We had red abalone tonight, which was a bit of an experience:
— Alan
That looks … interesting.
I made some slightly special dinner rolls today. A guy I know tipped me about replacing the salt with soy sauce, and adding a higher than normal amount of honey. I did that, and it’s a pretty neat trick if you want to serve something different along with the protein. You need more soy sauce than you probably think though.
Also, I’ve put together a quick page for my food pics. You can check it out here https://sites.google.com/site/foodbyandreasmisundberntsen/home . Excuse the lame design for now.
That’s actually the “foot”, the Abalone is upside down (shell on the bottom).
— Alan
Man, I remember having abalone as a kid during summers at Dillon Beach. Great on beach-fire pizza.
Juste
2745
Well, autumn is here. Yesterday was biting cold, 3 degrees Celsius (37f) in the morning. So, time for soup! I did a quick Onion soup with bacon and some cheese-filled bread from scratch. Could have gone a bit heavier on the spices, but nice and warming for a cold day.
Finally tried the Jeff Lahey way of breadbaking - that is definitely something I shall experiment more with. Fantastic bread.
tiohn
2747
I popped popcorn in bacon fat.
It was SO GOOD.
Tilapia filets poached in tea (cheap Twinings Breakfast Tea, but it was an experiment), seasoned with some cracked pepper, lemon zest, and parsley. Damn good football-watching food.
I could really use a recipe for spicy refrigerator pickles. I was going to try Alton Brown’s B&B thing, but I wanted to check here first to see if anybody has another recipe/method they like. I’m using Persian cucumbers.
Thanks!
-xtien
Siren
2750
I still feel like a cooking noob. Could you post a recipe, or the general idea of what you did? I want to dive into my computer and eat this.
Juste
2751
Absolutely. Cut up a couple of onions ans sautee them in butter until they soften up a bit. Boil chicken stock ( or vegetable if you prefer) and add bits of bacon, the onions and your preferred spices. I use thyme and/or rosemary. Toast some bread and grate some cheese. I used Jarlsberg, Gruyere is best. Ladle the soup into the bowls, put the toast on top and finally the cheese. Put into a hot oven until the cheese melts. Eat!
The cheese bread is just a basic pizza dough rolled thin, filled with grated cheese and thyme, double up and rolled again. 2 minutes in the oven and it’s ready.
Been a while since my last food pics. Here’s what in Norway we call a “fyrstekake”, or a royalty cake. It’s basically a sweet almond cake. Not too hard to make, though the lattice was a bit of a pain.
Recipe can be found here http://www.norway-hei.com/fyrstekake.html
claybob
2753
I know it sounds bizarre, but sprinkle in some red pepper flakes (or whatever hot spice you like best) let it set for a few days and see how it turns out. My father-in-law buys cheap pickles and puts them in the brine of the better ones and they taste darn near the same. The crispness and texture quality are that of the cucumber put in, but the taste is identical.
A kickass cranberry vanilla coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen. It was a bit messy to assemble, but the crackly streusel top and the dash of scotch I put in with the cranberries are seriously awesome. I don’t usually toot my own horn with my cooking, either. :)
Damn, those look good! Tell me it’s like eating a chocolate cloud.
Scuzz
2757
Anyone here ever grill sweet potatoes on a BBQ? If so, were you happy with them and how thin did you cut them? How long did they take to cook?
I am not a big sweet potato fan but I am liking sweet potato fries and mashed sweet potatoes.
nKoan
2758
I will grill sweet potatoes from time to time. Do about 1/2 slices, oil both sides and then add salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I’ll put on cayenne pepper too. Some people like cinnamon and sugar, but most sweet potatoes are already sweet enough as it is.
As for time… I don’t know. 5-10 minutes? I don’t really time it, I just wait for them to get a good char on each side and pull them off.
Now I want to try grilling/frying sweet potatoes in a tostone style, like plantains. Mmm, plantains.
Marged
2760
We’re throwing a brunch for about 30 people and I have been obsessing about the menu for ages. I LOVE throwing parties and haven’t been able to throw one in forever. It’s more lunch than breakfast, but this is the menu I’ve come up with:
A ham. I would have preferred Harrington’s, but it was just out of my price range, so I’m going to pick up a Honeybaked ham. Nothing says party like a ham.
Homemade biscuits - Cook’s Illustrated freezer biscuits, made in advance. There will be cheddar/green onion, and plain.
Apricot almond muffins - batter made ahead and frozen in muffin tins. I may make another freezer muffin if I get ambitious.
Macaroni and cheese - made ahead and frozen.
Some guests are providing things like spinach pie and vegetable or fruit things.
Bloody Mary’s. Maybe I’ll be able to score some homemade horseradish from my dad.
Anyway the only thing I’ll have to do the morning of is shuttle baked goods in and out of the oven, and assemble Bloody Mary’s. Voila, brunch for a crowd!
