Today I Made:

[Sandry]

Well, I used up most of my prior too many zucchini and red peppers problems via something like a tortilla soup, which was fine.

Yesterday I finished off the last red pepper as part of a caprese-ish pasta salad that I'm having for lunch today and seems to have turned out quite pleasant, and I cleared out more vegetables with a tofu curry.

I have a bunch of atulfo mangos and some peaches now and am definitely going to make some fruit salsas this week. We'll see if the weather agrees with my brain, which is suddenly really adamant that it's summer, even though I think today's high isn't even breaking seventy.

[freezeblade]

I made chocolate coated pretzels and yogurt coated pretzels last night. The chocolate ones were great, though it was only 66% cocoa. Has anyone tried eating 100%cocoa chocolate before? Someone warned me away, said it would be too bitter.

100% cocoa solids tastes...terrible. At least, that's my impression after trying some high-quality stuff I got from TCHO (local chocolate company) before baking with it. The sweet spot for me for dark chocolate is the upper 70s, low 80's in percentage.

[Moo]

Have tried 99% and it's ... something, but it's not chocolate. And not pleasant. An ingredient maybe but not something to be eaten. It's not even primarily the bitterness, but the unpleasant, crumbly, waxy mouth-feel.

[jeffk]

I have no rational reason but something about boiling water in the microwave seems wrong.

I'm thinking about it in terms of tea and getting the water to the proper temperature, so...

• Slate says the microwave doesn't heat water evenly. (The article says it's because the kettle heats from the bottom, allowing convection currents to mix the water up, while microwaves hit the water at random places. I recall reading something similar years ago, except that article claimed that the microwaves hit the water from the side. Either way, the convection currents don't work as well.)
• OTOH, Lifehacker claims that the mug's too small for side-vs-bottom heating to be an issue; the real problem is that you can't control the temperature as easily.

I'm not a water-boiling scientist, so I don't have the right equipment to test any of these theories out

[Moo]

Big batch of broccoli and cheddar soup for the residents' association neighbourhood bonfire night on the weekend (it's winter here). Was gooood.

[sardia]

Continuation of chocolate covered pretzels.
Pretzels are a dumb core, their essential properties are dryness, saltiness, crunchiness, and savory brownedness.
Healthier replacement: roasted nuts. Maybe dried fruit?

[Moo]

The mooling and I made millionaire's shortbread for my dad for Father's Day. On the downside, I overcooked the caramel layer (due to still no oven so used the microwave), so not much caramel in the resulting chocolate caramel shortbread. On the upside, I just invented really good fudge* shortbread.


*as in crumbly fudge, which is apparently actually called tablet?

[PAstrychef]

Chunked up a beef eye round roast and tossed it in the instant pot with some pepperoncini, dried herbs and some mayo. Shredded it it when it was nice and tender. Served it on brioche rolls. Plenty leftover for other meals, too. For some reason this is called a Mississippi roast. It’s a nice variation on regular pot roast.

[Zohar]

Made a big batch of mac and cheese (tasty but a bit too salty), brownies (tried a new recipe, was a bit of a hassle and while they were dense, they weren't fudgy enough), and a salad (turned out good).

So overall, OK cooking day? Does anyone have a really good brownie recipe? I'm looking for soft, slightly-gooey, somewhat dense, intense flavor. Not particularly interested in recipes with baking powder in them - would turn out too fluffy.

[freezeblade]

Does anyone have a really good brownie recipe? I'm looking for soft, slightly-gooey, somewhat dense, intense flavor. Not particularly interested in recipes with baking powder in them - would turn out too fluffy.

I've been working on my brownie recipe for a while. I'll write it down when I get home, but they are along the fudge-y side rather than the cake-y side. I have two versions, one with bar chocolate, and another with cocoa powder.*

*The cocoa powder one was designed as a carrier of medicine for a friend of mine with Lupis, so the flavor had to cut though the...green...flavor. Both recipes are gluten free, but have so little flour (less than a 1/4c for the whole batch) that it does not affect the flavor or texture.

[PAstrychef]

My go to brownies are from the Joy Of Cooking.

[techblogger911]

My go to brownies are from the Joy Of Cooking.

Nothing like brownies yum yum

[pogrmman]

One of my favorite childhood dishes: “garlic noodles”.

It’s a total comfort food for me, but it’s not much of a recipe.

It’s simple to make: take a whole mess of garlic, cook it down in some salted butter until it’s soft. Add some garlic powder and pepper. Add any herbs you want, then add a whole bunch more butter. Pour it over some pasta and eat!

[Mikeski]

It’s simple to make: take a whole mess of garlic, cook it down in some salted butter until it’s soft. Add some garlic powder and pepper. Add any herbs you want, then add a whole bunch more butter. Pour it over some pasta and eat!

I gained two pounds just reading this.

[dubsola]

Sounds delish.

I too am keen on a new brownie recipe. The one I've been using for years actually came from right here in these fora, but for some reason, while I thought it was awesome at the start, the last few times I've made them they turned out to suck. Really chewy. It was in here somewhere. http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3676

Also from here, the mac and cheese recipe I've been using for years. It is freakin' awesome.

[Zohar]

Made some dal the other day. Om nom nom.

[freezeblade]

Sounds delish.

I too am keen on a new brownie recipe. The one I've been using for years actually came from right here in these fora, but for some reason, while I thought it was awesome at the start, the last few times I've made them they turned out to suck. Really chewy. It was in here somewhere. http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3676

I'll try and post the recipes this weekend! I usually post not from my house, where all my recipe journals/books are (I keep a sort of artist's journal, but with all my day to day pondering, recipes in progress, etc).

I've got 3 different ones, depending on what sort of cocoa products you have available (cocoa powder, baker's chocolate, or regular dark bar chocolate) All three come out similar, but I like the cocoa powder one best (Only if using dark dutch process though). They all tend towards the "gooey" and "fudgy" end of the brownie spectrum, instead of the box-mixes which I find tend towards more "cakey" in general.

I love brownies. I even created a mexican brownie recipe which uses those abuela/ibarra mexican hot chocolate discs for both the sugar and cocoa solids.

[Zohar]

We did a decent amount of cooking on the weekend! After making fresh pasta a few weeks ago for my family, my sister-in-law also expressed interest in making some fresh pasta, so we did that Saturday night. We made ravioli with a goat cheese-lemon zest-mint filling (with some egg), and a sauce made of brown butter, sauteed asparagus, and some more mint and lemon juice. It was really great, and I keep forgetting how easy it is to make fresh pasta, and maybe only 10-15 more minutes than store-bought pasta.

Yesterday we made some Persian food to last for a few days. Alex made a veggie sabzi from leafy greens, some potato and beans. It was OK, not great - needed more spices. I made tadiq - a sort of crisp rice cake - you parboil rice, then mix it with saffron, egg yolks, and yogurt, spread it in a pan and bake it (with some dried fruit) until it gets a great crisp along the edges. That turned out pretty fantastic.

[Sandry]

This weekend I made curry. Extra, extra lazy curry because the night before I was at my boss' summer party, and she gave me a plate of crudités to take away with me, so all I did was slice onions, celery and cabbage, then added the baby carrots, broccoli and grape tomatoes from the tray. (I didn't add celery from the tray only because I'd already eaten all of it with hummus for lunch.) Oh, and fake chicken (Quorn) from the freezer in already bite-sized pieces. Definitely efficient... I think summer is discouraging me from doing elaborate things, because I don't want to spend that much time heating up the kitchen, then hanging around there.

My boss also gave me veggie burger patties to take with me - she's moving in a week, so didn't want anything leftover from the party, really. I don't own a grill, and I don't currently want to turn on my oven. I wonder if this means I'm just keeping veggie patties in my freezer for the next four or so months?

[Zohar]

My boss also gave me veggie burger patties to take with me - she's moving in a week, so didn't want anything leftover from the party, really. I don't own a grill, and I don't currently want to turn on my oven. I wonder if this means I'm just keeping veggie patties in my freezer for the next four or so months? :P

You could probably fry them on a skillet maybe?

[Sandry]

My boss also gave me veggie burger patties to take with me - she's moving in a week, so didn't want anything leftover from the party, really. I don't own a grill, and I don't currently want to turn on my oven. I wonder if this means I'm just keeping veggie patties in my freezer for the next four or so months?

You could probably fry them on a skillet maybe?

Yeah, maybe. Not wholly sure what exactly I'd do with them afterward, though. I don't have buns in the house. Maybe I'll just pretend they're like sausages and fry them up with onions and peppers or something. *shrug*

[Thesh]

Look into low carb burger recipes. They are usually bunless.

[trpmb6]

I was on a low carb diet (lost 20 lbs! ~5-6 weeks) that featured a lot of creativity.

You would be pleasantly surprised to find that most restaurants have no problem bringing out a burger without the bun. It's a very easy low carb solution at places that may not have a very large selection of options.

[ThirdParty]

I think of American cuisine as boring and bland, and so mostly eat "ethnic" foods, but just now I decided to make a perfectly normal American snack: a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and pickle relish, on a bun.

... Well, I'm vegan, so the "hot dog" wasn't technically a hot dog; more of a seitan tube. (I don't buy "veggie dogs" since they're expensive, but I do keep gluten and MSG on hand, and miscellaneous spices such as fennel seeds and crushed red pepper, so it was easy to throw together a fake "hot dog" with quite a bit of flavor to it.)

... The "ketchup" was technically Sri Racha sauce. Because I like spicy foods and don't like sweet foods, so don't keep actual ketchup on hand.

... Similarly, the "pickle relish" was made of pickled jalapeño rather than pickled cucumber: I took some nacho rings and diced them up. But pickles are pickles, right?

... The mustard, however, was actual yellow mustard. Or at least it could have been, since sometimes I do buy that. In this case it happened to be "horseradish mustard" instead, since that was on sale at the store the last time I needed mustard, and sounded different and interesting. But still: actual mustard!

... You've probably gathered that I didn't plan ahead very well for having a perfectly normal hot dog. Which is why the "bun" was technically just a slice of whole wheat bread.

So, yeah. A perfectly normal snack, just like millions of other Americans probably ate today. I feel so normal and mainstream! (And it was in fact delicious, not boring and bland at all; maybe I should experiment with other American dishes.)

[freezeblade]

"American Cuisine" is quite varied, and the stereotypical 'merican food like hotdogs and hamburgers, are examples of cookout food served at a social gathering due to their simplicity, and I argue not very representative of American food in general. There is an amazing dept of regional cuisines which are exciting, unique, and surprising to many foreigners. Cajun cuisine is a great example: French colonial based, Caribbean and African influenced, using lots of local ingredients (local seafoods, veggies such as okra, etc.).

a couple of other micro-cuisines bits I find very exciting:

"Cali-mex" or "Baja style" food. (Emphasis on leaner cuts of meat, more veggies, "freshness" provided by lots of lime, cilantro, avocado, and much less cumin than the Texas equivalent (tex-mex).
Viet-Cajun: https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article ... sh-houston

Anywho. Today I'm making: Roast pork shoulder, Yucatan style (Rubbed in Achiote/sour orange paste, wrapped in banana leaves, then cooked low and slow for many hours in a dutch oven). This should provide meat protein for the rest of the week for tacos, sandwiches, breakfast with eggs, and likely put on pizza this weekend.

[sardia]

I think of American cuisine as boring and bland, and so mostly eat "ethnic" foods, but just now I decided to make a perfectly normal American snack: a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and pickle relish, on a bun.

... Well, I'm vegan, so the "hot dog" wasn't technically a hot dog; more of a seitan tube. (I don't buy "veggie dogs" since they're expensive, but I do keep gluten and MSG on hand, and miscellaneous spices such as fennel seeds and crushed red pepper, so it was easy to throw together a fake "hot dog" with quite a bit of flavor to it.)

... The "ketchup" was technically Sri Racha sauce. Because I like spicy foods and don't like sweet foods, so don't keep actual ketchup on hand.

... Similarly, the "pickle relish" was made of pickled jalapeño rather than pickled cucumber: I took some nacho rings and diced them up. But pickles are pickles, right?

... The mustard, however, was actual yellow mustard. Or at least it could have been, since sometimes I do buy that. In this case it happened to be "horseradish mustard" instead, since that was on sale at the store the last time I needed mustard, and sounded different and interesting. But still: actual mustard!

... You've probably gathered that I didn't plan ahead very well for having a perfectly normal hot dog. Which is why the "bun" was technically just a slice of whole wheat bread.

So, yeah. A perfectly normal snack, just like millions of other Americans probably ate today. I feel so normal and mainstream! (And it was in fact delicious, not boring and bland at all; maybe I should experiment with other American dishes.)

... Are you trolling?
It's like I gave a vegetarian an apple pie, except the crust was made of lard and the Apple was beef stew. You know, cuz they're the same color and I don't like sweet things.
https://local.theonion.com/hamburger-cr ... 1827104471
Anyway, i agree with the other poster, if you find American food boring, try Eating other kinds of American food.

Yesterday I tried fancy grass fed organic no hormone ribeye steak. It had good marbling and was 15$a pound. I dunno what's so great about it. It tastes like a normal steak, but twice the cost.
I'll give it another shot tonight with a similar fancy organic strip steak. Maybe I'll do sous vide this time, but I'm not expecting anything different from my control steak.

[Moo]

We bought duck & chicken sausages at the weekend but we didn't particularly like them on their own (they were very heavy on the chives), so I made kind-of-cassoulet last night. Fried some onion and bacon, added the sliced sausages, and then a tin of butter beans and a tin of navy beans. Cooked it for a good while in some dried herbs, white wine, chicken stock and just a dash of tomato paste; served with rice. It was pretty good; very hearty for the coldest night of the year so far here.

[dubsola]

Sounds delish!

I made pea and ham soup. First time and it turned out AMAZING. It's got to be the simplest soup I've ever made.

[Moo]

Pea and ham is one of the best for effort to flavour ratio.

[Zohar]

Cassoulet was one of my favorite foods when I was not a vegetarian. I don't remember what carb we had with it though...

[dubsola]

A vegetarian cassoulet would be pretty good though, I'm assuming?

And yea. Flavour to effort ratio is actually bonkers with pea and ham soup. I'm genuinely surprised.

[Liri]

Evening before last I made couscous with cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic, olives and lots of fresh herbs in the mountains. It had been way too long since I'd last been backpacking. My girlfriend and I were in the Grayson Highlands/Mt. Rogers area in Virginia. There are wild ponies. The dominant plant species are Fraser fir (one of the main Christmas tree species) and blueberry.

[Zohar]

A vegetarian cassoulet would be pretty good though, I'm assuming?

I've never tried, but from what I recall meat is a pretty big component of it.

[freezeblade]

I just got a pack of locally grown cassoulet beans from my bean CSA* and will be trying a cassoulet soon! I'm even thinking about doing it in a closed dutch oven, sealed with a dead dough because I don't half-ass anything. Full ass or nothing!

*I know, I'm crazy, I get 6 pounds of dry heirloom/specialty beans delivered quarterly.

[PAstrychef]

Details on the bean CSA please. Can anybody join?

[Moo]

Made a pear loaf and some pear muffins. Always good.

[Zohar]

Tried Smitten Kitchen's latest zucchini with pesto and white beans. It was OK. Not bad, but not great. Possibly needed more cheese. I veered wildly from the recipe in terms of quantities so I'm not surprised I didn't get the flavor just right.

Also made a giant caramelized onion quiche with roasted cauliflower that turned out real great.

[Moo]

Also made a giant caramelized onion quiche with roasted cauliflower that turned out real great.

[freezeblade]

Details on the bean CSA please. Can anybody join?

There is a waiting list last I checked, but anyone can join (although I'm not sure about international shipping). Here's the link: https://www.ranchogordo.com/products/th ... -bean-club

I recommend stuff from Rancho Gordo all the time to people, wonderful products.

[PAstrychef]

Took leftover grilled corn and made corn fritters for breakfast. The trick is not using so much cornmeal that they become gritty lumps like bad hush puppies. I was thinking that par-cooking the cornmeal might work ok. Just let it soak in boiling water for a few minutes. Hmmmm.