Let's talk recipes -- are you as random as I am?

[pepperhead212]

Now here's a dish that I really threw together at random! Basically, I used small amounts of a bunch of different things that I had, and wanted to get rid of.

I made a sambar, Tuesday night (leftovers tonight!), using up a bunch of odds and ends - some cubed up butternut, the last sweet potato and Yukon gold in my potato bin, some peeled broccoli stems, and some of the solid innards of a cauliflower. Also, though not traditional, I added a couple of broken up papadum (lentil wafers), just to use up the last ones (have to make more now!).

I started by cooking the toor dal with some turmeric in the IP. While that cooked and pressure released, I cooked some chopped onion in coconut oil in a large saucepan, then cooked the sambar masala in the oil briefly, then added the veggies and 5 c water. This simmered for about 20 min, and I added the papadum with about 5 min left. While this simmered, I mashed the finished dal in the IP and added this to the saucepan, salted to taste, and simmered a few more min, while preparing the tadka - heated a little oil in a small saucepan, popped the mustard seed, then added 8 Thai peppers, along with some cumin seed, fenugreek seed, asafoetida, and 15 fresh curry leaves. When the peppers were browned, this was stirred into the sambar, which was somewhat thickened by this time, from the squash breaking down. Leftovers will be even thicker!

Earlier, I made some jowar roti to serve this with. I ground some sorghum in the VM, removed a little of the flour (in case it was to wet later), then added some hot water, and processed it, making a soft, but not too sticky dough (the hot water makes the gluten free dough hold together better than cold water would). I also added some garlic, along with some ajwain seeds, to flavor the roti (I almost never make unflavored flatbreads!). I used my tortilla press to form these, then cooked them in a dry cast iron pan.

A few weeks ago, I made the fresh batch of sambar masala, which I used here, so I already had that. I had tried another recipe for the stuff, but it wasn't as good as the one that I've sort of tweaked to my own taste (hotter, of course, plus other things), so I wen't back to my favorite. In the fall, when soup, stew, and curry season is in, I make up new batches of all of those spice mixes, so I have them fresh. I use them occasionally in the warm months, but not nearly as much.

[Gary350]

Wife has been saving left over vegetables for a while this morning she decided to turn it into beef stew. She got the crock pot out & plugged it in about 8:30 am. She cooked stew meat in crock pot for a few hours this morning until it was done then added a large chopped onion and a whole clove of our garden garlic. We had 2 ears of corn she cut off the kernels to save, left over fried potatoes with onions, few mash potatoes, green beans, peas, carrots. Not sure what else was in that freezer bag of vegetables. She added about 2 cups of water & let it cook a while while we went to the store for 2 hours. Mash potatoes made a thick gravy. She added black pepper & sprinkle of salt. We got oregano from the oregano plant in the living room threw some in the stew. Beef stew was good with the last of the homemade bread that I made yesterday. Crock pot cooking is so easy, few times during the day walk past the crock pot, give it a stir, throw in something else, return later when every you have time. Dinner is usually ready to eat by 3 or 4 pm sometimes we don't wait until 5 to eat.

When we worked a job we use to throw a bunch of stuff in the crock pot then go to work, when we got home 10 hrs later dinner was ready to eat.

[imafan26]

I have a crock pot, but I don't use it much. I don't trust it to be alone by itself. I usually only used it when I planned on staying home all day anyway and I used it to make saimin stock and once I did corned beef and cabbage.
The soup smelled wonderful, but I did not season it enough so it was bland, my bad. The corned beef came out good and tender, but the recipe said to put the vegetables under the meat to cook and the vegetables were mush after cooking that long.

Your stew looks great though and maybe I'll look for some new recipes and give it another go.

[Gary350]

I have a crock pot, but I don't use it much. I don't trust it to be alone by itself. I usually only used it when I planned on staying home all day anyway and I used it to make saimin stock and once I did corned beef and cabbage.
The soup smelled wonderful, but I did not season it enough so it was bland, my bad. The corned beef came out good and tender, but the recipe said to put the vegetables under the meat to cook and the vegetables were mush after cooking that long.

Your stew looks great though and maybe I'll look for some new recipes and give it another go.

Crock pot is just a mini electric oven. If I buy another crock pot I always put an oven thermometer inside the pot to test see what the temperature is with the lid on. High is usually about 325 to 350 degrees F, low is usually about 180 to 200 degrees. Our smallest crock pot is about 1 quart it is great for a small meal for 2 people. The 3 & 4 quart are the ones we use most. The larger crock pot is used for larger meals or food that takes up lots of space. Put a whole chicken or meal loaf or roast, in large crock pot with, carrots, green beans, corn on cob, potatoes, broccoli, etc. its ready to eat in about 3 or 4 hrs. Most of what is cooked in a crock pot cooks fast ready to eat in 1 to 2 hours on high, then turn to low to keep it warm. Cook on low all day if your going to work then turn to high when you arrive home. You can put a frozen chicken in the crock pot it will thaw out in a few hrs then be cooked in 2 more hrs.

When we were both working a job we cooked a lot of things in the crock pot dinner was effortless. Chili, soup, stew, BBQ, meat loaf, chicken, pork chops, etc. I use to put a whole chicken in a crock pot with a whole bottle of BBQ sauce fill it to the top with water, set temperature on low then go to work. When I arrived home at 3:45 pm turn crock pot to high about 5:30 pm when I was ready to eat all the meat had fallen off the chicken bones I made BBQ chicken sandwiches. Sometimes I made, chili, stew, meat loaf, pork chops. Now we are retired & home all day start crock pot on high if we leave for a few hours turn it to low, when we return home turn it to high again. Last week we cooked, green beans, 2 ears of corn, 2 small potatoes, meat loaf in meat ball shapes in the crock pot, 4 hours later dinner was ready. Often dinner is ready long before we are ready to eat it turn it on low until its time to eat. Wife makes whole meat loaf in the crock it does not heat the house up like the kitchen oven probably uses less electricity too. If you can cook in a kitchen oven then you can cook in a crock pot. I sometimes bake homemade bread in a crock pot but I don't like crock pot shape bread it looks goofy. If you cook with herbs & spices put them in the food last 30 to 45 minutes of the cook. If you cook spices all day flavor is completely gone after 8 hours of cooking. You can use a crock pot like a cook pot on top the kitchen stove add 1" of water 8 ears of corn 15 minutes boiling water steams the corn it is ready to eat. Fill crock pot with fresh picked garden green beans throw in 2 slices of bacon for flavor & 1/2 cup water to steam the beans. Crock pot makes good rice, get 2 1/2 cup water boiling with 1 tsp salt, 1 T butter, throw in 1 cup rice cook 5 minutes then turn if off rice will be ready to eat in 20 or 30 minutes. You can make any kind of soup it is not possible to burn it there is too much water in soup. You can bake potatoes in a crock pot. You can bake a cake or cobbler in a crock pot. Soak your favorite dry beans over night next morning put a ham bone in crock pot with bean and lots of water cook all morning then after lunch start adding flavor, onions, garlic, black pepper, what every you like but no salt until the very end. If you cook beans in salt all day they get very tough.

[MariaDigsGardening]

You can use a crock pot like a cook pot on top the kitchen stove add 1" of water 8 ears of corn 15 minutes boiling water steams the corn it is ready to eat. Fill crock pot with fresh picked garden green beans throw in 2 slices of bacon for flavor & 1/2 cup water to steam the beans. Crock pot makes good rice, get 2 1/2 cup water boiling with 1 tsp salt, 1 T butter, throw in 1 cup rice cook 5 minutes then turn if off rice will be ready to eat in 20 or 30 minutes.

Mind blown. I haven't used my crock pot this way, but am going to have to try it.

I have two crockpots. One has an electric timer built in, but I find that it runs too hot and I don't get as good of results with it. I like the one that just has the dial knob (low, high, keep warm)-- but this can be tricky when I am gone 10 hours and cook something that needs less time to cook. So I use a light timer and set everything up in the morning when I leave. The light timer turns the crock pot on at 11 or 12 or whenever, and then everything is perfect when I get home.

[Gary350]

We made Tikka Masala for dinner, WOW this was so good. Wife cut 2 chicken breasts into small pieces cooked it in the electric skilled with 1 large onion diced. I smashed 12 cloves of garlic on the cutting board with a mason jar then threw them in the skillet. Chicken cooked in about 14 minutes then we started pouring in the vegetables. We had left over garden corn & carrots and part of a bag of grocery store vegetables. We found garden broccoli and peas in the freezer. Vegetables cooked a few minutes then added 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Next in goes the whole jar of Tikka Masala sauce, rinse jar with 1 tablespoon of water 2 times pour water in the skillet. Stir in sauce it is ready to eat. I forgot to take a picture until after we both ate dinner, there is enough left over for tomorrow.

[applestar]

There is a Japanese chicken dish called “Chicken Nanban” It’s basically ginger/soy/mirin marinated then starch-dusted or egg-dip+panko fried chicken nuggets that are dipped in hot sweet soy sauce+vinegar, then served on greens with tartar sauce.

A little while ago, I came across a recipe for this made with home-made tartar sauce using pickled scallions rather than bread/butter pickles. I’ve been wanting to make it, but over the busy last couple of days, DH used up all of the chicken thigh meat and breast meat I had stocked.

So... today for my lunch, I used a left-over Chick-fil-A sandwich and made my adaptation of Chicken Nanban.
- I removed the two pickle slices to put in the tartar sauce, cut up the top and bottom halves of the roll into 1 inch cubes and put them in the toaster oven along with the breaded, fried chicken breast meat to reheat.
- Since I was using the oven anyway, I cracked open an egg into a Pyrex bowl of hot water + rice wine vinegar to poach in the oven, and ...
- made the vinegar dip mixture out of konbu steeped-rice wine vinegar mixed with sake and sugar that I had made for another dish + coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute) + fresh ginger slivers and put that in the oven to heat.

While they were heating up/cooking, I minced up some more fresh ginger root, the pickles from the sandwich, my own pickled scallions, my own sweet rice vinegar pickled cucumbers and mushrooms, 1” long fresh green premature pepper that fell off a plant when I jostled it (it turned out to be some kind of a hot pepper), and some onion and cucumber pickles that came as accompaniment to a meat-sauce and quail-egg stuffed potato appetizer that DH brought home from a Peruvian restaurant yesterday. These were blended with juice from a wedge of lemon and my current fave sunflower oil mayo (Sir Kensington‘s). Instead of chopped fresh parsley, I added fresh dwarf moringa leaves and also a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper.

- Removed the sandwich roll croutons as they became nicely toasted
- Cut up the heated chicken, dipped them in the hot vinegar and arranged them with the croutons, then poured the sweet vinegar all over
- roughly cut up the poached egg and arranged them on top then spooned the mayo mixture over them all. (In the recipe I was using for inspiration, the scallion pickles are minced and mixed with diced hard boiled egg, lemon juice, and mayo to make the home-made tartar sauce.)


Just to emphasize the Japanese cuisine, I added a small portion of hot brown rice on the side. Let me tell ya, this was amazingly good.

[pepperhead212]

Made one of my favorite dishes last night - Chicken Cafreal. May be my favorite Indian chicken dish - this or Chicken 65, both loaded with garlic! Chicken cafreal is a Goan dish, influenced by the Portuguese (and visa-versa - probably why so much cilantro is used in Portuguese food!), when they occupied the small state of Goa, back in the days of the spice trades. Some of the spiciest foods, and also use a lot of vinegar, for their sour in the foods, though this also has tamarind.

Chicken cafreal, start to finish.

Spices for the green masala:
Spices for cafreal, before toasting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Spices, after toasting:
Toasted spices, for chicken cafreal masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

2 sliced onions, caramelized, for topping:
Caramelized onions, for topping chicken by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cafreal masala paste, with spices, green chiles, ginger, garlic, cilantro, and salt:
Cafreal masala paste, to marinate the chicken. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chicken, starting to cook after marinating 5 hours:
Chicken cafreal, starting to cook. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chicken cafreal, after cooking about 20 min., before adding vinegar. Here, I sucked off 2 tb of the fat, with a baster:
Cafreal, after cooking about 20 min., before adding the vinegar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chicken cafreal, finished cooking, with most of the masala clinging to the chicken:
Cafreal, ready to serve. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chicken cafreal, topped with crispy onions:
Chicken cafreal by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

We had lobsters a couple of days ago. They were smaller than the size we usually get, so we had 6 for the 4 of us, but only enjoyed the claws and the tail meat. The rest were just too small to bother with. But I asked DH to clean them and save them so I could try to do something with them.

...today, I pulled them out from their semi-frozen state, and made soup.

- Thawed them in a covered pot with EVOO and once the liquid that came out started to caramelize, deglazed with rum, added water, bay leaf, and a little salt and boiled to extract the flavors. Crushed the body until the legs came off in metal colander with a wooden pestle, returned to pot and boiled some more.

- In the 2nd, soup pot, finely diced bacon and minced onions and carrots, plus a whole garlic clove from the freezer — to sweat in the bacon fat and EVOO and then butter.

- Added strained lobster broth (I don’t have a conical metal strainer, so I use a metal colander, then a medium wire mesh strainer) and rice milk, a splash more rum and Japanese dashi broth (bonito, anchovy, kombucha). A few glugs of store-bought organic chicken broth.

- Herbs and spices — Minced slices of turmeric and ginger. My own sweet paprika. Chervil, celery roots, dried leaf celery, coriander, parsley. Himalayan pink rock salt and Mediterranean Sea salt.

(Returned lobster carcasses and bay leaf to the 1st pot, covered with water and heated to boiling and simmered some more for 2nd extract)

- Needed something fruity and something sweet, so added a splash of “spiced (detected cinnamon and clove)” apple cider. Ground schisandra berries (I’m going to try to grow this from seeds this year). And juice from the last wedge of lemon.

- Once boiling, added diced vegs — a couple of small russet potatoes and a largish purple fingering potato, dried portabello mushroom, last wedge of runty TKK squash, cauliflower, and long potato mountain yam.

- Skimmed foam, added the strained 2nd extract lobster broth and skimmed again until done.

- Served with a dollop of home made yogurt stirred into the bowl of soup — it was refreshing a tasty this way and received good reviews, but decided to make it “richer”, so melted butter until lightly golden, then added bread flour and salt to toast the flour, then whisked with soup until gravy-like roux, then added to soup for creamier texture.

- Addition of yogurt was accepted and adopted by the family as a great innovation — the yogurt adds that final tangy flavor to round out the flavors (we also had sour cream, but I opted for the tangier yogurt — and there was enough butterfat in the soup already). I liked mine also topped with freshly ground black pepper to add that peppery finish.

[applestar]

Even after 2 extractions, the lobster body meat that were left in the mesh strainer — I guess this is akin to “lump crab meat” — were received with great enthusiasm by our two kitties after I rubbed the sticky meat between my fingers to feel/pick out all of the shell and cartridge fragments and rolled into bite-sized balls for them. They each got two gumball sized lobster meatballs today. They have another serving each to look forward to for tromorrow.

[applestar]

I made “umaki” — teriyaki char-broiled eel rolled in dashi tamago omelette



I’ve been wanting to try making it since I saw it in this episode of Isekai Izakaya —

Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World Episode 16
https://www.crunchyroll.com/isekai-izaka ... urn-774507

...I made the “dashi” for the omelette from scratch using kombu, dried anchovies and dried baby shrimp, and had mine on a bed of brown rice bowl. Ground sansho spice on top of course.

If you would like to watch the episode in which the Japanese pub chef convinced the local community that eel can taste delicious, try this episode too.

Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World Episode 15
https://www.crunchyroll.com/isekai-izaka ... nor-774506



I previously mentioned eel in this post — (if you follow the link, there were some follow-up comments at that time, too)
Subject: Let's talk recipes -- are you as random as I am?

I haven’t posted in this thread in a while.... well I had a random creation today that really tickled my taste buds. This one might be a bit strange for most of you, but then again, maybe there will be some that would also say, ooh, that sounds yum.

First a little back ground — when I was young and lived in Japan ... we’re talking ages ago ... my Dad was often away and my Mom would order take out from the restaurants. I have no idea how it is now, but back then, the local restaurants in the local shopping market district would send someone on a bicycle to deliver our order. The bicycle was fitted with saddle hampers one on either side of the rear wheel — these were rectangular metal boxes that had a front door that slid up/out of the grooved tracks to reveal two shelves in it to make three levels, and the dishes came in real restaurant serving dishes tightly covered with clear wrap or sometimes in special serving boxes with lids, and included all the sides, condiments, etc. You left the dirty dishes piled up outside the front door after you were done, and some one would come by later in the evening and quietly take them away.

Maybe we ordered other things, too, like sushi, or soba, or ramen, but two that I remember I ordered often were giant shrimp ten(tempura)-don and una(gi)-ju box dinners. They were special dinners and I used to love them.

I think this is why I still have cravings for those teriyaki (char)broiled eel, and despite the environmental issues, conservation issues, and mistrust of farm-raised seafood, I still buy and eat those things. So I have been eating them my entire life, but only very recently found out that there is a portion of eel eating pupulation that adamantly recommend rinsing off all the pre-applied eel teriyaki sauce from the packaged, pre-cooked, just heat and eat eels. Oh yeah those things are full of MSG no less. (I cringe when I stop to think about it, then put it all out of my mind.) They recommend buying high quality, high-end eel sauce, or better yet, make your own from scratch.

— OK enough ancient history —

So I started off making a special combo rice — organic short grain white, organic pressed barley, organic short grain brown, and organic sweet short grain brown, several pieces of konbu, and 1/2 a tsp of Mediterranean Sea salt. Rinsed as much teriyaki sauce I could from the frozen packaged pre-cooked eel (a special brand) and drizzled it with agave nectar, organic molasses, naturally brewed Japanese cooking wine (no MSG), organic tamari soy sauce, salted koji, and organic diced beech tree mushrooms. Then into a 375°F oven for 18 minutes.

While that cooked, I minced together one Myoga flower bud preserved in sake, 1/2 scallion, and 1/2 inch thick disk of peeled nagaimo, and a peeled clementine. When the eel was done, I filled a large bowl with the rice, then tore 1/2 a sheet of nori into bits on top, then covered with 1/2 of the myoga, scallions, nagaimo and clementine mixture, then topped with 1/2 of the eel. I added a giant onion ring I heated with the eel, just because I had it. Ooooh it was so yummy!

...Now normally I only eat 1/2 the eel at a time, but this was all so good and nobody else wanted the other half, so.... I plated another serving and ate it all.

[digitS']

We have some knowledgeable and creative Helpful Gardeners in their kitchens making breads and using cereals.

I have been trying to help DD with her diet now that her healthcare people have said that she really shouldn't be eating wheat flour and some other cereal grains. This has introduced me to the miller's world of flours. I really didn't know that some of these existed. Coconut flour?

Arrowroot flour, Mom used it at times. There were some cookies, I think that they had powdered sugar on them and if we are parents, we discovered arrowroot cookies on the baby food shelves at the supermarket. Now we can't be sure about everything on Wikipedia but it says that roots any of "several" plants might be milled into a product that may then go under the name "arrowroot flour." I don't know what to make of that but, okay! Maybe the uses for any of them is about the same.

My question is about millet (sorghum) flour. It was written like that in several recipes that I looked at, "millet (sorghum)." Or, maybe it was "sorghum (millet)" flour. What? Is the grain from a millet made into something sold as sorghum flour? Or, is one suggested as an alternative for the other?

I bought some "millet flour" and it looks something like whole wheat. Didn't see any sorghum flour on the shelves ... Have any of you had experience with this flour (these 2 flours?)?

Steve

[pepperhead212]

Sorghum and millet are two different grains. If you have an Indian grocery nearby, you can find both flours there, and sometimes whole millet (haven't seen whole sorghum at any of the stores here). There, sorgum flour is called jowar, and millet flour is bahra. I have made flatbreads with both; sorghum is more flavorful, while millet is sort of mild. They also have a lot of other non-wheat flours, chick pea flour, or bessan, being the most commonly used.

Arrowroot is almost entirely starch, as is cornstarch, tapioca starch, and potato flour. Not much nutrition in those flours, but still used, in some cooking.

[HoneyBerry]

Steve- Do you have access to a health food store? They usually have a good selection of gluten-free flours, such as millet & sorghum. And, yes, Indian stores are also a great place for specialty foods, probably less expensive. I don't know why your recipe shows 'millet (sorghum)'. They are both small sized grains, so perhaps they are interchangeable, but I can't say for sure since I have never even tried sorghum.
I buy frozen millet tots at my local health food store. The look sort of like tater tots, only a little smaller in size. I have 2 flavors to choose from. I like the italian herb flavor. Millet is supposedly very good for you, with omega-3 and gluten-free. I find the frozen millet tots to be a great healthy convenient food. They are easy to heat up in the microwave. I take them to work for lunch and mix them with vegetables. I find millet to be rather filling, so I think that it must be high in calories. I guess I need to check that.
My cockatiel was crazy about millet sprays. It was like an addiction for him.
I would like to someday try growing millet. I had some volunteers millet plants growing in my garden once in a spot where I had put some millet out for the birds.

[HoneyBerry]

There is more than one type of millet. I have been recently researching millet because I read that it can have goiterogenic effects. Apparently, there was a goitre epidemic in the Sudan in the '80s that was linked to millet consumption. So I have been trying to not eat very much millet until I know more about the goitre concern.

[applestar]

...found it... there was a discussion recently about millet vs. sorghum:

Subject: Do you think this is sorghum?

My first thought being a mid-westerner is milo. After looking it up it is called grain sorghum. Milo or grain sorghum is used in bird seed so I think that is what you have.

Milo (Sorghum bicolor) is called grain sorghum because there are other types (cultivars) of sorghum that are the same species. Forage sorghum can grow over 10 feet tall and is chopped and used as cattle feed. It is selected and bred for its ability to grow a lot of stalks and foliage versus grain. Sweet sorghum is grown in tropical areas to be made into mollasses and rum.

[digitS']

Thank you, Dave! We don't have an Indian grocery around, that I know of. There is a Thai lady with a grocery store and I know that there are some things on her shelves from that part of the world. I can look there.

Thank you, HoneyBerry! I hadn't thought of a health food store. We make a periodic stop for DW's vitamins and a root beer for me . I know that there are several varieties of millet. I grew foxtail millet for an ornamental, several years. Even had the purple variety, once. It's very pretty but you have to harvest it a little early or the finches move in on it very hungrily! Miss the millet harvest by about a week and the birds will make a mess of it .

Thank you, AppleStar! I hadn't thought of milo ... mostly because I don't know what it is . Missed that thread by Taiji and PaulF's reponse - shoot, all of about 6 weeks ago.

Steve

[applestar]

Japanese-style Smokey Chicken Currie Don

(I apologize in advance @pepperhead212, this was a from-box assembly, not on same level with the advanced culinary masterpieces like yours )



- leftover yesterday’s Japanese stew-style curry sauce — made with store-bought roux, but started by warming up/toasting fennel seeds, ground cumin and coriander, slices of fresh turmeric and ginger roots, and dried curry leaves in saved beef fat and virgin coconut oil. Removed the curry leaves and covered with sesame oil to steep, then sweated minced onion, diced apple, dehydrated garlic, carrot chunks and peeled chunks of cauliflower stems. Added leftover Smokey “pulled chicken” from a local bbq place.
- separately defrosted and simmered about a quart of summer-frozen cherry tomatoes, then added the toasted curry leaf-steeped sesame oil and hand-blendered, then strained and added to the main pot to deglaze.
- When bubbling, added chunks of fingering potatoes and cauliflower florets, and chicken broth.
- separately cooked 3:1 short grain brown rice and basmati brown rice with a bit of sea salt
- when rice was almost ready, added chopped up blocks of store bought curry roux (S&B medium hot), and also floated S&B curry powder and Indian grocery-bought gala masala mix in the pooled grease. Simmered to warm the spice powders then gently stirred until thickened and bubbly.

>> Served yesterday’s over rice with my own kefir and blackberry sauce. That was quite lovely, too.
>> Today’s after the stew/sauce was kept warm all night — stew flavors meld together and become mellower next day ...some people say “better” (rice is kept warm in the neurofuzzy rice cooker — it was still fragrant with basmati rice aroma) — I embellished and garnished with shaved coconut flakes, fenugreek seeds that have just sprouted to harvest-size, my kefir + store-bought mango kefir, and my hot pepper relish sauce -photo above-

[pepperhead212]

Oh no, Applestar - a box??? How could you?

From the looks of that, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm sure it was delicious!

Steve, Here are my jars of millet (L) and sorghum (R), side by side:
IMG_20190120_182743527 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The sorghum flour is sort of gray-brown, and the millet a much lighter, yellowish color.

I don't think that you have to worry about getting a goiter from millet. It is probably something eaten in excess, simply because there are few other grains in that area, and the diet of the area is probably lacking in iodine in general, not because something in the diet is absorbing it. Sort of like pellagra occurring in areas where corn is consumed as the main part of their diet, resulting in niacin deficiency.

[HoneyBerry]

The writing that I read about millet and goiter did say that the millet was eaten in excess, as much as 70% of their diet was millet. They ate pearl millet. So the doctor who wrote what I read suggests avoiding pearl millet altogether to be on the safe side.

[pepperhead212]

Probably that region does not have iodized salt!

Seriously, though, I don't think that you have to worry about eating millet, or anything like that, when you are eating it as part of a healthy diet. Areas of the world, where malnutrition of many types exists, it is often because a high % of their calories is from the only grain grown in the region. Iodine is just one of the many deficiencies found in these areas.

Sometimes I use millet in combination with jasmine rice, since it has much more nutrients than white rice (and brown jasmine just doesn't have the flavor), and having a sort of neutral flavor, the jasmine rice flavor is still there. I've tried this with several other grains, but their flavors masked the jasmine.

[HoneyBerry]

Millet mixed with jasmine rice sounds wonderful. That's my favorite kind of rice anyway. I will try that combo sometime. I want to sometime try quinoa with jasmine rice too.

[HoneyBerry]

I have a hard time with the idea that pearl millet may cause goiter. Iodine deficiency makes more sense.
A very young coworker of mine has an enlarged thyroid. She's seen several doctors about it and they don't know what the cause is. She said she has tried everything. She is also Type 1 diabetic. She seems fine, healthy. She said that she has to live with it.
I just had some yummy millet tots. No longer concerned about 'millet goiter' thanks to Pepperhead.

[pepperhead212]

I did a definitely unusual recipe today - instead of Thai fried rice, I used some cooked whole oats I had in the fridge! Nothing is as good as jasmine rice, but it was still delicious, and definitely more nutritious.

I had to make some guac, since it is national corn chip day, but that was more my lunch.

For dinner I had that Thai grilled chicken, which I took out of the freezer a couple of days ago, and put in the marinade yesterday. I made a batch of that spicy sweet and sour dip sauce - a favorite of mine for grilled foods and fried foods in the summer. And as a side dish some fried oats! I had some whole oats left in the fridge, so I used those, mushrooms, and some chopped bok choy leaves. Worked out great!

Thai chicken, marinated, ready to roast. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Thai chicken, finished roasting. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Nam Jeem Gratiem. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients for fried oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Garlic and ginger, added to the superhot oil and producing that incredible aroma!
Garlic and ginger, hitting the hot oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Just after adding the scallions and sugar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished fried oats, with basils torn on top. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Meal served. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I still smell those dishes up in my computer room as I sit here! Makes me hungry for a midnight snack.

[pepperhead212]

I made some Spareribs in Black Bean sauce tonight (plus a little SF bok choy on the side). I made it a day early, but I have more than half left for Chinese New Year, which starts Tuesday.

This dish is one of my favorites, though I hadn't made it for quite a while. It was the second recipe in the meat chapter in my looseleaf "black book", which I wrote my favorite oriental recipes in, before I had a software for recipes! These salted, fermented black beans are one of those ingredients that smell totally disgusting, at first, but the smell cooks off, and about halfway through, the sparerib aroma takes over, and by the end, you can't wait to taste them! Still, I don't recommend them to anyone that does not have a powerful, externally vented exhaust hood! This is the recipe I was cooking in my parent's house, before I left home, and Dad threatened to throw me out if I ever cooked "whatever that was again". I've been making it for that long!
Ingredients for Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Stir-frying minced ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Stir-frying ribs, with minced ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Liquid added, and brought to boil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After 45 minutes cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Most of the liquid cooked off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Gary350]

This morning wife said, I have 1/2 package of stew meat what can I make? It took me 1/2 second to yell out, VEGETABLE SOUP. Wife cooked the stew meat in the skillet with a large onion and several garlic. She dumped the skillet into a rather small crock pot, I told her that crock pot is too small, she said no its not. She had a container in refrigerator with left overs, peas, carrots & onion. She threw in a freezer bag of Blue Lake bush beans & a bag of Roma flat pod beans. We cut kernels from 5 ears of garden corn. The was a bag of white shelled beans from green beans that were too large to be green beans. LOOK at the crock pot it is about to over flow, wife said, I told you it was large enough, LOL. This is about 10% meat and 90% vegetables, wow it looks good. Wife said, it has no salt & no pepper you might want to add some to your bowl so I did. Wow very good vegetable soup for such little work, it cooked all day that is what makes it so good, there is barely enough left for lunch tomorrow.

[applestar]

Subject: BREAD, post Photos and Recipes here.

These are rye hard-rolls I made based on this rice cooker recipe (it’s in Japanese, but it has step by step photos and maybe your browser can run a translation) https://cookpad.com/recipe/255469
[...]

— I divided the dough into 8 so the rolls are smaller and mushed into odd shapes. You can see one of the quick rolls I made before among the 200g rye/100g white bread flour hard rolls.

...to be honest, the rye hard rolls were OK, but could be improved. The delicious thing was the slow-cooked pork and cabbage that I made them to eat with. I used fresh pork shoulder cut into chunks and seared in sunflower oil, garlic, onions, apples from the garden (stored in fridge since fall and starting to wrinkle but still good) balsamic vinegar, EVOO, and then tocompensate for lack of other typical stew veg, added some tomato and basil pasta sauce, then deglazed with apple cider vinegar and rum. 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Added enough rice milk to braise, then topped with half of a huge cabbage, roughly chopped. Then just slowly simmered.

Look at this photo — there used to be 3.75 Lbs of pork in there, but the family loved it and by the time I remembered to take a picture, this was all that was left LOL

(That’s a 2nd inner lid borrowed from a smaller pot to self-baste and concentrate the flavor.)

...that was yesterday. After keeping the leftover warm on the stove overnight, this morning, I tossed about 8 good sized fresh shiitake caps cut into strips into the pot, another 1/4 of the cabbage, this time shredded, then let it all simmer down, and those of us that were still hungry for it had this over spinach spirals (pasta). I think it might actually be all gone... or nearly. I can’t believe it. (Let me just reassure, that we don’t normally eat this much meat all at once. )

[Gary350]

applestar that pulled pork looks good. Next time we go to the store we need a pork shoulder & mesquite BBQ sauce.

Today wife put the last chicken breast in a crock pot few hours later we had pulled chicken in broth. We have left over chicken broth and rice from making Mexican a few days ago so it went into the crock pot to become chicken and rice soup. We both said, it needs something. In goes, green beans, carrots, peas, corn, white beans, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, onion, garlic. 5pm we ate it with homemade bread. We have 2 bowls left for lunch tomorrow.

[applestar]

Haha, you can tell it’s wintertime. We’re all making soup every which way we can We had our version of chicken-rice soup here.

This was something I threw together for lunch, but it tasted good so I’m writing it down —

Easy and Quick Chicken-Rice soup


1/2 of a leftover herbed spit-roasted whole chicken
Water
About 1 cup tomato-basil pasta sauce
About 1 cup diced daikon
About 2 cups cooked brown/white rice
1 qt chicken broth (Swanson Organic Free Range)
About 1 cup chopped greens — kale and spinach


- Heat the half-frozen chicken in a 3 L pot until it starts to sizzle, separate off the leg and wing joints, then add water to cover. Boil covered on high until chicken is heated through and meat pulls off easily with a pair of tongs.

- Reduce heat and save as much of both dark and white meat as possible just by pulling off — keep covered in a Pyrex bowl.

- Increase heat until boiling again and then cook until the bones fall apart.

- remove all of the bones and skin with slotted spoon to a colander (cool, pick bones apart for the kitties and discard). Stir in the tomato sauce and chicken broth and bring back to boil.

- Add the rice and daikon to the hot broth, and when heated through, dice the reserved chicken meat and add with any broth pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

(If you tasted the broth before adding the chicken and was feeling disappointed, you will be pleasantly pleased by the chicken-y oomph in the flavor after stirring in the chicken meat.)

- Chop and add greens — I used freshly harvested spinach and dazzling blue kale (very dark green) from the V8 Winter Indoor Garden this time, but I often use frozen greens harvested earlier — probably would have been about 1/2 cup of frozen by this proportion.

I didn’t need to adjust seasoning at all, but by all means adjust to taste. I drizzled some EVOO when serving, but I thought a small part of butter would be good too, as would cream, sour cream, or shredded cheese submerged in the hot soup.

This could have used any number of additional vegs, but I didn’t have any — using tomato sauce is a good way to obtain some of the common background flavors like onions, garlic, carrots, celery, etc. Chicken broth has those background veg flavors, too.


...I mixed the bits and pieces of meat, connective tissues, soft joints, skin, etc. I picked off the bones with a small amount of the cooked rice I saved for them before putting into the soup, mixed with some of the broth that pooled in the bowl under the colander, and voilà! Kitties got their own servings of the chicken/rice for dinner Don’t worry they get their own kitty vitamin complex for their morning treat... and — at lunch time while I was waiting for the broth to boil — they went crazy for the bit of organ meat that’s always under the back/hip bone, for which I had them sit AND stay — yeah I train them to do tricks

[applestar]

Today’s dinner will be beef chuck short ribs. I started by searing in a blend of coconut oil and toasted sesame oil and then rummaged in the pantry for some red wine that I could sacrifice for this recipe. I had been considering using the gift bottle of blueberry wine that we have not been tempted to open, but It turned out to be a “sweet wine”... but I found something better.

This is a local winery-bottled CHERRY wine. I remember buying it because I had heard from somewhere that it is very good, but I had forgotten about it and it has been ‘resting’ in the back wall wine rack of the pantry since —as it turns out— who-knows-when. ...Look, it doesn’t even have the year on the label.

I imagined that the cherry wine would go well with the beef regardless of quality, but as it turned out, this is actually a rather good dessert or aperitif wine. Not cloyingly sweet, but sort of back of the tongue sweet, with oaky fullness. I had poured DH a 1/2 glass to try, and he poured himself a full glass for 2nd serving.

Extra bay laurel leaves in here will go well with the cherry wine, I think.

...looking forward to tasting the result

~•~•~•~•~



...I think “decadent” is the only way to describe this. It was so rich and intensely flavorful. A little bit on the sweet side, but DH and I agreed that it was not TOO sweet and could stand as is, though I suggested possibly mustard or hot sauce for individual adjustment.

I cut up a big bowl of finely sliced raw cabbage — the last 1/4 of the big head of cabbage — to help tone down the intensity, and DH grabbed half of the bowl on return round, after initially reluctantly taking a small fingertip pinch the first time DD2 who I thought will need convincing wolfed down most of the rest — only reason I got to have some cabbage at all was because the other DD obstinately refused to eat any despite evident enjoyment demonstrated by the rest of us. (Note to self — need more cabbage). I’m thinking I might have gotten away with not bothering to cook in the tougher base/central leaf portions and just finely chopped them to serve raw, but they did add to the rich flavor of the main entree.

I also made a quick pull-apart dinner “rolls” in the rice cooker.

...I think if I can’t find this lovely aged cherry wine in the future, we would have to make-do with either good sherry or maybe port.

...I will have to remember that I also added a small jar of pickled daikon with pickle juice, a jar of aka shiso jelly, and a bunch of dried shiitake stems.

...oh yes, and I did use the inner lid technique —

[pepperhead212]

This was my Chinese dinner night, though 2 days too late for Chinese new year.

That smoked chicken was fantastic, as always, though I remember now why I don't make it too often! lol I posted the rest of the photos on another thread.
Finished tea smoked chicken. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ants Climb a Tree has always been a favorite of mine - Szechwan dish, with ground pork, as a rule, though I used beef, because I have so much of it! It is tossed with soaked bean thread noodles - the trees, in this dish, and the ground meat is the ants.
Finished ants climb a tree. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I had some stir fried baby bok choy, with the stems cooked about 4 minutes, then the greens just tossed until wilted, then a seasoning sauce added, to glaze it. This is the one dish we finished off!
Stir fried bok choy by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I usually don't have desserts with Chinese, but yesterday I made some purple rice pudding in my slow cooker.
Purple rice pudding, before adding coconut milk and pandanus leaf. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

It's a SE Asian dish, but I figured that if anyone was still hungry, I'd have it. Both of my friends were saying that they didn't really want anything, but had to try it, after seeing it. She said to just give them one small bowl, and both would try it out of that, but once they tried it, they wanted more! They were trying to figure out what was in it, but most people haven't tried black sticky rice or pandanus leaves before! lol
Purple rice pudding. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

I was about to go to sleep... now I’m HUNGRY

[pepperhead212]

Here's one of those totally random dishes I came up with, based on a favorite eggplant dish of mine in the summer, with all those fresh veggies.

Tonight was a soup night, and I made a batch of soup based on Caponata, since I was trying to think of something to make with some of that dehydrated eggplant, and that is a favorite eggplant dish of mine. The eggplant is sort of ugly, when rehydrated, but the flavor turned out good, and in something like this, you can't really see the eggplant very much.

First I made the tomato base in the IP. I cooked a couple of diced onions in some olive oil, then added the garlic, and cooked a minute, then added the can of crushed tomatoes, some thyme, and about a can of water, plus about 1/3 c of black and green olives, coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c salted capers, soaked, dried, and coarsely chopped, and 1/3 c soaked raisins (all classic caponata ingredients). I also added some cooked black chick peas, since I had some left in the fridge to use up, and added a half cup of black quinoa, to thicken the liquid some, and some fresh bay leaves. I let that simmer about 35 min., while cooking the remaining veggies.

The eggplant was rehydrated overnight, and I dried it out some, then sautéed it in some olive oil for about 10 min, and removed to a plate. Then I sautéed the cut up red bell peppers for about 6 or 7 min, and added these to the plate. Then I sautéed the celery chunks for about 5 min., and added this to the plate.

When the tomato base was ready, and the quinoa was thickening it, I added the veggies to the tomato base. I let that simmer for about 7 or 8 more minutes, then added some red wine vinegar - stirring and tasting, until I had just enough to give it that caponata flavor. Turned out great!
Caponata based soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish:
Caponata soup by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

That looks really good!

— those black ingredients are a surprise — but I like the visual punch and contrast they add to the dish.

[HoneyBerry]

Your Caponata Soup looks sooooooo good, Pepperhead. I am going to have to try making that sometime. Minestrone is my favorite kind of soup. But your Caponata Soup looks like it could be better than Minestrone.

I am too busy to cook much lately, so I was thinking about making apple pie using white bread for the crust. I looked for recipes online and found that there really is such a thing. I think it would be fun to make apple pie that way sometime.

[applestar]

Crushed Cornflakes and Panko encrusted Pork Tenderloin

- Pork tenderloins lightly salted, then rubbed with ketchup, dried chervil, and chopped fresh rosemary leaves, then rolled in beaten egg and liberally coated with mixture of crushed corn flakes and panko. Baked/roasted in 350°F oven and flipped halfway until done (160°F instant read meat thermometer, then rested to 165-170°F before slicing)
- Mashed potatoes made with golden thin skinned potatoes - peeled, cubed, boiled with enoughwater to cover and sea salt... then pour off 1/2 of liquid and hand mashed with butter (1 Tbs per potato), season to taste.



- Plated with finely sliced cabbage and carrot and sliced polish dills
- malt vinegar, mayonnaise, hot pepper jelly

[pepperhead212]

It's National Chili Day, so I had to make some...not that I need an excuse! I took 3 lbs of beef cubes from the freezer, but I ended up adding some black beans to them, instead of making a true Texas chili. I half cooked 2 cups of black beans - about 12 min. in the IP, plus 15 minutes pressure release time, and they were still al dente, which was just right for adding to the chili half way through.

Here are the 5 different capsicums I used - one of them sweet paprika.
All of the capsicums used in the chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Second half of the beef browning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chile caribe, added to the uncooked chili. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chili, after about an hour of simmering. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Heating up the tortillas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I texted a friend this photo, and added that I might have some left, if he stops by tomorrow!
Chili, after thickening with masa harina. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Chili by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Gary350]

GRILLED STUFFED PEPPERS WITH ITALIAN SAUSAGE.

We decided to make this recipe for dinner using baked potatoes instead of peppers. We did not follow recipe exactly we improvised a bit. Put potatoes in oven first, then cooked 1 lb Italian sausage with, 1 medium onion diced, several garlic chopped in a hot skillet. Next add 1 pint jar of garden tomatoes fire roasted & 1 can 10 oz RO*TEL tomatoes with green chilies & Cilantro. Stir a few seconds then add, red & green garden bell peppers from the freezer. Added 2 tablespoons each, Balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Soy sauce, Red wine.

Remove baked potatoes from the oven cut open the center then push both ends so potato opens up like a bowl or cut potato in 1/2 cover it with your topping. Throw in a spoon butter & some black pepper. Fill the potato with the stuffing mix then top with sour cream & cheddar cheese. This is so GOOD one of our favorites. Sometimes we make BBQ pulled port stiffed baked potatoes, chicken salad baked potatoes, taco salad baked potatoes, BBQ bean stuff baked potatoes, chicken pot pie filling stuffed baked potato, Chili stuffed baked potato, get creative you can put anything in a potato like you would in a bread bowl. Ours is not as beautiful at the picture but it sure is good.

[Gary350]

SOUTHERN style SAUSAGE GRAVY

Cook 2 Jimmy Dean sausage patties in 2 Tablespoons of oil on low heat 300 degrees in electric skillet. Break up sausage in small pieces stir often until meat is cooked golden brown for best flavor. Stir in enough flour to soak up 95% of the oil but oil still needs to be liquid so it can be stirred. Keep stirring white flour until it turns golden brown this gives flour a good roasted flour flavor. Stir in 1/4 cup black coffee optional and some milk about 1/2 cup. Stir well add more milk as needed. Add 1/4 tsp salt. Use pepper grinder to add black pepper, the more you add the more spicy hot and more pepper flavor gravy has. Turn skillet off continue to stir gravy and add more milk to keep it liquid. Gravy becomes thicker as flour soaked up the liquid and gravy cools. When gravy has cooled to about 200 degrees F and the consistency you like pour it over biscuits for breakfast. Also good on, country fried steak, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and other things.

[applestar]

This morning’s breakfast, although this works for almost any time - breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, midnight snack....

ochazuke (bowl of rice with ingredients, pour over with tea or broth)



You can’t really see the hunk of smoked salmon in the bottom of the bowl except for what I dug out for the photo, brown rice with dried crust (ideally this would be “okoge” — parched and slightly toasted rice stuck to the bottom and sides of heavy rice pot when cooked on the stove, but in this case, it’s just dried up surface crust from overnight rice in the rice-cooker... heh)... topped with “yuukari” which is crumbled/powdered dried akashiso (red or purple shiso/perilla) leaves and immature seedpods mixed with other herbs and spices — I can’t remember everything I put in this version... commercial ‘shichimi/nanami’ mixed spice blend... freshly toasted and lightly mortar/pestil ground white sesame seeds... a bit of roasted sesame oil... and freshly harvested sweet Spanish or Vidalia (can’t remember which) onion greens from my garage winter indoor garden.

...Did you know sweet onion greens have sweetness to them not found in regular scallions? Indoor grown and growing up against and over the t12 tubes which do not get too hot to burn them, these green onions are tender and sweet even though they are intensely green and appear tough-looking.

For pouring over, I used hot Bancha (fall harvested tea) blended with matcha powder steeped at double strength. Yummy!