Sandbox thread for cooking, nutrition nazis, your fucking lunch, etc.

i've been thinking about lamb chops all day. i wish i'd bought some at TJ's when i was there, but they're fucking expensive and i haven't really cooked meat in 3 yrs so i can't even remember how to do it properly.

if someone could go to my house right now, cook me a perfect lamb chop with just some garlic and rosemary and salt, have it ready for me when i get home, i would probably pay a lot of money for that.

I made lamb chops this past summer, over a grill, they were great iirc

i roasted an 8.5 lb turkey torso (2 breasts) last friday and have been eating it every day since. today i ate turkey 3 times. there are still leftovers. i think tomorrow i want to eat some beef. maybe fish.

Bill (Tep) talked on his blog about buying 3 turkeys because it's such a cheap protein this time of year, but that's one of the food areas where he and I part ways. I can't stand the thought of that much turkey.

it was insanely cheap (why i bought it). i am also making stock.

update: apple is still frozen, still in fridge. saving it to throw at something unsavory

this is in the oven http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/health/nutrition/13recipehealth.html
not sure its a recipe "for health" if u use whole milk ricotta like i am i mean i saw it so i had to get it

how did you fit whole milk ricotta into there?

I have a can of san marino tomatoes in my pantry, I just need to buy garlic cloves to use w/ it I guess

not health-related post at all, but I am making bouef bourguignon right now
my kitchen it smells amazing

lol sorry i meant this http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/nutrition/giant-shells-filled-with-spinach-and-ricotta-recipes-for-health.html

making this recipe with smoked bacon instead of ham:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Ham-and-Black-Eyed-Pea-Soup-with-Collard-Greens-15835

and kale instead of collards

i made a corn beans and squash chili. it was good. i'm cooking a lot lately because it's cold.

eating the last of my sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry -- p good, tastes like it always does

chard/mushroom omelette with hot peach salsa. A bit of a strange combo.

oh now I want to make those pasta shells!

eating the last of my sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry -- p good, tastes like it always does

could you share your recipe for this, it's up my alley.

lowv, do you have a recipe for that? sounds yum.

oops xpost

i don't really have a recipe, but it's a basic curry with those things --

can of diced tomatoes (with liquid)
can of garbanzos (drained and rinsed)
2 largeish sweet potatoes
tons of chard

first I sautee spices and aromatics in a little oo in my small cast iron pot,
then add the cut up sweet potatoes and stir for a few min
then i add the tomatoes and garbanzos, simmer for 10-15 min? sometimes I add a little water if it seems like it needs it
then about 5 min before it's done i add the chard and it wilts into the rest
stir, serve

spices and aromatics:
garlic
ginger
shallot or onion, whichever
ground cumin
cumin seed
nigella seed
little bit of hot curry powder (prob not entirely necessary but it's there)
garam masala
hot pepper flakes
salt

I think that's it? I'm not really sure, but it's the best i can offer atm

also i nuke the sweet potatoes a little bit (boiling would work too) to soften them up before The Flavoring begins

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

this is what it looks like with rice
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2606/4094309284_a8d6a06709.jpg

that looks really good! thanks.

my pleasure! it's amazing how far 2 sweet potatoes and two cans of other stuff that you probably already have on hand will stretch, really.

would eat!

I am defrosting my last bag of black beans but I don't know what to make with 'em

hot or cold?

hot: burritos or soup?
cold: salad with quinoa, peppers, corn, other stuff you like

that photo reminds me of why i am not so good w/recipe books that don't have photos. at least at first glance (maybe it changes when it's a book you have to rely on). just the visual fact of garbanzos & the colours, i am half-way there.

my next i-ate-it-now-i-will-cook-it thing is gonna be trying to make good fassoli, after eating some at a yemeni place in bay ridge. i found a bunch of recipes like this which are all kinda frustratingly brief; i think it totally was a simple bean thing, cooked in tomatoes that almost entirely simmered off, & almost burnt to give the beans some texture, but it was so transcendently nicer than the cannelini-beans-in-onion-&-tomato i make to have on toast sometimes, like there was some jedi spice magic happening that i have to work out.

xp frozen beans, huh?

I soak beans a bag at a time but obviously I am not gonna eat a whole pot of beans at once!

xp LL ooh, a cold vinegary corn and beans salad sounds good - what else should I put in it?

multicolored bell peppers, cilantro, quinoa, whatever else you like! or do something like this
http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6129/5990088385_b7d520b117.jpg

as for the curry photo, that's why i take somewhat substandard photos of new things i make (and save them) -- it's like a visual menu, which really helps in the planning/shopping stage of regular cooking (a stage that i think is generally underappreciated by most people who don't engage in it on a weekly basis) even if it's not the world's most beautiful food photo

Made an excellent vegan stir fry y'day that had loads of veggies in it inc some crunchy fresh choy sum, cabbage, capsicum, carrots etc, and added some firm tofu which I'd marinated in sesame oil, a little soy and a sprinkling of smoked paprika so the cubes came out all crunchy. Chucked over some udon noodles. Tres yum.

aw that looks great LL! bell peppers are out of season but maybe I'll do an asian style marinade w/ chinkiang vinegar xp

my soup will be like 100x better tomorrow after it sits overnight i think - i used dried black-eyed peas and tried to speed soak them but it didn't QUITE work as well as it does with other beans (it's my first time cooking them).

i definitely want to try to make that curry!

I make a chickpea/sweet tater curry a fair bit, theyre easy and tasty. I also add some coconut cream to mine at the end.

i am really bad at writing recipes, sorry

one of my new year's resolutions is to go back to all the recipes i either half-assedly wrote down or adapted from somewhere else -- and write everything down meticulously. i want to put all my recipes into a sort of cookbook that i can give to friends and family.

like, i have a vague idea of how i made that yam curry a while back, but i want to do it over so i can write down how much coriander it needs, how much turmeric, etc.

yeah, not only that, but i have no idea how many people it will "serve" or if i measured the spices to begin with. usually i just use a spoon and put some spices in the spoon and poof, it tastes good. whether or not it is the ideal measurement, i don't know (and really i don't notice the difference a little bit either way)

i guess writing recipes seems like a job for a perfectionist, and i am not one of those

Yeah ppl often ask me on FB for a recipe when i post a pic of some random thing i made and I'm like "i dunno I just chuck things in"... my mum hates this, she has to follow EXACT INSTRUCTIONS or else it is a disaster. When its baking or something then sure but not otherwise.

I acknowledge that there is a process to be followed (sautee the spices and aromatics, then add the rest of the ingredients, etc) but beyond those processes, I don't really pay much attention to measuring things.

This year we gathered together piles of loose recipes -- some handwritten on index cards or scratch paper, some printed off the net -- into a 3-ring binder and called it the Gastronomicon.

I have a binder! It doesn't have a name, but I did organize it somewhat and it includes stuff I printed, wrote, and ripped out of various magazines.

I have a binder too! YAY BINDERS!

A good cheeseburger is a great comfort to me, and right now I am very comforted.

sweet potato/tomato/garbanzo/chard curry

I made something very similar to that this past weekend - except with kale instead of chard and with carrots instead of garbanzos!

(I would have liked to use garbanzos, but my wife doesn't like them.)

i made a similar thing with blackeyed peas, yogurt, and regular potatoes once, it was really good!!
sorta like this? http://www.food-nepal.com/recipe/R002.htm

(for ppl who don't like garbanzos but do like curries)

Hmm, that looks interesting, though she probably wouldn't like the bamboo shoots either. She's a bit particular about certain ingredients. I didn't have curry powder so I kind of rolled my own with coriander, cumin, turmeric, and fennel. Probably used more fennel than is typical for curry, but it tasted good anyway.