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[JRPereira]

Hope you don't mind the crap quality from my iphone (need more light in the kitchen, imo)...

Been going to the gym for a while, and suddenly my trainer springs on me that I need to spend a week eating whole/non-processed foods. Sooooo back to cooking...

I haven't gotten pics of everything, but here's some of it. Among other things, I made:

The long road to mayo - about halfway. I ended up using a blender to finish it as my arms were killing me.

Leftover egg whites from the mayo, plus an egg I failed to properly separate.

The early stages of beef stew.

Working my way toward fresh pasta sauce.

Making progress on that sauce...

Cutting up some homemade pasta dough.

Finished cooking the pasta.

Cooking the pasta and sauce.

On the plate w/a bit of Parmesan. Good stuff.

I made some bread as well. I'll try to make a point of getting pics of that + maybe some other stuff in a bit.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

:^(

Also, I made my first pizza crust...and it was absolutely terrible :lol

Don't quit you can only improve!

 

[Yes Boss!]

Got to try a new pulse today. This one is the oily version of Toor. From what I gather, it is oiled to aid in shelf life and generally considered inferior to the regular version but good for folks who (historically) did not have access to the bean year-long.

Pre-Oiled bean:

The beans cooked with two cups of chopped fresh spinach, spices, a bit of lemon juice , mace and nutmeg. Finished with a tarka of ghee, jeera, hing, dried red chilis and ground red pepper.

 

[Brianemone]

God Bless you guys make me feel like shit for not being able to cook.

And those "scrambled eggs" as you call them look like butter.

how can you call that a scrambled egg? Why not just call it "Runny Egg" ???

or.......

"Egg that looks like butter"

Le Sigh

Do the eggs look whole? Does it look like an Omelette? Scambled because they are infact scrambled.

 

[n0b]

I feel silly because the last thing I posted was a burger as well, but this one was a bit special. It is actually a Buffalo burger, which I've found is an interesting alternative to the norm, and I stopped being lazy and made my own simple quick sweet/spicy barbecue sauce that I came up with a long time ago and used to make all the time. Topped with my normal tomato, (red) onion, lettuce, and cheese. Gave myself some of my favorite chips (Zapp's) to sop up the sauce drips. Had a small serving of homemade tabbouleh afterwards, but I didn't make that.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Le Sigh

Do the eggs look whole? Does it look like an Omelette? Scambled because they are infact scrambled.

don't worry I can appreciate your deconstructive cooking!

I feel silly because the last thing I posted was a burger as well, but this one was a bit special. It is actually a Buffalo burger, which I've found is an interesting alternative to the norm, and I stopped being lazy and made my own simple quick sweet/spicy barbecue sauce that I came up with a long time ago and used to make all the time. Topped with my normal tomato, (red) onion, lettuce, and cheese. Gave myself some of my favorite chips (Zapp's) to sop up the sauce drips. Had a small serving of homemade tabbouleh afterwards, but I didn't make that.

It looks good! Maybe a program to edit the lighting next time though its too yellow.

 

[numble]

On the subject of woks, what are some good and/or simple dishes to make? I'm thinking of buying one.

 

[trancekr]

Made fettuccine with a light tomato sauce yesterday, easy and tasty:

That looks fantastic.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

On the subject of woks, what are some good and/or simple dishes to make? I'm thinking of buying one.

fried rice is THE dish to learn how to work a wok since there is a minimal amount of cooking liquid so you can't screw up the dish too much.

 

[numble]

fried rice is THE dish to learn how to work a wok since there is a minimal amount of cooking liquid so you can't screw up the dish too much.

That seems like an extremely simple dish. Anything else? Oh--and do you know how to make the preserved meat dish with just a rice cooker and not a claypot? I'd like to see if I like the dish before investing in a pot...

 

[Yes Boss!]

Made some Rajma Curry. Just kidney beans in a nice rich tomato gravy. I ground up the whole garam masala (cinnamon, cardamon, bay leave, clove, mace) and added some cracked black pepper. Simple but fresh and wholesome...and a lot of flavor. They type of dish that just gets better as it sits in the fridge for a few days.

 

[jarosh]

yes boss!, could you be more specific with the recipe for that dish? it looks delicious! i love curry, kidney beans, tomatoes and garam masala. sounds like perfection to me. i'd love to replicate it.

Spoiler

also, how the hell do you cook so goddamn much and buy and play so many games? where do you get the time?

 

[Yes Boss!]

yes boss!, could you be more specific with the recipe for that dish? it looks delicious! i love curry, kidney beans, tomatoes and garam masala. sounds like perfection to me. i'd love to replicate it.

also, how the hell do you cook so goddamn much and buy and play so many games? where do you get the time?

Well, I'm single and only cook for myself. I usually work all weekend so mid-week I cook a few dishes for fun. Gamewise...I just love videogames...don't have or watch TV so that saves quite a bit of time, I guess.

I did not take photos of the Rajma dish but I'll make another batch that is documented in the coming week. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing because earlier I made Dal Makhani with whole red chori bean and still had leftover cooked kidneys. I usually make a Makhani once a week as background and to have on hand so I didn't post it...but here is the batch with the whole red chori (usually black urad dal is used):

Also, learned how to clean a coconut. First time and the goal was to do coconut for two weeks but I'm off to a slow start. I put whole coconut in the freezer for thirty minutes then wacked the hell out of it to remove the woody exterior. Left with a round, water-filled interior intact then used a peeler to shave off the softer woody interior. Came out perfect and then ground it up:

 

[jarosh]

I did not take photos of the Rajma dish but I'll make another batch that is documented in the coming week.

please do! i really wanna make that. i'll be following your instructions.

 

[slidewinder]

Where do you get the recipes from, Yes Boss!?

In reference to stir-frying on an electric stove: you're better off with a cast-iron frying pan over highest heat, or however high your smoke detector and stove hood can handle. Get a pan that matches the diameter of your biggest electric burner as closely as possible, make sure it's as hot as can be before you oil it and start cooking, and that'll be about as well as you can do on that stove top, especially if you let the pan heat back up between batches of ingredients.

Flat-bottomed carbon steel woks, while maybe being well-intentioned insofar as they're meant to be "electric stove compatible" will never have anything near the thermal mass of a clunky cast iron pan, and so you'll end up cooking over lower heat much sooner than you would otherwise, and that matters a lot over the few minutes that you'll be frying in them.

And just stay away from non-stick woks entirely. The very idea of a teflon-coated wok is insane.

 

[xrich]

all of this food and watching Top Chef really makes me want to be a chef or at least go make some awesome food.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

That seems like an extremely simple dish. Anything else? Oh--and do you know how to make the preserved meat dish with just a rice cooker and not a claypot? I'd like to see if I like the dish before investing in a pot...

fried rice is extremely easy to make but to make a good one takes time.

Also you can steam preserved meats in a rice cooker just fine just that its not quite the same but close enough.

 

[VelvetMouth]

A question for all professional wok users out here...

Are there people out here who wok successfully on a classic ceramic/electric stove?

In my new house I'm stuck with a glass top electric stove. The key I find to using a wok is to heat it up very well and then stir fry in small batches. If you have too much in your wok the food is going to start cooking/steaming. Like Zyzyxxz said, be sure to keep your food moving but small quantities and high heat is important.

 

[Brianemone]

The most simple dish to make would be a simple Pasta (linguine, spaghetti) with oil, garlic and parmesan, (a little chilli optional) it's a great way to learn how to cook pasta, lets you get the act of cooking the pasta to perfection right before you move onto more complicated sauces.

 

[Wark]

That looks delicious as hell.

 

[nakedsushi]

I love dark leafy greens!

smashed potatoes, raw kale and avocado salad with Meyer lemon dressing, stir fried pea shoots, and stir fried Hawaiian eggplant with Thai spices (the dark thing in the back)

Baked vegan ziti (fake cheese on top) and a side of sauteed kale.

 

[OnkelC]

looks delicious, thanks for sharing!

only made a casserole for the weekend as we are living in a pig sty of moving boxes, wrapped pieces of furniture, DVD covers and general mess at the moment

 

[trancekr]

simple beef stew and rice with a fried egg.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Simple yet so good! Eggs and rice are a match made in heaven.

 

[Natetan]

Also, learned how to clean a coconut. First time and the goal was to do coconut for two weeks but I'm off to a slow start. I put whole coconut in the freezer for thirty minutes then wacked the hell out of it to remove the woody exterior. Left with a round, water-filled interior intact then used a peeler to shave off the softer woody interior. Came out perfect and then ground it up:

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg114/gregbuczek/P1020907.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

That coconut looks good. what are you going to use it for?

Where are you buying your ingredients? I'm assiming you're in the US for some reason.

I haven't been cooking much lately, as there is a glut of food in my kitchen that I'm just trying to use up.

I made oden from scratch the other day. I put some kombu in water to make the dashi. I added some ponzu soy sauce and some lime juice to it to brighten it up a little bit. I put in an egg and some shirataki. I made my own kinchaku, which are little pockets of inari filled with mochi, mushrooms and perhaps chicken. I cut up some tofu into nice big blocks and a long onion, as well as some nice big pieces of daikon. Mmmm, so much better than convenience store Oden too (which sadly enough is almost the only place I ever eat oden).

 

[Yes Boss!]

That coconut looks good. what are you going to use it for?

Where are you buying your ingredients? I'm assiming you're in the US for some reason.

It is still in the fridge in the same bowl. I had planned to make some coconut chutney. I'll likely do that tomorrow if it has not dried out too much...thinking it will be fine.

Yeah, in US. Irvine area of Orange County. There are a bunch of different Indian stores around here...as well as the standard Persian and Arab stores and the insane amount of Asian ingredients we've got access to. Also, I go up to Artesia to see my bollies and do pick up stuff up there as well.

Gonna cook up some lamb next week. I like to do it with fresh fenugreek. Maybe I'll make that super hot curry lamb dish that comes out of the UK.

 

[Natetan]

It is still in the fridge in the same bowl. I had planned to make some coconut chutney. I'll likely do that tomorrow if it has not dried out too much...thinking it will be fine.

Mmm, I had a really nice coconut chutney with a dosa set I got the other day. So good.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Mmm, I had a really nice coconut chutney with a dosa set I got the other day. So good.

That is the thing. It seems it is a breakfast thing...to go along with dosa. I'm not a breakfast guy and I'm gonna have tons of the stuff! I'll start soaking and fermenting some dal and rice for tuesday and use it for that.

Also, I kinda just look around the internet for recipes. If you have any good ideas let me know. Not necessarily a recipe but a certain dish. I'd love to take a crack at it. Stuff that is vegetarian since that is the theme for another few months in my kitchen.

 

[n0b]

Did some epic grilling on Saturday for a friend's birthday party: 18 pounds of pork, an 8 pound brisket, 6 pounds of hamburger, and numerous sausages. Three grills running for somewhere around 5 to 7 hours.

I did pretty much all of the prep for the pork; cut up all 18 pounds of meat as well as 7 onions and 8 bell peppers that we threw in a marinade (I believe it was two gallons of vinegar and a gallon of seltzer water along with salt and pepper) that would eventually be put on skewers for shashlik, which a Russian friend got us all hooked on. We let it sit in the marinade for an hour or two before we started skewering it, and we had people continuing to skewer meat for a while. We ran the grills in shifts, switching about halfway through the party so that one of my friends and I were each grill master for about 3 hours.

It came out wonderfully (oh god fatty pieces are heavenly) but I was not the cameraman so I didn't have control over what was being shot, nor would it have really mattered, because each time we sent out a platter of finished meat it was empty within 30 seconds. The only real picture I have of the finished product is because as it got late we used the camera's flash to check the meat while somebody set up a light for the grills (which turned out just to be a flashlight that we put on a table next to them).

the meat

the fire

the delicious

Unfortunately not many other pictures of the food.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

the meat
.

Looks tasty! What cut of pork did you use for the skewers?

 

[n0b]

Looks tasty! What cut of pork did you use for the skewers?

I wasn't there when they got the meat, but I'm pretty sure that it was boneless ribs of some sort. I had the marinade reversed though, it was actually two parts vinegar and one part seltzer water. If we would have had more time that mixture would have been closer to one to one, and we would have more evenly salted and peppered the meat as we put it in instead of pre-mixing the spices into the marinade.

 

[Xelinis]

I made a Steak au Poivre the other night from a strip of tenderloin I purchased whole and carved myself. If you're going to get a tenderloin, this really is the best way to go about it. It was my first time ever being near cognac; it is truly a fantastic deglazing fluid.


(Pics may or may not come later.)

 

[BladeWorker]

What's the trick to red wine reductions? All my wine does is reduce to the point of staining the pot, it never thickens. Cornstarch mixture helps, but kills the taste.

What do I do?

 

[Natetan]

That is the thing. It seems it is a breakfast thing...to go along with dosa. I'm not a breakfast guy and I'm gonna have tons of the stuff! I'll start soaking and fermenting some dal and rice for tuesday and use it for that.

Also, I kinda just look around the internet for recipes. If you have any good ideas let me know. Not necessarily a recipe but a certain dish. I'd love to take a crack at it. Stuff that is vegetarian since that is the theme for another few months in my kitchen.

Hmm, well the way we had it was with a nice big dosa (mmm) filled with some dal I think. Then there was another curry, the coconut chutney, and a savoury 'donut', which I only call it that because I don't know it's proper name.

I just ate the coconut chutney with the dosa, and this was for dinner (although I've had it for lunch before, never for breakfast). It wasn't dessert sweet really at all, just a really nice flavor! Looked like this:

 

[beelzebozo]

i had a burger with velveeta cheese last night.

it's probably my new favorite cheese for burgers. jesuschristalmighty so melty and good.

 

[PartlyCloudlike]

What's the trick to red wine reductions? All my wine does is reduce to the point of staining the pot, it never thickens. Cornstarch mixture helps, but kills the taste.

What do I do?

If you swirl in some butter in the end it'll thicken it a bit.

 

[beelzebozo]

if he's trying to make a syrupy sauce-type thing, you could always add a teaspoon or two of sugar. the butter or a beurre manie is probably the more french and culinary-correct method, though.

 

[swoon]

Hmm, well the way we had it was with a nice big dosa (mmm) filled with some dal I think. Then there was another curry, the coconut chutney, and a savoury 'donut', which I only call it that because I don't know it's proper name.

I just ate the coconut chutney with the dosa, and this was for dinner (although I've had it for lunch before, never for breakfast). It wasn't dessert sweet really at all, just a really nice flavor! Looked like this:

dosa and those donuts, vada, are traditionally southern indian breakfast foods along with uttapam and idli. in the time i lived in india i never got used to eating them in the morning, i'll say that. it was also never a problem to get those same foods at lunch, though i didn't see that often at dinner places/at home. over in the states they are served for whenever because was have quite different expectations of foods for breakfast.

dosa is pretty much my favorite food on earth.

 

[Natetan]

wow thanks so much for giving me the word. Vada!

Just looked at the wikipedia entry. I really want to take a crack at making a dosa. Doesn't seem to hard, and the ingredients are basic enough I can make them wiithout getting too specialized. It's like an amazing indian savory crepe. <3

 

[swoon]

the technique for making big like that is kinda hard. though street vendor style dosa is really easy, it's flatter and denser and they just kinda fold it over. see here:

http://donraja.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/bakasura-beedhi/

i like my dosa with chilis in the batter and nothing but ghee on the inside. . oh man.

 

[Yes Boss!]

I use the Vahrehvah recipe for Dosa. I do the ferment for at least 24 hours. You really need a large crepe-style pan to pull off the paper/wood finish properly. I also use a simple cast-iron for the smaller 9" version that is more pancake-like. It is like a more complex grit crepe. The thicker version is heavenly with fresh chilis and tomatoes and some ghee.

Here are my grains raw:

Soaking, they have another twelve hours. They get a nice froth after a day:

I also bought a 4 lb leg of lamb and I used a pound to make lamb vindaloo. It is steeping in the coconut/vinegar/red chili marinate. I'll post some pics with some nice white rice and mint chutney shortly. I used our wonderful guallijo and nuevo mexico peppers here in southern california for the color and sweetness along with traditional dried red chiles.

 

[Easy_G]

Bought a ribeye for the first time in months. Some red potatoes (boiled and tossed with olive oil/vinegar/basil) and salad. Washed it down with an IPA. I also tend to overcook my steaks, so this time I took it out of the oven as soon as it hit 120F. Turned out perfect once I let it rest.

I had more trouble with the pictures than I wanted, but they at least show something.

 

[Xabora]

Thats a nice T-Bone, with a good bit of Marbled Fat.

/drool

 

[Zaptruder]

What the... I thought Yes Boss! was vegetarian!

 

[Yes Boss!]

What the... I thought Yes Boss! was vegetarian!

Thanksgiving coming up...twin brother coming down. I'm also heading to the Stone
Brewery next week and will probably get some meat dish. So, I'm cooking some lamb. Also, I wasn't a vegetarian...just decided to cook without meat for a year!

 

[Jay Sosa]

Damn missed the show with Onkel C..

 

[Yes Boss!]

Here is my coconut chutney:

 

[jarosh]

still waiting for the recipe/instructions for rajma curry :'(

 

[Yes Boss!]

still waiting for the recipe/instructions for rajma curry :'(

I know. I've still got some of the last batch in the fridge to finish. What I will do is soak some beans tonight and I'll have the recipe posted tomorrow with photos!

Here is the 1 and 1/2 cups of beans soaking. I think this equals about two cans of kidneys. They are going to be happy and water-logged tomorrow.

 

[jarosh]

yay!