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.

if anyone subscribes to kenji's newsletter, the peruvian take on halal cart chicken and rice is so good

I bought this localized Caribbean cookbook for our extended trip, "105 recipes based on eleven staple ingredients":
https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/products/belly-full

so far I've made this rad chicken stew with a lot of allspice - "chicken colombo"

if anyone subscribes to kenji's newsletter, the peruvian take on halal cart chicken and rice is so good

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Tuesday, April 21, 2026 9:12 PM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

where does he put his stuff now? his grilled peruvian chicken is amazing so i'm curious about this variation.

he's got a patreon, the recipe link is here https://frienji.kenjilopezalt.com/posts/154925785?collection=1800562

email me at kkeller914 at gmalil dot com if you can't see the recipe there and I'll send you screenshots of the recipe

offer is good for anyone here btw just email me

though should be said kenji is a mensch and has great shit for home cooks and is worth your dollars

thanks kev! i was a huge fan of kenji when i was learning to cook and still reference the food lab and his seriouseats stuff on a regular basis. did not realize he had moved to patreon. i am loathe to do subs but maybe i'll check it out for a month or two.

After our weeklong vacation to LA (during which we consumed a great deal of excellent restaurant goodies) I realized how much I really, really miss cooking for my family at home.

Tonight is black bean soup night in which I adapt the ATK recipe by subbing in a couple of Field Roast’s Spicy Chipotle “sausages” for the ham steak. I love it so much

That's very sweet. I look forward to cold weather giving me the urge to cook again.

I ordered enough Indian food for 3-4 people yesterday and that counts as grocery shopping for a few days.

Oooh I love doing that — I think you just solved my problem for the next busy few days!!!

I also just made a pork roast in my slow cooker so maybe I’m being overzealous about food availability. (Extremely typical behavior for me)

also: pork loin stuffed with dried apricots macerated in white wine. you baste the pork joint with the wine that the apricots have macerated in.

was going to do a plum tart for afters, but was too lazy, so decided to do baked plums to have with some nice goats cheese i picked up.

🤯

Fizzles out here ballin'.

looool also so typical for me too. I'm an ingredient house atp and I have to make whatever food I want (which is why the take-out is kind of a big deal). Thawing a lb of ground pork bc I bought a jar of ginger-garlic paste and want to try out not having to mince everything. That plus cabbage + carrots will probably go into a peanut butter-rice noodle situation.

I made some peri peri tofu, with the PP being mostly homemade (Sriracha and soy sauce excepted), and it was really good!

I made Detroit style pizza Sunday night with all sorts of vegan goodies on top and my family declared it my best pizza ever

Adopt me.

it's so satisfying when you really nail a pizza, especially the crust

Yes. This one got so bubbly and handsome I almost felt guilty smothering it with toppings and sauce.

Except I just remembered there was also a lot of cheese. So not really vegan at all. But could have been, if my partner tolerated cheese substitutes the way we all have learned to love impossible sausage

lol I was wondering how a vegan pizza would be best-ever!

ha, yeah, cheese subs still have a long way to go

I made Detroit style pizza Sunday night with all sorts of vegan goodies on top and my family declared it my best pizza ever

― trm (tombotomod), Tuesday, September 1, 2026 9:14 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’ve been really into detroit style pizza lately too. there’s a spot here in LA that’s won a bunch of awards that I’m addicted to. I have a pan that should be suitable so I might try my hand at one later this week.

I started making dough using "00" flour for the first time a bit ago, and a) I barely knead it; b) the results have been brilliant, and am just pizza'ing in a toaster oven with a 1/4 sheet pan. Was thinking of getting a proper pizza oven, like an Effeuno, but am already satisfied with current results. so, anyone else either into this "00" or have a pizza oven they love?

back pre-kid when i occasionally had time to make pasta from scratch i would use the 00 flour. pretty much every source i was using at the time highly recommended it. seems to be a little easier to get nowadays too.

Homemade Jokes

Anyway I’m in the IIABDFI club wrt pizza ovens and fancy flour and I’m having a great time with a regular-ass stove and King Arthur AP so far.

Even with parenting I can still find time to make a pizza from scratch once a week. It’s a fun project now that I’m getting better at not fucking it up!

I used 00 flour a few times for pizza and didn't notice any difference from AP flour.

Got a big bag of pecans from a family friend the other day. Should I start with something simple like bars or go crazy and try to make my first ever pie from scratch?

Pie from scratch isn't terribly hard but I haven't bothered in a few years, but if you want to have the experience I'd say go for it.

Pecan Pie from scratch is super easy imo! -I’ll put the recipe here

http://desertcandy.blogspot.com/2007/11/pecan-pie.html

pretty much no-fail - just keep an eye on the temp/time & cover w foil if you need to towards the end

VG otm

my fave pecan variant is with kumquat and bourbon

https://www.lottieanddoof.com/2010/04/pecan-maple-pie-with-kumquats-and-bourbon-the-party-continues/

i like to toast them with my chile powder blend, butter, salt, sugar and put them in granola/on french toast/in chia pudding/on salads/even sometimes in pasta. i also am the sort of person who would never make a fruit pie when i could eat the fruit as is.

ohh yeah candied pecans are great

i also am the sort of person who would never make a fruit pie when i could eat the fruit as is.

The number of times I've tried to make some kind of strawberry dessert that I regretted is basically every damn time.

ATK's pralines are pretty amazing, but they're significantly more work than a pie.

made an odd thrown-together meal the other day. chicken alla diavola - you (sort of) spatchcock and flatten it, so it resembles a butterfly, cover it liberally with cracked black pepper (the diavola), marinading it in lemon juice and olive oil for a couple of hours, and put it on a lowish bbq or griddle and let it sizzle and cook, turning it and basting it with the olive oil and lemon juice from time to time. It’s delicious, succulent and tender.

at the same time made a haphazard pissaladière, which came out ok.

but then was inattentive on some rice, which ended up soggy, and the mustard salad dressing split because i added the ingredients in the wrong order. (salt, pepper, wine vinegar THEN mustard THEN oil, whisking vigorously all the time to get it to emulsify).

anyway, the chicken and pissaladière were both v good the following day too.

Made “bacon” and cheese potato skins last night and they were quite good! Went in to our first attempt at using Field Roast’s new plant-based bacon with C- expectations but they rose to the challenge and got a B+

it's easy to bring a broken dressing back together, like if it broke during the oil addition just put a little bit of (in this case) vinegar and mustard in a clean dish, and add the broek dressing, in drops to start, whilst whisking. it'll come right back together. or you could just buzz with a blender IMHO. Anyways, just wanted to say that pissaladière sounds fucking grand.

xpost

bought some lions mane mushrooms just now. the couple of times i've tried to cook them i couldn't get rid of enough moisture and they did not come out how i wanted. just gonna try and sear slices this time in a medium hot, dry, cast iron and be patient. can't imagine that won't do the trick

I make my own oatmilk now which means about I'm creating 2 cups of wet, blended oats that I'm trying to find uses for. So far the most successful option is weekly buckwheat-oat-apple muffins! Being gluten-free and milk-free means doing a lot of creative substitution but I basically throw in whatever's in my cupboard/fridge. The recipe I start with calls for almond flour, but since I'm out of that I subbed corn meal? So now I have buckwheat-CORN-apple muffins? Little lemon zest, shredded dried coconut, apple chunks. Usually I shred a carrot and have apple-carrot combo. And a handful of pepitas or whatever nuts are in the cupboard.

I'm really not trying to get to one "perfect" recipe, just using what I got. Makes a very good breakfast all week! Probably pretty high fiber too? I don't really know how to calculate that, I'm not that into the math of it all.

https://greenkitchenstories.com/apple-almond-buckwheat-muffins/

I start with that recipe but I'm warning you I cut the applesauce (I'm not making homemade apple sauce weekly) and I cut the yogurt because I would never have yogurt + lactose is a problem. Sub some melted butter, 1/3 cup of veg oil, and oat milk for the liquid.

Maybe one day I'll have some leftover applesauce around and will try the "filling" idea. Anyway, they're good! The cornmeal and lemon zest version from this morning might be a keeper!

i have tons of apples in the garden and freeze apple sauce as we never need much at once.

then I forget we have it!

My mom used to regularly make an applesauce spice cake, usually in a baking dish so it would be kind of, like, taller than a brownie and moister than a layer cake? Cut into squares like a coffee-cake? It's good, I've never had the recipe but it would use up applesauce.

I am a huge fan of apple in cake! I'll look out for some recipes.

Mr Kinder doesn't like raisins which a lot of apple cake recipes have. I really like this apple and apricot almondy cake from Mary Berry and made it last weekend.
https://jjasonwhatsinseason.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/mary-berrys-american-apple-and-apricot-cake/ (if you make it, you need a deep ish tin)

This one is also nice https://www.sweetestmenu.com/cinnamon-apple-cake/

I've just made a bunch of very buttery cookies which I don't often do - I'm all about huge slices of cake.

Oh I also hate raisins. Disgusting little bugs. Dried cherries are allowable if I have 'em and sometimes subsitute, but generally I don't need a sweet, sticky thing in my baked goods.

That apple cake receipe looks excellent! Plus maybe slivered almonds in it or on it with the glaze? Strips of candied orange? Orange or lemon zest somehow incorporated? I fear my tendency is to add too many things.