Temperatures forecast in the 90s the next four days starting tomorrow. Making a large batch of gazpacho this afternoon. Won't cook for a few days.
Cooking thread, anyone?
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We love gazpacho around here. It’s definitely a treat and wonderful for a heat wave.
I’ve got granola going in a large crock pot now, and I made up a batch of hummus for tomorrow. I’ve been requested to have a Mediterranean birthday dinner for one of my children, so I’ll need to make pocket bread tomorrow. I‘ll have to figure out whether I‘m going to try to cook it on the grill or the stovetop because the oven just heats the kitchen too much. We’ll have grapes (possibly frozen) instead of cake for dessert. We hardly ever eat them, so it will be a huge treat.
It's too hot for hot soup down here, but my twelve year old was inspired by our discussion of "primordial soup" to make up a batch of what she pictures in her head. Evidently it's red, in this case through paprika rather than tomatoes. She had to work with what we had in the house.
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We've also been enjoying fermented dilly beans this summer. My garden hasn't produced any beans, unfortunately, but I've been growing dill inside (it's too hot outside), and when I need to prune it back I use the excess for a jar of dilly beans. They've been a big hit, and my kids love to drink the brine. It's great after I've been working outside.
We've also been enjoying fermented dilly beans this summer. My garden hasn't produced any beans, unfortunately, but I've been growing dill inside (it's too hot outside), and when I need to prune it back I use the excess for a jar of dilly beans. They've been a big hit, and my kids love to drink the brine. It's great after I've been working outside.
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I now need to go look up "fresno" peppers. We are attempting to grow jalapeno peppers for the first time this year. My daughter wanted her fall garden to focus on pickling, so it's got three hot (but not too hot) pepper plants and two cucumber vines. It's a wonderful thing to be able to eat out of the garden.
I love pickled hot peppers. Fresno peppers are mildly hot, but tasty. Habeneros are hotter if that is desired. We have poblanos, sweet yellow bananas, bells, jalapenos, & allepo (hot) this year. In past years we have grown hot Bulgarian carrot peppers which dry very nicely.
I had a tough headache this afternoon. My daughter wanted permission to bake a cake on the grill. It wouldn't have suited our planned dinner, so we came up with another idea that she could grill as well. The headache made me a bit shaky, I think, so I'm afraid the picture of her beautifully presented salmon and asparagus didn't turn out. Her cake didn't meet her aesthetic standards, but I was pretty impressed for a twelve year old with very limited help from her dad regarding the grill.
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Making chili this afternoon. A variation of Perry Como's Favorite Chili from "The International Chili Society Official Chili Cookbook."
Went food shopping this morning and bought the rest of what I needed along with regular grocery shopping. Just put out chili ingredients on the counter. Very little cumin. Need two teaspoons. Guess I'm going back to Price Chopper right after lunch.
Went food shopping this morning and bought the rest of what I needed along with regular grocery shopping. Just put out chili ingredients on the counter. Very little cumin. Need two teaspoons. Guess I'm going back to Price Chopper right after lunch.
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Yum.
I just had to go look up "Utica Greens." It does sound delicious. I'm a huge fan of all sorts of greens. For dinner tonight we had fried pears and onions, grilled pork chops, and sauteed sweet potato leaves. Texas summers are just too hot for most greens, but the sweet potato foliage is thriving. I did just plant some kale, so I'm hoping it will do well in the fall.
I just looked through our files for the recipe on the computer, we don't have it typed up but I'll try and post it before the weekend.
I found the same recipe from the same person on the net, enjoy.
Recipe: Utica Italian Greens (escarole) - 3 recipes - Recipelink.com
Utica Italian Greens (escarole) - 3 recipes, Side Dishes, Assorted
It's the first Utica Greens Recipe from Janet Chanatry.
My wife uses 3 heads of Escarole, five gloves of garlic, 1/2 lb. of prosciutto, 2 cups of Chicken Broth, 1 cup of bread crumbs mixed in and 1/2 a cup of bread crumbs on top to brown.
Enjoy
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
While not the healthiest meal, I just picked up a stove top pressure cooker and will be attempting fried chicken in it this evening, we're having a small bonfire in the neighborhood and half the neighbors here are celebrating fall coming in with hot cider and fall deserts, the other half is still more or less holding onto summer (me with the Hawaiian shirt and basket of fired chicken) should be fun, need to cut the grass and get some slash wood ready.
Yum. I enjoy a good friend chicken (and fried okra, too), though I don't do it much. I'm confused about the reference to the stove-top pressure cooker, though. Is that for pre-cooking the pieces, then coating and frying? I use a pressure cooker regularly but not for crispy stuff. In fact I'm hoping this weekend to make some Indian chicken in it. I just need to get some ginger first.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
The plan is to heat up the oil in the pressure cooker to 350, add the coated chicken in then put the lid on for 10min, saw it on youtube, looked pretty simple and delicious.
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
I hadn't thought to use one for frying food. This winter I'd like to treat myself to a nice All American pressure canner.
My pressure cooker specifically disallows deep-frying, and I admit that the idea makes me pretty nervous. It would be nice to have a way to contain spatters, though. I have a pan with a basket that I use on the stovetop when I make the occasional french fries or chicken nuggets for my kids, and one rule I have is that they're never allowed by the stove when I'm frying.
I used my pressure cooker to try a butter chicken recipe I had found. It was easy to make, and as promised, it yielded a good meal and lots of leftover sauce. (I tripled the recipe because I have a large family and a large pressure cooker.) We had rice and cauliflower with it. We'll have leftovers tomorrow with okra probably.
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The recipe came from a site called TwoSleevers.com and is for "Instant Pot Butter Chicken." The site is very "busy" and was for me hard to navigate, but the recipe itself worked very well. I plan to explore more there because there are tons of recipes for pressure cookers.
just curious how much oil do you use frying and what do you do with the oil after cooking both stove top and pressure
I'm not sure whether this was addressed to me or to @kennyp2339 or to both of us, but I'll answer for what I do for my stove-top deep frying oil.
I have a one or one and a half quart stainless steel pitcher that lives on my counter. It has a lid and a strainer top, and when oil has cooled from deep frying I'll pour it into that for storage. I tend to use the full container a few times before I discard it in a "grease can" in that trash (whatever other container I'm throwing out at the time). Since I deep fry in batches and occasionally add more oil than what will fit back in my container, I'll often have an empty oil bottle on hand. I'll funnel any extra into that and label it with a Sharpie. I don't deep fry too often, but it is an occasional treat. I think the proper amount of oil really just depends on what size fryer you have and what it takes to cover your food but not be too close to the rim of the pan.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Sorry for the late reply, I made the chicken last night. My stove top pressure cooker is a 8 quart model, I fried 8 chicken legs, filling the cooker almost to the half way point with vegetable oil. Preheated the oil to 365 deg f.
The breading was a cup and a half all purpose flour, 2 tbsp garlic salt, 1 tdsp black pepper, 2 tbsp paprika, 1/2 tbs each of basil, time, oregano. Whisk the dry ingredients together, in a separate bowl I made an egg wash using 2 eggs and almost a cup of milk whisked.
Let the chicken come up to room temp - out of the fridge on a plate for an hour or so, drench in egg wash, then dredge in the breading, throw into the oil, let all the chicken cook as is without the lid for one min, then gently turn the chicken with a big spoon to make sure all area's are covered, the minute of cooking keeps the breading on. Maintain the 350 to 375 deg oil, put the lid on and set the stove timer for 7 min, after the time is up release the pressure, turn stove off, this takes about a minute or so, the oil will still be frying away, take chicken out, put on rack with paper towel underneath to drain for 4-5min, serve when ready, still can be very hot.
Depending on the amount of moisture in the chicken will determine if you get the full locking seal of the pressure cooker, this was the best homemade fried chicken I ever had, crispy crust, good flavor and moist meat, will def be doing again, also I just dumped the oil once cooled off into a gallon milk container, it will be dumped at my recycling center next time I go.
To add to the meal, I took 4 medium / large size white Idaho potatoes, removed the skins, cut the into quarters then chopped fairly thin, in a bowl I mixed them with some olive oil, took a large baking sheet and covered it with foil, preheated the oven to 425 deg f, spread the potatoes on the baking sheet, seasoned it with some sea salt and black pepper, then added 1 whole diced onion to the top, then a drizzle of house Italian dressing, placed in oven for 45min, they come out great, the left overs heated the next morning in a cast iron pan and served with eggs are the best btw (home fries we call it back east)
The breading was a cup and a half all purpose flour, 2 tbsp garlic salt, 1 tdsp black pepper, 2 tbsp paprika, 1/2 tbs each of basil, time, oregano. Whisk the dry ingredients together, in a separate bowl I made an egg wash using 2 eggs and almost a cup of milk whisked.
Let the chicken come up to room temp - out of the fridge on a plate for an hour or so, drench in egg wash, then dredge in the breading, throw into the oil, let all the chicken cook as is without the lid for one min, then gently turn the chicken with a big spoon to make sure all area's are covered, the minute of cooking keeps the breading on. Maintain the 350 to 375 deg oil, put the lid on and set the stove timer for 7 min, after the time is up release the pressure, turn stove off, this takes about a minute or so, the oil will still be frying away, take chicken out, put on rack with paper towel underneath to drain for 4-5min, serve when ready, still can be very hot.
Depending on the amount of moisture in the chicken will determine if you get the full locking seal of the pressure cooker, this was the best homemade fried chicken I ever had, crispy crust, good flavor and moist meat, will def be doing again, also I just dumped the oil once cooled off into a gallon milk container, it will be dumped at my recycling center next time I go.
To add to the meal, I took 4 medium / large size white Idaho potatoes, removed the skins, cut the into quarters then chopped fairly thin, in a bowl I mixed them with some olive oil, took a large baking sheet and covered it with foil, preheated the oven to 425 deg f, spread the potatoes on the baking sheet, seasoned it with some sea salt and black pepper, then added 1 whole diced onion to the top, then a drizzle of house Italian dressing, placed in oven for 45min, they come out great, the left overs heated the next morning in a cast iron pan and served with eggs are the best btw (home fries we call it back east)
thank you both. one more question if you save the oil after cooking how long before it goes rancid? if cooking meat.
@kennyp2339, that sounds delicious. I've heard of "home fries" before but never really knew what it meant. Here was our version of potatoes and eggs this morning. (Leftover spinach mashed potatoes as a nest for baked eggs.) It was cool enough this morning that I didn't mind using the oven.
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The afternoon snack was strawberry lassi, and I had fun sending my younger daughter out to gather mint and rose petals for the garnish.
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@fbelec, I've never had oil go rancid, but most of my deep frying (which is not that frequent) is either "Irish" potatoes, sweet potatoes, or okra. I tend to use oil three times, so if I want to make a meat or something really strongly flavored (deep-fried brussels sprouts which I tried once), I'll do that on the last cycle of oil, so I'm discarding it anyway. If I do something like make a double batch of chicken nuggets and put half in the freezer, I'll keep the "meat oil" until I fry the other half, which is usually only a few days later. I do strain the oil with the strainer in my container but also filtered through a paper towel, so there are no pieces of meat left in it. Still, it's not my regular habit to keep oil that I've cooked meat in for long. (Growing up I'm pretty sure my mom always kept the oil she used for frying fish, and I'm pretty sure she still does. I'll see if I can remember to ask her about it. I'm sure she must have discarded it at times, but I really have no memory of that. She still fishes from her pond pretty regularly and eats fish often.)
The afternoon snack was strawberry lassi, and I had fun sending my younger daughter out to gather mint and rose petals for the garnish.
@fbelec, I've never had oil go rancid, but most of my deep frying (which is not that frequent) is either "Irish" potatoes, sweet potatoes, or okra. I tend to use oil three times, so if I want to make a meat or something really strongly flavored (deep-fried brussels sprouts which I tried once), I'll do that on the last cycle of oil, so I'm discarding it anyway. If I do something like make a double batch of chicken nuggets and put half in the freezer, I'll keep the "meat oil" until I fry the other half, which is usually only a few days later. I do strain the oil with the strainer in my container but also filtered through a paper towel, so there are no pieces of meat left in it. Still, it's not my regular habit to keep oil that I've cooked meat in for long. (Growing up I'm pretty sure my mom always kept the oil she used for frying fish, and I'm pretty sure she still does. I'll see if I can remember to ask her about it. I'm sure she must have discarded it at times, but I really have no memory of that. She still fishes from her pond pretty regularly and eats fish often.)
Butternut squash and corn soup yesterday to start soup and stew season. Lots of leftovers for the week. Made about 6 quarts in a 7-quart stock pot.
Here's the recipe: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/corn-and-squash-soup/
What I do. Very easy.
Split two butternut squash lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Place in baking dish with a little water and bake for in a 350 F oven for 45 minutes or until done, a fork is easily inserted.
While the squash is baking ...
Cook diced bacon in stock pot. Remove with slotted spoon when done and drain on paper towel. Retain bacon fat in pot. Saute two celery ribs and a medium onion, diced, until soft. Add two tablespoons flour and cook. Slowly stir in stock. I had an open quart of no-salt-added vegetable stock in the refrigerator, so I used that. It was just under a quart. Bring to boil with stirring and boil for two minutes. Cover and turn off heat.
Squash should be almost done. Let squash cool a little and peel carefully with a knife. Mash squash.
Add squash, two 15-oz. cans creamed corn, 2 cups half & half, parsley, and freshly ground black pepper to stock pot. Stir and heat.
Ladle into bowl and serve with diced bacon, shredded cheese, croutons, and sour cream. Yum.
Old picture from 2011 ...
Here's the recipe: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/corn-and-squash-soup/
What I do. Very easy.
Split two butternut squash lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Place in baking dish with a little water and bake for in a 350 F oven for 45 minutes or until done, a fork is easily inserted.
While the squash is baking ...
Cook diced bacon in stock pot. Remove with slotted spoon when done and drain on paper towel. Retain bacon fat in pot. Saute two celery ribs and a medium onion, diced, until soft. Add two tablespoons flour and cook. Slowly stir in stock. I had an open quart of no-salt-added vegetable stock in the refrigerator, so I used that. It was just under a quart. Bring to boil with stirring and boil for two minutes. Cover and turn off heat.
Squash should be almost done. Let squash cool a little and peel carefully with a knife. Mash squash.
Add squash, two 15-oz. cans creamed corn, 2 cups half & half, parsley, and freshly ground black pepper to stock pot. Stir and heat.
Ladle into bowl and serve with diced bacon, shredded cheese, croutons, and sour cream. Yum.
Old picture from 2011 ...
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Yum. (My eight year old tells me that I always say that on this thread, but I figure it's pretty appropriate.) I've never put butternut squash and corn together, but I love both in lots of other preparations, so I think I'll have to give that a try. Thanks for the recipe.
Yesterday I made a huge batch of chili. I was feeding a (small) solar-panel installation crew, but I also wanted to make a bunch for my family. Thursday night I browned beef bones, Friday I made a couple of batches of broth, Saturday I put the spice grinder, electric skillet, and pressure cooker to work. After feeding my family and three workers, I had six quarts for the freezer. It will be nice to have on hand when I need quick meals in cooler weather.
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My husband made a batch of bacon and cheese biscuits for breakfast this morning. They were hearty enough that we had leftovers for lunch along with some sauteed green beans from the garden.
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Yesterday I made a huge batch of chili. I was feeding a (small) solar-panel installation crew, but I also wanted to make a bunch for my family. Thursday night I browned beef bones, Friday I made a couple of batches of broth, Saturday I put the spice grinder, electric skillet, and pressure cooker to work. After feeding my family and three workers, I had six quarts for the freezer. It will be nice to have on hand when I need quick meals in cooler weather.
My husband made a batch of bacon and cheese biscuits for breakfast this morning. They were hearty enough that we had leftovers for lunch along with some sauteed green beans from the garden.
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