What's Cooking

[GoingMyWay]

We made some country style ribs and collard greens with smoked turkey necks in the Instant Pot.  I really enjoyed the collard greens, but the ribs could have been better.  The recipe I found used Stubb's BBQ sauce, but I used my favorite BBQ sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's.  We're gonna make this again using Stubb's and also add black eyed peas for our New Year's meal.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

We made a cavatelli pasta with mushroom sauce.  It was a little too dry for our liking.  I don't think we'll be making that again.

[attachimg=10]

[attachimg=11]

[attachimg=12]

[attachimg=13]

 

[GoingMyWay]

My wife made a soy sauce chicken and pan fried soup dumplings and also traditional steamed xiao long bao.  The dough came out a little too thick, but it was almost as good as the soup dumplings you'd buy at a restaurant.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

Made a Spanish chorizo and potato stew.  The chorizo I found said "Spanish Style," but it didn't quite look as authentic as a real chorizo from Spain.  The real thing appears to be like a hard cured sausage.  The stew tasted good and was pretty easy to make.  It was great to dip bread in to.

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

[attachimg=11]

My wife is still big into bread making.  She's moved on to sourdough.  It was her first time making sourdough bread, but it came out great.

[attachimg=12]

[attachimg=13]

[attachimg=14]

 

[GoingMyWay]

This meal might as well have been sponsored by Trader Joe's as that's where most of the ingredients came from.  We made gyros and homemade falafel.  This was the first time making falafel, but I thought they turned out very well.  We put in a jalapeno and some cayenne pepper to give it a little kick.  The second day I deep fried the gyro meat and I thought it turned out much better than just microwaving the slices. 

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

Last year we made silver fish patties using tiny silver fish.  This time we got some larger silver fish so we fried them individually.  They turned out great - they were like little fish french fries.

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

[attachimg=11]

[attachimg=12]

 

[GoingMyWay]

Last night we made cumin lamb with a side of Asian vegetables from Trader Joe's.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

 

[hdv]

Looking good! Especially that sourdough bread. And those dumpling look delicious as well. Sadly, I still haven't found the time to try out your Banh Mi recipe. As a matter of fact I haven't been spending much time in the kitchen lately at all. I have been hoping to make Flemish Stew (Vlaamse stoof) with stewed pears (stoofpeertjes) and home-made fries (Vlaamse frieten) for some time now, but I am afraid it won't happen again this weekend.  [crying]

 

[GoingMyWay]

Thanks!  The sourdough was good, especially with butter and I'm not even a fan of sourdough bread.  I had been wondering if you ever tried to make the Banh Mi.

Flemish stew sounds good.  I've never tried to make that before.

Hopefully you'll be able to get back into the kitchen before the end of the year so you can share some yummy pictures of what you whip up.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I had been on the fence about trying these Kosmos Q Wing Dusts.  I had seen them used in some YouTube videos and they were highly praised.  I noticed on the ingredients that most of them contain some kind of milk/cheese powder - either buttermilk powder or bleu cheese powder.  I thought that was kinda odd, but figured I probably wouldn't even be able to taste the cheese anyway (I don't like bleu cheese).  You cook the wings first and then sprinkle/toss the wing dust on the wings.

[attachimg=1]

I tried all 4 flavors and sadly I didn't really like any of them that much.  The Nashville Hot Chicken was probably the best followed by the Kick Cajun.  I didn't like the Buffalo as I could definitely taste the bleu cheese and the Lemon Pepper had some herbs in there that I didn't care for.  I much prefer the air fried wings I made with just regular lemon pepper shaken on the wings prior to cooking in the air fryer.

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

I found this beef bacon at Costco.

[attachimg=6]

It's not bad.  It doesn't get as crispy as real bacon.  It's also rather salty by itself - I think it would make a pretty good BLT or a bacon butty.

I got some "fancy" eggs to pair with the beef bacon.

[attachimg=7]

One of the yolks had a really nice orange color, but it didn't taste any different than the cheap store brand large eggs that I always buy.

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

I also picked up 2 new hot sauces.  The Frank's Xtra Hot wasn't all that spicy.  I was surprised how thick the sauce was.  The El Yucateco hot sauce was spicier and a little smokey tasting.

[attachimg=10]

[attachimg=11]

 

[GoingMyWay]

Yesterday I  made a chicken and sausage gumbo.  We normally make shrimp and crab gumbo with okra, but that's a little more complicated to make so I wanted to try making something a little simpler.  I found this brand of Andouille sausage at the grocery store.

[attachimg=1]

The gumbo was a little bitter (I think I burned the roux a little bit after I added the trinity).  We also missed the sweetness from the shrimp and shrimp stock that's in the seafood gumbo.

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

 

[GoingMyWay]

I tossed some deep fried wings with the Frank's Xtra Hot sauce for lunch.  I really liked how they turned out.

[attachimg=1]

 

[peter halle]

[member=66216]GoingMyWay[/member] and others, I love seeing your posts.  Uber amazing!  But, after looking at your images and reading your descriptions, I am full.  You each eat more in one meal than I do in half a week.  How do you do it? [eek]

Peter

 

[GoingMyWay]

We have been eating bigger and more elaborate lunches since my wife started working from home in March.  Prior to that I would eat a very small lunch or skip lunch altogether.  I guess I still have a relatively fast metabolism (but not as fast as it used to be when I was in college and weighed 115lbs and ate anything and everything without gaining any weight).

How do you get by eating so little??  Don't you feel hungry?

Last night we had a Vietnamese hot pot.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

 

[GoingMyWay]

Wife made Mien Ga (Vietnamese Glass Noodle Soup) over the weekend. 

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

She also made Banh Tieu, which is like a Vietnamese sesame donut.

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

We used the beef bacon to make a BLT for lunch yesterday.  I liked the beef bacon much more on a sandwich.  I couldn't even tell that it wasn't just regular pork bacon.

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

 

[GoingMyWay]

We've always bought pre-made blinis, but because it was New Year's Eve they were all sold out.  We made our own and it's pretty easy to make and taste just as good.  I don't think we'll ever buy the pre-made ones again.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

I ordered Malt Barley Syrup from Amazon and made homemade bagels again.  I put some of the syrup in the dough and also in the water that I boiled the bagels in.  The bagels came out darker, but the color seemed a little off.

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

We made the collard greens with smoked turkey necks, black eyed peas, and a couple of potatoes for New Year's Day dinner.  I made the country style pork ribs with Stubb's BBQ sauce this time, but I think Sweet Baby Ray's is still the best BBQ sauce.

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

Made some shanghai style noodles and salt and pepper pork and a clone of the spicy cucumber salad from Din Tai Fung.  This is the second time making this salad.  We really like it.

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

[attachimg=11]

[attachimg=12]

[attachimg=13]

 

[GoingMyWay]

Last night we made Maqlubeh.  It's a 1 pot chicken and rice dish that also has cauliflower and eggplant and a lot of spices - turmeric, all spice, cumin, and nutmeg.  We got the recipe from Christopher Kimball's Milk Street.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

I think we'll be making this one again as we both liked it.  I think it's also a little easier to make than the chicken kabsa.  The hardest part was tracing and cutting out the 2 circles of parchment paper. 

A while back we ordered Ethiopian food and it came with a little container of a red spice powder.  I didn't know what it was at the time, but it was a really tasty and hot spice blend.  I learned that it's called Berbere so I bought a shaker from Amazon.

[attachimg=11]

This particular brand isn't nearly as good as the one from the restaurant.  I don't know if I just picked a bad brand or if the restaurant makes their own in house, which makes it extra special.

The Maqlubeh was even better with a sprinkling of Berbere on top.

 

[rvieceli]

I was going through my bookmarks today and saw this one that I had forgotten about.
https://greatchefs.com/

This was a culinary show based out of New Orleans that showcased great chefs  [big grin] As I recall it was on PBS stations and lasted about 30 minutes. The website has all the episodes and recipes available. It was a wonderful show. As I recall it originally focused on the USA then went all over the world.

the website is a little clunky but the content is priceless.

Check it out when you have some time to spare.

Love the narator's accent.

Ron

 

[GoingMyWay]

Saturday we made American Goulash in the Instant Pot.  I think some people call this dish American Chop Suey.  It's a super simple one pot meal that only required browning the beef and then cooking at high pressure for 7 minutes.  This was very close to the version my grandmother made.  She always boiled the elbow macaroni separately and added the cooked pasta to the beef and tomato sauce. 

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

[attachimg=7]

[attachimg=8]

As a child, we always ate the goulash with a slice of white sandwich bread covered with margarine.  This time I used Wonderbread and the Kerrygold Naturally Softer Pure Irish Butter.

[attachimg=9]

 

[hdv]

Would you be interested in the recipe for "real" Hungarian Gulyash? My family's roots are from there (Transylvania  [scared]  [wink] ), although I have no first-hand knowledge of that. But I do try to find out more about the culture and the food over there. Someone I know who lives in Hungary has given me an "authentic" recipe. It tastes real good, especially with tarhonya, but I cannot guarantee it really is authentic. I suspect it is though.

 

[GoingMyWay]

I'd love to see your recipe.

I've used the New York Time's Hungarian Goulash recipe 2 or 3 times in the past.

 

[semenza]

As a child, we always ate the goulash with a slice of white sandwich bread covered with margarine.  This time I used Wonderbread and the Kerrygold Naturally Softer Pure Irish Butter.

    I don't know man, opposite ends of the spectrum you're putting together there.  [blink]  [smile]

Seth

 

[Cheese]

  I don't know man, opposite ends of the spectrum you're putting together there.  [blink]  [smile]

Ya I agree...seems like the Wonderbread needs a more symbiotic brethren...something more like margarine with the yellow dot of color that you worked into the lard so that it looked like butter.  [smile]