• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

What did I cook this weekend.....

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Grilled some nice Atlantic salmon fillets tonight and learned a trick in the process.

Normally when I grill, I will heat up the oven to 150 and I put a piece of Wilton-Armetale in there and heat it up. That way, if one thing is done before others, I can take it off the grill and keep it warm until everything else is ready. Plus, unless I'm doing really rare beef or rare tuna, etc., nothing is going to get overdone being in a 150 deg. oven.

Anyway, I put the salmon fillets, scales down, over direct heat with coals at a medium burn. Using the Thermapen, I found that the lower half or so of the fillets were getting to that 140 range, but the tops were still pretty rare and pretty pink. I don't like to turn salmon and put the bare meat against the grill grate if I can avoid it, so I got the idea that - why don't I just grab the warm Armetale and turn the fillets over onto that, and put it in the oven? That way, the top will gently warm up to that 140-150 range and not go too far. Well, it worked out perfectly and we had some salmon that was just right all the way through.

Served that with some grilled sweet potato wedges (which got a liberal dose of nutmeg, salt and pepper), some quinoa, and some gently wilted spinach. 'Twas a hit.
 
Here is the pimiento-olive-stuffed bologna. There were a few air pockets, due to packing it into the loaf pan in thirds. Next time I think I'll dry the olives on paper towels before putting into the loaf too - they might stick to the meat better that way.

Taste is really good though!

olive loaf bologna 4-22-14.jpg
 
I just made some ham and potato soup. Left over ham from easter and some boxed scalloped potatoes. So easy, and i actually had everything already. Came out real good too.

Ingredients

4-6 servings
5 cups hot water
1 box (4.7 oz) Betty Crocker® Scalloped potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups cubed cooked ham
4 cups whole milk

*shredded cheese for garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat water and potatoes and salt to boiling in large saucepan. Boil for 20 minutes. Drain. Return to heat.
Stir in all remaining ingredients, *including seasoning packed from the boxed potatoes. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring periodically.
Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally. (Approximately 10-15 minutes). Top with shredded cheese before serving if desired.
 
Here is the pimiento-olive-stuffed bologna. There were a few air pockets, due to packing it into the loaf pan in thirds. Next time I think I'll dry the olives on paper towels before putting into the loaf too - they might stick to the meat better that way.

Taste is really good though!

You've made me get out Rulhman's charcuterie book;) Never done an emulsified sausage.
 
I just made some ham and potato soup. Left over ham from easter and some boxed scalloped potatoes. So easy, and i actually had everything already. Came out real good too.

Ingredients

4-6 servings
5 cups hot water
1 box (4.7 oz) Betty Crocker® Scalloped potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups cubed cooked ham
4 cups whole milk

*shredded cheese for garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat water and potatoes and salt to boiling in large saucepan. Boil for 20 minutes. Drain. Return to heat.
Stir in all remaining ingredients, *including seasoning packed from the boxed potatoes. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring periodically.
Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally. (Approximately 10-15 minutes). Top with shredded cheese before serving if desired.
Of course you realize that using canned or boxed goods is sacrilege....;)

I remember reading an interview with an old gal who owned a diner in the Midwest and got 'discovered' by New York foodies. A professional food writer ghost-wrote a cookbook for her, and one of the recipes called for a can of green beans.

Of course, the editors were horrified.... so someone was assigned to write a recipe for homemade green beans. The original dish was amended to use those beans, 'see recipe on page 78' (or whatever page it was).

Apparently the old gal had a sense of humor; instead of getting offended she thought it was funny.
 
Whipped up some "greek" chicken (mustard, lemon, oregeno and olive oil marinade) on the grill with cucumber and home made pita bread. Nothing out of the ordinary there, but we tried grilled eggplant for the first time.
Give it a try people, grilled eggplant is delicious!
 
Me too - next up - pistachio loaf. Then maybe white peppercorn loaf, or sweet gherkin loaf!

At least it's not "mystery meat" - I know exactly what went into it. Good homeground pork shoulder and homeground beef.

While olive loaf is not my cup of tea, I think it's awesome that you made your own. I'm curious as to this "pistachio loaf" you mentioned. Is it just like it sounds, the same basic loaf but with pistachio nuts instead of olives? If so, I gotta admit I'm curious, I like pistachios quite a bit. I'd use them in stir fries if I could find them unsalted, maybe unsalted & raw.
Regards, GF.
 
Of course you realize that using canned or boxed goods is sacrilege....;)

I remember reading an interview with an old gal who owned a diner in the Midwest and got 'discovered' by New York foodies. A professional food writer ghost-wrote a cookbook for her, and one of the recipes called for a can of green beans.

Of course, the editors were horrified.... so someone was assigned to write a recipe for homemade green beans. The original dish was amended to use those beans, 'see recipe on page 78' (or whatever page it was).

Apparently the old gal had a sense of humor; instead of getting offended she thought it was funny.

I figured, that's as "home made" as its gonna get when I got the flu. :) I would like to try it with everything from scratch, especially since it came out good. My MIL would have probably complained it wasn't "real", even if she liked it. She would never admit it. Lol.
 
While olive loaf is not my cup of tea, I think it's awesome that you made your own. I'm curious as to this "pistachio loaf" you mentioned. Is it just like it sounds, the same basic loaf but with pistachio nuts instead of olives? If so, I gotta admit I'm curious, I like pistachios quite a bit. I'd use them in stir fries if I could find them unsalted, maybe unsalted & raw.
Regards, GF.

Yes, same loaf, no olives, add pistachios instead. That's the next one up.

I can buy a bag of roasted shelled pistachios at Costco, which is probably what I'll use. I believe they're also salted, but that's OK with me.
 
Today's fun - homemade half & half yogurt. 36 4-oz. jelly jars and 1 half-pint jar, that one will be used to start the NEXT batch when it's time. This is the best yogurt I have ever eaten, which says something because I generally do NOT like yogurt. It's a texture thing. Well, this is rich and creamy and wonderful. The 4-oz. jars cause us to exercise portion control.

I like a bowl every night, sprinkled liberally with Vietnamese cinnamon, then drizzled with honey, then topped with sliced toasted almonds.

This picture shows it just loaded into my Excaliber dehydrator where it will incubate at about 110* for 8 hours, then into the fridge. It keeps at least 4 weeks - using the canning jars causes a slight vacuum on the lids as it cools so it's nicely sealed.

yogurt 1.jpg
 
AAAAaaaaannnnd not to hog this thread but I'm on a roll today - just made a big pressure cooker full of lamb vindaloo. DANG it smells so good. Will try to snap a picture when I plate it up tonight or tomorrow night. It's always better the second day.

Now I've got a pound of ground pork and half a pound of ground beef to deal with (left over from the bologna making) - maybe I'll do some kung pao meatballs.
 
Here is the pimiento-olive-stuffed bologna. There were a few air pockets, due to packing it into the loaf pan in thirds. Next time I think I'll dry the olives on paper towels before putting into the loaf too - they might stick to the meat better that way.

Taste is really good though!

How did you do the emulsification? I've been wanting to make hot dogs, but I don't have a good enough food processor for it. Might buy one this weekend.
 
I have an 11-cup Cuisinart. Did half the batch at a time, per recipe instructions, processed with 1/2 cup crushed ice. Worked perfectly.

You can't beat a Cuisinart food processor - they're a real workhorse for me in the kitchen.
 
Dang! Temptd, if I wasn't already very happily married I might of had to look you up! Between you and Melana, you all have some Fabulous Cooking. So do the guys but I'm not as tempted to want to marry one of them, maybe a bit of Bromance!
 
Of course you realize that using canned or boxed goods is sacrilege....;)

I remember reading an interview with an old gal who owned a diner in the Midwest and got 'discovered' by New York foodies. A professional food writer ghost-wrote a cookbook for her, and one of the recipes called for a can of green beans.

Of course, the editors were horrified.... so someone was assigned to write a recipe for homemade green beans. The original dish was amended to use those beans, 'see recipe on page 78' (or whatever page it was).

Apparently the old gal had a sense of humor; instead of getting offended she thought it was funny.

My wife used to work for a very well-known and well-regarded cake designer. She used to use box cake mix with a little bit of secret ingredient added. Never seemed to impact her business!

I think the idea was that sure, she could make it from scratch. But the decoration was the most important part of these cakes, so why spend time making the mix from scratch when it might be at most barely better than what comes from the box plus her secret ingredient?
 
My wife used to work for a very well-known and well-regarded cake designer. She used to use box cake mix with a little bit of secret ingredient added. Never seemed to impact her business!

I think the idea was that sure, she could make it from scratch. But the decoration was the most important part of these cakes, so why spend time making the mix from scratch when it might be at most barely better than what comes from the box plus her secret ingredient?

OK, so if your wife USED to work for this person - she can tell US what the secret ingredient is, right? We won't tell anyone else! :D
 
Back
Top