Whatcha Cooking today?

[pepperhead212]

Tonight I made another batch of that
Chickpea Bacon Rosemary Greens stew, this time with some chopped red bell pepper, instead of the pepper paste, so it wouldn't be hot, for a friend that can't take heat. She loved it, and I just sprinkled a little crushed Thai pepper on mine, so nothing lost. I used all flowering bok choy, as the greens, and a little more rosemary. Like the first time I made it, I covered it for the first 5 minutes, as the water was well below the surface. The greens wilt quickly, and the water is about at the surface, then I uncovered it for the last 10 minutes. Otherwise, it was pretty much done like this recipe:
https://www.seriouseats.com/chickpea-stew-bacon-recipe

Bacon in Instant Pot, finished in Sauté - med, before adding the chopped onion and bell pepper. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The onions and pepper, cooking 7 or 8 minutes, to cook up the fond from the bacon. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rosemary and anchovies, to add after the onion mix. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

1 lb washed and spun dry flowering bok choy. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The Koquie Boc Choy, with 20 oz left, after using 1 lb today, and several stalks before. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Everything added to the IP, before covering to cook 5 minutes, when the water cooked out of the bok choy, and I uncovered it for the rest of the cook time. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dish, with the liquid just to the surface of the chickpeas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Chickpea Stew, with Bacon and Greens by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The first time I cooked about 2 1/3 c of dried chickpeas in the Instant Pot, and ended up with just under 2 c over the 5 c cooked, used in the recipe. This time I used just under 1 3/4 c dried (only because it was the last in the jar), and it was exactly 5 c cooked. I made a note of that!

I almost forgot to mention something I did when I cooked the chickpeas - I added 2 large black cardamom pods to the pot, when I cooked them. This is something I use in a lot of non-Indian dishes, to get that smoky flavor they have, and it works great! After soaking the chickpeas overnight, with a little baking soda added, then draining, I added these, 4 c water, and just about a tsp of salt, and pressure cooked 30 minutes. This reduced down to 2½ c liquid, which was just right for the dish, and this, plus the salt in the bacon and anchovies was enough for the dish.

[worth1]

I've been craving enchiladas for days now.
Making my own red enchilada sauce from Chile powders.
Usual players for me are..
Ancho powder.
Hot smoked Spanish paprika.
Sweet paprika.
Fiesta brand chili powder.
Cumin powder.
Knorr beef bullion powder.
I made a paste with oil and toasted.
Added chopped white onion and a can of tomato sauce.
Added water so things can cook down.
No measurements to share sorry just eyeballed it.
Seems like 99% of the enchilada sauce from the store it took tomatoy and has vinegar in it.
I can't stand vinegar in enchilada sauce.
If I want to sweeten it a bit I'll toss in a splash of sweet tea.
Sounds weird but it works.
Now it's got to cook down.

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[worth1]

I also have a cup of basmati rice slowly toasting in a small kettle for Mexican rice.
I'll use a bit of the enchilada sauce for flavoring in the rice.
Can't make my mind up as to using a can of refried beans or making some from scratch.

[worth1]

Decided to make a blend of 1 cup of black beans and 1/2 cup of mayocoba beans for the refried beans.
Tossed in a couple of tablespoons of Knorr beef bullion powder for salt and flavoring.
I'll use some lard from carnitas in the beans when ready to make the refried beans.

[worth1]

The beans are almost cooked down.
I made..
The Mexican rice.
Enchilada sauce is ready
Pico de Gallo is made with....
Jalapeno pepper.
Giant Roma tomato.
Giant white onion I've been sawing on for different things.
Frozen cilantro.
Pinch of cumin..16 mesh black pepper.
Pinch of sugar to offset the lime juice I put in
Salt will be last right before I eat it.
Can't make my mind up as to whether I want ground beef and cheese enchiladas or plain cheese enchiladas.
Rest assured there will be more onion one way or another.
Or what kind of cheese.
Maybe Velveeta, I really like it for this sort of thing even though it's not traditional.
I'm sitting on..
2 pounds of cheddar mozzarella and muenster.
1 pound of Swiss.
4 pounds of Velveeta.
11 pounds total.
All of it unopened.
Needless to say I like cheese.

[worth1]

I decided to cook down a pound of my homemade corse ground brisket.
It was put in water to thaw while it cooked.
This makes the otherwise tough cut of meat more tender it will brown a little in it's fats when the water is gone.
It had a dash of Knorr beef bullion powder and a bit of chili powder added to the water for a little but not overwhelming flavor.

[PlainJane]

With my last head of orange Clementine cauliflower I made a batch of roasted cauliflower coconut soup.

All the leftover bits of peppers, onions, shallots and garlic kicking around the fridge.
Whole head of orange cauliflower rubbed with butter/ras el hanout and sprinkled with sea salt flakes.
Puréed in the food processor with some chicken broth.
Coconut milk to taste, maybe half a can, unsweetened.
Bit of half and half that needed to be used.
Warmed but not boiled.

Splash of lime juice and cilantro.
Not bad!

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[worth1]

Decided to not make refried beans and just left them whole for the time being.
Everything on one cake pan.
I'll be having leftovers for sure I can't eat all this.

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[worth1]

I took the red sauce and meat and mixed them with the beans
Fried red potatoes and carrots.
Mexican rice.
2 eggs.
Pico de gallo
Breakfast in Texas.

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[worth1]

Stuff laying around the house.
Heavy cream.
Cream cheese.
Marshmallows.
Blueberries.
Vanilla extract.
Cocoa powder.
Powdered sugar.
Blue food coloring.
Off to the KitchenAid we go.
Whipped until it was about to turn to butter then added the stuff.
I use the whisk until it's about to do its thing then go to the paddle.
Taste is fantastic.

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[leftylogan]

I went to Hawaii for the first time about a year ago and ate Filipino style pork adobo basically every day for either breakfast or lunch. I found out how (relatively) easy it was to make and it's been in the regular rotation ever since.

Cube and brown any fatty cut of pork
Braise in a 1.1:1 mixture of fruit vinegar (ACV is the most readily available) to soy sauce with seasoning of whole peppercorn, crushed whole garlic cloves, and bay leaves until the sauce thickens.
Serve over (jasmine) rice and with a fried egg if you're feeling wealthy.



Super simple just a little time consuming to brown and braise. Very rich from the fat but it's balanced by the tang and salt. It's generally better on day 2 after everything has solidified and you can get it a little crispy when re-frying. I've read good things about using pineapple vinegar so that might be a project once pineapples are cheap.

[Danny]

Rotisserie chicken for today and tonight, thawing a small piece of salmon for tomorrow. Then back to the chicken, LOL. Going to drag everything out of the fridge this week and do a good clean out in there. Bought a 5lb bag of grits, so may make some cheese grits and shrimp from the freezer, too, this week. Found a lower but still too darned high price on eggs at $3.98 a dozen and picked up 2 dozen. Fried eggs with a runny yolks and grits, a great breakfast or dinner !

[bower]

I've become a stew eater. Used to alternate with lots of sheet pan dinners but for some reason stew has been the go to these past months. Last round of bulk cooking I started with a huge pot of lentils and cumin, I was craving that. As usual and as minimal onions simmered in oil separately until golden, then added to the pot. Secret sauce that is a yoghurty lemony garlicky dressing with favorite herbs lemon balm, thyme, and a pinch of hyssop flowers.
Then I was out of cumin to cook some beef I cubed up, so I went to the garam masala end of the spice rack, lots and lots of very sweet Bishops Falls carrots in that, as well as some extra lentils from the previous and frozen tomatoes.
Today's dinner is one of the third batch, a gulyas or "pork and pickle" with sour cream and broad egg noodles, cabbage, carrots, home pickled peppers, frozen tomatoes.
So I have three stews in the freezer, as well as so much uncooked stuff. Easy to be lazy but I'm strictly not buying anything until I use up all the freezer backlog. too much!! So I need to eat stew until I have enough empty tupperware to make another one LOL.

[worth1]

I never ever run out of cumin.

[pepperhead212]

Cumin is one of those things I never run out of, either. I just "restocked" various jars in my Indian boxes - the black cardamom and Indian bay leaf were empty, and the 2 c jars of coriander seed and cumin seed were down to about an inch each, so I brought my two 2 gal ziploc bags of vacuum sealed spices up to the kitchen, to fill those up, and re-seal all the bags. There was a bag of cumin in each one - a little more than a cup each, after filling the jar. There's a smaller jar of seeds and ground cumin in the kitchen spice drawer, and a small one of seeds in the box with the Indian seeds, for measuring out things for dishes with lots of different spices at once. As soon as I empty the last vacuum bags into any of the jars, I get another batch of it from the Indian market, or Amazon, for things like caraway, that they don't stock (though they can confuse some people with their black caraway!).

[worth1]

I was thinking cumin would go well with other things so I looked it up.
Sure enough they make cookies out of them in India and some people put cumin with chocolate.
It really is a versatile spice.

[worth1]

I've been eating these darned beans for every meal now.
I decided to turn the rest into frijoles refritos.
AKA refried beans.
I added water let it cook down and used the stick blender on them.
Got corn tortillas baking in the oven to get crispy.
There will be beans, cheese, jalapeno peppers tomatoes and onions on top.
Plus a couple of cheese taquitos.

[bower]

For some reason there's no cumin powder in the ethnic spice section of my store. I was delighted to get large packets of coriander, which in the regular spice aisle has always been a very mingy little packet at a higher price. But now the cumin packet seems small. Not something I'm usually ever without - we're talking a spice emergency here!!

[worth1]

For some reason there's no cumin powder in the ethnic spice section of my store. I was delighted to get large packets of coriander, which in the regular spice aisle has always been a very mingy little packet at a higher price. But now the cumin packet seems small. Not something I'm usually ever without - we're talking a spice emergency here!!

You can't find cumin seeds either?
I buy the stuff by the pound.
I'd go outta my mind without cumin.

[bower]

I do have a big bag of cumin seeds. Don't have a grinder though, for when you really want the powder.