The Home Cookin' Thread W/ Recipes

[Whiskey Rose]

@soon how are your tomatoes turning out this year? Mine are not great to be honest.

[soon]

2 minutes ago, Whiskey Rose said:

@soon how are your tomatoes turning out this year? Mine are not great to be honest.

Same for me.  Most arent ripe yet and those that are - have harvested maybe 12 - have been very small and have lots of rips.  Ive got a few plants that I put in a bit later that are looking good, so hoping for a long autumn.

You've harvested some?

[Whiskey Rose]

2 minutes ago, soon said:

Same for me.  Most arent ripe yet and those that are - have harvested maybe 12 - have been very small and have lots of rips.  Ive got a few plants that I put in a bit later that are looking good, so hoping for a long autumn.

You've harvested some?

About 5..and they've been kind of mealy/mushy..i'm so disappointed. I don't know if that's too much water or not enough water? or probably not enough sun and heat, with the summer we've been having..

[soon]

4 minutes ago, Whiskey Rose said:

About 5..and they've been kind of mealy/mushy..i'm so disappointed. I don't know if that's too much water or not enough water? or probably not enough sun and heat, with the summer we've been having..

Yeah mine were an unpleasant texture too, Still tasted fine enough in a palak panner, but not great for a sandwich or something.  Im really not loving this season.  Some of the seedlings I put in were completely submerged by flooding and died.

I think its probably all that you list leaving us with this.  And here lots of rain expected which will cause more rips.  Then gotta harvest before the rips infect the tomato even if they aren't ripe. 

Did you put anything else in this year?

[Whiskey Rose]

2 minutes ago, soon said:

Yeah mine were an unpleasant texture too, Still tasted fine enough in a palak panner, but not great for a sandwich or something.  Im really not loving this season.  Some of the seedlings I put in were completely submerged by flooding and died.

I think its probably all that you list leaving us with this.  And here lots of rain expected which will cause more rips.  Then gotta harvest before the rips infect the tomato even if they aren't ripe. 

Did you put anything else in this year?

Yes exactly as you say, not great for a sandwich. And yep, I put in peas, which are usually a no-brainer, they come up and are great through anything..this year, although they tasted good, the stalks just did not get very high nor did they produce as many pods as usual. My cucumbers are prolific, they love this weather it seems . My carrots are doing well, and so are my beets. And wonder of wonders, I've actually got ONE watermelon! lol. They are very hard for me to bring to fruition, so I'm happy if just even one survives lol. Is the rest of your garden doing ok?

[soon]

15 minutes ago, Whiskey Rose said:

Yes exactly as you say, not great for a sandwich. And yep, I put in peas, which are usually a no-brainer, they come up and are great through anything..this year, although they tasted good, the stalks just did not get very high nor did they produce as many pods as usual. My cucumbers are prolific, they love this weather it seems . My carrots are doing well, and so are my beets. And wonder of wonders, I've actually got ONE watermelon! lol. They are very hard for me to bring to fruition, so I'm happy if just even one survives lol. Is the rest of your garden doing ok?

Very cool about the watermelon!  That sounds like a really great garden, btw.  My herb garden is doing pretty okay.  Especially the culinary herbs kinda like bad treatment.  Im reminded to go check my peas - Ive only been to my one garden three times this year.  Once to plant, once to see it flooded and once to replant.  Hope the peas found their trellis, lol!  So I hope my cucumbers liked the weather too and summer squash is likely ready.  A lot of my other veg garden stopped growing with the heat and are slowly catching up.  Happy to hear your carrots are doing well, mine arent.  Beets are though.  Well, the current planting at least.  Earlier this year I harvested beets that were only greens - there was no sign of beets after 55 days!

I miss last years drought!

[Gracii Guns]

Yesterday I had a day of cooking and baking. I made apple, parsnip and carrot soup, scones, an omelette, apple pie, chilli con carne and this, rosemary and garlic foccacia. 

 

[soon]

On August 27, 2017 at 6:04 PM, Gracii Guns said:

Yesterday I had a day of cooking and baking. I made apple, parsnip and carrot soup, scones, an omelette, apple pie, chilli con carne and this, rosemary and garlic foccacia. 

 

Thats a solid day in the kitchen!  This bread looks delicious.  Did the rosemary go on at the same time as the garlic - really kept its colour?

[Gracii Guns]

10 hours ago, soon said:

Thats a solid day in the kitchen!  This bread looks delicious.  Did the rosemary go on at the same time as the garlic - really kept its colour?

Thanks- yes it did. I'm always scared of how easily garlic burns. The amount of sea salt on this makes it so addictive. Will definitely bake it again to eat with salsa, instead of Pringles in front of the telly! 

[soon]

5 hours ago, Gracii Guns said:

Thanks- yes it did. I'm always scared of how easily garlic burns. The amount of sea salt on this makes it so addictive. Will definitely bake it again to eat with salsa, instead of Pringles in front of the telly! 

For me the colour on the garlic is very enticing.  Ive not cooked with rosemary that way and am impressed with the vibrantness the green retained.  Im inspired to try t out!

[soon]

@Whiskey Rose I hope your tomatoes are turning out more to your liking now.  Im starting to get into the swing of harvest, coupled with all the garden neighbours sharing bounty so am knee deep in produce!

My tomatoes still struggle, but the jalapeño are doing great.  Heres the second harvest, with 3 cayenne buried in there.  I've never grown jalapeño from seed before and am really happy wth them. I left the flesh in and made a sauce so hot that it that gave me some dizziness and euphoria!  Planing to use half for salsa with these and oregano featured.  And half a tomato based jalapeño sauce to top cheese enchiladas with.  I think they'll be at least one more haul like this if not two!

Earlier I made some guacamole with jalapeño which I stirred into some mashed potatoes.  Weird Craving 

 

2 times this amount of tomatoes fell off vine before being ripe and many are ripped open.  Ripening them in windowsill.  The texture is still off but taste is really good.  Made a basil and oregano marinara with the ripe ones.

 

Still happy with beets.  The current harvest are all about this size and produced abundant, lush leaves.  Gonna make some borscht.  Did you ever get to have some mennonite borscht when you were lived in that neck of the woods?

 

Hows your garden doing?  My gut says we're in for an early and instant fall.  Please tell me otherwise though!

[Whiskey Rose]

@soon wow, that is quite the haul, those jalepenos look fabulous! Maybe you could pickle some too..

I have to say, my tomatoes ended up being really great, nice colour, no splitting and they are still coming..I just slice and eat them, certainly not an adventurous cook like you are     Peas, fail (surprised at this)..watermelon, fail (stopped growing about the size of a large softball) ..cucumbers taste good, but all tapered to a curved and really skinny point, have never had that happen before  

I think fall is already here, most of my leaves on everything are already turning yellow..boooo to that!

 

[soon]

11 hours ago, Whiskey Rose said:

@soon wow, that is quite the haul, those jalepenos look fabulous! Maybe you could pickle some too..

I have to say, my tomatoes ended up being really great, nice colour, no splitting and they are still coming..I just slice and eat them, certainly not an adventurous cook like you are     Peas, fail (surprised at this)..watermelon, fail (stopped growing about the size of a large softball) ..cucumbers taste good, but all tapered to a curved and really skinny point, have never had that happen before  

I think fall is already here, most of my leaves on everything are already turning yellow..boooo to that!

 

NOooooooooooooooo! No fall yet!!!!!!!  I wanna sneak in a cover crop after harvest.

I should pickle some, good call.  Im glad to hear that your tomatoes turned out so good!  Id love to slice and eat some fresh but I still dont have ones good for that.  These were all heavily effected by the wet spring, but a latter planting is looking promising but arent ripe yet so race against the first frost.  Thats too bad about the peas - mine too but i was anticipating it as I hadn't tended to them.  Id love to see some of those cucumbers - I've never heard of that either!  

There were so many different temps and hours of light and record rainfall, then drier.  The soil likely got really compacted in spring.  Sounds like you had an impressive year given the conditions.

[soon]

Made some lasagna rolls.  Enough to freeze a bunch and hopefully last the winter.  Made the noodles which in my experience makes for a much better roll because I can make noodles thin and not wavy cut.  Noodles go from the roller to the boil, pretty much.  Had some extra noodles after I used up all my fillings so I cut them into... maybe pappardelle?  The rolls aren't much to look at but are delicious, hearty and store well in freezer.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Fillings: Spinach, cremini, shitake, fresh basil, olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, chicken stock, onion, garlic, parm, heavy cream

Dough: All purpose flour, 2 eggs, water, salt

Marinara: tomatoes in juice, onion, garlic, olive oil, thyme, oregano, parm, salt and cracked black pepper

Directions for fillings:

Spinach filling - onions, garlic, spinach and fresh basil sautéed in olive oil.  Quick pesto of fresh basil, olive oil and parm.  Combine both mixtures and puree in processor.  Chill in fridge.

Mushroom filling - onions, garlic, cremini, shiitake sautéed in butter.  Finish with enough chicken stock to thin to puree.  Puree in processor, dripping in cream if necessary. Chill in fridge.

After rolling pasta hang just long enough to be firm enough to be cut with bench scrapper.  Cut into 8 inch pieces.  Boil 4 at a time in heavily salted water, have glass ware to lay them out to cool - trying to have them as flat as is possible, but definitely not in a pile on one another.  Optional: drizzle olive oil to prevent sticking.

Place a boiled lasagne noodle on clean surface, spoon on spinach and smooth over 2/3s leaving room at top to roll without filing oozing out.  Add layer of ricotta and firmly pack over spinach.  Place another lasagne noodle over this and repeat with mushroom and ricotta.

Roll, starting from the bottom which has filling.  Roll towards top that has no filling.  About 2-3 turns.  Land with seam on bottom.

Place snuggly in a deep, large glass ware.  Make more rolls.  When glass ware is full; place in freezer to firm up.  Continue with the rest.

Remove from freezer while still soft enough to cut.  Slice each roll into two large lasagna pieces.  

Freeze with parchment separating potions.  Or cover with marinara and cook covered at 350 for 15 minutes, add grated cheddar and cook uncovered until top is to your liking.

 

[SoulMonster]

Family dinner for 10. Sliced pieces of a complete rib-eye steak that had been grilled in the oven, served on tortillas together with various salsas (one with thai chilis and coriander the other more plain), guacamoles, grilled vegetables (string beans, pak choi, sweet peppers) and assorted other vegetables and sauces. Various beers (Mexican, Hawaiian and Spanish).

Edited September 8, 2017 by SoulMonster

[janrichmond]

i made lasagne!

[Whiskey Rose]

@soon those lasagna rolls with those fillings sound really delicious. I'll have to try that. (minus the making of my own noodles )

[DieselDaisy]

I can just imagine a cookery class with Soul

''For ze grilled vegetables you must obey my orders'' (does my best Fawlty Towers/Schwarzenegger German impression with oscillating level of anger the longer I talk) ''you need precisely 14 string beans, 12 leaves of pak chok diced up into 2 by 2 cm squares and three red peppers diced into 1by4 strips. Then you need to grill for exactly 3 mins and 27 seconds'. This will only suffice or you will have to do it again until you can obey orders correctly according to my exact scientifically tested recipe''.

It certainly wouldn't be Jamie ''pukka...bish bish bosh'' Oliver style cooking haha

 

 

Edited September 9, 2017 by DieselDaisy

[SoulMonster]

4 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

I can just imagine a cookery class with Soul

''For ze grilled vegetables you must obey my orders'' (does my best Fawlty Towers/Schwarzenegger German impression with oscillating level of anger the longer I talk) ''you need precisely 14 string beans, 12 leaves of pak chok diced up into 2 by 2 cm squares and three red peppers diced into 1by4 strips. Then you need to grill for exactly 3 mins and 27 seconds'. This will only suffice or you will have to do it again until you can obey orders correctly according to my exact scientifically tested recipe''.

It certainly wouldn't be Jamie ''pukka...bish bish bosh'' Oliver style cooking haha

The most surreal thing about that is not that I would speak with a German accent, nor that I would lose my temper, but that I would actually hold a cooking class.

Btw, I don't usually cook by recipes and adhere more to the philosophy of "let's make something that at least resembles the stuff I want to eat".

[soon]

11 hours ago, Whiskey Rose said:

@soon those lasagna rolls with those fillings sound really delicious. I'll have to try that. (minus the making of my own noodles )

Yeah the basils nice and bright, tempered by the earthy mushrooms.  You'd have no problem making noddles if it interests you.  I forgot to mention one thing - which I'm sure you know but I'll mention incase anyone else cares - when cooking the lasagna on must line the cooking vessel with a thin layer of marinara or sauce to prevent sticking or burning.

PS: you were not kidding about fall already being here!

 

[soon]

Made a pappardelle lobster pasta with tarragon béchamel.  No picture, as it was gobbled down fast!

- It all started last week when I made a chicken broth over 48 hrs with bones, skin and some meat, apple cider vinegar, pepper corn, maple smoked sea salt, dash of cayenne, fresh ginger, fresh chives, diced garlic, fresh sage and fresh thyme.  Switched out the sprigs of herbs 2-3 times a day an added more ginger on day 2.  When I strained it out at end I placed a large sprig of fresh tarragon in, which infused flavour substantially.

- I had the noodles left over from making fresh the other day.  Froze on parchment, then stored in container.  frozen into boil.

- Béchamel; make a roux by heating equal parts butter and flour while stiring, until incorporated and pleasant aroma.  Went with a fairly light colour.  Pour in cold milk - I used enough to make a loose sauce.  Added a bit of aged white cheddar, cracked pepper.  And once reduced slightly added the tarragon chicken broth.

- During cook, placed thawed lobster tail in heavily salted boiling water until red and curled.  Let cool briefly, cut up the middle, removed chucks of meat.  Next time I will season the lobster portions.

- Strain noodles into sauce, plate and gently fold in lobster

[soon]

Edited September 12, 2017 by soon

[soon]

Homemade jalapeno poppers from the garden, applewood smoked bacon in mac and cheese (or KD as we call it here).  The something green of this meal is the jalapeño, so its still healthy  

This was very good.  And making it was so good too.

I kinda used this recipe as a template, but it wasn't specific on a few things.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/20858/best-ever-jalapeno-poppers/

Rolling was a repeating theme.

- To remove seeds, roll whole pepper on cutting board under your palm, then cut off top and roll between hands upside down to get stuff out.  Finally use small knife to cut out the flesh and remaining seeds

- Roll cheese mixture into thin tubes to stuff into peppers

- And if this is all I offer to humanity, Im down with it:  Cook the bacon first and use the grease to shallow fry the poppers.  I added a splash of vegetable oil but it was all bacon taste.

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by soon

[soon]

Been eating steaks everyday since Tuesday when my beef CSA arrived.  Paired with fresh vegetables form the garden.  Making herb marinara like non-stop.  And today I woke up to a home filled with the rich, seductive aroma of simmering broth. Started the large beef bones yesterday in the slow cooker.  Traditionally after soup is made I will take the bones and wash, dehydrate and powder them to make bone meal fertilizer for garden - will have to see what my body allows for.

This is whats being called 'bone broth.'  It emphasizes the bone part as its focused on cooking out the collagen from inside the marrow.  Its super healthy for us.

I only used beef bones, water, salt, pepper corn, onion and apple cider vinegar.  Will add garlic towards end and parsley ten minutes before removing from heat - as some kinda special science happens.

 

Ingredients:

2 pounds (or more) of bones from a healthy source

2 chicken feet for extra gelatin (optional)

1 onion

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Optional: 1 bunch of parsley, 1 tablespoon or more of sea salt, 1 teaspoon peppercorns, additional herbs or spices to taste. I also add 2 cloves of garlic for the last 30 minutes of cooking.

You'll also need a large stock pot to cook the broth in and a strainer to remove the pieces when it is done.

Instructions:

If you are using raw bones, especially beef bones, it improves flavor to roast them in the oven first. I place them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes at 350.

Then, place the bones in a large stock pot (I use a 5 gallon pot). Pour (filtered) water over the bones and add the vinegar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes in the cool water. The acid helps make the nutrients in the bones more available.

Rough chop and add the vegetables (except the parsley and garlic, if using) to the pot. Add any salt, pepper, spices, or herbs, if using.

Now, bring the broth to a boil. Once it has reached a vigorous boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer until done.  (I go for at least 24 hrs.  Some say 8 are enough.  Can go up to 48).

During the first few hours of simmering, you'll need to remove the impurities that float to the surface. A frothy/foamy layer will form and it can be easily scooped off with a big spoon. Throw this part away. I typically check it every 20 minutes for the first 2 hours to remove this. Grass-fed and healthy animals will produce much less of this than conventional animals.

During the last 30 minutes, add the garlic and parsley, if using.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Strain using a fine metal strainer to remove all the bits of bone and vegetable. When cool enough, store in a gallon size glass jar in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for later use.

[SoulMonster]

Sunday lamb roast. Sauce made with forest mushrooms (picked earlier today). Mashed potatoes with garlic. Brussels sprouts with bacon.