Try cuban-style empanadas, basically made of standard pie dough stuffed with a mix of ground beef, raisins, and highly spiced green olive picadillo. They’re spectacular.
That sounds awesome. I had chicken and beef empanadas over the weekend for the first time in a while. I love those things, but I’ve never really had cuban style? Sounds delicious though.
Between CLWheeljack’s sausage rolls and Timex’s stromboli I’m already hungry this morning. Timex, that shot looks professional, no joke.
I’ve been given the nod to make cottage pie (Shepherds Pie with hamburger) for Christmas Eve this year. I’m welcome to any super secret tips if you guys have any. My typical cheats are: fresh herbs, more Worcestershire sauce than is usually called for, 1/2 bottle of regular Guinness, and I use a ricer on my mash so it’s smooth.
But i’m always willing to take things to the next level. Any suggestions?
I’m getting better at making Stromboli now.
The epiphany that finally made it start working, is that you can’t just roll up a pizza. If you do this, it expands while cooking, unrolls some, and you end up with just one big cavity in the middle.
You need to put down a strip of toppings, and then roll the dough over the strip and seal it. Put another strip of toppings, roll over and seal it, repeat until there is no more dough.
It’s really not hard at all, but it took me a while to learn this, since I literally never had anyone show me how to make one, or ever looked at a recipe for one. I honestly don’t know why I never looked it up.
Cooked this weekend:
Pasta with Chicken, Eggplant and Balsamic
from How to Cook Everything Fast
Another variation of the recipe with wine and mushrooms or wine and leeks from upthread. In this case, instead of mushrooms or leeks, you use chopped up eggplant, and instead of straight wine, it’s a half red wine, half balsamic vinegar mix. Which makes for very deeply colored eggplant, boy howdy.
Yesterday’s project was
Shrimp Jambalaya
from How to Cook Everything
Get some olive oil heating in a large ovenproof pot (not sure why this is specified as the oven is never involved)
over medium-high heat. Add some onion, red and yellow bell pepper, and ham (optionally), all chopped. The recipe specifies cups but I am too lazy to measure that so I just used two onions and two peppers. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook until softened and lightly browned (10 minutes or so). Add 2 cups of rice, a couple tablespoons of minced garlic, a half teaspoon of cayenne (or to taste) and some dried or fresh thyme and cook for a minute or so. Then add a couple cups of chopped tomato (or canned diced) and cook for a few minutes, stirring until the tomato is starting to break down (the rice was starting to burn before the time specified so I moved on). Add four cups vegetable or shrimp stock, or water, bring to a boil, then turn down to medium and cook for 20-30 minutes uncovered, stirring periodically (I think I didn’t do this enough as the very bottom layer of rice was burned and stuck to the pan even after just 20 minutes). The goal is tender rice with the liquid just absorbed. Once you’re there, add 2 pounds of shrimp, stir in with a fork, cook for a couple more minutes and then let sit, covered, for 10-20 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley or chopped scallions or both.
I had never worked with shrimp before and was leery of doing so, since seafood in general is not my thing. But I sampled a couple kinds of shrimp at a buffet and it was inoffensive, so I figured I’d try it at home. Sounds like they are by default a lot of work (peeling, deveining, trimming) but Trader Joe’s sells frozen pound bags where that’s all done for you already so I just thawed them and mixed them in at the end and it worked great. I don’t know that I’m sufficiently enamored of the shrimp to seek them out, in the end, and even the medium sized ones I used are $8/lb versus <$6/lb for most meats so the premium is probably not worth it for me. But it’s some good jambalaya, all the same.
It sure looks good, I’d be all over that, Malkav.
I’m practicing baking mushroom-filled piroshki so I don’t disappoint anyone at my kid’s multicultural feast at school.
There they are just out of the oven.
I’m following my grandma’s recipe which involves a fair bit of cheating.
Total cook/clean time: 2 hours (I’m a slow chef)
Yield: number of biscuits x2 = 24 piroshki
Ingredients:
- 1 package of flaky buttermilk biscuits
- 2 small tubs (16oz) of mushrooms (I used one each of crimini and white)
- 1 large sweet onion
- 1 egg
- Some garlic
- A bit of pre-cooked rice
- Cut a large sweet onion into little pieces. Fry that in canola oil for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cut the white & crimini mushrooms into little pieces. Add that to the onions.
- Add 4 cubes of Dorot crushed frozen garlic because you’re lazy, okay? and of course you can use real garlic.
- Let all that simmer together until it stops looking super watery. I dunno how long. Maybe 10 more minutes. Then turn off the gas and set this stuff aside.
Meanwhile…
- Open the tube of flaky buttermilk biscuits. It’s important that the package is both flaky and buttermilk. Flaky means you can pry the biscuits apart. I don’t know why buttermilk is important, but my grandmother insists on it. I’m sure you could make yourself a dough that’s tastier, but I don’t know how. Anyway, ideally, the tube had been sitting on the counter for a while so that it gets warm and the biscuits are malleable.
It probably took you about 15 minutes to figure out how to open the biscuits, during which time the mushrooms have cooled a bit. Now’s a good time to turn on the oven and preheat to 425.
- Add some pre-cooked rice. You want the rice to soak up the excess liquid and make extra filling. I think I used about half a cup – half of a frozen rice packet.
- Take out one biscuit and pry it apart into two flatter biscuits. My grandmother did it in thirds but I can’t figure out how on Earth she got that to work. In half seems to work for me. Set one of the halves aside.
- For the first half, pull it into a large flat pancake, like a pizza crust. Be careful not to rip the dough.
- Place it into your off-hand palm, and spoon some (about a tablespoon) of the mushroom filling into it. Close it up. In my experience the dough doesn’t close well if even a bit of filling touches the edges, so be super careful with the spooning. Place the piroshok on a baking sheet with 1-2" separation from others.
- Repeat with the other half, and with the rest of the biscuits.
Now the finishing touch:
- In a separate bowl, beat an egg.
- Brush some of the egg onto the top of each piroshok so that they get all shiny after baking. Or, do as my grandma did, and dip the pretty side of each one into the egg.
Finally, the baking:
- Bake at 425 for, I dunno, 15 minutes? @ChristienMurawski, help me out here.
- Once they look golden, they’re probably ready. You want to make sure the folded-under part of the dough bakes through.
- Take them out and let them cool for a few minutes. Then eat them.
- For leftovers, you can reheat them in a toaster oven (I use the bagel setting).
Notice I used NO spices at all. YMMV! Add spices/salt/pepper to your liking.
Those sound interesting, fire. Is that the Pillsbury Grands you used for the biscuit tubes?
I’ve used the Pillsbury Grands before and they were fine, but this was some store generic (Kroger’s).
For camping, we pre-make a egg / sausage / cheese / onions / green pepper / garlic / olives and stuff this into the pre-made biscuits. Instead of splitting, I find it easier to just use the one and fold it over so you only have to seal one side. They come out looking more like empanadas since it’s a half-moon shape, but I think easier.
My experiments with pizza dough continue, and in making a Stromboli again.
But this is more about one of the things that is going in it, which is awesome spam.
I made a batch of ugly kolaczki today (ignore the clutter).
Apricot with a hint of vanilla and cherry. I’m not sure why they unrolled but they are delicious.
This isn’t so much cooking, but I thought folks might find it interesting.
I just popped some sorghum.
I used the microwave popcorn bowl that we’ve talked about before.
It’s neat. It is like tiny popcorn.
Hey this post reminded me to mention that with the little microwave bowl thing, plus the recommended popcorn stuff somewhere up thread by the maestro of popcorn himself, @Skipper, I made popcorn last night that was nigh indistinguishable from movie theater popcorn.
https://smile.amazon.com/Snappy-Yellow-Popcorn-4-Pounds/dp/B003832GRQ/
plus
https://smile.amazon.com/1-Jar-Colored-Coconut-Oil/dp/B00AU4N5D0/
plus
https://smile.amazon.com/Gold-Medal-Prod-Flavacol-Seasoning/dp/B004W8LT10/
It was perfect. Unfortunately I didn’t have the movie theater butter oil, but I bought it now and will try it next time. The kids were enamored.
Popcorn bowl mentioned:
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0089XJDIK/
Mine’s blue, but I don’t think that matters. :D
Hey, that’s awesome! I’ll pick up one of those bowls, most likely. It’s hard to get out of the habit of the whirley pop though.
A tip on the butter topping one you get some. It tastes great, it’s not real butter. Real butter can be used, however you need it clarified. Normal butter will wilt popcorn pretty badly, it does taste great though. But that oil acts as a great binder, it’s just hard to get it evenly distributed for that. I think it’s too thick for a sprayer, most likely. I use a small hand pump on it that I got of amazon.
I use that same binder to make tons of other flavored popcorn, as the flavors will stick to it.
I’ve found that the easiest way to butter popcorn from the microwave popper is this stuff:
https://olivio.com/enjoy-olivio-buttery-spray/
I’ve been making gummy candy. This is my second batch, firming up in the fridge.
I let them firm for a few hours, then I coat them in a sugar/citric acid mixture, then I put them back in the fridge overnight. The end result looks (and tastes) pretty good.
This specific thing appeals to me in a way that normal cooking and baking doesn’t. There are a lot of knobs to turn on the recipe that affect the consistency and flavor. My first batch turned out really loose, so I doubled the firming agent for the second batch. This batch is maybe just a touch too firm, like the consistency of licorice.
Fun to play around with, though! Planning on making some more batches during my holiday time off.
I… didn’t even know that making gummy candy was possible. It involves gelatin?
Yes! A lot!
Man, I’d really like to get hold of some popcorn salts & flavours, but unfortunately they just don’t have them over here! And if I want foreign stuff theres is hardly any available and it costs a fortune. Its nuts!
A 35oz flavacol for example costs 30$!
I’ve been making ramen noodles from scratch the last year or so. Only in the last couple of weeks have I used a thermometer and hygrometer to record stats (I’d already been recording different amount of flours, water, kansui, and salt).
The hygrometer has definitely opened things up as it has shown the big difference from when I concurrently make a stock and noodles. I also love the internet as folks have been down a similar road before
Initially I was planning on having my (possible) future shop use house-made noodles, but most shops in the US get theirs from Sun and most shops in Japan get theirs from a regional maker suitable to needs. But I continue to make my own as it’s cheaper and I don’t have to trek to the local Japanese import store for their Sun noodle selection. And I like spreadsheets.