Whatcha Cooking today?

[Sue_CT]

More Cioppino for me tonight. With a toasted and buttered Ciabatta roll.

Cioppino

[pepperhead212]

I picked up a different sous vide machine because the other one went on the blink.
Long story and I'll never buy another one of that brand but it was I think a 100 dollars off from 200 dollars.
This one cost $85.00 with fifteen off coupon.
I bought a nice ribeye that looked like prime but priced as select with the savings from the coupon.
This sous vide machine doesn't have any extra WiFi capability.
It's totally manual pushbutton control with timer.
HEB store brand Kitchen chen and Table.
Everythings made in China anyway.
Do they really have to make everything compatible with a frigging smart phone?
I've got the other days mashed taters and some frozen corn in the water with the steak at 130°F for 2 hours.

The other one circulates and ony heated up by a couple of degrees at a time
If you set it to 140 or anything more than 2 degrees above the water temperature it won't heat up.
Frigging strange.
But you can run it at any temperature if you get the water to that temperature first.

Sounds like I would return this one, with all those problems, and start looking again!

[worth1]

I picked up a different sous vide machine because the other one went on the blink.
Long story and I'll never buy another one of that brand but it was I think a 100 dollars off from 200 dollars.
This one cost $85.00 with fifteen off coupon.
I bought a nice ribeye that looked like prime but priced as select with the savings from the coupon.
This sous vide machine doesn't have any extra WiFi capability.
It's totally manual pushbutton control with timer.
HEB store brand Kitchen chen and Table.
Everythings made in China anyway.
Do they really have to make everything compatible with a frigging smart phone?
I've got the other days mashed taters and some frozen corn in the water with the steak at 130°F for 2 hours.

The other one circulates and ony heated up by a couple of degrees at a time
If you set it to 140 or anything more than 2 degrees above the water temperature it won't heat up.
Frigging strange.
But you can run it at any temperature if you get the water to that temperature first.

Sounds like I would return this one, with all those problems, and start looking again!

Too late to return.
The new one works like a champ.
I know my meat and this was a USDA prime anyway day of the week.

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[worth1]

So I've got this new sous vide machine and iv got a kettle of water.
Why not use it to warm up supper?
Because that's exactly what I'm doing.
It's set at 120 °F and I have my leftover steak green beans and taters with corn and gravy in bags in the water, set for 3 hours.
I just use slid lock freezer bags not vacuum sealer bags.
I know it's below food steamer warming table temperature but it's submerged not open.

[karstopography]

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One tomato pasta. Used one and only of the 2 pound Domingo tomatoes to make the sauce. A very meaty tomato Domingo is, but without too much liquid. Domingo turns out to be not such a bad sauce tomato.

Ricotta cheese got stirred into the cooked down tomato sauce. There’s boneless chicken breast in there also. I mostly followed a recipe online.

[pepperhead212]

I made a type of curry today, with some dried green beans and eggplants (something I have a lot of, esp. the EP), and I seasoned it with (among other things) some pav bhaji masala I made, a while back, and I used the last cup or so of some masoor dal in the jar in my pantry. I soaked about a pound equivalent of dried eggplant and dried green beans, starting around 10 am. Later, I rinsed, then soaked 1¼ c of brown basmati rice in the Instant Pot, for around 2 hours (while out in the garden). When I started the cooking, I added a half tsp turmeric, a tsp of salt, and I set the IP for 15 min on low pressure - this works perfectly with the brown rice, w/o exploding the grains. I just let it sit on warm mode, until I needed it.

I simmered some chopped onion and garlic scapes in some coconut oil in a small wok, while making the cooking liquid in the Vitamix. I put 2 c water, a handful of dried tomatoes (about a half pound equivalent), the last of the leaves from some mizuna and other greens I had in the hydroponics, 2 cloves garlic, and about ¼ c dried, unsweetened coconut, then blended that up to a smooth purée; I added that to the wok, rinsed the VM out with 2 more water, and put that in the wok. I then stirred in the rinsed EP and green beans, the seasonings, then the masoor dal, and another half cup of water (seemed like it needed it). I brought it to a simmer, and cooked it 25 min., stirring occasionally. When that was done, I took it off the heat, then put the small pot on for the tarka, with a tb of coconut oil, on level 4, and added 1 tsp black mustard seed. When that started popping, I added 1 tsp cumin seed, and 8 Thai peppers, swirled around until the peppers brown slightly, then added 1/2 tsp asafoetida and about a dozen curry leaves. After about 10 sec, I dumped it on the curry. All this takes less than about 30 sec, from when the mustard seeds go in. The tarka is stirred in, followed by the rice, and a few snow peas. I served it, sprinkled with a little chopped cilantro.
An onion and a couple of garlic scapes, cooking in some coconut oil, to start the curry. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Some liquified greens, dried tomatoes, and garlic, with the soaked eggplant and beans, from last season, and some pav bhaji masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Curry, with the pav bhaji seasonings added, with the masoor dal, ready to stir in and simmer. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tarka ingredients, ready to cook. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The tarka, ready to stir into the curry, after simmering the masoor dal in the greens liquid. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The turmeric rice, being stirred into the curry. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pav bhaji curry, with the turmeric rice stirred in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

I put one of the pichania steaks frozen in the sous vide at 327.594°kelvin for a couple or so hours, that's 130°F.
Zero kelvin is absolute zero, nothing can get colder.
I'm also heating up some leftover doctored up with cumin and hot smoked Spanish paprika rice.
The rice with be a little over cooked but I'm gonna eat it anyway.
Waste not want not.

[Danny]

Was not too hungry and was just messing around this evening in the kitchen when I made the following stuff. I took some of the Bar S sandwich ham, american cheese and smoked provolone cheese slices and stacked themin a ham/cheese/ham/cheese/ham stack ( 2 slices of cheese just fit right with the ham slices), cut them into 5 pieces, dusted them with a bit of cornstarch so the egg/flour wash would stick, then into panko crumbs. Fried them in bacon grease until light brown.

They were okay but need to play with it a bit. The ham and cheeses wanted to slide off each other when dredging a bit and made it hard as well to turn them. Maybe throw the ham stacks in the micro for 10 seconds before dredging to make the cheese stick to the ham better? hmmmmm.

[karstopography]

We had the leftovers pasta bake from the previous night. My wife took a couple of Suyo Long cucumbers sliced them up and tossed with sour cream, a little sugar,and rice wine vinegar. They were a yummy side dish. I sliced up a big ripe Domingo tomato and put some fresh herbed mozzarella cheese from NYC, can’t remember the brand, but it is a tender and flavorful mozzarella cheese and dribbled on a small amount of Greek Koroneiki EVOO and then another dribble of extra thick extra aged balsamic vinegar, the $20 a bottle stuff, but it’s so good and full of flavor only a dribble is necessary. It isn’t at all sharp like the thin balsamic vinegar, but mellow and sweet.

I’m eating as much tomatoes as humanly possible. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not eating at least one slicer sized tomato in one form or another.

[Tormahto]

Hamburger buns toasted to perfection.
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You missed a spot on the lower part of the left one.

[worth1]

@karstopography
Supposedly by some there are only two makers of real balsamic vinegar.
And the shape of the bottle has to be right.
Anything to charge 400 to 1000 dollars for a wee bottle.

[karstopography]

@karstopography
Supposedly by some there are only two makers of real balsamic vinegar.
And the shape of the bottle has to be right.
Anything to charge 400 to 1000 dollars for a wee bottle.

https://www.seriouseats.com/everything- ... ic-vinegar

@worth1 I went online to try and educate myself on balsamic vinegar. Looks like traditional balsamic vinegar is what you are talking about with ancient and exacting rules about how it is produced and then there are products that step down from that lofty height. The one I use is Central Market Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a type of balsamic vinegar covered in the link as Balsamic Vinegar of Modern IGP. The central market version is aged 3 years whereas the traditional balsamic vinegar is a minimum of 12 years.

Now I want some of the real deal traditional balsamic vinegar.

Tip
Traditional balsamic is sold in wax-sealed bottles with unique identifying numbers. Traditional balsamic from Modena is only sold in a bulb-shaped 100ml bottle. If it's from Reggio Emilia it's only sold in a 100ml bottle shaped like an inverted tulip. If it's from anywhere else, it's not traditional balsamic vinegar.

[karstopography]

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@worth1 I am so glad you brought up traditional balsamic vinegar. I remembered receiving a gift of balsamic vinegar, but hadn’t opened it.

I found the tiny bottle and it isn’t traditional balsamic vinegar from Italy, but is made the same way

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Sounds delicious at any rate.

[worth1]

The European protections are over the top when it comes to things being allowed to be called something.
Each country has it's own rules too.
The Frankfurter has to be made in only one part of Frankfurt Germany.
Italian cheese and you name it.
Olive oil is really tricky.
It can say bottled in Italy but the oil can be a mix from lord only knows where.
Catfish can't be called catfish if it doesn't come from the US.
We all know about the Japanese beef.
Some of this isn't important and some of it is.

One guy bragging about having real Kobe beef here in the US had no idea that at the time it was banned from import.
He was pretty snotty when I told him he's never had Kobe beef.
Nor did he know what grade it was or even heard of a grade for japanese beef.
I showed him and he was flabbergasted that he bought a fake for well over 100 dollars for a wee cut of beef.
One of those people that was always trying to out class everyone.
I don't mind paying less money for something as good I don't like paying real money for a fake.

[karstopography]

I like the idea of delineating and protecting these traditional products and foods. Great care goes into making these so let’s not let some shortcut chemistry set version claim to be the same thing.

Tonight, we are making steak salad. Daughter the hunter, horsewoman, dog trainer, artist, etc. is returning from Canada and Baker City, Oregon via Del Rio to visit for a while and steak salad was he requested dinner. Had to buy the greens, Aldi has 16 ounce clam shells of mixed lettuce for $4 and change. Choice NY strips, cow’s milk domestic feta, blueberries, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

[worth1]

@karstopography
Just recently I discovered that the malt vinegar you get at fish and chips shops in the UK isn't vinegar.
It's some sort of chemical concoction.
They don't even call it vinegar and it comes in a highly dangerous acidic concentrate they dilute with water.

[worth1]

I found myself way north of slaughter lane in south Austin after work.
I ended up in Round rock.
This put me going through Elgin so I stopped there for the few items I wanted for the weekend.
Elgin has a really small HEB compared to the big city ones.
I thought probably no way they would have pichania but I had to look..
They had three and I got the smallest darkest one for a little over 12 dollars.
It has a thick fat cap on it from what I could see.

I also got my chicken thighs and wine I went in for as well.

But I'm so spent from the heat I'm just having hotlinks and crashing out.

I'll go to the Mexican market up the street tomorrow for the rest of the fixings for the pichania.
It'll be cooked like carne asada on Sunday.
I did it traditionally out of respect the first time but it's going my way next.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Last night, the lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch browned these Rigoni's Pasties to perfection https://www.rigonibakery.com/

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Ratcheting up the degree of difficulty? They'd been sitting in our freezer for over nine (9) months; they last forever with no loss in yumminess!

The Gotch

[worth1]

I've got a sous vide chicken thighs experiment going on.
One never knows what will come of something unless they try it.
The chicken is in the sous vide at 165°F for 3 to 4 hours.
It will be removed and then let completely cool off.
Once completed I will then fry it with my normal fry mixture in peanut oil.

On a side note I'm changing over to peanut oil and slowly getting rid of my vegetable/soybean oil.
I just don't think the savings for vegetable/soybean oil is worth it considering how little of it I use.

It has a higher amount of polyunsaturated fat in it I'm going to personally get away from as much as I can.
But enough of that, it's just a personal choice.
Not preaching.
The goal for the chicken is two fold.
One a fast hot crispy fry.
Two at 165°F all the collagen with break down and make it juicy and tender.

[karstopography]

We oven roasted our first Okra for 2023. I forgot how delicious it was. 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. Split lengthwise Okra gets a spritz of oil, then salt and pepper. I might try some paprika and or garlic powder with it next time.