Whatcha Cooking today?

[Kurt]

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Since it is 95 plus ,rain in front of house and sun on the backside ,we are moving inside with our meals.Classic seared filets mignon (Angus)then in oven at 400 for 20 minutes.

[pepperhead212]

I made a creole style dish today, the spices like what I put in Jambalaya. And instead of rice, I put a cup of sorghum berries and a half cup of channa dal, which I pre-cooked a couple days ago, only because I started it before I went out to harvest the first batch of garlic, but it got too late. So I continued it today.

I started by sautéeing some chopped onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery, and the spices. I also had some dried tomatoes, I had in the fridge from 2 days ago, to blend into the tomato sauce to cook everything in. This was added to the vegetables, then the sorghum and channa dal, and simmered it about 15 minutes, when there was just a little liquid left. I stirred in about a pound of whiting filets, cut into pieces, then let it simmer 5 more minutes, and served it.
Start of a Creole type dish, with onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery, cooking in olive oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Some soaked dehydrated tomatoes, to blend into a paste. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Paste from dried tomatoes, held horizontal. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pre-cooked sorghum berries and channa dal, added to the tomato sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cut up whiting fillets, ready to stir into the cooked sorghum and dal, to cook about 5 minutes more. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Creole dish, with sorghum and dal, in place of rice, plus some fish added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

Yesterday I freaked a guy out when I told him what I ate for lunch.
It was a hard leftover roll and two fried chicken tenders left in the truck from the day before.
He said good god you're going to get as sick as a dog.
Well it's a day later and I'm not sick.

[worth1]

Oh I forgot, yesterdays rice.
It turned out spectacular and I had it with the rest of the pichania.

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[karstopography]

Boiled some medium gulf brown shrimp. $4.97/#, how could I pass them up? I actually like the medium shrimp for boiled. The water doesn’t even come back to boiling before they are done.

Red sauce is as follows: Heinz chili sauce, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, fresh lemon juice, edit: forgot the few dashes of tabasco sauce .

Shrimp boil is Louisiana liquid boil, tony chachere’s, salt, 1/2 lemon.

[worth1]

I'm making peppers and sausage with onions and a few other odds and ends.
Like Kalamata olives that have been sitting in fresh water to get rid of the salt.
The sausage is in the sous vide at 135F for exactly 1.5 hours.
Any more and the liquid starts coming out and we don't want that.
Salmmnila is killed in an hour at 131F.
165f is instant but I don't want the sausage at 165F.
So anyway the Sweet Italian sausage was removed and let cool.
While this was going on I cooked 1/2 large white onion in olive oil and added a crushed garlic clove at the end.
The onions were dumped into a bowl.
Next same oil no added I put in the sweet colorful snacking peppers orange red and yellow.
For the green I used a poblano.
Cooked them as needed but not over cooked.
Nobody likes over cooked peppers right.
Once cooked add it to the bowl with the onions.
Now it's time to sit back relax and watch a new Rick Bayless cooking video with a glass of sangria wine on ice and wait for the sausage to cool.

Put sausage back in hot skillet and crisp up the casing.
Add the peppers and onions.
Use up that little bit of pepperoni you have in the refrigerator.
Put in bowl or plate and serve with a dusting of flaked sea salt from some far off land you'll probably never visit like Crete.

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[worth1]

I almost forgot I was going to make ghee today.
1.5 pounds of unsalted butter slowly melting.
It's going to take awhile to do this right.

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[worth1]

See all that stuff floating in the butter.
That's the milk solids and the other stuff that didn't get removed from the butter fat.
It's what makes butter burn and reduces the cooking temperature.
Adding more oil will not keep butter from burning.
It's an old wives tale that somehow keeps getting past on.
Some people bring the temperature up high to cook this stuff off or whatever they do
They have a foam on top they strain off.

This (my) method is a very slow method that will eventually cook and caramelize the milk solids and they will sink to the bottom.
Not saying it's the right method or the only method but it works for me.
It's also the exact same method I use to make hot chilie oil and chilie flake oil paste stuff whatever it's called.
Basically like not burning the roux but getting it dark.

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[worth1]

Hours later and the ghee is finished.
It could have been faster but this is a safe way and not burn it.
It takes right at 1.250 pounds to make a completely full pint jar of ghee and have about a 1/4 pound left.
This means approximately 1/4 pound of butter depending on what brand will be milk solids and non oil liquid like water.
The ghee came out a beautiful honey gold color.
Plus I have about a quarter pound in a ramekin.
The smell is heavenly.
The solids on the bottom do not taste burnt.

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[Kurt]

I love the fact it will burn .We sear a lot of meats,seafood.When searing you can bring it into the pan on fire.And ghee has no real shelf life that I know of.Funeral pyres in India are started with ghee in the mouth of the deceased before shipping them down the rivers.We get ours from our local supermarket by the pint at 7 bucs made by the butter company here .Good item for our kitchen.

[pepperhead212]

My method for making ghee is to bring a lb of unsalted butter to a simmer in a 3 qt saucepan over medium heat, and just let it cook away, keeping a small frying screen over it, as it does send some fine mist in the air. Eventually, when it foams up more (the reason for the 3 qt pan), it is starting to brown, and the foam drops and the heat starts going up quickly. As soon as it hits 280°, I quickly pour it and scrape it into a SS bowl, which stops the temperature from rising any more. 290° is a little high for this I found out, though I do my nam prik pao to 290° to caramelize garlic, shallots, and peppers, so I thought that would be right for this! I strain it through an ultra fine strainer, like the strainers some coffeepots use. When I get down to maybe a quarter cup, I simply make more - another one of those things I am never out of in my fridge!

It's been many years, but back when I used to bake thousands of cookies every Christmas season, I came up with something where I browned a couple pounds of butter, let it cool to maybe 180°, then add enough plain milk, to bring the weight back up to 2 lbs (or however many lbs I made at the time), and stirred it in the pan, to release all the browned bits in the bottom, and stirred it occasionally, until the butter started to solidify again, then I just put it in containers in 8 oz portions, and refrigerated it, to use in cookies - shortbreads, and many other butter cookies. The milk added back in, makes it like using regular butter.

[worth1]

Ate leftovers yesterday.
The peppers and sausage and the rice later.
I have some chicken thighs in the sous vide at 140°F for two hours.
Following the chart for 165°F at 4 hours dried them out.
Decided 1 hour because after that the juice started coming out.

[karstopography]

Drei Brüder sausage on grill , Oven roasted Okra, corn cut off the cob with peppers.

[worth1]

I got so aggravated with Sam the cooking guy the other day I had to make the stuff right.
Pollo Asado.
He said a work around for the marinade was to substitute paprika for achiote powder or paste.
There is no work around.
Especially for the paste.
You either use it or you don't.
So enough of that rant.
I followed Villa Cocinas recipe to almost a tee with a little different peppers.
I used about 4 of the pulla chilies for a replacement of one of the two guajillo chiles.
No big deal.
I also used the anchiote paste condiment instead of the powder.
It has things like cinnamon and clove in it.
Again a matter of taste.
Twice as much whole cumin smoked paprika and whole black peppercorns.
Any who.
The chicken I sous vide for 1 hour at 140°F and let cool down and dumped the marinade in it.
You can follow her recipe here for pollo asado.
But here's mine ready for the refrigerator.

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[worth1]

Against my better judgement I'm going to cook it outside in the blazing hot sun.
I contemplated inside on a grill skillet but just couldn't do it, I wanted the real thing and I didn't want the smoke and heat.
Well anyway everything is ready to light the fire when I feel like it.
I'm also going to grill some canned pineapple slices while I'm at it.
In doing so I put the pineapple juice in the marinade.
That can of pineapple slices has been sitting around for a year maybe.

[Danny]

Just too hot to cook or eat today. May get ambitious later and make a salad with cherry tomatoes, marinated in some soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds, Worcestershire and some seasoned rice vinegar...or not. I should make up some pasta salad for tomorrow so it is cold. 108f just sucks my energy right down.

[worth1]

Just too hot to cook or eat today. May get ambitious later and make a salad with cherry tomatoes, marinated in some soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds, Worcestershire and some seasoned rice vinegar...or not. I should make up some pasta salad for tomorrow so it is cold. 108f just sucks my energy right down.

There are some summer pasta dishes that don't require cooking the sauce.
But pasta in itself creates body heat so I'm backing off on pasta or any other starchy food or carbohydrates including bread.

[worth1]

Pollo Asado with pineapple slices and a sweet Italian sausage cooked to (((((Perfection))))).
Yeah right, 'Probably dry as a Death Valley bone.
It was hell out there but I stuck to it.

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[Sue_CT]

Hope it is good, you worked for it!

[worth1]

I was so hungry I forgot the pineapple.
But this is all I ate.

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