Whatcha Cooking today?

[worth1]

I got the wild idea of making candied walnuts.
Ingredients are...
Walnuts.
Oil.
Steens cane syrup.
Light brown sugar.
Salt.
Slowly cooking in skillet.
It's for something else I'm making.

IMG_20240615_091221567_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

Found some sliced picanha the was labeled as sirloin.
I pounded it out really thin and fried it like schnitzel with pork panko.
Nothing to write home about but not bad.
Wouldn't go out of my way to spend almost 8 dollars on the store bought stuff.
Maybe someone that won't eat wheat or bread products would find it a good replacement.
.
Cooked the last one with my homemade bread panko.
I also cooked some shrimpies in the homemade bread panko.
Seasonings are...
Salt
Black pepper.
Cayenne pepper.
And some with Old Bay too.

IMG_20240615_115625846_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

Made 5.6 ounce hamburger patties for the freezer with my tortilla press.
Cleaned and froze the shrimp a dozen at a time.
Saved the last 7 for something.
Frigging freezer has a bunch of shrimp in it now.
One could have worse problems.
Going to thaw out some catfish and make some sort of one off dip for it and the shrimp.
Didn't drink any beer or alcohol yesterday so I'm going to have an ice cold poverty Bush to get things started.
20 frigging dollars for Blue Moon is ridiculous and Shiner doesn't have anything I'm interested in because I don't like their Bock.
The blonde sucks and it's all over priced anyway.
Got a 12 pack of Guinness but it's too darn hot for stout beer.
So poverty Bush it is with a little lime juice.

[worth1]

Made the dip with...
Duke's mayonnaise.
HEB brand chili de arbol salsa.
Sandwich pal horseradish sauce.
Cayenne powder.
A heaping teaspoon of my homemade black mustard seed mustard added after photo.
Lime juice.
Very tasty
No added sugars.
Might add more arbol salsa.
I'm basically sick and tired of the usual dip tartar sauce I make for fried catfish and boiled shrimp.

It's really pink but the light washed it out.

IMG_20240616_111956126.jpg

[Tormahto]

Later today, SOS.

[worth1]

Remember the walnut project I had going on yesterday.
Well here's stage 2 of 3.
It was heated in the oven and mixed with a giant bag of coconut.
Then pressed into wafers for later use and put in the freezer.
It's still loose so I can do what I want with it.
Chocolate and cherry candy comes to mind.
Got the cherries not the chocolate.
It's sweet but not super sweet candy sweet.
I mean it's...
Walnuts.
Steens cane syrup cooked down.
And coconut..
What could possibly be bad?

IMG_20240616_125813969_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240616_130104620.jpg

IMG_20240616_131210781_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

I've got the fish fried and I have 3 pounds of picanha sliced up and ready for the freezer.
Saved an end piece for the surf and turf supper.

IMG_20240616_151358674_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

Gotta big hamburger in the making.
It takes awhile and will be black when you pull it off the comal or skillet.
Next put it in a bag to steam and cool down.
Next toasted garlic to mix with mayonnaise.
Kraft American cheese.
Sweet onion.
Romaine lettuce.
Yellow mustard and mayonnaise.
Fried okra and the likes.
Lots of yummy pictures.

IMG_20240617_162333030.jpg

IMG_20240617_163756333_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_170916080_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_175449395_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_175440350_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_180318657_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_180943774_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_181333958_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_181340756_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_181408639_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_181447625_HDR.jpg

IMG_20240617_181930092_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

I bought 2 poblano chilis yesterday.
One for the burger and one for a chili rellano.
This one is packed with Colby cheese and onion.
I won't even attempt to batter and fry it so it's going in the oven.
Then it'll have a simple sauce put on top made with a fresh tomato onion chili arbol salsa and some various chili powders and cumin.

IMG_20240618_112801299.jpg

IMG_20240618_112755528_HDR.jpg

[bower]

I had this crazy anaconda sitting in the deep freeze the past six months. Couldn't resist it at $18 for a giant slab of meat but no time to cut it up, so it got slung into the deep freeze amongst other things basically ended up frozen in a 'crouching cat' pose. So for months I've been putting off the task of dealing with it and... okay it's finally done.
It was a pork loin "sirloin half", but when I finally got it out I was most surprised by the amount of fat on it. Way more than I've seen before on these bulk loins. I diced up enough for two big pots of stew and made a small roast of one end.
First pot of stew the classic 'pork and pickled pepper' gulyas with broad noodles and some cream cheese since I didn't have sour cream. Extremely tender. I seasoned the second batch with tandoori masala, garlic, lime and lemon juice, oregano, and cholula green pepper sauce, and marinated overnight to cook the next day with frozen tomatoes and peppers. And the roast also slept over in the fridge with a lime-chipotle-garlic marinade. Cooked both of those last night and et the tandoori with some rice and peas - again it was super tender and I'm assuming the fatty meat played into that. It wasn't as hot as I expected, maybe the green pepper sauce is mild? and I think I would've added extra pepper for some fire. The roast was done with some chopped up sweet potatoes later last night, tented and then tucked in the fridge for a cold pork supper today.
Making potato salad to go with that. Red potatoes diced and boiled a scant 10 minutes to keep their shape. A long leek scape chopped, some parsley, and a gala apple is waiting to be diced and added in. Got a nearly empty jar of Hellmans with just enough to mix a quick dressing, add some horeseradish mustard and probably apple cider vinegar for classic and simple.

[bower]

And here's the supper I'm eating now.
Marinating the pork overnight was so worth it! Very tasty through.
Potato salad is about 1/3 diced organic gala apple with peel.
And arugula green grape salad with a fresh dill-yoghurt-garlic dressing.

cold-pork-dinner-348.JPG

[worth1]

Actual fish and chips.
The rice flour experiment worked they stayed crispy.

IMG_20240618_194634308_HDR.jpg

[worth1]

Hamburger with all the fixins.

IMG_20240619_175601344.jpg

[Tormahto]

I had this crazy anaconda sitting in the deep freeze the past six months. Couldn't resist it at $18 for a giant slab of meat but no time to cut it up, so it got slung into the deep freeze amongst other things basically ended up frozen in a 'crouching cat' pose. So for months I've been putting off the task of dealing with it and... okay it's finally done.
It was a pork loin "sirloin half", but when I finally got it out I was most surprised by the amount of fat on it. Way more than I've seen before on these bulk loins. I diced up enough for two big pots of stew and made a small roast of one end.
First pot of stew the classic 'pork and pickled pepper' gulyas with broad noodles and some cream cheese since I didn't have sour cream. Extremely tender. I seasoned the second batch with tandoori masala, garlic, lime and lemon juice, oregano, and cholula green pepper sauce, and marinated overnight to cook the next day with frozen tomatoes and peppers. And the roast also slept over in the fridge with a lime-chipotle-garlic marinade. Cooked both of those last night and et the tandoori with some rice and peas - again it was super tender and I'm assuming the fatty meat played into that. It wasn't as hot as I expected, maybe the green pepper sauce is mild? and I think I would've added extra pepper for some fire. The roast was done with some chopped up sweet potatoes later last night, tented and then tucked in the fridge for a cold pork supper today.
Making potato salad to go with that. Red potatoes diced and boiled a scant 10 minutes to keep their shape. A long leek scape chopped, some parsley, and a gala apple is waiting to be diced and added in. Got a nearly empty jar of Hellmans with just enough to mix a quick dressing, add some horeseradish mustard and probably apple cider vinegar for classic and simple.

It sounds like you got a good deal on the anaconda.

A giant, here, usually runs about 8 to 9 pounds, some a bit smaller, some a bit larger. I think that I have about 4 of them in my upright freezer. Now that I have the cats to feed, the thinner tapered end will be cut off and boiled for them, for a rare treat. That thin end always slightly overcooked, while the rest of a roast was perfect. I hate that upright, but it was the right price, free. I haven't opened it since late January, when the ice inside built up so much, that I can't open the door. I unplugged it Tuesday morning, knowing that this heat wave will warm up the basement. 36 hours later, the door still won't open.

Other than the .99/lb anacondas, I think that I have a couple of 5 lb chubs of ground beef, a gallon container (or 2?) of boneless skinless roasted just after Thanksgiving turkey (the adopted stray cats are going to love that), and I'm sure a few surprises that I don't remember buying. I'll be plugging in a spare fridge/freezer, cleaning the ice from and sorting the upright, and then seeing what kind of room that I have.

There's a meat outlet store a couple of towns over with whole roasting chickens on sale at .79/lb. this upcoming week. Hopefully I can get 2 for the fridge (with a very large rack and pan I can roast two of them at a time, for 2 hours in the early morning), at least two for the 2nd fridge, and then seeing what space will be available in the upright.

I really liked my horizontal chest freezer before it croaked. It took about 20 minutes to empty the contents, use very hot water to melt the ice, scoop out the water, dry the inside with paper towels, and load the bottom back up, with usually three or four 20 pound plus turkeys, and filling in the gaps with frozen bowling balls of roasting chickens. On top of that would be the gallon containers of several different soups. When cleaning, the upright spills slush and water everywhere, the racks are a pain to clean because they contain cooling coils, and it takes well over 1 hour to do everything. Before I'm done, my hands are already numb with cold.

While I don't use the oven much in the heat of summer, I will for roasted chicken. To me, that's about as simple and tasty as it gets. There's no need to go any further, but...with a bit more effort involved, I will make a pan dripping milk gravy, when also making garlic and chive or scallion mashed potatoes and/or drop biscuits (to pour the gravy over, with or without some small chicken pieces).

[bower]

@Tormato I do love my chest freezer, mostly for how deeply it freezes everything for better keeping. The tradeoff is that there's only one sliding bin on top for organization; no racks to organize below. I have some plastic bins that more or less fit and I use giant ziploc bags to hold smaller bags of tomatoes, or berries or etc. Still it is an expedition to find anything, and you do have these 'incidents' where the unfrozen item takes on a new and inconvenient shape.
Yeah the anaconda produced 16 or 17 generous servings all told, so little more than a buck a plate.

You have some lucky cats there.... miaow.

[Tormahto]

@Tormato I do love my chest freezer, mostly for how deeply it freezes everything for better keeping. The tradeoff is that there's only one sliding bin on top for organization; no racks to organize below. I have some plastic bins that more or less fit and I use giant ziploc bags to hold smaller bags of tomatoes, or berries or etc. Still it is an expedition to find anything, and you do have these 'incidents' where the unfrozen item takes on a new and inconvenient shape.
Yeah the anaconda produced 16 or 17 generous servings all told, so little more than a buck a plate.

You have some lucky cats there.... miaow.

I took after my 98 year old neighbor down the road. Her favorite food was turkey. When she asked me to roast a turkey...and then another...and then another, I said that I would do one a month, other than June, July and August. I would bring the roasted turkey over to her house and she would sit down and debone it. Her cat would go bonkers within about 10 seconds of me entering her house. She had so much turkey every month that she started feeding the strays either turkey or canned tuna, with some mashed rice, carrots and peas mixed in.

[worth1]

Getting back on track I'm experimenting on a fast thaw chicken thighs thing.
I forgot to put them in the refrigerator to thaw last night.
So they are covered in salt and sitting on the cutting board to thaw out.
Lord only knows how this will turn out.
If all goes well we be havin baked chicken thighs and stewed okra with tomato.

[Tormahto]

Getting back on track I'm experimenting on a fast thaw chicken thighs thing.
I forgot to put them in the refrigerator to thaw last night.
So they are covered in salt and sitting on the cutting board to thaw out.
Lord only knows how this will turn out.
If all goes well we be havin baked chicken thighs and stewed okra with tomato.

If all doesn't go well, crow?

[Tormahto]

It being close to 100 degrees, and a heat index of about 105, I don't feel much like cooking. But, I gotta feed these new cats. So, the low temp of the day is at about 5 in the morning, and I'll be simmering chicken parts or ground turkey, with the lid on the pot, and the kitchen window open, letting in a cool breeze. I'm also making rice, carrots and peas at the same time. The cats will get most of it, nothing else added other than some defatted broth and mixing it all with dry cat food.

I will save a bit of the cooking for myself, and experiment with it. A lot will be added to the turkey to make a tortilla chip dip.

[pepperhead212]

After baking that bread on the grill, I grilled that marinated Thai chicken, actually by roasting it, keeping the burners on high on the opposite side - kept it about 375°, and I cooked them about 35 minutes, when they were still 5-10° too cool, then turned on the heat under them, and browned them more, and brought the breast to 160°, and the dark meat to 170, or a little higher. Only ate a thigh and a wing, with some of that Nahm Jeem Gratiem sauce - I'll have to make more of that, which I will use some of the scapes for, instead of garlic. Did the same for the marinade - a cilantro pesto, in which I put about twice the amount as normally used of minced garlic, and it worked great. I also used some scapes as a garlic substitute in some nam pric pao a few days ago, which also worked well, and after the caramelizing, the green was gone.
Cilantro pesto, made with scapes, and used to marinate chicken, to make Thai grilled chicken. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Chicken marinating to grill after baking the bread on the grill, for Thai grilled chicken. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Thai grilled chicken, to eat with some of that Nahm Jeem Gratiem - a sweet and sour spicy dip sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Now I have the bread, for sandwiches, and the chicken, which is good cold, and a bunch of other cold stuff, so I don't have to heat much up in the kitchen for a few days! Except to make iced tea, of course.