what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

made the popular NYT red lentil soup 2 days ago and it was perfect for the cooler, breezy afternoon yesterday. this one looks good to maybe try next. also pre-ordered that Soup Bible book somebody recommended in other thread. been making/freezing lots of stock. bring on the soup!

tomato jam seems to be very popular rn. a very fancy (overpriced) bakery is selling biscuit, egg, cheese, and tomato jam sandwiches for $8, which is insane. But I've been making my own tomato jam and putting it on nearly every sandwich I eat. Really gives them a "this is a fancy and expensive sandwich" feel.

Tomato jam a staple at my regular, too. Surprised by how sweet it is!

haven't baked any cookies in a few years iirc. saw this neat looking recipe where the pans get shaken while baking to create textural dynamics. they're in the oven now and are gonna rule. subbed guajillo chile mexican chocolate and reduced the amount of sugar in the batter by a fair bit to balance

that's cool!

I was a pastry chef for years so I burned out on a lot of that, but I still make cookies. Mostly chocolate chip, sometimes oatmeal raisin or holiday varieties when appropriate. I prefer the melted butter version, wife prefers whipped, we split the difference.

how often do you shake them?

i've been making chocolate chip cookies lately w/ dorie greenspan recipe and they are the bomb dot com. haven't tried a cookie with melted butter yet.

I'm tired of tomato jam already

I'm turning into a flatbread pizza badass these days, so many good ready-made crusts available

i ended up shaking them a couple times after first putting them in for ten minutes. they don't look like the pic, but i bet they're deece. they look nice!
https://scontent-dft4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/22289782_10214411195535333_7459497610865515378_o.jpg?oh=87796497b4e7e28bdcd8fbfc7e4e7a33&oe=5A430827

don't think i've ever done cookies w melted butter but my fave brownie recipe uses that. mmmm oatmeal is the deal! xxpost

mmm y'all choc chip cookies w/melted butter are the best, more caramelized and chewy, flatter and kinda translucent

melt 1 stick butter
whisk with 1/2C white and 1/2C brown sugar
add 1 tsp vanilla, 1 egg
sift 1C plus 2T AP flour with 1 tsp soda and 1/2 tsp salt
add at least 1/2C chips, or more to taste

bake 10-12 mins at 350

I usually put the dough in the fridge for a few minutes to set up, the heat of the butter can make the batter a bit loose right out of the bowl

gonna try these imo

help i impulse-bought some spanish (cured) chorizo what shd i do w it?

soup!

Fry up with taters!

Cook up with mussels or clams!

Something like this, super good, really easy:

potato and chorizo stew

I also love it with fried eggs, and it’s been a long time but I used to frequently make sort of a chickpea and chorizo in saffron broth almost-soup with sautéed cod and garlic and smoked paprika butter plopped on top to melt at the end.

oh that sounds delicious

ignore the spanish and put it in paella. it's v good in red lentil soups though

this is cooking at château d'harbl tomorrow http://www.italianfoodforever.com/2013/03/slow-cooker-rabbit-ragu-for-pasta/

chez harbl must smell amazing today!

i had bad experiences with rabbit as a kid but i wish u all the best harb

WELL the rabbit guy didn't bring rabbits to the farmers' market because it was raining. not sure what that has to do with rabbits except maybe just expecting fewer customers. he was sorry. i made it with half ground beef half sausage instead. it does smell good.

I fired up the slow cooker and did a sort of beef bourgignon which was surprisingly good. Past few Sundays I've been making myself cook double so I don't need to cook on Mondays and it's been a brilliant idea.

I am midway through a slow cooker bouillabaisse with turkey thighs and tons of Pernod.

I made a seafood risotto with swordfish and it was my best yet

I finally learned how to fry the perfect egg and feel it is one of my life’s greatest achievements. No more undercooked white or semi cooked yolk!

game changer!

what are your tips xp

yes please share i love a good fried egg

I use a little non stick pan, high heat, crack the eggs into a bowl first rather than straight into the pan, and then after adding the eggs the trick is adding a little water and then covering - I’d read that using lots of oil and spooning the hot oil over the whites was the way to get the whites cooked first but it was a pain and didn’t work that well, but THEN I read that adding a bit of water steams the whites. It’s super fast too - takes about a minute.

I’ve been doing it this way for a week and getting totally perfect eggs every time.

I only use water, no oil, in case that wasn’t clear

I also do it that way, but with melted butter first. I'm not sure it is a very "pro" way of cooking eggs. I like that it doesn't make any hard bits, and no flip is very low stress.

I like to pile two fried eggs onto a piece of grainy toast slathered in good butter, so I prefer to avoid butter or oil in the cooking

Earlier this week I made a coconut-milk-based curry with shrimp and winter squash, garnished with lime and cilantro, served over brown basmati rice, that I just ate again as a leftover tonight. It earned my seal of approval both times.

the cream from a can of coconut milk is a wonderful thing

recipe on deck for tomorrow
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013946-home-made-mushroom-lasagna?em_pos=large&emc=edit_ck_20171103&nl=cooking&nlid=73417899

that was a tasty lasagna but seriously almost too cheezy. maybe that was my fault.
just made nutella from scratch. made it once before but it seized after a few days. gonna be more careful abt letting moisture near this this time.

tomorrow I am making red beans & rice :D

nice. i made a vegetarian version before that i loved.
went and got lemongrass, galangal and kafir leaves yesterday, so just made a tom kha broth. getting excited for soup

nice sunday cooking day - my fishmonger had some very large oysters for a pound each, so i got a few. had never shucked an oyster before but it all was quite easy contrary to the impression i had. grilled them with a butter made from parsley/garlic/lemon zest then served them with a slice of lemon and tabasco.

prior to that i put on a braise of short rib, onion, garlic, star anise, juniper berries, bay leaves, stock, and india pale ale - had some mashed potatoes with chives on the side.

i have now cleaned the kitchen :)

stealing that braised short rib concept, thanks!

it was v good - i kind of mashed together the bits that sounded good in a few diff recipes. i had it bubbling very low for about 3 hours, oh and i also used some pancetta i had, and thyme too.

brb adding star anise and juniper berries to today's shopping list

would pink peppercorns sub for juniper berries? that combo sounds DELICIOUS

hehe - i've been using the berries in loads of stuff since buying them for some recipe or other. they're p versatile.

star anise makes every braise better ime.

the red braised pork on this page uses it really well: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/17/china-best-kept-food-secret-fuchsia-dunlop-jiangnan-recipes-sea-bass-prawns

xpost not sure - in the uk at least juniper berries are more common than i would have thought, they seem to be in most supermarkets.

for the braise i riffed off this recipe and another one i had in a book plus whatever i had in my cupboard: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-braised-short-ribs-105868

thought the beer was nicer than a red wine braise which i've done a few times before - can be kinda heavy

red beans and rice turned out fantastic.
Mine was slightly bastardized from the traditional version.
I used the hambone leftover from our thanksgiving ham instead of a smoked hock
and for smoked sausage i used polish sausage instead of andouille or something more traditional because I can't handle a lot of heat in my spicy food lately.
but goddamn.
here's the recipe I used https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-red-beans-rice-recipes-from-the-kitchn-183859

love stuff like this where it's so simple and so flavorful

used an updated 19th century-vintage scottish shortbread recipe tonight & holy balls it was good

candied peel & almonds mixed in & caraway seeds on top

will need to tweak my technique & cook time a bit bc it was too crumbly but the flavor & texture was bang on - pretty much my platonic ideal of perfect shortbread