What's cooking? part 4

it does look tasty! i LOVE potatoes more than any other food, i think

yeah i think definitely pre-cooking the potatoes in some way. also i would maybe leave out the soy milk (i didn't use too much, but i would probably have preferred a bit firmer texture). or add another egg (only had 3 in the fridge!).

yeah my 9 eggs were not enough for my huge dish of... stuff

also i made a little salad of cherry tomatoes, garlic, balsamic, and basil to go with. yum.

That looks gorgeous - those purple potatoes look like beets!

roasted tomatillo salsa tonight! so easy and amazingly good. i ate it with eggs, soft corn tortillas, black beans, tomatoes, and thick yogurt.

also can i just say i am all inspired after the julia child movie and wore my old school blue and white nieman marcus apron with butterfly appliqué (gotten from basement of deceased wealthy great aunt's stuff - a foodie who did greenbrier culinary classes for fun). i felt super crafty :)

Got conned into making tiramisu. Can't be doing with it.

One fun thing: baby figs wrapped with serrano ham, sprinkle a little goats cheese on top then give it a couple of seconds with a blowtorch/v. hot grill

posole verde with roasted pork tenderloin
yum

in retrospect i would have precooked the posole because it took TWO HOURS even after soaking all night and most of the day. still though, it tasted great.

anyone have a dry curry okra recipe? got some okra today and i want to try this!

Yeah, I have one around here somewhere, I'll dig it out sometime this morning.

OK, this is what I found on the internets a few years ago minus my adjustments.

1 lb. okra
1 big tomato, diced
2 med. onions, diced
4 green chilies, chopped (adjust to taste)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/3 tsp ground cumin
2/3 tsp garam masala
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 bunches of cilantro
3 Tbsp veg. oil
salt to taste

Trim the stems from the (washed, dried) okra and cut it into 1" lengths. Over medium heat, stir-fry onions, chilies, spices and salt until the onions are soft and golden. Add okra, stir-fry for approx. 15 minutes until they're cooked through but still fairly firm. Add the tomato and lemon juice and stir-fry for another minute or two, just long enough for the tomato to break down a little. Turn off heat and sprinkle with cilantro.

My variations: I don't do cilantro, so that got left out. Two medium onions seems like a bit much for 1 lb. of okra, so I use one med-large onion. The recipe doesn't specify what kind of chilies but I assume they're for heat, so I usually wind up using a spoonful of sambal oelek.

and after all that it still has okra in it :(

oh okay i see you went over the mucilage issue upthread apologies

i was wondering why there wasn't a running cooking thread on ilx but then i realised there probably was one on the cooking board but i think i might start one on ile because i think a lot of people don't look at this board which is a shame

gahhh no just tell them to come post here!

oh this reminds that i've been meaning to post here: i need recipes, specifically 'bake' recipes, i.e. pasta bakes, rice bakes, potato bakes, that kind of thing. anyone got suggestions?

i have to remember to buy garam masala and some chiles so i can do the okra

you guys i just picked 25 lbs of tomatoes off my vines waht do i DOOOOOOOOO

(/braggin)

I'm going to roast a bunch of them right now and make puree, for one thing.

wanttt

I should take the best 5# of these down to the only nice restaurant in town and say "how would you like to have a source for these, and plenty of basil, next year for caprese salads you can mark up about 1000%?"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/tomatoes090509.jpg

gorgeous!!

made a basmati pilaf with green beans and tomatoes earlier this week, bout to make it again right now

WmC yr tomatoes are the bomb

wanttt

― tehresa, Saturday, September 5, 2009 3:37 PM

Thanks! The smaller bowl was Paul Robesons and underneath them, 3-4 Amish Pastes -- a coreless oxheart-shaped tomato. All those are in the oven now, roasting. The bigger bowl is all Boxcar Willies, a really beautiful globe tomato that is my main tomato every year.

Wish you guys were here to get some -- I've been giving away about 5 lbs a day to neighbors. I guess I'll have a tomato sandwich for dinner.

the gate vegetarian cookbook says that you ought to make sure you fry yr okra before whatever else you do with it to de-goopify it

er "Other people soak them for a few hours in water acidulated with lemon juice or vinegar. Some people make the mistake of thinking that the longe you cook okra the less sticky it will seem, but without either preliminary frying or soaking it just goes on getting stickier as you cook it."

this has a recipe for pickled okra. hmmmm

Pickled okra is fantastic, esp with a hot chili or two in each jar. I always keep some in the fridge.

WmC do you know of any good places online to get tomato seeds? I wanna buy some for my parents so that they'll stop growing the big box department store tomatoes. alternately, recs for a good all-purpose tomato? they grew some nice looking ones this year but the flavor just wasn't there...

i may try pickling some okra if i see any. mainly i am curious at what point in the process it transmutes to 'crunchy'.

anyone have any paneer recommendations?

Like, how to make paneer? It's pretty simple - heat milk over a medium flame to the point it starts to tremble (just before it simmers), then stir in a teaspoon of lemon juice per quart and take it off the heat. Let it sit for 10 - 15 minutes for the curd to form, then strain into a sieve lined with a double layer of dampened cheesecloth or thin dishtowel. Twist the cloth tight around it. Keep it twisted tight and let it hang to drain overnight. Use or refrigerate the next day.

Ulp, I should have been more clear - I meant does anyone have any favourite things to do with paneer - but, er, thanks - I am sure to make paneer one day and I shall look up these instructions when I do so -

i wonder if this works with soy.

I generally fry cubes in ghee, then do saag/palak (w/spinach), or shahi (w/cream, cashew, raisin), or mutter (w/peas). A pile of recipes here that would be okay starting points to riff on. Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking is a good reference.

Dairy + soy always seems kind of wrong to me. Like conflicting umami notes duking it out or something.

i mean using soy milk instead of reg milk. but yeah. probably would end up gross.

I don't think the soy proteins react to acid the same way the milk proteins do - but I always think of panneer/fresh farmer cheese as the dairy equivalent of tofu: relatively bland protein that is good in various gravies/sauces. I wonder what the tofu process involves?

Wow, you really can find everything on the internets: how to make tofu at home. Looks like you need a chemical coagulant instead of a simple acid, but otherwise very similar to making panneer.

dyao, I get my tomato seeds each year from Tomatofest. Great selection -- almost too great unless you have a specific idea what you want. One downside is that the minimum order is $15, but at least you can take your pick and plant just the healthiest from an enormous number of seedlings.

Starting from seed is definitely the way to go from a disease standpoint -- I read that the Late Blight that got so many home gardeners' crops this year spread in part because so many people got their starter plants from the same Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart places, and all of those come from the same commercial growers in the Southeast.

i've had soy milk curdle before in acidic coffee, but i'm guessing the end product would be a mess (if attempting the paneer).

just made some lasagna for my friend with a newborn
hardly worth noting, but hey

thanks for the info WmC! I'll look to them next season

jambalaya and cornbread for dinner tonight

Jus, here's some pasta bake recipes:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/pasta+bake+recipes

This sites rly good, I use it a lot. Just yesterday I made this:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15254/english+breakfast+date+cake

Which came out fabulous (chopping dates is a PITA though)

tea leaves in a cake!!

thanks trayce, just the kind of thing i've been looking for

oh you strain the leaves out of the tea before you use it! :D

Mind you, hmm... I wonder.

(can you eat tealeaves?)