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Thread: What's cookin' ?

  1. #271
    Sounds yummy, minx. You do realize that what/how you cook is a special category, so I won't belabor the point.

    I'm gonna try to make bacon in a waffle iron. And transfer the oil to a skillet to make "dippy" eggs. I learned some tips by watching cooking shows. My parents didn't cook breakfast.....and I wasn't very good at hot breakfasts for my kids, either. But there's something special about bacon and eggs

  2. #272
    Quote Originally Posted by GGT View Post
    I'm gonna try to make bacon in a waffle iron. And transfer the oil to a skillet to make "dippy" eggs. I learned some tips by watching cooking shows. My parents didn't cook breakfast.....and I wasn't very good at hot breakfasts for my kids, either. But there's something special about bacon and eggs
    Nice! I sometimes wish we had breakfast in Sweden, we just do brunch before we go to work.

    You should def. try that same recipe but with quail-eggs and some iberian (pata negra) bacon. The eggs are small and the packaging is really annoying, basically they either pad them too little so they break or they pad too well and it takes forEVER to get them out and you have a ton of garbage, but they're kinda worth it. Still if you want to avoid the hassle ostrich egg may be an acceptable substitute. Serve it with some brioches and oh yeah to make it really hearty and rustic consider including some nice mushrooms, eg. white or black truffles (both are good, just take whichever you have handy). Go easy on the fleur de sel 'cause the bacon is usually more than salty enough and oh yeah don't forget to serve it on a SILVER platter (or gold if you must but it kinda detracts from the appearance of the finished dish). I have to admit I have never thought of fried eggs as "dippy eggs". That term has in my peer-group always been reserved for soft-boiled eggs but I guess terminology differs







    In other news, chicken hearts and gizzards, oh how I have missed you... most stores here don't carry them but now that we've started taking long walks we can pick them up at a grocery store about 1-1.5 hours away and they are just so goddamned delicious. Marinated both, grilled the hearts on skewers in a very hot oven along with some veggies, stewed the gizzards in the oven with bulgur and lentils and added a roughly broken-down head of cauliflower towards the end. I offal very tasty, very filling, extremely satisfying chewiness and made for several decent meals together with some fresh salad (ginger found seaweed, which was great with both dishes).
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  3. #273
    My mom used to buy animal hearts and gizzards as "treats" for our cats, but that was before pet food became a multi-billion dollar industry....and it was during the beginning of processed, convenience human foods. Good thing my dad wanted to make gizzard gravy instead of using canned substitutes.

    BTW, I've never seen quail eggs at any of my local farmers markets or grocery stores. I've read about them, and see them used in cooking shows all the time. I'd call that a delicacy....because it's hard to find.

  4. #274
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    Even now pet food is a big industry, you can still buy hearts etc for them here if you wany, at the butcher, and even supermarkets have it. Never tried to actually eat them myself though doesn't sound that appealing to be honest.
    Keep on keepin' the beat alive!

  5. #275
    I think organ meats smell revolting (and tried liver once, it tastes like it smells).
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  6. #276
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    I don't like liver much either, not that I think it's revolting. I think I had fried pieces of stomach (not sure what animal) in a salad when I was younger and liked it, but that was a long time ago.
    Keep on keepin' the beat alive!

  7. #277
    There was once extra credit for a class in high school for sampling chitterlings. They also smell revolting.
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  8. #278
    Offal is the tastiest I'm surrounded by multiple generations of people who've grown up thinking chicken breasts are da bomb and never learned how to cook liver, gizzards, heart etc properly. It's a shame because they're honestly missing out (curse kindergarten for turning them off of good food and curse everyone else for letting them grow up being so fussy ) but it's great for me because it keeps prices way down


    Tonight we've made rhubarb ice cream! We used an egg-free ice-cream base that uses cornstarch as a thickener, and, though I was very skeptical at first (because custard is delicious ) I must say I have been won over by this recipe. The flavour really is clearer, and it's simpler and easier and less time-consuming than making a custard base.

    I have also discovered something delicious:

    Take some couscous
    Add a stock-cube (I used chicken)
    Add hot water
    Add a very small amount of oyster-sauce
    Add some olive-oil (we used something truffle-flavoured but it's the olivey flavour that's important)
    Add some seaweed of the ogonori variety

    It is SO TASTY! It can probably be varied with eg. a tiny hint of chili, a little teensy weensy bit of ginger- and onion-juice etc but it's just really yummy all on its own served it with oven-roasted salmon (roasted half a salmon last night and slathered it with a sauce made from oyster-sauce, sesame-seed oil, chipotle paste and some other stuff), cucumber and tomatoes from our balcony-jungle.

    I wish the lettuce of lies would be replaced with the seaweed of scrumptiousness
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  9. #279
    Stingy DM Veldan Rath's Avatar
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    Friends of ours brought over rice crispie squares made with peanut butter in the mix with the marshmallow.

    OMG.
    Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita

  10. #280
    Cooking, and eating, liver and hearts is a daunting task for most US Americans. My dad's medical condition required lots of bloody meat and B-12 proteins...but we didn't know how turn that into family meals. "Liver and Onions" was considered a bad meal during that time. But now I know it's because we never had tasty liver and onion dishes in 70's suburbia.

    Instead, I learned how to give my dad B-12 injections. He took a lot of oral vitamin supplements, too. Decades later, I'm learning how to appreciate and cook with organ meats, and turn them into tasty, easily digestible meals full of vitamins and proteins.

    I wish my dad could have had all the benefits of modern food and nutrition. He'd probably love all the cooking shows, too.

  11. #281
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  12. #282

  13. #283
    Stingy DM Veldan Rath's Avatar
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    Voici?
    Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita

  14. #284
    Quote Originally Posted by GGT View Post
    Voila?
    A series of articles about how to cook the nasty bits
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  15. #285
    We made some sashimi:



    Seared tuna, salmon, nile perch, scallops. There's a grocery store in town that's just getting better and better for every month when it comes to fresh affordable fish... we scored enough goodies for 10 delicious healthy meals for less than the cost of two mediocre restaurant lunches. Nile perch was a new one for me and it was just really tasty and just the perfect texture and consistency. I usually don't think about that but it was so striking I was like
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  16. #286
    This has been followed up with two more tasty meals:

    - Oven-baked char (deboned, placed upright in a a dish, filled with a thick sauce made from shallots, carrots, garlic and white wine, covered with very thinly sliced lightly-fried potato and some tasty cheese, baked for a little less than 30 mins in a 175C oven).

    - Chicken-liver stew probably my best effort so far in the challenging world of stewing liver. I dredged them in some cornstarch, flour and salt, added them to a hot sauté-pan in which I'd already browned some onions and garlic in olive-oil along with thinly sliced carrots, added a stock-cube and some spices (pepper, paprika, a red chili and some smoked chipotle paste, cinnamon), some leftover white wine, a tin of whole tomatoes, a little bit of milk, some lemon and probably a few other things. It had to be balanced with a teensy weensy bit of sugar and I believe it could use some cumin as well but all in all it turned out to be a flavourful and thoroughly filling (but not heavy or too rich) stew that went well with couscous I'm pleased, the liver turned out absolutely perfect rather than being a little too dry and chewy as is usually their wont.
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  17. #287
    Senior Member Flixy's Avatar
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    Quiche with spinach, feta, sundried tomatoes. So simple, so delicious!
    Keep on keepin' the beat alive!

  18. #288
    I'm lucky enough to use one chicken's liver in gravy, can't imagine using multiple livers in stew.

    Great whole chicken roasting recipe: dry bird really well with paper towels, inside and out, let stand at room temp for 30 minutes, rub some Kosher salt and pepper inside and out (can stuff the cavity with lemon halves and herbs too, but it's not necessary) and drizzle with oil mixed with a bit of butter. Place in cast iron skillet pre-heated to 450 degrees (F) breast down and cook for 30 minutes. *Note-it's important to use a pre-heated skillet, not just a pre-heated oven.* Rotate skillet and cook for another 30 minutes if you have an older oven like mine. No basting, no turning, no fiddling. No need to truss, either.

    After one hour of roasting check color -- skin should be golden brown and crispy, maybe burnt-looking in some places, or use a meat thermometer if it makes you feel better. My five pound chicken was perfectly roasted in one hour + 15 minutes. Easiest, juiciest, and best tasting chicken I've ever made.

    Most recipes call for roasting chicken breast up, at lower temps -- but that dries out the white meat and requires frequent basting. This technique makes more sense, and delivers better results, faster, and without all the hassle. Bon appetit!
    Last edited by GGT; 07-23-2014 at 07:32 AM. Reason: *

  19. #289
    Support Beer & Bacon Spaghetti-Sauce for our Special Friends Supporters:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...aghetti-sauce/

    Sorry, it was just too intriguing and adorable
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  20. #290
    Epic Meal Time got its own cable TV series. Beer, bacon, and spaghetti sauce is an understatement.

  21. #291
    I've decided that outdoor grilling isn't all it's chucked up to be. I've seen several TV grilling competitions and learned a few tricks along the way. It bugs me that so many people think their grill can produce better results....and the fancier the grill, the better.

    I think it's the opposite---the best food comes from people who know how to cook with a few coals of charcoal, or on open fire.

  22. #292
    Toss coconut-cream (or -milk), spices (I used a ready-made kerala-style spice blend, a roughly chopped red chili, two sticks of cinnamon and a couple of bay-leaves) and roasted onions into a cooking-vessel of your choice, mix it all together, add chicken-thighs and quartered green onions, on with the lid, heat it up and then let it cook on medium-to-low heat until delicious. Less than 2 mins to prep and it's one of the tastiest curries I've ever "made". Can of course be varied in many ways to suit different tastes and schedules
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  23. #293
    Quote Originally Posted by GGT View Post
    I've decided that outdoor grilling isn't all it's chucked up to be. I've seen several TV grilling competitions and learned a few tricks along the way. It bugs me that so many people think their grill can produce better results....and the fancier the grill, the better.

    I think it's the opposite---the best food comes from people who know how to cook with a few coals of charcoal, or on open fire.
    I think this is both true and false. I don't think that extremely expensive equipment is generally a good substitute for knowledge and skill--indeed, getting the most out of sophisticated and expensive equipment--or ingredients--may require a great deal of knowledge and skill, and those who have it can do great things with simpler tools as well, not necessarily because the simpler tools are better so much as because they know how to make the most of what they have.

    However, many tasks are easier and more consistently successful with the right tools. Inconsistency is the hallmark of the amateur, and appropriate equipment may go a long way towards getting you more consistently good results. That may in turn help you become more skilled and knowledgable, because you can focus on improving one aspect at a time. Sometimes of course it can make you a little dumber, for example because you end up focusing on quantities and timers and never learning how to tell when something is "done".

    My mum learned all her cooking and baking in Bangladesh, where she didn't really even have a proper oven. Here, she's learned to work with the quirks of her stove and oven. If she had a decent convection-oven, however, her baking would be far easier and the results more consistent.
    "One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."

  24. #294
    I made linguine with a butternut squash alfredo sort of sauce - really tasty, and really easy.

    Roasted the squash until it was tender, then dumped it in the blender with some parmesan cheese, sour cream, a little regular cream, and enough chicken stock to make the consistency right. Seasoned it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
    Made sure it was nice and hot, then dumped it over cooked linguine.

    No measuring necessary.
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  25. #295
    Nutmeg is the secret ingredient for any cheese sauce served over pasta.

  26. #296
    I've made some killer soups recently. Split pea with hamhock. Cabbage and potato. Chili with beans. Rosemary-lemon chicken noodle. Beef and dumplings.

    It's been fun filling containers for my freezer/family/friends, but I don't want to go overboard. One thing that's fun in winter is making soups on the stove...not re-heating them in the microwave.

  27. #297
    Well damn, I based my Thanksgiving cooking on the weather...and didn't think I'd have to move things into warp drive because some "unseasonable" weather threatened travel plans.

    So I'm still cooking at 5am, so I can leave earlier than originally planned, in order to drive north, in order to enjoy "the Spirit of Thanksgiving".

    Should I feel lucky/fortunate that I'm a driver arriving with cooked foods, or should this be placed in the WTF or messed-up groove thread?

  28. #298
    I made orange marmalade for the first time, and it turned out really good! I've never canned or preserved anything before, so this was an interesting project. I used a "recipe" that sterilized jars and lids in the dishwasher (without detergent), and pasteurized the fruit compote by a couple of hours of boiling, and straining off the film.

    It's supposed to last a month in the fridge, and up to six months in the freezer! I may never buy jelly again, if I can use the same recipe for berries.

  29. #299
    Look up freezer jams, GGT - you can probably find a good berry one.
    We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.

  30. #300
    Thanks. I never thought of canning/preserving that way. It used to mean all sorts of special tools and techniques that I wasn't familiar with. And truth be told--I didn't have much confidence that "home preserves" were safe for consumption.

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