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Hmm, I thought about coriander and then though better. I ended up putting on pepper, salt, garlic and oregano, and then putting some sesame seeds on the frying pan (I don't have a grill ). Pretty tasty. It's a great way to welcome in that spring weather.
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And my culinary achievment: last night I made use-up-what's-in-the-pantry-and-fridge lasagna.
We had no tomatoes of any kind - tinned, fresh, paste whatever.
So I gently cooked a finely diced onion and about 6 cloves of garlic until they were all soft and golden, then added beef mince and a diced red pepper. Turned up the heat, added crushed coriander seeds, ground fennel, ground cumin and firestorm*. Cooked until it was all sizzling and happy.
Then I made a standard bechemal, but added some grated pecorino cheese at the end. It turned out as one of my best bechemals - not to thick, not too liquidy,
Then I layered the bechemal, pasta sheets, mince mixture, diced basil and grated mozarella until we had a lasagna.
It turned out really well - more subtly flavoured than a tomato-based lasgna, and quite enjoyable for the subtlety. The spice flavours came through nicely, and the basil just freshened everything up.
And there's leftovers for lunch.
* A spice mixture in a grinder made from black peppercorns, white peppercorns, citrus zest, mace, cloves, poppy seeds and nigella seeds.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Funny, hamburgers, if the meat is excellent, I just want to be hamburger, salt, and pepper. I like cheeseburgers plain. I like to taste the meat.
On steak these days, I like butter. (I have not put it on due to the watching of weight) This is actually quite a culinary trend at the moment, with all kinds of flavored butters. Being raised on country cooking, just plain old butter, with half a shaker-full of salt, is heaven to me.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I still haven't gotten a chance to scan the pictures of the cake I made... however, this is the website of the company I do work for (however, the cake I was talking about was not through them)
If you go to "wedding cakes" I did the one labled The Dr. Seuss and The Simply Romance (you have to click on more to get to simply romance)
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That is awesome! I used to make creative birthday cakes for the kids. Then I realized that they really preferred the supermarket ones. I am not a lover of baking.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I've actually never made a "professional" cake for family
Closest would be "practice" cakes. My little brother and sister make all the birthday cakes for the parents and my stepmom loves making birthday cakes for everybody else. I would never dream on intruding in on them.
Posts: 944 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Jaiden, those are lovely! As you can see, I am nowhere near your level, but I sure do enjoy it. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I finally found a brand of yogurt that is just milk and culture, no additives, so it drains properly to make lebaneh, which means that yesterday and today I breakfasted in proper Arab style: lebaneh (the drained yogurt), zeit (olive oil, in this case the best olive oil I've ever tasted, which came all the way from the West Bank), and za'atar (thyme and some other things), all eaten off a plate with Arabic bread (flatbread).
And now all is right with the world. I am content.
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That soinds really good, Twinky! I have drained yogurt before and added herbs to make a fat free cream cheesy spread. We have Stonyfield Farms yogurt around here, do you?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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No, I don't think we do. The brand I bought, on my mother's advice, was Astro. It works pretty well.
Edit: Normal yogurt is "leban" is Arabic, while this drained yogurt is "lebaneh." Also, I bought lentils with an eye toward making mujaddarah (lentils, rice, and onions, served with leban), but turns out I bought the wrong kind of lentils, so now I guess I have to learn how to make lentil soup. I've never made soup before.
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A friend once made me the most amazing lebaneh and black pepper icecream.
She served it as a palate cleanser during a dinner party (yeah, she liked doing things like that). But this icecream - *oh*. Creamy and peppery and tart and just so good.
I should really hunt down the recipe. Astro yoghurt, huh?
And tonight at the grocery store I finally tracked down the tahini, so I can make hummus! Plus I nabbed a few more spices and a bottle of lemon juice (also needed for hummus).
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Israelis call it leben. It gets imported here (actually, so do a lot of the brands from various Arab countries).
Yum! (especially chocolate leben, which I know is not exactly authentic, but very good)
I'm not a big fan of za'atar, though. Not sure why -- someone once told me all the spices in it, and I think I like them all. Just not the combination.
im, I don't know what twinky used, but I've used coffee filters to drain yogurt in the past. (I have a great cheesecake recipe that uses thoroughly-drained yogurt as a main ingredient.)
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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And homemade hummus is goooood. I used to think I didn't like hummus much. Then I had homemade. *drools*
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Twinky, when Trader Joe's is available, I will buy their roasted garlic hummus because I'm lazy and it comes in an easily-transportable pre-sealed package.
I grew up in an area with a huge Armenian-American population, and so store-bought, authentic lebaneh was readily available; not that I like it. *hates yogurt*
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*just made some delicious roasted-garlic hummus
twinky, you've sparked a craving in me for plain yogurt. I love the thick, sour creaminess. We'll be making our own again soon, I can tell -- and when I make my own, I always strain it.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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I'm pretty proud of myself. I never had the inclination, or time, really, to cook through my university career, so I just ate as efficiently as possible. Now I have a proper kitchen and kitchen supplies, so I can learn to make all of the things I miss from home. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I just made a very tasty beef vindaloo. One of the toughest parts was the shopping for it! I ended up hanging eggs, milk, a bag of potatoes and various other ingredients all on the front of my bike!
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Part of the reason I don't have a car is that not having one makes me feel more like a student.
Of course, I don't have a bike either...
I need to go grocery shopping pretty badly, though, I've run out of spinach and greens for salads, among other things. But I also need to do laundry (though not desperately, I have a few days of unmentionables left). Decisions, decisions...
One of these days I need to get on that lentil soup thing, too. That other bag of lentils I bought isn't going anywhere.
Hobbes, you're a mighty adventurous cook for someone still in university. What the heck kind of engineering are you studying where you have that kind of time, anyway? Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I am going to try a green chili tonight or tomorrow. A friend sent me some when I was sick, and it was the best thing ever. it has also inspired me to get back into the gardening world, because good chile peppers are so hard to find, and so very fun to grow.
I will also attempt beer cheese soup tonight.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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It's really not hard to arrange your schedule so you have time to cook, if you make it a priority.
And I walk to the store quite often, but I usually end up with all the groceries either in the bottom of the stroller, or hanging on my arm as I push the stroller. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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OK, ingredients for green chili and beer-cheese soup have been purchased. I went to Whole Foods Market for the first time since it was Bread and Circus, and felt like a kid in a candy shop. Holy Whole Foods, Batman!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I did it! I made the berr cheese soup. i have to modify a bunch of things for next time, but I have a good base recipe for trying to make it like Mister Ups'
Problem is, I decided to use Arrogant Bastard Ale, which is very strong. The recipe calls for only 6 oz, but it happens to be one of those really big, like liter, bottles. Which, of course, i had to polish off. So, no more posting for me! I would be PUI. Well, i am PUI. OK, off to eat more.
Want to hear how much I've atrophied? While Imogen was improvising tomatoless lasagna, I was dipping Peeps in chocolate.
Posts: 285 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Boon
unregistered
posted
I made a simple broccoli-chicken stir-fry for dinner last night and got the ultimate rave-review.
My husband, who NEVER takes his lunch to work, stole my leftovers from the fridge this morning. I had to eat a turkey sammich for lunch!
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I must change the chili verde success to a failure. Ahem. I left it on the stove to simmer and burned the tar out of it. I managed to salvage a cup. One cup for hours of labor. Rats.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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quote:It's really not hard to arrange your schedule so you have time to cook, if you make it a priority.
I agree with that, though I have more free time than a lot of people so maybe I should shut up. Rather, I have more flexible time than most.
Anyway. My culinary acheivement was messing with yet another potroast recipe that came out absolutely delicious last night. I love my crock pot because it allows me to cook very tasty food with very little actual effort. I put the cream of mushroom soup at the bottom, put a bed of cut up potatoes on top of that, seared the mostly frozen meat (sirloin tip roast) and laid it on top of the potatoes. Then sprinkled lipton dry onion soup over that. Cooked low for 10 hours.
Oh man...the meat was good, but the potatoes were incredible. Next time I'm going to put carrots in too.
Last week's acheivement was crock pot meatloaf that my family ate over half of in the first sitting. It was enormous, so I figured we were good for most of the week. It didn't last past Tuesday.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I treated myself well today, probably because I had a lot of homework I wanted to put off. Fresh, homemade pasta with steamed, sliced peppers. Sitting in my fridge is a marbled, cheesecake supreme.
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Homemade pasta, Hobbes? I hope you have a pasta maker, or at the very least, a KitchenAid. I made home-made pasta by hand in foods class, and it's an experience I don't wish to repeat. It was delicious, but I was too exhausted to care.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Yes KitchenAid, no pasta maker. I don't think it's that tough, even to do it by hand isn't that bad. I've got a great glass cutting board, just roll the dough out on it and cut it up with a chef's knife. I've recently gotten it down so that I can make homemade pasta faster than store bought (I make the dough in less time than it takes the water to boil, and homemade pasta doesn't have to cook as long).
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Hobbes, it's the hand-kneading and then running though a hand-roller ten gazillion times that kills you.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Seriously though, I like using the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid, but sometimes I even skip that and knead it myself, and I always roll it myself. When you're making enough for one or two it doesn't get that bad.
I invented a new approach to birthday cakes. Who needs icing when you can use melted chocolate?
(actually, I melt the chocolate and then whisk in some boiling water - makes it easy to pour, and then hardens to a soft creamy texture. And tastes darker.)
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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). Pretty tasty. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
It's a great way to welcome in that spring weather. ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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Not sure why -- someone once told me all the spices in it, and I think I like them all. Just not the combination. ![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
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