what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

the first time i did it they were a little too thick as well. getting each piece to that perfect point where the center is thin but doesn't break is the hard part.

FFS, I finally got motivated to make one of my favourite dishes last night (first time since I had my baby) and made enough for two nights but today I got a cold and can't taste any of it

kept coming across recipes that call for liquid smoke so picked some up the other day. made tempeh bacon that was pretty tasty on a baconlettuceavocadotempheh sando. and just prepped "tomato lox" which has kelp powder for "oceanic" qualities, smoke, soy sauce, and that's about it. gonna make some pasta with cashew cream sauce and lay some "tomato lox" slices on top and see if it puts me in the mind of salmon in cream sauce. i love salmon but hate to support the farmed salmon industry and the good stuff is a little beyond my student budget these days i reckon.

I love this recipe for tempeh bacon:
http://www.yourveganmom.com/your_vegan_mom/2008/08/the-b.html

tomato lox sounds pretty good! where'd you find the recipe??

i just stumbled upon it randomly here: https://www.carrotsandflowers.com/vegan-ny-bagels-tomato-lox-recipe/
it was the second vegan lox recipe i looked at, the first one involved roasting carrots then shaving thin slices, but i opted going with the former.

xpost: i'll try that one next time, ty. looks like it might be better than the one i used. do you bother steaming the tempeh ahead of time when you make it, just1n3?

I always have in the past but I don’t know how much it matters with such a heavy marinade?

I’m really sensitive to bitterness though, so I probably wouldn’t risk not steaming it

tha tomato lox was deece, not sure if i'll make that again though

Culurgiones look freakin' sweet! def. gonna (try and) make these tomorrow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjGcUI4CS0E

Yeah, I am going to make these ^^^ at some point when I am back home in my kitchen.

pasta grannies!!

Neglected the quince tree in a bumper crop year and a few have been subject to windfall. Rough headcount gives around 150 of decent size still on the tree. Started picking the ones that come off easily enough. What to do with it though? Beyond quince jelly I'm not really sure. Any suggestions without too much effort?

nice quince and honey pie? http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/9527/quince-pie.aspx

Funny timing afaic. Don't think I've ever worked w quincies and was just thinking about making a soup w a ingredient I've only used a couple times - sunchokes. Thinkin of making soup tomorrow.
Today gonna try lentil "meatballs".

Sorry I am zero help!

Yeah maybe poached. Akin to poached pears?

yeah there's a good poached recipe w/cardamom here, along with other ideas:

https://www.epicurious.com/ingredient/quince

i am making my third cherry pie (ever, not today)
they are not that hard and the payoff is an entire delicious pie, well worth the effort imo

the crust is giving me ideas about savory winter pies and i am liking what comes to mind. the possibilities are endless.

no fancy lattice stuff, just two simple pie crusts on top and bottom

how hard actually is pie, i've never made one because it seems like a black art to me

speaking as a former pastry chef, basic pie is easy. the minute details of "perfect crust" is a rabbit hole that lasts a lifetime. don't let that stop you!

thanks for the encouragement! i had a friend in college who would be like "you look a little down, let me make you a pie" and honestly it was like knowing a good witch, she would just conjure one of those babies up and everything would be better

also savory hand pies are in my top five favorite foods, so i feel like i should learn how to make them

as to what i have cooked lately (since everyone cares): cacio e pepe last night for the first time, scandalously easy

hankerin for mapo tofu, but i'm out of fermented black beans and santa fe doesn't have an asian grocery as far as i can tell

after I read the extensive cacio e pepe discussion upthread I tried a recipe out of Milk Street, it seemed off somehow, too much water? the variation in recipes is staggering.

yeah if you let go of ideals of perfection it’s p dope

there’s definitely a lot of variables in pastry making that make it seem like a hellscape when you are reading about it but as long as you keep your fats chilled & dont let yr dough get too warm when you work it, it’s all good

and it’s kinda fun, i love rolling dough

and srsly if you like cacio e pepe then pastry making is a relaxing step down from that lol

i’ve used the one i copied into the thread multiple times since; it’s never let me down.

does the milk st. recipe have butter or oil?

i used something between kenji's recipe on SE, and uh basically every other recipe i found? except w/o butter because i didn't have any on hand (parm is usually the only dairy product in the house)

wasn't perfect (though i've never actually had it before), but i think in my case it was because i actually didn't have enough water

xxp

also i somehow missed the extensive cacio e pepe discussion???

maybe it was on previous thread?

to CAD: no, just water, cornstarch, pecorino Romano, pasta, salt, pepper

VG reminds me I do have basic advice for pie crust - everything as cold as possible. I used to chill the flour in the walkin fridge, in a metal bowl. pour your water directly off of ice for maximum coldness, frozen butter, everything as cold as possible.

wait re CeP -- no fat at all (aside from the cheese)???

also cooking homies i do not want to brag (i do) but i am currently living in an apt that is outfitted with a commercial kitchen for some reason and having lived with electric stovetops for oh about ten years i am pretty pumped

for the record I was deeply suspicious of the Milk St recipe but wanted to give it a try, I was underwhelmed

lol that bit about electric stovetops reminds me of one of my favorite food snob quotes, seen in some kitchen porn magazine around 17 years ago - "If you have to cook with electric, you might as well just go out to eat"

although I don't agree 100%, I've always found the quote amusing

i am using my friend's mom's very basic recipe but 1) it's vegan so my vegan friends will eat it 2) it's easy -- I made my first one with her two daughters, aged 4 and 6 and we rolled the dough with a Kahlua bottle and 3) the ingredients are shelf-stable and that means i can make one ANYTIME and 4) having the ability to make decent pie crust without complicating it totally makes me feel like a witch/wizard. i can post the recipe but i am sure you will find one.

i asked my friend to have me over to teach me because that works best for me and is also fun; then even though i was distracted by having fun, i wrote the recipe (and have added notes) in my purse notebook. whatever works, yknow.

wait re CeP -- no fat at all (aside from the cheese)???

― gbx, Saturday, September 29, 2018 12:10 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah! the versions with extra fat all just end up tasting like that fat to me.

Electric stoves are awesome if the alternative is a flat glass top one. I’ve used three of these - last place I rented before buying a house, my parent’s house, my mother in law’s - and they’re always awful

huh, I would have thought those were better!

They’re easy to clean but that is literally the only good thing. There’s always some sort of thermostat or safety thing that keeps the burner from overheating so they cycle on and off instead of being consistent. I often have to trick it by only covering half the burner surface

Our induction top is flat glass and it’s fabulous

the CeP recipe on Pasta Grannies, she just whips all the grated pecorino, pepper and hot pasta water together until she has a nice sauce. and then tosses the pasta with sauce in a pan.

Xps savory pies are one of things I miss most from New Zealand. The mince (ground beef) pie, the mince and cheese pie, the bacon and egg pie - all classic nz foods.

xpost to fionnland - quince makes very good relish and chutneys. I did a cranberry/quince/pecan relish a few years back that was really good. Quince paste, quincesauce (applesauce-ish), use it in baked goods etc.

Making potato leek soup rn. Love things made of like four ingredients.

I made potato leek soup last weekend using leeks from the garden, and it was glorious. Used the recipe below except:

* Used russet potatoes instead of Yukon gold ones because russets take in seasoning better.
* Left out sage cos I didn't have any.
* Put in a few chunks of cauliflower with the other veg.
* Used half chicken broth and half water for the liquid.
* Put in two cut up stalks of celery with the other veg.
* After all the veg were boiled through, I fished out the celery & herbs and threw away, then scooped most of the potato chunks into a bowl, then pureed everything that was left in the pot with an immersion blender, then added the chunky potatoes back in.
* Did not add any cream but did melt shredded gouda into each serving.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017981-golden-leek-and-potato-soup

What is it about soups that makes it seem like they're pouring health and life into your body?? Solid foods just don't have the magic no matter how good they are.

once I made a basic leek and potato soup and threw in leftover roasted parsnips and it was so good I always make it like that now

I made soup twice in the last week cause it's finally kind of cold out and the furnace kicked on for the first time in months.

Last week I made a kimchee stew - kimchee and pork belly and onions and doenjang and gochujang fried together with broth added and soft tofu and green onions at the end. I never really ate a lot of Korean food until a couple years ago and just started getting into cooking some of the dishes that seem to exist to use up kimchee. Unlike gbx I lived in a place with no real asian market for a decade and now live less than a mile from an incredible one with literally everything I've ever wanted and it's amazing.

Last night I made chicken and leek soup with peas and tarragon and old timey DUMPLINGS! on top.

I’ve been using japanese recipe apps a lot recently. The best two are Kurashiro and Delish Kitchen and the recipes feature little videos. Last night I cooked Fried beans with Chirimen (sardine fry) 揚げ大豆のじゃこ炒め. Really delicious although I’m not sure where I can get more chirimen in Australia. The ones I have were a souvenir of the Kyoto railway museum.

I've been working toward the unachievable perfect biscotti the last few months -- about 25 batches now, mostly for family and friends and a couple of failures into the trash. For a brief moment I thought about trying to pitch them to the local coffee shop. Getting the right balance of dough to fruit/nut/chip additions, playing with flavor extracts.

I know this is ultra trendy right now, but I have been making golden milk a lot (tumeric, black pepper, ginger, etc. milk). It's very soothing.

ooh i love golden milk. i have never ordered it out but make it at home as needed. i think i first had it as a free sample at whole foods and i looked at the ingredients and was like oh i can do that. i have tried it with different milks and settled on coconut or almond as the most delicious. i like regular milk in coffee though.

I have only used soy milk because it was what was available. It's amazing how you can't even taste the black pepper. I should try the almond/coconut versions. Do you put anything else in it? I realized that we ran out of cinnamon so i put in some pumpkin spice (blech). It was either that or garam masala.

i keep it simple -- grated fresh ginger, a shake of dried turmeric*, a twist of black papper, spoonful of honey. that's all it needs to be delicious imo!

* (i use fresh in smoothies if i can find it)