what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

I love generic italian salad. It's the type of thing I would love for people to just put in front of me. Oddly enough I don't think I have bought iceberg lettuce since college.

We're making hummus right now. Whipping up the tahini, lemon juice, garlic beforehand makes a big difference.

Speaking of pizza I just moved and new neighbor has a beautiful outdoor pizza oven in shared space and invited us to help ourselves to it. It's been over 100 degrees basically since I've been here so this is supercool. Roasted some salmon n yams/spuds in it last night. Gonna start making pizza in it soon.

picked up some mole base in LA last weekend so making mushroom/tempeh mole tacos. haven't done this in about a year so am excited. But that's tempered a little bit cuz i can't wait to make this, which looks like something i could enjoy daily while it continues to be 100 **cking degrees for the next couple months or whatever: https://mykoreankitchen.com/spicy-cold-kimchi-noodles/

That looks delicious. I should try to find some somen noodles and somen sauce.

I am going to try to make orecchiette from scratch tonight. I was going to make it two nights ago and then realized the dough I made wasn't right for it (supposed to just use semolina and water for it, who knew?!)

i want to play w/ pasta making but a few things i owned didn't make my recent move - one of those being my pasta roller. i have a torn rotator cuff so ain't abt to roll out noodles by hand. anyways, that recipe i posted up a ways from allrecipes was sublime semolina dough recipe if you're needing one

there are lots of shapes that don’t require major-league rolling, orecchiette definitely being one.

see, if i had the roller i could manage the rolling part with one hand. i cld deal with that.
but i'm talking kinda serious shoulder damage though (like lifting 5 pounds w/ right arm will cause pain so bad that it's hard to sleep). not sure if it's from 30 years of playing hockey and working in kitchens and all the stress that both of those entail, but when i had left shoulder operated on a few years back (been perfect ever since) the surgeon called what i had going on in my rotator cuff "crab meat" cuz that's what it looked like. not good. i'm afraid i now have similar issue on the other side so have to be mostly one-armed for awhile and hope it clears up at least somewhat.

I am debating whether to get a roller or not (or just getting a 20+inch rolling pin/dowel) because I thought I could get frustration out with rolling pasta, but that has not been the case. It is a lot of work when the dough isn't near perfect. I was getting pissed the other night when my dough kept shrinking back when rolling it out. I let it rest for a couple of hours so I am not sure what the deal was.

hmm, one thing that may or may not help is to not go back and forth over the dough. if possible just roll out in one direction to help avoid working gluten (that's how i approach pie dough and things like that). semolina is surprisingly high-gluten. imo that's why the roller machines completly rule - one just needs to bring the dough together, let it rest 1/2 hour, the machine kneads as it rolls. winnerwinner

Yeah, I have been doing different proportions of eggs, water, semolina to AP flour. I need to get some oo flour next time. One thing I just figured out is to not to rely on measuring anymore. I am really good with dumpling dough so I should just go by feel, like I normally do. The Pasta Grannies really made me realize different pasta shapes do better with different types of dough.

But it was probably overworked. All the videos have people kneading a lot longer than I would normally do it.

Orecchiette turned out really well even if slightly too thick. My hands hurt a little from being clumsy about the rolling out of the shape. It took a while to figure out where to position the board, myself, the back of the knife and no flour on the board so I could get the drag. Going away for while in 2 days and using up groceries so did a kale, carmelized onion, garlic, lemon zest, weird leftover tomatoes, banana pepper thingey for it.

the first time i did it they were a little too thick as well. getting each piece to that perfect point where the center is thin but doesn't break is the hard part.

FFS, I finally got motivated to make one of my favourite dishes last night (first time since I had my baby) and made enough for two nights but today I got a cold and can't taste any of it

kept coming across recipes that call for liquid smoke so picked some up the other day. made tempeh bacon that was pretty tasty on a baconlettuceavocadotempheh sando. and just prepped "tomato lox" which has kelp powder for "oceanic" qualities, smoke, soy sauce, and that's about it. gonna make some pasta with cashew cream sauce and lay some "tomato lox" slices on top and see if it puts me in the mind of salmon in cream sauce. i love salmon but hate to support the farmed salmon industry and the good stuff is a little beyond my student budget these days i reckon.

I love this recipe for tempeh bacon:
http://www.yourveganmom.com/your_vegan_mom/2008/08/the-b.html

tomato lox sounds pretty good! where'd you find the recipe??

i just stumbled upon it randomly here: https://www.carrotsandflowers.com/vegan-ny-bagels-tomato-lox-recipe/
it was the second vegan lox recipe i looked at, the first one involved roasting carrots then shaving thin slices, but i opted going with the former.

xpost: i'll try that one next time, ty. looks like it might be better than the one i used. do you bother steaming the tempeh ahead of time when you make it, just1n3?

I always have in the past but I don’t know how much it matters with such a heavy marinade?

I’m really sensitive to bitterness though, so I probably wouldn’t risk not steaming it

tha tomato lox was deece, not sure if i'll make that again though

Culurgiones look freakin' sweet! def. gonna (try and) make these tomorrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGcUI4CS0E

Yeah, I am going to make these ^^^ at some point when I am back home in my kitchen.

pasta grannies!!

Neglected the quince tree in a bumper crop year and a few have been subject to windfall. Rough headcount gives around 150 of decent size still on the tree. Started picking the ones that come off easily enough. What to do with it though? Beyond quince jelly I'm not really sure. Any suggestions without too much effort?

nice quince and honey pie? http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/9527/quince-pie.aspx

Funny timing afaic. Don't think I've ever worked w quincies and was just thinking about making a soup w a ingredient I've only used a couple times - sunchokes. Thinkin of making soup tomorrow.
Today gonna try lentil "meatballs".

Sorry I am zero help!

Yeah maybe poached. Akin to poached pears?

yeah there's a good poached recipe w/cardamom here, along with other ideas:

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredient/quince

i am making my third cherry pie (ever, not today)
they are not that hard and the payoff is an entire delicious pie, well worth the effort imo

the crust is giving me ideas about savory winter pies and i am liking what comes to mind. the possibilities are endless.

no fancy lattice stuff, just two simple pie crusts on top and bottom

how hard actually is pie, i've never made one because it seems like a black art to me

speaking as a former pastry chef, basic pie is easy. the minute details of "perfect crust" is a rabbit hole that lasts a lifetime. don't let that stop you!

thanks for the encouragement! i had a friend in college who would be like "you look a little down, let me make you a pie" and honestly it was like knowing a good witch, she would just conjure one of those babies up and everything would be better

also savory hand pies are in my top five favorite foods, so i feel like i should learn how to make them

as to what i have cooked lately (since everyone cares): cacio e pepe last night for the first time, scandalously easy

hankerin for mapo tofu, but i'm out of fermented black beans and santa fe doesn't have an asian grocery as far as i can tell

after I read the extensive cacio e pepe discussion upthread I tried a recipe out of Milk Street, it seemed off somehow, too much water? the variation in recipes is staggering.

yeah if you let go of ideals of perfection it’s p dope

there’s definitely a lot of variables in pastry making that make it seem like a hellscape when you are reading about it but as long as you keep your fats chilled & dont let yr dough get too warm when you work it, it’s all good

and it’s kinda fun, i love rolling dough

and srsly if you like cacio e pepe then pastry making is a relaxing step down from that lol

i’ve used the one i copied into the thread multiple times since; it’s never let me down.

does the milk st. recipe have butter or oil?

i used something between kenji's recipe on SE, and uh basically every other recipe i found? except w/o butter because i didn't have any on hand (parm is usually the only dairy product in the house)

wasn't perfect (though i've never actually had it before), but i think in my case it was because i actually didn't have enough water

xxp

also i somehow missed the extensive cacio e pepe discussion???

maybe it was on previous thread?

to CAD: no, just water, cornstarch, pecorino Romano, pasta, salt, pepper

VG reminds me I do have basic advice for pie crust - everything as cold as possible. I used to chill the flour in the walkin fridge, in a metal bowl. pour your water directly off of ice for maximum coldness, frozen butter, everything as cold as possible.

wait re CeP -- no fat at all (aside from the cheese)???

also cooking homies i do not want to brag (i do) but i am currently living in an apt that is outfitted with a commercial kitchen for some reason and having lived with electric stovetops for oh about ten years i am pretty pumped

for the record I was deeply suspicious of the Milk St recipe but wanted to give it a try, I was underwhelmed

lol that bit about electric stovetops reminds me of one of my favorite food snob quotes, seen in some kitchen porn magazine around 17 years ago - "If you have to cook with electric, you might as well just go out to eat"

although I don't agree 100%, I've always found the quote amusing

i am using my friend's mom's very basic recipe but 1) it's vegan so my vegan friends will eat it 2) it's easy -- I made my first one with her two daughters, aged 4 and 6 and we rolled the dough with a Kahlua bottle and 3) the ingredients are shelf-stable and that means i can make one ANYTIME and 4) having the ability to make decent pie crust without complicating it totally makes me feel like a witch/wizard. i can post the recipe but i am sure you will find one.

i asked my friend to have me over to teach me because that works best for me and is also fun; then even though i was distracted by having fun, i wrote the recipe (and have added notes) in my purse notebook. whatever works, yknow.

wait re CeP -- no fat at all (aside from the cheese)???

― gbx, Saturday, September 29, 2018 12:10 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah! the versions with extra fat all just end up tasting like that fat to me.

Electric stoves are awesome if the alternative is a flat glass top one. I’ve used three of these - last place I rented before buying a house, my parent’s house, my mother in law’s - and they’re always awful

huh, I would have thought those were better!

They’re easy to clean but that is literally the only good thing. There’s always some sort of thermostat or safety thing that keeps the burner from overheating so they cycle on and off instead of being consistent. I often have to trick it by only covering half the burner surface

Our induction top is flat glass and it’s fabulous