Honestly, the thing I made last night was kind of weird… I had decided that I wanted to try it, but didn’t really have the ingredients specified, so I made some substitutions based on what I happened to have.
One thing I ended up doing, was that I had no potatoes. But I had a white sweet potato. So I used that.
The end result was not at all bad, but was kind of strange. The sweet potato, as expected, added quite a lot of sweetness to the dish. It played well with the heat and savory aspects. Also, I had no mint, and the cilantro was from a tube (and OLD, but had never been opened, so it didn’t kill me), which is really not comparable to fresh cilantro. I’m honestly not sure what is better for my pantry. The refrigerated tube cilantro, or dried cilantro. I tend to buy a fresh bunch when I am specifically planning on cooking something, but often I just decide to make something and don’t tend to have fresh cilantro on hand at all times, and it gets gross in the fridge fairly fast.
Maybe I should just grow some in my garden this year.
Maybe others are better at it, be we always fail at growing cilantro because it bolts so quickly. It costs $1 to buy a bunch of fresh cilantro every week at the store. We rarely use it all up, but we use cilantro for something at least a couple of times a week.
Ya, I ran into this this year, as it was the first time I tried.
I have since learned that you want to plant it close together, and keep it trimmed, and this apparently prevents it going to seed.
Apparently, the bolting is triggered by a few things, one of them is the warmth of the roots. If the cilantro is planted closer together it can then shade the ground around itself, which prevents the roots from getting warm, which then prevents it bolting.
I have one of those. You need to cook something so you slide it forward (it rarely leaves the countertop) and put the things in and either go “doot doot doot” and you’re slow cooking or “doot doot doot” and you’re pressure cooking. It is a total workhorse in my kitchen, soaking and cooking beans from dry, pressure cooking some veggies, making a soup, or whatever. We also use it for yogurt and it’s a lot easier than our prior slow-cooker yogurt method.
The other uses it has that seem to be a stretch, like sauteing onions or something in the bottom before you start, are things you probably won’t be using it for. But the usual slow cooker recipes and the pressure cooking things you dig, those it is great for. I do have a feeling that a good pressure cooker would be better than this for pressure cooking, since it’s pretty low pressure. But compared to the “cheap” pressure cooker we had before, it’s really nice for that too. It’s way easier than that dedicated pressure cooker, which we gave away (we used it about once a month or maybe a little more than that before the instant pot).
Anyways, I love it. If it’s still around when my daughter goes to college she will be given it; it would be perfect for a scenario where you want to cook but don’t want to have a full kitchen.
I had no problem growing cilantro in south central Texas, but have had zero luck in Minneapolis. All the other folks I have talked to about it have the same experience. /shrug
Yes, it is awesome. Made some super rich pork stock for ramen in it.
I haven’t tried making yogurt yet. Maybe something for this weekend.
I do, depending on the vegetables and what type, prefer making soup the old fashioned way. I’m better able to time veggie deployment. Maybe I’ll get better at slicing the right thickness.
While we’re talking about knife sharpening over in that other thread, I thought I’d ask about cutting grass. It’s not quite kitchen but I couldn’t find the garage gadgetry thread.
I have a weird yard with awkward terrain. Parts of it sprout grass, especially on a hill adjacent to my neighbor’s wood fence and down in a little triangle of dirt where my kid’s dead pets are buried. I could do nothing, but it turns into “evil plant” a.k.a. foxtail if I leave it alone (also it’s a fire hazard). There’s not a lot to cut and since the terrain is so weird I can’t use a lawn mower. What device should I get to cut this grass myself?
A trimmer is useful for odd bits of grass that aren’t amenable to a standard issue lawn mower. I have one from Worx that works very well. It has an automatic trimmer line feed and the head can be twisted around to act as an edger with wheels.
That being said I have an auto-feed wire spool and I have literally never had to think about it since I bought it a couple years ago, except to refill it once in a while, so I’d say it’s doing a fine job. I have a rando electric Black And Decker weed whacker that I bought from Home Depot, and it works fine for my limited purposes.
Today, I wouldn’t buy a gas powered weed whacker unless I ran a landscaping business. Battery capacity these days is fine, plus if its a real issue, you can spare batteries and swap halfway through. The frustrations of the gas-oil mixture, filters, and making sure the lines stay clear if you don’t use it for a winter (probably not a problem in Southern California) mean gas just isn’t worth it in my opinion, unless you really need the power / range.
I’ve got one of those, and it’s solid. It can edge my whole yard on a charge.
It’s my second one though. After a while, the batteries eventually crap out and can’t hold a full charge… Although the newer ones are better, and I haven’t had to replace it since getting the second one. Pretty standard battery stuff.
I’d definitely recommend a battery one over a wired one.
The pro of wired is that it will be significantly lighter. The con of wired is, of course, the wire. The cord is a pain in the butt even in a small yard, probably worse if you have to drag it out to odd corners and hills.
I’ve got a different version of that. I bought it when I had 3/4 acre to deal with. I mainly use it with the hedge trimmer attachment to lop of the Hostas in the fall now. It reminds me how puny my upper body strength is after about 30 min of wielding it.
Keep it simple. Unless you get full on cray-cray. Not that I would know anything about that. I think you just need a simple electric trimmer. I only have my current one because of past needs.
