What are you cooking?

[Bliss Doubt]

I made a batch of veggie burgers. To me the best part of a burger is the lettuce & tomato atop the patty. I was out of lettuce and tomato, so I thought up something all by myself. The sour cream & onion veggie burger would give me a crunchy burger topping without lettuce.

So I dumped the falafel mix into a bowl and added a whole jar of "jarlic". The chopped garlic in a jar is convenient, but never very strong. It's always packed in water, which nearly completely denatures the garlic, but there's some flavor left, and including the liquid will add mild garlic flavor. Next, as much as I feared I would never use up all of this expensive organic Korean red pepper powder, I'm rapidly using it up. I put it in everything, soups, stews, spreads. I added two heaping tablespoons of it to my falafel mixture. Added also some fresh thyme leaves. Made up the moisture gap with some water. Stir stir stir, and I left it to hydrate for a little while.



Another stir-up, and I used a releasing ice cream scoop to make nice even patties. You press the scoop of mixture flat once it's on the sheet.



Baked them on a really well oiled sheet, more like oven frying them, flipped them halfway through, and let them go until done. They're firm when done, and maybe you want them a little more crunchy than I do. I like them a little crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. Here they are ready to bake, and you can see how much avocado oil is on the sheet.



While they were baking, I sliced some onion and cut the slices in half. I wanted a texture that would stay in big crunchy pieces on the burger. Added some salt and pepper to the onions, and let them wait for the burgers to finish. When the burgers were done, while I was warming a bun, I stirred sour cream and chopped fresh parsley into the onions.



Burger onto the bun, sour cream onions onto the burger, lid on, and mmmmm, delicious, crunchy, fresh. My breakfast-lunch today, with 7 patties left over for the upcoming week, to reheat and crumble into tacos, or for more veggie burgers.




I could have added cumin and/or curry powder, or whatever other spices to the falafel mixture before cooking the patties, but in this instance I didn't want exotic or middle eastern, or anything but savory, fresh and herby.

For those who don't know, undiluted Campbells cream of mushroom soup mixed with with just a little heavy cream makes a very convincing cream gravy, so, chicken fried falafel steak with cream gravy anyone? With celery and carrot sticks on the side, or maybe some pickled okra. Okay, enough of me and my food fantasies.

Bon appetit.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Pizza is usually a cheat day item, but these are the things you don't want to lose to discoloration, wilt, rot:



I bought a few of these organic pizza crusts in my latest Thrive Market order:



This jar of tomato pesto has been in the cabinet well over a year, maybe even two years, and still doesn't expire until the end of this year, but I didn't want to use a liquid pizza sauce on such a thin crust. This has great ingredients, sun dried tomatoes, olive oil, pine nuts, parm, so I opened it and stirred in a big spoonful of fresh crushed garlic.



Spread it on, powdered it with parm, added fresh thyme and chopped fresh parsley:



Next, okay don't gag. I don't know how I ran out of mozzarella "stringles" but I did. These organic American cheese singles are very low in calories, and really they taste pretty good. The parm underneath gives their flavor an extra boost.



Out of the oven, I added a lot of basil. My basil was still fresh and unblemished, so those dark spots you see are from the steamy oven heat rising as I placed the leaves on the hot dish.



Then I rolled it up tight and cut it into pinwheels. Here is half the roll, my breakfast-lunch today. The other half will be dinner tonite.



Bon appetit.

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

"Let them eat cake"

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Vegan "beefy" chili

This may not fool anybody into thinking it's beef chili, but it's a far cry from that "dump in cans of everything" "superbowl chili". This has deep flavor and nuance.

I made mine with just one can of organic refried black beans, but to serve two and have some leftovers, you'll want to use two cans. Just double my recipe for one. I am specifying only black beans, not pinto or any other kind, and only the smashed "refried". The ingredients in these are black beans, water and sea salt:



Add a cup of water to the pan and two or three tablespoons soy or tamari sauce. Add the refried black beans. A few of the beans were still whole, and dang it I didn't want that, so I smashed the holdouts with the back of my spoon during cooking.

To the beans I added two heaping tablespoons chili powder (I used my Korean, but you can use regular), about two tablespoons freshly pressed garlic, a heaping tablespoon ground cumin, one vegan beef bouillon cube. You can add a chopped jalapeno if you want to. I didn't because I didn't have any.



Stir stir stir, cook until well mixed and the flavors integrated. I imagine my leftovers tomorrow will be even better. I added some fresh chopped parsley at the end. Ready to serve:



I topped my bowl with chopped onion. You can add shredded lettuce and tomato on top, or fresh salsa, some vegan sour cream, chopped avocado, whatever you like to have on your chili.



Bon appetit.

 

[Jimi]

Vegan "beefy" chili

This may not fool anybody into thinking it's beef chili, but it's a far cry from that "dump in cans of everything" "superbowl chili". This has deep flavor and nuance.

I made mine with just one can of organic refried black beans, but to serve two and have some leftovers, you'll want to use two cans. Just double my recipe for one. I am specifying only black beans, not pinto or any other kind, and only the smashed "refried". The ingredients in these are black beans, water and sea salt:

View attachment 224335

Add a cup of water to the pan and one or two tablespoons soy or tamari sauce. Add the refried black beans. A few of the beans were still whole, and dang it I didn't want that, so I smashed the holdouts with the back of my spoon during cooking.

To the beans I added two heaping tablespoons chili powder (I used my Korean, but you can use regular), about two tablespoons freshly pressed garlic, a tablespoon ground cumin, one vegan beef bouillon cube. You can add a chopped jalapeno if you want to. I didn't because I didn't have any.

View attachment 224336

Stir stir stir, cook until well mixed and the flavors integrated. I imagine my leftovers tomorrow will be even better. I added some fresh chopped parsley at the end. Ready to serve:

View attachment 224337

I topped my bowl with chopped onion. You can add shredded lettuce and tomato on top, or fresh salsa, some vegan sour cream, chopped avocado, whatever you like to have on your chili.

View attachment 224338

Bon appetit.

MMMM this looks wonderful, and easy enough for me to make , on a good day. Thank you for postin it my dear friend

 

[Bliss Doubt]

MMMM this looks wonderful, and easy enough for me to make , on a good day. Thank you for postin it my dear friend

It's pretty easy, and all in one pan.

I edited the recipe to say "two or three tablespoons soy or tamari". I ended up going back and adding more after I started eating it. It is the most important ingredient for umami in the dish.

Also you can use tomato or vegetable juice instead of water to get it started, not at all traditional in real beef chili, but the acidity of it will cut through the beanyness and make it more chili like.

Also more beef bouillon cubes are an option you might prefer in yours.

You don't have to add the parsley if you don't have it, and you can substitute another fresh herb, or none.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

MMMM this looks wonderful, and easy enough for me to make , on a good day. Thank you for postin it my dear friend

Jimi, don't make it yet. I have some ideas to re-work the recipe and make it better, but right now I have a lot of fresh produce I don't want to have rotting while I open cans to make a pantry recipe.

I'll get back to you soon.

 

[Jimi]

I'll be patiently waiting

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

They may not be much to look at, but holy moley these are good! The recipe is at https://pinchofyum.com/very-best-chocolate-cookies

I used a 50/50 blend of Valrhona Dutch process and Anthony's organic black cocoa powders. I also cut back the sugar by 1/2 cup, and added some dark chocolate chunks - not too many, maybe about 1/4 of what you would normally use for regular chocolate chip cookies.

 

[2WhiteWolves]

Anybody daring to try this...

He also made pancakes with ice cream.

Hope ya'll don't mind me posting this in here, since I'm not actually making any icr cream bread.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Hope ya'll don't mind me posting this in here, since I'm not actually making any icr cream bread.

Yeah, but it's a recipe idea, and the guy is showing how to do it. I think it belongs here.

Thanks for posting that. Do I dare try it? Would I eat the whole loaf?

Maybe when I have company over.

The guy's wheezy laugh is so funny.

 

[Walter Ladd]

Black Cod or Salmon Kasuzuke​

Kasuzuke is a Japanese dish where fish or vegetables are marinated for several days in kasu marinade and then grilled or broiled to perfection!

Ingredients​

4 slices of fish fillet, 6 oz. each of black cod, salmon, snapper or Chilean sea bass
Marinade
1/2 cup kasuzuke (sake kasu, a by-product of the sake making process, available in the seafood department of Uwajimaya in Seattle (or maybe an Asian grocery elsewhere. It will be hard to find in most cities)
2 Tbsp. sake (rice wine)
3 Tbsp. mirin
1/4 cup of water
3 Tbsp. brown sugar (optional)
2 Tbsp. miso (optional)

Preparation​

Generously salt fish, place in plastic container and refrigerate overnight. Mix kasuzuke, sake, mirin add water as needed to make a paste. Coat the fish with marinade mixture, cover and refrigerate for 3 additional days (or may be frozen at this point). Scrape off marinade and broil both sides until nicely browned (approximately 4-5 minutes each side). Save marinade to use again.
Serves 4.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Anatomy of a midnight snack.

Got home fairly late last night, hungry after attending my friend's graduation party for her kid. The only refreshments were cake, sodas, chips & dips, and I'd had no dinner.

This takes a little more the 5 minutes to make, but less than 10. I opened a Hakubaku ramen packet, which has three measured bundles of noodles, each 310 calories.



I used one bundle. Started the pan with enough water to get things going, water not measured. You can add more as needed or desired, especially if you want a more slurpy brothy bowl.

As the water came to a simmer, stirred in and dissolved a level tablespoon Mae Ploy red curry paste, excellent ingredients, but watch out it's hot stuff! Also it's very salty, so don't add salt until you taste the dish.


Stock photo

Back to the simmer, I added in the noodles.



When they were nearly tender, I stirred in a heaping tablespoon peanut butter. I didn't add any salt, as the Mae Ploy is very salty.

And here it is, ready to be devoured:



You can substitute any kind of your own curry concoction, mixed spices from jars, any brand of paste you like, or substitute chili powder, or any kind of curry that comes in blocks you dissolve in water.

This was very easy, very satisfying.

 

[Jimi]

Black Cod or Salmon Kasuzuke​

Kasuzuke is a Japanese dish where fish or vegetables are marinated for several days in kasu marinade and then grilled or broiled to perfection!
View attachment 224435

Ingredients​

4 slices of fish fillet, 6 oz. each of black cod, salmon, snapper or Chilean sea bass
Marinade
1/2 cup kasuzuke (sake kasu, a by-product of the sake making process, available in the seafood department of Uwajimaya in Seattle (or maybe an Asian grocery elsewhere. It will be hard to find in most cities)
2 Tbsp. sake (rice wine)
3 Tbsp. mirin
1/4 cup of water
3 Tbsp. brown sugar (optional)
2 Tbsp. miso (optional)

Preparation​

Generously salt fish, place in plastic container and refrigerate overnight. Mix kasuzuke, sake, mirin add water as needed to make a paste. Coat the fish with marinade mixture, cover and refrigerate for 3 additional days (or may be frozen at this point). Scrape off marinade and broil both sides until nicely browned (approximately 4-5 minutes each side). Save marinade to use again.
Serves 4.

Looks delicious

 

[Jimi]

 

[Bliss Doubt]

I made radish kimchi. Two bunches didn't make much. Wish I'd bought three or four bunches. I might just buy more and add them. You can do that with kimchi.

Used my usual ingredients:

Tamari
Maple syrup (very little)
Apple juice
Crushed garlic
Korean red pepper powder (really it's flakes), but when I run out of that I'll try making it with regular chili powder
Grated ginger

These will steep at room temp until this evening, then will go in the fridge.

 

[Jimi]

I made radish kimchi. Two bunches didn't make much. Wish I'd bought three or four bunches. I might just buy more and add them. You can do that with kimchi.

Used my usual ingredients:

Tamari
Maple syrup (very little)
Apple juice
Crushed garlic
Korean red pepper powder (really it's flakes), but when I run out of that I'll try making it with regular chili powder
Grated ginger

These will steep at room temp until this evening, then will go in the fridge.

View attachment 224548

That looks delicious I am gonna haveto try this one, thank you for posting it

 

[Bliss Doubt]

That looks delicious I am gonna haveto try this one, thank you for posting it

I ended up having too much liquid for the small amount of radishes, but the radish harvest you showed will fill 'er up.

You can use regular chili powder. It doesn't have to be the Korean.

 

[Jimi]

I ended up having too much liquid for the small amount of radishes, but the radish harvest you showed will fill 'er up.

You can use regular chili powder. It doesn't have to be the Korean.

Yes I even have more now but still I always make a small batch first.
It looks like your slices are fairly thick
Glad you put this cause I don't have the Korean either, was worried where to get it.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Yes I even have more now but still I always make a small batch first.
It looks like your slices are fairly thick
Glad you put this cause I don't have the Korean either, was worried where to get it.

I cut each radish into three pieces, but you can slice them more thinly if you prefer. Probably be prettier.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Fresh fruity brekkie-lunch.



Not much description needed, but I do have a food waste prevention tip:

Even if kept in the fridge, it doesn't take long for good bread to start to mold. So each time I take a bagel or English muffin or bun out of its package, I put one or two in the freezer. I have a dedicated gallon freezer bag I use for it. Currently it contains burger buns, English muffins, and now some of these bagels.

Bon appetit.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

@Jimi , I revised my black bean vegan beefy chili recipe, and I think I totally nailed it this time, but I used a can of French onion soup, so you'll have to make your own when your garden onions are ready:

Chop your big onion or two very finely, fry in just a little oil until lightly browned, add water for broth, and add any kind of vegan beef bouillon powder or cube or jar product you can find. Simmer until it tastes good and rich.

Organic refried black beans are still your chili base. Black beans only, not any other kind. Any beans that were left whole in the can should be mashed with a fork, to have a consistent puree.

Combine your onion soup with the beans (refried only, every last bean mashed), and add the usual suspects: ton of chili powder, way more than you would expect to use, fresh crushed garlic, a lot of cumin to season both the beans and the soup, and one eighth cup soy or tamari sauce per can of beans, salt if necessary. Try to use a chili powder that is just pure ground chilis. If you use most any commercial chili powder, it will already have cumin in it, and other spices.

Even with the onion content in the soup, adding fresh chopped onion on top was tasty. I also enjoyed mine with chopped avocado on top.

I ran out of coconut wraps with the last experiment I showed you, but I can certainly imagine one of those, gently warmed and spread with vegan butter, would go very nicely alongside your chili.

If you try it, let me know how it turns out. As I was eating my new version for breakfast lunch today, I was saying wow, it really tastes like a bowl of beef chili.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

This stuff is interesting. It doesn't contain any actual coffee, only coffee extracts and chocolate extract. It contains no alcohol. It's just a mixer. It was on sale, so I grabbed one to try.

I just glugged it into a big coffee cup and added some cream. Tasty, but way too sweet, besides which, way too expensive, 7.99 for 16.9 oz. when not on sale. I tried it because Fever Tree products are usually so good.

Anyway, I still think the best and most harmless coffee treat drink is strong black coffee with heavy cream added. Cream has a natural sweetness that's all I need. This is more like coffee pop:

 

[Jimi]

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Made some long fat macaronis for American chop suey

 

[Jimi]

Made some French Onion soup from a few of my garden onions, just delicious


Fired up the oven and made some zucchini (also garden) coated with plant based parmasian cheese to go with the delicious soup

 

[Bliss Doubt]

There are things I don't consume anymore, but it isn't because I don't like them. Cheat day is the exception.

Lately I've been thinking, since sweet creamy iced coffee drinks have become so popular that even all of the fast food places offer them, that the cola makers, Coke, Pepsi, etc., are missing the trend and the profits by not offering creamy versions.

Friday is cheat day, so I tested my idea. I poured some cola into a glass and glugged in some heavy cream, only about a tablespoon, stirred gently and briefly. Voilà Coke Creamy:



The foam on top rose up rather slowly after adding the cream, then subsided.

Of course it's delicious.

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Decided to make a Pullman loaf today. Buttered the inside of the pan as usual, and went to spray the lid with a nonstick oil spray. I happened to look at the bottom of the can and realized it has a "best by" date of almost 800 years from now! May of 2824!

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Now for the hard part - waiting for it to cool COMPLETELY before slicing in to it.

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

A little update: This is the best Pullman loaf I've ever made - it's delicious! Why can't store bought bread taste like this?
Here's the recipe I used: https://veenaazmanov.com/pullman-sandwich-bread-pain-de-mie

 

[Sir Kadly]

Sausage, spinach, and feta stuffed acorn squash. Everything on the plate other than the butter came from the farmers' market.

 

[Jimi]

 

[Jimi]

https://y-easy-recipes-family.asckat.com/.../how-to-tell.../

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Deviled Pterodactyl Eggs - practice for Halloween

 

[gopher_byrd]

I've been making some hot sauces from the chilies I've been growing. Today was Mango Habanero. A couple of weeks ago I fermented some Serrano chilies to make a hot sauce.

The MH before bottling:



Both bottled:

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Homemade ice cream cones!

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Made pierogis from scratch tonight.

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Brownie cookies with white chocolate chips. Quite possible the best cookies I've ever made!

 

[CrazyChef v2.0]

Oh my... I made a Boston Cream Pie and it is Heavenly!

 

[gopher_byrd]

Two weeks ago I harvested and started fermenting 1 pound of Serrano chilies. Today those fermented chilies became 24 ounces of hot sauce.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

The Dubai chocolate phenomenon has come all the way down to grocery store snack cakes and Crumbl Cookies, and ice cream, in addition to several brands of the original concept candy bar. A YouTube reviewer did a savage pan of the whole idea, saying that United Arab Emirates has no cacao crop, doesn't grow pistachios, but has launched the confection that quickly captivated the world. I think that's being ridiculously judgmental. A chocolate maker in Dubai came up with what he thought was interesting, different and tasty. It's not like any country won't import ingredients they don't have. Other than its Persian Gulf Coast, Emirates is mostly desert.

The attraction that keeps taking me back to Dubai Chocolate is the use of kataifi, a crispy "hay" or "straw" made of shredded phyllo pastry, but in the candy bars it is subsumed in the other moist, oily ingredients, and its crunch is lost.



So I decided to experiment with an inside out Dubai Chocolate dessert for supper club last night. First I melted a stick of butter, buttered my biggest baking sheet, and opened out a whole package of phyllo dough (20 sheets, 18" long), but didn't separate the sheets much. I did fold half the sheets over and buttered between them. Then folded half the sheets in the other direction, and same. Then generously buttered the whole spread-out roll on top, folded it in half, and buttered again on top.



I placed some dark chocolate caramels all over, so the pistachio crumble would have something to adhere to. If I had a chopper or a food processor, I could have prepared the finely chopped pistachios myself, but I don't, so when I saw this Madly Hadley pistachio crumble, the only ingredients of which are pistachios and sea salt, I bought. The label has a drawing of Michelangelo's David, saying "My love you are as beautiful, elegant and sophisticated as a pistachio". Is that a sideways compliment?



I sprinkled the whole 4 oz. jar of pistachio crumble over the chocolate caramels:



Folded the whole thing in half again, brushed with butter, put it in a cold oven and started it at 350 degrees. At 20 minutes it was still pale on top, starting to get crispy around the edges. I rotated the pan and baked another 10 minutes. Still not there, so I turned off the heat and let it finish in the residual oven heat, about another 10 minutes.



Omygosh it was delicious. Here is a piece served, way too big. I ended up cutting off half to share, and cut the rest of the pieces smaller.



Everybody loved it. The recipe made a huge amount, so I sent leftovers home with my guests, and saved a little piece for my breakfast today. Will I make it again? Maybe, but with revisions. That's what experiments are for. Cutting it with a knife caused shards of phyllo to fly all over the stove, counter and floor. I had to sweep up and wipe up. It needed more pistachio crumble than the one 4 oz. jar. I would use two next time. Also, instead of making one big phyllo burrito, I might take three or four phyllo sheets at a time, buttered, place the chocolates and pistachio crumble near the end, then roll it up and fold each roll in half to make multiple servings of a hand held dessert, or at least something easily transferred from the baking sheet to the plate without cutting.

But I'm not doing any more experimenting with it for a long time. Too expensive, too caloric, too time consuming. I was exhausted by the time my guests started arriving, but no regrets. I satisfied my curiosity as to how it would be if the phyllo were not made soggy by the other ingredients. It was crispy, buttery, chocolatey, nutty, rich and very satisfying.

One of my aunts used to make homemade phyllo dough from scratch. She was a phenomenal cook. I can remember her stretching the dough across a whole prepared table before cutting and stacking the sheets. Amazing.

 

[gopher_byrd]

I picked some more chilies today and combined with some I had picked earlier I started another fermentation. This is combo of cayenne and Tabasco and should work out to something similar to a Louisiana hot sauce. I'll give it a couple of weeks and mix it up.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

The emails have been flying about Thanksgiving. It's my turn to have it here. Eeek, hard pressure to get every room cleaned up.

The consensus is still that we don't need a bird. We plan on the usual menu of tamales, guacamole, pico de gallo, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, green salad or slaw, beverages, desserts. I always get a six pack of pumpkin ale. I abstain from drinking it, though it's very tasty, so that everybody else can have one. Also always have a bottle or two of Prosecco on hand, goes with everything, but since I'm doing a Costco run I want to get some of their French champagne. It has proven to be excellent. Hope it isn't sold out.

But this year I'm bringing back the bird, not the big one. I saw this on YouTube. Gotta try it. Costco has organically raised cooked sliced turkey breast. I love how when you turn it over there's a bud in the middle, surrounded by petals:

And some rolls to warm to make turkey rose sliders. Shame on me.

The easiest way in the world to make that sweet potato dish is to use canned pureed organic sweet potatoes, butter, and smashed up praline candies. Add a beaten egg if you want, but not necessary, though it does make it soufflé a bit. But that will be someone else's job. My assigned job is to get the tamales and make the pico de gallo and the guac.

So here it comes, the political and religious brawls, the hurt feelings, and the inevitable demolition of a holiday about gratitude.

Then black Friday, which I do not participate in:

 

[gopher_byrd]

More hot sauce. Yup, I had a good harvest this year. This is Habanero chilies with some carrot, garlic, and onion. It's HOT!!! The chilies and veg were fresh and then simmered with some white wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar for stability.

The Tabasco/Cayenne chilies are still fermenting. Those will become sauce in a few weeks.

 

[Jimi]

That looks sooooo good

 

[gopher_byrd]

This is a Louisiana style hot sauce made with fermented cayenne and Tabasco pepper. They were fermented for 20 days then cooked for a little bit to stop the fermentation with some added vinegar to make the sure the acid pH was low enough to be safe. I was getting tired of waiting for the liquid to get strained out so I made one bottle un-strained and the other two strained. I have the pulp that got strained out in my dehydrator so I can use it to make chili powder. Nothing wasted.