what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

question:

i am making red beans and rice - recipe calls for smoked ham hock.
all I could find at the store is smoked *PORK* hock, so, not cured.

should I cook the pork hock in the oven first before making the the red beans and rice, or is it ok to use it as is?

i don't know the answer to the question and i'm far from a pork expert so my question for you is why do you think you should cook it first? i'm learning

well, idk exactly except that if it was a ham hock, it would already be cured and essentially kinda 'cooked' already? but if I cook the pork hock all the good stuff would cook out of it and i think I want that in the beans.
so.
i guess I'm not 100% sure if the uncooked pork hock would affect the end result.

given the simmer time for a trad red beans recipe i'd just throw the smoked hock in there. i see no reason to pre-cook it as it's going to cook through in an hour+

made the unparalleled Cook's Illustrated Chicken Stew yesterday for the first time this season (their goal was to make a stew that was as rich and meaty as beef stew and they nailed it). It has so many glutamates (bacon, anchovy paste, soy sauce) and basically tastes like fond stew. It is, in full CI fashion, quite fussy, but when it tastes this good you don't mind it.

http://gourmay.net/recipes/chicken-stew-cooks-illustrated/

making gigantic-ass grilled cheese w/ roasted yams, kale massaged with reduced balsamic, grated guyere and fontina (daiya for vegan niece) on tj's pain pauline. i'm excited. did this once before and it was killer. salad of chopped (raw) bok choy and thinly sliced red cabbage w/ a tahini dressing to go with (not cuz it needs more salad but i need to use up some bok choy)

sounds great! Doing fennnel/lemon sole in parchment tonight. With some tiny potatoes dressed in creme fraiche, horseradish, chives.

did the martha stewart mac & cheese recipe tonight for some friends, it's basic but so perfect

always ready to try another mac & cheese recipe

barefoot contessa vegetable lasagna also basic but perfect. Especially if you just make the marinara instead of buying $15 marinara.

go nuts https://www.marthastewart.com/957243/macaroni-and-cheese

been trying to cook a bit more lately. My most recent was pan-seared salmon topped with kalamata olive butter, and braised leaks on the side.

Tonight I made chicken breasts with a cumin/paprika/turmeric rub and lime juice. Involved such exciting elenents as deboning the chicken and transferring a large ultra hot cast iron skillet back and forth between oven and stove.

sounds great, though deboning feels unnecessary. Had a veggie tajine out to dinner tonight and now know what to make next.

Needed to be deboned to sit flat in the pan, but next time I'll probably just start with boneless breasts. I don't know that having the skin really added much.

St. Pat's supper last night was a simple one: ham (& mustard), colcannon, steamed chard, steamed carrots, Guiness. Nice, though.

i did corned beef in the slowcooker & it turned out the best it’s been in recent memory. i programmed it to cook to a set internal temperature and it totally worked.
i also made a really nice soda bread & we had all that with just kale & veg.

Just made a Dutch baby

oooh how’d it turn out?

Good! Sometimes Joy of Cooking is unimpeachable

Scarpetta spaghetti tonight. This is our go to pasta dinner. Always great, better when we can find fresh bucatini. We also add in all the chili flakes and crisp basil and garlic that is used to infuse the oil whereas in the recipes and videos he only uses the oil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7BeGj38J4k

adding infused oil to the tomato sauce seems delicious. I am still skeptical, though, so I am compelled to make it myself. do you peel and seed fresh tomatoes when you make it or use canned? I've always used canned whole peeled san marzanos for red sauce.

I like sauce better with fresh tomatoes but I definitely used canned when tomatoes are out of season.

do you use plum tomatoes? or san marzanos? I guess I'm hoping someone will confirm that TJ's canned plum tomatoes are good so I can save $5 every time I make red sauce.

I use both. They're not that different but I'll splurge for real D.O.P. brands if it's a straight-up tomato sauce, just to set my little mind at ease. But for a lazy weekday night throw-together I'll use store-brand.

As for fresh, I think the best option in California is usually romas.

Same^^^ If I can get nice tomatoes I will use that. But canned tomatoes works in a pinch (especially, since I am lazy and I always keep can tomatoes around, I am pretty sure I have used some of TJ's tomatoes in a can before). This video may be better to show how to make it. Around the 14 minutes mark is where they show it. I had it in the restaurant before. And it was amazing. But it's more amazing to not pay $20+ dollars or however much the entree was (I can't remember). And we've changed the dish around a little like I said because I love bits of fried, chewy garlic and it more spicy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3iU9gpIpwE

ok, thanks. might be fun to do a canned DOP, canned store brand plum, and fresh roma taste test. suppose it will have to wait until summer.

I'm currently excited that I've found a local supplier of Gobo (burdock root). Kinpira cooked and I am eye some tasty gobo and beef tendon recipes.

Last night made Greek style roasted chicken with cucumber yogurt sauce.

sounds delish - recipe?
I made puff pastry tarts with leeks, bacon, goat's cheese - really easy and yum

Poke last night. Super easy. I feel "on trend" but if you tell anyone in Hawaii how it's taken over the mainland they are kind of astonished.

I hope you made 5 outrageous island sauces that you kept in squeeze bottles

No, we just make regular poke. I put some spicy garlic sauce in mine though.

sounds like the only sauce one needs

Pretty much. Even when we would get it from the grocery store the regular poke is always the best. The spicy poke sometimes has too much mayo.

We do put avocado in ours though, which isn't entirely common in Hawaii.

it is strange how "spicy" = "some mayo" only in the context of raw fish

Yeah, I am not into it. The sushi where I am right now often has too much cream cheese or mayo because it's Nikkei style (Japanese-Peruvian).

re:avocado, it is best to be authentic to the idea that avocado is good in poke imo

there must be at least 5 poke places opening here this summer, it’s p crazy

I think they are just opening everywhere since it's easy and you don't need a kitchen. We make it every time we see tuna on sale. In Hawaii I think most places sell it $8-14ish/lb depending on whether it was fresh or flash frozen fish or if it had a fancy salt/shoyu.

i made a rotini pasta + tomato and meat sauce. pancetta, italian sausage. onion, red bell pepper, garlic, butter, san marzanos, dried basil, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, shredded cheese blend. fun to make something so good from really basic "dollar store" type groceries.

man that sounds good

we got a subscription to Milk Street magazine and have been making a lot of stuff from it, tonight it was a cool egg/bread/chorizo/kale scramble. I'd prefer to eat less meat but when you cook for an 86 year old Italian dude yr options are limited

Carbonara with broccoli rabe.

making a vegan banana cream pie w a oreo crust. have never done this before but so far all signs point to success. just made the custard to make sure the recipe works. took abt 5 minutes to make. it's got silken tofu, coconut milk, and soy, vanilla, sugar & cornstarch. gonna finish putting pie together tomorrow and make coconut whipped cream for topping for vegan friend coming to town

yum

amasake also works really well for vegan custards

Chicken w Thai green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, bell peps, snow peas.

This time I let the packaged curry paste be the star and didn't add 100 bits of extra grated ginger, lemongrass, etc etc. I did take out the fat layer from the coconut cream and then reduce it until it separated and then coated the chicken in that oil before adding back the more liquidy coconut milk and other flavors.

It's pretty good tbh. I might pick up some palm sugar for this kind of thing just to have that more complex flavor.

This is my paste brand: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71cLxSxh6bL._SY450_.jpg

Mmmm that looks really good. I love green curry. I kind of feel like I have incompatibility issues with coconut milk/cream though and it's not something I want to test out a lot.

I have/was having those too and it's really sad but one thing I hope will help is buying a brand that doesn't use chemical stabilizers like guar gum and soy lecithin. Weirdly cheapo Goya doesn't use them and all the other, pricier ones do (that I've found).

Oh, I am going to start looking at the labels for them. Next, can you figure out what ingredient in most lipsticks/lip balm I am allergic to?