The Cooking Thread
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Status: Making @Lorne-Kates' cheese taco shells in preparation for the steak I have marinating to become carne asada soon.
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The lamb rogan josh we had
todayyesterday was awesome, though rather spicy. Guess we slightly overdid the Kashmiri chillies. :) Made up all the spice mixes ourselves. That's more fun than using pre-made stuff, and cheaper in the long run if you've got the storage space. Also used good quality meat for it; that's really worthwhile if you're not using something that cooks quickly (like chicken strips or turkey strips). Washed it all down with a nice beer.No idea if the recipe is online anywhere, but I'm not typing it in anyway. So I'm lazy. ;)
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Tonight, I give you a prime example of the word I coined earlier in the thread, "Tacoifying"
While assessing the pantry situation today, I discovered major contamination: A bag of potatos had gone off in spectacular manner and contaminated my entire 'dry veg' bin - onions, taters and crucially, GARLIC!
Fuck. All that has since been chucked out into the yard to feed wildlife. Mowing the lawn where the garlic landed will be a lovely experience, no doubt.
In addition, the canned goods shelf is bare. No veg there. No beans, either. Lame. Freezer is bare of non-sausage meats.
So that's an 'off to the grocery store'. But I'm about to go on a series of lengthy vacations during which I won't be at home cooking, so buying quantities of anything is... Kinda dumb. I need 7 work days of lunches instead of my usual 5. So I have an even more challenging situation than usual.
The solution?
I bought 24 small corn tortillas.
I bought 2 cans of canned diced tomato.
I bought a garlic bulb because life without garlic isn't worth living.
I bought a pound of ground turkey.
I bought a can of chickpeas because, why not.
I bought a sack of limes (mostly because I want to try limeade tea, but limes are also good for cooking)So, I'm going to make a thing I'm calling "Turkeytacos."
- Mix up a batch of taco seasoning. Cumin, cayenne, chili, onion powder, salt, etc.
- Squeeze 2 limes into a pot.
- 2tbsp of taco seasoning into the lime juice.
- Hm. I have this awkwardly small amount of green curry paste in the fridge. Let's whack a tbsp of it in there, too!
- Add an obscene amount of fresh garlic.
- Add turkey, begin browning meat and mixing it into the slurry.
- Add tomaters.
- Add chickpeas (drained)
- Add a cup of dry rice.
- Cook that fucker.
- Tacoify.
I'm presently on Step 10. I have no idea if this will actually yield 24 tacos or not, but maths says this should work out to ~150cal per taco if it does. They'll be slapped in shoebox sized tupperware and frozen at work, eaten 3 at a shot for 7 days plus today.
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@Weng Yep. Yielded 24 tacos. Would have been ~27 but having walked away from the kitchen to type that post, I ended up burning some to the bottom of the pot.
I'd have binned that amount anyway.
Taste test: Yep. Turkey tacos. Sufficiently spicy that hotsauce postprocessing is unnecessary. Perfect for wolfing down to minimize the chances of the boss interrupting you while you're eating (which is the most likely time he doesn't have meetings scheduled and is therefore his favorite time to come harass me)
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@Weng said in The Cooking Thread:
Perfect for wolfing down to minimize the chances of the boss interrupting you while you're eating
OMG. I would start taking lunch at a different time, or leave the office. Fuck you, I'm eating. Come back later.
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@FrostCat His hair gets pointier with every passing day.
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@Weng said in The Cooking Thread:
Perfect for wolfing down to minimize the chances of the boss interrupting you while you're eating (which is the most likely time he doesn't have meetings scheduled and is therefore his favorite time to come harass me)
So your boss annoys you while you're at lunch, and your solution to this problem is to eat shorter lunches?
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@blakeyrat And leave early, yeah.
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@blakeyrat said in The Cooking Thread:
your solution to this problem is to eat shorter lunches?
Where I work we're actually not supposed to take short lunches, and lunch is understood to be your time.
if @weng were in California he could sue his company for "making him work through lunch".
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@FrostCat Instead I work in the capitalist hellhole of Pennsyltucky.
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@Weng Maybe you can get a remote job. :)
Being "forced" to work through lunch is probably still actionable.
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@FrostCat Nope. There is basically no legal requirement to basically any humane treatment of workers, and those that do exist are exempted for squishy office types.
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@Weng Federal law probably applies: https://www.laborlawcenter.com/education-center/news/pennsylvania-lunch-and-break-law/
"Genuine “meal periods” are usually 30 minutes or more, and do not need to be compensated as work time. For this to be the case, however, the worker must be completely relieved of his or her duties during the meal break. If the employee is still required to do any duties (even minor duties such as answering a phone), it can’t be considered a meal or lunch period and must be paid."
If you're going to work through lunch insist on getting paid. (Leaving during lunch seems like a better idea, though)
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As a salaried sonofabitch in a federally OT exempt field, by definition, I'm getting paid.
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@Weng Well, there ya go: at lunchtime, be where your boss isn't, unless you wanna skip lunch and leave early.
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Finally ordered a replacement for the part I broke. About $20 from Cuisinart (including shipping). Amazon sellers were asking $100. Unfortunately, I've waited long enough that the Boss will probably be home before the replacement is. Oh, well.
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Today I really tested the new pellet grill. Once a year I cook up some pulled pork just to be frozen and doled out over the year when we need a quick meal or in winter if we need a reminder of the smells of summer. So yesterday I picked up four Boston Butt pork shoulders, about 35 lbs in total. I made up some rub, slathered them down last night and wrapped in plastic wrap to sit overnight. Today around 9:30AM I fired up the pellet grill to the high smoke setting and got them started.
It held temperature amazingly well. I used some "Competition Blend" pellets that are supposed to be a mix of hickory, cherry, maple and apple woods and after I started the smoking process, I went off and did other things. I stained the cedar playground equipment, cleaned out the garage, loaded some stuff in the attic, etc. Every time I looked, it was 220-230F. Pretty much perfect the entire time. With my old charcoal smoker, I would have been babysitting it the entire time and not gotten near as much stuff done. The pellet grill makes it too easy.
Since the pellet grill has its own temperature probe that hooks in to the display, I did not even have to lift the lid to get a temp on the meat. Nifty.
Around 6PM tonight I pulled them all off the grill, let them cool down for an hour and then shredded them all and put them in a big bowl. It is some of the best pulled pork I have ever made. Tomorrow we will have that for dinner and the remainder gets sealed away in 1lb vacuum bags and frozen. A quarter of it goes to my father as I always cook an extra one for him.
We will be ready for pulled pork tacos, pulled pork nachos, pulled pork sandwiches, etc., for the next year. The only thing necessary to get it ready is to pull a bag from the freezer, toss it in a pot of boiling water and after ~10 minutes it is heated through and ready to go.
The best part, when it is February outside and miserably cold, you can cut open a bag of this and it reminds you of summer. It smells just like it does when it came off the smoker. A little bit of cabbage, maybe some onions, heat up some tortillas make some mustard sauce and you can have amazing tacos on the table in 20 minutes.
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And here is what I ended up with. Keep in mind, that is a big ass bowl. That is about 30lbs of pork.
And of course, the dogs were not too far away. As I shred it, I pull out the fat and gristle that remains and toss it to them, along with the bones from the pork shoulder.
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@Polygeekery So...last year, the drip tray on my grill rusted out. I meant to make something to replace it (because sadly there's no replacement parts to be bought for it). But that didn't happen because my old condo went to shit and I spent the whole summer getting it ready to sell and so had no energy to worry about not having a grill.
It's a Best Home and Gardens thing that She Who Must Be Obeyed ordered or something...good, except that the fucking drip tray wasn't stainless or aluminum, so it rusted out.
Well...my wife's uncle (RIP) had "recovered" some old road detour signs at some point that the local road crews had left out for like a year or whatever, and my father in law cut to size and then a month or so ago we bent it a bit and put in as a replacement with the orange "sticker" sign bit on the bottom. Which signage has now begun bubbling after many uses, interestingly.
So at least now I have some aluminum down there which won't rust out and I can grill some mother fucking steaks, which I have done pretty much at least once a day for the last two weeks while the rest of the family has been on a road trip. I have one more ribeye in the fridge, but they get back tomorrow so I suspect it will end up as lunch on Monday.
I'm kind of envious of your pellet bullshit, but I'm happy that I can have steaks again.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
I'm kind of envious of your pellet bullshit
Don't be, a pellet grill is shit for grilling steaks. There is no direct heat. All indirect. All of the flames are under two heat deflectors. If you want high heat, you want a different grill. No matter what the Traeger salesman at Costco on the weekends tries to tell you.
But if you want to smoke something, or cook via indirect heat, I don't see how you could build a better grill for the purpose.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
But if you want to smoke something, or cook via indirect heat, I don't see how you could build a better grill for the purpose.
I do! I do!
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@boomzilla Then pick up one of these:
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@Polygeekery Looks good man, but just a quick question: You do this annually, right? Why not time it so that the pork prices are at their lowest? I could have sworn that pork prices are cheaper at around May/early June.
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@theBread Knowing him: conspicuous consumption.
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@theBread said in The Cooking Thread:
@Polygeekery Looks good man, but just a quick question: You do this annually, right? Why not time it so that the pork prices are at their lowest? I could have sworn that pork prices are cheaper at around May/early June.
Pork shoulder was 50% off, $1.50/lb. They might he slightly cheaper at that time of year? Not really sure. But ~30lbs at $1.50/lb is only $45. I will just do it when I see it on sale and have time. No biggie.
And yes, semi-annually. Basically whenever we run low, or have a party, or my family wants some, etc. I will probably end up cooking again soon as my youngest's first birthday is coming up next weekend and the wife suggested we serve pulled pork as it is already done and that would save a lot of time and work the day of the party. So when I froze it I did so in large vacuum bags as it will not need to be portioned out.
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@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
@theBread Knowing him: conspicuous consumption.
Ha! I am a cheap bastard in a lot of ways. My Jewish friends always tell me I would have been a great Jew.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
@theBread Knowing him: conspicuous consumption.
Ha! I am a cheap bastard in a lot of ways. My Jewish friends always tell me I would have a great Jew.
Except for the pork stuff, I guess...
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@anotherusername said in The Cooking Thread:
@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
@boomzilla said in The Cooking Thread:
@theBread Knowing him: conspicuous consumption.
Ha! I am a cheap bastard in a lot of ways. My Jewish friends always tell me I would have a great Jew.
Except for the pork stuff, I guess...
Touchë
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Here's a dish I had tonight. No quantities because they're approximate anyway. :)
Gambas Pilpil
It's a Spanish dish AIUI. The second part of the name is supposedly an onomatopoeia for the noise made when cooking the gambas.
Read the whole recipe before starting to cook anything. This one is fast; you've not got time for messing around.
Get a good load of shelled pre-cooked shrimps. (How much? Depends on how hungry you are!) Also get some garlic cloves that you cut into slivers, and some small dried chillies. Make sure that the shrimps are well dried! Since we get ours frozen, we have to both defrost them completely and then use lots of kitchen paper towels to really dry them out.
Now, here's why you wanted everything dried: you're going to cook everything in olive oil that you've heated until just below the temperature where it burns. (Be careful: olive oil burns easily.) Since this is a form of deep frying, you're going to be using quite a bit of oil. But don't use a deep fryer; you're going to be serving that oil too. Instead, a cast iron saucepan is best in my experience as it provides a good even distribution of the heat and isn't totally ruined if you overheat the oil a little.
Once the oil is hot, start by cooking the garlic and chillies until the garlic starts to turn colour. Then put the shrimps in. If you've got things right, they'll only need heating through and that'll only take a minute or two.
Serve immediately once they're hot through, including with all that now lovely garlic-y spicy olive oil. Goes well with some nice crusty bread. We like this as a starter course or as part of a tapas, but there's no real reason you couldn't do more if you've got a suitable pan.
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@dkf That's my favorite dish at the tapas place around the corner from my home. Pro tip: Don't breathe when you're eating the shrimps/oil. Getting a drop of chili/garlic oil into your throat is really unpleasant.
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@asdf said in The Cooking Thread:
Pro tip: Don't breathe when you're eating the shrimps/oil. Getting a drop of chili/garlic oil into your throat is really unpleasant.
WEAKLING! :D :D :D
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@dkf said in The Cooking Thread:
Gambas Pilpil
It's a Spanish dish AIUI. The second part of the name is supposedly an onomatopoeia for the noise made when cooking the gambas.
I would think it's name is related to the "pili pili" chili pepper plant, and according to wiktionary there exists a pil-pil sauce with similar etymology.
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@dkf Ever had chili in your lungs? It's fun - for everyone around you, while you feel like you're dying for half an hour.
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@asdf said in The Cooking Thread:
Ever had chili in your lungs?
Yes. A room full of chilli smoke is even more fun!
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Lunch from this last Sunday:
Pepperoni pizza on the kamado grill. Homemade dough, homemade sauce, fresh basil from the garden and it turned out pretty amazing. 650F will cook a pizza in 3-4 minutes and the wood smoke added a nice little hint of flavor that played well with all of the ingredients.
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@Polygeekery said in The Cooking Thread:
Lunch from this last Sunday:
Pepperoni pizza on the kamado grill. Homemade dough, homemade sauce, fresh basil from the garden and it turned out pretty amazing. 650F will cook a pizza in 3-4 minutes and the wood smoke added a nice little hint of flavor that played well with all of the ingredients.
Nice! We did this for dinner last night. :) Would do again if things didn't take so long to prep...
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@Tsaukpaetra said in The Cooking Thread:
Nice! We did this for dinner last night. Would do again if things didn't take so long to prep...
Try a no-knead recipe for the dough. The rest of it takes very little time in comparison.
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@Polygeekery Looks great. Bit too much cheese* and dough for my taste, but it was probably still delicious.
*INB4 there's no such thing as "too much cheese". On thin-crust pizza, there is.
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So I bought a thing:
I hope to get it assembled next week and try some Philly cheese steaks on it. I have always wanted a griddle, but never could accomodate anything other than a shitty 110V one in my kitchen.
Now we need to move, so I can justify building my dream outdoor kitchen. Yeah yeah, that belongs in the FWP thread.
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This is a mixed drink.
It is called the Vincent Price. It came to a friend in a dream.
Half lemon juice. Half gin. Garnish with ham.
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Did a nice dish last night.
Poached a piece of hake, a rather specially tasty white fish. Once it was cooked, it was put in a béchamel sauce that had been enhanced with dill, loads of fresh-grated nutmeg and plenty of white pepper. Served simply, with nice boiled potatoes and tenderstem broccoli. And a pretty decent white wine too…
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Wife had never had eggplant, and it was on sale...
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@asdf that too. Long story I don't want to get into now.
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@asdf said in The Cooking Thread:
@anotherusername said in The Cooking Thread:
Wife had never had eggplant
Your never had ?
Most have never had . The others are best discussed in the Guacamole thread...
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@anotherusername In that case, I'm sorry for bringing it up. Hope you still liked the joke.
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@asdf eh, it's fine. Laughing at how stupid it is helps me to deal.
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The roommate wanted to make guac for the chicken tacos tonight, but the avocados were hard. He sliced, panko'd, and fried them instead. Actually surprisingly good once he decided what seasonings to mix into the panko; the first few were bland.
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Warning: Underripe avocado turns out to be a wee bit less digestable than we'd hoped