What are you cooking today and how?

[crashdive123]

OK that does it! Who's stopping by to kidnap-----er pick up grrlscout for the jamboree?

[aflineman]

We just got done canning 20 pints and 25 quarts of tomato juice. Well over 100lbs of tomatoes to start with. Lids are a poppin' as I type.

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[grrlscout]

Leftovers for lunch

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Whole wheat gnocchi, with pancetta, ham, peas, and shallots, on lemon ricotta.

[cm79]

Swiss steak

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

i cooked beach peas,yellow curly dock, and a nice fat rainbow trout.

[crashdive123]

Good to see you back around Erunk.

[erunkiswldrnssurvival]

glad to be back, thanks

[grrlscout]

We were supposed to have this kefta, whole wheat couscous, and cucumber salad as one of our camping meals. However, I left the meat in the fridge. Which was just fine, since it made for a quick and easy meal when we got home.

The meat is seasoned with cumin, and a spice blend I have called Tsardust Memories. You blend it it in the food processor, form it into little footballs, and then grill them on skewers. It was too dang hot for all that, so I just baked them in the oven, like tiny meatloaves.

On top is a raita - just greek yogurt, shredded cucumber, lemon juice, dill, and salt. On the side, cucumber and onion salad - vinegar, water, dill, salt, a touch of sugar, and crushed red pepper.

The couscous has dried currants, ground almonds, powdered chicken stock, and curry powder. BTW, couscous is great camping food. You can totally preseason it, add you fruit and nuts before you leave. At camp, just add the same amount of boiling water, stir, and cover for 5 minutes. Fluff it with a fork and eat.

I also grabbed a bunch of jars of things (picked onions, roasted peppers, olives, etc.) and made a little tapenade. Sliced up the leftover roll from our sandwiches, and toasted it to put the tapenade on.

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Last night's appetizer, fried eggplant slices, ricotta mixed with greek yogurt, and tomato jam.

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Pretty darn tasty, but the eggplant was soggy. Next time, I would tempura batter them first.

[rebel]

Banic bread [URL="http://Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.[/URL]

[crashdive123]

Yummers....

[Phaedrus]

Right now I'm cooking beef short ribs sous vide. First I season the short ribs with sea salt and black pepper. Then I vacuum seal them into bags. They're then cooking in a water bath (my Sous Vide Supreme)- this device is capable of regulating temperature to about 0.3 degrees. I set the temp for 135 (the top side of medium rare) and let 'em go! They will cook for 72 hours (three days, give or take). Today is the end of day two! They'll be done when I get off work tomorrow. The cool thing is that 130 or higher over a long period of time will pasteurize the food, resulting in around a 6D reduction in harmful bacteria. The long cooking times will allow the cologen to break down, rendering the meat crock pot tender, but with a twist- when it's done, it will still be a perfect medium rare! Without getting too deep into the science of food, keeping the temps below 150 will prevent most of the damage and over-keratinizing of proteins that you get with typical braising.

Sous vide is a fantastic way to cook almost every protein but also fruits and veggies, too.

If I remember before I snarf them down I'll take some pics!

Disclosure: I'm a professional chef...

[grrlscout]

Very cool, Phaedrus. I have seen some folks add a PID temperature controller to their rice cooker to make it a sous vide cooker. But I'm not quite that clever or motivated.

[rebel]

I was expecting some food porn.

[Phaedrus]

I had some of the short ribs today but didn't get any pictures- I was too freakin' hungry! Maybe I'll get a pic of the leftovers. I cooked them in a Sous Vide Supreme water bath set to 135.0 degrees F for 74 hours, then tossed them in a bowl of Famous Dave's Devil's Spit BBQ sauce and briefly cooked them on my gas grill til the sauce carmelized a bit. You need some dry heat to get the Maillard reaction working. If you've only had them braised it's quiet a trip to have them falling off the bone tender but still obviously medium rare...it sorta freaks people out!

[2dumb2kwit]

Right now I'm cooking beef short ribs sous vide. First I season the short ribs with sea salt and black pepper. Then I vacuum seal them into bags. They're then cooking in a water bath (my Sous Vide Supreme)- this device is capable of regulating temperature to about 0.3 degrees. I set the temp for 135 (the top side of medium rare) and let 'em go! They will cook for 72 hours (three days, give or take). Today is the end of day two! They'll be done when I get off work tomorrow. The cool thing is that 130 or higher over a long period of time will pasteurize the food, resulting in around a 6D reduction in harmful bacteria. The long cooking times will allow the cologen to break down, rendering the meat crock pot tender, but with a twist- when it's done, it will still be a perfect medium rare! Without getting too deep into the science of food, keeping the temps below 150 will prevent most of the damage and over-keratinizing of proteins that you get with typical braising.

Sous vide is a fantastic way to cook almost every protein but also fruits and veggies, too.

If I remember before I snarf them down I'll take some pics!

Disclosure: I'm a professional chef...

I had some of the short ribs today but didn't get any pictures- I was too freakin' hungry! Maybe I'll get a pic of the leftovers. I cooked them in a Sous Vide Supreme water bath set to 135.0 degrees F for 74 hours, then tossed them in a bowl of Famous Dave's Devil's Spit BBQ sauce and briefly cooked them on my gas grill til the sauce carmelized a bit. You need some dry heat to get the Maillard reaction working. If you've only had them braised it's quiet a trip to have them falling off the bone tender but still obviously medium rare...it sorta freaks people out!

Alton......is that you? LOL

[Rick]

Well, these guys and their meat canning got me moving in that direction. I was pressed between a volleyball game this morning and a softball game this afternoon but I canned a couple of quarts of brats and 2 quarts of hamburger (1.5 lbs each). The bad news is we were running late to the softball game with about 2 lbs left on the canner so I dumped pressure. I know, I know. I knew what was gonna happen. I sucked liquid out of all four jars and one wound up not sealing. But! It was really a piece of cake ... or canned meat as it were. I used the hamburger that didn't seal for dinner and the rest will be fine. I have a bit less liquid in the jars than I would like but I'll use them first. The only thing that should happen is some discoloration. But I have a good seal on them.

Thank you for bring up the subject of canning meat. It's something I had not done and needed to try it. I still have a whole chicken and three more lbs of burger in the fridge that are earmarked for the canner.

[2dumb2kwit]

Lunch was pretty simple, but it was good. A couple of steaks on the grill, sweet potato fries and apple sauce.
If I was really smart, I'd figure out how to make a good compound butter for the steak, and then sop it up with the sweet potato fries. LOL

[Rick]

Still playing with the canning meat thingy. I boiled and deboned a 5 lb. chicken today and that made one quart. I did can up 6 quarts of broth from it but I filled one a smidge too full and it didn't seal. So it's in the fridge. So much for the 1 1/4 inch head space.

I fixed spaghetti last night with the one quart of hamburger (1.5 lbs) that did not seal and I can taste the "can". All canned meat tastes the same to me. I don't care if it's in a jar or a can. Spam is the only thing that the god's would kill for. The rest of it will keep you alive.

This is my first attempt at canning meat so I'm trying to track how much of what = what.

1 - 5 lb chicken = 1 quart
1.5 lb. hamburger = 1 quart
5 brats = 1 quart

You could probably force a 6th brat in a quart jar but five are snug and plenty for us.

[Phaedrus]

Alton......is that you? LOL

Hahaha! He is an inspiration of mine. But this is more inspired by Heston Blumenthal, Thomas Keller and the French Culinary Institute.

[Rick]

I canned six more pounds of ground chuck. That's 4 quarts.