The Cooking Thread

Yeah it came out really good. I'll post a picture of a bowl of the finished product tonight. I'm doubtful that I'll win the cook-off because it's an unfamiliar style to a lot of people here and there was a well-executed ground-beef-and-black-beans one, which is what "chili" typically means in this area, but I still consider myself a winner in this regard because I ate all the chilis and ours is the bomb.

Git yer got-damned ee-lo tronics 'way frum mah got-damned grill yuh got-damned yankee sum'a'bitch

Who are you calling a yankee? And that grill is from Chicago.

Heh, my cousin and I are looking for a setup like that, except we want it to send the output to something web accessible so we can have the smoker going while we're at the beach (he's got a house about a half mile from the beach, and we aspire to multitask).

Cheecago? Wit' yur got-damned pizzur and yur got-damned Muslin ter'rist president.

I got the 'Smitten Kitchen cookbook' for Christmas and have been gradually going through the recipes. Thursday night I made the cookbook's version of this http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/01/chicken-milanese-an-escarole-salad/
It was very yummy. The cookbook calls for arugula instead of escarole adds fennel and omits the onions in the salad, and adds lemon and mustard to the egg wash.

I'm not a big one for frying, but it worked out pretty well... Yum!

Made this Orangette recipe last night (technically, at two o'clock this morning) with frozen corn, as an experiment before I used up the fresh stuff my roommate got at Costco. Also substituted a Thai bird chili (seeded) for the jalapeno, because that's what I had. Apart from the first bite, where I got most of the chili in one evil searing mouthful, it was...okay? Not great. Tasty, certainly, but strange in texture, and adhered to every crevice in my teeth. Probably not again.

White bean & kale soup. I was a little dubious about how a soup that is essentially bean puree would taste, and the answer is surprisingly good! Oddly enough, it tastes like baked beans.

Yesterday I made two tartes, one lime (for friends and myself), one nuts with caramel cream (for colleagues). Both were well received, as where the cinnamon marshmallows I made on Friday and brought to work today to go with the second tarte. Perhaps I overdid the whole "making sweets" thing the last few days.

No such thing!

I made real oldschool simple food this weekend, but everything from the ground up and with great ingredients - so fried cod eggs ('cod roe' according to Google Translate), with fried potatoes and home made remoulade based sauce (tartar sauce sauce...) saturday.

And fish and chips with home made beer batter, expensive fresh cod and home made freshly cut fries.

Both were excellent, except that I was frying too big amounts at a time - I really need a better frier setup, but my wife won't allow me to buy a deepfrier, because she (rightly so) argues, that if I had one, I would use it often, and we really don't need a lot of fried food (her argument against an ice cream make is the same).

Everything in that post sounds delicious! However, while I do get the deep fryer reasoning, I do not understand how she can resist an ice cream maker. Self-made ice cream is so good, easy, and you know exactly what you get. Worst case, make lots of sorbets to reduce fat content. Of course, I recommend at least trying olive oil/lemon ice cream once.

So one of the dinners that makes reasonable rotation in my house is sliders. Making full-on burgers means getting the charcoal grill fired up and sometimes I just don't feel like doing that. Last night I made some, but made a few minor changes (one of them unintentional) to my usual recipe. Holy shit they were amazing.

I started with these. Yes, I know, they sell little buns at the store. I don't care, these are better. I usually make them on a sheet pan but every once in a while I get a wild hair and do something a bit different. I made sure to let the dough double in size (took much longer than an hour) then split it up into 16 (instead of 18, this was the unintentional thing) rolls in two cake pans. They baked up a lot thicker and fluffier than usual, which turned out to be a huge plus for the final product.

Tossed them in a ziploc bag and left them in there a few days until the main event. I used the recipe that's paired with the bun one, doubled it, and just split it 16 ways instead of 18. I didn't bother pressing the onions into the patty, instead opting to cook them in a pan with a little oil until they were nice and brown and delicious looking.

Little burgers come off the griddle and into some foil in the oven to keep warm. There's a bunch of grease just sitting there on the griddle, so I decide to make use of it. Split all the buns and warmed them up just a little in the microwave, then put them on the griddle to sop up some of the grease and get nice and toasty. Pull those off, put a mini burger on each one, slap on a nice helping of onions, and eat.

I have no photos, because I'm terrible at being a food hipster and they don't look terribly impressive anyway. But man, SO GOOD.

I had three small beets and tonight I used this recipe (with slight variation; no olive oil in baking but yes in the saute) and they were delicious.

So thank you pope Dean for the idea. Because otherwise they'd have been kind of lamely diced and thrown into something uninteresting.

Home deep fryers are universally terrible and you're way better off with a big pot full of oil. Use a digital probe thermometer if you're worried about temperature.

Good to know.

I did, but I kept putting too much in the oil at the time, so the temperature plummeted - next time I'll make smaller batches and find a way to keep the already made stuff heated.

Yeah, the only other real solution is to get a much larger pot, but the oil gets kind of expensive. Maybe a slow oven? If you have a gas oven that won't work well, as it'll generate water vapor as a byproduct of natural gas combustion - the oven will be too humid and your fried foods will get soggy. If you have a dual-fuel stove or electric, though, it's a good option.

You're welcome! The funny thing is that this is one of the better recipes, but the quote from the book is about Tyrion complaining about the crappy food he's getting in the North. So Tyrion does not like buttered beets.

One thing I forgot to say, they recommend putting a little balsamic vinegar on them once they're cooked. I know my wife hates any vinegar so I didn't do it, but last night I ate the leftovers with the balsamic and it was quite nice. Cuts the sweetness and makes it almost a savory dish.

What you need is a Stoker:



I have one of the older-generation ones and it's glorious. Being able to monitor and control the temperature of a pork shoulder from work is awesome.

If the temperature goes crazy, how do you explain to the boss that you have to go home to rescue dinner?

This is kind of a half-personal post, but it's cooking related so it should be shared here. It's Mardi Gras season, and this time of year I typically crank out a couple of king cakes to share with family/the office. In my younger days, a king cake from McKenzie's (long since closed, but man what ads we had back then) was one of my favorite things about visiting family in New Orleans. Try as I might, though, I've never quite been able to recreate it as I remember it.

So I made one today. I used a modified version of the cinnamon roll dough I made at Christmas, but braided it into a nice big oval-shaped monstrosity.




I pulled out a slice earlier and took a bite, and...



Holy shit.

There are only a few flavors in my life that I really have a deep, strong mental association with. My mother's fried shrimp, croquettes from Holland...but this one is one that hits deep. It's the taste of my grandparents' crazy huge house where my mother's massive family would gather on special occasions. It's the taste of being the most popular kid in class for a day because you took a trip to New Orleans and brought back a giant king cake to share with everyone. It's probably the single most defining taste of my childhood.

Not too bad for a glorified cinnamon roll.

Smitten Kitchen strikes again! Tonight was Gnocchi in a Tomato Broth, and it was divine. I've tried my hand and gnocchi once before; last time it turned out awful. This time I erred on the side of overbaking the potatoes, and it was perfect. Also: lots of flour; I don't know why but my dough was sticky as all hell; I had to use more than the called for 2 cups flour. Maybe my potatoes were just like super moist or something? I duno. Whatever though; it turned out so delicious. And in the broth, omg.... My brother's wife is a vegeterian and loves gnocchi, tomorrow I'll test my creation out on her and see what she thinks. Frankly, I find their uniform slight misshapenness endearing. It's proof they didn't come out of a machine in a factory!

Tomorrow, I cook one of my favorite things that I got off Food network, Giada's Rigatoni Bolognese. With modifications, of course. I may document it in photos but I can't promise they'll be very good because I suck at the photo making.

So after an hour and a half in the dark and not-cold-but-still-pretty-chilly at the dog park, I wanted something to warm me up.

Three parts milk to one part heavy cream. Cocoa powder, a puck of Mexican chocolate, just a bit of sugar. Plenty of vanilla. And to round it off, some Frangelico.

Bow down, all other hot chocolates, because this is what you were trying and failing to be. Mmmmmm.

Invited guests over and once again made my chili (with dried chili from the green house and freshly ground chuck) with Cheddar-Jalapeno shortbread - that bread is soo simple and everybody just loves it. Even the five children in the party - the youngest a five year old boy and quite picky and shy exclaimed unprodded"I really like your bread"..

For desert we had ice cream cones. Bought the cones, bought good Italian ice cream and made "guf" which is a kind of soft meringue (egg whites whipped to hard peaks, sugar and a bit of water heated until sugar is dissolved and then added to the whites while whisking, whisk for 5 minutes and refrigerate).

Good to know - that is the next recipe I want to make some Saturday. I've made gnocchi before, the first time it was meh, the second time it was awesome. I haven't tried the smitten kitchen recipe. So the question is, next Saturday, fried chicken or gnocchi?

BOTH!

Well, today I already had fried chicken, so perhaps gnocchi ?

Potato Enchilada soup. So simple, and so delicious!

We could probably stand to add black beans and corn too, but we're a picky lot.

I overcooked the potatoes a bit--still getting used to the electric stove again--but I'm sure hubby will forgive me, since it's his favorite of my soup inventions.

Avgolemono (chicken soup with egg yolks, citrus, rice, and dill) seems to be the perfect thing for a sick roommate and a not-much-better cook on a chilly day. :)

AAR from tonite's cooking incoming shortly!

I hate cooking, so I usually avoid it when possible, but I have a couple of cottage pies in the oven and they smell marvelous.

Oh, and may I had that it's really hard to do food prep with two cats roaming the counters? Thank FSM they don't jump on the stove, for fuck's sake. But I kept having to cover everything when I wasn't using it, to keep kitty noses out. Argh. I'm just lucky all four of them weren't hanging around!

Chili con carne. Duh, it's Super Bowl Sunday.

Also the perfect thing for hungry boyfriends. Mmmmmm, deliciousness.

Rigatoni with Sausage Bolognese

We're trying to make a habit of doing pasta dishes on Sunday, since they tend to be fairly easy, use ingredients that we often have on hand, and can be on the lower-calorie side while still being nice portions. We don't make this one often, because it's a little more work than our usual pasta dishes, but every now and then it is so goddamn good.

We adapted the recipe from Giada's Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese. Watching her make this on an episode of her show was one of the few times we said "We need to actually make that." So we did. And it was glorious. But we still ended up making some changes, because, well, we're fussy. Mostly me.

The original recipe calls for:

• 1-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups hot water
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 ounces assorted mushrooms (like shiitake, cremini, and brown), stemmed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• 1/4 cup Parmesan

Not bad, but we felt it needed some tweaking. First thing, there's way too much pasta there. That whole "2oz is a serving of pasta" is fucking bullshit. That's what the Carbohydrate lobby wants you to think. I use 10oz of pasta for the recipe that may serve 6-8 depending on serving size. Second: more veggies! We use about 4 medium carrots, a large sweet onion, another ounce or two of mushrooms, and an extra half a bell pepper. Our rule of thumb for recipes is normally double whatever amount of garlic they use, but in this case, we ended up tripling it. We like garlic, damnit. If you're not freshly grinding your black pepper, it's CRITICAL you only use 3/4 of a tsp - 1 tsp of store-bound black pepper will be a bit overwhelming because of the finer grind and a greater amount of pepper in that volume compared to fresh ground. I omit the Parmesan because I don't find the dish needs it and I began to dial back the cream cheese as well. The 1.5 cups of water is to soak the porcini mushrooms and then that is eventually added to the mix followed by a reducing period, I eventually decided "fuck that" and nixed the water. You'll see why later. Finally, we like our protein and eat this as a main dish, so I add some hot italian sausage - turkey sausage since we like to keep it lighter.
Our modified ingredients list:

• 1-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
• 4 medium carrots, unpeeled and chopped
• 1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (alternatively: 3/4 tsp dried powdered thyme)
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves (alternatively: 3/4 tsp dried oregano)
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (alternatively: .75 tsp store bought ground pepper)
• 6-7 ounces assorted mushrooms (like shiitake, cremini, and brown), stemmed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat cream cheese
• 10oz rigatoni pasta
• 1 cup (homemade if possible) chicken stock (store-bought broth is an acceptable substitute)
• 12oz (approximately 3) Italian sausages (we use Jennie-O Hot Turkey Sausage)

The instructions largely mirror hers with some small variations to accommodate our additional ingredients.Let's begin.

Mix the red wine and the chicken stock in a small pot and bring it almost to boiling.



Remove from the heat and place the dried mushrooms into the pot. Set aside and let the mushrooms soften. Oh yeah, why the hell would you soak the mushrooms in water when you could soak them in homemade stock and wine? This means less reducing needed later because we've got less liquid being added up front. #WINNING.



Chop your vegetables






and then place the carrots, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse the vegetables until finely chopped but still chunky.




Use a knife to cut a seam along the length of the sausage so that you can remove the casing. Place the sausage in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat to brown.



Break it up as it cooks to create a nice ground meat consistency and ensure even browning.




Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside in a covered container to stay warm. Add the olive oil to the pan juices and then add the carrot, onion, bell pepper, and garlic mixture. Add the thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook until tender, about 6 minutes.



Strain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the porcini mushroom/broth/wine liquid. Add the porcini mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, and tomato paste and continue cooking, stirring to dissolve the tomato paste, until the mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes.



Add the porcini mushroom liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, about 10 minutes.



Stare are how beautiful that is getting.



Add cream cheese and stir just until the cheese is incorporated.

Meanwhile, (around the time that you add the porcini mushrooms) bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 10 to 14 minutes. Drain pasta (and don't you dare rinse it you heathen), reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta liquid. Fold pasta into sauce pot, coating everything nicely. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid, if necessary, to moisten the sauce. You probably won't need any.

Serve and enjoy.



Rich, savory, meaty, peppery and spicy from the sausage, great texture from the veggies, and extremely filling.

The way we make it, with the turkey sausage, it's also very healthy. Assuming 6 rather large servings (as pictured):

• Calories 448.8
• Total Fat 17.9 g
  • Saturated Fat 4.0 g
  • Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
  • Monounsaturated Fat 7.3 g
• Cholesterol 42.4 mg
• Sodium 1,391.2 mg
• Potassium 437.3 mg
• Total Carbohydrate 48.8 g
  • Dietary Fiber 5.6 g
  • Sugars 4.6 g
• Protein 19.6 g

Reduce numbers by 25% if you decide to stretch it to 8 servings. I don't know why you'd want to do that though. It's hard to resist eating the whole batch.

So. Damn. Good.

Wow, Ryan, that looks divine. Definitely on my things-to-try list. Thank you! :D

Let's be honest, sweetheart, you enjoy most anything I cook. :) Though this soup did seem to go down better than most. It's one of the uglier things I've ever made, but apparently quite tasty.

Recipe, if anyone's interested: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/avgolemono-chicken-soup-w_n_1058208.html

Been on a bit of a healthy food kick lately, and an asian kick. So tonight I'm making noodles w/ ginger scallion sauce and a fried egg. I'd poach the egg, but I suck at egg poaching.

The ginger scallion sauce is courtesy of Momofuku, which I have been to and - despite how trendy it's become to sneer at how trendy Momofuku is - the food there is fucking amazing. I paid sixteen bucks for a bowl of ramen and I'd happily have paid twice that, it was that good. Recipe can be found here.

Ramen gets a bad rap because many people only know the instant variety, but fresh Ramen is fantastic.

Yeah Momofuku noodle bar in NYC is amazing. Pricey, but what isn't in the city?

Instant ramen is OK, the main difference between that and the good stuff isn't so much freshness but rather that the good stuff is made with egg, whereas the instant stuff is just generic flour type pasta.