BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 06:21 PM

French recipes often seem to use those single-letter codes for various sizes from soupspoon to pinch. Kind of feels like a cross between knitting and cooking!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 02:57 PM

PS I'm not sure where Mrrzy's 'maths' comes in, unless the measurements were adapted from a recipe for lots of people.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 02:53 PM

Mrrzy and Donual: I assume that 'parm' is grated Parmesan, that 't' is teaspoon, that 'T' is tablespoon, and that 'c' is cup.
I do like 'flufffy.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 01:37 PM

Oh was it good. I checked after 20 mn and it was poofed, but reallyreally dark brown almost burnt on top, so I put a square of tinfoil over it for the last 10 mn. Prolly shoulda checked at 15 mn.

The butter-parm dusting turned into a side-and-botton crust of deliciousness. I used salted butter so it was fine with salt only in the egg part, I had wondered.

It unpoofed as I ate it like all good soufflés.

There was a smidge of liquid underneath that softened the parmy crust, but it wasn't more than could be sopped up by the bites of soufflé, which had been another worry.

I am enjoying using so much math, too! This one was arithmeticked from here.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 01:16 PM

I need a glossary

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jun 20 - 01:08 PM

Another recipe for 1: spinach soufflé

Preheat toaster-oven to 375°

1T +1t butter (plus ramekin)
Parm to dust buttered ramekin
...butter and dust ramekin

5 oz chopped fresh spinach
Some minced onion
...soften onions then cook spinach down, in the 1T butter

1t flour
Dash of hot paprika
1/3 c milk
...make béchamel with the 1t butter
...add spinach to béchamel

Several grinds black pepper
Good grind salt
Dash nutmeg
1 egg
...beat till flufffy

Then add hot spinach mixture to egg in increments, folding and not cooking egg

Put in ramekin, bake till lovely (30m)

Mine is still in the oven. I will tell you how it goes...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 10:59 PM

Yesterday I used up a bowl of smallish poblano peppers from my garden and a couple of onions that have been around here for a while (and I have some onions from the garden to use once these are gone) and some cooked chicken breast to make chicken fajita filling. Corn tortillas from the freezer (picked up at the local panaderia and frozen immediately because they sell them at about 25 per package and I can't eat them that fast) and the usual toppings (guacamole from the freezer, the last of the sour cream, and Tapatio hot sauce). I made those yesterday, had some today, and probably have one more meal to go out of that bowl. Mmmmm good!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 08:50 PM

New glasses. Can I blame them?

I haven't cut myself (yet?) but I have cut into a fingernail or two. I am suggestible, though, so I think tonight's dinner will involve no knives, just in case!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 08:22 PM

Eat the shoots before they achieve radish-ness!

Sorry, bit late with that ...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 05:19 PM

I heard or read somewhere that if you let the radishes go to seed you can add the seeds to curries. I haven't tried it though.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 04:53 PM

Livestock!?!?

I live in a duplex apartment, the only livestock is a visiting cat :-)

Any more ideas ……………??

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 04:26 PM

My eyesight's great, but I only found out after a 60-mile round trip to Barnard Castle.

Radishes are everything I don't want to put in my mouth. And when I grew them years ago, every bloody one had cabbage root fly in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 02:49 PM

Feed them to the livestock! Radishes are SOOOO overrated. They just grow fast for beginning gardeners. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 01:42 PM

I expect to have a glut of radishes in about a month.

Now I like radish and know if I don't pick them all they will go "woody"

So my question is how can I preserve them or make something with them?

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

I burn and cut myself quite often, Mrrzy, much to Himself's dismay; I'm sure he thinks that one of these days I'll do myself a major mischief. But I feel less bad about it than I used to because I learned at the Stratford Chef School that cooks who don't burn and cut themselves at least sometimes don't cook much. It's like the pitcher that goes to the well too often: the odds are that eventually a bad thing will happen.

Many years ago, I damned near took off the tip of my left index finger when bisecting a large acorn squash that rolled unexpectedly, taking my hand with it, just as I was bringing down the knife at full force. That cost me a trip to the emergency ward for stitches and a stern lecture from a young doctor who looked as if he had never cooked anything more complex than scrambled egg on toast in his whole life. I have been cutting up chickens, boning shoulders of pork, chunking hard vegetables, and hauling smoking hot roasting pans in and out of ovens for more than fifty years, and that's the worst I've done. So far.

That said, how's your eyesight?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 10:40 AM

2 things: I have burned myself *again* - after maybe 4 decades of not burning myself cooking this is 4 times in 10 days.

Also in my attempts to cook for one I invented this with math:

Rhubarb Crisp For One

Preheat toaster-oven to 350ish

1 stalk rhubarb, 3T+1t sugar, 2+1/5t flour, mix, put in buttered ramekin.

2T+2 1/3t brown sugar, 1 grind sea salt, dash cinnamon, 2T+2t flour, mix for topping

Top

Bake 45 mn

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 09:53 AM

Thanks for the pasta e fagioli recipe, Charmion, and the pasta tip, Steve. I'll ask for bacon bits to be put on the shopping list and make it in a couple of days.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 09:30 AM

EBarnacle, do you think your disappointing pickled shad would be good as a spread, perhaps blended with cream cheese? Or perhaps you tried that and I missed it.

Last night I tried Steve Shaw's recommendation of starting a load of ribs in the oven and transferring them to the barbecue to finish. Disappointing, and I'm sure it was all my fault for letting the barbecue run too hot, or leaving them in too long, or something. The flavour was good, but the texture left much to be desired -- the meat at the bone was tender and moist, but just under the spice crust it was dry.

Next time, I'll use the barbie all through, but keep the heat properly low and allocate at least three and a half hours to the operation.

We live and we learn. Also, like Thompson, we eat my failures. It's a long time -- possibly decades -- since I buggered up anything so badly we couldn't eat it, but I confess I'm not crazy about the taste of what should have been.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 08:39 AM

Ya know, I pretty much never cook with beans. Lentils, sometimes. Chickpeas, sometimes. Green/string beans, yes. But regular beans are just not in my pantry.

I don't dislike them. I just don't cook them. Hmmm.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 31 May 20 - 06:30 PM

I mostly eat my failures, figuring that from the dead stones of my failed dishes I will build the road to chefdom.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 31 May 20 - 12:44 PM

I've decide that, as the texture of the pickled shad is poor, I'll try a fish pie in a few days. The taste should work. One thing about experimenting with food, you can always throw out your failures. Either that, or redirect them.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 20 - 02:18 PM

I had some black beans (I cook ahead and freeze them in jars) that I added along with a couple of other kidney bean varieties. They tasted fine; I don't add the liquid from the beans, that could make a difference. The tomato is so rich that none of the beans are going to change that color.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 30 May 20 - 01:14 PM

Minestrone is one of the most adaptable -- and adapted -- dishes I make. The only beans I have ever put it in it that really didn't work were black (turtle) beans, which actually tasted fine but gave the soup an unpleasant puce colour. It's the only way I can get Himself to eat kale.

If you don't have fresh basil leaves lying around on the day you make it, you can put a dollop of pesto (assuming you have that) in the bowl when reheating it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 20 - 10:38 AM

I've made this recipe a couple of times:

https://www.cookingclassy.com/olive-garden-pasta-e-fagioli-soup-copycat-recipe/

Invariably I have to make some change, like the last time I didn't have the cans of tomato sauce but I had a large can of tomato puree (six of one/half dozen of the other?) that I used instead. And I follow the tip about cooking the pasta separately since I'm not going to eat it all at once. This makes a robust amount of soup, so I spoon some of the cooked pasta into the bowl, top it with soup, and nuke it before adding grated Parmesan cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:39 PM

Agreed, Steve. Except with respect to the garlic and/ or onion issue, upon which we must agree to disagree.

When I make this, I freeze it in 750-ml containers without the pasta and basil, which I add when reheating it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 May 20 - 08:26 PM

Right. But no garlic, yeah?

One thing about dishes that have pasta chucked in for the last few minutes. Either eat it straight away or, if you freeze it or have it tomorrow, put up with pasta that has gone horribly soft and doughy. Best to hold back on the pasta as a last ten-minute additive. Batch it up sans pasta...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 May 20 - 07:46 PM

Made stuffed cabbage again... Yak meat mixed with some onions oregano marjoram worcestershire wrapped around a cherry tomato that had holes poked in it, wrapped in a cabbage leaf softened by a mn in the microwave, toothpicked. Made 3 little packets. Browned in bacon grease with smooshed garlic, then cooked in chicken broth for 45 mn or so. Took the packets out and added some couscous to the broth, ate the contents of 2 of the packets standing there waiting for the cous to cous. Poured rest of stock and cous onto 3rd packet and the leaves from the 1st 2 and added sour cream. Yum. And I have leftover broth and cous for dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 May 20 - 11:24 AM

Thompson, when I make pasta e fagioli, I use any beans I have handy and any short pasta ditto. It comes out as a variant of minestrone.

Cook half a pound of beans (I do this in an Instant Pot).

Take a large soup pot and put two to four ounces of diced bacon or pancetta in the bottom and start it cooking out. Add chopped onion (at least one medium) and/or garlic, celery (2 or three ribs, chopped) and carrot (2 or 3, chopped quite small but not grated). Add oregano and thyme, dried or fresh, as you will, with black pepper from the mill and a few crushed chillis. Cook until the onion looks done. Then add a large tin of tomatoes (28 fl oz in these parts) and about a quart (US or Imperial, your choice) of decent stock, followed by the cooked beans and about half a pound of short pasta. Stir it up, and add more stock if you think it necessary. Bring to a boil and simmer until the pasta and the carrot have achieved a good texture. If you like kale, add it now and cook about another 10 minutes, then add salt (if necessary) and chopped basil.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 May 20 - 05:01 PM

Thanks for that link, Charmion. I have a wooden one and a stone one, and I don't clean either (but I only grind spices in it). I never use the wooden one, too soft.

When in doubt about recipes, Thompson, I look at Bon Appétit and Epicurious first...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 28 May 20 - 03:59 PM

Anyone got a good recipe for pasta e fagioli? Thinking about making it with some rose coco beans I was given (same bean as borlotti).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 28 May 20 - 09:24 AM

I remember my mother's brass mortar and pestle, Mrrzy, but I'm glad I don't have it now; it was less well designed than these earthenware ones made by Mason Cash, and a damned nuisance to clean.

Since stonking heat has returned to Perth County, barbecue season is well and truly upon us. Finally, it's warm enough to leave the kitchen window open all night (hoping the burglar is out of town), and therefore to run the self-clean cycle on the oven. When cricking my neck at an angle I usually avoid, I observed that it is also time to remove the evidence of too many steaks, sausages and bacon rashers from the exhaust fan over the stove.

Cooking isn't all beer and skittles, damn it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 May 20 - 07:59 AM

Mom had a scale that was a scoop seesaw thing. Wonder who got it. I also covet her brass mortar-and-pestle, decorating my 2nd sister's house. I would be using it to mortar-and-pestle with. But I digress.

Made the individual lava cakes again. Got that recipe *down* now. It was the birthday of my long-time friend who died last year, so the widow and the brother (local) and I got together and zoomed with his New York friends and the Florida brother. It was great. Lotsa stories told, and meaningful t-shirts worn.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 May 20 - 05:19 AM

We have a battery-powered digital scale that goes down to the gram, or an eighth of an ounce.

Our kitchen scales have a resolution of 1g too but I don’t think I’d trust them for small measurements. We also have a pocket balance (ACCT-500 here) kept on a shelf in the kitchen. I’d use those if say I want to weigh a few grams of yeast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 May 20 - 10:02 PM

My mother had an odd house with a really strange kitchen. You walked into a space where there were some cupboards on one wall, and it had a couple of halls coming into it and the downstairs door; you walked to the corner of that space and through a slim doorway into a space that had probably six feet by three feet of floor space. It had counters on all four sides, with the stove on one side and the sink on the next side. That one-butt kitchen literally would not allow a second person to even enter the space without problems.

My weekly takeout was today, when I stopped at a favorite barbecue place and as I was trying to read the signs on the door a waiter walked up to my car door and took my order. It's nice to see these folks are adapting to these strange conditions to stay in business, and by doing my part I have a couple of more meals out of it. Less time in the kitchen for me. (I ordered the chopped beef brisket and their whole wheat rolls, with onions, pickles, and sauce).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 27 May 20 - 09:49 PM

It’s a 1974 three-bedroom Suburban, EB, with four maple trees and two bathrooms. The kitchen is a galley that extends across the back of the house between the dining room and the back door, with only enough room for one person to work efficiently; if two people try to work together in there, bad things can happen. It’s what my aunt the architect called a one-bum kitchen.

Mind you, rather a lot of money ago it was much worse, with a dangerous lack of ventilation, horrible cabinets and a leak in the ceiling from the bathroom sink upstairs. It’s now about as good a kitchen as it can be, but there’s not much we can do about its essential galley-ness.

So Himself makes breakfast and does the baking, and I make dinners and plan the menus. Even division of labour, and we don’t spill boiling water on each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 27 May 20 - 06:18 PM

A galley, you say? What sort of vehicle?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 27 May 20 - 04:20 PM

We have a battery-powered digital scale that goes down to the gram, or an eighth of an ounce.

It's amazing how less messy the kitchen is now that I weigh out all the ingredients when making bread. It didn't matter so much in our old abode, where we had an enormous kitchen with a great, big work surface, but now we cook in a galley and you have to sit down at the dining table to find the space to change your mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 27 May 20 - 03:05 PM

You wouldn't need a pharmacist's scale for 200 grams-ish. (Reminds me of a Fanny Craddock recipe in a magazine years ago that insisted on 12 3/4 ounces of black treacle (woe betide you if you accidentally measured out 13 ounces).
My scales have a dish one end and various weights to put on the other end, like a see-saw. They are always accurate and never ever go wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 May 20 - 02:56 PM

Measure to just shy of, or measure exactly then remove a fraction of a tsp? For generous, measure to just over, or exact and add a tsp or fraction thereof?

Shouldn't be difficult, especially with a digital scale. Mine is analog, so I go with kinda the width of the needle.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 27 May 20 - 02:49 PM

Scant, only just or barely.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 27 May 20 - 11:30 AM

Mrrzy, how does one "scant" a measurement in grams? Himself suggested using a pharmacists' scale like what the cops confiscate when they raid a meth lab, but with normal kitchen gear it seems kinda difficult.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 May 20 - 08:42 AM

It is divisible... Half, or a third, would make one 8" pan, I would think. That recipe made a LOT of deeply truly chocolatey cake.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 26 May 20 - 02:00 PM

Thanks for the flourless cake recipe, Mrrzy. I'll try that when we can have a group in the house again.

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

I always make my own salad dressing as bought one (here) always have sugar and/or cream. It's not for my coffee, dudes.

Also made a 9x13 pan of flourless chocolate cake topped with rolled-thin (cracked my rolling pin!) almond paste decorated with m&ms into an American flag, not forgetting the yellow *friiiiiiiiiiiiinge* (Hair lyric). Best flourless choc in a while:

12oz dark chocolate (340g)
3/4c unsalted butter (170 generous g)
6 large eggs
1c sugar (200 scant g)

Melt choc and butter and combine. Beat eggs till frothy, add sugar and beat for, like, 10 mn, while choc cools. Fold choc into eggs.

I used salted butter and cocoa to prep the pan as there is no salt in the recipe. Worked a treat.

Bake about a half-hour to 35 mn at 325°F/low side of 165°C.

I served with vanilla ice cream.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 May 20 - 04:59 PM

Well, I agree with you, Steve. I drank the other half of the bottle.

As it happens, I do use Elizabeth David's flambe thing -- it's part of the fun of a gas cooker, and I was thrilled when I finally learned the trick of it. But we'll have to disagree on the mushrooms -- after all, what's boeuf bourguinon but a beef stew with mushrooms?

Dried cepes are available here, and I use those, too. I break up the slices of mushroom before pouring the boiling water on them; perhaps that's why I've never noticed them being unpleasant.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 May 20 - 03:34 PM

Spot on, Dave. A similar rule applies to tomatoes. You can't make a decent tomato sauce with rubbishy, chemical-golfball shop tomatoes. If the toms are a tad disappointing but not complete rubbish, a scant teaspoon of sugar works wonders. I'll use those little piccolo toms to make a sauce, otherwise I'll use tinned plum tomatoes as long as there's no added salt in them. And if you want to kill a tomato, keep it in the fridge. And there's good science behind that advice.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 25 May 20 - 03:25 PM

Te golden rule is, if you wouldn't drink it, then it's not fit to cook with.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 May 20 - 02:04 PM

To avoid harshness, anything with added wine should be allowed to bubble cheerily with the lid off for five or ten minutes. You need to let all the alcohol evaporate. Golden rule no 2 is to use only decent wine. If you use bad wine, i.e. stuff you've bought but find is barely drinkable, as sure as eggs is eggs it will ruin your dish. In Italian cooking you'll often be advised to use the same wine you're going to drink.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 20 - 01:05 PM

I haven't had mushrooms in stew, but in dishes like beef stroganoff they are heavenly. Wine is good in stew and even in with the pot roast, but I don't put in huge amounts. A dollop will do.

I did my weekly take-out order on Friday and brought home a double order of beef fajitas from my favorite Mexican place up the street. They did mess up the order a bit; I asked for corn tortillas and they included flour instead. The corn is a much nicer flavor for those (and smaller so you limit how much you load up on - it's a good way to pace yourself with these things.) They also included the Mexican rice that I've never been particularly fond of and asked them to leave out. I suspect the trays of rice, refried beans, and fajita toppings are prepared somewhat ahead of time.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 May 20 - 10:57 AM

Now I find meself not in full agreement there. I find that wine can make stews harsh and can even dry out the meat. If a recipe calls for it, I do what Elizabeth David does, boil the wine first in a little saucepan and set fire to it until the alcohol has gone. And whoever thought it was a good idea to add cans of Guinness or cider to stews or a boiled ham should never be allowed near a kitchen again As for mushrooms in stews, no thanks. The texture is never right for me and the flavour has dissipated. I'll soak some dried ceps in a jug for half an hour then use just the liquid as part of whatever stock I'm using. You have to be careful to decant the liquid from its gritty dregs. It may seem like heresy but I don't use the actual fungi, which I find add nothing, but the soaking water is fantastic. I want my mushrooms sautéed in butter, seasoning and parsley, garlic even, and eaten on toast, or baked in cream with a pork chop a la Delia Smith. Rubbery boiled fungi are no things of beauty.