What Have You Cooked Recently?

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Finished stewed pork belly ended up more like a ramen, but damn it's good
 
I Love braised pork belly. If you ever get to try red braised pork. Jump at it.
It was Chairman Mao‘s favourite dish and for good reason.
I make this every couple years. The only even slightly tricky bit of it is the reduction at the end but it can't be skipped. It was also probably why Chairman Mao was fat. He had a personal chef with him wherever he went to cook mostly this dish.
 
I make this every couple years. The only even slightly tricky bit of it is the reduction at the end but it can't be skipped. It was also probably why Chairman Mao was fat. He had a personal chef with him wherever he went to cook mostly this dish.
Yeah he was a good old Hunan country boy. They say it improves your intellect.
I can’t say it’s worked on me. I love the version with fresh water chestnuts.
I always remove the pork to reduce to a glaze then pour over the sauce over the pork in a fresh heated clay pot.
 
A New York strip and a potato. Hit medium-rare perfectly (for a change) although the char was a trifle past perfect. They weren't super cheap but they were cheap for these days and exactly today was the last "best by" date. Nothing on the steak but a 20 minute marinade followed by patting dry, coarse salt and pepper rubbed into it, seared, and finished in the oven. So a normal sear instead of the meme sear I usually do lately.
 
A New York strip and a potato. Hit medium-rare perfectly (for a change) although the char was a trifle past perfect. They weren't super cheap but they were cheap for these days and exactly today was the last "best by" date. Nothing on the steak but a 20 minute marinade followed by patting dry, coarse salt and pepper rubbed into it, seared, and finished in the oven. So a normal sear instead of the meme sear I usually do lately.
How accurate do you find those "best buy" dates to be?
 
I've found you can go 2-3 days past them without major problems. Eating expired meat is so overhyped. So you get the squirts now and then, no big deal. Your ancestors ate worse.
Some meat, like steak, is actually almost at its best on that cusp right between good and bad. The point of aging is extending that and increasing the good effects of aging while stopping it from actually rotting.

Chicken? No. If that smells even a tiny bit off it's into the trash.
 
Appalachian soup beans.

It's like the national dish of Appalachia if Appalachia were a nation. I think of it as being like a mountaineer's chili, it being essentially a stew of ham and pinto beans. But unlike chili, it's not spicy, it's just salty (and pepper, onion, garlic, etc.). I like to add diced onion into it and crumble bacon over it and such. Soup beans is a very hearty food.
 
How accurate do you find those "best buy" dates to be?
I don't how it is in the US but I go store by store depending on how it is cooled. There's one place I won't buy any meat from if it's three-four days before the date, another store I will happily buy it at 75% discount the day it expires. Because they cooled it properly.

Here's a tip on products that seem a bit off: wash it in salt and water. Salt is cheap, pour a bunch of it in a large vessel of your choice and fill it with water. What the water can't disolve will drop to the bottom. Pick up the salt from the bottom and scrub your meat/fish with it, wash it, the water will become cloudy. Tip the bowl, fill it with new water, add salt if necessary, repeat. When the water comes out clean that's the best you can do with that piece. If something smells slightly weird freezing it will not help, you need to give it a good salt scrubbing, then it can be frozen.

Oh and if you buy cheap vacuum packed "fresh" fish that smells a bit fishy cut the head off an inch of two behind the head before salt washing it, then see if it smells like rank farts or not.
 
I don't how it is in the US but I go store by store depending on how it is cooled. There's one place I won't buy any meat from if it's three-four days before the date, another store I will happily buy it at 75% discount the day it expires. Because they cooled it properly.

Here's a tip on products that seem a bit off: wash it in salt and water. Salt is cheap, pour a bunch of it in a large vessel of your choice and fill it with water. What the water can't disolve will drop to the bottom. Pick up the salt from the bottom and scrub your meat/fish with it, wash it, the water will become cloudy. Tip the bowl, fill it with new water, add salt if necessary, repeat. When the water comes out clean that's the best you can do with that piece. If something smells slightly weird freezing it will not help, you need to give it a good salt scrubbing, then it can be frozen.

Oh and if you buy cheap vacuum packed "fresh" fish that smells a bit fishy cut the head off an inch of two behind the head before salt washing it, then see if it smells like rank farts or not.
The only thing I won’t buy over date is fish. The Japanese have a good method for deodorising fish though. You coat the fish or prawns in corn or potato starch and them you gently wash it off. The starch seems to cling to the bad odours and runs down the sink. Be careful Not to run the cold tap too hard though. It can shred fish if your not careful.
 

I made this faggots burritos and they turned out really well.

Just ignore the faggot and follow the recipe and you'll be happily surprised. The beans are really good, the chicken marinade is solid though I did add more adobo sauce then suggested but that's just me and the lime cilantro rice was a good match.

Easy to make, cheap and very filling.

8/10
 
Hummus again, but I blended some peppadew peppers into it. Shit was cash
what sort of flavor does that add? a bit of a sweet hint? I usually just go for a vampire beware amount of garlic with a good ratio of tahini to garbanzo. I love making hummus. It's so rewarding compared to buying the store crap.
 
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what sort of flavor does that add? a bit of a sweet hint? I usually just go for a vampire beware amount of garlic with a good ratio of tahini to garbanzo. I love making hummus. It's so rewarding compared to buying the store crap.
Yeah sweet and spicy, a bit like a punchier version of roasted red pepper hummus.
 
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