The lockdown cookbook

we have been murdering the fennel risotti recently. lattermost one also had a large leek in it which pushed things even further. great lockdown food, would endorse

courgette and aubergine were both very apt ingredients in the giant daal tt made last night. they stew really well and soak up any flavour

my big question for tonight is how to deal with kohlrabi. the current feeling is a soup but that's almost a waste of its texture maybe?

great for high-heat roasting

or shaved raw in some sort of salad context

the former sounds eminently plausible!

went with the soup, accompanied by the leaves turned into crisps a la kale

it is superlative

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/recipes/hellas-creamy-kohlrabi-soup

fake larb (i.e. with textured vegetable protein instead of meat because it's shelf-stable), which didn't turn out half bad actually

arroz con pollo with some drumsticks that have been in the freezer for some years. they were vacuum sealed and look good as new, though.

there's a loquat tree on hoa property behind our home. going to harvest some for jam this year. i say that every year, and i've never actually done it, though.

had some saffron in my pantry for a truly unreasonable amount of time, but finally used it today to marinate some chicken, alongside a roasted radish salad, which is probably one of the best things I've made in years

saffron so expensive. must use it up. someday I'll get a proper tahdig on saffron rice. Today, i harvested the 8 cups loquats. We watched paddington 2 and made 2 jars of marmalade.

yeah, it's like that thing when you're playing a video game and you're reluctant to use up the best potion item in the game because then it's gone. except with ingredients

Even though I made a massive shopping run yesterday, from which we shall be eating for most of the next 3 weeks (!) I now confine myself to one store only rather than the three I usually shop at, and there is no menu prepared in advance from which to make my list and no guarantee what I seek shall be findable. So, there are a great many dishes we could make, but it's a bit like Tetris, in that it is easy to have gaps among necessary ingredients, and if one dish is chosen, it may preclude four other dishes by virtue of using all of one ingredient that then won't be replenished for quite a while. It is a daily game of optimization, constantly restarted with a shorter list of fresh ingredients. Fun at times, frustrating other times.

saffron so expensive. must use it up. someday I'll get a proper tahdig on saffron rice. Today, i harvested the 8 cups loquats. We watched paddington 2 and made 2 jars of marmalade.

xp the recipe optimisation game is very relatable. I am quite fatigued by it this week. My indecision is bad at the best of times, but when it necessitates sacrifice too then it's hard to make any decision at all! Especially because everything is now organised by what is going to go off first rather than what I want to make. I miss impulse.

But anyway, the proliferation of pesto and houmous varietals continues to favourably rule many dishes. So cheap and easy to make!

I am making my own wide rice noodles again now that I have a proper steamer basket. Getting prettay good.

made this, was phenomenal (with substitutions -- couldn't find ground lamb so substituted turkey and upped the spices, used pistachios in place of pine nuts because I hate pine nuts, I'm sure someone on twitter is screencapping this and getting 100,000 likes on what a horrible person with horrible taste I am) https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spiced-lamb-and-dill-yogurt-pasta

https://scontent.fphl1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/96774332_10158106960244000_5216103069342760960_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=C9OOwr2UY0sAX-QG52j&_nc_ht=scontent.fphl1-1.fna&_nc_tp=6&oh=b7487e8a32dd271550c5a55dfae01fc1&oe=5EDB8215

A homemade chocolate custard--not as photogenic as my sister's loaves of bread, but definitely delicious. Tomorrow once it's set, we'll see if it's better than pudding from a mix.

Anybody with an Aeropress can make amazing cold drip coffee at home really easily. Here is the recipe. OK this looks long but I swear it's easy. Serve black over ice. Do not water down! It's like the whiskey of coffees.

1. Set the plunger aside, you won't be using it.
2. Get a small plastic water bottle
3. Cut the bottom off of it with some scissors
4. Take the cap off, poke a very small hole in it, and screw the cap back on
5. Turn it upside down and pour water in what used to be the bottom. You should get about 1 drop per second coming out of the hole in the cap. If it's going too fast, put a piece of sellotape over the hole and play with it a little until you get the right flow. Nice.
6. Set everything up the normal way, i.e. a jar or coffee cup underneath everything, and put enough coffee in your Aeropress for about 3 cups of coffee. i.e. 3 scoops. This is going to be strong!
7. Put another one of your paper filters OVER the coffee grounds, down in the Aeropress. This is going to ensure that the water distributes evenly through the coffee.
8. You may want to put the funnel on top to hold the upside-down water bottle steady.
9. Turn your water bottle upside down, fill about 3/4 full of cold water, and put into the top of the Aeropress.
10. Voila - you should be seeing cold water drip slowly through the grounds, and eventually drip down into your jar. It'll take an hour or so.

Whoa, mini-Toddy, nice

David Rudnick's three-hour pomodoro sauce. I got orange tomatoes, so it ended up being the color of SF's sky.

https://pastebin.com/1RbdnctG

I'm sure there are other good cooking threads but this is the first in my bookmarks... Anyway, do I need/want a OnePot (or variant thereof)? I keep reading about them and have a bit of Christmas cash from my old dear and am hovering over the buy button.

is that like an instant pot? i like them

yeah we use ours a fair bit - weekly steel cut oatmeal, all-in-one casserole things, they’re good!

Right, it's that or a new knife/new skillet pan. How do I choose?!

that's a tough one. what is your current skillet and knife situation?

that's a tough one. what is your current skillet and knife situation?

Honestly, both kind of ordinary. Knives are ordinary - could do with a better chef's and cook's knife (the shame).

if you're committed to the idea of cooking meals for yourself over the long haul, I'd say buy the knives before you buy the One Pot. good ones last for many decades while electronic gadgets rarely have such staying power.

yeah agree

good knives first

fancy gadgets later

good knives is a game changer

i agree with that. i like to pressure cook but went so long without it, it's fine.

Knives it is. Cheers.

At the start of August, we decided to try a more vegetarian diet and haven't looked back. My wife has continued with dairy but, the odd dalliance here and there, I'm basically vegan. It's been such a fucked up year, I've no real idea if I feel 'better' as such but I'm not missing meat at much at all and dairy even less. The big question is why didn't I do it sooner?

chicken strips or nuggets seem to be one of the most desirable meals for young dudes under 7, and I also like to make meals the whole family can eat. Lately I've been making chicken strips using the ad hoc fried whole chicken recipe. They are good! The brine is also a great way to get rid of some extra fresh parsley and thyme.