4061

There are some awesome looking meals here everyone, congrats, too bad with a goal of trying to eat healthy I have to skip them (and some I don’t have the talent to make). I thought I would share what I made myself tonight

Very easy to make, A onion, garlic, a zucchini, a can of chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes. Equal amounts of cinnamon, chili powder and cumin. I use a teaspoon and a half each. Quick and healthy with a piece of wholewheat pita.

Any other quick and healthy meals would be great to see.

4062

I was going to do an effortpost about the cookbooks I use (and for a bonus, some of my key kitchen purchases), but then boardgaming took until almost 11. So tomorrow, probably! Also that looks really good, @TundraToad.

I am afraid that I’m not terribly good at finding things that are both healthy and that sound like I want to eat them, but How To Cook Everything Fast has a number of veggie dishes that might work for you. Or meat-and-veg, depending. Links and more, tomorrow!

4063

The recipe mostly worked. I didn’t have a pasta roller/cutter so had to do things by hand and managed to only slice myself once. Luckily I ran into these videos on youtube about soba noodles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xV-vEiCXXg. I’m getting a kick out of this series: no talking, just showing.

Made six batches of dough. Two were mostly usable. Final bowl for a while.

20161215_134048.jpg2548×1433 889 KB

Re: the pressure cooker, I think I figured out why my instantpot didn’t quite work. The preset programs on it cycle temperatur and pressure different ways over time. Their site recommends doing cycles of low and high pressure to get a more aggressive boil going.

4064

Ok, so:


My staple slow cooker cookbooks. This is what kicked off my ongoing cooking habit. I recommend the first one foremost as it’s a good all around cookbook. Volume 2 is the ‘easy prep’ edition, so although there’s a bunch more great recipes, there are some shortcuts taken that aren’t necessarily ideal. In particular I am annoyed that it’s started calling for onions by “cups” rather than number of onions, which is actually more work to track unless you’re using frozen onions (I think they are, but I actually can’t find any at any of my three local groceries and anyway onions are easy). The prep is never actually that onerous in any of the recipes in either. There is a third “healthy” one, which I also own but to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever used it. And the Kindle formatting is progressively worse with each one, to the point that volume 3 doesn’t even have a quick link to the table of contents.

Once I started branching out from the slow cooker, I took up


which is still a major staple for me. It has a huge range of great recipes, they’re all quite easy and have variants and side recommendations (with the recipes for said sides at the back). It is impeccably organized and I LOVE the way it integrates the prep into the actual recipe in a way that a) makes best use of time and b) doesn’t hide a bunch of extra work and time (the biggest amounts, usually) in the ingredient list the way most cookbooks seem to. Plus it’s got technique tips and such interspersed throughout.

Once I picked up my dutch oven I started using some of America’s Test Kitchen’s other cookbooks, including


which is my most used because I love pasta, as well as

(because who doesn’t love Mexican)


(this one gets a lot less use than Lost Suppers because over half the book is recipes for baked goods - cakes and pies, mainly. maybe someday, but I am not baking cakes or pies for one person. baaad idea.)

(so far mainly just Chicken Riggies, which are awesome as all hell, but a lot of other stuff looks good)

I haven’t cooked from it in ages but I was also very impressed by https://www.amazon.com/Best-Casserole-Cookbook-Ever/dp/0811856240/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481866095&sr=8-1&keywords=beatrice+ojakangas+best+casserole
during an earlier cooking phase that didn’t take nearly as well.

My current, excellent slow cooker (which has only been lightly used since my big slow cooker phase happened with my previous one, a CrockPot whose liner is now cracked): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MMNBDO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This cutting board has been invaluable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AAM0EY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My excellent dutch oven: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U1OCPWQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My trusty skillet is a somewhat battered hand-me-down from my parents (who had to stop using it when they switched to an induction stove) so I highly doubt they still sell its exact model, but this seems similar: https://www.amazon.com/Scanpan-Professional-12-5-Inch-Fry-Pan/dp/B000NI6DMS/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1481866366&sr=8-9&keywords=scanpan+skillet

4065

Provencal Braised Pork and Fennel
from How to Cook Everything Fast

OH MY GOD SO GOOD. LIKE SERIOUSLY ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER EATEN.

Ahem.

Anyway. You cut up some pork shoulder, salt, pepper, brown it in olive oil for a few minutes. Cut up a couple bulbs of fennel, add to the pork, salt, pepper, soften for a few minutes. Mix in a few sprigs of fresh thyme, a few minced cloves of garlic, 2-3 anchovy fillets (chopped), some pitted kalamata olives (chopped), some capers. Cook for a couple more minutes. Add a cup of white wine and let it bubble for a minute or so. Mix in a can of diced tomatoes (or two tomatoes, chopped), bring to a boil, then turn down to a steady simmer and cook for another 10-15 minutes, stirring periodically as the sauce thickens. Garnish with fresh basil. Or if fresh basil is almost $3 near you like it is for me (and for a tiny amount of garnish), substitute dried.

SO GOOD.

4066

@malkav11 do you find the pork shoulder gets tender with the (relatively) short-sounding cook time? Because that looks gorgeous and sounds gorgeous and I’d love to make it once I’m finally past holiday cooking madness!!

Tonight was the culmination of the back half of my Indian cookery for the week. Butter Paneer (Shahi Paneer), leftover Vegetable-Chickpea Saag, and fresh-made Vegetable Pakoras (with potatoes, onions, carrots, and chilies). Yummo!

2016-12-19 22.39.59.jpg2610×1468 997 KB

4067

In total it spent like 25-30 minutes cooking, so it’s not -that- short. And yes, it was definitely tender. But if you have the time, the recipe suggests you could cut it into bigger chunks and then once you add the tomatoes, cover it and cook for up to 3 hours so it just falls apart.

4068

This sounds like exactly the thing my Lodge cast iron dutch oven was made for. . .

4069

I continue to be baffled by how amazing wine is as a cooking component when I dislike it so much as a beverage, incidentally.

4070

I’m the same way. There are maybe two wines, so far, I can tolerate. I only ever buy it to cook with. Chicken broth as a substitute for white wine is not sufficient.

4071

I do the same with beer and bourbon, even though I do like to drink them too. Alcohol and it’s flavors really add a lot to a dish. The first time I made a pan sauce with a stout beer it blew me away.

4072

Sous vide elk tenderloin!

4073

I got an Instant Pot pressure cooker on Black Friday. Been using it to cook whole chickens and rice but today tried a pot roast recipe that turned out great!

4074

I’m gonna call this Christmas dinner a major success. ~8 hours of nonstop labor to produce roasted turkey, chicken and vegetable biryani with fried potatoes and roasted almonds, 7 cheese mac n cheese, sweet potato casserole, roasted winter veggies with maple-ginger glaze and toasted pecans, cheddar-herb beer bread, bourbon pecan pie, and chocolate chip cheesecake.

20161225_191001.jpg2087×1174 829 KB

4075

Goddamit where is my like button. That looks fantastic!

4076

Agreed.

4077

Does look mighty tasty. My wife invited some friends over on the 23rd which was a great excuse to smoke my third brisket. Good stuff.

I will be doing pulled pork for New Years. I have a new rub I am excited to use. I’ve made pork spare ribs twice with it, but should be awesome on shoulder as well.

4078

Well I didn’t get an after shot because I was busy playing host, but Christmas Day this year I went out of my element a bit and did Cornish Hens and cornbread stuffing (per request).

Cornish Hen.jpg1689×950 172 KB

They turned out really well though.

My favorite though was the prime rib meal my dad made the night before.

4079

So, I’ve been tinkering with a rub recipe for pork named for the awesome chiles from New Mexico, and now that I’ve had a chance to use it on pulled pork last night, I wanted to share:

Down the Hatch rub

2T citrus pepper**
T ground mild green New Mexico chiles
T white table sugar
T garlic powder
T onion powder
T mustard powder
T white balsamic Vinegar powder**
T ginger
tsp 5-spice

So, the idea here was to have a bright, tangy rub with a citrus note to it, while avoiding too much in the way of darker favors like coffee, cocoa, etc. having used this on spareribs and shoulder, I’m very happy with the results. Note that I dry brine meat with salt before smoking (1/2 tsp per pound) so there’s no salt in the rub itself. This makes enough rub to generously cover a pork shoulder.

The citrus pepper (I get this, the chili power, and the balsamic vinegar powder from Savory Spice) has some onion, garlic, and a bit of paprika in it. I think you could get a reasonable approximation with a tablespoon of finely ground black pepper and 1 teaspoon each of lemon and orange peel. I like the vinegar powder a lot, but I think the rub would be fine without, just a bit less zingy.

The rub has a very nice mild heat from the ginger and mild green chile. You could use hotter chiles if you wanted more heat or a completely different kind if you like. You can get ground mild hatch chiles and balsamic vinegar powder on Amazon.

I have not cooked any lamb on the smoker yet, but will probably set my sights on that soon. I’ve been kicking around a lamb rub in my head too.

4080

Round 2 making pressure cooker Chicken Rice Soup came out a lot better than the first (1/2 inch mat of rice nearly burned down my house). This time featuring some red taters tossed in!

Chicken rice soup with taters! by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

Lessons learned:
Cook rice first, 1.25:1 water: rice
Once rice is done then add the stock and other stuff
Add salt. Stock alone is not enough
Add some ground pepper
Skip the taters next time. Add carrot and celery. 1 cup of rice is still probably too much, 1.5 is way overkill.