The Food Thread

Evo

Yes, I use wine in mine also.

trollcast

We don't have any wine in our house, well there's stuff my dad uses as a feed for dundee cakes sometimes but its like 10% alcohol.

My aunt showed me it with wine before but I didn't think it was any better than a slug of the nearest bottle of vinegar, it even works with white / malted vinegar as long as you don't add too much and let it evaporate the acid out.

The only vinegar it hasn't worked with that I've tried is balsamic vinegar although I think it was more to do with the fact it reduces too quickly on a very hot pan and not the qualities of the vinegar.

Evo

Vinegar should work well.

turbo

If you can get cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, that could help.

Astronuc

I cooked up a pot of leek, potatoes and sausage yesterday.

We often do leek and potato soup, or some variant.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/potato_leek_soup/

The recipe is similar to one cited, but I didn't puree any portion of the soup. I did leeks and garlic cloves in olive oil. Then added Italian sausage to brown it, but not the leeks or garlic. I cut the sausage once cooked, then added some bok choi. After the bok choi cooked, I added water, brought it to near boiling, then turned it down to simmer.

After a while, I transferred the leek, bok choi and sausage to a pot, added some broth and water, brought it to near boil and added diced potato. One could do a number of variations, such as adding carrot to increase the sweetness.

Other variants could include adding parsnip (parsnip and carrot go well together), turnip and/or rutabaga.

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes...s_and_parsley/

turbo

Had a great lunch today. Home-made French bread and butter with a wonderful soup: Spicy chicken sausage, fingerling potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, kale, etc. When cooler weather comes around, we have soups and casseroles.

Edit: there was barley and lentils in there, too. Most of our soups feature these.

Ivan Seeking

I have always loved a good hot dog - the old fashioned kind made by Germans in the midwest. Ball Park brand has some Angus dogs that are pretty decent. So I've been buying those from time to time. but then they came out with Angus Beef Hot Links. Mmmmmm, that sounded good so I bought some and we were both hooked. Very tasty!!!



Now the bad news. Last night I finally made myself look at the nutritional information. 200 calories per link with 150 of those being due to fat! Egad! No trans fats and less than half is saturated fat, but still, 75% fat?!?!?! That is crazy.

Evo

Sounds about right. I think it's better to eat something tasty in smaller amounts than to eat tasteless garbage in larger quantities.

When I stopped eating low fat, low this and low that and ate the real stuff, not only was I more satisfied, I lost the weight I'd gained eating the fake stuff. Usually the tasteless "low" stuff has a difference of 10-20 calories and none of the flavor.

Now I need to try those!

Evo

Beef short ribs were on sale, so I plan to make my Jewish step mother-in-law's pea soup. Instead of ham, she used beef short ribs. To die for! It's now my favorite way to make split pea soup.

Evo

Ulimate chicken stock recipe from Ina Garten.

Chicken Stock

Ingredients

3 5-pound roasting chickens
3 large yellow onions, unpeeled, quartered
6 carrots, unpeeled, halved
4 celery stalks with leaves, cut in thirds
4 parsnips, unpeeled, cut in half (optional)
20 sprigs fresh parsley
15 sprigs fresh thyme
20 sprigs fresh dill
1 head garlic, unpeeled, cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns

Directions

Place the chickens, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley, thyme, dill, garlic, and seasonings in a 16- to 20-quart stockpot. Add 7 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 4 hours. Strain the entire contents of the pot through a colander and discard the solids. Chill the stock overnight. The next day, remove the surface fat. Use immediately or pack in containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/i...pe2/index.html

I wouldn't discard *all* of the solids. The chicken meat will have lost it's flavor to the broth, but will make great cat or dog food. The veggies should be flavorful, I'd eat them. Maybe let them drain and dry a bit, then slice and sautee or roast in some butter or olive oil. Or mash the carrots and parsnips with a bit of cream and serve with butter, salt, and pepper.

Borek

I like the idea of using them unpeeled, I love the lazy recipes. They fit my character.

turbo

That's why I love New England boiled dinners. Easy to make, and flavorful.

Ms Music

The thought of boiled makes me cringe, but I know you well enough to trust you so I know it MUST be delicious. But I think I need to prove it to myself. Post your favorite recipe? Please?

I am all for easy.

turbo

I am a free-style cook, Here's how it goes, though. Rub a cheap chuck roast with salt and pepper and sear the living hell out of it in peanut oil until every surface is browned. Remove the roast and simmer the juices out of the pot in cheap wine until the browned stuff is lifted. Put the roast back in along with potatoes, onions, turnip, carrots, cabbage, etc, and simmer for hours.

It's hard to get better food than this.

Astronuc

When It Comes To Falafel, The Flavors Of Home Can Vary
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...-home-can-vary
There are many ways to make falafel.

Tonight I made home fries. I sliced the potatoes and sauteed the chips (fries) in olive oil with garlic, leeks and some other seasonings. I set them aside for cooking later.

I then put diced some turnips added them to the sautee. I then added some sausage, which I cooked, then sliced. I added carrots and let them cook with the turnips and sausage. I added some water, and then through in some Swiss chard and kale. I added the kale first since it take a bit longer than chard to get tender. While that was slowly cooking, I cooked the fries in the oven at 400 F, for about 40 minutes. They probably could have gone another 5 minutes.

Monique

I love falafel in pita bread filled with pickled vegetables salad and garlic or coriander sauce. Do you know Moaz take-away restaurant? http://www.maozusa.com/about/our-story Really delicious!

Yesterday I made sushi: hosomaki, uramaki, nigiri, inarizushi, tamagoyaki, what a work! Rice was sticking everwhere and the nigiri was quite fragile, the inarizushi was a bit dodgy, but the uramaki was delicious: a new specialty

Monique

I did it: made my own Maoz salad bar! It made for a wonderful evening of stuffing and lots of spilling

We took pita breads, inserted a leaf of romaine lettuce, feta cheese slices, falafel balls, then filled the bread up with freshly made toppings and sauces:

Sauces:
* Coriander salsa (whizz up coriander, garlic, jalapeno pepper, olive oil, water, lime juice)
* Tomato salsa (heat olive oil, red onion, garlic, tomato, jalapeno pepper for 15 min, cool)

Toppings
* olives (green, black)
* carrots (boiled slices, dressed with olive oil and parsley)
* beet (steamed cubes, with parsley)
* tomato salad (cubed tomato, cucumber, red onion, parsley)
* cucumber pickle (slices in brine)

All salted to taste of course.

Inspiration: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/m...lideshow.html# (slideshow)

On the side were some oven-baked french fries, but we never touched them.