Recipes, poetic foods, and virtual dinner parties from everyone's favorite Bozemanite, and encouragement to share the best of yours.
Tonight, my late-evening impromptu cooking was my snappy fresh salsa. Here's how it goes:
Chop finely half a bunch of fresh cilantro... let it sit in an inch or so of rice vinegar.
Add half a white onion, stir in with the cilantro, add more vinegar and some salt whenever you feel like it
Chop up 7 to 10 fresh roma tomatoes. Actually, only dice 5 or 6 of them - mash the other ones up with a potato masher... better consistency.
Add a small can of chilpotle peppers, diced up (I like Embasa brand - they come in a smoky sauce). Chilpotles are dried & smoked jalapenos, so they get really spicy really fast. When you add the whole can, you can kill your roommate with it.
Stir and enjoy with freshly fried corn tortillas or chips from a bag. OR - use as a topping for Navajo tacos. Just don't kill your roommate the week before rent's due.
Gotta keep it in the fridge - it's uncooked and gets funky left out.
Enjoy! And let me know what's cookin' at your place.
[ March 06, 2004, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: Annie ]
Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
I don't know about you guys, but I am heading over to Annie's. I'll be bringing some limes and essentials for imbibement (at this time I don't know if this is an actual word and this doesn't necessarily mean alcohol). Someone bring the chips.
Well she did say she wanted a .
I know. I know. Not at her place though. But she made the salsa...
[ August 22, 2003, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: larisse ]
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Hey, the periwinkle palace is open all night; come on over.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
I'll just have you know - my salsa was so pico it killed three people today. It's alright, though, they went happily.
Tonight it's potstickers, a recipe I got from my good friend Huang - straight from Beijing.
The dough is still kind of a mystery to me - I asked Huang how she makes hers, and she just tells me "with flour." A simple egg noodle dough is what I've used, and it's stretchy enough it works pretty well. The time consuming part is getting it all rolled out. These dumplings should be small and delicate, and though I rarely have the patiece for that, it tends to work best. Roll the dough out in a long snake, and cut little 1/2 inch circular slices. Roll these out as thin as they will possibly go, and then fill with:
Ground pork (the trick to making it truly Chinese is getting over the American beef obsession), fresh green beans chopped very finely, soy sauce, garlic, and shredded ginger if you like.
Fill the circles rather full - they should be fat and dimpley. A little water will help seal the edges, and if you're going for authentic, scallop them as you fold.
Drop them into boiling water and cook until they're all floating at the top. You can eat them as they are (water dumplings), or fry them in a little oil. Alternately, you can skip the boiling water and set them in the bottom of a large skillet with a little layer of oil. Cook on medium until brown, flip the whole mass over and brown the other side. Then - pour half an inch of water in the pan and cover it, letting them cook until they almost cement themselves to the pot. These are steam dumplings. I hear there's also a method to make oil dumplings by completely deep frying them, but I've never tried it.
Serve them hot, and feed your guest so many of them that their buttons pull a little. This is the whole meal - not just an appetizer.
Dip in rice vinegar or balsamic vinegar, or in soy sauce. Or - you can heat up some oil and pour it over a bowl of crushed red pepper, making a pepper oil that will put your American guests into a temporary coma. Try not to overdo it.
And a brief prosey thought tonight on the pepper: The pepper is a curious, spitefully loveable little beast. You know he's got too much of that Deadly Nightshade blood in his veins and all he really wants from you is your immortal soul. But he'll tease it out of you - he'll taunt you with a piquant aroma that makes you want to cry. He'll lounge around in that oh-so-lustrous little skin of his, acting the part of a voluptuous little nude model on your countertop, just screaming for a still life. And then he'll burn you again when you cut him open, but oh how jovially he'll chop into those fine little pieces. So innocent they look in your salsa or sopa or mole, but how connivingly they disguise themselves as joyful little christmas lights, just lying in wait for their true mission - that covert attack on your duodenum....
Posted by Storm Saxon (Member # 3101) on :
I wish I could cook. Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
It's all mental, really. Very little cooking actually happens to the food.
You've just gotta break out of the box!
I think I shall start teaching seminars... cooking retreats. Yeah. Even you can cook, Storm, for the low weekend price of $289.95....
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
(Is hopeless at cooking, not to mention poor)
Can't afford your lessons, Annie. I think I'll continue to eat ramen and frozen pizza until I find a guy who can cook and marry him...
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Oh, dear. Now, that won't do. Maybe I could cook you dinners, freeze them, and mail them to you. My mom did that once when I lived in the dorms. She sent me a big box full of frozen makings for gyros. Yep - the meat, the pita, the feta, the cucmber sauce. I felt so cool microwaving my little gyros while everyone else was microwaving cup o noodles.
My mother is way too loving and generous for her own good.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
Annie, your mom is cool. But I've got a meal plan, so I'm OK. I actually like institution food. ^_^ And I don't eat much...
Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
Ooooo... pita bread. Not a big fan of lamb, but I do love me some pita, feta, and cucumber sauce. Personally, I am a spanikopita fan. Now that is some good eatin'. Baklava, yum.
Cooking is a passion enjoyed not just by the cook.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
I love to cook.
Scott R's Sure-Phyre Guacamole:
2 ripe avocados Half a lemon 2 roma tomatoes A suitable quantity of habanero peppers 4-6 green onions
Peel, pit, and scoop the avocados into a bowl. Dice the tomatoes very fine-- ditto with the onions, and peppers AFTER SEEDING THEM!!! (I like to roast the onions and peppers first-- seed them, cut the peppers in half, and toss them in a skillet. When the onions are a little golden, everything is fine, just fine. . .ahhh. . .)
The most important step here is to seed the peppers. Do not forget it.
Dump everything into a bowl and squeeze the lemon over it. Mash and stir, mash and stir, until the guacamole is as consistent as you like it.
Add some salt.
Now you need some fajitas:
Beef skirt-- tenderize it (while uncut, take a fork and poke SMALL holes in both sides of the meat-- don't forget to do around the edges, too.)
Marinate the beef for an hour or so-- I use worchestershire sauce, lime, and black pepper.
Grill to satisfaction. While you're grilling, you might as well pop some onions (cut thickly) and bell peppers up there with the beef.
When done grilling, cut the beef into half inch strips, about 2-3 inches long. Serve on warm flour tortillas.
Be happy.
[ August 23, 2003, 11:47 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Tonight, for our Risk party, it was popcorn (from the stove, of course) sprinkled with onion powder, salt, chili powder and a little cayenne. If you want to be fatty, melt some farmer's cheese over it, but it's great without.
Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
Well, I can do something about the flour tortillas. Can make them from scratch. Roasted tomatoes are also a good addition on fajitas.
Oh, and whatever you do. Do NOT touch your eyes while deseeding or cutting up those habanero peppers. Of course, just by me mentioning this, your eyes will begin to itch and you will want to scratch them.
You know, we have the makings of a nice late summer fiesta for Hatrack.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
I'd even wear kitchen gloves while de-seeding the habaneros - there's nothing worse than pepper acid under your fingernails.
How do you make your flour tortillas, larisse? I've made corn tortillas from scratch, but I'm never as successful as I would like - the dough's always too dry or too sticky to roll our easily. I've also made flour tortillas with the Quaker Masa Harina mix, but that's cheating. Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
People who cook are like morning people to me: mysterious and arcane and have the evolutionary advantage.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
We all wear watches too, I'm sure Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
That's a different kind of arcane. Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
I just use unbleached flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening. Add water when you start mixing by hand. But, I do admit to using the pre-mix as well. It saves time, and is less messy. I have this tendancy to get dry products all over me. Sugar, flour, corn meal, baking powder... just seem to love to get on my shirts and in my hair. So the less I have to mess with the better.
Sadly, I cannot wear watches. They tend to die on me .
Waking up early in the morning... hmmm. That would constitute going to sleep first. I have a slight case of insomnia. Thus my being awake at this time of night/morning.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
This needed bumping.
I needed an excuse to show off what very well may be the coolest thing I've ever cooked, the Visa cake. It was the birthday cake for my friend Abby's eBay birthday party. (I made the giant Abby/eBay logo card too )
Anyway, the inside of the cake was the best part. Here was what I did:
I used a fudge cake mix simply for time's sake, but a chocolate cake of any variety will work. I grated the rind of an entire orange directly into the batter, and then added some (maybe 2 tsp?) ground cloves. Then I grated some dark chocolate into the batter for good measure.
I frosted it with a thin layer of white buttercream frosting (the thinner the better), and sifted powdered sugar on the top, then covering it with wax paper and smoothing it with a rolling pin to get a smooth white finish. The decoration was all done with chocolate - I melted white chocolate and dyed it blue and yellow. The only trick is: you've got to use "candy color" food coloring, it's formulated especially for foods with an oil base like chocolate. I then used a little plastic squeeze bottle with a narrow tip and piped the design on to wax paper over a drawing of the letters and stripes in their proper size. I forgot to do it in a mirroir image so the shiny side of the chocolate letters could be up, but I flipped over the blue & yellow stripes to get the shininess. Then I melted dark chocolate and poured it into a flat sheet and cut it in strips to surround the sides of the cake. The writing is done with dark chocolate melted with a little hot water and piped out with the squeeze bottle.
It was lots of fun and very very tasty. Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
Annie that is a cool cake. Sounds yummy.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Your are way too cool for words and/ emoticons. ...
Hobbes Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
Nice cake!
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Hee hee - tonight I had to cook a "hillbilly dinner"
I cut an elk roast into strips and marinated it in vinegar, molasses, ketchup, marmalade, and garlic. Then I skewered it and broiled it. We told everyone it was squirrel. We also ate johnny cakes (a half-cornbread patty fried in shortening), succotash (which I like to make with onions and butter, green beans, corn, and black beans), corn on the cob, and apple crisp. We carried it all in bandanas tied to sticks. The best part, though, was a big ceramic whiskey jug filled with apple cider.
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