What Have You Cooked Recently?

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I salt cured some sockeye salmon for the first time, now I can't stop eating it
 
following up on
Thinking hot dogs rolled up in tortillas in the oven, with cheese, kraut, and jalapenos.

first batch of three dogs done
did them in the oven at 375 for about a half hour in some cookware
next batch probably 350 for 20m-ish still in cookware
also tossed in some random leftover Christmas ham bits, and some old-ish green onions I have to burn through
not bad
the tortillas cracked even as I wrapped them up, least bad was the dog I wrapped two around like two doing the venn diagram thing left and right with the dog in the middle, next batch going to lube them up with some olive oil
as is I can sorta wiggle them out of the casserole dish but not clean enough they don't need a fork, but I suspect there's enough content in them that a fork is going to be needed no matter what
also I gotta chop the green onions, I only cut them in half and they ended up a big chewy long noodle of an onion
dogs are some random cheap shit ball park "angus" bun length, nice enough handicapping for Ball Park
 
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Fruitcake. I don't like nuts so it doesn't have nuts.
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I used a Nordic Ware lemon loaf pan because it was more interesting than a regular pan. I'm looking at buying one of the "heritage" or "jubilee" bundt shapes.
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I soaked rasins, candied ginger, and candied fruit mix in rum and Cointreau for a few days. Thank you @FatalTater for helping me figure out the candied fruit. Added crushed pineapple and cooked the fruit down with sugar and butter in the remaining liquor and a cup of sparkling cider I had set out earlier to let go flat.
Once that had reduced some I mixed in the flour, spices, etc and put it in the greased pan. Baked at 325º for exactly 1 hr. Waited an hour before removing it from the pan and brushed it with more Cointreau. I will make it again but will probably swap dried pineapple for the crushed to give the cake a firmer texture.
 
Fruitcake. I don't like nuts so it doesn't have nuts.
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I used a Nordic Ware lemon loaf pan because it was more interesting than a regular pan. I'm looking at buying one of the "heritage" or "jubilee" bundt shapes.
View attachment 1816054
I soaked rasins, candied ginger, and candied fruit mix in rum and Cointreau for a few days. Thank you @FatalTater for helping me figure out the candied fruit. Added crushed pineapple and cooked the fruit down with sugar and butter in the remaining liquor and a cup of sparkling cider I had set out earlier to let go flat.
Once that had reduced some I mixed in the flour, spices, etc and put it in the greased pan. Baked at 325º for exactly 1 hr. Waited an hour before removing it from the pan and brushed it with more Cointreau. I will make it again but will probably swap dried pineapple for the crushed to give the cake a firmer texture.
That pan shape is freaking adorable, and the cake looks amazing.
 
I'm still working on Prime Rib leftover from Christmas. I thought I ordered 4 pounds, turns out I ordered 4 ribs which translates to about 9 pounds. Oh well, lots of lovely sandwiches with crusty bread and horseradish and stroganoff. She's not bad reheated in and of herself you just don't want to nuke it. Please never microwave beef. Any other ideas of what to do with the remainder?
 
I've been on a diet but I took the "don't eat a lot" thing a bit too far today and came home from work utterly ravenous because I hadn't had more than a croissant sandwich. Unfortunately my attempt at a double yolk fried egg and mushroom wrap turned out godawful but I don't have anything else to eat that doesn't require the same amount of prep so I'm choking it down.
 
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I cooked a spiral cut ham that was meant for Christmas but we didn't get around to it. It was my first time cooking ham. It was one that was precooked, you just thawed it, stuck it in the oven and glazed it. But it's amazing. I usually don't like regular deli ham but when it's covered in sugar syrup it's unhealthy ambrosia. I also made Caesar salad and rolls too.
 
Made Medovik. Had to make my own dulce de leche in the oven which took a very long time. Medovik is very time-intensive because 8-12 very thin cakes have to be cooked separately for 5-8 minutes, and usually only 2 can fit in the oven at a time. Burning the honey, cutting out 8" parchment paper rounds, smearing thick batter very thinly over it, baking them all, and then assembling it took forever. The cake was good but the frosting (mix of whipped cream, dulce de leche, and burnt honey) was way too sweet for my taste. I think it might be better with a sour cream frosting. The cake was 10/10 but the frosting was 3/10.
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Don't have a pic, but it looked like this. The layers looked less even, though. I don't have babushka-tier baking skill yet.
I've been on a diet
Diet Hack: Spend a ridiculous amount of time making something new and difficult, realise you don't like it, and be too exhausted to make something else.
 
A roasted Cornish game hen with nothing but salt and pepper on it, and a bit of oil for browning. I just wanted something bland and small after a month straight of holiday gorging.
I cooked a spiral cut ham that was meant for Christmas but we didn't get around to it. It was my first time cooking ham. It was one that was precooked, you just thawed it, stuck it in the oven and glazed it. But it's amazing. I usually don't like regular deli ham but when it's covered in sugar syrup it's unhealthy ambrosia. I also made Caesar salad and rolls too.
My go to for these if I don't just get lazy is sticking pineapple rings to it with toothpicks and coating it in and out of the spiral with brown sugar and ground cloves, and using a turkey baster to baste it a couple times during cooking. The pineapple itself is a nice treat by itself once it's done. The pineapple tenderizes it and adds a slight pineapple flavor but also gets the brown sugar/clove mix to penetrate the ham a bit as well.
 
A roasted Cornish game hen with nothing but salt and pepper on it, and a bit of oil for browning. I just wanted something bland and small after a month straight of holiday gorging.

My go to for these if I don't just get lazy is sticking pineapple rings to it with toothpicks and coating it in and out of the spiral with brown sugar and ground cloves, and using a turkey baster to baste it a couple times during cooking. The pineapple itself is a nice treat by itself once it's done. The pineapple tenderizes it and adds a slight pineapple flavor but also gets the brown sugar/clove mix to penetrate the ham a bit as well.
See, I'm kicking myself about that. I remembered I had a can of pineapple rings in the pantry only after I had wrapped the ham up and it'd been in for 30 minutes. Maybe next time, I love pineapple when grilled or cooked. Maybe even get whole cloves to stick into it too.
 
Stir-fried chicken and broccoli with rice and brown sauce. Had to make a few substitutions to the recipe - namely because I couldn't find any Shaoxing wine or dark soy sauce at the store - but it turned out pretty good. I'm going to attempt it again once I can get my hands on the missing ingredients.
 
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I like frozen vegetable mixes, like the kind you find in the freezer aisle in bags. They are usually mixes of different beans and legumes and greens, along with a little bit of base sofrito to make them taste good out of the bag. I don't like to steam them in the bag; I usually add my own spices and mix in some more vegetables and a little meat if I feel like it. But it's difficult to make a meal like that in the cookware I was using, because heating up the frozen vegetable mix in a saute pan made it dry and a regular basket steamer made it mushy. Cooking the meat separately lost the goodness of the fond and steaming the vegetables in a basket steamer lost a lot of nutrients to the steaming water.

I found the solution was my tagine. It has a cast iron bottom and a ceramic top, and while it's designed to slow-cook small cuts of meat it's perfect for frozen veg mixes. If you're using diced meat or onions, brown it in the base and then add the frozen mix with a little bit of broth (or water, but broth tastes better.) Season and cover up to simmer for a while on med-low. With a tagine, unlike a steamer, you can lift the lid to check progress without messing up the texture of the frozen ingredients. It's the best way I've found so far for making frozen vegetables taste like fresh-cooked. This was another weird purchase I thought would be single-use (cooking goat or lamb), and instead I find I'm using it a lot to make good side dishes out of frozen ingredients.
 
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This week I did a pantry raid and had a leftover jar of Queso Cheese Dip. I mixed it with fresh broccoli, stuffed the mixture in a chicken breast seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, and cumin. Baked it and it turned out better than I thought.
Served with classic Mexican rice that was a nice compliment.
 
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