Whatcha Cooking today?

[bower]

The best cure I know for a lack of appetite is a piece of fruit. If I just don't feel like eating, I'll have an apple. Half an hour later, I'll start to feel hungry and then I can figure out what I want to eat.
Going without food is a terrible thing to do to yourself @worth1

[pepperhead212]

Today I made one of my absolute favorite dishes, that I was craving recently - that Szechwan eggplant dish. I just bought some cheap pork loin, and ground it all up - only had to trim a little over 8 oz of thick fat off one - the rest, were so thin with fat, they wouldn't even be good for sausage! I saved a pound, from the 10+ lbs of ground pork, for the eggplant dish.
The rest I sealed in the Foodsaver bags, 4 half pound, a 12 oz, and the rest 1 lb bags.

I made a double recipe today (as usual), and I used a very large amount of garlic chives, and about a half cup of regular chives, in place of chopped scallions - not traditional, but works great in these things, and I have large amounts of those things out there. And in place of the minced garlic and ginger, I start most of these dishes with, I start with that garlic/ginger paste, I keep in the freezer, mostly for Indian dishes, but I start the oil at a lower heat, then add the Szechwan chili/garlic paste first, then the garlic/ginger paste, and the Szechwan peppercorns and whole peppers, to keep that from browning too quickly. After choking temporarily, I added the meat mix, cooked that about 2 min, then added the eggplant, and SFd that about 2 min, added the sugar, and SFd another 2 min. Then I stirred in 3/4 c water, and loosened anything off the wok, covered, and cooked on medium, stirred a couple of times, for 13 minutes.

Meanwhile, I put about 3½ qts of water on to boil on Sauté/high in the Instant Pot (puts out less heat, which I'm doing enough in that wok!), and when I cover that eggplant, I put in a little salt for the pasta, put about 20 oz of pasta (a good amount for this dish, as you'll see), set it to boil for just 2 minutes, then stop it, and cook it 6 more minutes, then drain it, and rinse it.

When the eggplant is finished, I rinse the pasta briefly (to add a little more water), then dump in on top of the EP, and SF it another minute or so, to absorb the sauce. After a large helping (!) I have a 2 qt and a 1 qt container of leftovers! The kind of things I often eat for breakfast!
About 3 c of garlic chives and and regular chives, in place of scallions, for the Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Other ingredients ready for the Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The ground pork, with the chives, soy, and sesame oil, cooking with the garlic, ginger, and hot ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A little over 2 lbs of eggplant, cooking with the meat and seasonings, sugar added the last two minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the pasta, ready to fold in finished Szechwan eggplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Szechwan eggplant dish, mixed into spiral pasta. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[bower]

Mac and cheese for a rainy day.
I ran some orange tomatoes left over from tasting, seed saving and etc through the blender, poured that into my pan with a bit of evoo, grated garlic and basil simmering, and made a quick sauce (10-15 minutes) adding a spoon of sour cream and couple tbs parmesan at the end. Topped with grated old white cheddar, a few garden peas, a ripe tomato, green onion and parsley snips.

A few things from the garden is worth bagloads of supermarket stuff, no doubt at all.

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[worth1]

I made enough tuna salad for a tuna sandwich from a hotdog bun and just ate the rest.
Nothing fancy and no onion chopping.

[Sue_CT]

Good. Good protein.

[bower]

Stir an egg into some broth @worth1, if you want to regain strength easily.

I got up this morning and baked bread, then roasted three batches of tomatoes for sauce. They are sitting in the oven now, waiting for the next step - blender.
Got a big zucchini baseball bat from the farm for some recipe trials. Something like eggplant parmesan, was my thought. Dredged and crumbed and fried or baked, layered with tomato sauce and cheese. Homing the unwanted whoppers that just get away from the pickers, we all have to help.
The spaghetti squash they grew this year are so dense they're like piglets on a sow....
Also doing my part with a small rejected cabbage and head of fennel, I think will make a most delicious coleslaw with some apple...

[pepperhead212]

Glad you're getting your appetite back, @worth1.

[Whwoz]

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First attempt at Salt and pepper squid. Needed something easy to chew tonight after having teeth out yesterday. Not too bad but needs tweaking. Problem with being gluten free is finding the right flour for the task. Just need to catch more squid to try again

[bower]

Looks good @Whwoz but squid is a funny choice for 'easy to chew'.
My dad would always cook his squid tubes in a pressure cooker. They came out really tender and separating into rings with a fork. We would freeze them already tenderized this way to use in all kinds of recipes.
Squid are so tasty when they haven't been skinned. I only see fully processed white pieces in the supermarket these days.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

The lovely and long suffering Mrs. Gotch chopped up Gold Rush and Black Beauty Zukes, Red Russkie, Prizm, Lacinato, and Daribor Kale, and all manner of peppers for this stir fry...had to sub out the tofu and rice...

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The Gotch

[pepperhead212]

Besides that gazpacho I made a couple days before, to take to my friend's place on Labor Day, I took that Thai sweet and spicy dipping sauce, for the grilled chicken and I made a batch those Mahogany fire noodles, that I used some ground pork in, instead of chicken, and only about 8 oz of the dried rice noodles, so 3 of us ate all those up. All that gazpacho is gone, too! Here are those fire noodles - not the hottest I've made, so those Thai Dragons I grew this year weren't as hot as most.
A variation of the Mahogany fire noodles, I made for 3 of us today, only one other person tasting it, despite the warnings. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[bower]

Oh boy struggling with the zucchini bat here.
I took one home and swore I would make something of it. Taste tested sweet, but I know the seedy interior can be tough...
Wanted to make zuch parmesan (substituting for eggplant). Got sidelined with a fantastic party weekend roast chicken with alioli, followed by a day of BLT's. So the sliced and salted pieces of um, bat, were draining for about 24 hours before I rescued and secured in the fridge.. Finally today I got them out, no sign of spoilage or anything and very well drained.
Had discovered by other uses of the butt end, that the peels on this rock hard bat are very tough indeed. Peeled and halfed em.
Now in an oiled pan in the oven after dredging in flour, dipping in egg, and rolling in crumbs (breadcrumbs with garlic powder and a little salt) - a disgusting and very labor intensive process I must say.
I'm already filled with regret/worry that all this work is going to be a horrible product due to the large seeds.
I even had/have I should say lots and plenty of very fresh and primo small cocozelle which should be lovely if given such attention.
The only upside of doing SO MUCH processing in advance of casserole, is that I can eat one piece and decide if it is okay to proceed...
Tell me your thoughts about baseball bat zucchini.... is it only worth throwing at the cat?

[Vanman]

Yes.

[bower]

After 'oven frying' these slices, I decided the zuch itself was better than the crumbs, which were.. pretty rubbery and gross. LOL.
I am doomed to eat this, one way or another.
Crumby bat made one layer on top a little tomato sauce, cheese on top, then some lightly roasted cocozelle, slices of tomato, some leftover nut cutlets (nutty zuch fritters if you must know) another layer of cheese, then a few noodles, tomato sauce again, cheese, crumbs and parmesan. Oh boy... so much work for ????
.... throw it at the cat.

[MissS]

After 'oven frying' these slices, I decided the zuch itself was better than the crumbs, which were.. pretty rubbery and gross. LOL.
I am doomed to eat this, one way or another.
Crumby bat made one layer on top a little tomato sauce, cheese on top, then some lightly roasted cocozelle, slices of tomato, some leftover nut cutlets (nutty zuch fritters if you must know) another layer of cheese, then a few noodles, tomato sauce again, cheese, crumbs and parmesan. Oh boy... so much work for ????
.... throw it at the cat.

Poor cat

[Sue_CT]

My zucchini soup is great with bat sized zucchini, lol. Try making a soup out of it next time. Even the peel softens so you don’t have to peel it. Plus you can put whatever you like into it.

[pepperhead212]

Last night I made an Indian dish, that I got a craving for the night before, when I made a batch of sambar masala, since I had run out of that, plus I have all that curry tree that I have to trim. I used about 1/2 c packed leaves, for the masala, then 2 more stems, of stripped leaves in the tarka, for the tempering of the dish. I just made a typical sambar type dish, starting by cooking about 2 c of okra, cut into 1/2-3/4" pieces in the Instant Pot sauté mode about 5 min - this sort of cooks the slime on the okra, and it doesn't get like when put right into the liquid. That is removed to a plate, then an onion in a little oil in the Instant Pot, then a little of that garlic/ginger paste I keep in the freezer and that fresh sambar masala, cooked about a min, then added about a lb of puréed tomatoes, and cooked it down, while I got other things ready. Then, I added about 1/2 c chana dal, and 1/3 c each toor dal and whole oats, plus about 5 c water, some salt, and 1 large potato, diced, and covered the IP, and set to 8 min Manual (more to come). When pressure was down, I removed the lid, stirred a little more water in, as it was thick, and added the 2 diced eggplants, simmered about 5 min, then added the okra back to it, set the IP to 2 min manual - with the heating up time, and the release time, this worked out to be just right, for the legumes, oats, and veggies. I then tempered it, using some mustard seeds and cumin seeds in a little oil (I usually put a good number of dried hot peppers in, but I was sharing this with someone who didn't want those), followed by the asafoetida and curry leaves, until crispened, then poured onto the curry. That's stirred in, with about 1/4c chopped cilantro, to finish the dish.
The tarka added to the dish, with 2 dal and some whole oats, mixed with several veggies, plus some new sambar masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar style dish, with a large potato, 2 eggplant, and about 2 cups of cut okra. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

Today I was trying to use up a good portion of those smaller tomatoes, in a pasta/lentil dish, using up some more of those garlic scapes, in place of the garlic (amazing how long those things store in a fridge!). I pre-cooked those chana dal (I usually replace a lb of pasta with 1 1/3c legumes, pre-cooked) in the Instant Pot, in slow cook, so I could watch them, and catch them just at the right time, and stop them.

I cut up well over 3 lbs of mostly those Bronze Torch hybrids, and about a third of it the red Juliets, and a few of those Sunsugars, for color and sweetness. I stirred some salt into those, in a colander in a sink, to drain a little of the water out, while I was getting the rest ready. The garlic scapes I cut the tips off of, then sliced through the fibers, before putting about 1/2c of this into the food processor, to chop up finer, then added some salted capers (soaked from the beginning, then rinsed and drained), and a bunch of anchovies, and made a paste out of it. I stirred this into the tomatoes, along with that kalamata olive paste, and about half that of the green olive paste, and a little more good olive oil.

The medium shell pastas are my favorite for this, or anything else that will trap those pieces. I cooked that, and poured it over the chana dal, to make it hot again, then stirred into the tomato mix in a large bowl, along with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Definitely didn't need any more salt!
Over 3 lbs of the smaller tomatoes, cut up for the pasta, with the 2 olive pastes, and the paste of scapes, capers, and anchovies, before mixing. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Over 3 lbs of tomatoes, with the pastes, some olive oil, and a lot of chopped up basil, mixed in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pre-cooked chana dal, drained, to pour pasta over, to re-warm. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The finished pasta dish, with the pasta and chana dal mixed with the tomato mixture. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta dish, ready to eat! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[karstopography]

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Beef fajitas.

[karstopography]

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Simple food for simpletons. Megatron jalapeños, pretty mild once the seeds and pith are removed.Various okra. Wife likes the skinny okra, I like the fat ones.