Author Topic: What's Cooking (Read 199380 times)

justaguy · « **Reply #300 on:** October 31, 2018, 11:35 AM »

We have a Halloween block party every year. The residents all bring a dish and some sides. We eat and have a drink while passing out candy to the kids. The past few years I've made pulled pork. This year a couple of neighbors asked me to add a shoulder/"butt" just for them.

The Primo is full to capacity.

six-point socket II · « **Reply #301 on:** October 31, 2018, 11:36 AM »

Wow, that looks amazing!

Have a great Halloween party!

Kind regards,
Oliver

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #302 on:** October 31, 2018, 01:24 PM »

Quote from: six-point socket II on October 29, 2018, 02:44 PM

Hi!

Today it was "Housewife's pie".

Kind regards,
Oliver

That looks interesting. I've never heard of a Housewife's pie before though. I kinda reminds me of a stromboli, but not that similar.

Quote from: justaguy on October 31, 2018, 11:35 AM

We have a Halloween block party every year. The residents all bring a dish and some sides. We eat and have a drink while passing out candy to the kids. The past few years I've made pulled pork. This year a couple of neighbors asked me to add a shoulder/"butt" just for them.

The Primo is full to capacity.

That looks yummy. I wish we had a Halloween block party like that where I live.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #303 on:** November 13, 2018, 03:50 PM »

A while back we made crispy pork belly with oil blanched snow pea tips. Sadly the crispy pork belly was a fail because it wasn't crispy. This was the second time we made it. The first time it came out nice and crunchy. I used the same recipe so I'm not sure where I went wrong.

Sunday we made sous vide ribeye and sauteed chanterelle mushrooms. NY strip is my favorite cut of steak, but my wife says that the ribeye steak is better and also more tender.

Last night I grilled up some Mediterranean marinated chicken breasts for my wife's lunch.

six-point socket II · « **Reply #304 on:** November 24, 2018, 04:02 PM »

Advertisement because of visible Klein Tools in picture.

Hi!

Started on my Christmas baking today by making a pyramid cake (Baumkuchen) Take a look at my first post (last 6 pictures) in this thread, if you would like to see the whole process: http://festoolownersgroup.com/general-friendly-chat/what's-cooking/msg549979/#msg549979

Spent the day in the kitchen, preparing and then baking layer by layer ...

Just two new pics, just for fun.

Cake will get wrapped tonight and then sit in the cold basement until Christmas.

Kind regards,
Oliver

RJNeal · « **Reply #305 on:** November 24, 2018, 05:43 PM »

Today I’m having some friends over for a “last supper”.
Cooking a 31 lb turkey stuffed on a Weber summit. 5 hours and the turkey is done and the guest won’t be here for a few more hours.
Cranberries 3 ways.
One regular, one with grey poupon and thyme,last one with pomegranate seeds.
Rick

Peter Halle · « **Reply #306 on:** November 24, 2018, 06:09 PM »

Quote from: RJNeal on November 24, 2018, 05:43 PM

Today I’m having some friends over for a “last supper”.
Cooking a 31 lb turkey stuffed on a Weber summit. 5 hours and the turkey is done and the guest won’t be here for a few more hours.
Cranberries 3 ways.
One regular, one with grey poupon and thyme,last one with pomegranate seeds.
Rick

Holy pterodactyl! 31 LBS. Hope your friends respect both your strength and also your cooking skills.

I hope you enjoy your time with friends!

Peter

Cheese · « **Reply #307 on:** November 25, 2018, 12:36 AM »

Quote from: RJNeal on November 24, 2018, 05:43 PM

Cranberries 3 ways.
One regular, one with grey poupon and thyme,last one with pomegranate seeds.
Rick

The Grey Poupon and thyme variation sounds interesting.

I can also see the pomegranate seed version working well.

There must be some other fixes inside to balance the mustard?

RJNeal · « **Reply #308 on:** November 25, 2018, 12:44 AM »

Thanks Peter,
This was a normal to small this year. One year I got a 40 pounder.
Local grow at the Hub Cap Ranch in Pope Valley. Ca.

Here is a picture of the 38 lb one.
Rick.

RJNeal · « **Reply #309 on:** November 25, 2018, 12:56 AM »

Cheese, what I do is use Poms pomegranate juice instead of water. 2/3 of the sugar they call for. Then I split it in to threes.
Maybe a tablespoon or 1-1/2 of mustard and a tablespoon or 1-1/2of thyme to a cup and a half or two cups of sauce
It’s not much mustard.
Rick.

Cheese · « **Reply #310 on:** November 25, 2018, 01:08 AM »

[smile]Well after 4 days of meal planning, house cleaning, grocery buying and turkey cooking...it's time for a break.

Tonight it was Akaushi tenderloin, with beans, butter & shallots, (a left over from Thanksgiving and an Ina Garten recipe) along with crab & cream cheese stuffed mushrooms.
The adult beverage is a dirty BET vodka martini in a Grey Goose glass. The BET vodka is a local Minnesota product, produced from locally grown sugar beets and distilled in Wisconsin ...truly the smoothest I've ever tasted. Seriously the smoothest vodka ever and I'll stand by that.

https://vodka-guy.com/bet-vodka-review/

Cheese · « **Reply #311 on:** November 25, 2018, 01:17 AM »

Quote from: RJNeal on November 25, 2018, 12:56 AM

Cheese, what I do is use Poms pomegranate juice instead of water. 2/3 of the sugar they call for. Then I split it in to threes.
Maybe a tablespoon or 1-1/2 of mustard and a tablespoon or 1-1/2of thyme to a cup and a half or two cups of sauce
It’s not much mustard.

That's interesting Rick, the mustard just for a little subtle flavor...using that much thyme it's probably fresh? I'm trying this version next year.

RJNeal · « **Reply #312 on:** November 25, 2018, 08:15 AM »

Quote from: Cheese on November 25, 2018, 01:17 AM

Quote from: RJNeal on November 25, 2018, 12:56 AM
Cheese, what I do is use Poms pomegranate juice instead of water. 2/3 of the sugar they call for. Then I split it in to threes.
Maybe a tablespoon or 1-1/2 of mustard and a tablespoon or 1-1/2of thyme to a cup and a half or two cups of sauce
It’s not much mustard.

That's interesting Rick, the mustard just for a little subtle flavor...using that much thyme it's probably fresh? I'm trying this version next year.

Yes fresh is better.
Enjoy.

My wife and I took a short vacation up to Humboldt County to see if the redwoods were still there and the ocean still making waves.
We found Humboldt distillery and their vodka. Now that one is really smooth also.
Rick

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #313 on:** November 25, 2018, 09:54 AM »

We ended up cooking 2 turkeys for Thanksgiving this year. One was deep fried and I cooked the other on the rotisserie on the grill. I had been concerned about being able to maintain the cooking temperature considering it was unusually cold here (in the 30s). It ended up not being a problem at all - in fact I ended up cooking the turkey hotter than I wanted to - at 400 degrees. I would have preferred that it have cooked around 325-350 degrees.

I bought the Meater Wireless Thermometer so I could monitor both the internal and ambient temperature of the grill in real time. I already have a Maverick Wireless Dual Probe Thermometer, but I didn't want to have to fuss with securing the probe wire and worrying about it possibly tangling around the rotating rotisserie spit. I was initially apprehensive about buying the Meater because I had read a lot of negative comments about its limited range and connectivity issues and what not. I used an old phone to connect to the Meater via Bluetooth and then that phone acted as a wireless bridge to connect to my WiFi network. Then I could monitor the temperatures from my cell phone. It worked perfectly for me and I was truly impressed!

Here are some screenshots from the Meater app on my phone.

Cheese · « **Reply #314 on:** November 26, 2018, 09:38 AM »

Quote from: GoingMyWay on November 25, 2018, 09:54 AM

We ended up cooking 2 turkeys for Thanksgiving this year.

I bought the Meater Wireless Thermometer so I could monitor both the internal and ambient temperature of the grill in real time. I already have a Maverick Wireless Dual Probe Thermometer, but I didn't want to have to fuss with securing the probe wire and worrying about it possibly tangling around the rotating rotisserie spit. I was initially apprehensive about buying the Meater because I had read a lot of negative comments about its limited range and connectivity issues and what not. I used an old phone to connect to the Meater via Bluetooth and then that phone acted as a wireless bridge to connect to my WiFi network. Then I could monitor the temperatures from my cell phone. It worked perfectly for me and I was truly impressed!

We usually cook a single 12-14# breast. This year it was 2 breasts, a 6# and a 7#. It worked out a lot better. The 2 breasts needed less room to store in the fridge, a smaller cooler to brine them in, took less brining solution, took less time to cook and will be easier to make turkey soup with. Really liked the 2 turkey approach.

That Meater thermometer is pretty interesting. I especially like the Ambient temp output for charcoal grilling. I'm thinking for cooking brisket at 250º, this would be perfect. Is there a low/high alarm you can set on the Ambient output?

The good thing about grilling the turkey at 400º, is that you can render the fat from the turkey skin easier and it crisps up. The skin looks as crisp as the skin on the deep fried version.

I'll typically crank the oven up to 425º and place the turkey in there for 30 minutes, then I reduce the temp to 325º and finish the bird off. A little basting every 20 minutes and the skin is nice and crisp.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #315 on:** November 26, 2018, 10:12 AM »

We really like turkey wings so we usually buy a package of turkey wings to cook in addition to 1 turkey. We didn't need to do that this year since we had 4 wings and 4 legs between the 2 birds.

Yup you can set all kinds of custom alarms in the app: https://meater.com/blog/how-to-set-up-custom-internal-and-ambient-temperature-alerts/. My Maverick Dual Probe Wired Thermometer can also set custom high/low temperatures. If you create a Meater Cloud account for free, you can even monitor the temps when you're not connected to the same WiFi network (though if the temp is too high or too low there's not much you can do about it if you're not home).

I guess it kinda rendered more fat, but the 10lb bird cooked in seemingly record time. I think it was done in about 1.5 hours. I fiddled with the vents to try to bring the temp down. At one point I had the top vent completely closed and the temperature dropped down to around 315, then I opened the vents a little more and we rose up to around 375.

I probably should have rubbed the skin with some butter or oil to help it crisp up. I didn't do it because other times I've run into problems with the skin getting a little too dark so I didn't want that to happen this time.

For Christmas I plan on doing a prime rib in this rotisserie basket that I ordered from Amazon. I plan on sandwiching the roast between the spit rod and the basket, rather than running the spit all the way through the middle of the roast. I got the idea from this YouTube video:

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #316 on:** November 28, 2018, 08:58 AM »

We took our leftover turkey meat and carcass and made Turkey Rice Soup. I think this is the first time we've ever made the soup with rice (aside from congee, but that's different). We always use noodles. I kinda liked the rice for a change. Since we pre-cooked the rice separately it also didn't soak up all of the broth like the noodles always do.

Cheese · « **Reply #317 on:** November 28, 2018, 10:08 AM »

My 3 tasks for the day:
1. Cleaning the gutters.

2. Installing a Honeywell dehumidifier in the HVAC system.

3. Turkey wild rice soup.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #318 on:** November 28, 2018, 01:05 PM »

Sounds like a busy day. I hope you post a picture of the soup. I was just at the grocery store and saw this:

six-point socket II · « **Reply #319 on:** November 28, 2018, 03:38 PM »

Hi!

Take a nice pork neck.

Make a deep cut.

Season with salt & pepper. Stuff with dried apples, apricots & plums.

Enjoy.

Kind regards,
Oliver

rvieceli · « **Reply #320 on:** November 28, 2018, 07:38 PM »

looks good Oliver.

I think that might be what we call pork collar over here. Maybe?

Ron

Cheese · « **Reply #321 on:** November 29, 2018, 10:16 AM »

Quote from: GoingMyWay on November 28, 2018, 01:05 PM

Sounds like a busy day.
I hope you post a picture of the soup.
I was just at the grocery store and saw this:

Funny, of those 3 items,

the only item that got any real attention was the dehumidifier. I decided to build a small frame of 80/20 to support it as it weighs 70# before any ducting is attached.

So that puts the gutters on today's list and pushes the turkey soup out to Friday or Saturday.

That package of wild rice that you've shown is cultivated. The clue being "paddy grown", which means farmed. 90% of the wild rice sold in the US is cultivated product. Cultivated wild rice and naturally grown wild rice are actually 2 completely different items. Their appearance is different and their taste is different. In Minnesota, the natural wild rice is usually hand harvested by native Ojibwe using canoes and poles. Some people prefer the taste of cultivated over the taste of natural. The flavor of the naturally grown variant will change depending upon its growing conditions. I like them both.

The whole Great Lakes region, including the US side & the Canadian side are producers of natural wild rice.

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #322 on:** November 29, 2018, 10:22 AM »

Too bad that the turkey soup got pushed back all the way til Friday or Saturday. Why not make the stock and "set it and forget it" while you clean the gutters?

I reckon I've only eaten cultivated wild rice - particularly with most of my wild rice consumption being from an Uncle Ben's box. That's good information to know about the difference. I'll have to seek out some naturally grown wild rice from the Great Lakes Region, though I suspect I won't like it since I'm so accustomed to the cultivated stuff.

Last night I made deep fried pork chops, gator bites, sauteed green beans, chinese broccoli, and jambalaya.

Peter Halle · « **Reply #323 on:** November 29, 2018, 07:24 PM »

Concerning "Wild Rice", it used to be common here to be able to buy the Wild Rice in small boxes (Normally on the top shelf of grocery stores by the way.) Those days are now gone in my area.

Wild rice is actually a grass seed by the way.

I hate rice but love wild rice and ironically I started looking on the internet a few weeks ago to find what I could once find locally.

Peter

Peter Halle · « **Reply #324 on:** November 29, 2018, 07:29 PM »

And to follow up, one of the many great internet vendors I learned about thru FOG members is nuts.com. I have never had an issue and they are fun and quirky.

They sell cultivated wild rice! Here is a link: https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/rice/northern.html

Peter

Cheese · « **Reply #325 on:** November 30, 2018, 11:59 AM »

Dwelling on the naturally grown wild rice vs paddy grown wild rice saga, here are a couple of photos to help identify the two rices (grasses).

In the first 2 photos, the naturally stream/river/lake grown rice is lighter in color and tan or gold hued as opposed to the dark brown or even almost black paddy grown (cultivated) wild rice.

Photo 3 is cultivated.

Photo 4 is naturally grown.

Also a sure sign is to look at the cooking times on the package. Paddy grown will be 50 minutes or longer, while naturally grown will be 30 minutes or shorter.

Also of note for those brown rice aficionados out there, here's a comparison between cultivated wild rice and brown rice. The naturally grown wild rice has even fewer carbs, calories & fat plus more protein than paddy grown wild rice.

1C - Cultivated Wild Rice:
Carbohydrate - 35g
Calories - 166
Total Fat - .6g
Protein - 6.5g

1C - Long Grain Brown Rice:
Carbohydrate - 44.8g
Calories - 216
Total Fat - 1.8g
Protein - 5g

six-point socket II · « **Reply #326 on:** December 02, 2018, 02:03 PM »

Made a vichyssoise today, after that: duck breast, potato croquettes and warm apricots.

Yeah, I love cordless ... even or especially in the kitchen ...

Kind regards,
Oliver

GoingMyWay · « **Reply #327 on:** December 03, 2018, 10:00 AM »

Last night we made a ginger pork salad with ginger miso soup and some seasoned rice.

Cheese · « **Reply #328 on:** December 07, 2018, 12:34 AM »

Harkening back to the wild rice theme, took a photo of the current local prices for cultivated wild rice and naturally grown wild rice.

Hand harvested...$12
Cultivated...$7
Cultivated shards...$6

I know...this hurts if you're outside the local area.

tjbnwi · « **Reply #329 on:** December 07, 2018, 12:42 AM »

Oxtail bourguignon.

Tom