what's cooking? part 5: 2017-2027

not because it really needs to go to 2027 because we'll all be under the ocean by then but because part 4 started in 2007

i made some pretty great tomato soup yesterday

san marzano toms + butter in pressure cooker w salt and baking soda
veggie stock + drained liquid from toms + a few bags of lapsang souchong
puree toms w stick blender, drain through sieve, combine with liquid ingredients
maple syrup + fish sauce to taste

how do you get to the point in life where you're putting heterodox ingredients like tea, maple syrup and fish sauce in tomato soup? is this entirely your own invention or are you following some unknown and wild tradition?

its the food of my people

bored single men who spend a lot of time on food blogs

well I am impressed, it sounds delicious (though not sure about the tea). how long did you cook it for?

toms were in the pressure cooker for 20mins, which is the bulk of the cooking time

in the context of bold tomato flavor and stock, the tea adds primarily smokiness and some sweetness. it's worth trying, i think!

Were these canned whole toms? Why pressure cooker? Why baking soda???

whole canned toms

pressure cooker reaches higher temperatures, which, in combination with the increased pH you get with baking soda, leads to caramelization that would be impossible otherwise

i actually made a batch earlier in the week that i forgot to add baking soda to and the difference is pretty noticeable --- w/o it the soup is much brighter and more acidic/tomato-y (which might be what you want!)

i have a bream in the oven, stuffed it with lemon, garlic and parsley, threw a few slices of potato around it and i've got cabbage braising in some stock on the hob. been roasting fish a lot in the last few months, feels like one of the nicest things to eat without much effort.

Making a lamb shoulder tonight with broccoli and the serious eats roasted potatoes that I believe somebody posted on the other thread and have been intriguing me since.

how do you get to the point in life where you're putting heterodox ingredients like tea, maple syrup and fish sauce in tomato soup?

otm

its the food of my people

bored single men who spend a lot of time on food blogs

loltm

What are these blogs? Are they instant pot propagandists?

hey gbx do you do a natural release or quick release on the p.c. with this method?

mine's electric so i just do a slow release

should I get an instant pot? it seems like more like an appliance of convenience rather than one of, like, some crazy new benefit (like sous vide)

rfi: what is yr favorite way to prepare fennel?
preferably side dish but i'll take all comers

one place i worked at useda make a potato, fennel and leek gratin that was nice. other ideas: superthin sliced and put in a salad is great, too. or "melted", cooked slowly in olive oil with onions and garlic to get it really soft and borderline carmelised could be a nice side?

fennel is nice roasted

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/vegan-ramen-miso-creamy-vegan-vegetarian-food-lab-recipe.html

going to cook this at the weekend

I like fennel raw in salads, sautéed with leeks & green beans, roasted & carved up with a piece of meat or fish

Jim: it's good. Double and freeze, for all the effort.

thanks everyone! pretty new to fennel. i tried braising it in stock & vermouth last night & it turned out delicious, keen to try some of these recommendations

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/02/vegan-ramen-miso-creamy-vegan-vegetarian-food-lab-recipe.html

going to cook this at the weekend

― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, January 10, 2017 5:28 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man i've been wanting to try that but its daunting --- soda, you've done it? how long did it take?

i like fennel here are some things

fen risotto, maybe w/ salami
fen & chickpea broth w/ lemon zest and chilli
fen & potato soup
baked fen in like a puttanesca sauce w/ orange zest and feta
roast pork w fen (add fen seeds to pork herb rub too)
any bit of wite fish w/ fen, thyme, rosemary, lemon zest, capers etc

pernod good to have around just for fen

also if u ever want to parboil fen for anything do it in milk, or mostly milk, and keep for mash potato or gratin later

I don't like fennel because it is anise-y. I feel like I need to broaden my horizons tho w/r/t winter vegetables, I can't only eat potatoes all year, and I love kale but let's be honest it's not in season in February.

A friend is coming over on Sat bc she wants advice on cooking large hunks of meat. Considering a pot roast alongside a rolled stuffed pork loin -- one easy, one complicated.

try parsnips! one of our favorite winter things is just roasted winter veggies (beets, onions, carrots, garlic, parsnips, turnips, potatoes) mixed up with some olive oil, rosemary, and a bit of sausage, cover and bake.

best way to enjoy fennel is to throw it in the damn garbage bcz it tastes like licorice and it is GROSS

I made a great pork dish with star anise the other night and the first time I made it I used like one star anise (recipe says 5) because I hate licorice but actually it's so subtle it's really good so I always use 5 now

THANK U STEVIE YOU <---> ME = SAME TEAM

anise and fennel are wonderful flavors

that said i have bought fennel bulbs in the past and they have rotted in my fridge bc i couldn't decide what to do with them fast enough :/

tbh I wish I didnt' loathe anise/fennel bcz it wd make things a lot easier but welp here we are, what can ya do

parsnips are the devil fyi

hmph

parsnips are fine, they're sweet and a lil weird but they're fine

quickest way to ruin a soup imo

THE DEVIL

parsnips are good caramelized together with other vegetables as the base for a winter soup stock, they contribute a lot of complexity and are similar to carrots w/ their sweetness. im not a fan of plain parsnips though

for burly winter root vegetables i prefer celeriac

I stand with VG.

Honey roast parsnips are my secret ingredient in a veggie soup

monsters, all of u

mushroom pizza that has a bunch of rehydrated porcinis sauteed with a load of criminis and garlic, on top of fontina, carmelized onions with rosemary playing the role of sauce on some bland-o plain white dough i made

haven't had farinata in years, might attempt this recipe for saturday lunch http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/05/how-to-make-farinata-italian-chickpea-pancake.html

we had my brother and his family over for dinner the other night. they love cooking indian and so do we, so we made a huge feast. i haven't cooked this much food in a while:

masoor dal
benghali green beans and potatoes
tomato sambal
summer squash w/ mustard seeds
saag tofu

All the way at the other end of the vegetarian-omnivore spectrum, I'm making beef stock today.

I agree with VG that parsnips would not work well in any soup I know about, but they roast well and were quite acceptable in a beef and peanut stew recipe my wife made just a few days ago.

I really like roasted parsnips but they are such a damn awkward shape--the top fat part and the itty bitty skinny end make it diffcult to get evenly-roasting pieces.

i was on a serious chard kick before the temps ramped up but never thought of a gratin.

Hi,
You need 4 chiense eggplants (the long ones), could maybe use Italian or Graffiti eggplants in a pinch but not globe
-cup of yellow split peas
-2 tbsps of tomato paste
-onions (1 large or 2 small)
-optional garlic cloves
-14 oz canned whole or diced tomato of your choice (i like mutti cherry tomatoes for this)
-pinch of saffron
-4 limoo amani
-pomegranate syrup (or pomegranate molasses if you prefer more tart/less sweet), 3-4 tbsps
-optional french frying potatoes
-optional rosewater (add a splash at the end)
-optional ground cardamom (add a dash at the end)
-oil to coat the pan and eggplants
-salt

let us know how the gratin turns out!!

masoor dal won’t work, it’s not a matter of criminality they just break down too fast.

oh and a cinnamon stick… knew i forgot something
you can use ground cinnamon and it will taste the same but then you will lose the intensely intense red color that is honestly my favorite thing about this dish

oh and turmeric

quincie it’s unlikely i’ll have time to post this recipe in the next week tho sorry :(

No apologies please, you gave me what I need to give it a go! I have everything you listed at home except for eggplant and split peas aka the main ingredients :)

Super glad to have a use for the limoo, pomegranate syrup, etc. that I have but don't use nearly enough.

TYVM!

(I would not, however, discourage you from making an epic post along the lines of your ghormeh sabzi post, to which I have returned to multiple times and--along with your Persian rice instructions--remains a U&K ILX post to moi)

i’m thinking maybe i’ll link to 3 or 4 diff recipes and comment.
the main points are to fry the tomato paste for a few mins to get the deep red color
and to fry the peas a bit so they don’t break down if you cook them a long time, but this is risky (the cheat is to boil them separately and add near the end, it's faster and gives a more consistent result but not as good as the long way when it works)
and how to prep, slice, and roast the eggplant.

The eggplant prep tips would be #1 for me!

Cleaning out freezer and trying to delay another round of grocery shopping, I found a whole bag of glutinous rice cakes! Bonanza. Have been stir-frying for days with cabbage, gochujang, aromatics, and chopped up andouille--I know, it shouldn't work, but it so does. Throw in a little chicken stock, sesame oil, squeeze of lime. It's no cuisine and every cuisine at once.

pear and blackberry crumble

the syrup from poaching the pears has already made its way into a thyme, gin and ginger fizz while we await the end results

Sunday sauce is in the slow cooker, had a bit of a late start because we forgot to go get the missing ingredients first thing this morning, but it’ll be OK.

beef mince, tomato puree, rice and peas - for my dog. gonna add an egg too.

https://i.postimg.cc/d0JHhSdG/20250810-191110.jpg

is there a restaurant thread?

went here for my birthday, holy shit it was good

https://www.domekeugene.com/

what a lovely looking menu IMHO. HB, sleeve, if that was recent!

it was! Thursday.

they had off-menu stuff as well, apparently it changes every week. super good pierogies.

Tonight is Impossible Sausage etoufee night! Haven’t made a proper roux in AGES so I’m really looking forward to it.

dear PBKR, I have 56 oz of blanched peeled San Marzano tomatoes from our garden ready to go, but I have some followup questions on the sauce.

- just one onion? and one zucchini? any measurements for those?

- can I sub regular water for pasta water since I am making the sauce a day ahead? or, is there a good sub for pasta water? do I just dissolve some flour in water like a diluted roux?

I think I'm clear on everything else, looking forward to it. our plum tomatoes have been AMAZING this year.

oops I see my first question was already answered upthread, still curious about the pasta water step

ive had a beef chilli in the slow cooker for 24 hrs its about to get ridiculous in this house

aw yeah

Today is slow cooker vodka sauce day. Unfortunately I think I may already have fucked it up; I confused the fresh oregano measurement for a dry oregano measurement

high fives deems

floury water is a total flavour killer imo. I think it was also posted upthread that seasoning a sauce with the salty pasta water can be more than enough seasoning, I agree.

sleeve, I would just make the sauce the day before and leave it a little on the thicker side. You don't need to add any water when you are making it unless the tomato gets so low it isn't covering the zucchini. In that case, I would heat water in a kettle and add a little if you need to (just so you don't lower the heat of the sauce by adding cold water).

The next day, bring water for pasta to a boil, put the pasta in, reheat the sauce while the pasta cooks, then add the pasta to the sauce and finish cooking them together. You can add some pasta water at this stage if you need to adjust the consistency but I would be judicious.

awesome thx all!

we're using penne b/c we don't have a bigger one but I think that should work fine

Yeah, penne will be fine.

I have been making a standard veg ragu for pasta, and cooking out some red lentils with some fresh tomatoes and tinned. Nothing special amongst the ingredients, but lots of cooking time for the magic to happen and it never disappoints. Maybe improve it with some lamb mince when I'm richer next week.

I'm using a lot of olive oil at the moment and feel like after the disastrous drought summer for European agriculture, this might be some end times moment for such luxury

I slow roasted a lamb shoulder today following my trusty recipe that gives sweet, tender meat. Thought it was a bit weird that not much fat was coming off it and it wasn't behaving like I expected. About 3 hours in I fished the packaging out of the bin and realised it was (half) leg not shoulder. No idea how I got that wrong, oops.
Anyway it was very nice so no harm done.

I also made an apple and cinnamon cake yesterday that totally sank in the middle and was undercooked. Again no idea how that happened as I checked with a skewer twice. But was still nice as a dessert. Possibly I put too much apple in as I was trying to use up more than one single apple off our trees.

I think my brain has been overloaded of late.

I want to make a ton of apple sauce so I wonder how I'll manage to fuck that up...

deems tell me about your chilli. I made my very bog-standard one yesterday and we all ate way too much.

it had depth - how could it not- but def needed more zing

i chopped two more chillis up and dunked them in and put it back on for an hour so we'll see again tomorrow

oh the initial liquor was a pint of coffee, which didnt have any actual end effect afaict but was still interesting

what is a good chilli? for me, spices: cinnamon, coriander, cumin, cayenne, chilli powder and cocoa powder. Ground beef well caramelised before adding to sauce. Chickpeas and red kidneybeans obv. Fresh coriander and squeezed lime, roast sweet potatoes and rice. Sometimes some nonsense version of *Mexican rice* sauteed in onions, garlic and cumin with passata and chicken stock.

Moodles has a go-to chili recipe that I use! I think I just have a jpg, hang on

https://i.imgur.com/FlR23xY.jpeg

no cocoa powder? that has to be added!

it certainly wouldn't hurt!

I usually do half the beef and +1 can of pintos

lol I have presented you all with an outstanding chili spice blend above and got called an alchemist

don’t forget to add a little old coffee when reheating

i like to riff on rainbowplantlife’s chili recipe which has the cocoa and the ancho and all the usual suspects plus maple syrup and smoked paprika

approx 4 PM and I have all the fresh zucchini slices submerged under the bubbling tomato lava, all is well. gotta gather my handful of herbs.

<3 hope you enjoy

I made a really interesting stew of beans with yellow squash, corn, tomatoes, roasted peppers, and green beans with crumbled feta on top. Late summer in a bowl.

pretty sure my wife liked it even more than me - we had to use orecchiette b/c the penne was a fake almost-empty box.

we also used tromboncini not zucchini but I think that might work even better? very firm.

herbs were fresh basil and oregano

oven roasted some chicken thighs that had been marinating in tandoori masala + yogurt and other things, came out really well.

yogurt marinades are such a cheat code. incredible stuff.

i made this yesterday on the grill, on the recommendation of a cousin of mine. delightful. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021197-gingery-grilled-chicken-thighs-with-charred-peaches

one of my favourite easy meals is spiced yoghurt marinated chicken thighs roasted with baby potatoes, then chuck over more yoghurt, chopped tomatoes, red onions and coriander. probably off bbcgoodfood.

pretty sure my wife liked it even more than me - we had to use orecchiette b/c the penne was a fake almost-empty box.

we also used tromboncini not zucchini but I think that might work even better? very firm.

― sleeve, Sunday, September 7, 2025 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

herbs were fresh basil and oregano

― sleeve, Sunday, September 7, 2025 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Glad it was good. I've never heard of tomboncini - I had to look it up.