What Have You Cooked Recently?

It’s basically a hyper-simplified recipe that uses a shit-tonne of butter instead of olive oil. You basically take a 28-oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, cut a yellow onion in half and peel, half a stick of butter, and salt thrown in a pot and simmered for about 45 minutes. Mash up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as they’re cooking and you have enough sauce for a pound of pasta. It’s far better than it sounds.
You can also either chuck the onion or keep it in and blend it depending on how oniony you like it. I usually also throw in at least some oregano or basil.

I just mixed in Colman's mustard powder in a hamburger patty and made a hamburger. It could actually have done with more.
 
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You can also either chuck the onion or keep it in and blend it depending on how oniony you like it.
Grating the onion will make it melt into your sauce and it will let the bitterness, peppery heat and acidity of the onion cook away and leave just the sweetness and umami of the onion behind.

Another attempt at stock making. Learned a bunch. Got a lot more stock this time around and per-portioned then froze it for 3 different dishes plus cubes for chicken sauce. One of these days I'm going to make both coffee ice cubes and stock cubes and have a really shitty morning.

Also, I forgot to mention, don't throw away your bones after you've made your stock. You can reuse them to make a remouillage or second stock (similar to niban dashi).
 
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I cooked another Guinness meat pie, the recipe came from @Swole McPole . Thanks again mate, we don't typically see meat pies in the US.

Steak and ale pie.

They're all much of a muchness. Different chefs attempt to make it 'their own' by putting some unconventional shite in the mix. It claims to be 'Gordon Ramsay's' but as far as I can tell, it's just a standard steak and guinness pie.

If I haven't got shallots, I'll substitute an onion or two, Sometimes I'll chop in a couple of carrots or a stick of celery. Garlic is optional. Nobody used garlic in Ireland prior to the 1990's, I'm sure. My wife insists it's better if I make the filling a day in advance.

Steak and Guinness Pie: ..o o.

Serves 4 - 6, depending on how much meat you like. Six moderate servings, four big ones.

The filling for this pie is cooked long and slow, tenderising the beef and allowing the flavour of the Guinness to permeate it.

750g cheap cut of stewing steak, I use shin myself. Needs cooking slow, but when that connective tissue dissolves it makes a fantastically unctuous gravy. But any stewing/braising cut of steak is fine. Skirt is also good.
4 tbsp plain flour
Freshly ground salt and pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato purée
500ml Guinness
350g shallots, peeled
Few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled
500g pastry. I like shortcrust but puff is great as well.
1 egg yolk mixed with
1 tbsp water

1 Dice the beef into 2.5cm cubes. Place the flour in a medium-sized bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Roll the beef in the flour to coat.
2 Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the beef until golden brown in colour. Add the tomato purée and cook for 1 minute, stirring well. Then pour in the Guinness and add the shallot, thyme, bay leaf and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 2½ hours or until the meat is tender. It might take three hours or longer. Depends on the meat you use -- different cuts take different lengths of time. You don't want tough chewy steak in a pie. I like it when it's gone really soft. Other people like a chewier consistency. When you're done, remove the bay leaf and discard.
3 Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
4 Transfer the meat to a 20cm pie dish 5-7cm deep.
5 Roll out the pastry and cover the pie. Scrunch the pastry to the edge of the dish and trim around the edge, leaving 1-2cm overhanging. Brush the top with the egg.
6 Transfer to a baking tray and place in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes and serve immediately
/SPOILER]
 
I’ve been making a lot of the Moosewood Collective’s soups and stews lately. My current favorite is their West African Peanut Butter Soup which is both spicy and peanut-y.

I made the NYT’s stew recipe, and it was too French for me. I need to keep looking for a British version unless a fellow kiwi has a suggestion. (I’m leaning toward using mustard and Worcestershire instead of tomato paste and red wine vinegar?)
 
Pumpkin soup for the family, my mom has always insisted that she doesn't like pumpkin (I think she doesn't like the spice mix used in pumpkin spice flavored bullshit) but she loves this soup.
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I roasted the pumpkins in the oven the day before, tonight I sautéed some onion and garlic before adding in the pumpkin with salt, pepper, cumin, and cayanne. 4 cups of chicken broth, let it all simmer for ~20 minutes. Used an immersion blender to make it smooth and added what was supposed to be an artful swirl of yogurt (but instead looked like a bird shat in it)
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Very tasty!
 
Ok, I've tried and failed to make beef liver that doesn't taste like some nasty bullshit. Looking for recommendations if anyone has pulled it off. Crock pot recipes? Stir fry?
This recipe is absolutely the tastiest way I have found to cook liver. Just sub the chicken liver for beef by cutting it evenly into cubes or slices (i.e like sashimi). I always eat it over some Jasmine or short grain Japanese white rice. I would recommend trying lamb liver if you can find it, the taste is more mild than beef liver and it's just a little less nutritious but it's worth it. Also if you're going to grill/sauté/stir fry any liver, try marinating it in milk, I've found that works well at making it taste less pungant.
 
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Unfortunately, I made a crap loaf of bread. Similarly it was a new machine. I knew the yeast was well past expiry and the flour was on the iffy side, so I'm not terribly surprised. But I did put some of the yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar and it bloomed. Apparently not well enough.

Chucked the bunk ingredients and will try again.

At least I know it works now.
 
Ok, I've tried and failed to make beef liver that doesn't taste like some nasty bullshit. Looking for recommendations if anyone has pulled it off. Crock pot recipes? Stir fry?
If we are talking about liver from older animals, a classic technique to mellow the taste is soaking it in either 1 part milk + 1 part water, or a mixture of water and lemon or apple cider vinegar. You can also brine it instead, something I personally like. I usually trim the membranes and bigger veins and cut it before soaking/brining, cubes or strips for stews or thin slices for frying. Of course you can also brine or soak the whole thing if you prefer but I just like cutting it up before doing so.

Liver really needs salt so you need to find the amount you like on it, this is also where brining really helps.

If we are talking about liver from old animals I sometimes let it soak for as long as a day in the refrigerator in just plain water before brining it for an hour or two, depending on how thick the cuts are. Liver from younger animals usually do not need as much time and an hour or two of soaking/brining tends to do the job, even in plain water if you want to be really cheap and cut it beforehand. Using apple cider vinegar, lemon, or a brine will of course do a lot for flavor and texture.

My favorite way of cooking liver is thin slices (0.4-0.6 in) that are patted dry after soaking, lightly salted and with bit of white pepper, lightly covered in flour, and gently fried in butter, served with some vegetables (things like asparagus, haricot verts, scallions are great for this), potato wedges, and a béarnaise. Otherwise mixing liver together with other meats in a stew can be fantastic as well, I usually mix beef cubes, thinly sliced beef heart and kidney, and strips of liver together with onions, carrots as a base, then add whatever suitable vegetables and mushrooms I have on hand. Rosemary, bay leaves, and a variety of ground pepper corns are my basics for this kind of stew.


For what I have cooked recently, I just pulled a Chicago-style deep dish pizza with a sourdough crust from the oven. Made from base ingredients and my own sourdough starter, kneaded by hand because I just prefer doing it that way.
 
Do you know any reason the milk should be diluted? I soak it in straight whole milk but only because my grandmother did it that way.
Not really any special reason as far as I know, just saving money as whatever liquid you soak it in will usually be discarded. A really old relative also did tell me that they did not like how much milk flavor it imparted when using just milk, but that is just preference. I guess you could re-use the milk/liquid for soups or something if you really wanted to but since you are soaking the liver to remove unwanted flavors I have never bothered trying.
 
I don’t eat bread very often, but will go through stages (of about a fortnight each) when I become obsessed with sandwiches. I just appreciate the hell out of how flawless the concept of a sandwich is and that the practical reality can achieve such heights. Probably every person feels like they have made a perfect sandwich before, right?

Right now I’m really into roasted turkey with thick slices of tomato, thin half-moons of red onion, crisp iceberg lettuce, and mayo seasoned with pepper and/or Italian herbs. For the bread, homemade challah or baguettes by Cheesecake Factory (their “special brown bread” sold in supermarkets).

My seasonal sandwich fixation is grilled cheese. I’m pretty traditional and keep it simple, but one embellishment I’ve had that’s worth trying is spreading mayo on the bread prior to toasting. Didn’t do that today, just threw some havarti on Dave’s Killer 21 Whole Grains & Seeds and it really hit the spot.
 
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