Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

Continuing on with my pasta theme it's my signature award winning pasta sauce with meat and a thousand ingredients.

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[Danny]

Continuing on with my pasta theme it's my signature award winning pasta sauce with meat and a thousand ingredients.
20221207_174519.jpg

Wow, you have awards for your pasta sauce?!! Impressive.

We just made a pork roast in the crock pot with root veggies, a recipe called Mississippi pork roast, PIC found the recipe and wanted to try it. I can't tellk the difference, but it is good. Tender too. We are just average everyday home cooks here, nothing special.

[worth1]

Continuing on with my pasta theme it's my signature award winning pasta sauce with meat and a thousand ingredients.
20221207_174519.jpg

Wow, you have awards for your pasta sauce?!! Impressive.

We just made a pork roast in the crock pot with root veggies, a recipe called Mississippi pork roast, PIC found the recipe and wanted to try it. I can't tellk the difference, but it is good. Tender too. We are just average everyday home cooks here, nothing special.

It's total braggart hog wash.
But people have tried it and said it was the best they've ever had.

[pepperhead212]

I made something with the absolute last of my cherry tomatoes, almost all of which had ripened - only 2 stayed green out of all those. And only 8 went bad, in all the time they sat on the tray, to ripen, while I got about 2 pints, when I halved them.

I made another one of those batches of Instant Pot pasta, but I used less pasta, and added some channa dal, which I cooked while prepping the other ingredients. I also added just over 8 oz mushrooms, also cooked separately, and added later. And minced together about 2 tsp fresh rosemary, and 1½ tsp fresh sage, and set aside with 3 fresh bay leaves.

Started on sauté with about 1 tb minced garlic and 1 tsp crushed red peppers in 3 tb EVOO briefly, until just getting golden, about a minute, then the 4 c halved tomatoes, and 2 1/3 c water, and 2 tsp salt. Added 10 oz penne pasta, bay leaves, and half the herbs, stirred until all was under water. Hit OFF, then MANUAL, and set for 5 minutes, and closed the pot.

After 5 minutes, I release the pressure, remove the lid, then stirred in the pre-cooked lentils and mushrooms, and the remaining herbs, and stirred 3 minutes, and tasted for seasoning (needed a little more salt). Served with some pecorino grated on top. Would have minced a little more sage for topping, but I really didn't want to go out there for any more at that time! I'll get more for leftovers.
The absolute last of my cherry tomatoes, about 4 c halved. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Just over a half pound of mushrooms, and 2 c of cooked channa dal, to be added to the pasta. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta dish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta dish, served with some pecorino topping. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

I've got another soup going on because I love soup.
Ingredients so far are.......
Bacon cooked down then taken out.
Onion and celery pur in to sweat along with freshly crushed garlic.
Black pepper.

Rosemary.
Basil.
Thyme.
Oregano.
This came in a spice blend I picked up at the store in bulk.
It was pretty cheap.
$1.85 for 1/4 pound.
Freshly ground fennel seeds.
This will all slowly cook down.

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[Tormahto]

Continuing on with my pasta theme it's my signature award winning pasta sauce with meat and a thousand ingredients.
20221207_174519.jpg

Wow, you have awards for your pasta sauce?!! Impressive.

We just made a pork roast in the crock pot with root veggies, a recipe called Mississippi pork roast, PIC found the recipe and wanted to try it. I can't tellk the difference, but it is good. Tender too. We are just average everyday home cooks here, nothing special.

It's total braggart hog wash.
But people have tried it and said it was the best they've ever had.

How long did they live to tell about it?

[worth1]

Next the taming of the roux.
After I removed the vegetables I made blonde roux wit the bacon fat and after it was cooked I added 1/2 teaspoon of hot smoked Spanish paprika.
Then let it cool down.
Made 6 cups of chicken broth with 1 tablespoon of Knorr chicken bullion powder and put it in the cooled off roux and mixed it up.

Diced up some red potatoes and they are on the sidelines waiting in water and fruit fresh.
The potatoes were diced and put in water to clean and the first batch of water was poured out.

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[worth1]

I had to make a slurry with flour and the cooled off liquid in the soup so it would be thick enough.
I simply put the slurry back in with the potatoes and everything and let it reduce down to the right consistency.
I kept the temperature of the soup at around 180F so the flour would cook but the potatoes wouldn't over cook.
Extra ingredients at the time before this were...
1/3 cup of sherry.
2/3 cup of heavy cream.
Another big pinch of the Italian seasoning.
A little salt to taste but not much.
Once the liquid is reduced to the point everything is in suspension its ready.

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[karstopography]

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Trimmed up a couple of fresh redfish fillets for fish tacos.

[karstopography]

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Beer battered the fish. Batter consisted of AP Flour, homemade paprika, garlic powder, seasoned salt, one beaten egg, most a can of Miller lite. Whisk it all up.
Sauce was mayo, fresh lime juice, homemade paprika, one and a half chile seeded and minced from a can of chilies in adobo sauce plus a glug or two of the juice from the can.

Turned out great. Batter is a sure keeper. I kind of wish I got a sprig or two of fresh cilantro from the garden to top the taco with, but it was dark outside already and the mosquitoes are rulers of the night at the present.

[worth1]

I had a huge pork roast i bought the other day that needed much attending to.
Hot Italian sausage.
Ingredients.....
About 9 pounds of pork butt.
4 tablespoons fennel.
2 heaping tablespoons of hot smoked Spanish paprika.
Lord knows how many chilie de Arbols probably close to 20.
Sweet paprika probably about a 3rd cup.
4 tablespoons of the Italian seasoning I bought yesterday specifically for today's event consisting of
Basil rosemary thyme and oregano.
1 tablespoon of garlic powder.
1/4 cup canning salt.
2 teaspoons Insta cure #1.
1/3 cup of red simi sweet wine.
Pile of corn starch.
Cubed up the meat and mixed in all the spices excluding the Arbol corn starch and sweet paprika.
Ran the meat through a 3/4 inch or 20mm plate mixed and ran it through the smallest plate I have which is 4.5 mm or .177 inch or a little over 11/64.
Mixed again and added whole chilie de Arbol as I ran it through the small plate again.
This is when I just added the starch and sweet paprika before the last grind on top of the tray.
This is probably some of the best hot Italian sausage I've ever made.
Nailed it on the salt and spices.
It'll go in one pound bags and frozen once I let it sit in the refrigerator and mix one more time.

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[GoDawgs]

Pork chops in onion and mushroom gravy, turnip gratin and fresh broccoli salad. No photos... I was too hungry to bother with 'em.

There are some nice greens from the turnips I pulled. They'll get cooked sometime this week.

[Sue_CT]

You aren't gonna believe this. I had a 10 year old steak out of the freezer yesterday, made stronganoff out of a couple more today. They were actually dated 2012 and 2014. Smelled fine and tasted fine, but it was a bit tough. I kept pushing those filets aside when I cleaned out the freezer and I don't think I ever looked at the dates. They were vacuum sealed into individual steaks and not even in the chest freezer but in the old side by side I have had for over 20 years. I never replaced it because it just keeps going, lol. I had to try, I mean who throws out Filet Mignon, lol? I have two left, not sure how long they will last or what to do with them. But they are NOT going back in the freezer, lol! No ice crystals or anything in them, so they shouldn't have gotten dehydrated. Not sure why they are tougher than a filet usually is. Maybe they were choice, not prime? Anyway, how many people can say they ate a 10 year old steak, lol.

[whistech]

Worth, I'm wondering what purpose the corn starch serves in the sausage you made? It looks delicious, but is probably hotter than my taste buds can handle.

[pepperhead212]

I had a craving for something Indian today, and I wanted to use up the last near lb of those mushrooms. I made a batch of pav bhaji, using some of that pav bhaji masala I made recently. I cooked a large chopped onion in some ghee in a 12" sauté pan, adding the garlic and ginger, a diced yellow bell pepper, plus the spices, and after a minute, the chopped mushrooms were added, and cooked several minutes, while I fixed the rest of the ingredients. I added 3/4 tsp turmeric, and a tb of Kashmiri chili powder, to mix with the liquid. I had soaked a small amount of boletus, and used the soaking water, plus some dried tomatoes (just to empty a jar!), blended smooth, and used this to simmer the sautéed mix with briefly, before adding the rice and barley, followed by the broccoli, which I had in the freezer. Usually cauliflower is in these dishes, but this is just as good. Added some chopped cilantro, as usual, in these dishes.

Before I cooked this, I cooked some brown basmati and barley together to use with it - always love barley with mushrooms! They cook together in the IP well - a little sticky together, from the barley, but it mixed in well.
Pav Bhaji masala and minced garlic and ginger, added to the onion, cooking in the ghee by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After cooking the chopped mushrooms about 5 minutes, in the ghee, the tomato/dried boletus mix simmered 8 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The precooked brown rice and barley, mixed in, followed by the broccoli, and some cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Pav Bhaji, with mushrooms and broccoli. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

Worth, I'm wondering what purpose the corn starch serves in the sausage you made? It looks delicious, but is probably hotter than my taste buds can handle.

No it's not that hot trust me.
But if I were to use that amount in a soup it would burn the house down.
The corn starch is used to retain the moisture in the sausage and act as a binder.
If not all the water snd wine would run out of the meat.
It also makes the sausage have a little spring back when you squeeze it and a good mouth feel.

I probably used about 1/3 cup for the 8 pounds it came out to.
Maybe a little more.
This is not to be confused with a filler because it isn't.
Nobody likes a dry crumbly sausage.

[karstopography]

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Kicking off with Đồ chua, the daikon and carrot lacto-fermented Vietnamese condiment. I used 70% daikon and 30% carrots and ~2.5% salt by weight of vegetables and the small amount of added water. Supposed to be a 3-4 week fermentation, but it is my first time making this.

12 day old sauerkraut shown in the gallon jar. Really good batch going. Smells great, tasted a tiny bit, very good! already nicely sour. Going to let it ride at room temperature for another week and taste again, but hopefully this will be an outstanding effort since there’s a whole gallon.

[worth1]

I've got a probe stuck in one of 10 1.6 ounce hot Italian sausage meatballs in slow heating water set at 145F.
It's spaghetti and meatballs with crushed tomatoes and spices tonight.
I couldn't help myself I wanted to try out my latest batch of hot Italian sausage.
Maybe tomorrow I'll make a hot Italian meatball sub with homemade bread and all the fixings.

[worth1]

For the sauce I used.....
1 28 ounce can of Contadina crushed roma tomatoes with basil.
A squirt of Worcestershire sauce.
A dollop of A1 Sauce.
A giant pinch of the Italian herb blend, (basil rosemary oregano and thyme) probably more than a tablespoon.
Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon at least.
1/2 cup of sweet Sherry wine to sweeten the deal.
Let simmer covered.
Tastes fantastic.

[Danny]

Tonight, PIC made a tender and juicy pork roast, going to steal some of the broth tomorrow for ramen, LOL, so porky and silky. Tomorrow, it will also be apple butter time again. Got 15 to 20 pounds of granny smith apples to put up. Getting apple season here, and we like to put some by while the apples are fresh and nice ( and cheaper!!).

If feeling better this week, may also put up some apple pie filling with raisins. Nice to have on hand.