what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

i made this saag paneer, but with feta recipe the other night and it was decent

that chana recipe looks solid. I am trying this one tonight. it interests me because I've found that cumin flavor dominates most of the chana masala recipes I've made. and this one has none!? cucumber raita is a great idea. doing that.

I think maybe if I can't have yogurt or cream or chickpeas or lentils, I should stop trying to make Indian food.

Coconut cream might do you well?
I've been trying to organise a large party with an Indian restaurant catering. They've said if we want any dairy-free options it has to be vegetarian/vegan. Not sure why? Other places haven't said this (but I also wonder how diligent they are...)
Really craving some aloo ghobi right now

Oh! Also wanted to add that if you roast cumin in your kitchen it will 100% for sure smell like armpits for almost a week. I had to boil cinnamon/cloves/cardamom/citrus to make it less oppressive. Hot ripe armpits. On the upside I have a lot of roasted cumin leftover.

cumin smells are the least of my worries in my small apartment (i own a cat, who i got when i lived in a much bigger, better ventilated apartment)

I have been pretty happy with all the indian food I have made and kind of have resigned myself that it will never be as good as restaurants because I always skimp on the ghee/butter. I too also add in extra spices (like amchoor) because I can't help myself but it probably messes up the final product a bit. I was also thinking of making my own "house blend" curry powder for ease of cooking but still haven't devoted time to it.

I usually double most of the spices in any Indian recipe I make (aside from the salt)

and oh man, I had these fried DUMPLINGS! yesterday that had a miso/butter/yuzu sauce that was amazing. And I need to figure out how to recreate it. It had thinly sliced hot peppers in it too.

that sounds delicious

my friend started just eating the sauce with a spoon. It was so delicious.

i want my homemade indian food to have all the flavor but not the intense saltiness or greasyness of restaurant food. so far so good. i'm pretty confident in my ability to season things and enjoy making the flavors the way i want them. the chicken saag could have used a little more salt. it is fun to get back into the swing of things in this regard -- i have lots of skills that were sort of sitting there dormant. it's nice to use them again.

two big things that have also helped -- 1) i bought a gigantic bag of basmati rice that is genuinely better than the other basmati rice i was buying and 2) i made and froze 1/4 cup portions of an onion/tomato/aromatics/spice pureed mixture to use however i please. i might use them to make some berbere- spiced red lentil soup too because that sounds good right about now. i think i just want warm spicy food. it's winter!!

also don't get me wrong, i am not low sodium or skimpy with the salt, i just don't want to have to guzzle water while eating because of saltiness.

i love making indian food at home. once you’ve built up your spice cabinet it’s a breeze.

cuminless chana masala is the one we've been looking for. turned out very well, and ate it with black cumin pilaf to compensate. I also used canned tomato puree instead of fresh, which helped with some light sweetness. unfortunately working late prevented picking up raita supplies. will be prepared next time.

i make this a lot & it turns out so good and is v versatile- and it makes a ton of sauce so you can add different meat to it to change up the leftovers even


https://www.theflavorbender.com/sri-lankan-chicken-curry/

Looks similar to the south indian curries in the book i have that organizes by region. Curry leaves and peppercorns. Want to try to compare.

made the momofuku cabbage kimchi to try with some ssam recipes and kimchi pancakes. the korean grocer was closed on sunday, so I had to buy a bottle of cincalok instead of saeujeot. of course it sprayed fermented krill all over myself and one corner of the kitchen. I cleaned thoroughly, and this happened late at night while I was the only one awake. Still, I'm waiting for someone to find missed fermented seafunk in a strange place today.

I went through the usual phases of new seafunk acceptance. I was a bit repulsed after it sprayed all over my bare arms. immersed in it for 10 minutes, I was certain I shouldn't be playing these dangerous seafunk games. should have stuck to my simple bottle of squid, etc. I mixed a heaping teaspoon into the chili dressing and cleaned up. Tasted the dressing afterward for sugar level and liked it. Woke up this morning to add the cabbage and was loving it. there's also 20 cloves of garlic in it, though, and we used to change clothes after visiting my grandparents house because the garlic scent was so powerful throughout their home.

since we were talking about dorie greenspan on the chocolate chip cookies thread i got everyday dorie out of the library. i've made 3 of the recipes so far. last night i made the stuffed cabbage which was excellent. it took many hours though! but now i have like 15 more cabbages to eat throughout the week.

been eating lots of the kimchi. it is mostly good. made kimchi pancakes that were a little too intense. mostly enjoy using the pureed stuff like it's a sauce, and mixing it into smashed avocado for toast. going to do the brussels sprouts recipe and braise some chicken with it to complete this kimchi run.

i had some kimchi bacon cheddar scones recently and I was disappointed. I wanted a lot more kimchi taste.

I've been making kimchee fried rice regularly (using this recipe as a starting point) and it's one of those things that feels like 'oh shit not this again' on random weeknights but I end up loving it every time.

adding it to the list, thanks.

Have been doing variations on the them of lemon nabe (hotpot) - kombu dashi broth with pork, chicken or fish with tofu, mushrooms and vegetables, slices of lemons too. Would like to try it with oysters and pork but my wife is allergic to oysters so will have to wait till she goes away.

that sounds freaking nice. (except for the pork part bcuz i'm pescatarian).

do you make your dashi from scratch? i keep thinking about it.

I've done it. It's so simple and 3 ingredients iirc

Freezes nicely too if there's extra

i learned to make dashi from scratch a couple years before i realized that the instant option is more common.

I feel like muragami udon used to have a recipe online for their dashi but now I only see a general thing.

Kombu dashi is even more simple. Take a piece of kombu and steep in not quite boiling water, you can then use that as a basis for other things like Katsuo dash but on its own is fine for this.

I put fennel in the one I did last night, fennel and lemon is such a good combo.

A variation on this lemon nabe theme his lemon shabu shabu which is basically the same broth with lemons and mizuna in it. Then dip sashimi grade kingfish in it.

Did the farmers market this morning and made the spring veg vignole from six seasons. pretty good. Might have to go all in on fava beans this spring.

i go hard on favas every spring, they're the absolute best

A couple of months ago I saw a recipe for crab rangoon cheese sticks, a brundlefly of crab rangoon filling and standard fried mozz sticks. Couldn't stop thinking about it so I gave it a go today.

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/88280863_10159341366703709_45977238356623360_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=lWgz6vSB058AX9KpTRJ&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=837947a2d145c53977e72922d6ffe176&oe=5E95B865

Really good, though a bit of work.

whoa that looks like quite a concoction if you like crab rangoon! nicely fried!!

i am recovering from a terrible week by cooking: so far, shrimp & grits, miso soup, ceviche, and I'm about to make some spinach pies. I heard a dude on the Freakonomics radio program today talking about how making stuff, even food, can be very soothing and good for the brain. i need it bad apparently!!

my experiments with indian food have been going well and last week I made an excellent hariyali chicken dish that was exactly the combination of flavors i wanted, will make again for sure + increase the chicken to 2 lbs (this recipe https://myheartbeets.com/instant-pot-green-chicken-curry-hariyali-chicken/)

wow those look great
I rarely try new recipes but keep buying recipe book regardless!

*books

that green chicken curry looks excellent!

do you use an instant pot for it? i am this close to breaking down and getting one. i hate watching over my stovetop pressure cooker so the set and forget aspect is very appealing.

I resisted the instant pot for a long time but my SHITTY new work schedule motivated me to try one. So far so good! That green curry recipe was a perfect example of something I made in about 25 min total including chopping (5 min cooking time?! What??) and I made a lentil soup w dill to go with it, and that took about 20 min. So ~6 meals that I actually want to eat in under an hour? I’m glad I tried it. I’m sure I’ll put it away when the semester is over and get it out in the fall again.

Also it’s good for making broth for ramen or whatever.

yeah, i want to do ramen broth, i want to cook more dried beans....there's a lot of things i could get done during the day (since i usually WFH) if i could just set it up and leave it alone. the stovetop pressure cooker works fine but i can't really wait around to see when it comes up to pressure.

The instant pot is great for the things you just mentioned — what’s blowing my mind is how easy it is to make the sort of food that would normally take like 4 hours of attention. Still gotta do all the shopping/chopping/assembly but the ability to walk away from the cooking and take a shower while my broth cooks is very very VERY nice.

I’m still getting over the undesirable feeling that I’m relying heavily on the device but that’s silly. What matters is the edible end result and it turns out I can apply my knowledge of cooking to this new task and reap the rewards as I eat my dinners alone before class on Friday nights 😢

I have a comical and unwarranted skepticism towards instant pots, air fryers, and the like, as unnatural aberrations.

yep, i do have to remind myself that pressure cooking is a legit technique (huge in india as well as other places) that produces much better results than slow cookers. my inclination is always to do everything the most basic way first before i try gadgets and hacks, but i do have multiple weeknights where i could stand to be much more efficient while still making good food.

otoh the air fryer is extremely dumb

I’ve been mulling a pressure cooker. Winter is coming and I want to up my soup curry game and to get the chicken legs right you really need a pressure cooker. Instant pots are so massive, Stovetop seems the way to go for me, though as the stove has a constant temp setting.

(I did see some good small plug in pressure cookers in japan, which would complement the zojirushi rice cooker our friend left us went back to japan, so maybe that’s the way to go if a lot more expensive)

Rice cookers on the other hand are the divinely inspired work of the Lord.

oh yeah, love my rice cooker