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

[pepperhead212]

I haven't made a Thai curry lately, but I had the red curry paste made and in the freezer, and after hearing someone mention Thai curry, I had to make some!

I made a 50/50 mix of jasmine rice and millet and set that to cook, then started the curry. I cut up the vegetables, while the coconut milk was cooking down, then added the rest of the milk, followed by the fish sauce, palm sugar, and lime leaves, and the first veggies were the okra, onion chunks, and bottle gourd. This was cooked 10 min., then the eggplant pieces, and cooked for 10 more min. Then I fished the lime leaves out, corrected the seasonings with a little more palm sugar, then stirred in the basil leaves. Then I served it on some of that cooked jasmine rice and millet mix. The millet has such a mild flavor that the jasmine is still the main flavor.
First thing I did was set some 50/50 jasmine rice and millet to cook, before the Thai curry. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Starting the Thai curry, cooking down some of the coconut milk with the curry paste, until the oil separates. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The rest of the milk went in, then the lime leaves, fish sauce, and palm sugar, and mixed. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cut up bottle gourd and onion, in chucks, is cooked 10 minutes, then eggplant chunks, and cooked 10 more minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Lime leaves removed, then lime juice added, and Thai and Italian basils added last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Thai curry, with bottle gourd, okra, onion, and eggplant cut up, served on the jasmine rice/millet mix. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

I made another, even larger batch of of that raw tomato and pasta dish, but this time I added some other flavors to it, like I usually do. Besides the 3 lbs of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and 3 basils I had in the basic sauce, I added some olives and olive pastes, some anchovies, and some capers, plus a tb of red wine vinegar. I made almost the same things to add to the the pasta - this time 5 oz spelt, instead of kamut, and an ounce more of channa dal, pre-cooked in the Instant Pot, before cooking 12 oz spiral pasta. The pasta was drained on the dal and spelt, to re-heat that some, before mixing it all with the tomato mix. Even after that large bowl I had of it, I have about 4 qts leftover of it, for many more helpings. I know one friend who will help me with it!
48 oz of tomatoes, diced, with 3 huge cloves of garlic, and some Thai basil, minced. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

20 Greek style olives and about 3 tb of anchovies, chopped, plus a tb green and 3 tb kalamata olive paste added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

3 tb salted capers, soaked a couple of hours, then chopped, and added to the tomatoes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

pasta, with channa dal, spelt, fresh tomatoes, garlic, 3 basils, anchovies, olives and EVOO, and capers. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta with the raw tomato mix by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Gary350]

I found this video by accident, it turned out to be very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaMoF1_qtkI

[pepperhead212]

Today I made one of my lentil salads, starting with 2 whole lentils and chana dal, plus some freekeh, in the Instant Pot, in slow cook mode, while I was in the garden. I always put a couple of black cardamom pods in the water, which adds a smoky flavor, like the freekeh. This salad was another one of those with canned kippered herring - a 6.5 oz and a 3.25 oz can. I also cut up a large handful of garlic chives, probably well over a half cup, and close to a half cup of dill, chopped up. Also well over a half cup of chopped up jalapeños, which turned out to have almost no heat. I chopped up all of the cherry tomatoes I had ripened - about 3 c - and about 3/4 c diced fetah. All this was mixed in the drained lentils/freekeh, with some olive oil and red wine vinegar, and a generous amount of black pepper. Here is the bowl of the salad, before I sliced a single HB egg on this serving. I didn't want to mix in more to the 3 qts of salad left.
Salad, made with chana dal, and 2 whole lentils, freekeh, with canned kippers, tomatoes, dill, garlic chives, fetah, and jalapeños. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Today I made something I haven't made in a long time. It is a Puerto Rican dish called Arroz con Gandule or Gandule Rice. The other name for it is Party Rice. There is a significant population of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii as they were among the last groups of immigrants who came to work for the plantations. Gandule rice, pastele, and pastele stew are dishes that have been incorporated into our local cuisine. When I tried looking up the recipes, the most authentic ones were designed for parties It required 15 cups of rice, 1.5 cups of oil, and 1.5 gallons of water. So, I had to look around and stray from the authentic recipe a bit to slim it down. In the authentic recipe, achiote oil, medium grain rice, sofrito, cilantro, ham, tomato sauce, adobo seasoning, cumin, olives, tomato sauce, pepper, garlic and a lot of oil is used. It is traditionally cooked on the stove but can be cooked in an instant pot, in the oven, and a smaller quantity could be made in a rice pot. I had intended to do this in a rice cooker but one of the recipes said that a 10 cup rice cooker would be the minimum. I don't want to dig out my 10 cup rice cooker and they said 5 cups was too small. So, I cooked it on the stovetop in my Dutch oven. Doing the shortcuts, eliminating some steps, it took 40 minutes of actual cooking.

I eliminated making achiote oil. I could make it but, I would only use it for one other recipe (pancit) and I don't want to keep the leftover oil around. I decided to make my own sofrito. It isn't hard, but I bought recaito instead of buying cilantro. It is not in season and it is $4.00 for 2 ounces. Not willing to pay that much for something I don't like that much. I could have garnished the rice with green onions. I did not do that, but I can still do that later. I cut down the oil a lot. This recipe called for olive oil. I left it in even though traditionally olive oil would not have been used.
Notes:
A "cup" is a rice cup measure it would be approx 3/4 cup of a standard measuring cup. Medium grain rice is traditional, but if you want the rice less sticky you can use long grain rice but the water requirement would double. Another thing on rice. I have new crop rice so the water to rice ratio is 1:1. If this was not new crop it would take half a rice cup more water. The advantage of cooking rice on the stovetop is that you can add water if the rice is not cooked or you can take the cover off and steam off more water if there is too much. Can't really do that with a rice cooker.

Sazon is a seasoning packet that can be added to almost any tomato based dish. It contains achiote, coriander, cumin, tomato, and salt. I left out the achiote oil because sazon has the achiote flavor and will give the rice the red color the achiote oil would have delivered.

caldo sabor a pollo = chicken powder. Apparently it is different from chicken bouillon. I know nothing about it.
Recaito is a sofrito made with cilantro, culantro and its green. I used the recaito and eliminated the fresh cilantro.

This was the slimmed down recipe
2 cups medium grain rice, washed three times and drained
2 packet sazon with achiote
1 packet caldo sabor a pollo (chicken powder)
1 small bottle recaito
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 cups diced cured ham ( the original recipe called for 1/4 cup, but I wanted more. To make this vegan, you can eliminate the meat and use vegetable bouillon instead)
1 can Goya gandule beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz. tomato sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 bottle of Goya pimento stuffed olives
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
cilantro and green onions to garnish
24 oz water ( one gandule can + 1 tomato sauce can of water), hot sauce if you want it spicy.

Heat the pan, add oil till oil is hot, add diced ham and saute 3-4 minutes. Remove ham from pot and set aside
Add onions, garlic, bell pepper and one packet of sofrito, saute to make the sofrito until onions are soft. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add more oil to the pot if needed. Add the drained rice and 1 packet of sazon. Fry rice for a few minutes in the oil.

Add back the ham, onions, garlic, green pepper, and the remaining ingredients (gandule beans, recaito, olives, tomato sauce, cumin, black pepper, fresh cilantro if you have it, and water) Stir and bring ingredients up to a boil. Turn down heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring once or twice to keep rice from burning for about 25-30 minutes. Add more water if it is too dry, take off the cover and let the water s am off if it is too wet. Turn off heat when the rice is done. Don't worry if the rice is wet. The rice will absorb the remaining liquid as it cools. Let pot sit off the heat for 15 minutes before serving. Keeps about 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen up to 3 months.

P.S. I know the pot is very old (40 + years) and the teflon left a long time ago, but it is still my best pot.
This pot does have a cover, but I like to use the universal cover because of the see through lid.
Walmart is 5 minutes away from me, but they did not have all the Mexican spices, so I went to a local market 4 miles away and they had everything I needed. I have not been to the market in a while so I was hit by price shock! But, that is happening everywhere. I also got some Yukon gold potatoes there. They were the same price as the red pontiac, ($1.79 lb) so I thought I would try them out for a change.

I actually like this with a little more spice. Hot sauce or chili flakes added to the pot makes it moi bueno. I will be eating this for at least the next three days.

[pepperhead212]

Yesterday, I made another batch of that pasta with raw tomatoes, only slightly different from last time. I started by soaking a cup of kamut a little over an hour, while making the rye bread dough, then cutting up over 3 lbs of tomatoes, and setting aside in a colander, to drain a little of the liquid (I didn't waste it - I just drank it! lol). Then I rinsed about 4/3 c (just what was left in the jar), then combined them in the Instant Pot, set manual for 13 min, and let them cook, and the pressure release, while chopping up all the rest of the ingredients, to combine with the tomatoes - minced garlic, minced Thai basil, chopped up the regular basil a little coarse, and chopped up a bunch of kalamata olives, and about 10 anchovies, and about 1/4 c salted capers, soaked well over an hour. And I added about a tb each of green and kalamata olive paste (that Greek stuff I get sometimes at Lidl). Stirred all this together, plus about 1/2 c olive oil, and a tb of red wine vinegar, and put in the fridge, drained the kamut and lentils, and continued with the rye bread.

When finished with the rye bread much later, I cooked a lb of pasta, and poured it over the lentils and kamut, to reheat them, then drained well, and mixed it with the tomato mix, in an 8 qt bowl. It all fit back in that 4 qt bowl, after I took a BIG bowl of it, so it wouldn't have mixed in that!
Here's the mix-tomatoes, garlic, basils, kalamata olives, chopped and paste, capers, anchovies, and olive oil and wine vinegar. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished raw tomato pasta, with some cooked kamut and channa dal, mixed with the pasta. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

Recently came across this channel, and today’s recipe caught my eye. too bad it’s in Japanese because chef sprinkles light humor everywhere and seems to make up cv stuff with straight face. Cameraman — “Is that really true?” “Go ahead and check — call my classmates (names names) — they’ll corroborate, I’m sure.”

Corn Rock recipe — looks really good. And the “white mayo” made with egg whites and white soy sauce.

[imafan26]

Somehow, I am on the vegan society mailing list. I did give a talk to them about container gardening. While I have some vegetarian friends, I am not one. I am trying to do one vegetarian meal a week. Pepperhead, you have some nice vegetarian recipes I might consider trying. Today, I will be almost vegan. I plan on making chow fun for my club meeting tonight. I recently found out that chow fun and chow mein in China are usually vegetarian dishes. Chow fun is made with rice noodles and vegetables. Meat can be added like beef, pork, or shrimp, but then it would be a meat chow fun. It is not quite vegan unless I leave out the oyster sauce or substitute it with vegetarian mushroom sauce, then it would qualify. Rice noodles contain no eggs or dairy and uses vegetable oil.

Local Style Chow Fun
serves 4
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce ( vegetarian mushroom sauce can be substituted)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon black pepper
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, julienned
3 cups cabbage shredded
½ pound mung bean sprouts
3 green onions, cut in 1-inch pieces
20 ounces chow fun noodles (if using packaged chow funn, pre-cook the noodles according to package directions)
INSTRUCTIONS
In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch, black pepper, and ½ cup water. Set aside.
In a large pan over medium-high heat, saute the garlic till golden.
Add the carrots, saute 1 minute. Add in the cabbage, saute 1 more minute.
Add the mung bean sprouts and saute 1 minute. Add the green onions and saute 1 more minute.
Pour in the sauce mixture from Step 1. Bring to a boil.
Add the chow fun noodles. Gently toss to mix (careful not to break the noodles) and cook for 1 more minute.

I added dried shitake mushrooms to this dish to give it a more meaty taste. Fried tofu can also be added as a protein source.
To make this a meat chow fun. You can make it with beef, chicken, or shrimp
Locally, popular meats added are char siu, ham, pork, or spam. Other protein choices like vegeten (vegetable tempura), kamabuko, tofu also work.

I usually keep dry chow fun noodles in the house, but I can get fresh noodles in local stores if I plan to make this recipe ahead of time.
Other vegetables can be used like broccoli, peas, or string beans. The best vegetables to use would have a low water content otherwise it can make the dish soggy. This dish has less sauce than other chow fun recipes.

It is an okazuya dish where it is almost always made without meat, but may still have the oyster sauce.

Keeps for 1-2 days. Microwave to reheat.

[imafan26]

I made a stuffed meatloaf cottage pie. Basically, I made meatloaf with ground beef and pork sausage. I added onion, garlic, bell pepper, mushrooms, bread, almond milk, BBQ sauce, pepper, and ketchup to the mix.

I actually made too much so I ended up with enough for 2 casseroles. I put a layer of the meatloaf in the bottom of a casserole. In one dish I topped that with frozen broccoli and shredded cheese. In the second casserole, I used asparagus and corn, and that was also topped with cheese. I put the rest of the meatloaf meat on top of the vegetable/cheese layers in both casseroles. One of the casseroles was already full, so I could not add anything else. I did add a layer of mashed potatoes on second casserole with the asparagus and corn filling, Normally, I would top it with brown gravy, but there wasn't any room left. I even had left over mashed potatoes. I baked the casseroles one at a time in my microwave for 35 minutes. It came out good. I will have to make brown gravy separately and cook either rice or more mashed potatoes for the broccoli casserole to make it a complete dish.

Since this is too much meat loaf for me to finish in 4 days, I cooled it and portioned it into individual servings for the freezer for future meals.

I don't mind leftovers, but I don't like to make a lot of side dishes, so I prefer to make meals that are all in one. I should have made more mashed potatoes or cooked some rice and put it in with the individual servings I made to make it a complete meal. Something to do next time.

Awhile back. I made some pork sausage patties and froze them. I made a sausage egg muffin for breakfast. I was very good, and a lot cheaper than getting one from McDonalds. Although, I still go there to buy pancakes for breakfast. I don't like leftover pancakes, I haven't figured out how to make them less rubbery when reheating them.

I try to have ready meals in the freezer or in the frig to try to cut my McDonald's bill. It is getting too expensive to make it a regular weekly trip.

[Gary350]

I make this breakfast often, today is first time I notice it is a smiley face breakfast. 2 sausage, country style scramble egg folded to fit the plate. Pancake on top when it finishes cooking. Real maple syrup.

[Gary350]

French toast made with home made bread and real maple syrup is very good, plus 2 sausage.

[Gary350]

Rice vs Potatoes?

I like eating rice better than potatoes. Price of 5 lbs Jasmin Rice is about = to 5 lbs. of potatoes. White potatoes mess up my blood sugar worse than red potatoes and rice seems to be no problem for my blood sugar, maybe its a different carbohydrate? I don't know many ways to cook rice, boiled or stir fried with or without vegetables & sauce. There are so many good sauces for rice that taste much better than any sauce I can make. I need to learn more ways to eat rice.

Yesterday we made Street Tacos for the first time. Cook meat in skillet with, onions, garlic, taco seasoning, & black beans. Taco sauce on the taco. Wow this is so good I ate left overs for breakfast & lunch. I forgot to take a picture.

We love Generals Chicken with rice too. I could eat this every day. Sauce is too sweet for wife it sent her blood sugar up to 240 last time.

[Gary350]

Street Taco Pictures.

2 lbs ground beef,
1 whole onions,
1 garlic bulb = about 10 cloves.
2 cans chipotle peppers in mole sauce,
1 can green chilis,
2 packs taco seasoning,
1 can black beans,

1 package cheese,
2 packs small 6" flour shells.
Taco sauce.

[pepperhead212]

I made what I call a no-name Mexican dish - can't call it chili, since it has beans in it! I made it with three 8 oz containers of creminis, that I cooked separately, followed by 2 lbs of venison chorizo and 1 lb of pork chorizo I had frozen.

I started by cooking 3/4 c each of black and pinto beans just 5 min in the Instant Pot, with some baking soda, then drained it. While that was cooking, I got the sauce ready, toasting all the chiles and garlic in a skillet, then cooled those. Then I charred the green chiles, and removed the skin. I cut up and cleaned the bad spots out of all my "large" tomatoes, and got a little more than 20 oz. I put all these ingredients in the Vitamix, and blended smooth. After the beans were out of the VM, I put a large chopped onion and a couple tb of olive oil, and put it on sauté, and cooked until starting to brown some, then added a couple tb tomato paste, cooked a minute, then poured in the sauce, and rinsed out the VM with about a cup of water, and added that. I also put in some cumin, Mexican oregano, some freshly ground pepper, and a half of a pellet of Mexican chocolate, broken up, and stirred to melt. I left it in sauté mode, and put a splatter screen on, and let it boil away quickly, scraping occasionally. While that was happening, I cooked the mushrooms first, using the ATK method of steaming with a little water, then boiling off the water, and adding a small amount of oil, and browning the mushrooms over med-high heat. Once those were done, I started the 3 lbs of meat, which I didn't use all of, but about 1/4 of it I cooled and I'll probably freeze it for later use.

After that sauce was very thick, I put the beans into it, then about 3 c water, and salted to taste, and set the pot to Beans mode, for just 15 min, then let the pressure release naturally, while doing the other things. When opened, the beans were not quite done, which is what I wanted. I then put the mushrooms and about 3/4 of the cooked meat in, and set it in slow cooker/high, tasted for seasonings, and added about 1 1/2 tb of that salsa negra, which made it just right. I let it cook a little more than an hour, while cleaning up everything (!), then I mixed in about 3 tb of masa harina, to thicken, and flavor it, and let it cook another 20 minutes. Served with a little cheese, and some toasted corn tortillas. Absolute heaven!
3 guajillos, 10 moritas, and 10 cloves of garlic, cooling after toasting in a skillet. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Charring 6 green chiles, before steaming the skin and removing. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Charred chiles, ready to put the lid on, to steam the skin off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

All of the peeled chiles and garlic, plus the dry chiles and a little over 20 oz of fresh tomatoes, ready to blend smooth in VM. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

1 1/2 lbs cooked creminis, plus 2 lbs venison chorizo and 1 lb pork chorizo, cooked together. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Nameless Mexican dish, with the pinto and black beans pressure cooked in the sauce, then the mushrooms and 2/3 of the meat added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Something else needed in the dish, so I got a little bit of that salsa negra, I still have 1/2 c of. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

This 1 1/2 tb or so of the salsa negra added just the right amount of flavor to the dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About 3 tb masa harina, mixed with some of the liquid, ready to mix back in, and thicken it... almost done! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished no-name Mexican style chili dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished no-name Mexican dish, ready to eat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

I needed a veggie dish. I finished up all of my salad. I made fried saimin (ramen), and through in the veggies I had in the frig. Frozen cauliflower and broccoli, onions, garlic, celery, and carrots, eggs, and some green onions from the yard. This way I won't need to cook rice for about 3 days.

[imafan26]

I made a beef stir fry a few days ago with what I had in the frig and freezer.
I made it with sliced beef, celery, onions, carrots, and the sauce was oyster sauce, low sodium beef broth and ketchup. It lasted about 4 days and I ate it with rice. It has more salt than I should have. I can't do that all of the time.

That's done and today I made tofu steak. Also with items I had on hand. The first time I ever made tofu steak, it fell apart. I used regular tofu and it wasn't firm enough and I did not drain it. But, I have learned a few things since then. I got extra firm tofu. I learned there are a few methods to drain tofu. Chinese way is to boil the tofu pieces for 5 minutes and then drain and cool. The second was the press method which I have done before and the newest method I tried was to cut the tofu into steaks, wrap it in paper towels and microwave it for 30 seconds at a time. I ended up with a total time of 2.5 minutes. Then I wrapped the hot pieces of tofu in more layers of dry paper towels and pressed it with a heavy pot. The tofu shrank by a third and was nice and firm. I dredged the tofu in corn starch and fried the tofu in oil on med heat until it had some color on the sides. Last step, I smothered the tofu in Yoshida's teriyaki sauce and cooked that on medium for a few minutes. I did not wait until the sauce caramelized, because then it would have taken days to clean the pan. A homemade teriyaki sauce would have worked too, but I had the Yoshida's sauce in the frig already and I make a terrible teri sauce marinade.

I try to do one veggie based main dish a week. Usually, it means I make a salad with tuna or kamabuko, and boiled eggs. I have also done lime cilantro rice with black beans. Tofu is the other main I use when I do a mostly veggie based meal.

Tonight I had the tofu garnished with green onions from the garden. lettuce and mayo ( I got the lettuce from the other garden yesterday, along with more eggplant), I also cooked two small Okinawan sweet potatoes I harvested from my garden a couple of weeks ago. Who knew, I had to cure sweet potatoes.! One of them is starting to sprout, maybe I did not have to cure it that long. I also fried up two eggs to finish off the meal, so hopefully, I won't get hungry later.

[pepperhead212]

I made a delicious recipe today, that was definitely one of those "random recipes". I wasn't sure what I was going to make, just started with cooking some diced up bacon (just put a bunch in the freezer today, and took out the oldest, to use it) slowly in the Instant Pot. I chopped up a large onion, the last carrot in one bag, two stalks of celery, and two green bell peppers I'd had for a while. And I chopped up the last Swiss chard I had - about 3 c chopped up. That was about the last of the older veggies from the fridge (still have those two bok choy, but they look like I just picked them yesterday!), but next I checked my bean pantry, and found that one half jar of Rancho Gordo, labeled Christmas Lima Beans, so I used the end of those. After the bacon was almost crisp, I removed it to a PT on a plate, then cooked the onion first, followed by the other chopped veggies on the high sauté mode, then added about a tb of minced garlic and a couple tb of red miso - the umami flavor in this, along with the mushrooms later. I added about a half tb of thyme, a tb of smoked paprika, and 3/4 tsp of ground cloves, plus 5 fresh bay leaves - the creole/cajun seasoning I was thinking of. I also put a tsp of turmeric in it, though the flavor is not noticeable here. For heat, I added about 3/8 tsp crushed datil pepper - the end of the jar, so I also put at least 2 tsp crushed morita peppers, which I figured would add more smoky flavor, with the bacon and paprika...it also added a generous amount of heat! I put about 6 c of water in with the veggies, then added the bacon and the beans, salted not quite to taste (added more later), then closed the lid, and set the IP to BEANS, when it defaults to 30 minutes, where I left it - usually, other beans cook faster, but these were a little old, and large, and this worked perfectly, when the pressure released in 18 min.

Meanwhile, I cooked a half lb of mushrooms my usual way - steam them, boil off the water, then brown them in a small amount of oil, then deglaze the pan, to get most of that flavor from the browning. This got added to the beans, when those were done, then, since it had quite a bit of liquid, and the lima beans weren't going to absorb any more, I added 1/3 c each quinoa, and moong dal - the kind I use with the skins still on, but split, so they still absorb water quickly. I also added the mushrooms, and the small amount of liquid, and I salted to taste, this time, added a generous amount of freshly ground pepper, and sealed the lid again, and set to just 8 minutes, and let the pressure release naturally. This thickened it just enough, and it turned out really good.
IMG_20231208_190352 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished browned mushrooms. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished creole/cajun type soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

I made a beef and macaroni dish. It was called goulash. It is not the kind of goulash I think of as goulash. It is beef and macaroni to me.

I browned about a pound of ground beef
added chopped onion, celery, bell pepper (including aconcagua from my yard and some small mushroom peppers I got from the other garden), and garlic. and sweated all of that unitl the onions were transluscent.

Then, I added a can of mushrooms ( I only have a salted version), no salt diced tomatoes, and no salt tomato sauce. About a tablespoon of worcestershire sauce, 4 packets of truvia because the tomatoes were sour. 3 bay leaves. I made a lower salt version so this is where the seasonings took a turn. Italian seasoning, no salt, Mrs. Dash garlic and herb ( about 3 tablespoons), lots of black pepper, 2 packets of herb ox no salt bouillon, a package of frozen broccoli, and water. This recipe usually is like soup, but I added less water. I was supposed to add a pound of dry elbow macaroni, but it was a bit more. Simmered everything for about 20 minutes until the macaroni was done. It calls for a cup of cheddar cheese, but I can't have that much salt and I don't like so much cheese, so I left it out. It would be better with the cheese and with salt. I could have added the sazon, it would have made it better, but sazon has salt. Maybe if I were to do this again I would try tomato paste instead of tomato sauce it does come in a salt free version. I also have tomato powder that I bought, it might have increased the flavor without increasing the acidity as much as the canned tomato sauce did.

I spooned it in a bowl, and it was o.k. but definitely missing the salt and the dried herbs don't really stand out much. I probably would have had to put more in or added some chili flakes to make up for it. After all this salt avoidance. I did actually end up putting a little ketchup in the bowl of noodles. It was what it really needed the most. I do have a reduced sodium and sugar ketchup, but I actually used the real thing. It is still less salt than the original recipe, but I will have to see after the flavors have a chance to blend if I can eat this without the ketchup.

I wouldn't call this a healthy dish, it is lower in salt than normal because I did reduce the salted items and I did not salt the pasta water. It is still high in carbs and calories, but it was easy to make and it will last a few days.

[applestar]

I’m cooking a lot lately — reallocating time/energy spent during the growing season — which means much of the recipes are even more random than ever

I came across a demonstration (no recipe) for making cream corn soup from frozen whole ears of super sweet corn. Made that a couple of days ago — Whole Foods had them — basically, you defrost, cut the ears shorter, cut off kernels and put in pot, split the cobs in half and put in pot, add some sugar and pinch of salt with water to cover and medium simmer for about 20 minutes (I put in instant pot and PC’d at high for 8 min). Then remove the cobs and food process the kernels with some broth until smooth (I vitamixed with most of the broth). Then strain through fine sieve (I used a fine but not superfine metal strainer). Reheat to simmer, add butter, milk and cream, more sugar.

(I wanted it to be creamier so I thickened with corn starch whisked into rice milk.)

Served with croutons (I made some with slice of Texas toast bread cut in cubes, dry toasted and then tossed with salt, pepper, dill, smoked paprika, drizzle of EVOO.)


I actually saved half of the puréed and strained corn before adding the dairy and added to a soup made with pork shoulder (butt) roast (I. had made tonkatsu with half to 2/3 of the roast the night before — sliced, pounded flat, dredged in milk-flour-egg wash-panko, then fried in mixture of peanut oil and evoo, served with equal parts teriyaki eel sauce and ketchup) …. Cut into bite size, sautéed with onions, carrots and potatoes, smoked and sweet paprika, chopped Asian greens (komatsuna, napa, turnip and daikon greens) and deglazed with Roku gin, the strained super sweet corn puréed with corn cob broth. Added coconut cream and vegan sour cream.

Since those croutons went over very well, I made BIG croutons for the coconut cream pork soup with sourdough baguette I found in the back of the freezer, cut into big cubes and made the same way. These were hard and crusty/chewy and needed good soaking in the soup to soften, but tasted terrific.


Yesterday for snack, I used the pulp saved from straining the corn to make fluffy banana pancakes, and — in an adaptation of Japanese snack called “Dorayaki” — with two pancakes, sandwiched adzuki jam I’d made a couple of weeks ago that had been sleeping in the freezer and flipped them couple of times some more until the jam inside was heated through (kind of like the way you’d make grilled cheese).


Today, I made pasta — ground meatloaf mix, onions, and cabbage, big baking potato peeled and sliced thin, and broccoli leaves sautéed in the Instant Pot with smoked paprika and a good pour of ketchup. Then deglazed with pasta (whole wheat penne) cooking water and sweet potato and potato steaming water (which happened to be dark purple because the sweet potatoes were Stoke’s Purple). Sea sat, black pepper, dill. Closed the lid while the Instant Pot was still in Sauté at MED heat, which made the pressure build up. Let the pot finish the 30 minute Sauté cycle, then waited 15~20 min, release pressure and stirred in some sharp cheddar, vegan smoked gouda and vegan parmesan, as well as fresh broccoli florets — Residual heat was sufficient to melt the cheese and turn the broccoli bright green, but I switched on the Instant Pot to Slow Cook LOW temp so the pasta sauce would stay hot.


Family enjoyed them all, but I doubt I can make any of these again the same way. Haha.

[imafan26]

Sounds so good. I am craving corn chowder now, because it is so good on a cold day, but I am still eating leftovers. I am taking notes for later.

I did have another party yesterday and we had a lot of great food. And more leftovers for me. Someone brought this tapioca dessert. It was the best! The second was homemade garlic bread.

Ingredients:

7 cups water (reduced to 6 cups of water)
1 cup tapioca (use the small pearl-type tapioca from Thailand) (Reduced to 3/4 cup Thailand small
Tapioca pearls. It was all she had)
1 1/4 cups sugar (reduced to 3/4 cup of sugar. This was just right, more sugar would have been too
too sweet)
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
2 cups chopped fruit (or cooked and chopped purple sweet potato) ( She used canned peaches and
blueberries.)

Directions:

Bring the water to a boil. Add tapioca and bring to a boil again; lower heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
There should be a tiny white dot in each tapioca pearl ball when done.
Remove from heat.
Let sit for 30 minutes; add sugar.
Cool and add coconut milk.
Add fruits such as melon, mandarin oranges, banana, or purple sweet potato.
Refrigerate.

Makes 10 servings.

Approximate Nutrient Analysis per serving:
250 calories, 8 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 10 mg sodium, 46 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 31 g sugar, 1 g protein

Other additions we talked about Ube, flan, coconut gel, palm fruit, halo halo mix, macapuno (young coconut), jackfruit, fruit cocktail, banana, lychee, other berries, mango, Okinawan sweet potato, azuki beans, ice cream, and corn. So many possibilities.

[pepperhead212]

I got everything cleaned up, and back in place in my kitchen, after making and baking the cookies, and got back to cooking some Indian food - something I was having a craving for. I wanted to use up some things I had in the fridge - a large red bell pepper, and 24 oz of sliced mushrooms I got for 79¢/8 oz, from lidl, a while ago (I usually don't buy them sliced, but couldn't pass that up!). I started with the usual chopped onion in a couple of tb oil in the Instant Pot in SAUTÉ, and after about 3 minutes, added the diced bell pepper, cooked about 5 minutes, then added about a tb of ginger/garlic paste, from the freezer, 10 curry leaves (more later) plus 3 tb malvani masala powder, and stirred for about a minute, then added 4½ c water. Then I mixed in 1 c of chana dal and 3/4 c oat groats, both rinsed, salted almost to taste, then set to BEANS to pressure cook 15 min, and let the pressure release naturally.

Meanwhile, I rinsed the mushrooms, put them in a NS wok (the water stuck on them is enough to steam them), and put the lid on, over med high heat, and after they foam up, I stir once, then after the mushrooms have shrunk, and released much of their water, I removed the cover, and boil it off. Then I add about a tb of oil, and brown the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until well browned. I added a little water to deglaze the pan, leaving it stuck on the mushrooms, then added that to the cooked dal and oat mix. I added a little more salt to this, and 3/4 tsp garam masala, and stirred in about 1/4 c red lentil, to thicken it slightly, then simmered another 10 min. While simmering, I prepared the tarka - 3/4 tsp each mustard seeds and cumin seeds, cooked in a tb of oil in a small pan until crackling, then added 5 dry Thai chilis, cooking until starting to brown, about 10 sec, then stirred in 3/4 tsp asafoetida and 10 curry leaves, and in 5 more seconds scraped this onto the curry, and simmered briefly, while chopping the cilantro, which I finished it off with.
A curry, seasoned with malvani masala powder, cooked with some chana dal, and oat groats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A malvani curry, with chana dal and oat groats, pressure cooked 15 minutes in IP, with mushrooms added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About a quarter cup of red lentils added to the curry, to thicken a little. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients for the tarka. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tarka added to the curry, after cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The finished malvani curry, with a little cilantro added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

I had a vacuum packed bone-in chicken breasts that was expiring, and some more leftover ham from Christmas, so I decided to make something *like* Chicken Cordon Bleu / Chicken Roulade….

I started by cutting the meat from the bones to make bone broth with, keeping the breast halves as intact as I could. Since I was making the broth, I didn’t need to be as careful about removing every little bit, and those as well as the skins went in the Intant Pot with 2C water and a pinch of sea salt at Soup HIGH 20 min.

While that was cooking and eventually releasing pressure, I slit the breast side ways to get four flat cuts (the 4th one decided to be difficult (I hadn’t hugged the rib cage enough with the filet knife) so that one ended up in several small pieces plus a butterflied thick cut. They were seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black/white pepper mix, dusted with potato starch, then coated with EVOO — this was a pre-cooking prep that was mentioned in a video as universally useful for chicken breasts. You could then leave in the fridge until ready to cook. (I actually added Roku gin and “Garlic Everything Sauce” as well. Now what was the brand name? Sir Kensington’s I think?)

I picked onion slices and slivers of carrots and celery, plus the stems of napa from my hoophouse chopped thin across the veins, plus half of a leftover baked potato sliced thin lengthwise for the veg.

I then sliced some of the smaller pieces of the ham across the grain (left the larger chunks to be sliced for sandwiches etc.) I also planned to put a slice of raw cheap cheddar, a pat of butter and a blob of vegan cream cheese… and realized there was no way I would roll all that stuff in the amount of chicken I had.

Switching gears, I pulled out rice paper wrap sheets from the pantry (these look like thin sheets of plastic, and you basically just dip/“wet” them in a dinner plat of water, then place on a cutting board or another plate. They soften in a couple of minutes (if you “soak” them, they turn into useless wet noodles that tears at the least amount of tension)

I laid one sheet on a plate, piled the ingredients, folded up the sides to over lap and stick together as much as possible, then cupped the bundle to push them into a tighter bundle, then flipped the package over onto my hand, laid another sheet on the plate and wrapped in the same way from the other side.

When the broth was finished, I strained it and put the broth back in. Then put a bunch of cauliflower florets on the bottom, put the wrapped bundles on individual circles of parchment and used the parchment like slings to lower onto the cauliflower bed.

PC’d as meat/stew on HIGH for 20 minutes, waited for natural release, then removed the bundles and cauliflower, added mixture of spelt flour and powdered coconut milk to thicken, then added broccoli florets and frozen green peas, put the cauliflower and bundles back, and closed the lid — which promptly pressurized again. I left that on KEEP WARM for about 10 minutes and they were ready.

Intensely good flavors. Am still trying to decide if I should have left the cauliflower out until the end to add with broccoli, which would have allowed them to remain firm. As it was, the cauliflower disintegrates into the sauce — it was really good that way, but just not sure if I might have liked it better the other way.

Oh, BTW I was going to eat the bundle with chicken that ended up in several pieces anyway, but even more so when that one was unable to remain intact, fell apart and slid out of both ends of the parchment sling. Luckily the spillage was only minimal and most of the jumbled up mess landed on TOP of the other three that I had already removed onto a platter. I just scooped up everything with a silicone spatula into my bowl, and the parchment for the other bundles had been laying on top, they weren’t unduly messed up.

I should have taken pics but I was pretty much wiped out, especially after that last moment of panic

These were a hit with the family. . We later used the leftover sauce that was still keeping warm in the Instant Pot to embellish potato pierogis.

[imafan26]

I made a new recipe for me to use up some of the tortillas, sour cream and salsa I had.
I basically made a sausage and tater tot breakfast casserole and heated the snack tortillas in a dry pan and made soft breakfast tacos. I wanted to make breakfast burritos, but the tortillas were too small.
sausage breakfast casserole
1 lb bulk sausage ( I used Jimmy Dean)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper ( any color)
5 slices of bacon
2/3 of a bag of tater tots
seasoning; I used homemade salt free taco seasoning, cumin, pepper, and no salt. You could
add salt and pepper and whatever seasoning you like on yours.
6 eggs
1 cup of milk ( I used almond milk)
pepper
taco seasoning
2 cups cheese ( I had a Mexican blend of cheese and cheddar on hand)

Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

Brown sausage and drain off excess oil, Set aside. Crips bacon strips and set aside. Separately fry onion and peppers setting each aside in separate bowls. Blend the eggs, milk, and seasoning in a mixing bowl. Spread the frozen tater tots in a single layer in the bottom of the 9x13 pan. I lined my pan with foil for easy clean up ( use release foil ). On top of the tater tots, layer the sausage, onion, pepper and bacon. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top and top with cheese. I used less cheese because it is salty. Cover and refrigerate up to 18 hours.

In the morning. Bake covered for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover and bake another 25-30 minutes.

I toasted the 5 inch tortillas in a dry pan to soften them. Filled with the breakfast sausage casserole and topped with sour cream and salsa. I made more but used different toppings cheese, sour cream and chives, green onions and sour cream, and avocado, sour cream and salsa.

I learned awhile ago that cooking the individual meat or vegetable separately allows each component to be cooked to the right consistency and maintain its unique flavor. It tastes different from when they are all thrown in together. It is especially important to do this when making a stir fry.

I never liked Mexican food much and it is still not my favorite. One reason is because we really don't have good Mexican food here. When I went to Arizona, that is when I realized that Mexican food is basically rather bland and it is the toppings that matter. I also really liked jamaica. This casserole was good by itself or with salsa or ketchup.

I had problems getting the photos out of my phone and editing them ever since Microsoft changed to icloud photos. I still am having a hard time uploading the pictures. I can't even get my phone to upload with the USB because it won't go out of charging mode.

[pepperhead212]

I made a Creole type dish, based on the Jambalaya recipe I use, but used 1¼ c whole oats, instead of white rice. And the seafood I used, instead of shrimp, was canned salmon - something I get dirt cheap, from Ocean State Job Lot every few months, and they have a 20% off food for elderly, early every Monday. Most of the salmon I use in salads, but I broke it up into large chunks, and added it late, to heat through.

I started it like any Creole dish, with an onion, stalk of celery, and a green bell pepper, diced up, and cooked in a little olive oil, adding last some garlic, dried thyme, ground cloves, and powdered bay leaf, along with a little hot pepper, and cooking the spices about 3 minutes last. I added a half pound of diced up ham, cooked that 3-4 minutes, then added about 8 oz of thawed tomato paste, 1/2 c white vermouth, 2½ c water (I drained the salmon into this), then 1¼ c oat groats. I was ready to add some salt, then I thought of fish sauce! Why not use this, I though? Took about 1½ tb to get the saltiness I wanted, but it needed more heat, so I added some crushed morita flakes, to get a little more heat, as well as smoke! I simmered it 40 min, then another 10 min, before it got thicker, before stirring in the chunks of salmon, and cooking 4 minutes longer.
The onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic, cooked with the spices, and the ham added last. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Creole type dish, based on the Jambalaya recipe I always use, but with oat groats, in place of rice. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

2 cans of salmon steaks by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Salmon steaks, broken up into large chunks, to be added at the end, to heat just a few minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After stirring the salmon into the oats, to cook 4 more minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish, oats cooking 54 minutes total. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

I made a simple local dish chicken long rice. I am still mostly using what I already have.
I braised 4 boneless chicken thighs, 3 garlic cloves smashed and 3 pieces of ginger mashed with a meat mallet, and pepper, in 1 quart of no salt added chicken broth for 30 minutes. Meanwhile I soaked 2 bundles of vermicelli ( long rice is actually made from mung beans) and dried shitake mushrooms in water. After the chicken was done I removed it and shredded the chicken pieces and put it back along with the long rice ( I cut it with a knife into smaller pieces) and shitake mushrooms sliced into thirds. Seasoned with 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce, 4 packets of truvia ( instead of sugar). In the end I added more pepper, and some no salt. Topped it with chopped green onions I harvested from the yard. It is nice on a cold day. I will probably have enough of this to last about 3 days.

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping at three stores. Walmart, Sam's club, and Safeway. At Walmart I found celery, onions, hamburger buns, American cheese, and frozen mixed vegetables, I also found some clothes on sale.

They did not have any hamburger chubs only turkey. I guess hamburger will be harder to get now that some of the processing plants have shut down.

At Sam's club, I found cat food 2 cases was about $90. I just get it, the price goes up with every shipment. This is about 2 months of cat food. Since, I could not find hamburger at Walmart, I did get bulk hamburger at Sam's. I got sushi because I was hungry and I got more crystal light tea, Vitamin C, and Mucinex

At Safeway, I only got what I went for, carrots and Port.

I stopped at L&L and got Chicken Katsu and a drink. It is the problem when I go shopping hungry.
That was $17, but It made two meals. I don't deep fry my food, so it is not something I would make myself.

I should be good for at least a couple of weeks. I needed the hamburger and buns to make sloppy Joes to use up some canned tomato sauce. The Port ,onions, and carrots are for stew. I wanted to get a chuck roast, but I did not want to get two of them, so instead I am going to make hamburger stew with the hamburger I bought. I need to plan things so I can use up things I already have in the house. And I only cook on average every 4 days. So, these two meal plans should be good for a couple of weeks. I still have chicken long rice, hard boiled eggs, lettuce, cucumber, and apples in the frig. I also have a pot luck on Saturday, so I will probably have more leftovers then as well. I am going to make a jello cream cheese dessert. I have everything for that already.

[imafan26]

I made the sloppy joes today. It was so easy from scratch I had always used the Manwich Sauce before.

1 lb. 80/20 hamburger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon yellow mustard ( I used sweet hot mustard because it is what is open)
15 oz tomato sauce ( I had a 29 oz can to use up so I froze half it)
2 tablespoons Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce ( it is not in the recipe, but it was in the refrigerator)
1/2 cup of water to rinse the tomato sauce can.

Cooked the ground beef, added the garlic, chopped onion and bell pepper, salt and pepper. Until beef was browned and onions were translucent. There was a lot of moisture from the frozen meat and vegetables so I cooked it about 10 minutes to steam it off. Added half of the 29 oz can of tamato sauce and water.
added the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and BBQ sauce. Adjusted seasonings. Simmered it until it reduced and the the sauce thickened.
Served it on hamburger buns. I had some romaine lettuce from the garden so I packed it in the sandwich as well.

My sister called me and asked if I wanted some Portuguese Bean Soup, but I turned her down. I have the sloppy Joe sauce and a least another serving of chicken long rice left.

[Gary350]

Home made pizza for dinner. Crust is pastry in a can. Pizza cheese on the crust then bake in oven to brown crust and melt cheese. Then pizza sauce, Italian sausage, pepperonis, onions, cheese. Bake in oven 400°. We are trying a new dark beer that turned out to be very good.

[applestar]

What’s really nice about using your summer grown and stored harvest is you know EXACTLY where it’s been, which means I have no qualms about eating squash skins.

I used half of the bulb portion of my Greek Sweet Red squash to make another puréed soup. I cut away the cork-like blossom end and cut them into wedges to toss into the Instant Pot, skin and whole seeds and all, and proceeded to add roughly cut up half of a store-bought cauliflower, some carrots, and sweet onion. Also added dried kombu/kelp and a handful of dried/saved organic shiitake mushroom stems. Added 2 cups of water and a teaspoon of sea salt, and let them cook and keep warm overnight.

In the morning, I added a pint of frozen left over cooked brown rice, and when the rice had thawed, puréed everything smooth in the Vitamix. I medium strained to remove harder bits of seed shells and mushroom stem ends.

Added a can of coconut milk, a glug or two of sweet cultured rice milk, a dash of balsamic vinegar, and another teaspoon of sea salt. I decided not to add spices this time.

Cooked 60 minutes on Med slow cook and then kept warm all day to enjoy. The flavor has mellowed and developed through the day. So yummy.

[imafan26]

I got an upo, 1 red okra, and eggplant from the garden today. I was planning on making sari sari. I still may. But I found a recipe for upo and eggplant and pinakbet. I am going to substitute roast pork for pork shoulder and I may add my frozen beans that I harvested from my yard. Even though it is the wrong kind of beans. The basic recipe is a Filipino vegetable stew called Pinakbet. I am leaving the bitter melon out of it, because I don't like it and it won't reheat well. I am substituting upo for the kabocha ( it is what I have), I am leaving the kamote out (sweet potato). I can use the leaves, but I would have too much food to deal with. I have one okra. Its enough. I will definitely cut the salt. I need to get a couple of ingredients and it is late already, so I'll do the shopping tomorrow. I need to get the lechon (crispy roast pork), and some shrimp. This dish has provincial variations, but usually always has bitter melon. I won't miss it and there may not be much of that at this time of the year. I have tomatoes in the garden, but I can also used the canned ones, because I need to use them up. I will get the ingredients from an Asian Market. The owner is Chinese but they carry ethnic Asian ingredients and have a fresh meat and fish section. Although, the shrimp will almost always be previously frozen.

I may come home with more than that. And my cats may be lucky if I find a fish for them.


https://panlasangpinoy.com/pinakbet-tag ... er-51921ml

[pepperhead212]

Last night, I made a dill leaf curry, with some butternut and sweet potato, and some greens. I served it with one of those WW bread sticks, in place of a flat bread on the side.

I started it in the Instant Pot, sautéeing a diced onion and about a tb of minced green Thai peppers, a few minutes, then I added about a tb of garlic and ginger, and cooked about a minute, then added about 3 c diced butternut, and 1 c diced sweet potato, 1 c chana dal, soaked about 30 minutes, 3/4 tsp turmeric, and 3 c water. I added about 1 tsp salt (more later), then set on MANUAL for 15 min, then let it release naturally. While that was cooking, I cut up the kale and bok choy greens, then steamed it with just the water on the leaves, then blended the cooled leaves with about a half cup of dill leaves, until almost smooth.

When the butternut was finished, I removed the lid, then stick blended the mix until all the cubes were gone, leaving some of the dal, for texture. Then I added the greens/dill, and let it simmer, while I prepared the tarka. I heated 2 tsp oil, and added 3/4 tsp each mustard seed and cumin. When it started crackling, I added 3 byadagi chilis, broken in half, cooked a few more seconds, added a dozen curry leaves, cut in half, and 3/4 tsp asafoetida, cooked about 10 seconds longer, then scraped this into the curry, then added a little more salt. I simmered it about 3 minutes longer, then served, with a WW bread stick, halved both ways.
The butternut, sweet potato, and chana dal, pressure cooked 15 minutes.. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The cubes and dal, stick blended, ready to stir the greens and dill purée in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A good amount of Russian kale and bok choy greens, ready to steam. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Greens, steamed down to about a cup, ready to blend together with the dill. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About a half cup of dill leaves, to blend with the greens. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Green purée stirred in, and now the tarka added, to simmer about 3 minutes longer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished curry,, with a WW bread stick, cut into quarters. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

I took what was left of that puréed squash soup above, and added 4 beaten eggs, whisked thoroughly with turbinado sugar and a couple of table spoons of sweetened condensed coconut milk, then strained through a fine mesh strainer into a buttered and sugar and pumpkin spice sprinkled, and butter-dotted large pyrex glass bowl.

Tightly covered with foil, cleaned the IP inner pot and added 2C water, then lowered the bowl into the pot in the silicone steamer sling and ran a 20 minute PC steam cycle twice — the custard wasn’t fully set after the first 20 minutes (which is the normal IP flan recipe … but this was probably twice the volume and deeper container).

After cooling on a rack, covered with 2 sheets of paper towels under the plastic lid to absorb condensation and refrigerated for 4 hours.

Very yummy.

~ eta ~
…I recommended maple syrup if additional sweetness was needed since I didn’t make caramel syrup for the bottom of the flan … but I was told by DD1 that, what this needed was more pumpkin spice (I only sprinkled the bottom of the bowl) — and generously sprinkling each serving made it taste better — “more like pumpkin pie … and looking for the pie crust.”

[applestar]

By the way, this was a while ago, but another way I rekindled waning interest in leftovers was when I took the last of the meatloaf, sliced them thin and made meatloaf and cheese sandwiches with my (by then slightly stale) Texas Egg Toast bread slices, cut them in 4 pieces, soaked them in eggs beaten with the meatloaf juices, and “grilled” in butter to turn them into mock “Monte Cristo” French Toast sandwiches.

I double dipped and coated in the egg mixture for almost an omelette-like outer layer.

Went over very well.

[Gary350]

By the way, this was a while ago, but another way I rekindled waning interest in leftovers was when I took the last of the meatloaf, sliced them thin and made meatloaf and cheese sandwiches with my (by then slightly stale) Texas Egg Toast bread slices, cut them in 4 pieces, soaked them in eggs beaten with the meatloaf juices, and “grilled” in butter to turn them into mock “Monte Cristo” French Toast sandwiches.

I double dipped and coated in the egg mixture for almost an omelette-like outer layer.

Went over very well.

That sounds very good to me. My mother was very creative with left overs. Sometimes meatloaf was dipped in pancake batter then fried on both sides then pour on maple syrup for breakfast or make a sandwich for lunch or pour gravy over it for dinner or put it in chili or spaghetti or sloppy joe or goulash. Wrap a slice of meatloaf in pie crust then bake it in the oven or add it to pot pie filling. Meatloaf in scrambled eggs is good too.

[applestar]

In pursuit of my recent interest in gelatin-based desserts, “salads”, and creations, I tried making some homemade marshmallows.

Of course even though the source/reference recipe showed blindingly white results, mine turned out like this —

…substituted light corn syrup with mixture of dark malted barley syrup, maple syrup, raw honey, and golden corn syrup — flavorful and super yummy

— ETA flavor reviews — .Yep.

I did add vanilla extract as well, but family were trying to guess what they were tasting — — One said coffee, another said like chocolate cookie sandwich with cashew-maple syrup butter cream, and another tasted maple syrup and honey. I think they remind me of molasses candy….

Texture is correct — maybe a bit more fluffy (quite possibly because I didn’t have the patience to wait until sugar syrup was up to 240°F and gave up after it reached 237.7°F). They melt in your mouth like a cloud with less sponginess.

Instead of 100%, I’m using 1/2 confectioner’s sugar made with tapioca starch in the ingredients and 1/2 corn starch here (I know that may seem like it defeats the purpose of using tapioca starch based rather than corn starch based powdered sugar, but I’m not getting it for corn allergy/sensitivity issues). It’s just that most of the ingredients are organic though that’s not particularly relevant.

[imafan26]

Looks interesting. I never tried to make marsh mallows. I used to do a lot more baking, but I have cut back. During covid, there wasn't anywhere to take them and now I have cut my sugar consumption, so I hardly make any desserts or snacks anymore.

[pepperhead212]

Tonight I made a Creole type dish, with similar flavors of jambalaya, with some mushrooms instead of shrimp - otherwise, the rest of the ingredients are pretty much the same, at least of the recipe I make. I started by soaking about half an ounce of dried tomatoes in 2 c hot water (once ground up, replaces the tomato paste, I usually use). In a Dutch oven, I start a chopped onion in some EVOO, while cutting up all the rest, starting with a lb of quartered mushrooms, and sautéeing them in another pan. Then added the several minced cloves of garlic, cooked briefly, then added the ham, pepper and celery, and cooked about 5 minutes, then added 1½ tsp thyme, 3/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp ground bay leaf, and about 3/4 tsp datil pepper, then cooked another minute, then added about 1/4 c white vermouth (maybe a little more, because I emptied the bottle), to deglaze the pan, then I blended the dried tomatoes and the 2 c water I had them soaked in, until totally smooth, then rinsed the VM out with 2 more cups of water, and added 1½ c of parboiled basmati rice, and salted to taste (about 1½ tsp). Then I brought to a simmer, covered, and simmered for 25 minutes. Turned out great, with a lot leftover!
A Creole type dish, with some onion, garlic, red bells, celery, ham, mushrooms, and rice, with thyme, bay, cloves, and datil, for heat. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

I decided to Make Lion's Head. It is a Chinese meat ball soup. It is called lion's head because the meatballs and cabbage are arranged to look like a lion's head and mane.

https://www.theseasonedwok.com/lions-he ... shizi-tou/

I followed the basic recipe with some substitiutions.

I left out the water chetnuts. It actually would have been better with them, but I cut this recipe down to l/2 lb of ground pork because it did not want a lot of left overs and one can of water chestnuts would have been too much. I added an egg. I thought is would help as a binder. It did not really do that, it just made it wetter and slippery. I ended up adding more cornstarch. Other recipes add panko bread crumbs instead and that probably would have been a better choice. I added soy sauce, a packet of stevia, and I used sherry instead of Xiao Xing wine. I also added minced green onions to the meatball mix. It fried up fine on medium. The trick is to make sure it is well browned so it stays together when turning. I made the pork balls smaller.

For the braise, I left out anise, I have it, I just left it out. I used the mushroom water and a pork bouillon cube for the broth. I used more mushrooms and cabbage. I don't like white pepper so I used black pepper. I left out the bean threads. I have made lion's head before and this is the only recipe that called for bean threads. It made about 4 servings. I think I can add more won bok to this soup ( I still have more than half the won bok left) The soup took about an hour. Most of that time was browning the meatballs and soaking mushrooms. Once everything was in the pot it only took 15 minutes to finish.

[pepperhead212]

I made another batch of that jambalaya, this time using some cut up smoked beef kielbasa, in place of the usual ham I use. And this time I put some shrimp in at the end, for the one serving, and I'll add more for each serving I reheat - this way it doesn't turn to rubber. I didn't have any celery this time, but I put a little celery seed in for flavor, and chopped up the last stalks of my bok choy, out of the hydro, for some texture.

Oh yeah - something I almost forgot that I added to this - some fish sauce, as the salt source (besides the salt in the kielbasa). Something I figured would be good in jambalaya, and go well with the shrimp. I added about 2 tb to it, which seemed about right for it. I remembered this when I was cleaning up and putting things away! I will use it again, for this, and similar dishes.
Spices and herbs for the jambalaya - cloves, celery seed, datil pepper, thyme, Syrian oregano, and ground bay leaf. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Jambalaya ingredients - about 2 tb garlic, a huge diced bell pepper, and 12 oz smoked beef kielbasa, cut up and browned. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Some shrimp added to the jambalaya, to cook for a few minutes with the residual steam. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Vanisle_BC]

Fish'n chips tonight. I'm thinking of adding some Marmite to the fish batter (made with beer.) We used a dark beer last time and liked the flavor. I'm thinking the Mm might improve it even more. Any thoughts about that - or about using Marmite in general?

[pepperhead212]

I made a delicious dish last tonight, using some of those greens I harvested Thursday night, from the hydroponics. It's an Indian chickpea dish - Chana Saag - which I started Thursday night by soaking them overnight in a baking soda solution, then cooking it in some salted water, in the Instant Pot, before starting the rest of the dish. Here's the recipe I based it on, making some changes.
One was the different greens - mostly those Russian kale, but also some bok choy leaves - all the small leaves forming on those bolting plants, I removed. I did the tarka at the end, with the ghee, which is definitely noticeable in the final dish, which is darker than the one in their pictures, due to the kale, and cooking longer than the spinach based one. I served it with a reheated naan, which I had frozen (I'll have to make more of those!).
https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/ch ... iner-90572

The onion, garlic, ginger, and greens, cooked and cooled, ready to blend smooth. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Smooth mix for the Chana Saga recipe. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The tarka, of garlic, Kashmiri peppers, and asafetida, cooked in ghee, added to the finished saag. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Chana Saag. by pepperhead212, on Flickr