What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

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The discussion revolves around a vibrant exchange of food-related topics, with participants sharing favorite recipes, culinary experiences, and kitchen mishaps. A notable focus is on lentil recipes, with suggestions for dishes like chocolate lentil cake and lentil lasagna, as well as creative uses of lentils in various cuisines. Participants also share recipes for pasta with pesto, grilled shrimp marinades, and Indian dishes like dahl and gulab jamun. There’s a strong emphasis on improvisation in cooking, with many contributors discussing how they cook "by feel" rather than following strict measurements. The conversation also touches on cultural influences, such as the appreciation for Lebanese and South Indian cuisine, and the importance of traditional meals like the Indian sadya. Additionally, humorous anecdotes about kitchen disasters and the challenges of cooking techniques, like frying mozzarella sticks, add a lighthearted tone to the thread. Overall, the thread celebrates the joy of cooking and the communal sharing of food experiences.
  • #2,011
I snapped the garlic scapes a few days ago, and want to share a recipe (if you should find them at a farm-stand). My wife decided to make some macaroni and cheese with a nice Cooper sharp cheese that she found on sale, so she boiled the noodles, and while they were cooking, she sauteed garlic scapes, yellow onions, jalapenos and fresh mushrooms in a skillet. After draining the noodles, she mixed the vegetables with the noodles and layered the mix in a stone-ware casserole dish with sliced cheese, added milk, and topped with some crumbled Saltines to make a crispy crust as it baked. Very nice! Spicy, cheesy, with a tinge of garlic.
 
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  • #2,012
turbo-1 said:
I snapped the garlic scapes a few days ago, and want to share a recipe (if you should find them at a farm-stand). My wife decided to make some macaroni and cheese with a nice Cooper sharp cheese that she found on sale, so she boiled the noodles, and while they were cooking, she sauteed garlic scapes, yellow onions, jalapenos and fresh mushrooms in a skillet. After draining the noodles, she mixed the vegetables with the noodles and layered the mix in a stone-ware casserole dish with sliced cheese, added milk, and topped with some crumbled Saltines to make a crispy crust as it baked. Very nice! Spicy, cheesy, with a tinge of garlic.

That sounds very good. I'll have to try it. I'll probably make myself even more fat eating like that though. Soon I should have my own place and be able to cook again. I have recently been only buying precooked food as I go so I don't have to worry about my roomie eating it all before I get to it.

And I neglected to compliment you on your kitchen. Its quite lovely. Maybe someday I will be as lucky as you to find a lady who knows the importance of a good kitchen! We can alope and then live in a poor neighbourhood where they value a good mom and pop grocery. Or at least find a place near a Trader Joes.

I asked in general a while back but I don't think anyone answered. Turbo, do you have any experience with thai curry? I love the stuff but its expensive around here. I'd like to make my own though admittedly I am weary of making the curry paste fresh and proper myself. From what I have read it is a rather complicated task and may turn out bad if I don't mix the right portions of ingredients or get good enough quality. I can't really afford to screw up with fresh ingredients.
 
  • #2,013
TheStatutoryApe said:
That sounds very good. I'll have to try it. I'll probably make myself even more fat eating like that though. Soon I should have my own place and be able to cook again. I have recently been only buying precooked food as I go so I don't have to worry about my roomie eating it all before I get to it.
It is very good, and you can put it together in no time.

And I neglected to compliment you on your kitchen. Its quite lovely. Maybe someday I will be as lucky as you to find a lady who knows the importance of a good kitchen! We can alope and then live in a poor neighbourhood where they value a good mom and pop grocery. Or at least find a place near a Trader Joes.
Thank you. We love it, and it is a great space to work in. Before the re-do, it was poorly laid-out with insufficient storage and counter-space.

I asked in general a while back but I don't think anyone answered. Turbo, do you have any experience with thai curry? I love the stuff but its expensive around here. I'd like to make my own though admittedly I am weary of making the curry paste fresh and proper myself. From what I have read it is a rather complicated task and may turn out bad if I don't mix the right portions of ingredients or get good enough quality. I can't really afford to screw up with fresh ingredients.
I do not make my own, sorry. There are no asian markets around here where one can pick up appropriate ingredients, and the supermarkets do not carry a good variety of ethnic-food ingredients, either. I often use Javin-brand curry powder in sauces and dishes, but that is not a reasonable substitute for fresh curry pastes. We have tried the canned curries, but not with any great results.
 
  • #2,014
turbo-1 said:
I do not make my own, sorry. There are no asian markets around here where one can pick up appropriate ingredients, and the supermarkets do not carry a good variety of ethnic-food ingredients, either. I often use Javin-brand curry powder in sauces and dishes, but that is not a reasonable substitute for fresh curry pastes. We have tried the canned curries, but not with any great results.
Well that's too bad. I figured if anyone knew good hot thai red curry recipes it would be you.
I'll let you know what I find. There are plenty of asian markets around here if you look for them and apparently you can buy decent curry makings online. Of course I haven't the taste for the scoville units that you do. I usually beg off once I start to feel the chill in my scalp. Maybe though what ever brand I find will have those scary little chillies in the clear fluid that they have at the thai resteraunts for the people who like the really hot stuff.
 
  • #2,015
Top 10 Super Summer Foods to Improve Your Health according to the AARP.
http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org...hotogalleries/healthy_summer_foods/index.html

Beets for flavenoids
Watermelon for carotenoids
Tomato paste (pizza) for lycopene
Broccoli for sulforaphane
Mushrooms for B-vitamins, antioxidants and elements such as potassium, selenium and copper
Iced tea for antioxidants
Blueberries for antioxidants (our blueberry bushes are full of ripening berries)
Bananas for potassium
Grapes for antioxidants
Fresh garlic for allicin

and I'd add organically grown strawberries to reduce risk of colon cancer
 
  • #2,016
Astronuc said:
Top 10 Super Summer Foods to Improve Your Health according to the AARP.
http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org...hotogalleries/healthy_summer_foods/index.html

Beets for flavenoids
Watermelon for carotenoids
Tomato paste (pizza) for lycopene
Broccoli for sulforaphane
Mushrooms for B-vitamins, antioxidants and elements such as potassium, selenium and copper
Iced tea for antioxidants
Blueberries for antioxidants (our blueberry bushes are full of ripening berries)
Bananas for potassium
Grapes for antioxidants
Fresh garlic for allicin

and I'd add organically grown strawberries to reduce risk of colon cancer

Those all sound terrific...except for the beets. What's another food high in flavinoids? (Been a long day...too lazy to google :redface:.)
 
  • #2,017
lisab said:
Those all sound terrific...except for the beets. What's another food high in flavinoids? (Been a long day...too lazy to google :redface:.)
Flavonoids are a large family of protective phytochemicals found in fruits and
vegetables. Flavonoids, also called bioflavonoids, act as antioxidants. Antioxidants
neutralize or inactivate highly unstable and extremely reactive molecules, called free
radicals that attack the cells of our body every day. Free radical damage is believed to
contribute to a variety of health problems, including cancer, heart disease and aging.
There are many different types of flavonoids and each appears to have protective health
effects. Some of the better known flavonoids include resveratrol, anthocyanins,
quercetin, hesperiden, tengeritin, kaempferol, myricetin, and apigenin. Flavonoids are
found in a variety of foods such as oranges, kiwifruit, grapefruit, tangerines, berries,
apples, red grapes, red wine, broccoli, onions, and green tea.

Ref: Wine Institute - Defining Bioactive Food Components

Apparently tea, cherries and grapefruit have the highest levels of flavonoids.
 
  • #2,018
Astronuc said:
Apparently tea, cherries and grapefruit have the highest levels of flavonoids.

But red wine has the highest level of good mood - so you get two in one.
 
  • #2,019
I love mangos and mango juice (more like a smoothy really) and they are supposed to chock full of antioxidants.

Grapefruit juice and red wine would be my favourite flavonoid sources.
 
  • #2,020
Astronuc said:
Flavonoids are found in a variety of foods such as oranges, kiwifruit, grapefruit, tangerines, berries, apples, red grapes, red wine, broccoli, onions, and green tea.

Aaahhh...any one of those are preferable to beets, to my palate :smile:. Thanks, Astro!
 
  • #2,021
I should add another important food to the list of those with flavonoids -

Dark Chocolate -
Dark chocolate contains a lot more cocoa than other forms of chocolate. And standard chocolate manufacturing destroys up to half of the flavoniods. But chocolate companies have now learned to make dark chocolate that keeps up to 95% of its flavoniods.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20040601/dark-chocolate-day-keeps-doctor-away
 
  • #2,023
If we are talking about antioxidants, we can't forget about my favorite source - coffee.

... The total antioxidant activities of different plant phenol- containing beverages have been compared. Using a method based on the ex vivo oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL), it has been shown that coffee has significantly more total antioxidant activity than either cocoa, green tea, black tea or herbal tea (10). Using the ABTS•+ method, it has been confirmed that coffee has a significantly greater total antioxidant activity in vitro than cola, beer, a variety of fruit juices, lemon ice tea or black tea (11). A study conducted in 2004 looked at dietary sources of antioxidants and found that the single greatest contributor to total antioxidant intake was coffee (12). A further study in 2006 (13) set out to determine the content of phenolic acids in the most consumed fruits and beverages. Coffee, as wel as black and green teas were the best source among beverages with coffee containing 97mg/100 g whilst teas contained 30-36 mg/100 g

It can be concluded that coffee possesses greater in-vitro antioxidant activity than other beverages, due in part to intrinsic compounds such as chlorogenic acid, in part to compounds formed during roasting such as melanoidins and in part to as yet unidentified compounds...
http://www.cosic.org/coffee-and-health/antioxidants
 
  • #2,024
A co-worker of mine made this and it's the best cornbread I've ever eaten. Thought I would share.

3 cups buttermilk cornbread mix (she used Aunt Jemima
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup olive oil
3 eggs beaten
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons sugar
1 can cream style corn
1/2 cup (8 peppers) finely chopped jalapeno peppers or milder chile such as Anaheim
1 1/2 cup Mexican Blend cheese, shredded (monterery jack, cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and asadero
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of flour

preheat oven to 350F
I used a cast iron skilet and poured a little olive oil on the bottom
to fry the cornbread a little while baking. After the bread is done, I poured real butter over the top.

Combine cornbread mix and milk in a mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients in order. Pour into three greased 8-inch square baking pans, or one 9x13x2 inch baking pan and one 8-inch square baking pan.

Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes
 
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  • #2,026
regarding coffee & anti-oxidants --

GeorginaS said:
You made my day.

I think this partly why I came back to work early after delivery... I can feed Ellie, then rush to Starbucks and work... then by the time I'm out of classes, the caffeine is low enough in my system that it doesn't seem to effect her.

Mmm... enjoying my coffee now!
 
  • #2,027
I've got to ask how many people have bought into the 'dry rub' craze for barbecue. I was watching a show the other day and this young guy is saying "we use the time honoured dry rub". What? I never heard of dry rub before about 5 years ago, None of my cookbooks even mention it. Kansas City is world famous for its barbecue, there is no dry rub. It's all sauce. Same in Texas, same in the Carolinas. Those are the three areas in the US famous for the three distinct types of barbecue.

If a restaurant wants to be considered trendy, they have had to switch to "dry rubs". thankfully some refuse to change.

I bought a few pounds of baby back ribs recently. They were done with a "dry rub". They were inedible. Way too salty, the meat was like jerky. So I put them in a large pot of water to leach out the salt. I added a bit KC Barbecue sauce to the water to give it a bit of tang. Dry rubs don't have that traditional barbecue tang. After a couple of hours, I had moist, fall off the bone, much less salty and more flavourful ribs.

It amazes me how quickly trendy hype via televison and the internet can replace reality.

I can't wait until the "dry rub" craze is over.
 
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  • #2,028
My brother is into the "dry rub" thing. I've tried it, but went right back to my marinade and sauce combo. Once you've gotten something perfected, why change? I have noticed that when we are both grilling stuff at a family get-together, my ribs, chicken, etc disappear pretty quickly, and he often has left-overs. Very unprofessional polling, but people do vote with their tastes.

My wife started her vacation today and has the next 2 weeks+ off. She went grocery-shopping and I had encouraged her to buy herself a lobster as a belated birthday treat. The lobsters are still "soft-shell" (post molt) and the meat doesn't fill out the shells very well in this stage, so you pay for a lot of water if you buy them. She's going to wait until the hard-shell lobsters are available.

She is so sweet to me, though. She saw fresh north Atlantic sea-scallops for $9/lb, smelled them and bought me a pound of them - they are my favorite sea-food. I pan-fried half of them in butter with a bit of salt and pepper for my supper. I'm going to cook the rest tomorrow morning for breakfast (she's away taking care of her mother). If scallops are not absolutely fresh or were previously frozen (and cheap enough to bother with) I'll bread them with cracker crumbs and herbs and spices and bake them in a lightly-buttered unglazed baking dish. For the real fresh scallops, though, there is only one way to fix them. Fry them in butter, until they are lightly browned. Mmmm!
 
  • #2,029
Rachel Ray's misinformation today, well in the first 5 minutes, I'm sure she has plenty more misinformation before her 30 minutes is over. "hominy - it's like, just big, big corn". No you clueless moron, it's corn soaked in LYE. That's why it smells like sweaty sneakers.
 
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  • #2,030
It's like, big, big corn with the hull and germ chemically removed, leaving the starchy interior more easily digestible. Or maybe Ray Ray doesn't ever notice the contents of her scat after eating corn on the cob.
 
  • #2,031
turbo-1 said:
My brother is into the "dry rub" thing. I've tried it, but went right back to my marinade and sauce combo. Once you've gotten something perfected, why change? I have noticed that when we are both grilling stuff at a family get-together, my ribs, chicken, etc disappear pretty quickly, and he often has left-overs. Very unprofessional polling, but people do vote with their tastes.
Dry rub would work with a steak that has a very short cook time, but not on meat that will be over a hot fire for hours.

She is so sweet to me, though. She saw fresh north Atlantic sea-scallops for $9/lb, smelled them and bought me a pound of them - they are my favorite sea-food. I pan-fried half of them in butter with a bit of salt and pepper for my supper. I'm going to cook the rest tomorrow morning for breakfast (she's away taking care of her mother). If scallops are not absolutely fresh or were previously frozen (and cheap enough to bother with) I'll bread them with cracker crumbs and herbs and spices and bake them in a lightly-buttered unglazed baking dish. For the real fresh scallops, though, there is only one way to fix them. Fry them in butter, until they are lightly browned. Mmmm!
Mmmm, scallops. I haven't had fresh scallops in ages. The price of fresh food has gotten outrageous.
 
  • #2,032
Evo said:
I've got to ask how many people have bought into the 'dry rub' craze for barbecue.
I've never BBQed myself but I have seen and heard of dry rubs since I was a kid (I liked watching the frugal gourmet when I was a kid) usually mostly just pepper and a bit of salt along with some other spice. The only time I ever heard of it being some special thing though was in an episode of The West Wing.
 
  • #2,033
Evo said:
Dry rub would work with a steak that has a very short cook time, but not on meat that will be over a hot fire for hours.

Mmmm, scallops. I haven't had fresh scallops in ages. The price of fresh food has gotten outrageous.

The last time I had scallops, they were giant -- about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter! Yum. Worth every penny. Making me hungry now... (like I'm not already hungry all the time with keeping little E well-fed -- I swear she's probably gained two pounds in her two weeks of life... now that's a little milk-fed piece of veal!).
 
  • #2,034
New member here :) *waves*

My favorites food (Top 4) are:

1. Sushi
2. Chicken Chow Mein
3. Hot Wings
4. Pizza or Spaghetti

I also love vegatables ^_^ Especially when they are drowned in ketchup and/or steak sauce. I know it sounds disgusting, but if you try it, you might find that you can't eat them without the condiments again - especially the turnip greens without ketchup.
 
  • #2,035
GeekGuru said:
New member here :) *waves*

My favorites food (Top 4) are:

1. Sushi
2. Chicken Chow Mein
3. Hot Wings
4. Pizza or Spaghetti

I also love vegatables ^_^ Especially when they are drowned in ketchup and/or steak sauce. I know it sounds disgusting, but if you try it, you might find that you can't eat them without the condiments again - especially the turnip greens without ketchup.
Welcome GeekGuru. You're right, catsup would destroy the delicate flavor of vegetables. :frown: My boyfriend is British and he pours HP Brown sauce over his vegetables, so he can't even taste them.
 
  • #2,036
I promised that I'd post a picture of my butt here. This was beautiful. I made pulled pork out of it. At 98 cents a pound, it was a steal.

camerapictures800.jpg
 
  • #2,037
Nice butt Evo. :smile:
 
  • #2,038
physics girl phd said:
now that's a little milk-fed piece of veal!.
Do child services read this group?
 
  • #2,039
mgb_phys said:
Do child services read this group?
Oh, no, I'm sure she doesn't plan on eating her! :-p
 
  • #2,040
I like Evo's ceramics. :)
 

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