2861

I bake my bread in a clay pot (unglazed). Works pretty well for that. If you soak it in water for a bit before you use it, it will release the moisture while baking, which is useful for some meals (not bread though). They are also quite cheap (~10 euro/piece) which is good 'cause I tend to break them every once a while due to my clumsiness.

2862

It’s possible you just overcooked it. Fresh pasta, because it still has quite a bit of moisture in it, needs substantially less cooking time than dried. If you cooked it for roughly half the amount of time you’d cook dry, I’d say your supposition is right. If you cooked it for about the same amount of time you’d cook dried pasta, you probably simply overcooked it.

2863

Interman piqued my interest so I made a pressure-cooker coq au vin last night, and it’s going on the permanent rotation. Same process as regular, brown chicken in fat in the cooker, throw in the veg, drain the fat, season, add wine and then cook 8 minutes. After the cooldown it was as good as any I’ve made the long way.

H.

2864

I took another run at the pasta thing after a trip to the Internet. I think the problem was that I had not worked the dough enough. The pasta turned out much better the second time after I put more effort into kneading the dough.

2865

Thanks for the tip. Didn’t even think about pulled pork sandwiches. Since the roast was so big, I chopped it into 2 and will try different methods over the weekend. Always learn a bit more about cooking when doing things in a series like that.

2866

Wow, that’s fast. Maybe I should pull the trigger on a pressure cooker too.

I made some stock last night from the leftover meat and bones, and I decided to go by a Joel Robuchon recipe and make a mushroom veloute soup. Finely mince a decent chunk of your mushroom of choice, but reserve a quarter of the amount. Cut these into thin slices.

Add the shrooms, a couple finely chopped cloves of garlic, the stock, and some ground coriander. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer, and give it a good ten minutes.

Saute some bacon and the thinly sliced mushrooms and leave them on a plate.

Use an immersion blender on the pot, reduce until you get close to your desired consistency (add some starch if you need), add a quarter of a can of creme fraiche, season with salt, pepper, coriander, and lemon juice. I used a couple table spoons or so of coriander and the juice from half a lemon.

Serve with the sauted mushroom and bacon, and add some chopped cilantro, parsley, or whatever herb you prefer.

nyfy3k.jpg1024×667

2867

Do you mind sharing the recipe? I think I might make it for lunch tomorrow.

2868

Since you go on to mention that you made some stock, yes, you should absolutely buy a pressure cooker - chicken stock in 20 minutes. Yes please.

2869

Well, it’s really any coq au vin recipe you would normally use, just with a different cooking time. I used this for reference:

Coq Au Vin

•1 (3-pound) chicken, cut up
•1 onion, sliced
•1 carrot, sliced
•3 tablespoons flour
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/4 teaspoon pepper
•4 slices bacon
•1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
•1 cup red wine
•1 clove garlic, minced
•2 teaspoons minced parsley
•1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil OR 1/2 teaspoon dry basil
•1 small bay leaf
•1 (1-pound) can white onions, drained

•1/4 cup brandy
Coat chicken, onion, and carrot in mixture of flour, salt, and pepper; set aside. Fry bacon in a 4- or 6-quart Presto® pressure cooker until crisp; remove, crumble, and set aside. Saute mushrooms in bacon drippings; remove and set aside. Brown chicken a few pieces at a time; set aside. Brown onions and carrots. Return all chicken to pressure cooker along with onions and carrots. Combine wine, garlic, parsley, basil, and bay leaf; pour over chicken. Close pressure cooker cover securely. Place pressure regulator on vent pipe. Cook for 8 minutes, at 15 pounds pressure, with regulator rocking slowly. Cool pressure cooker at once. Remove chicken and vegetables to a warm dish. Add mushrooms and canned onions to liquid and simmer until heated through; thicken if necessary. Add brandy and bacon; heat. Pour sauce over chicken and vegetables.
Makes 4 to 6 servings

But I substituted quite a bit, mine was more traditionally a chicken stew in wine than coq au vin since I didn’t have pearl onions handy. I just chopped red onions into wedges, carrots and peppers, plus seasonings. The important bit is the cooking time since you can devastate something in a cooker pretty quickly, but the carrots weren’t complete mush and the peppers stilll had a bit of tooth. What I did:

Olive oil in cooker, put in seasoned thigh chunks to brown on each side, five minutes for the fat side, two minutes for the flesh side. When the flesh side was down I threw in a carrot, half an onion, 1/4 poblano pepper, two cloves garlic, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. Once the two minutes was up I gave everything a quick stir then drained most of the oil out. cover 2/3 up with wine (shiraz from a box) and on goes the lid. Get to a rock, wait 8 minutes, turn off, wait 10 minutes for it to cool and release, and you’re done.

Pressure cookers absolutely rock the house if you like roasts/stews, beans, or stocks. Cook beans for 3 minutes of full pressure after an hour cold soak, cook a full chuck roast for 45 minutes, stocks vary on method. When I do a roast I just use sacrifice vegetables during the pressure cook, then take them out and replace with fresh once the lid releases and cook for another few minutes. The spent vegetables can go into mashed potatoes if you want to be thrifty.

H.

2870

I should have taken a picture, anyway after watching the end of season 2 of Boardwalk Empire , I wanted to try making Hopping John , here was the recipe I used off cooks.com

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1626,150184-241192,00.html

2 c. dried black eyed peas
3/4 lb. salt pork, cubed
4 c. water
1 1/2 c. raw rice
5 strips bacon, cut into 1/2" slices
3 c. water
5 cloves garlic
3/4 green pepper
1 (#2) can tomatoes
1 onion, chopped

Soak peas in hot water, covered for 2 hours; drain. Add salt pork and 4 cups of water. Cook, uncovered about 30 minutes. Add rice and 3 cups water. Fry bacon and drain. Combine garlic, green pepper and onion, add to bacon drippings. Saute until soft. Stir in remaining garlic-onion mixture and tomatoes. Mix into blackeyed peas. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally for about 28 minutes or until rice is done. Add bacon.

I have to say it was easy to make , and very tasty. Also I used country pork sausage instead of salted pork cubes.

2871

This is probably something fairly basic for those who can bake, but for a guy who doesn’t, it’s a bit of an accomplishment. I made crescent rolls from scratch using a recipe foun on the Internet. The recipe actually didn’t work, and I ended up adding more flour to the dough to make it form a ball that could be rolled out. I had so much dough I froze half of it.

The first batch was plain. Not bad as something on the breakfast table with some jam. So I decided to add some sharp cheddar for the second batch after thawing out the dough. This turned out much tastier.

2872

Got a few spare hours?

2873

For dinner tonight – 2 dishes from Ruhlman’s 20:

  1. French Onion soup
  2. Roast Chicken
    2a) Pan sauce for Roast Chicken

Then I will make stock with the leftover stuff from the roast chicken and use it for Hoppin John tomorrow.

Ruhlman hates store-bought chicken stock, and would rather people use water instead of it. I don’t know what to say about that.

2874

This sounds like a great idea. I’m making stew Monday. I’m going to do the slow cooker again. Browning the beef cubes in bacon fat sounds heavenly. And free bacon.

2875

How do you guys store your bacon fat, if you use if for cooking? I knew one guy who just poured it into what other people use as a sugar cup and put it into his pantry. But that doesn’t seem the healthiest to me. Shouldn’t you at least try to remove any little bits of bacon that might pour out as well?

I’ve just been using little canning jars, fill one up and put it in the fridge until it runs out and then I make more bacon. But could I just put it in the canning jar and leave it out?

2876

No need to worry about the little bacon bits, I don’t think. The real concern is that it will go rancid, but if you refrigerate it and use it in a reasonable time frame, you should be golden. I think a canning jar in the fridge works just fine.

2877

Yep, in the country we always kept a gasket-sealed piece of crockery on the kitchen counter for fat storage.

2878

My mom used to put it in a coffee can in the fridge, having it be solid makes it easier to measure.

2879

Made a lovely leg of lamb for New Years - deboned the top, and filled the pocket with stuffing made from blended breadcrunbs, pancetta, pine nuts, garlic, anchovies, oregano, mint, thyme and parsley.
Tied the meat together with cooking string, stuck a bunch of rosemary under the strings and rubbed everything on the outside with oil, salt and pebber - 1½ hours in the oven with potatoes, pouring over some good Chianti every 15 minutes. Rest for 15 minutes.
Delicious!

And I made an even taller version of the traditional (danish) marzipan cake this year:

2880

While my grandmother would keep bacon fat in a coffee can with a cover near the stove, I won’t do that.

My first wife used to leave soup in a pot on the stove with a plate over it for several days. I won’t do that.

Her mother would leave a jar of mayo on the kitchen table, not in the fridge. Her theory? Never use a dirty spoon or knife in it and only take what you need the first time. No double dipping.

I guess it’s a generational thing.

Me, everything goes in the fridge in a sealed container. Bacon fat as well. Then you can take a spoonful out when you need it.

Yeah I’m paranoid when food is concerned. But I’m still here. So far.