Made what I'v dubbed 'forest pancakes' today Made a base of a normal (german) pancake batter, added in chopped walnut and spruce tips (had some left in the freezer that i'd forgotten about) and then for sweet ones added dried blueberries and drizzled with honey, and for savoury ones added sliced ramps and rehydrated porcini mushrooms And it's really good, i'm super pleased!
Home and back to cooking! Spoiler: big phone pics 1) sliced beets with herby goat cheese, drizzled with balsamic-orange vinagrette. but then everyone ate them before i could get a picture (combination of this and this) 2) miso glazed pan roasted carrots (this)… so buttery. so good.
so i've been experimenting with sourdough lately, and i tried the sponge method for a batch of sandwich rolls, and the difference was rather startling. it pretty much cut rising time in half and the rolls were much softer without losing their chew. i'm having a turkey and swiss on one right now and it's absolute bliss.
basically you take your starter, and you make a very wet dough, like you put all your liquid and sugar ingredients but none of the salt and only like half the flour. and you let that bubble for a bit, let it get good and foamy. i think i gave it a half hour, but my kitchen's pretty warm, with sourdough starter you might need an hour of pre-rise some days. idk for dry yeast, it probably goes real fast. anyhow, then you add the rest of the flour, knead, etc., just continue with your bread recipe as normal. bread made from that starter had been taking like 4 hours for the first rise, but it took less than 2 this time. second rise wasn't quite as accelerated but still faster. and the rolls are SO SOFT AND GOOD. edit: oh but i did feed my starter extra the night before, which may have contributed to the speed. it nearly escaped its jar!
i've got half a loaf of sourdough wheat bread going stale, bc the batch turned out too sour. starter has been adjusted and the new loaf smells like heaven instead of vinegar, btw. :D but what i'm actually here for is to bitch about how every result i get for 'basic bread pudding' has 15 ingredients and a booze sauce. no u guys i'm not going to zest a fucking tangerine for this, and if i had any bourbon in the house i wouldn't waste it on cooking. just tell me the proportion of eggs to milk to bread, for god's sake, i can make my own choices re: pecans.
I want it to be known that there's no combo of 'beans, tomato product, meat' that doesn't taste amazing. It's the holy trinity of filling, tasty food, together with it's twin, 'potatos, tomato product, meat'
Last-day-before-I-go-back-to-the-kitchenless-dorm-existence cookblogging: For my dad’s birthday I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to cook, then gave him a list of a few things I’ve made before and am reasonably confident are good in case he didn’t have specific ideas, and ended up making this steak noodle salad from smittenkitchen again. Spoiler: big pic It’s hard to see but there is a big pile of noodles under there :) i also subbed out the fish sauce for worcestershire and soy don’t tell anyone but my parents happily devoured it regardless! I alsoooo made these matcha shortbread cookies because my dad has said he really likes them. (I sub in Trader Joe’s matcha latte powder for the actual matcha, even though it’s probably way less intense, because matcha is expensive!!) No pictures of those but they were tasty.
one of my new year's resolutions was learning to cook whole birds. i roasted a whole chicken yesterday. it turned out pretty tasty! the potatoes were inedible, because i didn't toss them in oil or anything, just set the chicken on them; they dried out like clay. but the meat tasted real nice. i didn't use a recipe, just read the kitchn site's tips page and then sort of... winged it (pun police weewoo). then i felt really horrible and had to take a nap, and left the rest to barb and a meat thermometer. :P but all's well that ends well. next thing to attempt: chicken in white wine. or, actually, flat champagne. i am told this is tasty. have never cut up a whole chicken before, so i went looking for tutorials, and this is the best one i found: https://www.marthastewart.com/904255/how-cut-whole-chicken about 4 mins, v straightforward. i ran into a few ppl saying you should throw out the liver when you make giblet gravy or broth. do you do that, guys? i never did, but then, i did notice kind of a mineral taste in my broth i didn't quite like sometimes. i assumed it was because i left the blood on the bones instead of blanching them.
I have never left out the liver when making giblet gravy but also, I like liver, so ymmv. When you're making broth, if you keep the liver I'd rec doing a milk soak for five minutes and then patting dry; that'll take out the worst of the offensive Offal Taste. If that's too much work, then toss the liver (or see if it can be made into pet treats; my dog gets liver occasionally but I'm not sure if it's all right for cats).
It's OK for cats but no more than 3 times a week due to all the vitamin A. It's basically a multivitamin for carnivores with the downside that it is possible to OD on vitamins.
i was going to chime in that it's deffo okay for cats, it's actually one of the main ingredients in our (vet approved and acquired from) homemade cat food. i guess the vitamin A thing is not a concern here because it IS their food, and not something in addition to what they get? but also, probably varies from cat to cat, but ours love liver
when i make giblet gravy i use a portion of the liver (my mom doesn’t like liver), but it isn’t mineral-y for me
mm chiken my first time roasting a chicken. most of this is gonna be soup but the non-soup version is also delicious!
I get my groceries delivered. Mistakes were made. I now have almost 3lbs of one big tri-tip sitting in my fridge I've never cooked anything bigger than a flatiron steak. I have no idea what to do with this monstrosity. I want to cook the whole thing because 1) I'm going to murder the packaging and I don't think I can fit half of it in any of my containers and 2) I can do it once and just. Eat the leftovers for a few days But this thing is about the size of my cat I am out of my depth what do?
i'd say you braise that sucker but then again i just really like braising? Alternatively, make some steaks of it and eat those and braise the rest?
I'd be inclined to cut a steak like that into thin strips and stir fry, either marinaded or with mushrooms and onions for adding to a cream sauce as in stroganoff.
Make a roast! Slap that sucker on a nest of peeled quartered onion and whatever root veg you like, season liberally with salt and pepper, and cook at 325 for about an hour fifteen to an hour and a half. Veg is cooked in meat juice and is absolutely delicious.
