Whatcha Cooking today?

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Assuming you's mean the Zuke Fingers; Bisquick and eggs get the "rise."

The Gotch

[worth1]

My meatloaf warming up.
The addition of apple was a big win.
The only thing I would do differently is dice the apple up a lot smaller.

[worth1]

I've got a hankering for hot wings so I bought some nice fresh ones at the Mexican market that looked tons better that the stuff at HEB in the bacteria packaging.
It's all old school in the open bins and you ask for how much you want.
So if you want one chicken wing then you get one chicken wing.
Also a sweet potato fries experiment and possibly some fresh squash strips ran through the French fries cutter.
We'll see how that works.
I'm heating my old oil up now so I can change it out and clean the bottom of the cast iron kettle.

[worth1]

Made sort of a adobo sauce to cook the chicken wings in.
Almost a half a small bottle of Valentina regular hot sauce about 6 ounces.
2 teaspoons of chipotle powder.
2 teaspoons of garlic powder.
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar.
1/4 cup of Steen's cane syrup.
The remainder of the corn starch I used to coat the chicken wings and pre fry.
Maybe a couple of tablespoons.
About 1/4 cup of dark soy sauce
1 or quarter pound, stick of unsalted butter.
Separated the drums from the flats but left the wing top on.
Fried the wings about halfway and set aside to cool.
Made the sauce and flash fried the chicken again.
Put parchment paper in the big magnalite skillet and put the chicken in.
Poured the heated up sauce over the chicken and mixed up.
Cut up one large white onion into rings and covered chicken.
Put one fresh jalapeno in the middle.
Put in the oven to bake at 350.
No idea how long it will take because they aren't done yet.
I don't want them fried crispy because it's a sort of a chicken adobo.
I'm craving Mexican/ Filipino food.
The parchment paper protects my skillet from acid a little and makes for easy cleanup.

The wings are huge and clean.

Chicken baking.

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[worth1]

Squash planks with olive oil and homemade balsamic vinegar reduction with freshly ground black pepper.
Falling off the bone chicken wings with blue cheese crumbles on top.
The jalapeno is flaming hot.
Too hot.

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[pepperhead212]

Today, I made a batch of pasta/tomato salad, using 2 c of chana dal, cooked for 12 min in the Instant Pot, while getting some of the other ingredients ready. After the pressure released on the dal, I let it drain in a colander, while cutting up the rest of the tomatoes, and those things for the seasoning paste - basil, a little Thai basil, garlic, anchovies, green and Kalamata olives, and some more olive oil. This is all mixed into the tomatoes, and let sit, until the pasta is cooked, is drained on the dal, to heat that up again, then it is all mixed with the tomato mix, to slightly cook that. Maybe the last batch of the season, though I do keep getting more tomatoes.

Over 3 lbs of tomatoes, with a paste of garlic, 3 basils, green and kalamata olives, and anchovies, ready to stir in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



The tomatoes with the paste stirred into them, along with about a tb of red wine vinegar, plus 4 tb EVOO. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Finished dish, with 2 c chana dal, cooked and drained, and a lb of spiral pasta, cooked al dente, and drained on the dal, then stirred into the tomatoes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

Tonight was a good time to make some soup, and I had a lb of cremini mushrooms I got a while back, to do something like this with. I started by soaking an ounce of dried boletus in some hot water, then cut up a large onion, and started cooking it in a few tb of olive oil, in the Instant Pot, on medium Sauté, and let that cook about 6 or 7 minutes, while mincing up 4 large cloves of garlic with a generous amount of fresh rosemary (at least 3 tb), and not quite as much fresh sage. I also blended 24 oz of tomatoes to a fine purée. I then added the garlic and herbs to the onion, stirred about a minute, then poured in the purée, and let that come to a simmer, while rinsing the soaked boletus, and mincing them, and I strained the water into the Vitamix, to rinse the purée out, then poured it into the IP, along with the minced boletus, and a quart of low salt chicken broth. I salted it using some soy sauce, added at least a half tsp of black pepper, and 3/4 c pearled barley, and mixed well. I cooked it on Manual, for 20 minutes, and let the pressure release naturally. This allowed me to wash the creminis, quarter them, then brown them, and when the pressure was released, I stirred in the cremini, and about half a cup of red lentils, and cooked on Manual 8, and let the pressure release naturally. The thickness from the barley and lentils was perfect, and I added some grated Asiago, to finish it.
A pound of cremini mushrooms, quartered and browned, waiting for the barley to cook, before adding, to cook with the red lentils. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished soup, with cremini, dried boletus, some barley, and red lentils, to thicken it. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Squash planks

Squarsh Planks is the new sobriquet for Squarsh Fries; those Zukes?

The Gotch

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Metro Market's Meat/Seafood Department Reduced Section is a Siren Song drawing...nay luring...a powerless Gotch, and for which resistance is futile.

C'mon, when you's can secure Black Angus Ribeyes for 1/2 price, grill 'em to (IMO) perfection, and serve 'em up with sautéed al dente sweet onions & mushrooms, what's not to like, am I right?

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The Gotch

[worth1]

Squash planks

Squarsh Planks is the new sobriquet for Squarsh Fries; those Zukes?

The Gotch

No they're calabaza aka Mexican zucchini.
For some odd reason it's about the only summer squash you'll find in the Mexican market.
Interestingly calabaza means squash in Spanish.
In some places they're called calabacita.
I gets really complicated because there is a winter squash called calabaza as well.
Looks like a pale green flat pumpkin with orange flesh.
I've learned to like the Mexican calabaza and don't really care for the dark green zucchini.

[worth1]

Meatless dish.
Calabaza Mexican squash.
Jalapeno.
White onion.
Chili powder.
Cumin.
Mexican oregano.
Garlic powder.
Knorr tomato chicken bullion powder.
Unsalted butter.
Olive oil.
Dash of dark soy sauce.

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[worth1]

I'm dark toasting some basmati rice and whole cumin seeds in peanut oil to go with the meal as well.
They'll be crooked in water as usual with Knorr tomato chicken bullion powder.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Yesterday, actually, the Metro Market Meat/Seafood Reduced Section featured a NICE discounted coupla 1.6 lb/726 g filets which fit perfectly together:

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Used Horseradish Sauce along with the Dijon Mustard to secure the Bread Crumb/Garlic coating:

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The result; is that there a Golden Brown, or what?

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The Gotch

[worth1]

I've got a small kettle of Roman beans cooking.
Roman beans come by several names including cranberry beans.
In the water for salt is Knorr tomato chicken bullion powder.
A pinch of baking soda because I didn't soak them.
One chopped jalapeno pepper seeds removed.
I'll probably make cornbread in some sort of cast iron too.

[worth1]

Probably against my better judgement they're slowly but surely turning into charro beans.
And I mistook the chipotle powder for ancho powder so they're gonna be a little hotter than expected.
Had frozen cilantro in the form of ice cubes on hand as well.

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Charro beans on the last leg.
I added several other ingredients....
Onion powder.
Garlic powder.
Cinnamon.
Whole white onion diced.
One can of diced tomatoes.
A cut up homemade beef sausage patty.
A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
A half a fermented salted lime.
It brought the beans to the very top of the kettle.
I'm letting it simmer down some with the lid off.
In the beginning I also put in a big dollop of bacon drippings.
Traditionally many Mexicans put hotdog wieners in the beans but I don't really care for them in beans.
Everybody has their own idea of charro beans.. some like them cooked down to a thick goo.
I like my beans with a thin juicy liquid like a soup.

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[worth1]

Probably going to be a disaster but I tried something different this time with the cornbread.
First I used white cornmeal.
Second I added a little sugar.
Both of which I almost never do.
Thirdly and for the crazy part I put in several big dollops of grape jelly and cut it in with the dry mixture like little berries.
Then after it was ready to go in the hot Wagoner 8 inch cornbread skillet I put in some more grape jelly.
The mix is a little wetter than usual too.
Time will tell.
It's in the oven at 450F for a little and turned it down to 400F it's got a wonderful rise so far.

[worth1]

Came out beyond my expectations and on a cooling rack.
Bottom picture blurry.

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[worth1]

Cornbread wedge.
It's delicious.

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Charro beans green beans and baked sweet potato.