Tonight: Bakuteh. Wonderful stuff I first had in Singapore. Recipe here.

Everyone uses the pkg mix of herbs, since so many of them are exotic that it's hard to corral them on your own.

This dish has a distinctive aroma and flavor that are extremely compelling. Unlike any other Asian stew I've ever tried.

Geo

Last night, I wanted to make pasta. My wife wanted me to make chicken and dumplings. Now it's taken me more than one marriage but I'm still trying to learn- "if mom's not happy no one's happy" so I tweaked a Tyler Florence recipe you can find here. I don't make this much but I think it's a pretty good recipe. I leave out the chives, make a more flavorful stock, make some subs etc. etc. but still good.



Jeff

I think the paprikas were gotten at tj maxx of all places. also maybe homegoods have them but their stock is ephemeral. I did not buy it but was given it. I think if I were going to buy paprika I would buy it at bendes or spice house or penzeys. I do not know what kinds they have there. I do know bende imports its own hungarian paprika.

Sweet & Sour Tofu with Cashews & Brown Rice:


DSCN0920 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

Braised chicken in some Moroccan vain,

chicken, chicken stock, minced garlic, shallot, and ginger; chopped green onion and preserved lemon; sliced almonds; dried raisins, dates, apricots, and figs; cinnamon, grains of paradise, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and black pepper. Served with couscous (dumped in the braising liquid at the end).

Well, actually for tomorrow, buttermilk roasted chicken from Smitten Kitchen. She recommends marinating it for 24 hours. I'm really looking forward to it. The buttermilk brine took at most 5 minutes to put together.

Hey Knit Girl,
Eagerly await your report! I was thinking of doing it this week, probably with some biscuits too (since I'll have buttermilk around).

This was a casual Saturday night supper: red beans and rice, with cornbread. We had a decent substitute for Camellia red beans and a ham hock. Some good quality tomatoes that our local Kroger has been featuring for a few weeks; they're actually very good.

Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul playing in the background; a few Pilsner Urquell...good to go. BTW, 65 and sunny in Georgia today. That's why we moved here.

knitgirl wrote:Well, actually for tomorrow, buttermilk roasted chicken from Smitten Kitchen. She recommends marinating it for 24 hours. I'm really looking forward to it. The buttermilk brine took at most 5 minutes to put together.

Attracted, as I imagine you were, by the lovely accompanying photo, I made that recipe last night. In a heavy round enamelled baking dish (a plate, really, rim less than 1 inch high) lined in foil, it took at least 20 minutes longer to cook than the recipe said it would - and that was after letting the pieces warm up at room temperature for at least a half hour before putting them in the oven. I think that the dish acted as a heat sink, and also crowded the pieces (two thighs and two drumsticks). I also had to drain off liquid a couple of times. Tasted fine, when it was finally ready, but next time (tomorrow night - I have more pieces marinating), I'll spread the pieces out in a larger baking dish. All that notwithstanding, I think it's a great go-to dinner idea.

Yes, I am planning on using a baking sheet and spreading the chicken out. Going to roast some garlic and saute some spinach to go with.

I'm sure you'll like the chicken, it's very tasty that way.

I'm grilling some flank steak (rubbed with BBQ rub from Hawaii), roasting veggies and potatoes, and having a side salad.

Trying the Bo Ssam recipe from Momofuku for the first time with a Buthher & Larder pork shoulder. The house smells amazing.

Sausage and peppers over Anson Mills polenta w shaved provolone. Mmmm comforty.


Jeff

annak wrote:Hey Knit Girl,
Eagerly await your report! I was thinking of doing it this week, probably with some biscuits too (since I'll have buttermilk around).

Very good, maybe a bit bland. I think next time I will put some rosemary in the brine and mince the garlic. I had smashed it, but I didn't taste the garlic. I ate one piece hot for dinner and part of a cold breast in my salad for lunch today - the texture and moisture level were perfect. I had hoped for crisper skin, but didn't want to overcook the chicken.

Made a bolognese sauce, pretty much exactly as described in Marcella Hazan's "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking." Called for cooking the beef in milk, then white wine, which sounded just crazy enough to work. Sure enough, I cooked it forever once the tomatoes went in and it turned out to be one of most mellow yet flavorful sauces I've ever made. It certainly did justice to the homemade pasta I made to accompany it. Milk and beef. Go figure.

Soft Polenta w/ White Bean, Butternut Squash, & Sage Ragout (Photo taken before I added some shaved Parmesan.)


DSCN0923 by MsLynnB, on Flickr

It was the first thing I tried from Peter Berley's "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen." I'm looking forward to further exploration of the cookbook.

It's a keeper.

Salad with shelled pistachios(so much better tasting than the pre-shelled nuts), feta, Cathy2's lye-cured olives, oil-cured olives, honeybell from The Sunshine State, slivers from a quarter of a yellow onion, pomegranate, dressed in a vinaigrette of EVVO, champagne wine vinegar, honey, and a drop or 2 of rose water.

Followed by Martha Stewart's one-pot curried cauliflower and rice with garlic naan.

Blackberries & pineapple to finish.

Very good, maybe a bit bland. I think next time I will put some rosemary in the brine and mince the garlic. I had smashed it, but I didn't taste the garlic. I ate one piece hot for dinner and part of a cold breast in my salad for lunch today - the texture and moisture level were perfect. I had hoped for crisper skin, but didn't want to overcook the chicken.

By the light / heat of yesterdays insane weather, we decided to grill the legs that had marinated for 48 hours. We found them smoky (I think my paprika was smoked), a teensy bit caramelized, and very, very juicy and flavorful. Will definitely do this again!

With the rest of the buttermilk I did the CI "Best Drop Biscuits" which had an interesting technique: melt a stick of butter, let it cool 5 minutes, then pour it into cold buttermilk, gently stirring until clumps form. So no working with distributing the hard cold butter. They were pretty good.

beef stew
browning the meat and veggies on the grill this afternoon

annak wrote:With the rest of the buttermilk I did the CI "Best Drop Biscuits" which had an interesting technique: melt a stick of butter, let it cool 5 minutes, then pour it into cold buttermilk, gently stirring until clumps form. So no working with distributing the hard cold butter. They were pretty good.

Funny- I've been meaning to try CI's flaky biscuits. We've had blueberry & regular pancakes as well as their scrambled eggs the last 2 days for brunch. I've got some apple sauce in the freezer & I love hot spiced apple sauce on biscuits.

Banh mi! Using some leftover pork roast I've spiced up, and do chua pickle which has just ripened up enough to use. Yuuuummmmm!

Geo

Banh mi!

Me, too - mine is on a nice bolillo roll, with grilled marinated chicken, chili cucumber fresh pickles, chopped romaine, and Thai sriracha. Awful damn good.

Brined a whole bird for 16 hours overnight Saturday, then roasted it off and made some chicken pot pie filling.... for some pot pies on Sunday.

Topped with puff pastry dough these were pretty darn good for a 2nd attempt ever.

I've been on a legume kick lately. The differance between cooking them from dry and using canned is often huge, but the convenience of canned has been hard for me to resist over the years. The past month or two I've been getting myself into a routine of soaking 2 days out, and cooking the beans the day before the final meal. It spreads things out from a timing perspective and makes it do-able for me on a weeknight/worknight.

This was an interesting recipe. A couple of 2" slices of French bread were toasted on both sides in olive oil along with a few cloves of garlic. The bread and garlic were then ground to crumbs in a food processor. Cumin seeds, whole peppercorns and 2 small dried red chiles were ground in a spice grinder and added to the same olive oil followed by chopped onion, more garlic, the cooked chickpeas, some paprika, and a little water. The breadcrumb mix is added to thicken the "stew" and then the greens are stirred-in until they wilt. Spinach, in this case.

I served it with the remaining French bread but I think it would be great with some couscous next time.


Tunisian-Style Chickpeas & Greens by MsLynnB, on Flickr

Breadcrumb baked swai with brown butter/lemon/capers, sides of fried potatoes and buttered sweet corn.

Breadcrumb baked swai with brown butter/lemon/capers, sides of fried potatoes and buttered sweet corn.

zoid - where did you find swai?

shyne wrote:

Breadcrumb baked swai with brown butter/lemon/capers, sides of fried potatoes and buttered sweet corn.

zoid - where did you find swai?

The Dominick's on Lake Street in Oak Park has it on sale (frozen) for $3.99/LB.
I'm going back tomorrow to grab some more that I think I'll simmer in curry with cauliflower and serve with coconut rice.

Rolling up some game-time tamales last night





Finished in the pot



Seperating them by flavor



Ready to eat




This was my first attempt at making tamales. I used masa flour and crisco. I prepared a pork roast in the crock-pot the night before. I made a tomato, onion and garlic mixture spiced with some cayenne pepper, pepper and salt. I shredded the pork and made about half of them with the tomato mix and some with green chili sauce. I also tried making some strawberry ones but that process needs tweaking.

Overall I was really happy with the end result. There's some things I need to change, like spicing up the masa a bit more but they came out pretty good for a first attempt.

zoid wrote:

shyne wrote:

Breadcrumb baked swai with brown butter/lemon/capers, sides of fried potatoes and buttered sweet corn.

zoid - where did you find swai?

The Dominick's on Lake Street in Oak Park has it on sale (frozen) for $3.99/LB.
I'm going back tomorrow to grab some more that I think I'll simmer in curry with cauliflower and serve with coconut rice.

Thanks so much for the info! Found the swai at our local Dominick's in West Town and it will be perfect for a traditional Kerala fish curry (meen moilee or as it's known in my house, coconut fish curry). Pretty easy dish to make and can be as tame or fiery as you like, depending on the number/strength of green chilies you use. Ingredients include onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies, turmeric, curry leaves, kodumpuli, tomato, and coconut milk.

shyne

last night's effort.

meez: swai fillets, turmeric, green chili, onion, ginger, garlic, coconut milk, curry leaves, tomato, and kodampuli.



finished fish curry



creamy, spicy, yummers.

shyne