what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

Poke is a racket, i agree yerac

as far as lunch today i checked the 4th "healthy bowl" place off the list and it was prob the worst of the 4. i should have just gone back to gene's chinese flatbread cafe and gotten the insanely glutinous xi'an noodles again.

The seasonal miso salad at sweetgreen minus the rice is extreemely good. As is the fish taco salad, subbing in 1/2 romaine for the arugula to get some crunch. I’m financually ruined by these salads though.

It's super easy to make poke (we make it once a week).

I still have never been to sweetgreen. Yeah, I always swap out what I could buy with the money for a salad/lunch with something else. Like a bottle of wine. Or get a manicure.

sweetgreen salads are really good but i hate eating salads for lunch. too many uncooked greens in the middle of the day for me.

I have thought of getting manicures. I bite my nails and i think i might be inspired to stop if my hands looked great

I love uncooked greens

they're great but i can't eat an entire lunch of them

If i spent less money on food and had beautiful hands, i’d probably be happier

I eat salads at work (that I make) otherwise I get too sleepy and it forces me to eat salad.

Yeah try a mani/pedi. It's very nice. I make my spouse go sometimes for his feet. I usually can only do one or the other because I get aggravated about how long it takes.

treesh, if you can eat the same things every day, you can assemble salad like those for like $3 each probably. i don't so much anymore but used to roast some vegetables, put them in a container, then keep one of those 1 lb containers of field greens in the fridge, then in the morning put the vegetables and the greens together with whatever meat, shredded beef, chicken, or tuna. and i have a couple of these dressing containers https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Salad-Dressing-Shaker/dp/B003L0OOR6 which i only spilled in my car one time. better to put dressing in at the time of eating because the salad greens will wilt otherwise.

^^^ Yeah, I think I posted about what I buy at TJs to make my salads for the week. And then I put grey poupon on it only as dressing. Which sounds weird, but it's really good. Or maybe that is just me.

congrats, Treesh. That is a good start.

Yerac sammich looks otm.

Scarpetta spaghetti was great with the homemade noodles, but the difference was very subtle. The noodles are whiter, smoother, and cook for less time. The flavor is different but also milder than the all semolina dry noodles. It seems to be more about texture. Anyway, I was thrilled that it worked out on this first try. But I think homemade pasta probably matters more for something like ravioli.

Oh nice. I prefer fresh pasta just because I like the texture better. It's probably because I like things on the doughier side. But fresh pasta is super quick to cook. You did the sauce with the infused oil too?

I don't have any breadcrumbs to coat the paneer (if I manage to make it) but I do have some quinoa flakes (cereal) am thinking about using that instead. The last time I was in London last year I had this super good, huge paneer wrap for maybe 5 quid. It was so delicious. I think about it a lot.

treesh, Rome wasn't built in a day. you're just laying the first foundations.

xp yes, on the quick to cook. I think i did 2.5 minutes from frozen. Also did the infused oil. We really love that sauce with 50/50 canned and fresh tomatoes. Thanks again for getting us hooked.

I am interested in your paneer adventure. I've made it before and it was quite simple. I think the only possible mistake would be scalding the milk as you bring it to boil. I've only made quite crumbly paneer for kofta. I wonder if getting the solid brick comes simply from more time in the cheesecloth or what.

speaking of kofta i was perusing a big Yucatan book the other week and it turns out a lot of Lebanese emigrated there @ some point so there was this Kibi de Papa recipe - mashed potato gets mixed with mint, bulghur, oregano, orange zest, chiles, a few dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) formed and then fried. i have never eaten a kibi before but am gonna make these someday soon
finally got my gas turned on after a week without and am gonna be a little boring and make split pea soup cuz it's easy and comforting

xpost we have been quite lazy and only doing the canned tomatos, but so easy once you have a system of wandering away and coming back to stir down.

xp I've also never eaten a kibi but fried potato, risotto, etc balls are generally good

gonna make a bold claim here but imho most spherical foods are good

i agree. also cool names like kofta, kibi, and strangolapreti

albondigas is a cool word

speaking of kofta i was perusing a big Yucatan book the other week and it turns out a lot of Lebanese emigrated there @ some point so there was this Kibi de Papa recipe - mashed potato gets mixed with mint, bulghur, oregano, orange zest, chiles, a few dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) formed and then fried. i have never eaten a kibi before but am gonna make these someday soon

this is extremely my shit, might need to peruse this book somewhere

dang that sounds delicious

i'm ~94% certain it was this book: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/04/cook-the-book-yucatan-by-david-sterling.html
found it @ my local library and i'll try to remember to confirm. i already have a HUGE desire to visit Mexico and the book only added to the where/how long. i made a simple pot of beans from one of the recipes that called for caramelizing onions, adding cumin and oregano, chile (i used chopped habanero), and i subbed liquid smoke for bacon since i don't eat land animals, and that got added to the cooked beans (i used pintos cuz they're my fave, but recipe called for blackies). tha little variation elevated beans to out-bloody-rageous heights. made a rice dish (from book) to go with it that, again, was slightly different than i'd ever prepared rice and both of them combined was absolutely A+.

albondigas is a cool word

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Friday, January 18, 2019 11:38 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

albóndigas, por favor

I have some vegan albondigas in my freezer.

outdoor miner. When you get a chance can you post the approximate portions for that black bean thing. We make a lot of black beans and I want to try it. I am going to have to figure out a bacon/liquid smoke sub though.

vegan meatballs with fake ground beef, or?
why no liquid smoke?

this is literally what i wrote down from book (it's quite simple but the flavors REALLY married after about 24 hours and was the best beans i've ever made iirc):
Simple Beans
1# Black or pintos – cook. Separately carmelize large onion (i cut into thin half-moons), adding t oreg., t cumin, habanero, liquid smoke to finish

chipotle powder sub for smoke? not sure i like the idea of canned chipotle for this on account of the acidity

Looks like soy protein. It's this brand. http://riku.cl/productos/albondigas-veganas/

I am in chile. I don't know how easy it will be to buy liquid smoke here. I do have some AZ mesquite smoked whisky. Maybe that will work.

yeah we have family bring us liquid smoke when they visit, otherwise it’s not available

I did buy some fresh milk today (although I think it wasn't whole milk) so I am feeling better that the paneer making will happen. I am going to just use lemon juice I guess for the acid.

you have mesquite smoked whisky! capful may do the trick? other obvious thing i just thought of is vegan bacon but maybe not available where you are as well.

those meatballs look good. i barely know Spanish, but looks like a seitan-y/soy protein combo. am guessing "laurel" in the seasonings is bay leaf. i like that

Someone visiting from Arizona brought it to us as a gift. It is this whiskey.
http://whiskeyreviewer.com/2015/02/del-bac-dorado-mesquite-smoked-whiskey_021215/

I am the easiest person to shop for. Just bring me food or weird alcohols.

had a smoked rum once @ a bar in LA that was insane

it's probably (almost certainly, based on my brief experience in chile) not more available than liquid smoke but i like using lapsang souchong leaves for smokiness in things

Oh! I need to check what tea I have. We sometimes I have a roasted rice tea but I think that is likely too subtle.

I've had an amazing jalapeno tequila with lapsang tea before.

www.bonappetit.com/recipe/root-vegetable-tagine-with-sweet-potatoes-carrots-turnips-and-spice-roasted-chickpeas/

made this veg tagine but with red skinned potatoes instead of sweet, dried turkish apricots instead of sundried tomatoes, fresh mint, and pearl couscous. Pretty good! Similar to chana masala but with the preserved lemon instead of pomegranate seed for the sour. The roastiness of the chickpeas also made for a good meat sub.

i've never oven-roasted chickpeas. seems like a good idea.

It is. You have to cook them before roasting. But you can do a lot by changing the spice mix and using them as a drinking snack as well.

Lebanese 7 spice is a good one

I made the tandoori paneer sandwich. Which turned into more of a paneer wrap and paneer salad. It was good! Although the one liter of milk only produced about 1 & 1/4 inch X 3 inch piece of paneer, but it was tasty and not dry (like some I have bought). The paneer was ridiculously easy to make. I did it while watching one of the Fyre Festival docs. I really like my quinoa flake breading (super crunchy) but I forgot I didn't have flour so tried to use semolina and no egg white so it wasn't sticking that well. And then I kind of just winged the rest of the spices in the recipe.

But one revelation is that making tandoori mayo is worth it. I didn't make the mayo from scratch but used this vegan mayo we had in the fridge and mixed in red chili powder, mango powder, lime juice, garam masala and a madras curry mix i got from sainsbury.

Oh that should read one liter of milk produce 1/4 inch X 3 inch square of paneer.

Maybe 1/2 inch thick. Just definitely not an inch.

Yeah, there's not much there after it all separates. It is so simple to make that it feels like a waste of money to buy it. We live by a grocery outlet that often has high quality milk at a good price with the catch that it is not too far out from the sell by date. Making cheap paneer from the fanciest milk brings me joy.

Tandoori mayo sounds like a great addition to the usual mint chutney and tamarind sauce for pakora or samosas

Speaking of indian-ish mayo things I made egg salad the other day and added some mango pickle instead of my usual Dijon mustard and it was surprisingly good

I made rice noodles for pad see ew yesterday. The batter is very simple, but it was difficult to distribute it within the pan and force a uniformly thin sheet. You have to steam them, apparently, so your sheet size is limited by the largest steam chamber you can construct in the kitchen. This is the main frustration. I wonder if you can do it in the oven with sheet pans and steam from ice cubes? Anyway, they tasted fine but were a bit thick.

that sounds fun! have a recipe. or any pics?

What was your rice noodle batter? I've only made pad see ew doing a regular all purpose flour/water noodle.