I Love Cooking

I do love cooking, but I'm not one to go shouting about it from the rooftops. An upper storey window will do me quite nicely.

chinazedo, eh?

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gobble gobble

We're in a holiday holding pattern until we have traditional stuff at my parents' house on Sunday. I thought a lot of restaurants would be open in Tupelo on T'giving -- boy, was I wrong. Fortunately Cracker Barrel was holding down the fort.

I made Tep's pimento cheese recipe tonight for the first time. Pretty good stuff.

I do love cooking; yes I admit it freely. I cooked for two straight days and produced a mighty feast: 25 lb roast turkey brined with bay, cloves, cinnamon, juniper; 1.5 lb griddled salmon fillet in soy, ginger, natural wasabi, toasted sesame oil, garlic; bread dressing with celery, sauted onion, toasted almond, and fennel; couscous with toasted pignolia and petit pois; roasted mashed yam; mashed potato; presbyterian rolls, the only casualty, burnt on their bottoms by the lowest oven rack, alas; pumpkin pudding; seriously decadent brownies, mixed apple cranberry crumble. The things served I did not cook: cheese plate, crudite, jellied cranberry sauce, little mince pies brought by sis-in-law, incredibly strong Manhattans (apparently required to get through a gathering of this particular family - I did not have enough), wine, beer.

Oh! I forgot - I also made chili sesame blistered beans (hot up your cast iron skillet, toss in a tablespoon of lard (or crisco if deferring to the vegetarians), then two big handfuls of green beans with just the ends snapped off. Toss around as they spit and sizzle, dash in some chili oil, some toasted sesame oil, and some crushed red pepper flakes. When the beans are bright green with some black/dark brown spots, they're done.)

And what of the quorn, Jaq? :)

It sits in the freezer, waiting. The kids, both of whom were vegetarians for the last 12 years, are now piscevores and salmon from Mutual Fish was acceptable.

I realized today that the drinks Mr. Jaq was serving each consisted of 4 full jiggers of liquor, shaken over ice but not served over it.

i strongly approve of such holiday self-medication.

bugging jaq again for that pumpkin pudding recipe. :)

Mr. Jaq, if you are reading this, pleez to put photos up on Flickr now? 'k thx.

Admiral Lingbert, Matos, jergins and I think lxy all tried the pumpkin pudding, though we were out of the maple whipped cream yesterday.

4 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice (or ground cloves)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or mace)
1 tsp salt
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 large can pumpkin, dewatered
1/2 c. sifted flour

Beat eggs, spices and salt together until frothy. Mix in sweetened condensed milk. Dewater pumpkin with 1/2 roll white or unbleached paper towels, then mix pulp into egg/spice/milk mixture. Fold in flour until no white streaks remain. Pour mixture evenly into 2 - 4 cup ramekins (no need to grease/flour) or 1 heavily greased/floured bundt cake pan (for unmolding). Steam in bain marie at 325 F for 3 - 4 hours (shorter time for 2 ramekins, longer time for single bundt pan). Cool overnight. If unmolding from bundt pan, run knife around edges then turn onto plate. You may have to thump the pan to get the pudding to drop out.

Whip 1 pint heavy cream with 2 - 3 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup (or 1 - 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar).

thanks!

yes, jaq, and it was delicious -- everything was. thanks so much for having us over!

lxy, it was so good to see you and spend time noshing and chatting! We watched a shouty german movie today in honor of your upcoming trip :)

The photos are up, starting with this one:

http://static.flickr.com/122/308204479_60afb6c671.jpg

I'll get it organized at some point, but for now it shows the dewatering process fairly well. The only thing you can't see is the cookie sheet under all the layered paper towels - that is kind of important.

btw, the Quorn? Nobody had the "turkey" version, so I got a box of cutlets. Marinated in soy, sesame oil, ginger, then sauteed in olive oil in a covered medium hot skillet for 7 min per side.

Later, at the table:

J: I don't know what this is, but it's good.
L: That's fake meat!
J: I thought somebody said it was corn!

LOL! and it was GOOOD... thanks again, jaq, for cooking for us.