BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 06:33 PM

I love duck eggs as I am not fond of the albumen, and duck eggs are mostly yolk.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 11:49 PM

Here's something new that's very old:

Aided by Modern Ingenuity, a Taste of Ancient Judean Dates

The harvest of the much-extolled but long-lost Judean dates was something of a scientific miracle. The fruit sprouted from seeds 2,000 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Amergin
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 02:16 AM

I call them Copper Poppers.

Copper Poppers

6 jalapenos, cut in half lengthwise
1 thing of softened cream cheese
some chives
some sliced mushrooms
shredded cheese.
12 rashers of bacon

preheat oven to 450 degrees

chop up chives, mix them with the cream cheese.

scoop seeds and core from jalapenos.

put a bunch of the cream cheese mixture in each half.

Lay a couple sliced mushrooms atop the cream cheese mixture.

Sprinkle with shredded cheese

wrap bacon rasher around jalapeno, and set aside, til you have a dozen ready.

Get a cookie sheet, lay it with foil or parchment paper. set a broiler rack atop it. Lay dozen copper poppers on the rack.

Bake for a half hour, then shut off the oven, and let it sit for another five minutes.

Put on a plate, enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 09:46 AM

One "thing" - my kind of measurement.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 10:09 AM

I would probably like those "copper poppers" rather too much, but Himself would take one look at the jalapeno peppers and flee.

Our gas barbecue (all the rage in 2000) had its swan song the other day, with a batch of smoked pork ribs that were really quite boffo. But it is now so wonky that cooking on it is an exercise in compromise, and it's not at all effective in cold weather, of which we have lots.

So, since we're brimming with spare money this year (not!), we have purchased a Kamado Joe, and it's coming tomorrow. Consequently, at my advancing age, I now have a whole new cooking technology to master.

YouTube is full of videos starring solemn men with advanced beards and leather-trimmed aprons demonstrating techniques with large cuts of meat slathered thickly with sauces made with improbable ingredients. (Finely ground coffee? Really?) They use "cook" as a noun to identify, not a person, but the experience of preparing food, as in, "That was a perfect cook" -- i.e., I achieved the result I hoped for. Much of their advice is useful, but their style kinda gets up my nose.

Does Nigella do barbecue?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 12:08 PM

What is a copper popper?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 02:17 PM

Scroll up for recipe, Thompson.

I now eat crab and asparagus soup alla time. Takes no time, is delish, amazing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 05:33 PM

The caterers at the university where I worked used to have a nice array of appetizers to offer when we set up special events in the library. The one that people scooped up fastest was the bacon-wrapped dates.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 05:37 PM

Thanks for the article about dates, SRS. That was interesting.

As a gardener, I noticed the techniques used to coax the ancient seeds into germinating: warming, careful hydration, a plant hormone and enzymatic fertilizer. I wonder if home gardeners can get hold of that plant hormone and enzymatic fertilizer.

And now you've got me thinking that it's time to make a loaf of date bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 05:40 PM

Better than bacon-wrapped dates are water chestnuts rolled in brown sugar then wrapped in bacon. Crunchier.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:06 AM

I might look for something else to coat the water chestnuts in, such as sesame seeds. I wouldn't want them to taste sweet.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 01:16 PM

Ah but it goes so well with the bacon! But I grok the fullness of no sweet in my savory foods.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 03:30 AM

Sorry, but what does "grok the fullness" mean?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:27 AM

"Grok" is a Heinlein word, invented for his 1961 novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" to identify a degree of understanding that surpasses mere understanding, if you get my drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:48 AM

Our new Kamado Joe barbecue arrived yesterday. The kamado is an egg-shaped charcoal-fired outdoor cooker that can be used for roasting, smoking and baking (notably pizza) as well as grilling. For us, it is definitely an insane luxury, but my book contract and giving up (because of COVID-19) all the expensive fun things we like to do in summer provided enough excess capital to allow it. Besides, after 20 years of chickens and ribs, the old gas barbecue had become tricky and unpredictable.

After a trip to Crappy Tire for charcoal, which is much more expensive these days than I remember, I took the Kamado Joe for a spin last night with a pair of chicken legs. They came out delicious, which encouraged me no end. But I can see that the Big Thing about kamado cooking is managing the flow of air through the top and bottom vents, which is how one controls the internal temperature.

YouTube is full of helpful (and not very helpful) videos, so I'm learning fast. For my next trick, I shall smoke some beef ribs, a dish that Himself loves beyond all measure, which will require something like five hours of cooking at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. I wonder if I can resist constantly running out the back door to check the thermometer on the Dome of the Beast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 12:23 PM

Thanks Charmion. If Mudcat had a like button, I take it I would have got a thumbs up.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:11 PM

Nicknamed the Dragon, I presume.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:05 AM

Ah, no, Mrrzy. This household already has a Little Red Dragon: Himself's car.

The kamado is also red, and it will belch fire if I open it recklessly, but so far it doesn't seem to be the kind of inanimate object that acquires a personal name -- not sure why. Its thermometer even looks a bit like the All-Seeing Eye ... but that's not a Good Thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Monique
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:57 AM

Charmion, I made your gingered tomato marmelade, it's delicious! (more fat on my hips!)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 11:26 AM

Excellent, Monique! I'm so glad.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 03:17 PM

Ok I made rabbit stew with some red wine and broth for the liquid. I had meant to add the juices from the defrosted rabbit but forgot. So I take all the rabbit pieces out, serve myself one with a bowl of sauce, then see the juice I had forgotten about and added it to the hot stew.
Baaaaaaad idea. The whole potful coagulated into something I am afraid to eat. It still *smells* tum, but looks like barf.
Do I have to throw the whole thing out? Can it be rescued? What happened?!?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 07:35 PM

The juice from the thawed rabbit was partly blood — raw blood. When you put it in the hot stew, it cooked and, like raw egg, did so in a yucky fashion.

It should be safe to eat, but the texture leaves much to be desired.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 09:53 PM

Wow. That sounds like a difficult choice. And a mistake you'll never make again. I would probably put it in the fridge to think about eating it then end up tossing it all later.

I am getting okra from the garden but not fast enough to save up for a large batch of pickled okra, so I'm going to plan B. I've ordered an Asparagus steamer that includes a lifter, a tall narrow pot that will hold a single jar at a time. I'll make the brine for my pickles ahead and when I get enough okra for a jar I'll pick one of my peppers to add to it, use some of my home-grown garlic, and pack a jar to process. That pot will heat quickly and do the job (heating a stock pot takes forever and probably runs up the electric bill). This way I can do the "small batch" approach of even a single jar. One at a time in a deep large pot would be very inefficient. I'll also be making some pickles, both processed and fermented, as my cucumbers grow.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:38 PM

Stilly, that is so exactly what I did.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 04:11 AM

What a waste. Even if you didn't fancy the sauce, the rabbit meat could still have been made into a lovely pie with a few tasty additions such as mushrooms, garlic, herbs ...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 11:08 AM

I’m with Jos on the rabbit issue.

I must confess to having done something very similar with duck blood and a small pan of gravy. Fortunately, the gravy was an after-thought nice-to-have, so I could bin it with only a small pang of regret and self-recrimination.

I sent Himself to the market again, and now I’m wondering what he will come home with.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 08:16 PM

We're all wondering now what he came home with!

I bought an asparagus cooker/steamer and it arrived this morning (via Amazon) so today I processed one jar of pickled okra. I only had enough okra for one jar and it would rot before I got enough for more; it's a slow year in a small garden. I'm also getting some nice cucumbers so I'll be doing single jars of cucumber pickles as well. If I do one jar a week until the first frost that might give me 7 or 8 jars of okra. Every little bit helps! Once the cucumbers get growing they produce pretty fast and I have a couple of more days before I start picking those. I do both processed and fermented cucumber pickles, and the variety I grow is recommended as best for pickling.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 08:53 PM

Whenever I thaw out any meat for cooking, there's blood that I always discard. I haven't read any recipes that say to use it. Dunno whether I'm right or wrong, but my instinct is to ditch it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 04:51 AM

I did see a French recipe for jugged hare that included red wine and a lot of garlic, and the blood, but it was for a fresh hare. I suspect that the liquid after freezing would be rather different and I wouldn't use it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 10:17 AM

I know that recipe, Jos; in Germany, where I cooked it, it’s called Hasenpfeffer. The blood is used to thicken the sauce, like the egg in an old-fashioned fricassée, and it’s handled just like raw egg — tempered first with a bit of the hot liquid.

Himself came home from market with a large packet of mysterious sausages, half a dozen ears of corn, too many tomatoes again, enough peaches even for me, and a report on the imminent availability of chutney ingredients, specifically Italian blue plums.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 01:16 PM

Yesterday, I smoked beef ribs in our new Kamado cooker, to universal (well, Himself and the neighbours) acclaim. The process took six hours, not counting the time required to prepare the meat, and I must have dashed out the back door at least a dozen times to check the thermometer, even though I could see it quite clearly from the kitchen window.

The butcher was inordinately pleased to learn about this change in our cooking habits. “Brisket next?” he said eagerly, the gleam of opportunity in his eye. I rather doubt it; a brisket starts at four to five kilos, and we aren’t allowed to entertain a crowd big enough to eat all that.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 02:28 PM

You don't have to have a whole brisket. Most is sold in smaller pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 08:17 PM

That's right. I buy rolled brisket at about one kilo. That will do both us twice, once hot, once cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 11:04 PM

No, I said I had taken all the rabbit out. Been eating that one's furry little ass all week.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 09:09 AM

Excellent, Mrrzy. Waste is inherently bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 10:48 AM

Hey, has anyone here tea-smoked anything, like a duck? Recommendations? Why do recipes put raw rice in with the tea? I assume you don't eat that rice...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 02:19 PM

I have had a home smoker for many years, I've never used anything except oak sawdust or oak shavings, hot smoked seatrout is sublime.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 03:42 PM

I have a Luhr Jensen Little Chief smoker that uses chips of wood. When I do salmon I typically use alder, since that what is used in the Pacific NW for smoking fish. When I do meat like chicken or turkey I often use mesquite, and for milder things like short time smoking of cheese I use some of the other woods like apple (they sell bags of chips).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 07:31 AM

I have tea-smoked a duck, Mrrzy. It was a messy business, but produced delicious results.

The rice in the smoker generates the bulk of the smoke. The tea is flavour.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 09:04 AM

Ah, thanks. Does it have to be black caffeinated tea? I have an absolute ton of verveine as Amazon sent me 12 oz when I ordered 1. I will eventually drink it all, but wondered about using it to smoke my next batch of duck legs.
The chicken mom made was divine.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 10:34 AM

I'm pretty sure you have to use the leaves of Camellia sinensis if you wish to achieve a tea-smoked duck that tastes like the Chinese article. Vervain (aka verbena) is not even closely related, and I doubt that any flavour it would impart would be tea-like.

Did your mother use tea, or some other leaves, to smoke her chicken? I assume it was a smoked chicken ...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 02:37 PM

Some normal black tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 03:18 PM

Mrrzy, you should get her recipe.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest (i.e., Stratford), it's Chutney Day, thanks to Himself, who chivvied me out to the organic farm shop up the road to buy fruit. I'm not sure why he's so anxious about it, but chutney seems to be very important to him this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 03:32 PM

Too late for getting recipes from Mom. I do have her cookbooks, though. I should look through them more thoroughly.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 04:38 PM

My mother collected cookbooks, a lot of them the free ones that came with product box tops and were handed out in the grocery store. She also had one that was a monthly subscription to categories of recipes, each month a new booklet arrived that was put into this huge binder book cover. It has some of the most bizarre recipes - it's the kind of book people look through and laugh and share recipes.

I keep a plastic file box (probably intended for the large 6" floppy drives) that all of my folded printouts fit into. When I find one online that works for me I print it with the URL on the page so I can find it again (because people do ask). I have my own set of favorite cookbooks, none of them particularly recent. And there is a little wooden card file that I was given as a child that I've continued to use for those family recipes I learned at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 05:53 PM

I made an amazingly good pasta dish tonight in which the only non-raw ingredient was the spaghetti. Get a big bowl and chuck in the following, in any order you like. For two:

A big fistful of chopped fresh parsley
Half as much chopped fresh marjoram (or fresh oregano)
About 70g freshly-grated Parmesan
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
The juice of 3/4 of a lemon, along with all its zest
Three big glugs of the best olive oil you can lay your hands on
About 350g of the best, sweetest cherry tomatoes you can get. Don't do this recipe with shitty tomatoes. I have a glut of lovely Sungold in my greenhouse just now: they were perfect. Chop them roughly.
A pinch of salt

Everything is fresh and raw. Get your hands in there and mix it thoroughly.

You also need about 40g of unsalted pistachio kernels, which you blitz into a rough powder then set aside.

Boil up the spaghetti (250g for two) in salted water. When al dente, use tongs to transfer the pasta into the bowl with the sauce. You definitely need some pasta water, so don't be fussy about draining. In fact, I found I needed even more from the pasta pan. Mix the sauce and pasta and put into warm bowls. Sprinkle the pistachio powder on top. Cheers to Jamie Oliver for the idea, though I changed a few details. So fresh, so light. If any of those ingredients are only available to you dried, don't bother with the recipe. This is all about untrammelled freshness.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 06:12 PM

Boy that sounds good.

Made my first successful gazpacho yesterday. I wonder if it was yummy because it took over 3 hours on the phone *and* chat with the kitchenaid people to get my new food processor to turn on, or because it was, actually, yummy. Farmers market onion, garlic, tomatoes, cuke, hot green pepper of some kind, and some parsley, slice of Wegmans bread, and dashes of store-boughten cumin, smoked paprika, oil, and vinegar. Added some extra chopped cukes and hot green pepper to the bowl. Ground some salt and pepper into the machine.

Then today I had my amazing asparagus crab corn soup.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 01:34 PM

Three quarters of a lemon, Steve? How in culinary heaven do I ream a quarter of a lemon, and how much difference would it make if I just reamed both halves of a smallish lemon?

That said, your pasta with fresh tomatoes and herbs looks like the answer to late-summer bounty. My oregano has already gone to seed, however, and the parsley's looking poorly -- we're tippy-toeing up to our first frost.

You have a greenhouse. The green-eyed monster has me by the neck!

Meanwhile, I have a pot of flanken (beef short ribs) braising in the oven (three and a half hours at 275 Fahrenheit), for dinner with The Out-Laws tomorrow. The entire house smells of beef and wine, and the deliciousness has only just begun. The pot will sit in the fridge overnight, and tomorrow I will take off the fat, strain and reduce the sauce, and serve with parsley, chives and lemon zest, and a hunk of polenta.

Himself still wants to know why I could not do this in the barbecue, but the on-line consensus of cooks is clear: flanken belong in a pot, nestled in plenty of mirepoix, and all but immersed in wine and stock. Not one barbecue recipe for them could I find, but literally hundreds of braising treatments -- add carrots, sweet potatoes and prunes, and you get tzimmes, which (I just learned) is traditional for the High Holidays.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 03:38 PM

Ok help me with meatballs: I mix minimally, they are delish, but the texture is way too *hard* - every time.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 04:41 PM

OMG...breathing heavily - whew.   I, I just had a religious experience,
and no, it had nothing to do with the bathroom.
It may be old hat to you but I just ate a fruit labeled Mammoth Mango.
It was as though I had never had a mango before. It was as wide as both hands thumbs to middle fingers and as tall as my wrist to finger tip. Each bite of cool 5cm. smooth deliciousness followed another. For 1/2 an hour I sat stunned afterward at how good it was. I don't know where its from since I only saw that one at the store. My senses are are still vibrant and colorful.