-worked OK) some romas.

stuff that doesn't need heated

Jaq, you're in Seattle, right? Are you native to the NW? Just curious because this particular phrasing - which does not have a "to be" between "need" and "heated" - is something I'd never heard before I moved to WA but I see it all the time, like in Craigslist ads, for instance. I feel like I might have even asked you or someone on ILX about this before.

Sorry for the derail, food is good, cabbage slaw with lime/fish sauce/garlic/chile/peanuts/cilantro/mint is great, especially with grilled meats and such.

we were just talking about that at work. i had always heard it from people from western ny, but not eastern. and people from pennsylvania. it's all over.

Yeah I'm from central Indiana, only been in WA since 1999. I've gotten rid of "crick" for creek, but not all my lazy language ways.

I also say stuff like "I took myself to the movies" which drives some people in my family up a tree.

I think it's a Great Lakes trait iirc. The floor needs swept etc.

Weird, I lived most of my life in Michigan (and some in Arizona) and spent spent a lot of time in / know a bunch of people from MN / WI / IL and had never heard it until I got to WA where it seems pretty common. Carry on.

Yeah, I don't think I've heard a person say it aloud to this day. I only know it exists from ilx. Unless for linguistic purposes West Michigan is not "Great Lakes area."

Maybe it's confined to the lower great lakes area/rust belt?

Based on my family, the wellspring would either be Pulaski County KY or Scotch-Irish heritage.

The pork turned out great btw, just the right amount of heat from the chipotles. Today is catfood resupply and roasted beets and sweet potatoes for the week ahead.

This week on Breakfast Burrito Jawns with Stevie D:

1. TJ's chicken andouille sausage, broccoli, and red bell pep all cut into like 1/4-1/2ish inch dice and sautéed in butter w some garlic, cooked up nice w some roasty browned bits

2. Scramble two eggs in a bowl and add a handful of sausage mixture; dump in skillet and cook on both sides (basically an omelette)

3 Delicately plop onto a warm flour tortilla and top w shredded Mexican-blend cheese and double roasted salsa

Ugh I totally need to do a cat food re-up, but I forgot to pick up chicken thighs the last time I was in town. They're gonna be delighted to get trashy dry food for a few days.

This morning I boiled the noodles for lunch today--a cold sesame noodle recipe from that doyenne of Chinese food, Martha Stewart. Totally looking forward to it!

doyenne of Chinese food, Martha Stewart

you can tell by the dress that she clearly stole from an old Chinese woman

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/f6/fb/2389228348a0905886dee010.L.jpg

lol! God, the puffed sleeves I have worn in my life. . .

good for storing extra pigs in a blanket

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7386/8953858097_62e549e4c1_z.jpg

french lentils
pearled barley
roasted sweet potato and kabocha
spinach
red onion
grape tomatoes
micro greens
cucumber
homemade champagne vinaigrette

i had some summer fruit going soft from the heat in our fruit bowl (a handful of black cherries, two apricots and a nectarine), so last night I threw them in a salad with some spinach and a bit of balsamic & olive oil, it was a treat!

just1n3 that looks so beautiful!

The Cooks Illustrated pasta salad recipe came out better than the vast majority of pasta salads I have experienced, but I'm still not a huge fan of the genre.

It was more delicious than I expected - and I forgot to note there was a little avocado in there as well.

I'm having real difficulty finding the will to cook and we've been eating out/junk a lot lately, so I'm trying to figure out simple dishes that I can do most of the actual cooking for in one go on a sunday night, and are also super nutritious (bc I'm totally exhausted all of the time) AND are appetizing to me bc I'm so annoyingly fussy/picky.

I have a fancy new camera that I really want to get better at using, so expect to see more food pics from me

Overnight I made crockpot BBQ chicken thighs, shredded them in the morning and put them on crusty bread w scallions & radish matchsticks. GOOD.

omg i want that

here you go, with tj's cheez doodles and a beer for extra fun
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8396/8962155766_93919620d2.jpg

crockpot bbq chicken takes the effort of finding a bbq sauce you like and shopping for the chicken and having hands (or something like hands) to put all of this into the crockpot. that's it. that's all i do. the sauce does all the work. it's so easy you could put it in there before work (takes 30 sec at most) and it will be ready to eat when you get home. shred, top, profit.

tbh it almost tastes like mole!

ooh mr veg makes homemade bbq sauces for ribs, maybe I can use some of that and try it out

i have been wanting to use my crockpot again but kinda bored with my recipes, yayayayay

yessssss
perfect!
my only advice is to use enough sauce to cover the chicken and then if you don't want to waste more sauce throw in a little apple cider vinegar to make it tangy
i bet if i put lime on this it and stuck it on a tostada/in a tortilla it would taste even more like mole...

it's a wonderful secret -- tastes way more complex than it has any right to considering the complete lack of effort it takes to make

i think this will be sunday dinner yay

LL, what BBQ sauce(s) do you like for this?

there's a place nearby where we sometimes get ribs, and they sell their sauce there at the counter (it's a walk-in order from the counter type place)
i always get the hot kind because the mild is a little too tomatoey/ketchupy/sweet for me.

I could totally fuck w some flavor-packed no-fuss crock pot recipes right abt now. I think imma go pick up some chicken thighs and BBQ sauce later

just for reference, i put the crockpot on low and cooked it from 10pm-7am
i'm sure it would have been fine for a little less or a little more time

I made a pork tenderloin in the crockpot the other day (Worcestershire sauce, veg stock, garlic, oregano, s&p) and failing to find much in the way of a complimentary side dish, I served it in a bowl surrounded by a warmed can of baked beans. DELICIOUS. Upped that pork n beans game.

LL that chicken recipe looks BRILLIAAAANT. That's exactly the kind of thing I like! And you know if you make 2 or 3x your usual amount you can put the rest in the freezer indefinitely.

Chicken thighs & homemade bbq sauce in the crockpot for dinner tonight; hoagie rolls at the ready

Thanks for the inspiration LL!

So much potato salad!! I use the CI recipe but I tinker--no red onion, no sweet relish. Instead, I use home-grown chives and lots of minced cornichon. Only Russet potatoes, though. And a little extra vinegar.

I do like to top it with some chopped Spanish chorizo, I just don't have any right now.

that sounds good! I love vinegar potato salad

Spanish chorizo is the best, I just ate some of it with asparagus and runny fried eggs on top. And iced coffee.

Yaaay for BBQ chicken! I applaud the potato salad even if it's not sthg I'd normally eat. Would try!

I made a standard issue stir fry w rice noods last night, not really worth going into detail abt that.

It is very light on the mayo but there is some. Fair warning!

Ghee-making day means 6+ lbs of butter slowly caramelizing in the oven. 18 eggs hardboiling on the induction burner and beets queued up for roasting once the gheeis done.

jaq i've been taking notes and i've decided to start trying to do as much food prep on sundays as i can - it's so much better, i feel less rushed, and we eat a lot better.

today i'm roasting a few pounds of hothouse + grape tomatoes, making some croutons (if i can find your post about them from years ago), making roasted-tomato pesto, cooking a big batch of pasta, prepping some lettuce (i want to have literally nothing to do this week, meal-wise, except throw things on a plate), marinating in adobo sauce then frying some tempeh.

It's awesome, isn't it, to have enough stuff ready that a meal can be got together in a few minutes. I think the key is finding those things you like enough to eat a few times in a week, and figuring out how to cook them for storage while retaining versatility. Roasted beets and yams are mainstays for me now, where it used to be pasta. Stuff that can be tossed into a salad or a frittata, etc. Slow-braised proteins that can be sliced or made into stew/soup.

Trick for storing prepped lettuce - put a paper towel in the bag or bottom of the container and don't seal it all the way. You want humidity and a bit of airflow.

I do that too -- pre-prep really makes a difference. Cooking something totally different every night is kinda bonkers really!

Roast chicken in the oven, made a salad with quinoa, peas, tomatoes, coriander, and lemon juice/oil dressing. Sometimes a Sunday of staying in can be nice.