What's cooking? part 4

I made tempeh "meat"balls with spaghetti and marinara sauce the other day, from an isa chandra moskowitz recipe, and it was just the greatest thing ive cooked in months

salted a bone-in NY strip and let it sit in the fridge overnight
pre-seared with a blowtorch
oven @ 250F for ~20 minutes (until internal temp was 105F)
cast iron pan screaming hot for 45-60 seconds on each side (internal temp 125F)
<3 - the overnight cure makes it taste pretty damn close to expensive dry-aged beef

whoa

xps not sure but worth a try. i LOVE liquid smoke, only need a drop for an entire recipe and it just gives that lift .

i asked about aquafaba upthread but i feel like that might be something you'd be into experimenting with, outdoor-miner (and also jaq!). i still haven't tried it again, maybe after xmas.

i've got four ilxors to bake xmas cookies for, so i best get on that.

yeah, i read a bit about aquafaba when you posted. def will work that into something someday, thx 4 reminding! i'm sure yer right abt liquid smoke. for some reason the concept of smoke in a bottle has eluded me. may have something to do with a scary gallon-sized jug we useda keep at work that i never saw anybody go near (except me to take a whiff)

Happy holidays ilx! I have an exciting meal I'm trying out. It's a lamb pithivier. I'm cooking a confit of lamb shoulder right now and I've folded the puff pastry once. I have 6 more times to fold the dough. I stole the idea from this http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lamb_shoulder_pastilla_74296 but instead of making pastille I'm making a pithivier.

Family coming over soon. Tradition dictates simplicity and reliability, therefore we're serving: baked ham, homemade cranberry & orange sauce, bakery bread & butter, braised Brussels sprouts, a shredded broccoli salad with sliced almonds & dried cranberries, blueberry cheesecake, Russian tea cake cookies, coffee, eggnog & whiskey.

made this for breakfast, omg delicious

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-ham-and-cheese-breakfas-43364

I made Swedish pancakes for breakfast, and lunch was spinach salad with pears sauteed in sherry/butter, spiced toasted pecans, pancetta, and three fried sage leaves on top of each one (dressing was dijon mustard/apple cider vin/s/p/oo). Ate hummus/cheese on crackers on the side, drank delicious beers. Just me & mr <3
later we will go to our friends' house where they will serve us delicious food that i didn't have to make!

I took the old reliable Apricot Nectar Cake recipe, a southern warhorse, and tried a pomegranate variation — turned out great. The violet juice made the cake turn out a dingy yellowish-brown color, but the flavor was A+.

What is violet juice??

I am making a "piecaken" for dessert - store bought apple pie in a white cake mix from a box

we thought it would be funny but I didnt feel like scratch baking a pie AND a cake for a joke / possible cakewreck

xp - just referring to the violet color of the pomegranate juice

I will never attempt to make puff pastry from scratch again.

^^^ what I said the one time I tried it

For our annual New Year's "open house" (drunken slurry with strange people) I'm making an all Chinese/Vietnamese menu, partially to impress somebody, and partially because it's the best food in the world? Six crispy fragrant ducks (brine on day one, steam on day two, deep fry on day three), black cod with lily buds, banh cuon, ground pork with salted fish, wonton soup topped with lo soi pork (stock and wontons from scratch), pomelo salad, fried rice, pickled mustard greens, and probably a couple things I'm forgetting-- enough to feed 80 people.

But, the point is that a few nights ago, with all these great ingredients, I decided to whip up mapo tofu for my boyfriend and I. We had it at Mission Chinese last time we were in NYC and it was delicious, and then a friend bought me the cookbook for Christmas, so I tried it out. It was.. one of the best and easiest things I've ever made and eaten, and I want to share it with everyone in the world. It's also vegan (the meat-version is delicious but v heavy).

Mapo Tofu

Before you start, make sure you’ve made Chili Oil and Chili Crisp (see below)

Base

2 oz dried shiitake mushrooms
3 cups very hot water
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup spicy bean paste (doubanjiang)
1/3 cup tomato paste

Combine shiitakes and water in medium bowl. Add soy and let soak for an hour. Drain, reserving the liquid. Whizz the mushrooms in a food processor until small chunks. You should have 1 cup of mushrooms.

Whisk together reserved liquid, bean paste, tomato paste, then add chopped mushrooms. You should have 3 1/2 cups; use 1 3/4 for this recipe and save the other half for next week.

Braise

1/2 cup chili oil (see below)
15 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup fermented black beans
1/3 cup chili crisp (see below)
1 12oz bottle of shitty beer
2 teaspoons mushroom paste (or MSG)
1 teaspoon toasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns
1 15oz package of firm tofu, cut into 1” cubes
1 teaspoon cornstarch slurry (optional)
Soy sauce

Also:

Chopped cilantro
2 Scallions, trimmed and sliced
Steamed rice
Sichuan peppercorn oil (optional)
Ground Sichuan pepper (optional)

In a large saucepan, heat chili oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, fermented black beans, chili crisp and cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic softens and the mixture becomes aromatic.

Add the beer, mushroom powder, Sichuan paper, and 1 3/4 cups of the base, and stir. Bring to a simmer, and let simmer for one hour. (At this point you can let cool and refrigerate or freeze for up to 2 months.)

Fold in the tofu and heat through. If the sauce is thin, add cornstarch slurry. Season with soy sauce if necessary.

Sprinkle herbs on top, serve with steamed rice. Add extra oil and/or pepper if you like.

Chili Oil and Chili Crisp

4 cups dried chilies de arbol, stems removed
1 tablespoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
3 star anise
1 3” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 3” cinnamon stick
1 black cardamon pod, smashed
10 garlic cloves
1/2 cup mushroom powder (or MSG)
3 tablespoons salt
4 cups peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
1/4 cup store-bought fried garlic (optional)
1/2 cup store-bough fried shallots (optional)
1 tablespoon fermented black beans (optional)

Combine chilies, peppercorns, anise, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic, mushroom powder and salt in a deep saucepan. In a separate pan, heat the oils to 375 F. Carefully and quickly pour the oil over the dry ingredients, whisking vigourously. The mixture will hiss and bubble. Allow to cool.

Strain the oil, reserving everything. Discard the larger spices (star anise and cinnamon), then mortar/pestle (or food process) the remaining solid ingredients until the size of red pepper flakes. Season with fish sauce, then incorporate enough oil to turn it into a salsa-like consistency. Add the garlic, shallots and beans if you like. Store crisp and oil separately.

made polenta pizza last night. turned out awesomer than expected. made fairly stiff batch of po-po, then spread it ~1/4" thick on sheet pan to cool. after the final pizza-topped product was finished it was actually stiff enough to pick up, like a actual pizza. small revelation.

HMMMM you've got me thinking about an arepa pizza now as a matter of fact.

fgti that is an amazing recipe but the chili oil/chile crisp part makes is not that easy?

or maybe easy but a lot of ingredients

anyone have any really sublime casserole recipes?

Just1ne to thread! And outdoor miner, too. Do you know of any totally reliable vegan cake recipes that don't involve chocolate?

has anyone re-used pasta cooking water to add to a stock instead of plain water? i'm not sure if it would give it some extra body or if it would just be too starchy

i cooked some udon for a noodle soup i am making later today and i need to make a stock for it, so i was thinking about using the cooking water

Sure why not? How salty is it?

went ahead and did it! turned out totally fine. tbh i didn't notice much of a difference because the vegetables in the stock dominated the flavor but it was a good stock

xps to ljub - i can't recommend anything, since i'm not really into cakes (too much work - i prefer cookies or vegan cheesecake) but if you go to veganbaking.net and look for any recipes by 'mattie', you should find something pretty good.

Thanks j! It's not me doing the baking (I got away with spiced nuts this time) but have passed the tip on to the person who offered to bake a congratulations cake, discovered the recipient was vegan, and valiantly did not withdraw their offer.

went ahead and did it! turned out totally fine. tbh i didn't notice much of a difference because the vegetables in the stock dominated the flavor but it was a good stock

― marcos, Friday, January 15, 2016 2:27 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wouldn't expect to do much for flavor --- it should make the liquid cling better to the noodles iirc

= extra body, as you said

xpost to ljubljana - vegan baking is something i'm going to be getting into in 2016 but have zero experience r/n

america's test kitchen recipes make me so crazy!

i made their lemon poundcake which i used to think was amazing. it's not! it's ok. in the cold light of day my dorie greenspan recipe was perfectly fine & i should have made that one instead - blow your melted butter & food processor out your damn ear, nerds

Got lazy braising short ribs last night and just held a box of wine over my (hot) dutch oven and sprayed wine in. Not sure I'm ever getting the purple splashback out the enamel.

xps. I'm not a very experienced baker - vegan or otherwise - , but I found this appleberry pie with the crust made with olive oil to be pretty great, and not at all olive oily, surprisingly.

http://www.theppk.com/2013/09/appleberry-pie-with-olive-oil-crust/

i hafta make that someday soon

Yeah, that looks great! thanks. In the end our designated vegan bakers didn't manage anything - the cake-promiser got sick and the quiche-promiser made a quiche that was 'too dense' for co-worker consumption (intriguing). I was down for spiced mixed nuts, and those were easy. So for the rest we bought some pretty decent nut/fruit tarts and some godawful dry tasteless shaving-foam topped carrot cake from a vegan bakery :/ Next time, appleberry pie.

Ruling my world right now even WITHOUT real dried Omani limes: http://www.saveur.com/omani-madrouba-porridge-recipe

My mom got all us kids one of these hilarious garlic grinders for Christmas. Turns out it is also very good for turning cashews into nut meal for thickening curries! (I warmed the nuts up in the microwave first for increased smushability.)

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/img/pb/332/025/378/378025332_373.jpg

i am really into the cooks illustrated new york bagel recipe and just cooked my third batch--with a little advanced planning it's not a ton of work and the results are way, way better than anything i can get in my nondescript suburb of boston.

oooh io, I have one of those! Must try cashew trick!

mum gave mr veg this awesome salt for xmas that is mixed with black olives & roasted garlic - had it rubbed on a pork loin that he grilled omg so good

Man, I fucked up J Kenji Lopez-Alt's non-pressure cooker chile con carne recipe because it was cold and I figured the oven would warm my house up.

Had it at 225F (which is about 250 in my oven) but didn't see any reduction at all and when I pulled it out to check it didn't seem to be at even a very low simmer so I thought something was off. Upped the temp and extended the time and then BAM dry, tough beef. But I'm eating that shit for two more nights anyway, I've got $30 invested.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/17/rachel-roddy-beens-greens-italian-roman-stew-recipe

this was pretty great. the bean broth really makes it.

I just ordered a bunch of Rancho Gordo beans and will definitely be doing a lot of beans and greens in coming weeks. Too bad my kale was finally done in by the snow (I assume).

love the way cooking beans makes my apartment smell

i was thinking about doing a rancho gordo order sometime--quincie, pls post any tips/thoughts on your experience here!

we just made escarole and white beans the other night, ate it over some crusty bread, it was a very easy dinner

This isn't my first RG order, but after having a bitch of a time cooking an el cheapo pound of dried black beans (costing 1/5 of RG, notably!), I decided to splurge. I also needed some more Mexican oregano, which I can normally get OK at places in the 'burbs, but had done RG's before and both cheap + good + delivered to my door. Shipping is a flat $12 (ugh) so you might as well get a bunch of beans while you are at it. I ordered 6 different kinds and will report back!

what is RG?

rancho gordo, heirloom bean seller!