Any "like to cook" foodies here?

[robkelk]

Another "how to use out product" recipe collection: vegan recipes at Fauxmagerie Zengarry's website.

Yeah, it's a cutesy name - faux cheese from a fauxmagerie. I doubt that they're the only company making faux cheese from almonds, though.

[robkelk]

Continuing the recent Christmas trend, last week's radio recipe is Seven-day fruit cake. Allow seven days for preparation; the actual coking takes place on day 5.

[robkelk]

The Christmas baking series continues - last week's radio recipe is yule log.

Contains almonds, but only in the decorations.

---

I don't know why this showed up on the feed - it's four years old - but it looks good enough to share: Peanut butter and banana brownies.

Captain Obvious says this contains peanut butter.

[robkelk]

Have a big helping of links!

Starting off with an important safety tip: "Food scientists say don't wash the turkey. Here's why."

A related rerun from a half-decade ago: How to cook a turkey safely this Christmas

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Last week's radio recipe continues the Christmas baking series: gluten-free plum pudding

Plum pudding has no plum, but features instead raisins, which were also known as 'plum' back in King Arthur's day.

This one also contains chestnuts and brandy.

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Something to go with all the baking: Eggnog (contains alcohol, unless you choose the variant that replaces it with coffee)

Or, if you want to be decadent, White chocolate and candy cane eggnog)

---

The 12 Pies of Christmas

Supply your own pie recipe(s) - this article's about decorating them.

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A rerun for the vegetarian holiday menu: Mushroom and Brie Wellington with Caramelized Onion Cream

Includes instructions on how to caramelize onions.

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Just beacuse it's there: Banana Bread Granola

Contains nuts.

[robkelk]

Now that folks are back from Christmas holidays, the radio recipes are back as well.

Last week's recipe is for miso soup. Requires miso paste.

It looks a lot more appealing than the stuff they serve at sushi restaurants around here, or the stuff from a mix:

[robkelk]

There's a new web series from the folks who give us the weekly radio recipe - 'What I Bring to the Table". It looks at foods prepared by immigrants to Ottawa.

The first installment's recipe is dal tarka, a lentil curry. Contains cilantro and asafoetida, and optionally contains chili powder.

[classicdrogn]

Super-Fast Cheesy Chicken Soup, Oh Fuck It's Cold Edition
(because I went out to bring a load of firewood in from the pile just now, and OH FUCK IT'S COLD)

One serving
Time: 4-5 minutes depending on how numb your hands are

ingredients:
1 egg
1 slice processed cheese. Not real cheese, the processed stuff, because it melts quickly and mixes into broth.
1-2 oz. cooked chicken or turkey, deli cold cuts is fine
~1 tbsp "classic mix" frozen veggies - cubed carrot, sweet corn, and peas
Chicken bouillon to taste - I used 1 tsp. of the powdered kind, because it dissolves instantly unlike cubes
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Ground black pepper
Powdered Parmesan Cheese
Crackers to taste - a half dozen or so?

Hardware:
Microwave safe bowl or large mug
Kettle (or a separate microwaveable dish of some kind to heat water to a boil)
Kitchen shears, because using a knife and cutting board is for people who aren't shivering and numb
Teaspoon and possibly tablespoon for measuring
Spoon of choice for stirring and eating

First, put the kettle on high. You should have done that before you went out in this kind of weather, fool.

Into a microwave-safe bowl or mug, crack 1 egg, stir lightly to break up the yolk, and nuke it for 30s. Take it out, break up the cooked parts into the uncooked parts with a spoon or table knife, and nuke it again to finish cooking. 30s to another 1min should do. If you're using a second mug to boil your water, put it in now while you mix up the other stuff. Break up the egg again, into small bits.

Add 1 slice of processed cheese such as Kraft singles or your favourite brand.

Cut up the chicken into the bowl with your kitchen shears, as small as you have patience for.

Put your bouillon in on top of that, and sprinkle in some powdered garlic, onion, Parmesan, and ground pepper as well.

Drop enough veggies in to be able to tell your mom without feeling like it's a lie.

Hopefully the kettle is boiling by now, so pour in enough water to cover everything without being too close to the rim, nuke it all for another minute, then stir everything up to mix it together. Add some more water to thin the result to taste, or don't because hot food sticking to your ribs sounds really good about now.

Crush the crackers a bit and drop them in, then wrap your hands around the mug to warm them up and hopefully not drop the damn thing due to shivering.

Huddle in a quilt in front of the fire and slurp your chicken soup while cussing out climate change deniers. Fuck damn it's cold.

(Twelve degrees Fahrenheit here this morning, five including wind chill. Brrr.)
e: that's -11C, for everyone else

[Star Ranger4]

Super-Fast Cheesy Chicken Soup, Oh Fuck It's Cold Edition


First, put the kettle on high. You should have done that before you went out in this kind of weather, fool.

EHEHE....  Sorry, CD, but at the moment I am chortling because to a Los Angelino, the relative temps mean I'd be making this while we are talking... um... a warm spring day where you are?

[classicdrogn]

A few years... okay, a decade ago, low teens F wouldn't have been surprising here, but the sudden ten degree drop from the previous day makes it feel much more noticeable. Cold weather is relative; I'm not going to look down on you for wanting hot soup to warm up with just because your idea of what "cold" is doesn't align.

e: Heck, tonight it's back up over 40F... and it's supposed to cool right back down to the 20s for the next few days after the storm front moves through.

[Star Ranger4]

A few years... okay, a decade ago, low teens F wouldn't have been surprising here

come to think of it, around that long ago I was living up in the mountains in the northern half of California.  High enough and cold enough one actually had to worry about SNOW.

Only good thing about that was I had a significant other I could cuddle up with and share said soup to warm us both up.

*sigh*

[robkelk]

Last week's radio recipe is Jamaican-style steamed fried tilapia with rice and peas. Contains scotch bonnet peppers... but you can leave those out if you want. Also contains coconut milk.




The new feature's recipe is cauliflower and pork stir-fry. Here's the video.

[Star Ranger4]

O.o thank goodness, because if I recall correctly Scotch bonnet peppers kind of leave you in a Johnny cash mode (I sat down to a burning ring of fire!) for over a week?

[robkelk]

If you're not used to them, yes.

[Star Ranger4]

which means I'd be suffering that description while my nephew would not. *falls over laughing again*

[robkelk]

Because I had a craving... Scotch Eggs.

[Star Ranger4]

oh heck Rob. Trying to remember the last recipe for those I was exposed to that started with something along the lines of: "Buy a dozen eggs. Gass on about how great this is going to be until they go bad. Replace"

[robkelk]

It must be cold and flu season. It's soup time.

Last week's radio recipe is chicken soup. The broth contains garlic and ginger; the chicken is poached before being roasted.

What I Bring to the Table this week is Congolese pondu soup with fufu dumplings - video and recipe.

[robkelk]

Rinsing the chicken, not salting the bean water and other kitchen habits you can drop

The myths - and why they're false - are:

• Refrigerate everything
  
• Searing meat seals in the juices
  
• Alcohol cooks off
  
• Never salt your bean water or your scrambled eggs
  
• Oil in your water keeps pasta from sticking
  
• Wash your chicken before you roast it
  
• You can't refreeze meat
  

[classicdrogn]

A dribble of oil in the pasta after you drain it spread around with some gentle tossing will keep it from sticking, and meat does have a different (though only slightly) texture when it's been frozen and thawed and refrozen, but I can't speak to the rest aside from salting the eggs before you cook them needs more salt to get the same amount of flavour than doing it when they're done, because having it on the surface means it's right there to engage your taste buds rather than having dissolved into the egg before it cooked.

[Bob Schroeck]

I used to drizzle a little olive oil on the pasta after draining, but eventually I noticed that while it kept the pasta from sticking to itself, it also kept the sauce from sticking to it, too. Since I boil my pasta in a pot with a lift-out strainer, I leave an inch or so of steaming water in it, put the strainer full of pasta back in, and keep the lid on whenever it's not actively being served. It doesn't do quite as good a job at protecting against sticking as oil, but I also end up with far less sauce puddling at the bottom of my bowl.

The other items... in no particular order: I've never heard the things about salt in eggs or bean water, or chicken-washing; we frequently make or buy fresh bread without preservatives so fridging it is essential to it lasting more than a day or so; I've known about the Maillard reaction for years, and I've never cared if the alcohol cooked off or not. <grin> Not refreezing meat, though, was wisdom learned at my mother's knee, and yeah because it changed the texture and flavor.

[Star Ranger4]

...

'''
...

and to think I never learned any of this till Alton Brown started filming 'Good Eats' for Food network (even though the episodes in question are more cooking channel things)

[robkelk]

It must be cold and flu season.

Yeah, it's cold and flu season - I've got one. So I'm not even tempted to try making these even though they look like I'd enjoy them. Let me know how they come out if you make them, please...

This week's radio recipe is maple-braised pork belly with beer and blue cheese polenta. "Begin by brining the pork for 24 hours." (Big Rig is a local microbrewery - I find their beers to be rather hoppy, so keep that in mind when choosing a replacement beer.)




And the final What I Bring to the Table has tahchin​, a Persian dish with rice, chicken, and saffron. Video and recipe. Contains yogurt and egg yolks.

[robkelk]

Last week's radio recipe is just the thing to warm you up: vanilla-flavoured atole (a corn-based hot drink). Lacto-vegetarian.

[Star Ranger4]

*parses. Reparses* I guess I'll need to post something to the CBC asking if soy is an acceptable substitute, or if lactose free milk would work better. I can see my nephew (who much prefers vegetarian, if not pure vegan options) liking something like this save he is also lactose intolerant. So, regular cow's milk is kind of right out for the poor lad.

[robkelk]

And that's 300 posts.

Time for a second helping.