The Food Thread

Evo

How can anyone make chili taste like manure???? Did you check to make sure there was no mold on the chilies? I know you had a problem with that once.

turbo

My wife and I just sliced up a gallon of Bell peppers to freeze for stir-fries this winter, and another gallon of chopped Bell peppers to freeze for sauces, etc. Plus we have set aside another dozen of those big peppers for a couple of my sisters-in-law, and a few more for a neighbor, along with Hungarian wax chilies. Most of my garden is suffering terribly from the never-ending rain, but the peppers are coming so fast that it's hard to keep up with them.

hypatia

Nachos tonight! Black turtle beans, green peppers, sweet onions, brick cheese and avocados. With home made sour cream and salsa!

turbo

My wife made us some for a snack an hour or so ago. Tortilla chips topped with sharp cheese and my home-made dill-picked jalapeno rings and microwaved to melt the cheese. Then topped with a quick-and-dirty fresh salsa made of stuff from the garden (tomato, cucumber, chilies, cilantro). Some of the tomatoes are developing soft spots at the stem (too much rain!!!!), so we have to use them up as soon as they start ripening.

wolram

Every thing was fresh, i think it may have been the meat it did not smell to good when i was frying it.

Evo

Oh, that would do it.

Moonbear

Just to make Evo jealous again, I'm enjoying a very tasty Chinese take-out tonight of orange beef. A bowl of wanton soup too, with some of the BEST wantons I've had in ages (actually, haven't had them this good since I was a kid and my Chinese neighbor would bring some homemade ones over). I could just eat a plate of the wantons! I can't get anything even close to this in WV.

That reminds me that I need to find a good bakery so I can bring back a loaf of real rye bread with me when I return...I found out one of my colleagues in the new department I'm in is also from NJ, and that's the sort of thing she craves, so I'll bring her back a loaf (I don't have a cooler, otherwise I'd bring back some good deli meats too).

turbo

If the deli has fish, they may get fresh fish deliveries in Styrofoam boxes, and if you're going to buy some deli meat, they may be happy to pack the meat in one of those boxes with a bag of ice. I've got a couple of those dirt-cheap "coolers" in storage.

Math Is Hard

I am eating mango slices with warm coconut-flavored sticky rice. I got it from a new vegan Thai place in town. yum yum.

wolram

I can not cook for now my cooker is in bits, i decided to clean it and boy what a job, you have to take the doors apart and i am using that foaming oven cleaner, well i have used three cans so far and it still needs more, this must be the worst job ever :grumpy next time i will buy a new cooker.

lisab

That foaming oven cleaner is horrible.

Monique

How many people here know how to cook bitter gourd/melon? I cooked one up today after salting it to get rid of some of the bitterness, but it was still quite bitter (and salty) after cooking it (for a first try it dit taste quite good). Any tips?

rewebster

When I do use that stuff, I let it set on there for about 1/2 hour--when the oven gets really coated with something---I'll get a putty knife on the worst part of the gunk

offtheleft

im having some beef stew concoction my father made. it started out as regular beef stew but now there is rice instead of broth. pretty good.

LowlyPion

I've had it in dishes eating out and I can't say that it was unpleasant, but then again I can't say that I would add it to my larder either. Not exactly my taste.

But here is a link that tells you more than you may want to know and it's from where else but Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon

I would steer clear of the seeds. That causing nausea part might be seen as a negative by guests.

Evo

I hate you Moonbear!!!

That's ok, I have potatoes.

Moonbear

Last night, after having a lot of take-out and other not-so-healthy food over the weekend, I decided to cook in. A filet of salmon, prepared very minimally with a little salt and pepper and sauteed in butter and garlic, then cut up a fresh tomato onto it to finish the meal. I'd be HUGE if I lived in NY all the time...granted, I do a LOT more walking, but the food is SOOO good. For fish bought at a grocery store (I need to get more familiar with where things are locally...bakeries, fish mongers, etc...I still get a bit lost here since we're down in the financial district area where it's off the "grid") it was wonderful. Very fresh, and just the right amount of fattiness to the meat to make it melt-in-your-mouth. It was a very simple meal but incredibly tasty too because the foods are fresh.

I think my quest this afternoon is to find a Chinese grocery to get some dried mushrooms (they usually sell them bulk in the Chinese groceries much cheaper than you could get them anywhere else) so I can make a wild mushroom risotto for my boyfriend one night this week. He usually cooks for me when I visit, so I'm going to make something nice for him this time since I have a longer visit.

Though, today we're off to have pizza for lunch (I HAVE to have pizza when in NYC) and then going out to dinner, probably sushi since we both love sushi.