What Have You Cooked Recently?

The pork belly got out of its bath and became a nice and spicy cabbage dish 20230206_195007.jpg
Chicken gyoza (frozen) in a chicken and dashi broth, sea weed bok choy, and shemiji mushroom.
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Hamachi guac poke 20230208_190118.jpg
 
There are two traditional thickeners for gumbo, file powder and okra. Okra is primarily used for Creole gumbos and comes from the west african roots of the Spanish creole. Cajun gumbo is more in line with the Native American origins of the stew just with the French influence of the Acadians. File powder is made from the ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Since you are using roux that means you are making Cajun gumbo so you would want to use file powder. It adds a really silky smooth finish to your gumbo and a nice flavor profile that compliments spicey smoky sausage.
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Well I'm an idiot (was pretty drunk at that point) and I forgot to actually take a picture of the finished super bowl crab cakes but we ended up deep frying them in my buddy's fryer. That's why they are more "balls" than "cakes" in the last photo. They were fucking delicious man. Breaking down the crabs was a pain (you can see how wrinkled my fingers are in the picture of the succulent claw meat chunk) but it was on sale and broke down into an absurd amount of meat once processed. I paid $42 for 7lbs of shelled crab (3.5 lbs each) and it broke down to about 2.5 lbs of meat. I was really trying to get every last bit of meat out. I even tried some of the "crab butter" (the gut) it was alright, not something I'd seek out but I can see the appeal.

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There’s some delicious stuff here. It’s inspiring how many people can make delicious food from such humble ingredients. Tonight I am cooking some leftover rice and adding some water and cabbage. Let it cook for about 5 minutes and add some ramen soup mix. Then added some tomatoes and scrambled eggs. I think it’s pretty good and very easy.
 
There are two traditional thickeners for gumbo, file powder and okra. Okra is primarily used for Creole gumbos and comes from the west african roots of the Spanish creole. Cajun gumbo is more in line with the Native American origins of the stew just with the French influence of the Acadians. File powder is made from the ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Since you are using roux that means you are making Cajun gumbo so you would want to use file powder. It adds a really silky smooth finish to your gumbo and a nice flavor profile that compliments spicey smoky sausage.
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Thanks, that was super informal and interesting.
 
Thanks, that was super informal and interesting.
The history of the Acadians is fascinating and I highly recommend you read up on them if you are interested. Pretty sad when you think that the only good times in the history of the Occitanians was under Roman rule for a brief period before the barbarians began buttfucking them. Just a history of oppression, slavery, and seclusion.

Anyways I was making chanko while listening to Turkey Tom while chopping veggies and ended up getting so angry I wasn't paying attention and chopped my finger. The blood will add some umami so it's all good.
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BONUS ANYWAYS: I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep so I made some choccy chip cookies. Unfortunately it was cold as fuck in the house so the sugar didn't cream properly and they came out ass.
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Not really "food" but I poured cheap merlot, blood oranges, grapes, cherries, apple slices, sugar & key lime juice into an air tight jug and let it ferment for five days. It's good but I think I can improve it.
Cranberries will make that ghetto sangria pop. Just make sure you get American Cranberries. They are less sweet, and more bitter than common sweet cranberries, but when they ferment the bitterness comes off and they add an incredible, almost citrus like, burst of flavor.
 
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