What Have You Cooked Recently?

[heisenbuug]

My plant grew more cherry tomatoes than my roommate and I could keep up with so I made some focaccia with homemade pesto. I took a picture of the dough and the final product-had to cut it like a pizza because I still somehow own zero bread pans.

 

[AnOminous]

Sous vide porkchops with apples and savories and some scorpion pepper powder with no recipe. I looked at a web recipe but mostly ignored it. The general eyeballing recipe was I mixed up some of the bourbon smoked paprika I'm mildly obsessed with, plus rubbed sage, some freshly ground white pepper, cajun seasoning, a tiny dash of scorpion pepper powder (enough for a healthy heat but very easy to overdo so substitute something like a dash of cayenne if you don't know your limit).

Then I sprayed the chops with a light oil and rubbed in the spice mix, then bagged with a chopped Granny Smith apple (seriously do not use a red apple), a couple cloves of garlic, skinned and lightly crushed a bit, and a bit more oil. I fucked up the vac process so had to use a weight to keep the bag down at 140 Fahrenheit for about two hours.

The side was some canned green beans, poured in with the liquid and a teaspoon of vegetable base (Better than Bouillon my go to when I am not using stock). And fried a slice of bacon until crispy while waiting, minced that and put it in with the beans too.

Then fried (half-charred really) the pork chops and apples and the rest at medium-high until well past brown (supposedly 145 is the safe temperature for pork so this probably took it over the edge).

I separated out the apples and garlic as a side dish, along with the green beans and bacon, and now have two of those compartmentalized food storage containers for the next couple days.

Actually my favorite part was the apples. They were never directly hit with the spice mix but picked up a really nice, mellow heat that worked well with the tartness of Granny Smiths.

If there's a thing that's really really good about sous vide it is how any spice you use is absorbed by and permeates everything in the bag.

 

[Arkenas Einbrecht]

You need to always use lids with boiling produce for storage. Close jars when boiling hot.

Yis. I moved the water bath to the stove as the heating element wasn't heating it to a boil. Reprocessed the jars on the stove, took them off, most of them sealed inside of 10 minutes(only 2 took around an hour). My pickles are extremely soft as a result, but delicious! I'd be a lot happier had I not made that mistake, but I'll live.

Retard gonna retard!

 

[Dawdler]

You can get calcium chloride (Food grade) for keeping them firm. Vinegar and salt also slows cooking.
There's a lot of "chemistry" if you want them perfect or just have to learn the process without that. Add onions and pepper and coriandrum seeds for extra taste. I have to try cooking them in a jar one day and skip the pot cooking.
If you can't get a good boil, cover the lid with a rag, helps a lot.

 

[toilet_rainbow]

Had to use up some perishables before they went off. Some of what I made this week:

Chicken Alfredo (wife specifically requested this and ate all the leftovers)
Macaroni and Cheese
Red Beans and Rice (made such a huge pot of this that I need to bag up some leftovers tonight to not waste half of it)
This cheesy pinto beans recipe from BudgetBytes that's essentially chunky refried beans but with canned beans, no lard, and the cheese added in. Planning to use some of the leftovers to make burritos this weekend
Strawberry daiquiris

 

[skjora]

Got a large bag of foraged chanterelle mushrooms from a colleague this week, so tonight I used a bunch for a very simple butter/cream based sauce with some chicken. Barely used any seasoning other than salt and pepper, though a bit of rosemary would have been great. Absolutely delicious - I'd almost forgotten how good these mushrooms are, and especially how great the texture is.
Gonna use the rest of them tomorrow for a risotto.

 

[Marvin]

I made some pasta with sardines last night. I used a can of sardines, some capers, red pepper flakes, some olive oil and some lemon juice.

I had half a box of cavatappi I wanted to use up. It's good but the texture isn't really great for this kind of chunky sauce. It sorta all falls to the bottom. Probably should've gone with spaghetti.

Had to stir it up a bit, but otherwise still good.

Also the other day, I went to Whole Foods (sometimes I like to peruse the fancy rich people stuff) and I was trying to get some pumpernickel or rye, and all they had was this:


It's like a brick of bread. All the crusts trimmed off to make a perfect uniform brick of bread. It's German too. Is this some weird bread joke about German efficiency?

I gave it a try. It's not bad.

I also got some liverwurst and a few types of cheese and I've just been making slightly different hot liverwurst sandwiches every night.

One night I did Coleman's mustard + provolone, and another night I did horseradish cream + swiss.

 

[AnOminous]

One night I did Coleman's mustard + provolone, and another night I did horseradish cream + swiss.

Colman's is phenomenal. My current favorite prepared horseradish is St. Elmo's, which is also great for cocktail sauce for shrimp. They also have their own cocktail sauce, but I'd rather make it myself, or even buy both their cocktail sauce AND their horseradish and add the horseradish to the cocktail sauce.

I was surprised to find out Colman's has no horseradish in it itself. It's just actual mustard done properly.

 

[Marvin]

My current favorite prepared horseradish is St. Elmo's, which is also great for cocktail sauce for shrimp. They also have their own cocktail sauce, but I'd rather make it myself, or even buy both their cocktail sauce AND their horseradish and add the horseradish to the cocktail sauce.

I've got Dietz and Watson's brand right now. It's pretty good.

Using it in a cocktail sauce sounds excellent, actually. I don't usually steam shrimp at home, but I might sometime to try something like that.

I usually keep a bag of frozen (shelled) shrimp in my freezer to toss into instant ramen or for a quick dinner with pasta.

I was surprised to find out Colman's has no horseradish in it itself. It's just actual mustard done properly.

It's a rare gem of English food.

It's not spicy, it's... piquant. It's one of those condiments that you need to be careful about licking your fingers if you get it on your hands.

I got a tin of powdered Colman's to add to sauces and whatnot, but my local grocery store also has it in a squeeze bottle, which is very convenient.

 

[PositiveMonk]

Wanted to try making soup. First attempt was lentil soup. Came out pretty good, it's certainly not my favorite, but it seems really nutritious and filling while not tasting bad. It looks like with the leftover ingredients I have everything to make a vegetable soup so that's likely next. Also grabbed some sesame oil and sesame seeds to stir fry the leftover celery, which lets me try making green beans the way @AnOminous recommended in another thread.

 

[Akashic Retard]

+ Cast iron pan
+ 3 eggs
+ slow scrambled
+ dollop of cream cheese added and mixed in near the end
+ everything bagel seasoning

 

[Joshua Connor Tomar]

Sherry chicken

 

[toilet_rainbow]

Got a large bag of foraged chanterelle mushrooms from a colleague this week, so tonight I used a bunch for a very simple butter/cream based sauce with some chicken. Barely used any seasoning other than salt and pepper, though a bit of rosemary would have been great. Absolutely delicious - I'd almost forgotten how good these mushrooms are, and especially how great the texture is.
Gonna use the rest of them tomorrow for a risotto.

Mushrooms are one of my least favorite foods, but this sounds so delicious that I'm semi-tempted to try them one last time

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Chicken and dumplings. But it wasn't a triumph.
Same recipe as usual, but I was lazy - didn't have any rhyme of reason to how much cream I added - and so it came out thin like a chicken soup. And instead of cream I used a butter and milk mixture (I hate buying things like cream that I will never use up in a timely manner).

I use olive oil, as per a recipe, to cook the chicken, but I don't see any real point in it and it adds this greasiness to the whole dish. I'm just going to cook the chicken like I would for any other dish in the future, grease the bottom of the Dutch oven but with a paper towel.

The dumplings practically melted. For some reason I stuck them in the freezer after getting home (brainfart, I guess), so I had to chisel the dough out with a knife. Then I didn't turn the heat down enough, so it basically melted into the soup.

I don't even especially like (my) chicken and dumplings, but it's one of those things that you realize is extremely easy. The only other thing I make that's that easy is egg fried rice with spam and the Ohio River dish Skyline.

 

[Marvin]

Tonight I made pressure cooker turkey chili.

Normally I use beef, but I've heard about turkey chili a few times and I figured I'd give it a try out of curiosity.

I used a typical chili recipe, with beans. Browned the turkey in a pan, used a couple cans of tomatoes+jalapenos, a chili seasoning packet, some pinto beans (I know, non-standard). And finally, the other day when I was stocking up for this meal, on a whim I just grabbed this can of peppers off the shelf, and holy shit that made this the best chili I've ever made.

Incredibly flavorful, smoky, delicious peppers in sauce, really brought the whole thing together.

If you're making chili (or anything requiring hot peppers like that), I highly recommend you keep an eye out for this brand.

Added some sharp cheddar cheese and ate it with the last remaining piece of the goofy German pumpernickel bread I had.



Verdict? Honestly, the turkey doesn't make much of a difference vis a vis beef. Which makes sense, with chili, the real star of the show is the spices and chilis you add.

 

[Bored & Confused]

I tried making pumpkin bisque tonight in some vain attempt to surpass the bisque I bought for lunch from the local supermarket. It is so bland.

My disappointment is immeasurable, and my dinner is ruined. Maybe I'll get another cup of the stuff for lunch tomorrow.

 

[FrigginWeeb]

Don't have pics, but I made mustard-grilled burgers. you basically put mustard on the raw meat and cook it with it on it. gives a nice taste to the burger, but it doesn't crust up as much

 

[John Andrews Stan]

Suggestion for Colman’s English mustard fans, from the days before I quit pork:

Poach a ham in Coca-Cola. (Save the poaching liquid and use as a base for this lovely black bean soup.) Smear the outside of the cooked ham in treacle, rub with Colman’s and brown sugar, then stud with cloves. Blitz in a super hot oven until perfectly browned as shown below. (Oh wait here’s a precise recipe.) Serve with the best pineapple chutney ever, recipe below:



Ingredients

• 1 ripe pineapple peeled and cut into bite-size pieces (reserving 4T of pineapple juice)
• 1 medium cooking apple, cored and finely chopped
• 100ml apple cider vinegar
• 150g demerara or brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 star anise (optional; I omit this)

Method

• Put all the ingredients into a heavy pan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes or longer. Once it reaches a jammy consistency, set aside to cool slightly and then decant into sterilized jars.

This makes a hostess gift and goes well with all kinds of poultry as well as pork.

 

[skjora]

Mushrooms are one of my least favorite foods, but this sounds so delicious that I'm semi-tempted to try them one last time

I love mushrooms and struggle to comprehend how divisive they are in many places. Maybe has something to do with how they're treated and used?
If you're gonna give them one last try, I would suggest frying up some diced bacon and onions then adding sliced fresh (!) chanterelles. Fry some more then make a cream sauce with rosemary in the pan. Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes and some sort of sweet and tart relish/jam/jelly, or with rice and vegetables.

 

[Adamska]

In my experience there are two reasons why people don't like mushrooms. The most common reason is that it's because their first and main experience with them is with canned button shrooms. Those things are slimier and have a far more cloying flavor due to the canning process, so it emphasizes the worst aspects of a shroom. A guy I knew loathed shrooms until he had them in a dish after becoming an adult, since he only ever had them canned as a kid.

The other is just the texture or due to not liking the flavor, and that's fine. Sometimes you just can't eat a food unless you starve for a while because it makes you want to upchuck.