what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

for a while i was getting some brand of beans at whole foods that came in a pouch instead of a can. i have no idea if that would help at all.

i cyber monday'd a 2.5 mm copper pot bc dave chang told me to. must now decide what to cook in this ferrari of pots.

I made salmon tikka masala last night from a madhur jaffrey recipe for chicken t.m. But I didn't have tomatoes and was too lazy (one step too far) to deal with the can of crushed tomatoes so I just used a pouch of marinara. It actually turned out fine! It was on the verge of being too spicy because I only have hot paprika (in addition to the hot chili powder that was added) so instead of folding in all the salmon we spooned the sauce on top. I feel like it could've been folded in, but now I have sauce leftover to put in some chickpeas I guess.

xpost which copper pot is it? I am finding myself wanting one of the staub enamels that is on sale. I have a lodge 6qt but i did something bad to it because it's really scratched and worn out on the bottom despite it not being that old (I still will keep using it).

now i'm imagining someone injecting sauce into chickpeas via syringe. Sounds good!

xp it is a mauviel 250c. I haven't done anything too interesting with it yet. Happy to have an uncoated pot that isn't flimsy ikea ware, though.

I made this panko-breaded pickle chicken recipe with the leftover brine from my homemade pickles and now I think I ate too much

threw it right in the toaster oven too, didn’t even have to use the stove

sometimes my favorite cooking is when i pretend i operate a very unfashionable french restaurant in some small provincial town. braised chicken thighs in pineau des charentes and finished with a mushroom cream sauce of all things. boiled potatoes and simple salad to accompany.

that sounds perfect. i made the ina garten spaghetti and meatballs recipe for the second time. it was recommended by seriouseats and it is perfect. she says .5 lb pork .5 lb veal, 1 lb beef, but it's harder to buy halves of those things and their fat content *looks* the same so i have done a pound veal both times. also lol she says use "good" wine but i think box wine is good so

I'm batchloretting it for a few nights and tonight I just roasted a delicata squash until skin was browned, tossed it with some tahini + lemon + salt, and ate it straight from the mixing bowl. Pretty perfect dinner for one.

xp i guess the move there is to make a double batch of meatballs and freeze some, but yeah i've never noticed a huge difference messing with ratios of ground meats as long as your fat content stays similar.

i'll give the tip to the mushroom cream sauce since it was really good and very easy (this from a paula wolfert book)--soak a handful of dried porcini mushrooms in a cup of warm water. then sautee a bunch of quartered crimini mushrooms + the dried mushrooms in butter, add the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms and reduce to a syrupy texture, finally add some cream and reduce again. the soaking liquid gives the sauce a super mushroomy essence.

xpost I love toaster ovens so much; I had never used one until way into adulthood. I stopped using the regular oven for maybe 7 years once because I would just cook everything in the toaster oven. Eric Ripert has a webseries about making shit in the toaster oven.

i also love my toaster oven
it's one kitchen thing i couldn't live without and would outfit any place in which i had to feed myself with one

if possible

Been using an air fryer constantly since buying it. Saves me the couple of hours of chopping veg I used to do for the story fries I was making before getting it. But think I need to rethink my diet.
Mainly been root vegetables since they seem to work well in it.

Pilfering the delicata/tahini idea for tonight. Thx!
xpost to quincie

We used to use our toaster oven constantly, but I think a big part of that was having a trash oven. In our new place we have this nice convection oven that heats up quickly and way more consistently, so we haven't replaced the old toaster oven. Roasted vegetables are more uniformly cooked, bread is springier, it's a beautiful world.

i was watching an air fryer infomercial at the gym last week. i was tempted, but i can't take anymore large kitchen items!

i resolve to cook more from cookbooks in 2020. because i have a lot of them. i got a persian cookbook for xmas and went to a middle eastern grocery today. i am missing one thing called golpar/angelica. i asked the guy at the store and he said he would buy it so now i guess i have to go back there. my brother got me ottolenghi simple. i don't have any ottolenghis. it looks great. everything has less than 10 ingredients and it gives you a list of what you will need a lot of at the front of the book.

i love those stores, anyway, i got a huge quantity of dried dill and dried mint for like no dollars

i haven’t really figured out what an air frier can do that a screaming hot oven and a sheet pan can’t.

I always figure air fryers are for those living a potato/food stick type of life.

xp reheat fried stuff so it's nice and crispy again? I have only experienced an air fryer once, in Holland, heating up leftover fried calamari

i don't even know what it does either, tbh. lol @ potato/food stick

I have been considering an air fryer but also can’t think what I’d use it for that I don’t already do with the oven.

I've just about talked myself into making Mushroom Wellington for a NYE potluck, will report back if it turns out good.

ysi plz and thank u

made some "turkish hummus" that uses a roasted garlic and butter sauce instead of tahina sauce. you eat it warm. it is good but feels like mashed pochickpeas. Made a savory dutch baby this morning, and i think i will need to fight making one every morning for the rest of my life. this is the curse of the savory dutch baby.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/polenta-and-sausage-stuffing-233030

This toasted polenta cube and sausage stuffing was the crowd favorite at Thanksgiving, for two different dinners. I added lots of fresh sage and a diced apple into the mix and used store-ready polenta instead of making it from scratch. Made it again at Xmas for family, doubled the qty, should have adjusted the cooking time but didn't so the deeper casserole didn't quite bake through, but...lessons learned.

It's gluten-free and delicious.

Made shrimp & grits for New Year’s day and it was way easier than I expected. So full of shrimp and grits 😀

My tip is to make the grits in a rice cooker

For lunch today I made fresh saimin noodles (bought) with a cold pourover yellow miso and broccoli, enoki mushrooms, ginger, scallion and fried tofu topping.

i am looking at this turkish hummus, but I kind of feel like it wouldn't feel light enough? Would you make it again xpost?

I need to try this Turkish hummus, I have developed a raw sesame allergy and a I miss hummus. (Although I think what I really miss is Tahina and hummus is merely a carrier substance)

I will make it again because it's cheaper and very good. My 1 year old also loved it. But your feeling is correct. it's very rich. You can't really go nuts on it without feeling a bit gross. It'd be a great thing to put on the table and split among 6 people or bring to a party. You won't want to make a meal of it, though.

Is your sesame allergy a gastro issue? Spouse has some kind of food allergy and I have been suspicious of sesame.

It feels more like a rich cheese dip when you're eating it. Which is a great but different kind of hummus experience. Ed, I think it's a pretty great workaround for a sesame allergy. I wonder if you can dial back the buttter and add something bitter to make it feel more like hummus tehina.

maybe some natural peanut butter?

yeah, or sunflower? Something like that should work. Might take some iteration.

It’s not gastro I get itchy ears and sometimes mine breathing constricts a little. I set myself off recently by absent mindely tasting some amazing palm oil free halva in the local Greek deli. It seems to be getting worse. Cooked sesame seems to be no issue at all. I can happily slather sesame oil on things all day long which is a relief given how much frying in sesames oil happens in japan.

I’ve managed to replace sesame in Some Japanese dishes by roasting and grinding walnuts, it makes a good ersatz goma’ae sauce. I should try pine nuts as well.

I had a quick look at Turkish hummus recipes and some seems to be made with butter and some with yoghurt. I should try both ways and report back.

Interestingly sesame is the second item on the Japanese equivalent of the food pyramid 「まごわやさしい」

https://images.app.goo.gl/HvqSZ5uZGZ6HbYEt7

The full thing being

Beans
Sesame
Seaweed
Vegetables
Fish
Mushrooms
(Sweet) Potatoes

We ate in a restaurant named that in Tokyo last week that produces a delightful and inexpensive meal hitting all of those points. The sesame was main represented by some toasted sesame seed and a piece of sesame tofu* in some soup and I was fine.

*sesame tofu is not really tofu it’s a jelly made with kudzu and sesame paste.

wait, kudzu?!?!

Yes, that kudzu. It’s a type of arrowroot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu_powder

I also made shrimp and grits today

Mushroom Wellington turned out well -- I wasn't worried about the filling, just hadn't used frozen puff pastry before. It was a big hit at the party. I thought the pastry sheets would be bigger, so I wound up making two with the filling I had.

My mother-in-law's fiance is a hunter and gave me a 2-3 pound frozen elk roast from an elk he shot in Montana. Any suggestions? NB: Elk is even more lean than venison.

He also gave me some backstrap (a kind of loin), which I cooked sous vide and served with a sour cherry mostarda. I might do the same with the roast.

Since it is frozen you could try a shaved meat stew

https://globalgastros.com/nordic/shaved-meat-stew-recipe

Or something with mushrooms and lingonberries

My mother-in-law's fiance is a hunter and gave me a 2-3 pound frozen elk roast from an elk he shot in Montana. Any suggestions? NB: Elk is even more lean than venison.

He also gave me some backstrap (a kind of loin), which I cooked sous vide and served with a sour cherry mostarda. I might do the same with the roast.

totally agree. cook sous vide to a nice medium rare and make a rich sauce to accompany.

Thanks for the sous vide confirmation.

Rare treat tonight in that my wife is doing the cooking: galumpkis made with ground elk and moose. Her family is Polish, so it's in her blood.