The Food Thread

Gad

That sounds delicious.

Andre

Personally I would also have added rucola with sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and pine nuts.

Evo

Monique, that sounds wonderful!!

I also wanted to ask you about your suhsi bar, but I've been so busy.

Monique

It was! And there was enough left over for a breakfast feast

Then it wouldn't be a Maoz bread, but of course anything can be added. I wouldn't add it though. I did miss the Israeli pickled red baby eggplant, but I couldn't find a recipe for it.

What did you want to ask?

Monique

Nobody's cooking? After the kale "superfood" discussion in the biology forum I decided to try out a different recipe from the traditional hotchpot.

I made a thick pancake batter with kale, 'bacon' and a shallot. The batter was cooked into small thick pancakes, which were topped with chili beans, yoghurt and shredded cheese upon serving.

Inspiration:


Tonight I'll be trying out spinach-carrot cake:

Jimmy Snyder

Porterhouse steak.

Today the supermarket was selling porterhouse steaks at $5.99 a pound instead of the usual $10.99 so I bought one. It was cut more than an inch thick, and the tenderloin portion was generous. The total weight was 1.5 lbs and was just right for our family of 4. I never cooked such a thick one before so I looked up on the web how to do it. Unfortunately, the information I got was wrong. They told me that for medium rare, I should wait until the internal temperature was 130F, and so I did. However, it was too rare.

1 porterhouse steak.
2 large baking potatoes.
1 yam
1 bunch of asparagus

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Wrap the potatoes and yam in plastic wrap and nuke for 2 minutes. Then remove the plastic wrap and wrap with foil and place in the oven.

Rub the steak with salt and pepper and vegetable oil on both sides or use your favorite rub. I used olive oil because my wife told me to, but the web site said don't use olive oil because it tends to burn at high temps.

A half hour after the potatoes went into the oven, put the steak in the oven. When the internal temp of the steak is 130F for rare Add 5 degrees for each category medium rare, medium, medium well, and well. Note that these temps are 5 degrees warmer than what I read on the web site, not the result of experience. You will need to do some trial and error and perhaps ruin a steak or two before you find your favorite temp.

Rub salt, pepper and oil onto the asparagus.

When the steak is ready, take it out to rest for 10 minutes at room temp. Put the asparagus into the oven for 12 minutes.

Take out the potatoes, the asparagus and serve with the steak. I had a glass of Burgundy, very red and rich.

Astronuc

Creamed Spinach with Spiced Bread Crumbs
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/cr...230200772.html

Some sides for Thanksgiving
http://www.saveur.com/gallery/Super-...giving-Sides/1

Evo

I've been watching Thanksgiving turkey shows every day since Nov 1st. What I don't get is that out of probably over 200 shows, not one made giblet gravy. I've always made giblet gravy. Instead, they talk about how difficult it is to make gravy because it has to be made at the last minute after the turkey has finished cooking and you have the grease from the pan. My gravy has no grease.

I'm wondering, how many members do giblet gravy and how many make regular drippings gravy for Thanksgiving?

I don't really have a "recipe" for giblet gravy. I save the neck, heart and gizzard from the turkey and as soon as the turkey goes in the oven, I throw them into a small saucepan covered with ~2 inches of water, and a 2-3 chicken boullion cubes or use chicken stock, I add half a finely chopped onion, bring to a boil, then simmer until the meat is falling off the neck bone. Remove the meat to a plate to cool, then take meat off neck and dice the giblets. In a small cup, make a slurry of ~1 tbs of cornstarch and 2 tbs cold water, whisk into broth bringing to boil, adjust thickness by adding more slurry or water until the gravy is the thickness you like. Add the diced meat to gravy. A boyfriend's mother had a weird but delicious addition, she adds a chopped hardboiled egg to the gravy, that's now how I make it.

turbo

Mmmm! Gravy. We reserve the drippings and re-heat them in a sauce-pot, then stir in flour/water mixture slowly until the mix thickens up. To make the flour/water mixture, start with cool water, and gradually add flour, whisking it in until it's fairly thick. Whisk again, when adding that mix to the drippings.

Everything in the paper bag goes into into the gravy. Liver, heart, and gizzard - all finely chopped. The neck is eaten separately, a little at a time. Gravy is a must, especially if you're going to have mashed potatoes or squash.

Evo

I stopped adding the liver because some people don't like the taste & texture, so it has become a thanksgiving dog treat.

So you do giblet gravy with drippings, sounds good.

turbo

Must have gravy from drippings!! If the liver is finely chopped, I don't think anybody will notice it, much less be turned off by the texture. Liver adds an essential tang to the gravy, IMO. I loved being allowed to make the gravy when I was a kid - it was one of the first "cooking" skills that I got, apart from grilling fish and corn and steaming vegetables. I was pretty proud when sitting around with the extended family for Thanksgiving and my mother got compliments on the gravy. She always deflected the compliments to me, and some of my aunts, etc, were shocked.

turbo

Considering how essential good gravy was to our Thanksgiving meals, it might seem a bit crazy to trust its preparation to a 10-year-old boy, but my mother was always right there for guidance/questions. After a couple of times (T-day, Xmas) there was no question that I could do a decent job. Then she could tend to other stuff.

Evo

So starts the 20 days of turkey leftovers. I already know most of the breast is going into turkey salad for sandwiches.

turbo

We roasted a medium-sized chicken instead of a turkey, so there is a big pot of chicken-vegetable soup on the stove simmering.

dlgoff

I smoked a 13 lb turkey for my daughter, her friend, and myself. Just about the right size with the only leftovers being the two legs; everyone wanted the white meat. What would be good to prepare with these goodies? Soup is a possibility.

Evo

So, what's better classic good food, or foo foo fads?

I was watching a show yesterday with Anthony Bourdain and they were talking about all of the great traditional restaurants were going out of business due to the trend of fly by night "trendy" eateries, that come and go, and what a shame it is.

Sometimes new great foods are introduced. But I'll never believe that foie gras FOAM and olive oil POWDER sprikled on a plate over a smear of ham juice for $100 is right. It's not uncommon to pay $200-300 per person in these places, without beverages.

Thoughts? Are restuarants purely entertainment or food? Seems like the younger generation just wants to be "wowed". They eat their food after they leave the restaurant. This is killing good classic restaurants. I'd hate to see them go, the economy is such that people spend their money on entertainment before dining out, and that seems to include entertainment *fooderies*.

Evo

Another "I don't get it", I see on tv cooking shows that they use these cheap $20 plastic mandolines that have to be held with one hand. There are professional metal mandolines that have legs, that don't require holding, and they have adjustable settings, and they aren't slipping and sliding and falling. There was a chef on one show that brought a professional mandoline and they were all in awe.

Seriously? My mother had a professional mandoline, so I grew up assuming it was an essential piece of kitchen equipment. Are these tv shows paid to use these cheap difficult to use pieces of crap with no settings? I don't get it. Do new chefs not get trained on kitchen equipment? These things are like ginsu knives.