What ya got cooking UM?

[rashore]

And sorry to double post, but I figured I'd post the angels thing too, and wanted to break up the recipes for easier reading.

Typically po boys are made with fresh shrimp that is lightly battered and fried and the boys assembled with a remoulade sauce. What I had on hand was half a bag of cooked shrimp leftover from making shrimpy bits the other night that needed eating up- and bacon in the freezer. Originally I thought to do something a bit more NE roll with it, but was feeling the spicy urge.

It's the method that counts here, and always using a hot seasoning mix. You par-bake the bacon till the fat is well rendered but it's still going to cool and be able to wrap around the shrimp. This is the most difficult part of the whole process to gauge, and it depends on if you use raw or cooked shrimp, the size of the shrimp. Wrap shrimp in bacon and secure with a toothpick or skewer, then dip both sides generously in a spicy dry seasoning. Creole, Cajun, BBQ, Mexican, and Asian flavors work. Italian or other mostly herb based don't so much because the herbs tend to crisp up and wash out.

After you wrap your shrimp in bacon, either bake, broil, or grill up till they are hot and the bacon is getting crisped up, flipping once during cooking Should only take a couple to few minutes on a high heat depending on method used.

Tip: you can drain and reuse the pan you baked the bacon in if you finish off in the oven- you want a bit of a greased sheet since you rendered a lot of the fat out of the bacon already and you are just finishing off the bacon while heating the shrimp for a few minutes. Don't toss your bacon grease! Save your bacon grease and keep it in the fridge to use in all sorts of cooking where fats are needed like oils and butter are often called for in browning or sauteing things. There is a ton of smokey porky flavor in bacon grease.

[tcgram]

Hubby made Chicken Gnocchi Soup (like at Olive Garden) last night for supper.   Here's the copycat recipe we use:  

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart half-and-half
• 2 (14-ounce) cans chicken broth (we use our own homemade broth; if you want a thicker soup, use just one can or 14 oz)  
• Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1 cup finely shredded carrots
• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach
• 1 cup diced cooked chicken breast (we use rotisserie chicken that's on sale)  
• 1 (16-ounce) package ready-to-use gnocchi

Melt the butter into the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally until the onion becomes translucent. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in the half-and-half. Simmer until thickened. Whisk in the chicken broth. Simmer until thickened again. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, the thyme, parsley, nutmeg (if using), carrots, spinach, chicken, and gnocchi. Simmer until the soup is heated through. Before serving, season with additional salt, if necessary.   We love thick slices of a crusty bread with butter along with this hearty soup.    

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by tcgram

[Overdueleaf]

creamy potato and ham soup

1 large sweet onion

1/2 stick of butter

1 bag of baby carrots

1 bunch of celery

1 quart of beef stock

1 quart of half and half

1 medium bone in ham shank

5 pounds of potatoes

2 pouches of instant loaded mashed potato flakes

I use a dutch oven for most of this.

Finely chop onions and saute in butter. Finely chop baby carrots and slice celery add to pot. Add quart of beef stock. Cover and cook on high heat. Cube ham to desired size (i like smaller bits) add to pot reduce heat to medium cook for 15 minutes. Add quart of half and half salt and pepper to taste reduce heat to low.  Add two pouches of instant potatoes, stir until incorporated. Cube potatoes to desired size cook until tender. Drain and add to soup. Enjoy

 

 

 

 

[rashore]

On 3/10/2018 at 11:35 PM, Overdueleaf said:

creamy potato and ham soup

1 large sweet onion

1/2 stick of butter

1 bag of baby carrots

1 bunch of celery

1 quart of beef stock

1 quart of half and half

1 medium bone in ham shank

5 pounds of potatoes

2 pouches of instant loaded mashed potato flakes

I use a dutch oven for most of this.

Finely chop onions and saute in butter. Finely chop baby carrots and slice celery add to pot. Add quart of beef stock. Cover and cook on high heat. Cube ham to desired size (i like smaller bits) add to pot reduce heat to medium cook for 15 minutes. Add quart of half and half salt and pepper to taste reduce heat to low.  Add two pouches of instant potatoes, stir until incorporated. Cube potatoes to desired size cook until tender. Drain and add to soup. Enjoy

 

 

 

 

Your ham soup is almost exactly like mine. Right down to using butter for the saute- I prefer to use unsalted, what do you like to use?

I make ham stock and other products so I use that instead of beef stock and the ham shank. I do tend to add a something of beef to the stock too- a "couple" bouillon of some sort, depends on what I have on hand. Hard cubes, gel concentrate, and powder packet stuff.

I smoke off shanks then divvy up the cuts into smaller packages and cook up the shank bones with a couple smoked ham hocks to make a reduced ham stock. Otherwise a whole ham shank  is waaaayyy too huge to deal with for me for one meal, lol. But a pound or two packet of meat already saved and a quart of stock from the freezer is easy for me. I also save the fat from the hams and render it down into a super flavor dense fat like bacon grease. And I reduce ham stock down into demi-glace cubes for the freezer. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I only pick up the hams once a year when when they are on sale for 70-80 cents a pound and do a few processing days of 3 hams to stock up for pretty much the rest of the year. Usually 3 hams starts out as 35-40 pounds of whole that gets broken down into  3-4 dozen meals worth of meats, stocks and demi-glace, and fat goodness, so a years worth of ham shank stuff totals out around 25-35 bucks or so depending. And it takes up less space overall in the freezer than whole ones would. I wring every flavor drop out of those pennies.

And so much yes for the instant potato action at the end. It is such a nice trick to thicken up soups like this. Sometimes I use the flavored flakes, but more often I use plain flakes and add some seasonings. Another great product like potato flakes- instant mashed potato powder/granules?. I get it at GFS (Gordon Food Service). Instead of flakes, it is about the texture of coarse garlic powder. Comes in a big box, and lasts forever as a nice potato thickener for chowders and stews. Works nicer than flakes if you are making potato pancakes and need just a little "flour" to tighten up your mix.

[Mark One]

Homemade corned beef hash - out of a thermos flask.

Recipe

Fill a large pan a third of the way up with water and bring to the boil.

Slice up plenty of onions and place them in the hot water.

Turn the heat down and stir.

Chop up some potatoes and add them to the pan.

Open a tin of corned beef and crumble over a plate.

Add corned beef to pan and stir.  Add 4 OXO cubes and stir.

Now add some peas and carrots.

Leave pan to simmer and stir occasionally.

[rashore]

I need comfort food suggestions please. Those foods that are the go-to's when you need to just sit back and.. get comfort from food.

 

[Mark One]

Bacon on uncut wholemeal bread (with lurpak butter).  Apple crumble with custard for pudding.

[Daughter of the Nine Moons]

26 minutes ago, rashore said:

I need comfort food suggestions please. Those foods that are the go-to's when you need to just sit back and.. get comfort from food.

 

Chicken rice soup or chicken pot pie. Warm buttery cornbread

[Lilly]

My favorite comfort food is baked cod with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. I also like beef stew and biscuits.

[tcgram]

On 4/4/2018 at 5:37 PM, rashore said:

I need comfort food suggestions please. Those foods that are the go-to's when you need to just sit back and.. get comfort from food.

 

I tend to lean more toward my southern roots; biscuits and sausage gravy, fried chicken, homemade mac and cheese, fried potatoes with onions, homemade corn bread.  

[Overdueleaf]

On 4/4/2018 at 5:37 PM, rashore said:

I need comfort food suggestions please. Those foods that are the go-to's when you need to just sit back and.. get comfort from food.

 

hearty soups and chowders

stuffed shells

country fried steaks

casserole we call rice cheese and meat.

[+Not A Rockstar]

need some advice for a bunch of canned beans I just got. I usually use them dry (great northern). I have heard it is best to rinse canned beans thoroughly before using to reduce the canned taste. Is this true? 

thanks.

[tcgram]

1 hour ago, Not A Rockstar said:

need some advice for a bunch of canned beans I just got. I usually use them dry (great northern). I have heard it is best to rinse canned beans thoroughly before using to reduce the canned taste. Is this true? 

thanks.

I usually rinse them to get some of the saltiness out of them.   I like to put mine in a soup of some type or make a chicken chili with them.  

[tcgram]

Making homemade chicken quesadillas by baking chicken breasts seasoned with chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic and onion powder, and a dash of cayenne.  Grind the meat once it is thoroughly cooked, then place on flour tortillas on the griddle.  Add fresh cilantro, canned green chilies (mild), and a mexican blend of cheeses.  Fold in half and heat until browned on both sides.   Serve with fresh salsa and sour cream, tortilla chips.   

[rashore]

Making a cajun/creole sort of thing, have a craving for spicy stuff and rice tonight. I don't post a lot of recipes, and here's why- I tend to cook on the fly and sometimes it's difficult to get it down to recipe format, lol. So cooking instructions tonight, lol. This is an example of what I actually do before I distill it down into recipe format that is easier to read for folks.

Start digging around in the freezer.. I could have sworn I still had some andouillie sausage in there? Dig deeper, grrrr, nope. Ah well, grab a package of smoked sausage instead and the1/3 left of a bag of shrimp.

Pop the sausage into the microwave for 60 seconds to defrost while I go to the kitchen pantry.. Start digging around and the lights go out- dang it, forgot I had the space heater running and blew the fuse. Run to the basement and turn power back on. Back to the kitchen pantry- pull out a can of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, cajun and creole seasonings, smoked and dehydrated black tomatoes... start hunting for dehydrated sweet peppers. None. What? Go and hunt the dry goods pantry- none! How did I let that happen? Ah well, back to the kitchen pantry and look through the seasoning peppers till I find and grab the jar of smoked and dried urfa biber peppers instead.

Ok... got most of it together. Kick the pan up to medium-high and put in a generous tablespoon of bacon grease to heat up. Take one link of the sausage- about a half pound- and slice it into 1/2" disks. Once the grease is sizzling hot, toss in the sausage to start browning up. Meanwhile, chop up a medium onion, and once the sausage has browned up a bit, toss it in, give it a good sprinkle of salt, and let saute. Grab the pot of garlic growing on the windowsill, and snip off about a half cup of garlic greens. Toss it into the pan and stir. Take a couple urfa biber halves and crumble them into the pan and stir.

Hmmm, need a liquid to deglaze the pan.. *looks at ice cold beer I just cracked open*- nah. Check fridge- some red and white wine, grab the white- a moscato chardonnay.- a nice sweet balance to the acid in the tomatoes and the heat of the spices. Pour in about a half cup and deglaze and let it reduce down to almost nothing while I open cans of tomato product and my love stops in and... pause for a moment ....

So now the wine is fully reduced. Dump in the tomato products, dried tomatoes, generous sprinkling each of the cajun and creole seasonings. Give it a good stir. Cover and let it simmer on low for a bit. Check pan to stir, and it looks... lackluster. Back to the pantry for a can of beans... what kind to choose? mmm... butterbeans. Drain and rinse them, stir them into the pan and... much better. Let it continue simmering while I check UM. After a bit, stir it and check for seasoning.. ohhh spicy perfect, needs a bit of salt. Give it some salt and stir, and let simmer some more on very low while I type up humorous recipe style on UM. A wee bit before actual dinner time, I'll toss in the shrimp to cook up, then kill the heat and let it rest for service.

Serve over white rice.. which I'm going to start right now

[Mark One]

Sausage butty: Two slices of buttered white bread, three slim sausages sliced in half and plenty of HP sauce.

[internetperson]

Taco night tonight! 

[rashore]

1 hour ago, internetperson said:

Taco night tonight! 

What all do you do for a taco night?

[rashore]

Beef is usually a bit dear around here.. but today while I was out for some business I hit a grocery I don't normally often, and they had boneless bottom round roasts for cheap... a bogo, one is in the freezer, and one for dinner tonight. So a simple beef roast dinner...

A couple tablespoons olive oil in a pan at high heat, and sear off the roast well... deglaze with about a half cup of red wine, toss in a couple cans of undrained mushrooms, a couple packets of g washingtons beef (or other beef bouillon), and a packet of dry onion soup mix. Pour in enough water to fill the pan 1/3 up the beef- cover, and into the oven for an hour or more till done- we like it rare to medium rare around here, so I tend to pull it out once the meat therometer reads 145 and let it rest covered for 15 min or so before service.

Crispy smashed potatoes- boil small red potatoes till tender, then drain. Set out on a baking pan and smash them down with a drinking glasss to flat disks. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic, then bake them off at high heat till crispy sizzling.

I often do steamed carrots with this dinner... but was able to snag some lovely cauliflower on sale... that will be steamed with a cheese sauce. Basic bechemel with whatever cheese happens to be in the fridge. I think I have pepperjack, cheddar, and cream cheese right now.

[Harte]

I posted this at another forum, so I guess I can put it here too.

I've threatened and warned, and now it's here. Your guide to the holiday pumpkin pie from scratch (sort of.)

The dough recipe can be found here:

It's called "Pie Dough Cockaigne" and is supposed to make two single-crust doughs. Personally, I increase the recipe by 50% as will be explained below.

Measure out the flour, salt and sugar into a large mixing bowl:

Have your butter and shortening broken up and frozen. Also, separate into two halves:

I put a little flour on the paper plate to make the chunks stay separated. That thing on the right is my pastry blender.

You want to keep your mixture cold - keeping the fat from melting out helps with flakiness.

I use the pastry blender, but lots of people use two knives crisscrossing through the mixture to blend the fat into the flour:

Do half the fat first and blend it in real good. The texture should LOOK LIKE (not feel like) cornmeal:

 

Blend in the other half of the fat, this time leaving smallish chunks (these make the flakes):

 

You want to use ice water - remember we're keeping it cold:

Measure in the water one tablespoon at a time, sprinkling it all around and lightly stirring it in with a fork every couple of tablespoons. It ends up looking kind of raggedy:

 

At this point, make sure you've gotten all the dry ingredients moistened (by stirring the underside to the top, not by adding more water) and you should be able to gather the dough into balls:

The extra you see in the bottom is one of the reasons I increase the recipe by 50% - also I like to have extra dough to make sure I have enough for what follows.

 

Place the dough on a good-sized piece of plastic wrap (I use Glad. Not because I like to spend extra but because I don't have the time or patience to be constantly untangling my plastic wrap like the cheap ones make you do.) Form the dough into a round disk shape, then wrap it up:

 

Put your dough(s) in the refrigerator on a flat surface. Let it rest refrigerated for  several hours. This is very important, don't skip this step or your dough will be crumbly.

 

An hour or two before you want to start on the pie, take the dough out and put it on your counter. When it's warmed up to room temp, here's how I do it.

I use three gallon-sized zip lock bags with the zippers cut off and the sides cut open. Two overlapped on my counter (with a little flour) to put the dough on, and the third for covering the top where I want to roll:

 

The third plastic bag is not big enough to cover the whole dough sheet once it's rolled out, but you can gently lift it off the dough and move it to different sections as you roll it out.

I can't roll dough and take pictures at the same time so I don't show me doing the rolling. When you do it, be sure to roll from the center outward, not all the way across the dough from edge to edge. Also, the plastic bags tend to slide around some so I hang my fat ass belly over the near edge to hold them doughs still for the rolling. Do this and rotate the whole setup as you roll out in six or eight directions from center. When you're ready, ease the top plastic bag up off the dough then flip the dough over - bottom bags and all, into your pie pan. Then gently peel back the plastic off your dough.

You need the dough to be against the pan - especially in the corners. If you leave an air bubble between the pan and the dough, it will swell up into a huge bubble that sticks up out of your pie. If this happens, eat it anyway - it won't change the taste.

What I do is lift gently along the edge of the dough and let it slide down into the pan corner. You can press it gently as you do this, but be sure you're feeding slack dough into the pan (by lifting) or when you press, you'll press right through and tear the dough.

Incidentally, tearing the dough is not really a problem, just lift and overlap the sides of the tear and press it back together - it will stay.

Here's the dough after it's been simply laid in place:

I brush off any excess flour with a pastry brush, but you could use a paintbrush as long as it wasn't too stiff.

Here the dough has been fitted into the corners.

Also, in the above pic I've trimmed the edges to about an inch or so beyond the pan's rim and rolled the dough edge under to bulk up the edge on the pan rim.

Next I sort of pinch the dough along the rim into a ridge. It looks like this:

You can go with the dough now to make any single crust pie you want to make, if you don't love anyone.

But if you are lucky enough to love someone and coordinated enough to do this:

then you can show your love with a fancy as hell decorated edge, like so:

Here are my two finished doughs for Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pies 2016:

 

I'll show the piemaking next. Get your own recipe though. I've spent years on mine and I do it better than my Mother did now. And I'm here to tell you she made an exceptionally fine pie.

 

Pumpkin pie.

I said earlier from scratch (sort of) because I use canned pumpkin puree. I've made it with real pumpkins and if you want to know how I can tell you later.

Here's the ingredients I use (four beaten eggs - for two pies - are not shown here):

The plastic container at right is granulated sugar.

 

Put the pumpkin in first - take my word for it. Then add your spices and mix it up real good.

Then add the sugar and mix it up real good again:

Put in the eggs and mix until the eggs are completely combined.

Note - eggs have this little white tissue attached to the yolk. There's nothing wrong with that except it doesn't mix in. If you don't want unsightly white chunks in your bite of pie, you need to take a moment to remove these things. I usually can get them out with a fork before I beat the eggs but if you keep a close eye on it you will see them when you get the eggs stirred in. They are easy to remove from the mixture with your fingers at that point - just keep stirring the mix over until you think you got them all.

 

Now it's time to add the evaporated milk. I know some people used sweetened condensed milk, but those people are idiotic buffoons.

I've heard of using cream for this. I don't think that would be in any way idiotic, I've just never done it.

When you add the milk, add it slowly while stirring all the time. If you just dump it all in, you'll have quite a time getting it all stirred in. If you use a mixer, you're beating air into your mix - don't do that.

Stir while you add, and after. Stream it in from the can. Be sure you've got it all stirred in - you can easily tell by the color.  At this point I'm usually scraping down the sides of the bowl and stirring - don't want to waste any of that delicious mix. I used to tell my friends the only thing better than pumpkin pie is a girl handling your johnson.

 

Since I always make (at least) two pies, I use a ladle to get the mix into the shell:

I don't really do it as pictured. I had no camera help. Usually I hold the bowl over the pie shell and ladle it in. This keeps accidental drips off the edge of your crust. Not that there's anything wrong with those drips on your crust - it's just that they get dark and you look like you don't know what you're doing in the pie department if you have them. Use a spatula to get all the good stuff out of the bowl and into the shell, unless you made too much. In that case, put the extra in a ramekin and bake it in the oven with your pies only not as long. That's your "cook's privilege."

 

This mixture is very liquid, but sets nicely. So, when you go to put your pie in the oven, try not to splash the mixture out of the shell and all over your floor. When you set it on the rack in the oven (450 F for 15 minutes, then 325 for about 45 min to an hour,) ease it onto the rack and gently slide it back so you don't rock the pumpkin filling boat and splash into your nice "clean" oven.

 

After the pies are done, let them cool completely. I start out on a cold burner and after about 30 minutes or so move them to my counter top. When they are completely cooled, I take a sheet of glad wrap about the size of the pie and lay it over the top. Let it touch the pie filling. It will lift back off when you want some and won't mess up the pie at all. Like dis:

 

Refrigerate the pies overnight, or until you can't stand it anymore.

Serve with whipped cream all over the slice. If you use non-dairy or Cool Whip I'm coming to your house to kick your ass.

 

Harte

 

The pics copied as thumbnails only. If anyone wants them, I still have them.  H.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Harte

[internetperson]

On 4/26/2018 at 5:45 PM, rashore said:

What all do you do for a taco night?

Kinda late on the reply, my bad. 

Honestly nothing really. Taco night for me is the 'I don't feel like cooking' night. I brown beef, throw in taco seasoning mix. After that dice up the basics: tomato, onion and lettuce. I usually add taco sauce, shredded cheese of some kind and sour creme.

I generally prefer burritos over tacos but not always. Sometimes I'll smash up the taco shells and make taco salad. 

[MainerMikeBrown]

Tonight I cooked some pork chops for supper.  And man was it tender!

Pork chops have never been my favorite dish.  But tonight's meal was quite good, I must say.

I also had white rice, corn, and green beans on the side.

[Mark One]

On 5/1/2018 at 12:35 AM, MainerMikeBrown said:

Tonight I cooked some pork chops for supper.  And man was it tender!

Pork chops have never been my favorite dish.  But tonight's meal was quite good, I must say.

I also had white rice, corn, and green beans on the side.

I find that dusting an OXO cube over the chops adds a pleasing flavour.

[Mark One]

Cornish pasties (from the farm shop) with buttered mash, garden peas, carrots and rich gravy

[tcgram]

I made breakfast for supper, toasted everything bagels with cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs and bacon.