BBO Discussion Forums: What did you cook today? - BBO Discussion Forums

Vampyr, on 2015-February-19, 17:29, said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajvar

Once had a neighbor who worked full time and spent much of her off time in the winter cooking huge batches of whatever she was making for dinner and freezing meal size portions of it. They also did most of their dinner parties and such during the winter. Come summer, her husband bar-b-qued and she made salads but other than that they pretty much took the summer off from cooking. They did have a garden in the summer but it was set up to look after itself, once planted little needed doing but harvesting. It seemed quite a sensible way to proceed, summer here is woefully short and meant to be enjoyed. She must have been REALLY well organized though, not to end up with a host of packages of the same thing in the bottom of the freezer.

onoway, on 2015-February-23, 17:04, said:

My father bought a good sized freezer and a side of beef and was not at all pleased to find out we were down to eating hamburger for the next 6 months.

cherdano, on 2015-February-19, 18:58, said:

I used to make more elaborate sauces and still do.....one recipe to be read below....but in 2006 we went to the WC in Verona, and ate lunch frequently in one of the piazzas near our hotel. I had a pasta dish that was simply garlic and olive oil, with a side of parmesan.

Now, the atmosphere and company were both great, which always makes food taste better, but I have made it at home several times and it is an excellent, inexpensive, tasty and quick meal.

A little more elaborate: two or more cloves of garlic, sliced very thinly, sauted in olive oil until they just start to turn a golden brown. Remove the garlic.

Saute some red pepper (optional) and then add chopped up prosciutto ham (the real stuff if you can find it). Meanwhile drain a large can of Marzano tomatoes....saving the juices, but dicing the tomatoes to extract as much juice as possible.

Add the tomatoes to the pan.....cook over medium high heat for several minutes....as it dries out add modest amounts of the juices.

I always add flaked chilies to taste, and often diced basil

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti (my usual) or linguine, or even penne etc in a large pot for the appropriate time. Add the garlic to the sauce a couple of minutes before the pasta is ready.

Drain the pasta, place on heated plate and add sauce....and, of course, parmesan....and for dog's sake use the real deal, grated at meal time, not by the store.

Enjoy with a robust red wine.

Something I almost always make with my garlic and olive oil pasta is bruschetta. I use Tuscany Italian bread from Aldi's. Toast the bread. Peel and split a large clove of garlic in half and rub the garlic all over the toasted bread, squeezing the garlic gently as you do so. Slice a Roma tomato into thin slices. Add the tomato slices to the top of the bread. Salt, pepper, and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Chop a little fresh basil and garnish.

That's all there is to it - a wonderful addition to a pasta meal.

Continuing the Italian theme: pasta all Genovese. A little rich perhaps but I did shovel snow today. Next time I'll cook the bacon first and drain the fat.

Fixed this last night. Not bad. Will make it again. Next time I'll start the day before and let the chicken marinate overnight.


Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Kate S. Jordan.

Made this over the weekend

http://www.salon.com...ns_grade_style/

Cooked one of our staples today, stuffed zucchinis.

Take 2 medium Zucchinis (better straight than crooked), cut into 4 parts each (discarding the ends), hollow them out with a teaspoon, leaving a floor. Dice the removed flesh finely.

Heat up olive oil in a large pan, fry 500g minced meat (I usually go all beef but today it was half&half), add in 2 diced onions and the diced zucchini flesh. Continue cooking on high heat and season generously with salt and pepper. Add 500g of juicy diced tomatoes and optionally a bit of concentrated tomato paste, turn down to medium heat, and let reduce.

Put the zucchini containers in an oiled baking form, fill with sauce and surround with the remaining sauce. Take 200g fresh mozzarella, put a thin disc on each piece of zucchini, dice the remaining mozzarella and sprinkle the sauce with it. Bake for ~20mins at 200°C and serve with rice.

Dinner party tomorrow

http://www.imafoodbl...ench-onion-soup
http://www.accidenta...uts-cook-along/
http://www.chefsteps...n-creme-caramel

hrothgar, on 2015-March-02, 17:46, said:

made this over the weekend, myself.

It was ok, but no better than ok. That may be because of the tomatoes....all I could get were 'vine-ripened' tomatoes from Mexico, and you just know that while they remain attached to the vine, to a minor degree, in the store, they 'ripened' only in transit.

We grew some spectacularly sweet yellow tomatoes last year....we pureed some and froze them and regrettably used the last of them two weeks earlier....we froze them uncooked and the taste was well preserved.

We have a friend who is doing controlled experiments with various seedlings this year, so will be planting from her shortly, and I may revisit this at the end of the summer. Our growing season is such that getting a good crop is a crapshoot, without a greenhouse, but last year was the best in a decade, so I am hopeful. California's misery appears to be giving the NorthWest better summers.

mikeh, on 2015-March-23, 17:05, said:

I've found that if I can't get good fresh tomatoes, canned is the best bet.
I've had good luck with Muir Glen Organic.

The following turned out phenomenally well
http://www.chefsteps...n-creme-caramel

I pretty much followed the recipes, with the following tweaks

1. I substituted raspberry lambic for the water in the caramel and added some nam phrik
2. Added a trace of vanilla to the custard base
3. Topped with some malden salt

I made some toast. That's about the closest I ever get to cooking.

Dice 2 onions and some garlic and sauté in butter. Add in some parsley and chives. When the onions are nice and translucent, sprinkle with flour, then after the flour has been sweated, 200ml cream, 200ml milk and the florets from 500g of broccoli. Cook until the broccoli reaches the desired consistency, then add 150g diced cooked ham and 300g cooked mini penne. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

In retrospect, the parsley was a mistake, should have left that out. I'm not a big fan of raw ham but the dish would probably have been more flavorful with raw ham or bacon added earlier in the process. Still, it was a reasonably tasty and not all too laborious meal.

mgoetze, on 2015-March-25, 11:38, said:

Sounds pretty good. Maybe thyme would have worked better than parsley?

blackshoe, on 2015-March-25, 12:08, said:

The parsley was interfering with the taste of the broccoli, they didn't blend well and I don't imagine thyme would do much better... just let the broccoli do its thing I think.

Ah, good point. I was too focused on the ham.

I didn't cook this one, my dad did when I went to visit him, best fish soup I've ever had:

Fish soup with harissa and dried limes

2-3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped (we used 4 and the garlic squeezer)
40g (50g) fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil
A knob of butter
2 onions, finely chopped
1-2 tsp sugar or honey
1-2tsp ground turmeric
1-2 (2.5) tsp harissa
2-3 dried limes, pierced twice with a skewer
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 litre fish stock or water
900g firm, skinned fish fillets, eg sea bass, cod tuna, salmon, cut into
bite-sized pieces
Bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 With a pestle and mortar pound garlic and ginger with ½ tsp salt to form
a thick, almost smooth paste
2 Heat olive oil and butter in a heavy-based saucepan and soften onions for
2-3 minutes. Add sugar/honey with garlic and ginger paste and cook for 2
minutes, until fragrant.
Add turmeric, harissa and limes and stir for 1min, then stir in tomatoes and
fish stock.
Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes
3 Season the liquid well with salt and pepper and add fish. Cover the pan
and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the fish is cooked.
Check seasoning, stir in half the coriander and ladle soup into bowls.
garnish with rest of the coriander and serve immediately

As we like well spiced food I think he used a bit more garlic, ginger and harissa than the basic recipe (the bracketed quantities).

This served 3 just with some bread as a main course, would do 4-6 as a starter.

Edit: the measurements are English teaspoons (tsp) or tablespoons (tbsp), if cooking in the US check whether the measures are the same, coriander = cilantro I think.

I will try this; it is very different to my normal fish soup.

If you don't have fish stock, diluted fish sauce (nam pla) works very well, I find.

Cyberyeti, on 2015-March-26, 10:54, said:

Looks good. I had never heard of dried limes before. can't wait to try them...