What's cooking? part 4

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!

Central Market near me has RG beans - I bought a bag of flageolets for a recipe (http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017328-collard-greens-tagine-with-flageolets) but haven't gotten around to it yet.

made a vegan curried cauli frittata. so simple. and so damn **ckin' delish

I tried to make vegetable broth with mirepoix left over from a knife skills class and it just smells like planty onion water. Fail. Needs more chicken.

:(

miso is the best veggie broth imo

I was thinking that as I lamented.

just finished up some butterless, oil-less, cacio e pepe. it basically only tastes like salt and pepper and is maybe my platonic ideal of food.

so... dry cooked pasta with salt and pepper on it?

the idea is you melt pecorino romano in really starchy pasta water to form a sauce

method here, followed to the letter and i was happy: https://talesofambrosia.com/2013/03/04/how-to-make-spaghetti-cacio-e-pepe-like-a-roman/

i've made it with oil/butter before but not without. that's interesting.

yeah i have no idea what's authentic or w/e but i looked at a ton of recipes and liked the challenge of doing it this way.

that pasta dish is my ideal italian meal. plain pasta with a little butter and lots of parmesan and pepper is my go-to comfort meal of all time. i'll have to get some pecorino and try it this way.

sort of the antithesis of this thread but: what are your favorite little-to-no prep meals/snacks?

e.g. one of mine is grainy bread like ezekial, toasted and spread with ripe avocado then topped with a little diced onion that's been sauteed in butter with a bit of soy sauce, maybe a poached or fried egg on top too. or steamed broccoli topped with a couple fried eggs and fresh parmesan with lots of black pepper.

i'm looking for little meals that have a decent nutrition content and balance of fat and protein. the carb-y they are, the better, since i discovered a while ago that i definitely feel better when i eat a lot less white carbs.

those kinds of meals are often my favorite tbh. elaborate things are nice too but sometimes after spending a few hours cooking a complex meal i find that i don't have as much an appetite for it

sourdough toast with kimchi and mayo

(lol i am gross)

Asparagus and poached eggs
'Risotto' made with orzo, frozen peas and pancetta cubes
Big Mac Meal.

ripe avocado on grainy bread is such a good example of this, i will pour some s/p, olive oil, some crushed red chiles and some lime or lemon juice on mine, it is a pretty standard breakfast or lunch for me especially in the summer

toast with savory toppings is a good general formula for this

i eat stuff like toast with hummus, dill pickle chips, and hot sauce all the time

another summer one is good quality ripe tomatoes, sliced, burrata cheese, olive oil, s/p, some crusty bread, fresh basil

it sounds weird especially to me since ive always thought i hated cottage cheese but after reading about it in deborah madison's vegetarian cooking for everyone i've enjoyed some cottage cheese w/ olive oil, s/p and some bread as a simple breakfast or snack

also heidi swanson's super natural every day has a lot of these kinds of things, she really likes hard cooked eggs a lot so she has all kinds of creative snacks based on hard cooked eggs

oh i'm def into modified versions of caprese salad! love tomato and cheese of any type xp

i follow her blog!

oh cool!

yea mozzerella is always great of course but burrata is just so luxurious and rich

white rice + mustard greens or broccoli rabe or similar bitter green w/ chili oil and miso paste + a fried egg is easy and nice too

eggs are amazing obv, i eat a lot of eggs. there are all kinds of omelets that are tasty and are always easy to make. another deborah madison one is an open omelet finished with carmelized onions, walnuts, and a dark vinegar, finished for a few seconds in the broiler. i will had some brie or some other rich cheese to it and maybe an easily wilted green like arugula or cress

border cookbook has some nice egg recipes to it , including a "santa fe" omelet which is basically just a cheddar or jack omelet w/ green chile sauce on top eaten w/ tortillas

peanut butter & ritz crackers

noodles + broccoli (sometimes add onion and/or mushrooms)

white rice + mustard greens or broccoli rabe or similar bitter green w/ chili oil and miso paste + a fried egg is easy and nice too

I need to add this to my standard rotation

am i spelling omelet wrong? it looks so weird. i guess it is "omelette"

I made butter chicken for the first time the other day and it made an enormous amount of sauce. It's so handy and versatile for poaching/simmering a bit of protein that I may try just making up a bunch of that and freezing it in 12 oz. containers for a quick meal. Chicken, shrimp, tofu, tilapia filet all work well in that, throw in a handful of spinach, leftover rice, done.

i've only just discovered that a egg, esp fried or poached, is really thing that often makes a snack into a meal.

unfortunately, i can't do bitter greens - i really can't stand any kind of bitterness!! my unsophisticated palate is not wired that way :/

fried eggs and fresh parmesan with lots of black pepper

This is one of my favorite things ever, like sort of a carbonara thing.

I've gotten so lazy/concise about cooking since having a kid, I just can't bother spending a lot of time on something elaborate. One weekly standard now is some combination of roast cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, beets, or asparagus cooked at 450 on sheet pans with chicken breasts, thighs, or pork chops started in a hot pan and finished in the oven.

Adding some sort of sauce or garnish at the end - yogurt and chutney, harissa, lemon and capers, thai sweet chili sauce - lets it vary a lot and not be as boring. You can basically stagger when you put stuff in the oven and walk away for a while which is great when a toddler is poking the dog with a truck.

lately i've been doing a ton of zucchini sauteed with a little oil and salt, add a can or two of roasted tomatoes, and then a package of this really great no-meat ground "beef" that tj's carries and lots of fresh parmesan.

xp that still sounds much more elaborate than anything i do...

i;ve basically ~retired~ from cooking, and my life is so much better!! i felt like i wouldn't be eating properly if i didn't cook regularly, but then i realized that i ate terribly no matter how i cook anyway, and that i would actually eat better if i cut most of the cooking part out.

i think i always felt like i had to cook to make sure my husband was eating properly, but that wasn't coming from him, it was just me. then when we got serious about cutting down carbs, the main and mostly only thing we did was cut out the white carbs at dinner and started eating salads. he's terrible in the kitchen but likes eating a lot of salad and it's easy to make himself. that helped me take the pressure off myself.

i haven't cooked a proper meal in months! it's awesome!

a couple of great sauces that you can freeze and pour over veggies and protein:
makhani gravy

sweet red pepper sauce

yea condiments and sauces are v important

It is a fact that slow cooker beef chili is the groan inducing dad joke of recipes, but mine is getting really good since I decided to get back to first principles and just combine immense volumes of raw stew beef with immense amounts of seasoning in such a way that they fight each other to a draw over six hours at low. Here are some key things though:

- I was browning the beef for a while. No more. It wastes the juice, and toughens the beef. I have no idea why people do it, to be honest. It's in every other recipe though! Why? I like being able to cut it with a spoon when it's done.

- Beans are a joke. Full stop. Chili should not have jokes in it, too meta.

- One of the best America's Test Kitchen ideas ever is to use tortillas shredded into very tiny pieces soaked in beer as a thickener. I actually dice the tortillas - some corn, some flour - and I splurge on a good malty beer like a brown or amber. This works, you should do it.

- Buy some gloves. I stopped using jalapenos because they're too grassy. Last batch I diced up five little orange habaneros and three plump red cherry peppers. The gloves are a lifesaver.

- all the soft, cold stuff goes in a big pile in the pot, with the beef chunks on the top.

- I dice up the bacon and then throw it on foil, the foil goes in the toaster oven, 20 minutes at 400F. Leave the grease on the foil, use a plastic spatula to get the bacon bits off without tearing the foil. Crumple up the foil and chuck it. No frying pan! No scrubbing required!

- mix up all the salt & dry seasonings in a little bowl and then use a teaspoon to distribute evenly across the top of everything. apply lid, let cook for 2 hours or so, then get out ye wooden chili spoon and break the crust and stir everything in.

I'm thinking of some tweaks involving such as garam masala or allspice in the next batch or so. Also thinking about using different peppers.

I add a little 5 spice powder and a dab of hoisin sauce.

Has anyone used a tagine - is it better on the hob or the oven? I got one from a charity shop, cleaned it, and concerned it will crack in the oven. I think it's ceramic, not clay.

Anyway.

Thanks!

Tomboto = Kenan?

Some tagines you can get are definitely only for presentation.