I am an idiot

[Subsailor]

Pickled or fresh roasted cactus in the eggs? Legit curious.

I have tried it a million ways and its always meh. I feel like its my responsibility to conquer it.

How about a cactus mead? not with the fruit, though!

 

[CreamyGoodness]

How about a cactus mead? not with the fruit, though!

Oh man I would think we are right back in okra waters there! Hehe...

Hmmm... cactus PEAR mead....

 

[bottlebomber]

Pickled or fresh roasted cactus in the eggs? Legit curious.

I have tried it a million ways and its always meh. I feel like its my responsibility to conquer it.

The only way I've tried nopales that I really liked it was in a salad with minced cabbage, fire roasted poblano, diced tomatoes, onion and avocado. As far as how you are likely to champion the cactus, I think we all know where this is going to lead.

 

[bottlebomber]

How about a cactus mead? not with the fruit, though!

Damn lag made me late to the punchline!

 

[The_Dog_42]

But wouldnt a "Select" grade cow still have a "prime-rib" cut?

Nope. A select cow would have a rib roast and ribeye steaks but no "prime rib" cut.

Thanks for the TVP suggestion. If you wanted hamburger size peices, can you cut down the soya carne?

I've eaten some plant stalks, leaves, flowers and fruit, but I can't say I've ever thought about cactus.

 

[WesleyS]

Pickled or fresh roasted cactus in the eggs? Legit curious.

I have tried it a million ways and its always meh. I feel like its my responsibility to conquer it.

Fresh. I don't think I've ever had pickled cactus.
And +1 on the Nopales Mead.

 

[The_Dog_42]

Nope. A select cow would have a rib roast and ribeye steaks but no "prime rib" cut.

Damn technicalities got me again. Apparently the USDA does not require a "prime rib" to be of Prime grade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_rib

[Insert picture of beating dead horse here]

 

[bob1852]

Hmmm... cactus PEAR mead....

I'm dumping ~7lbs of crushed prickly pear fruit into 4 gallons of orange blossom & wildflower honey in the next couple of days.

Good stuff.


I double dare you to actually make a prickly pear mead - no fruit, just the nopales.

 

[Leadgolem]

Absolutely, I wouldn't tolerate such a texture either. There are 3 things that need to be done. Thing one is that it needs to be firm or extra firm tofu. If it is silken tofu it is useless to me. Thing two is that you need to press some of the water out of it, so after you remove it from the package you need to put it on a cutting board between clean dish towels and put something heavy on it for 10 minutes or so. And finally you need to braise the outside so that it gets a nice chewy texture. One of my favorite things to do is slice the block across the length into 1/4" slices and fry it lightly in a little oil on nonstick until it is golden brown, then I glaze it in BBQ sauce and make sandwiches with it. I guarantee you would dig it. Also I will cube it, lightly dust in cornstarch to help it make a crust, fry it till crispy, and make kabobs with it. These are some I made not long ago.

I think I will try this. I have somebody in the house who may be on medication for high cholesterol soon. So, subbing some of the meat in our diet with tofu should help reduce the saturated fat in our food.

That does look good.

If you are interested, you could make the silken tofu into a korean style stew like the linked http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/soondubu-jjigae and swap out some of the meat items or omit them. Perhaps save you a trip that one time you pick up the wrong package at the store. Ive had a version very close to the recipe at places in Korea town here in NY and its pretty out of this world.

By the way, do you shun ingredients like Worcheshire sauce?

This might be interesting too. I'm not usually a big fan of stew, but that looks good.

It's not good for chili, but texturized vegetable protein (TVP) or gluten is great for that. I make that all the time. You can make any bean chili recipe you like and just sub the TVP.

This is another good idea. I can't remember seeing TVP in the grocery store. I think I will need to make a trip to a health food store.

...I've tried a preparation like this a couple times. Something about the combination of the texture (both inside and out) and flavor of the large tofu chunks does not do it for me. Alton Brown had a recipe for "Bar-B-Fu" (I think that was how it was spelled). Essentially this preparation except with a marinade step in the middle. I seem to prefer smaller pieces that are added as nutrion without modifying the flavor of the dish (on salads, fried rice, miso soup, pho, etc.)...

That was one of the recipes I tried last time I tried tofu... It almost made me put tofu on the list of things I refuse to every eat again.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Hot and sour soup. Slightly thickened, slimy bits of tofu are fantastic in this soup.

 

[bottlebomber]

I think I will try this. I have somebody in the house who may be on medication for high cholesterol soon. So, subbing some of the meat in our diet with tofu should help reduce the saturated fat in our food.

I'd be more than happy to help with recipe ideas. Cutting back on meat doesn't have to mean sitting there with a little wooden bowl full of cold tofu porridge. I really think you'd like the BBQ tofu sandwiches.

 

[bottlebomber]

Hot and sour soup. Slightly thickened, slimy bits of tofu are fantastic in this soup.

Yes, that is an amazing thing. Probably the most time consuming soup I make, since everything needs to be cut into matchsticks for it to seem right. I think I got my base recipe from cooks illustrated, and I just omit the pork. Damn, I want some now actually.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

In my house growing up spaghetti night (or as grandma would say 'a pot'a sauce') was what she called the necessary weekly "meatless meal."

I have no doubt Ive mentioned that before though.

 

[The_Dog_42]

[Bar-B-Fu] was one of the recipes I tried last time I tried tofu... It almost made me put tofu on the list of things I refuse to every eat again.

Yeah, like I said, wasn't a big fan of the final texture.

Hot and sour soup. Slightly thickened, slimy bits of tofu are fantastic in this soup.

Definitely!

For myself, I don't see the draw of a vegetarian diet. In a diet with meat, as long as I count the calories (not hard to do once you get used to it), I don't worry too much about the specific items I eat. With a vegetarian diet, I would be less inclined to count calories but would have to be more scrutinizing of the actual foods to make sure I still have a balanced nutrition intake, including all essential aminos.

 

[DougK]

Hot and sour soup. Slightly thickened, slimy bits of tofu are fantastic in this soup.

I've had some Indian food with tofu that was pretty good. I don't know the name of it of hand.

When I do Indian, I tend to go to a buffet restaurant. Not because I want to eat a lot, but because it makes it easy to sample many things.

 

[Obliviousbrew]

This thread changed somehow... I´m not sure if I like it now.... I need something more idiotic.

 

[m_c_zero]

This thread changed somehow... I´m not sure if I like it now.... I need something more idiotic.

You're right. This thread is starting to stink of patchouli...

 

[martiniw2olives]

Hot and sour soup. Slightly thickened, slimy bits of tofu are fantastic in this soup.

Anyone thought about Hot and Sour Beer, hmmm. Porter maybe?

 

[feinbera]

Anyone thought about Hot and Sour Beer, hmmm. Porter maybe?

Hefe, to get the color right.

We'll have to consult Creamy on the correct vegetable additions to nail the texture.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I'm thinking cardoon thistle is what we are looking for here.

 

[DougK]

I had a Caesar salad for lunch today. I stabbed it 23 times before eating it. No one else seemed to find it as funny as I did.

 

[bottlebomber]

I had a Caesar salad for lunch today. I stabbed it 23 times before eating it. No one else seemed to find it as funny as I did.

Caesar dressing - Worcheshire - Anchovies - Meat.

I personally am nowhere near that extreme, but many vegetarians wouldn't eat it.

 

[DougK]

Caesar dressing - Worcheshire - Anchovies - Meat.

I personally am nowhere near that extreme, but many vegetarians wouldn't eat it.

Personally I think food tastes better when it has a mother that will miss it.

 

[Leadgolem]

 

[Leadgolem]

I'd be more than happy to help with recipe ideas. Cutting back on meat doesn't have to mean sitting there with a little wooden bowl full of cold tofu porridge. I really think you'd like the BBQ tofu sandwiches.

I will definitely be taking you up on that, once I have some tofu on hand.

 

[Leadgolem]

I had a Caesar salad for lunch today. I stabbed it 23 times before eating it. No one else seemed to find it as funny as I did.

You should have done that tomorrow. :fro:

 

[cheezydemon3]

delicious!

 

[bottlebomber]

delicious!

Ha! You sick freak

 

[The_Dog_42]

I had a Caesar salad for lunch today. I stabbed it 23 times before eating it. No one else seemed to find it as funny as I did.

Ha! A good caesar dressing, made table side with the raw egg yolks and anchovies is hard to beat.

delicious!

when I read that I had a hilarious (to my mind) comparison to veal...way over the line. Made me want to do nice things for my dogs.

Edit: hit send too soon. I was having a discussion about a book written by a doctor who was looking into protein rich diets. Didn't get the name of the book or author, but the guy has traveled the world investigating high cancer rates, especially in children. He went to Malaysia (I think), assuming the poor, malnourished kids would have the highest rates of cancer and found it was actually the rich kids with a protein rich diet. After that the author has done some clinical studies and is a proponent of a vegetarian (or maybe vegan) diet.

My question is cause or correlation? Does the veg diet just afford a higher density of antioxidants and other cancer fighting nutrition? Or does the cooked animal protein actually have enough carcinogens over the long haul to cause cancer?

Need to get the name of the book.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

"A Modest Proposal. It's about eating babies. It's like veal. But babies."