Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

The schnitzel was done in this fashion.
Flour.
Egg wash.
Panko bread crumbs.
Then placed in hot fat at around 390F it will drop fast.
The vessel was my deep chicken frying skillet with enough oil to float the schnitzel.
It was leftover from frying potatoes.
The trick is.
To flour the meat then but in egg wash and let sit there for awhile so the flour can get soaked up.
Then put in the panko or bread crumbs but then put in the hot fat.
Don't let it sit and soak up moisture because it won't be crispy and the breading will separate from the meat.
In this fashion there is little if any oil left on the product and you can just let it drip off what little there is.
It stays crispy to the last bite.
As for the vegetables it's what I had available and was left from two large frozen bags.

Not hard to make either.
I used a large stainless bowl for the egg wash.
And two plates.
One for flour then the egg wash.
After the flour it was washed and dried.
Then the Panko in the same plate.
Once the meat was in the hot fat I washed the bowl and plate but keeping eye on the meat.
Put bowl up and ate out of the plate.
Not any mess at all.

[karstopography]

The plan is for chicken shawarma and falafel. Time will tell if I actually get it all done. Dried Chickpeas have been soaking since yesterday. Plan is to make a tahini sauce and or a lemon yogurt sauce. Might make a moutabal as well since I’ve got a couple of eggplant ready.

The marinade for the chicken is garlic, cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, cardamom, lemon juice, and olive oil. Tahini sauce is tahini, lime juice, garlic and parsley. Lemon yogurt sauce is lemon, greek yogurt, cumin, and garlic.

The falafel gets made then has to chill a while before frying. Lots of moving parts, this dinner.

[Tormahto]

Nothing says Oktoberfest like schnitzel.
This one is pork schnitzel made from a pork ribeye pouned out and used panko.
Cooked to my perfection and thicker than traditional.
Sour cream on top.
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It looks yummy, but also disturbingly like a giant elephant animal cracker.

[Tormahto]

I'll eat peas, carrots, corn, green beans, onions, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, winter squash, etc..., all together in a beef stew/soup. But, as a side dish, everything separate, except mashing together white and sweet potatoes.

[karstopography]

My son, the authority on and instigator of the effort at a falafel and shawarma deemed my execution of each very good, especially for a first effort. Critiquing my falafel, he said I could increase the fresh herb and spice level at the expense of the chickpea content. The fresh herbs are the star, the chickpeas are simply the binder. I did run out of fresh parsley and cilantro. I’m growing both now, so maybe the garden will bail me out next time. I also made the falafel without the use of a food processor, but that’s another story.

The chicken shawarma spice mix and flavors were spot on according to my son, although he’s more familiar with lamb or beef/lamb mixed shawarma than chicken. My wife and the dog vetoed any mention of lamb shawarma or anything else that involves lamb and the application of heat.

The tahini sauce was great, who knew several limes squeezed into tahini and a little crushed garlic and mixed around until emulsified could be an appealing sauce? Fold in a handful of chopped fresh parsley even better. The Greek yogurt combined with a little ground cumin, fresh squeezed lemon juice and minced garlic was a keeper also.



My son said I should have taken a photo of it all. I was too hungry after all this cooking to think about any photography.

[worth1]

I had a little over 2 pounds of ground beef that needed attending to.
What to do?
Chilie was on the menu.

Skillet Chilie.
With macaroni.
In the form of spaghetti.
Very tasty to say the least.
What a mighty feast.
No tomato products involved.
Just Chilie powders chicken broth and various spices
The problem was solved.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

These here were grilled last night

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These here

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Were worked into the lovely and long-suffering Mrs. Gotch's exemplary Chili Rellano Bake

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The Gotch

[Sue_CT]

OK, boiled some Pinto beans to use to make my first attempt at refried beans tomorrow. I over cooked them and probably half split open. Left on the stove while I ran to the store so even though I was home on time, I wasn't there to keep an eye on them and know they didn't need the full amount of time. Oh well, they are going to get mashed after all. Hopefully won't matter. Trying to decide on her traditional recipe or the Guajillo. I have fresh serranos in the garden and I won't have those later, so I might make the traditional to use them. The visual appeal of the Guajoillo beans is better to me.

I also have Pepperhead's recipe for homemade Chorizo, using Hungarian Paprika from Penzy's and a 1/4tsp of cayenne pepper added. That will marinate overnight and be ready to fry up tomorrow. Looking forward to trying both!

[pepperhead212]

I was in the mood for an Indian dish, so I put together a one dish meal in the Instant Pot - a sambar, using my last butternut from 2021(!), my last small eggplants and the last Indian cucumber of this season, some kale and senposai from today, plus a potato. I used a cup of toor dal, plus 2/3 c oat groats, and started with an onion, sautéed a few minutes in a little oil, with 6 cloves of minced garlic, cooked briefly, then 4 tb sambar masala added briefly, followed by some finely chopped tomatoes - a little over a cup. That was cooked a few minutes, then I added the diced veggies and greens, stirred to coat them, then the dal and oats, with 6 c water. Added just enough salt (added a little more later), set it on manual, for 14 minutes, and covered. Let the pressure release naturally (about 17 minutes), then stirred in some tamarind, and a little more salt and sambar masala, and checked for seasonings. I let it simmer while fixing the tarka (OK, so it's not really a one dish meal), which actually takes longer to measure out than to cook! The tarka was stirred in, then 1/2 c chopped cilantro. Absolutely delicious!
Last butternut squash from 2021, to make a sambar with, along with several other veggies. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Butternut cubes, stirred in with onions, garlic, and sambar mix. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Greens added to the mix - kale and senposai. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients lined up for the tarka - mustard seed, peppers, urad dal, and cumin, then the asafoetida with the curry leaves. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar, with tarka added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar, with butternut, kale, senposai, eggplant, potato, and cucumber. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

One of the pork ribeye things coated with the store brand chili powder.

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[worth1]

OK, boiled some Pinto beans to use to make my first attempt at refried beans tomorrow. I over cooked them and probably half split open. Left on the stove while I ran to the store so even though I was home on time, I wasn't there to keep an eye on them and know they didn't need the full amount of time. Oh well, they are going to get mashed after all. Hopefully won't matter. Trying to decide on her traditional recipe or the Guajillo. I have fresh serranos in the garden and I won't have those later, so I might make the traditional to use them. The visual appeal of the Guajoillo beans is better to me.

I also have Pepperhead's recipe for homemade Chorizo, using Hungarian Paprika from Penzy's and a 1/4tsp of cayenne pepper added. That will marinate overnight and be ready to fry up tomorrow. Looking forward to trying both!

You almost can't overcook beans too much to make refried beans.
As a matter of fact I cook the juice down.
The stuff you get in the can is an industrial abomination many times compared to the real thing.
Some cooks strain the skin from the cooked beans leaving ony the inner bean paste.
The farther you get away from the traditional methods the farther you get away from the traditional flavors.
Things like substituting olive oil for lard or bacon fat.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

@pepperhead212; you still had a Butternut Squarsh from LAST SEASON???



The Gotch

[Sue_CT]

Worth, I don't have lard or bacon fat right now. Villa Cocina uses oil, avacado or something else, so I will probably use what I have for now. Never know, I might make a trip to the store for some avacado oil or something. But the beans already have more flavor than I expected just from boiling them as she suggested with onion and 6 cloves of garlic. I put salt in at the start although she said it caused a bit of a controevery previously and she puts it in at the end. I beleive in seasoning every step of the way when cooking, and I wanted the flavor IN the beans. Gives them time to absorb it, like salting the water when cooking pasta. I think the salt is perfect. I don't plan to strain out the bean skins at this point. It provides more fiber and probably more vitamins as well. But I do have a food mill and it would be easy to do. Might try that in the future if the skins bother me.

Now I need to find Achiote powder which seems to be the same as Annato Powder. Found out yesterday one grocery store I frequent removed the entire line of Badia spices! Not happy about that. No Aciote or Annato Powder there anywhere. I could order it from Amazon. But I don't need that today, and I just saw that another local store has Badia whole Annato seeds. I could also just grind my own. That is for her homemade Chorizo recipe, which I might try after Pepperhead's recipe. Hers though has a lot more vinegar I think. She had to drain it in a colander overnight to get the extra liquid out before cooking it.

[worth1]

@Sue_CT
You're on your way.
To a molcajete.
I have the annito powder and the paste.
The paste has extra ingredients and not all exactly the same.
Common are clove coriander pepper garlic and so on.
It's more like a brick of modelers clay than a paste.

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[Sue_CT]

No room for a molcajete in my kitchen, Worth. I have pans and appliances in the basement because there is no room in the kitchen. At least not yet. I do have a krups coffee grinder that I use for spices, though, so I could grind the Annato seeds into powder myself. There are spice mixes with Annato powder in it but I believe the pure Annato powder is what is called for. Badia also makes that. There is one more store I can check but I can't do it online.

I could make room for a small one on the counter but I would need to be it a lot. Its hard enough to clean with everything I have on there now, lol.

[worth1]

@Sue_CT
Needed more of the annoto for something im making today.
So I ran up to the Carniceria Spanish for butcher shop to purchase a few small things.
Thought I'd take a picture or two of just a small amount of the selections.
There's all manner of things unheard of to most on the racks.
Plus some vultures out back.

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[worth1]

It doesn't seem I stray too far from Mexican cuisine for very long.
Today I'm making a version of carne asada.
Speaking of which the method and ingredients are as controversial as Cajun gumbo.
But I cook what I like and thats that.
Mine is in a red marinade made of.
Soaked guajillo chiles.
Annoto paste.
Lime juice.
Cumin.
Salt.
Garlic and onion powder.
A whole bunch of cilantro stems and all.
And the water the chiles were soaked in.
Into the blender and off we go.
Made a nice thick marinade.
Put the chuck roast thing and the two remaining pork ribeye things in a gallon bag.
Going to marinate for a few hours then on the Santa Maria grill over a wood fire.

[pepperhead212]

@pepperhead212; you still had a Butternut Squarsh from LAST SEASON???

The Gotch

I know, that's hard to believe, but true! I grow those Polaris hybrids, from Pinetree. It was sometime in September that I still had maybe 5 left, but 4 had small spots forming, so I took those, and peeled and seeded them, and cut the bad spots out, diced them, made a dish like this with a small amount of it, and dehydrated the rest! This one, that didn't have any bad spots I left on my kitchen counter, and watched it. It was still good when I cut into it, and I noticed that the seeds were sort of flat, indicating that it was probably one of those late ones I picked, that wasn't quite ripe yet, like those last two I picked this year, that had some green on them.

One squash that I kept for even longer one time, just to see, was a Seminole Pumpkin, which I kept for 2 years! They were very good, but not as productive as the butternuts I grow, and I only grew them for a couple of years.

[Sue_CT]

I am going to need some salsa with this, either a tomato salsa, or salsa verde, and maybe some poblano peppers sauted in with the potatoes. Maybe some smoked paprika on the potatoes too? Hot sauce and sour cream NOT optional, lol.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/28379 ... t-burrito/

[worth1]

I am going to need some salsa with this, either a tomato salsa, or salsa verde, and maybe some poblano peppers sauted in with the potatoes. Maybe some smoked paprika on the potatoes too? Hot sauce and sour cream NOT optional, lol.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/28379 ... t-burrito/

Did you know burrito means little burro or donkey.
It's true-------! And you heard it here first.