Today I Made:

[Zohar]

i made mushroom stroganoff bc i was craving it after suggesting zohar make it in a different thread :o

Zohar's recommendations have a high success rate at Being Awesome

I mean, thanks, but I think you misread natraj's post :) He suggested I make stroganoff. Which I should. Maybe this weekend.

[Liri]

i made mushroom stroganoff bc i was craving it after suggesting zohar make it in a different thread

Zohar's recommendations have a high success rate at Being Awesome

I mean, thanks, but I think you misread natraj's post He suggested I make stroganoff. Which I should. Maybe this weekend.

I absolutely did not read the post he was referring to before posting, yeah.

But that noodle soup with all the cilantro. That was amazing.

[freezeblade]

Oven is fixed!

Today I'm making:
sourdough pizza dough for pizza party this weekend
preferment (sourdough) for brown sandwich bread
preferment (yeasted) for pan dulce
Roasted meat of some sort over a bed of root veggies

[Zohar]

Made some mac and cheese for an under-the-weather husband.

[Thesh]

Third attempt at high altitude baked beans: overnight soak in salted water, 45 minute simmer in plain water before adding flavors. Cooked in 2 hours this time. A bit too salty.

[PAstrychef]

Braised lamb shanks in the instant pot and made an onion panade from a recipe in this weeks Sunday NYTimes magazine. Imagine French onion soup, with way more bread and cheese and not so much broth. Very rich, very tasty. I think it will come out to go with tonight’s steaks.

[Zohar]

Having dinner with friends, one of whom can't eat gluten. So I made a carrot soup with Moroccan spices, tahini, and crisp chickpeas, a mushroom and spinach quiche with an almond flour crust, and an almond-lemon cake with some sour cream.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

For the past few nights I've been trying to get my rice to develop a crust when cooking it, like tah-dig in Persian cuisine, by pouring olive oil in after the rice is cooked and fluffy and letting it cook for a while longer (though the process is more complicated if you really want to do it right). Tonight, I succeeded, and I see why it's considered the best part of the rice traditionally.

I cooked the rice with chickpeas and about two teaspoons of a fenugreek spice mix (both leaves and seeds, as well as garlic powder and some crushed red pepper seeds), a couple dried limes, and a couple bay and kaffir lime leaves.

[Thesh]

My rice cooker literally just turned off. Butter + Chicken Broth always results in a crust for me.

[PAstrychef]

I tried cooking romanesco cauliflower for the first time. It’s a beautiful vegetable, bright chartruese with a fractal pattern to the florets. It tastes like a very mild broccoli, not much of cauliflower at all. I was more impressed with its looks.

[Liri]

fenugreek

My favorite spice by a huge margin. I grew a huge batch of plants from seeds I got to use in cooking. And they made their own seeds!

That personal discovery of farming was very satisfying.

[Zohar]

For the past few nights I've been trying to get my rice to develop a crust when cooking it, like tah-dig in Persian cuisine, by pouring olive oil in after the rice is cooked and fluffy and letting it cook for a while longer (though the process is more complicated if you really want to do it right). Tonight, I succeeded, and I see why it's considered the best part of the rice traditionally.

People often put thin slices of potatoes at the bottom of the pot for similar results. Obviously not for crisp rice, but crisp potatoes.

I made some Indian food - turmeric potatoes with green pepper (surprisingly good despite containing literally only potatoes, green peppers, oil, turmeric, and salt), and a chickpea dish, not exactly channa masala - had a ton of onions and very little tomatoes.

[freezeblade]

Last night I made Hawaiian BBQ plate dinner:
Kalua style slow-roasted pork shoulder served over rice and steamed broccoli/napa cabbage, side of macaroni salad.

Pork was rubbed with a paste of chipotle (for the smoke), garlic, ginger, salt, and POG juice (passion, orange, guava). Wrapped tight in banana leaves, and roasted low and slow in a covered dutch oven.

Turned out amazing.

Also made this weekend: infused molasses kringles (spice cookies), bolillos (mexican-style yeasted bread rolls), and pizza dough for use later in the week.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

Fenugreek is awesome, but it's no coriander. They're not bad together, though.

I made some Indian food - turmeric potatoes with green pepper (surprisingly good despite containing literally only potatoes, green peppers, oil, turmeric, and salt), and a chickpea dish, not exactly channa masala - had a ton of onions and very little tomatoes.

Chickpeas go really well with amchur (dried mango powder) and anardana (dried, ground pomegranate seeds) for added sourness and sweetness. Sometimes you'll see them in chana pindi recipes. Or pindi chana...either way, you can't add enough of either. They're fantastic.

[Zohar]

The recipe suggested mango powder but we didn't have any. It suggested lemon juice as substitute, so I used that. Probably not as authentic but still turned out great.

[PAstrychef]

Sort of eggplant parmigiana. Breaded and fried the eggplant, then topped it with shredded mozzarella and stuck it in the oven. Served the marinara sauce on the side, along with some not great homemade fettuccine. Hand rolling just dissent give the same texture that runnng the dough through the pasta machine does.

[Zohar]

I just noticed again we have the pasta attachment to our mixer and we haven't made fresh pasta in a while. Should probably fix that.

Friday I made some delicious, delicious humus. It really turned out fantastic. I got some mushrooms and pita bread to make fried mushroom topping for it tonight. I also made Smitten Kitchen's tahini-carrot muffins with tahini glaze, but they honestly didn't turn out so great. The dog was baked perfectly - exactly as moist as I wanted it to be, really good. But the flavor wasn't great, and I wasn't sold on the glaze.

Was going to make some broccoli quiche but ended up staying at the in-laws for longer than expected, will make it this week.

[freezeblade]

Last night I made:
Yucatan Style Roast Pork. Similar but different than the hawaiian style roast pork I did last week, Pork was rubbed with achiote spice mix and sour orange juice (in this case a bergmont orange), then wrapped in banana leaves and baked in a closed dutch oven at about 300F for 4 hours. Served with black beans and rice.

Bergmont zest snowball cookies. Much like those snowball cookies (sometimes known as mexican wedding cookies here) but with Bergmont zest and lemoncello instead of the vanilla extract.

Today I am baking: sourdough sandwich bread for the week.

[jobriath]

The dog was baked perfectly - exactly as moist as I wanted it to be, really good.

But Zohar, I thought you were vegetarian!

There is no content to this post other than to point out an amusing typo and to use the opportunity to express belated thanks for some advice/listenin' you gave me a while back. Cheers!

[Zohar]

Oh god. I was SO tired on Monday. Puppy woke us up twice during the night to take her outside. No wonder I wanted to bake her.

[Sandry]

Lol, poor puppy. And poor Zohar, too!

Last night I made what might have pretensions of being kheer, but is certainly at least rice pudding of a sort. It was okay warm. Will try it again later cold and see if I like it better or worse that way.

[Moo]

Since the builders have broken down one wall of my kitchen, rendering it inoperable,I have made

• Roast chicken
• Chicken tequitos
• Crumbed kingklip (fish) with potato wedges
• Cape Malay style minced beef curry with rice
• Cheese & tomato quiche
• Banana choc chip cupcakes with choc ganache

Not bad for a make-shift kitchen set up in the bar using a combi micro/convection oven, airfryer, slowcooker and electric frying pan.

Don't ask about washing the dishes, though.

[Quercus]

Since the builders have broken down one wall of my kitchen, rendering it inoperable,I have made

• Roast chicken
• Chicken tequitos
• Crumbed kingklip (fish) with potato wedges
• Cape Malay style minced beef curry with rice
• Cheese & tomato quiche
• Banana choc chip cupcakes with choc ganache

Not bad for a make-shift kitchen set up in the bar using a combi micro/convection oven, airfryer, slowcooker and electric frying pan.

Don't ask about washing the dishes, though.

Holy crap! That's way more impressive than I usually manage in a fully functional kitchen.

[Sandry]

This weekend I went on some sort of cooking rampage, and have made like three weeks worth of batch cooked food.
I have made:

Shakshuka (with added zucchini, 'cause I needed to get rid of some, and I think zucchini in tomato base is delicious)
Mulligatawny soup (probably with non-standard vegetable add-ins, because if anything in my kitchen sits still long enough it has vegetables thrown into it)
Meatless Cincinnati chili
Green tofu vegetable Thai curry
Twice baked potatoes with broccoli
(And rice and veggie spaghetti to go with the curry and chili)

I have two more cauliflowers to cook, and some suggestions for what to do with them, so that'll need to happen relatively soon, and I have some apples that want to be spiced and baked, but I'm already using most of my tupperware and I have literally a gallon of soup (and three other dishes) in my freezer already, so this may be a problem. A delicious, delicious problem.

[Moo]

Holy crap! That's way more impressive than I usually manage in a fully functional kitchen.

Finally my frankly unhealthy amount of small kitchen appliances is vindicated

I have two more cauliflowers to cook, and some suggestions for what to do with them, so that'll need to happen relatively soon

I thought initially you were asking for suggestions, and although I see on reread you already have some, I already went and found my favourite cauliflower soup recipe so I'ma leave this here:
http://moonicasmeals.blogspot.co.za/201 ... -soup.html

I'm already using most of my tupperware and I have literally a gallon of soup (and three other dishes) in my freezer already

I find ziploc bags super useful for this sort of thing.

[Quercus]

I'm already using most of my tupperware and I have literally a gallon of soup (and three other dishes) in my freezer already

I find ziploc bags super useful for this sort of thing.

*souper useful

[Liri]

Soup!

Cauliflower, lentils, tomatoes, celery, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, cayenne, sage, oregano, turmeric, singe parsley, and a cinnamon stick. The last item was very much a What the Hell decision, and the aroma is a tad unusual but it's quite delicious.

[PAstrychef]

So many gyoza that I ran out of wrappers before I ran out of filling. I used pre-made wrappers from the store. No, I didn’t pleat the edge. I did have some egroll wrappers that I put the extra filling in.
Also grilled some poblanos for chilie rellenos.

[Sandry]

Made more curry and more twice baked potatoes and froze them... I'm going to have food for a month.

Also made aloo ghobi, spinach dahl and a crustless asparagus brie quiche.

I dunno why it's been two weeks of "cook as though the apocalypse is coming, but your freezer will still work", but that's apparently the memo I got.

[Zohar]

We got some dutch cocoa powder last weekend and it didn't fit in one jar, so I was psychologically thinking "We have a shitload of cocoa, I should use it up". Made some delicious brownies last night as a result.

[sardia]

We got some dutch cocoa powder last weekend and it didn't fit in one jar, so I was psychologically thinking "We have a shitload of cocoa, I should use it up". Made some delicious brownies last night as a result.

At some point, you should consider savory uses for cocoa.

[Zohar]

I've used some in Japanese curry rice. We do Mexican food sometimes. No chicken, but I'm sure mole sauce works with other stuff. Thanks for the idea!

[PAstrychef]

Took the leftover cabbage, carrots and potatoes from yesterday’s corned beef dinner and fried them up in some bacon grease, then sliced the end of the corned beef and heated it up on top while the bottom got good and crispy. Colcannon is a great way to use up cabbage and spuds.

[pogrmman]

It’s not really food, but I made yaupon tea tonight. For those who don’t know, yaupon holly is a small evergreen tree that grows all over the south. It’s super common, and also the only plant native to the US with caffeine.

Most recipes for this tea call for just knocking off as many leaves as you can and roasting them right away. I decided that I might as well try treating it like actual tea — I picked a handful of young, fresh leaves yesterday, then bruised them and let them oxidize. I then let them dry out at room temperature. So, it’s almost like a black tea.

It’s absolutely delicious — it’s very floral and complex. It’s not bitter at all (though it has a slight bit of the sort of astringency you get in some teas), and it’s very smooth. It’s like an excellent actual tea, but it’s different in some way. It doesn’t exactly have the same sorts of flavors as normal tea, but it’s still really nice. It reminds me a bit of some oolong teas I’ve had. I’m about to try making a second steeping to see how it is.

[Liri]

That's awesome! I've wanted to try that for a while, ever since I learned about its caffeine content, and that it's in the same genus (Ilex) with yerba mate.

I'm a little too inland for it to grow here, but I see it all the time when I go to the coast.

[pogrmman]

I should make some more of it. It was really nice. I could probably harvest 2-3 pounds of tender young leaves and shoots just from plants within a 5 minute walk of my house. (It’d also be a pain in the ass, but it does taste pretty good.)

If you get the opportunity to try it, I certainly would recommend it! There are some places selling the tea online — idk how good it is though. I know some of the restaurants around here serve it.

[Sandry]

Yesterday I made a vegan potato salad, tomato chickpea and zucchini soup, and scones.

The potato salad was inspired by a friend having made some this past summer with pickles in it (IE pickled cucumber for non-Americans). It sounded weird to me, but then I tried it and really enjoyed it. Anyhow, my end result is this weird bastardized cross between American and German potato salad, except the bacon you'd use in German potato salad I used a vegan tempeh bacon substitute, and my standard mayo is Just Mayo, because I like it better than normal mayonnaise. So I combined my fake mayo with pickle brine, balsamic vinegar and a bunch of whole grain mustard, and the end result is weird, but I really enjoy it, and the diced pickles and celery and onions make it have enough crunch to be texturally interesting. I'm definitely going to do this again, though I'm not convinced the fake bacon added enough, flavor-wise, to be worth bothering with, so I think I should do some A/B testing.

[cephalopod9]

I made some crepes, with strawberries and brie, and a little bit of balsamic.
is it wasteful to toss out the brie rind? it had been in the fridge for a bit, and i just wanted the gooey part.

i'm trying to get into the mood to temper some chocolate and make some easter candies, or something. I bought some jumbo Hershey bars when they were on clearance after christmas and then didn't get around to using them for valentines candies like I planned.
I still have peeps from last year that I scooped when they dropped to 5cents a box, so maybe "planned" is overly generous in describing my actions.

[Jplus]

is it wasteful to toss out the brie rind? it had been in the fridge for a bit, and i just wanted the gooey part.

I think it's wasteful. You should have given the rind to me.

That said, the crepes sounded (read?) delicious!

[freezeblade]

I would shred the brie rind and use it in a cheese mix for pizza toppings. Of course, I view pizza as a fridge cleaner for whatever bits of meat/veg/cheese I have around.

Today I am making: Pizza! crust was made two days ago (sourdough), toppings will likely be roast chicken, bacon, onion, and jalapeno, maybe with green onion added after baking, depending if the green onion in the fridge is any good.