Topics include: Cooking (recipes, techniques & equipment); Beverages (appreciating & making your favorites); Food Philosophy, and various books, articles, blogs, and related discussions.
daetara wrote: cottage pie without corn would be ground beef and mashed potatoes, if i'm not mistaken. i've never heard of it having peas and carrots in it. not that i go around asking people.
Peas and carrots are more traditional, corn is more of an option. Sometimes it is common to just have carrots and no peas.
Another good British pie that I really enjoy and have suddenly started thinking about with all of this cottage pie talk is steak and kidney pie. Mmmmm!
daetara wrote:cottage pie without corn would be ground beef and mashed potatoes, if i'm not mistaken. i've never heard of it having peas and carrots in it. not that i go around asking people.
I would dice the carrots, I would also think it quite normal in a dish like this to see diced parsnips, turnips &/or potatoe. I like it heavily seasoned with black pepper and personally I quite like diced chunks of kidney or lambs fry [liver]. This last addition doesn't suit everyone's taste though - or more to the point it doesn't suit everyone's sensibilities...
I tend to think of the dish as Shepherds pie - but some people don't use mince [ground beef] - they use diced beef and call it Steak & Kidney pie. It is very possible to use cheap cuts of meat to do this - but of course they are still a bit more expensive than mince.
A dash of worcestershire sauce goes awesomely
The wonderful thing about not planning
Is that failure comes as a complete surprise
And is not preceded by a period of worry or depression
My hands are BURNING LOL I really should have known better to do this bare-handed, but I didn't have any gloves handy, and didn't feel like going out to buy more.
I've been making salsa.
30 tomatoes, two large white onions, eight fresh jalapenos, 1/3 bunch of fresh cilantro, two cans of crushed green chilies and a squirt of lime juice later.....
I have about three quarts of salsa, and my hands and lips are burning Worst part is, it's the BACK of my fingers that's burning (you know, the part that rests on the cutting board while you're chopping). It's driving me CRAZY. I'll go soak my hand in vinegar later
Now I have to make some hummus and tabouleh as well. I was going to provide greek pitas cut into wedges, but my damn pitas went bad the day after I bought them *grumble* Stupid humidity. So I bought some organic yellow and blue corn chips instead.
Potluck, here I come
And what manner of jackassery must we put up with today? ~ Danae, Non Sequitur
Trim and split 2 lbs brussel sprouts in half, lengthwise.
Toss with oil to coat.
Roast cut side down on lubricated foil-lined baking sheet at 450F for 35-40 mins, or until deeply browned (but not burnt) and tender.
Toss with a little butter.
Dress (see below) and serve.
Dressing:
1.5 fl oz simple syrup
1 fl oz thai fish sauce <<< this is the key ingredient.
1 clove garlic, crushed flat
Make stir together the dressing and let steep while sprouts roast. Remove garlic, toss sprouts with the butter, then the dressing, and serve immediately.
Last edited by Darb on Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My wife despises brussel sprouts and lima beans. However, she tried a half bite and said that although she still hates sprouts and wont eat them, it was the least horrible version she's ever had. From her, that's high praise.
Brad, you can do something similar with chinese cabbage or kale leaves (swiss chard would also work in a pinch). Only difference is, I'd use oyster sauce instead of fish sauce, but that's probably just personal preference.
And what manner of jackassery must we put up with today? ~ Danae, Non Sequitur
My wife and cabbage, and bitter vegetables, dont get along in general.
Go figure ... an Irish person who can't eat cabbage, and who hates corned beef, and Guinness. If I didn't know for a fact that her parents were both Irish on both sides, I'd have challenged her ethnic pedigree.
The only way I have ever gotten my wife to eat cabbage, and like it, is to conceal it in chinese style pork dumplings, as a secondary ingredient.
ah, well, you could always try bok choy (milder than spinach or cabbage), or just do celery or something like a combination of bean sprouts and other mild veggies. It's all tasty.
And what manner of jackassery must we put up with today? ~ Danae, Non Sequitur
Coincidentally, I made bok choy over the weekend ... she liked the flavor, but it's a bit bitter for her.
The version I made:
Brad's baby bok choy with shrimp.
Saute some chopped raw shrimp in a heated wok with a little oil until just done, and set aside. Do not wash the wok at this point - you want the shrimp fond to flavor the dish.
Next, add a little more oil to wok, along with thinly slivered ginger and sliced garlic ... saute 30 sec, then add baby bok choy split lengthwise, followed by:
* Whatever aromatic liquid base you have handy ... for example, chinese cooking wine if you have it, or a mix of white wine and cooking marsala, or even a golden beer (as long as it's not too hoppy or sweet). In my case, i had a partial growler of some spaten maibock that although still fresh had gone flat, so I added that. You want enough liquid for the dish to be wet, and also have a generous amount of extra sauce to generously moisten your rice ... but not enough to make it soupy. Stir well to coat all bok choy, and also to dissolve the shrimp fond into the liquid.
* Salt to taste (I prefer to use a little Thai fish sauce, or, as a second choice, japanese tamari or kosher salt)
Apply a lid to wok, and braise covered for 4-6 mins, or until BC is translucent and fork tender.
Return shrimp to pot, toss to rewarm, and then serve atop a bowl of rice
tollbaby wrote:Does she like eggplant? That was the first thing that popped into my head when I read that recipe and some zucchini blossoms! *drool*
Yes, but eggplant is nutritionally empty, and high in alkyloids ... a plant with few redeeming qualities other than the fact that it makes a decent dip and a good fat delivery system.
Zucchini blossoms are pretty, but unless your grow them yourself, they're almost impossible to find for most home cooks ... esp here on Long Island, where borers render zucchini almost impossible to grow without pesticides.
Been making a lot of quick soups lately ... mostly to use up a basket of free farm produce my wife brought home recently. My quick soups take a total of about 15-20 mins, depending mostly on the type of starch used.
A quick standard base of mine is to saute some thinly slice some onion or shallots, some pounded and thinly sliced & minced ginger (fresh or preserved in vodka) and a little garlic in some oil until tender, add a little leftover white wine or sake (whatever's handy), and then for the primary liquid, use whatever low sodium stock you have handy (I often use chicken). Simmer 5-10 mins until fully tender while all other ingredients are prepped and/or speed thawed as needed, and then add those to the cooking pot in the time sequence appropriate for their doneness - and then garnish with whatever finishing flavor you want. The same base works for all.
For example:
* Soup base (see above)
* Starch: Tortellini (dried or frozen)
* Veg: bias diced yellow & green squash, or shredded baby bok choy
* Protein: Frozen Shrimp*, or perhaps lightly whisked eggs.
* Finish: a generous dab of miso paste, or (for a different finish) cream cheese.
--------------------
* Shrimp: for shell on shrimp, speed thaw by putting them in a bowl under a slowly running tap (they'll thaw in 5 mins flat), then peel. For your soup base, you'll need 2 pots instead of 1 - sweat the mirepoix in one pan, while the broth approaches a boil in the other. Add the shrimp shells to the second pot and simmer for 5 mins, then scoop out & discard the shells and pour the shell-infused broth through a tea strainer into the pot with the mirepoix. To finish the soup, add the shrimp in the last 3 mins of cooking, and remove from heat when they turn opaque.
Reading the paper while peddling away at the gym the other day, I saw an interesting variation on traditional braised brisket in the culinary section ... this version replaced the usual addition of some water with an equal volume of equal parts golden raisins and diced canned tomatoes, plus a dollup of dijon mustard. Sounds tasty.
I noted the variation in my recipe notebook, and will give it a whirl the next time I do a brisket.
Ok, I'm posting a recap of a holiday food story here, so that I can link to it from an offsite blog.
[quote]Hi M.S.,
This entry (written from memory) involves a bit of culinary journey and holiday feast from the recent past, rather than a forthcoming meal. Hope that’s ok. Also, I apologize in advance for it being a bit long ... but sometimes a good story, like a good meal, is worth a little extra time and effort, and in this case we have both.
Ok, I grew up under the familiar American tradition of the big 22+ lb Roast Turkey. My family’s particular spin on it was serving it with broth & butter-enriched sage stuffing, golden turnips, creamy mashed potatoes, old fashioned hand-ground giblet gravy (and lots of it), creamed onions, canned cranberry sauce, freshly pressed local apple cider, and pecan pie for dessert. THAT was THE holiday meal that my parents made, year after year, decade after decade, for all of my life. The decades ticked by - I grew up, went to college, got married, and as my parents got older and older, I slowly took on more and more of the work preparing the same holiday meal every thanksgiving. In parallel with that, cooking became one of my hobbies, and I actually evolved into a fairly decent amateur cook ... although I never dared alter my Parent’s time-honored and never-changing annual turkey dinner ritual. Their annual turkey dinner was also a well honed exercise in frugality, because my parents grew up during the great depression, and also lived through the privations of WWII, and raising a full sized family on 1 person’s salary took planning – and frozen turkey was cheap, and sometimes even free with the right rebates, receipts, and local supermarket promotionals.
Anyway, a few years back, I knew my parents were entering the home stretch of their lives, and since they’d delegated the annual thanksgiving meal to me, I staged a sort of culinary coup de grace, in their honor. I surprised everyone by showing up just before lunchtime with an enormous 7-rib primal of 28-day dry aged USDA Prime beef draped over my shoulder. That puppy weighed a good 23 lbs, even though the butcher had already partially frenched it for me. Anyway, I grinned like a fiend as I marched past my gob-smacked mother (like a triumphant caveman returning from a 3-day hunt), plunked it down on their counter, opened up my knife kit, and proceeded to re-French, de-bone, fat-bard and re-truss the eye-roast back onto it’s ribs ... complete with little aluminum foil booties, to prevent the rib tips from burning. I made a nice little show of it. It was actually too big to fit in their oven, so I had to lop off the 7th rib to make it fit, and then I gave it a good seasoning, so it could rest for a good 4 hours at room temperature (to shed some of it's deep cold), before roasting.
After a 2nd trip out to my car’s trunk, I returned with some good crusty artisanal bread, a bag of home-roasted hazelnuts, a bottle of good olive oil, and an assortment of fruit and cheeses I’d picked up, to tide us over until dinner time. Ah, the cheese ... some nice runny and pungent taleggio (redolent of lover’s sweat and 2-day old socks), a big wedge of brilliat savarin triple creme (intensely creamy with a spicy back note of Noxzema face cream), and a nice mild jarlsberg for those feeling a bit more culinarily conservative. I sliced up some nice crisp pears and apples, tossed them with lemon juice to prevent browning, and we basically had a classic fruit and cheese platter spread out over the dining room table. My brother in law, who was a winemaker, cooed delightedly, and went to open some bottles of his latest homemade wines that he’d brought into town with him. I made another trip to my car’s trunk and came back with some fresh local cider, 2 growler jugs of fresh local hefeweiss, and the rest of the dinner fixings. I’d planned the meal to be an all day, 2-meal, affair, and by golly we were right on target.
While the lovely beef rested on the counter (like a starlet waiting for lights camera action), we dug into the bread, cheese, fruit, wine and beer and good family conversation ... it was essentially an all-afternoon appetizer hour. The beef called to me, so I decided to indulge in a little culinary beef for3p1ay. I wandered back into the kitchen, grabbed the 7th rib I’d sliced off out of the fridge, along with a spare shallot and a lemon, grabbed my slicer, and made a platter of beef carpaccio ... thinly sliced dry aged beef, gently pounded extra thin, and served with coarse salt, pepper, olive oil, and thinly minced shallots, microplaned lemon zest, and a few drops of lemon juice. This was a revelation to my mother, who loved rare roast beef from the deli, but had never had carpaccio, much less using meat of this quality. I love culinary epiphanies, and it was a joy to share one with my mother, who was the chief cook of the family. It was a sort of pass-the-torch kind of moment.
After a good 4+ hour rest on the counter, it was time to put the beef roast in the oven. I’d already seasoned it earlier, so after a good rubdown with some good Tuscan olive oil (culinary sex lube !) I whispered sweet nothings in the roast’s ear as I s1ipped my wireless digital thermometer of love into the roast’s most intimate recesses, and gave it a 3-stage roasting at 450 (15 mins), 325 (about 2 hrs) and 275 (30 mins or so) until the outside was golden dark brown and delicious, the fat barding had mostly transformed into salty crispy and succulent cracklings, and the inside a perfect low 120’s rosy rare.
Out it came, panting from the heat, for a nice long pre-carve rest, while I finished preparing the rest of the meal which, if I recall, was brown pan gravy with browned mushrooms, creamy mashed potatoes, homemade creamed spinach (with the obligatory whisper of garlic and an almost imperceptible touch of nutmeg), and of course biscuits. You cannot, I repeat, CANNOT have gravy without some nice tender flaky biscuits ... my mother would have clubbed me like a harp seal pup if I’d omitted them.
Then, I briefly parked everything (all the hot sides went into the warming oven, the biscuits went into a big pre-warmed bowl covered with a tea towel), and then it was time for the beef bride to make it’s grand wedding night entrance. I snicked off the twine, took the eye roast off the ribs, and carved it into hotel-style brontosaurus steaks ... big 1â€
Last edited by Darb on Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:22 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Brad, you are not just a great cook and a great food-lover, but a great food-writer, too!
I've never read such a wonderful food-inspired piece of writing since the description of the banquet for Charles and Emma's wedding in "Madame Bovary" by Flaubert!
Only the banquet of the Mercenaries at the beginning or "Salammbo", by the same Flaubert, is above that.
Human is as human does....Animals don't weep, Nine
I have some photos at home somewhere (buried by a lot of my parent's effects) ... I'll try to dig them out next week, and scan a few. If I can find a photo of the beef plating, I'll post it.
Incidentally, the 'honor guard' thingee was just for the grand entrance. I quickly moved the detached ribs (which were perched precariously) from the platter to a big serving bowl before sitting down.
i'm still in the market for more ground beef recipes, if anyone has come up with any recently. i did get one good one from my aunt that has entered into our regular rotation...she calls it "american chop suey" although she doesn't know why. as you can see from the parenthetical asides, it's very adaptable.
1 bell pepper, diced (green tastes best, but i've made it with other colors)
1 small-to-medium onion, diced
1 lb. ground beef
1 26 oz jar tomato/spaghetti sauce (i use storebought, for convenience, but homemade would be tasty)
.5 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked (can increase or decrease, depending on how you like your meat-to-noodle ratio...1 lb is probably the upper limit though)
1 cup cheese (whatever you have on hand that you think would work...i use cheddar because it's the only cheese we ever have on hand)
salt and pepper to taste
(mushrooms are also a tasty addition)
(can add other herbs/spices/seasonings if desired, but i try to avoid it tasting like my husband's spaghetti sauce so i leave it plain)
cook pasta to desired doneness
in a separate pan (duh!) saute pepper and onion until softened
add beef to pepper and onion and cook till browned, adding salt and pepper to taste
add sauce to the pan and bring to a bubble, adding any other seasonings desired
turn off heat and add drained pasta to the pan and mix together
add cheese and fold into the pasta mixture until thoroughly melted
serve
makes great leftovers, too! man, now i'm hungry...
blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused.
anybody have a tried and true recipe for arroz con pollo? made a version from gourmet magazine on saturday...wasn't bad, but wasn't really what i was looking for either. of course, if i'd known that i needed spanish chorizo instead of mexican chorizo, it might have helped. but then, i need to know that there WERE two kinds of chorizo, in order to make it correctly.
blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused.
My sweet steak marinade which I invented the other day...
1x tablespoon of Tomato Paste
1-2x teaspoon(s) of Marmite (do you American's have it? It is fantastic with steak. Hell, it is fantastic on everything. I eat it straight out of the container!)
1x teaspoon of Mustard
1x teaspoon of Crushed Garlic
Spices (cumin, chili flakes, tumeric and cayenne pepper)
Mixed Herbs
Basically just mix it up and cover the steak in it and cook etc. I normally make heaps and use it as a kind of sauce as well. Serve on top of fresh spinach leaves, chopped capsicum, tomatos and pumpkin/sunflower seeds. Yummy!
I must be insane for turning on my oven on a day where the temps will be pushing 100F, but I have family coming this week, and had to put up a large batch of my grandmother's oatmeal raisin bar cookies. I usually make at least one large batch twice a month.
I use a large 12"x18" (half sheetpan) matte-finish blackened-steel sicilian pizza pan. It's perfect ... even better than the baking sheet my grandmother used (and which I inherited).
ΦBK — Greek initials of the motto "Love of learning is the guide of life."
Worst part is, it's the BACK of my fingers that's burning (you know, the part that rests on the cutting board while you're chopping). It's driving me CRAZY. I'll go soak my hand in vinegar later 
