What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[DiracPool]

No, I don't have any grey poop on.

Very appetizing Jimmy..

 

[ChiralWaltz]

No, I don't have any grey poop on.

Party time?

 

[Velikovsky]

A lentil and bacon soup I made last night.
Ingredients:
2lb "cooking bacon" that,s the cheap offcuts that come in a vacuum packed bag.
3 medium onions.
4 medium carrots.
2 bay leafs.
1 tsp ground black pepper.
1lb split red lentils.
potatoes* {yes I'm Irish.}
salt to taste.
Method:
Gently cook of the bacon in a large stock pot with a little oil or lard/dripping. Turn the heat low and add the two bay leafs and pepper.
Chop the onions as you please and add to the bacon and sweat then down till translucent.
Now grate your carrots and add to the mix and gently let them go very soft.
Pour in all the lentils, and mix very thoroughly.
Now add approximately eight litres of boiling water/boiling your kettle about four times.
Put a lid on and let it gently cook on a simmer for about 1.5 hours.
*I like to add peeled sliced potatoes halfway through cooking.
And there you have it my Bacon and Lentil soup. If you are Jewish or Moslem you can substitute the bacon with Mutton or Lamb, it tastes just as good!

 

[Evo]

A lentil and bacon soup I made last night.
Ingredients:
2lb "cooking bacon" that,s the cheap offcuts that come in a vacuum packed bag.
3 medium onions.
4 medium carrots.
2 bay leafs.
1 tsp ground black pepper.
1lb split red lentils.
potatoes* {yes I'm Irish.}
salt to taste.
Method:
Gently cook of the bacon in a large stock pot with a little oil or lard/dripping. Turn the heat low and add the two bay leafs and pepper.
Chop the onions as you please and add to the bacon and sweat then down till translucent.
Now grate your carrots and add to the mix and gently let them go very soft.
Pour in all the lentils, and mix very thoroughly.
Now add approximately eight litres of boiling water/boiling your kettle about four times.
Put a lid on and let it gently cook on a simmer for about 1.5 hours.
*I like to add peeled sliced potatoes halfway through cooking.
And there you have it my Bacon and Lentil soup. If you are Jewish or Moslem you can substitute the bacon with Mutton or Lamb, it tastes just as good!

YUMM! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Evo]

So I went to Walmart today because there were some grocery items I needed that only they carry. I've stopped doing regular grocery shopping at Walmart because they are about 20% more expensive than even the over priced grocery store, but Walmart offers a much wider selection of ethnic and gourmet foods. For example, I can buy escargot at Walmart but none of the grocery stores here carry it.

 

[lisab]

So I went to Walmart today because there were some grocery items I needed that only they carry. I've stopped doing regular grocery shopping at Walmart because they are about 20% more expensive than even the over priced grocery store, but Walmart offers a much wider selection of ethnic and gourmet foods. For example, I can buy escargot at Walmart but none of the grocery stores here carry it.

Hopefully not in the Garden Department.

 

[Evo]

Hopefully not in the Garden Department.

Lol!

 

[Evo]

Making chopped chicken livers tonight. YUMM!

Edit: OMG! the onions, the garlic, the schmaltz. I've boiled the eggs and they're in an ice bath cooling off to be peeled.

Edit: Edit: Ugh, I ate too much. I'm dying.

 

[Borek]

Pea puree - the beauty of simple things.

 

[Evo]

Pea puree - the beauty of simple things.

Fresh peas, or dried?

 

[Monique]

Tonight I will be attempting two Sichuan dishes: mapu doufu (spicy silken tofu) and Sichuan eggplant... I can't wait to start cooking

 

[Borek]

Fresh peas, or dried?

Dried, husked.

I think last time I ate it must be somewhere in seventies. And to my surprise Marzena told me she never had it before.

I remember when I was a kid we had a bag of instant pea puree in the kitchen cupboard, but I haven't seen it since then.

 

[lisab]

I admit it, I crowded the pan .

But I think it'll be OK.

 

[Evo]

I admit it, I crowded the pan .

But I think it'll be OK.

What did you make?

 

[Evo]

Ok, I have my corned beef brisket, cabbage and potatoes, so I am ready to make St Patrick's day dinner. I bought a flat this year instead of a point.

 

[lisab]

What did you make?

Chicken wings. Browned on the stovetop, then finished in the oven. They were yummy ! Served with "vegetable medley", which is a euphemism for "whatever I found in the vegetable drawer that wasn't well on its way to being compost".

 

[turbo]

Chicken wings. Browned on the stovetop, then finished in the oven. They were yummy ! Served with "vegetable medley", which is a euphemism for "whatever I found in the vegetable drawer that wasn't well on its way to being compost".

We have stir-fried "medley" at least once a week. It sucks to have to treat $$ store-bought food that way, but in the off-season you don't get a lot of options. BTW, ever since "wings" took off decades ago, it has been possible find thighs at wing prices, so we get those. My wife and I lived near a chicken-processing operation next to a university town and we could get thighs and livers (my favorite) by the bucket for cheap. Home-made macaroni (good sharp cheese from the local market) and chicken livers pan-fried with peppers and onions was a favorite supper. I could have started a restaurant (or at least a push-cart) based on that combo alone.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Last night I took a premade pie crust, filled it with bananas, melted chocolate in a pan, poured it on the top, and put it in the refrigerator to solidify. This morning I ate a small slice of it, and it was the sweetest thing I've ever eaten in my life.
I got to stop making up my own recipes. There's got to be a better way to make chocolate banana pie than that.

 

[trollcast]

Last night I took a premade pie crust, filled it with bananas, melted chocolate in a pan, poured it on the top, and put it in the refrigerator to solidify. This morning I ate a small slice of it, and it was the sweetest thing I've ever eaten in my life.
I got to stop making up my own recipes. There's got to be a better way to make chocolate banana pie than that.

Ewww, I'm trying to imagine the sugar explosion from that in your mouth.

Whats sounds much better (well in my head anyway) would be to take a pre-baked (or make your own) sweet pastry pie base, melt some chocolate and seal the inside of the pastry with the melted chocolate.

Allow to cool then slice up your banana and layer into the bottom of the pie base.

Then mix up a cheesecake mixture (about 60:40 cream, cheese:marscapone) but grate in a handful or 2 of chocolate (depending on how sweet you want it a mix of dark and milk could be used to balance the sharpness of the cheesecake mix).

Then chuck in the fridge for a couple of hours until set.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Oh wow, and I love cheesecake. I'm going to do that next time.
Actually, I made two of these. The first one was with strawberries and I put milk and chocolate together, but I put too much milk, so it won't solidify in the refrigerator. So it's in the freezer right now. I can warm it up in the microwave, but the chocolate just melts and the strawberries stay frozen.
I'm going to take this one over to my friend's house and hope he has a lot of people over so they can all eat it. I don't need this thing in my refrigerator. It doesn't taste bad, it tastes pretty good, it's just that you can't eat a whole slice of it. Maybe one spoonful and you don't want any chocolate for the rest of the day. Did I accidentally concentrate the chocolate or something? Normally I can eat a lot of dark chocolate no problem, but one slice of this, which is mostly banana, is just too chocolatey.

 

[trollcast]

Oh wow, and I love cheesecake. I'm going to do that next time.
Actually, I made two of these. The first one was with strawberries and I put milk and chocolate together, but I put too much milk, so it won't solidify in the refrigerator. So it's in the freezer right now. I can warm it up in the microwave, but the chocolate just melts and the strawberries stay frozen.
I'm going to take this one over to my friend's house and hope he has a lot of people over so they can all eat it. I don't need this thing in my refrigerator. It doesn't taste bad, it tastes pretty good, it's just that you can't eat a whole slice of it. Maybe one spoonful and you don't want any chocolate for the rest of the day. Did I accidentally concentrate the chocolate or something? Normally I can eat a lot of dark chocolate no problem, but one slice of this, which is mostly banana, is just too chocolatey.

How thick is the chocolate layer?

Not sure how you could "concentrate" the chocolate flavour, you can burn or like sort of split the chocolate if you don't heat it right (too much heat and condensation / water getting in respectively)

Chocolate and banana could be a strange combo since the banana doesn't have that strong of a flavour of its own so it is being overpowered by the chocolate and that's becoming the main taste of the pie.

 

[trollcast]

Hmm, just had another sort of experimental idea for your banana and chocolate pie needs.

Take the pie base and seal with chocolate (it stops it going sogging as quickly and it helps hold the pastry together). Place down a layer of slived banana.

Then make some sort of banana filling (bit like what would go in a lemon meringue, needs more thought), you could play safe though and just make a sort of baked cheesecake mix and add some mashed banana for this step.

Then add chunks of chocolate (liberally), make meringue and add to top, and bake.

Lots of potential to go wrong in there but if it worked out it would be heavenly.

 

[Evo]

Last night I took a premade pie crust, filled it with bananas, melted chocolate in a pan, poured it on the top, and put it in the refrigerator to solidify. This morning I ate a small slice of it, and it was the sweetest thing I've ever eaten in my life.
I got to stop making up my own recipes. There's got to be a better way to make chocolate banana pie than that.

You could chop it up and use as a desert topping, like spoon a bit over pudding or ice cream.

 

[Evo]

Tonight is ratatouille. REAL ratatouille, not the imitation Julia Child kind (she changed the traditional recipe from a stew to a braise of individual vegetables), but the traditional french peasant stew. If you've only had the Julia Child vegetable dish or the "confit byaldi" that Chef Keller created for the Disney movie called ratatouille, you have no idea what you are missing. Both dishes are lovely vegetable dishes, but they are not ratatouille.

The original was made with bacon drippings, but the owner of a hippy vegetarian restaurant in Houston, called The Hobbit Hole, wanted my mom's recipe, so he changed the bacon drippings to olive oil.

I'll repeat the recipe here in case anyone wants to try it.


One of my favorite vegetable dishes where it can be a main course and you don't miss the meat is Ratatouille. I got the recipe from my French mother and it is simple. In a deep soup pan,

Sautee one diced onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic in olive oil, just until translucent,

add one large chopped (traditional) eggplant (medium small cubes), I leave the peel on

1-2 zucchini (sliced or chopped),

1 large seeded bell pepper (chopped),

add a 15oz can of diced tomatoes (2 cans if you like more tomatoes) (you can use fresh chopped), I use Hunts petite diced because it has a pleasant acidity, which is needed.

stir, add a large drizzle of olive oil, salt to taste, and cook until done, stirring occasionally (vegetables should be soft), this can take up to 3 hours (the longer it stews together, the more the flavours develop). Finish with a generous drizzle of olive oil.

This is heavenly stuff eaten hot or cold. Some people add herbs, but to me herbs overpower this dish, trust me, it doesn't need them.

 

[Borek]

Now you made me hungry. I already added eggplant and zucchini to the shopping list for next Friday.

Sounds like my fav kind of cooking - leave it on fire for half a day, don't touch till it get ready by itself. Have I ever told you I am lazy?

 

[leroyjenkens]

How thick is the chocolate layer?

Not sure how you could "concentrate" the chocolate flavour, you can burn or like sort of split the chocolate if you don't heat it right (too much heat and condensation / water getting in respectively)

Chocolate and banana could be a strange combo since the banana doesn't have that strong of a flavour of its own so it is being overpowered by the chocolate and that's becoming the main taste of the pie.

Yeah, the banana does sort of get overpowered by the chocolate, but chocolate and banana goes well together to me. The bananas were perfectly ripe too. I can see where I cut the slice out of the pie where some syruppy liquid is leaking out of the bananas.
I was hoping the bananas would take up so much space in the pie that there would just be thin lines of chocolate throughout the pie, but there was much more chocolate than I thought.

The chocolate is pretty thick. Thicker than in the strawberry pie. I probably should've mixed it with cream instead of 1% milk, so I could have used more to tone down the chocolateness of it.

Take the pie base and seal with chocolate (it stops it going sogging as quickly and it helps hold the pastry together). Place down a layer of slived banana.

Then make some sort of banana filling (bit like what would go in a lemon meringue, needs more thought), you could play safe though and just make a sort of baked cheesecake mix and add some mashed banana for this step.

Then add chunks of chocolate (liberally), make meringue and add to top, and bake.

I'm actually trying to start learning how to cook, so this will be good practice. Thanks. I'll wait until I slowly finish both pies first. I'm kinda on a diet. Don't ask why I decided to make these pies while I'm on a diet.

You could chop it up and use as a desert topping, like spoon a bit over pudding or ice cream.

That's a great idea. The ice cream will sort of harden the pieces of pie, while diluting the intensity of the chocolate.
Thanks guys.

Now you made me hungry. I already added eggplant and zucchini to the shopping list for next Friday.

I learned that eggplant is called aubergine in some places. I like that name so much more than eggplant. But yeah I love eggplant. It has sort of a kick to it that's hard to describe. I bought a huge one and cut it up and put it in a huge pot of soup. I'm about to go eat some of that now.

 

[trollcast]

The chocolate is pretty thick. Thicker than in the strawberry pie. I probably should've mixed it with cream instead of 1% milk, so I could have used more to tone down the chocolateness of it.I'm actually trying to start learning how to cook, so this will be good practice. Thanks. I'll wait until I slowly finish both pies first. I'm kinda on a diet. Don't ask why I decided to make these pies while I'm on a diet.

Chocolate and cream makes ganache (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganache) , however the cream needs to be heated until it just starts to boil (don't let it boil too long like 10 - 20 secs is enough to ensure its hot enough) Then pour the warm cream over broken up chocolate (not milk chocolate as it will be a sickly sweet goo, semi-sweet dark chocolate is the best but a mix of dark and milk chocolate will work instead) Stir the resulting mix until all the chocolate is melted into the cream.

Now at this stage you could whip the mix to aerate it (this makes it a bit lighter and also it will spread further and easier), HOWEVER whipping too long will cool the mix too much and it will a be PITA to spread. This step isn't that essential.

For something like your pie just pour it into it or for truffles just dip them in.

For cakes there's 2 methods:

1. Pour the mix onto the top and let it run down the sides,
+'s Gives a really glossy surface, really easy and doesn't require a plastering qualification.
-'s ganache has to be thinner to allow it to run freely and also still quite hot, not as easy for non round / square cakes or very big cakes as you run the risk of it not spreading far enough.

2. Put the mixture onto the middle of the top of the cake. Then spread radially from the middle and pull straight down at the edges. Don't add all the ganache at the start, add it in stages but keep going back to the top middle and pulling it over the already covered surface to keep an even surface.
+'s You can get the surface smoother and also ensure its spread evenly. You can make the ganache thicker than the pouring method.
-'s Surface isn't as glossy because of the palette knife / spatula spreading it.

The ratio of chocolate to cream isn't set so you can change it depending on the use of the ganache, more cream makes it smoother and more like a really thick set mousse, more chocolate makes it set solid so its good for covering cakes. For a pie like that I'd go for about 2 parts cream to 1 part chocolate to ensure its definitely not set and to make it a bit lighter (definitely whip it up to add some air)

Never try the shortcut of heating the chocolate and adding it to the cream as this scalds the cream and its just wrong (bit like oversteamed milk in a latte or cappucino effect) , the cream will cook and at best will take a slightly sickly sweet taste, at worst the cream could curdle.

Also don't take my recipes as being right since I hardly measure anything out and they don't always work.

 

[turbo]

Chocolate and cream makes ganache
Also don't take my recipes as being right since I hardly measure anything out and they don't always work.

A soul-mate. My mother taught me how to cook, along with my grandmother, and apart from baking recipes, they never measured. I know what a dry teaspoon/tablespoon of an ingredient looks like in my hand, so I just wing it.

My grandmother worked as a cook for a log-driving outfit, and I don't ever remember her measuring when she made biscuits. She just threw them together.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Thanks, trollcast. I'm definitely going to try that. I just found a video of a guy making basically exactly what I wanted to make, but with raspberries instead, and using ganache, like you said.
He uses glucose, which seems like it would make it too sweet. But I guess he used unsweetened chocolate.


That thing looks so good.

 

[Monique]

I'm actually trying to start learning how to cook, so this will be good practice. Thanks. I'll wait until I slowly finish both pies first. I'm kinda on a diet. Don't ask why I decided to make these pies while I'm on a diet.

I will: why are you making pies when you're on a diet? You're eating the whole pie by yourself? Why not make simple 1-person servings? Take a nice glass, fill with your favorite crumbled cookie, top with a layer of yoghurt, add sliced banana on top and drizzle with melted chocolate.

For guests I make a richer version with a layer of crumbled cinnamon and clove caramel cookies (my favorite), a layer of whipped cream mixed with mascarpone and vanilla and topped with fruit that's been slightly heated to release the juices (usually forest fruits). I always make individual servings, because it looks nice served up in a glass and it's easy as well.