What did I cook this weekend.....

About to start chili. Not my best recipe but a faster and easier one that is loved.


Travis'n'Texas

 

Pizza

 

Always nice to post something that had not been represented in the previous 900 pages of this epic never ending thread of food porn.

Mofongo with stewed shrimp...


Fry up the plantains


Mash up with a bit if mojo sauce (garlic, onion, olive oil and seasoning) and make into a ball


Meanwhile stew up the shrimp with onions, garlic, sofrito and tomato sauce


Serve the shrimp on top of the ball of mofongo. Awesome.

 

^^ This is something that I have been wanting to make!

 

X2 i have seen it on cooking shows many times and want to make it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

I hope no one minds terribly that I tell a nostalgia story. It might ramble on a bit, but its food related.

My second apartment in NY was across from a little Colombian restaurant/diner/luncheonette. The owners were an older lady (I'd say about 60. We arent talking venerable but definitely the type of lady who put in a serious amount of time behind a stove. Her daughter was about 30 I'd say, and... goodness gracious... the woman was hot as a muffin. I digress.

Anyway, I would go in and sit at the counter at least once a week. Everyone around me was speaking Spanish with some English thrown in. And I would usually get the special, whatever that was. Oxtail, beef stew, chicken stew, all sorts of Colombian comfort foods with a Corona or Presidente (or 2 or 4) and mofongo. Im not even sure if mofongo is popular in Columbia... but man they did it right there.

So I would get a special, chat with the ladies behind the counter (they used to call me "El Nino Americano" when talking amongst themselves, how cute is that?) and when Id get mofongo they'd ask if I wanted gravy. Hell yeah I want gravy.

Here's the funny part... they'd take a big spoon and take some of the gravy from one of the other specials. Chicken mofongo got chicken stew gravy. Pork mofongo got some of the oxtail gravy. Gross right? Nope! Delicious. Amazing. I wish they were still in business

Thanks for listening.

 

Of course we don't mind. That passion is what is all about, after all!


Travis'n'Texas

 

Well, I've only tried the wet type, they're also available dry. I rinsed them pretty good, says to rinse right on the pkg. By themselves, they did have a funky taste, not bad, but funky. A sort of bland, earthy/nutty type of flavour; not very good all by itself, but paired with mushrooms, they complimented each other very well.

The texture was rather chewy, maybe I should've cooked them longer, but I was worried they'd actually be too soft & start disintegrating in the wok. Will I try them again? Yes, I certainly will. This is the brand I used:
http://www.nasoya.com/products/pasta-zero-shirataki-fettuccine

I can see using these noodles in almost any mushroom dish, or with almost any strongly flavoured dish. I would've liked to have cut them to half their length for the dish I made, but wet & packaged loose the way they are would've made that quite time consuming. Next time I'll cook them a little longer & see if that softens them up a bit.
Regards, GF.

 

What I do is dump the package into a colander, rinse the bejeezus out of them, then just use scissors and cut down through the lot in a few places, shake, cut again. Makes it much easier.

I make a dish called buta kimchi and I like these noodles in that dish.

 

I do the same. I eat those and the shirataki rice a lot when I low carb. Are they the same taste and textures of regular noodles and rice? No but they work really well as a substitute when I'm craving them while low-carbing


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

Link to the "rice"
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BP36S7U/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

Ok one more for me as November has arrived and with it BBQ season kicks off here in Florida...

Grabbed a pack of leg quarters and decided to whip up a quick mojo to marinate them in:

Juiced these suckers then added adobo, red pepper, brown sugar, garlic and sweet onions;

Let the chicken soak that up for 6-7 hours then dump the whole mess in a pan and off to the smoker

Didn't want much in the way of smoke flavor so in lieu of wood I tossed a couple onions in the firebox

Couple hours later perfection

Served up with sweet potato and sautéed collard greens

Everything came out lovely looking forward to the leftovers...,

 

Homemade sauerkraut, cooked under fresh brats, with a hyrometer sample of an American amber ale; servered with LeSeur peas and baked potatoes.

 

Beet ravioli with browned butter, served with the beet greens and some kale from the garden and the latest version of brett bread,

 

I think I put a dent in the screen trying to like this more than once.

 

Thai butternut squash soup topped with cashew cream and cilantro.


Dan6310

 

Put up the last of the pickled beets today.


Dan6310

 

beet ravioli? cashew cream on squash soup? aligator chili?

What is going on here? This thread is out of control.

 

Control is overrated.

 

You folks are awesome! I could start a TV reality show called The Cooks Of HBT.
All this awesomeness makes the fish & chips I made Friday seem kinda plain. I had some leftover batter and some shrimp in the freezer, so I also made shrimp tempura. I've come to the conclusion that I need some of those ceramic sauce-dipping cups; sweet chili sauce tends to run all over the plate.
Regards, GF.

 

No pictures from yesterday. I made 16 jars of Vermont blueberry jam from berries my family picked in August. One more task done - bring on gift giving season!

 

My refrigerator pickles I made Sat morning are just ok. Tastes like the cuke and onion vinegar stuff my grandma made.

She just made a vinegar and water bath and soaked cukes and onions in it in the fridge. This was similar, but stronger.

I think what I need to do is look into fermented pickles.

 

Use more garlic than you think you will need. They make the pickle. I've made a bunch.

 

Back to a basic dish.
Spaghetti and venison meatballs with a side salad and some of my spent grain bread.


Dan6310

 

Sorry to gloss over the main and talk about the salad, but are those garden tomatoes?

 

Unfortunately they are not
All that's left in my garden is kale and Swiss chard
The spaghetti sauce was made from garden tomatoes.


Dan6310

 

Packaged up the rest of my homemade kraut for the refrigerator. I had a few ounces of the brine left, so I plan to spike it with vodka for a nightcap later.

 

How long did you ferment that kraut for? I ask, because the green shreds in mine turned white after fermentation. I had no green left at all.

 

Six weeks...I cut mine by hand and it 's pretty coarse.

 

Yes, I doubled the recommended. My wife tried one and said she really liked the garlic in it. I am not sensitive to garlic, so I can't really tell the difference.

I thought they came out way too strong. It almost chokes you on the vinegar. The jar that was diluted was a bit too weak.

I think I am going to ferment some next time, and maybe try some IPA pickles or just add a few hops to the jar when I fill it.

Problem is I have 3 pint jars with pickles that are pretty strong. I poured some of the brine out of the first jar and replaced with water. I hope it tones it down a bit.

Now I have a pork roast that needs cooking...

 

Did you just use vinegar or a vinegar based brine?

 

I used 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 white vinegar, salt, garlic, dill, mustard seed.

Simmered on stove to combine flavors then cooled a bit an poured into jars with pickles.

 

wow that's a lot of vinegar....

 

Yeah...I recently needed to replace some pickle brine for pickling hard boiled eggs in a quart jar. I think it was 1-1/2 cups water to 1/2 cup vinegar and a tablespoon of salt, plus herbs/ spices, brought to a boil and allowed to cool off.

How about a bagel and schmear wit a couple of perfectly over medium eggs?

 

Had some leftover sirloin roast from Sunday so I cut it into strips, sautéed some onions, made up a rouxe a d combined it with beef stock to simmer. Added the sour cream at the end and had a very filling beef stroganoff for dinner. I love leftovers!

 

We cured then smoked a whole boneless pork loin roast and made buckboard bacon. The stuff is awesome delicious!

That's 5 pounds of sliced finished product. It's now portioned into 8 oz. ziplocs which were then placed in a Foodsaver bag, vacuum-sealed, and into the freezer.

 

I made ~4 full loins of that a couple years ago. Vacuum-sealed and in the freezer, it lasts for a LONG time.

Just about out of it now, and hoping loins go on sale again for what I paid a couple years ago, but I don't think that's happening.

Isn't this technically Canadian bacon though? I though buckboard bacon was made with shoulder, not loin....

Regardless, good and easy and much better (and cheaper!) than store bought!

 

If it's made in America it can't be Canadian Bacon... (i kid... )

 

'Murcian Bacon!

 

I've got a #5 Porkstrami loin to be smoked this Saturday (along with almost #40 of sausage to grind, stuff and smoke). It should be a delicious weekend.