What can you expect in the Food Thread on PF?

[turbo]

I made duck a la Moonbear tonight. When I thawed the duck, I was planning on duck a l'orange, but never got around to getting any of the ingredients, so improvised with what I had. Roasted the duck with basic poultry seasonings while making a sauce for it. (Turbo, close your eyes so you don't cringe too much.) I only had beef broth from the store and no bones or stock, so it ended up a bit too salty making a reduction sauce with that. It came out well enough, I'll do the recipe again with homemade stock next time. (Okay, you can open your eyes again.)

Ack! I looked! I'm horribly scarred!

My wife made a lovely black-bean soup yesterday. She used the chicken-stock from the roasted chicken we had a day before, included fire-roasted red peppers, our frozen jalapenos, and some other minor ingredients, and came up with a KILLER! I like to let such soups "age" overnight in the 'fridge, but I had a big bowl of it today, and it surpassed my expectations. The replacement-window guys came over yesterday, and I had to take off with Duke to avoid their colognes, etc. My wife said that they both kept commenting about how great this little house smelled. Duh! She is the best soup-maker ever! Real-estate agents like to tell people to have an apple pie in the oven for showings. They never smelled my wife's soups and stews.

 

[rhody]

What do you think, is this a winner or not ?

Hot Chilli Chef - Recipe 2



and while we are at it, this one...

Scallops with Sweet Red Chili Sauce



Rhody...

 

[turbo]

You should never do anything like that to scallops! Buy them fresh and sweet and pan-fry them in butter with nothing added.

 

[netgypsy]

fresh caught bay scallops sauteed in butter with a touch of garlic and lemon. drool

 

[Evo]

fresh caught bay scallops sauteed in butter with a touch of garlic and lemon. drool

Bay scallops taste best, but after the blight that almost wiped them out, cheaper, not as succulent sea scallops were they only thing available, so they were hyped. Bay scallops are something the younger generation is mostly unaware of and don't realize that most if not all old recipes calling for scallops meant the tiny bay scallops. Such a shame.

 

[rollcast]

I've only had scallops once and it was in some fancy posh upmarket restaurant. But Bejesus where those things tasty. Pitty there was only 3 of them on the plate though.

Although you can't beat some battered scampi with chips.

 

[netgypsy]

The bay scallops we eat are the ones we catch ourselves although our local Publix sells bay scallops and we do know the fake ones when we see them.

Tell me more about the blight. I read about one in the 1930's that hit the eel grass but can't find the one in the 80's.

We started scalloping in 1980 on the gulf and there were a lot of them there. Since then the season is shorter and you have to go further north on the gulf but family members had good luck this year getting a nice number of bay scallops. Another family member did get fake sea scallops in a restaurant and informed the manager.

There is a list put out that tells you what fish are endangered and we try to avoid those. We stick to things like haddock, catfish, whiting, anchovies, sardines, and a few others and avoid tuna, cod, orange roughy, black sea bass and number of others listed as being very much endangered. There is at least one tuna that is supposed to be OK but I can't remember which. Blue fin is the most endangered. I saw one swim past once when in the Keys and was just enthralled. It was like a piscean fighter plane it was so fast. Shark are threatened also.

Florida lobster (big crayfish) are very scarce now but they are making efforts to restore over harvested species.

I read that just a couple of days ago millions of scallops were put back into the gulf of Mexico. I know they're reseeding the reefs. Can't remember what is killing them though.

I guess we'd all better find some great recipes for jelly fish because supposedly they will be the last species standing if we don't get harvesting under control.

 

[Evo]

Tell me more about the blight. I read about one in the 1930's that hit the eel grass but can't find the one in the 80's.

Here you go, in other areas the loss of shark population has resulted in an increased ray population, which also eats the scallops.

Brown Tide and Scallops

Since 1985 bay scallop populations have been decimated by repeated blooms of the brown tide algae in the 1980's and 1990's. Brown tide is caused by an increased growth of a golden-brown algae, or phytoplankton, making the water very murky with a coffee brown color, hence the name "brown tide". This phytoplankton prevents the bay scallop from feeding properly, causing bay scallops to starve during brown tide blooms. Furthermore, the large number of brown tide organisms in the water shade out sunlight from reaching eelgrass plants, causing them to die off. With the loss of the scallops preferred eelgrass bed habitats, it becomes more difficult for scallops to recover. Commercial harvesting of bay scallops has drastically decreased since the first brown tide bloom 21 years ago. The scalloping industry in New York has yet to recover from the devastating effects of the brown tide.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6946.html

 

[netgypsy]

Interesting. The last time we went to the keys and actually looked at the bottom (snorkels and masks and pulled behind the boat) we noticed the grass was covered by a brown sludgie material and just figured it was because of the lack of sewage treatment. Red tide has also caused problems several times and family members who live down there say it even makes it difficult to breath when the red tide is present in the area.

 

[netgypsy]

No comparison - bay scallops are droolworthy for sure

I do wonder why we don't eat the entire scallop though. We eat whole oysters, clams but not scallops. I think the Chinese eat the whole thing but their cuisine is very broad anyway so it's not surprising.

I also ran across an article about trying various substitutes for eel grass to increase the scallop population. Easter basket grass after the bunny has left?

 

[turbo]

Mmm! Supper is a huge sandwich from the butcher-shop/deli. Roast beef and mayo on a split baguette, loaded with black olives and jalapenos and bacon, Then topped with pizza-cheese and broiled. I'm glad we don't live closer to that shop.

 

[turbo]

Supper tonight was a wonderful meatloaf and vegetables. The meatloaf was made with ground buffalo meat. Buffalo is tasty, and very lean. I could tell the difference when serving myself - very little fat in the bottom of the casserole dish, compared to ground beef.

 

[netgypsy]

Sounds great. Have you tried ostrich or emu burger meatloaf? They taste more like chicken

What was used to keep the buffalo moist in the meatloaf?? For salmon patties we soak a slice of bread, wring it out, then squish it into the salmon with one egg and some seasoning.

My dad used to make an awesome turkey meatloaf that was very different from typical meatloaf. I'll have to try to find the recipe.

 

[turbo]

Sounds great. Have you tried ostrich or emu burger meatloaf? They taste more like chicken

What was used to keep the buffalo moist in the meatloaf?? For salmon patties we soak a slice of bread, wring it out, then squish it into the salmon with one egg and some seasoning.

My dad used to make an awesome turkey meatloaf that was very different from typical meatloaf. I'll have to try to find the recipe.

Some bread, chopped onions, and egg. The meatloaf was wonderful! And I have lots left over for lunches.

 

[Borek]

This is 51-year old TV health guru Gillian McKeith; advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and health, promoting exercise, and a vegetarian diet high in organic fruits and vegetables.

She recommends detox diets, colonic irrigation, and supplements.

This is 51-year old Nigella Lawson; a TV cook...

who eats meat, butter and desserts and washes it down with wine.

Do you still have any questions?

 

[turbo]

This is 51-year old TV health guru Gillian McKeith; advocating a holistic approach to nutrition and health, promoting exercise, and a vegetarian diet high in organic fruits and vegetables.

She recommends detox diets, colonic irrigation, and supplements.

This is 51-year old Nigella Lawson; a TV cook...

who eats meat, butter and desserts and washes it down with wine.

Do you still have any questions?

Questions are pretty much answered.

 

[Monique]

Do you still have any questions?

Clearly it's not a fair comparison. I'm sure Gillian McKeith can look a lot better with the correct lighting and stylists, Nigella Lawson can look a lot worse in the reverse case.

For comparison, just take a look at the following pictures. Reality can be harsh.
http://seehere.blogspot.com/2006/08/celebrities-without-makeup.html

 

[netgypsy]

Absolutely - and the factor not mentioned is SUN. The ULTIMATE AGER for caucasians.

The ability to look as though you have no makeup on and look wonderful is exactly what today's makeup allows you to do. And the second lady - who knows what "enhancements" she's had. Scrub them both and take photos in bright sun light and scars for plastic surgery will show also.

 

[Moonbear]

Absolutely - and the factor not mentioned is SUN. The ULTIMATE AGER for caucasians.

For everyone, actually. While someone with darker skin has more protection from sun exposure than a lighter skinned person, it's not absolute protection. They too should be using sunscreen and avoiding excess sun exposure to prevent skin cancer and premature aging of the skin.

On the other hand, no extreme in lifestyle or diet is healthy. Eating absolutely no animal products and interferring with function of the large intestine with colonics and such is no better or worse than consuming excessive amounts of meat and fats. Neither is healthy.

 

[netgypsy]

Colonics are indeed VERY bad for your health. I have a friend who was going to start using them until I brought her about ten pounds of documentation on the damage it does.

it was previously thought that fats were bad but now there are of course the good and the bad fats and transfats are considered the worst as well as refined sugar and flour. The Ornish diet which is all veggies does work to clean out arteries but the meditation section is critical. The low carb diet also cleans out arteries and we've had personal experience with both working very well - cleaning arteries that were 95% block down to 40% in both diets. The Ornish diet had to add tofu because the fat intake was too low and people were losing their hair. The low carb diet ends up fairly high good fats because too much protein stresses the kidneys, so both can be too extreme. It didn't hurt that both the people who were successful in clearing their arteries also stopped smoking. Ornish won't even accept you if you smoke.

My personal favorite is the nut diet cause sometimes you just feel like a nut.

Speaking of dark skinned people with sun damage I had a student whose doctor told her had sunburn. It turned out it was scarlet fever and it went into rheumatoid arthritis before they caught the mistake. She had strep and didn't say anything because she was already booked on a cruise and wanted to go.

 

[lisab]

Muenster cheese is just delicious. Yum.

 

[turbo]

I finished up the last of the buffalo meatloaf tonight, with a side of the spicy-vegetable soup.

 

[netgypsy]

I love fried ripe tomatoes. Lightly dusted with flour, a sprinkle of sea salt and fried until soft with crisp crust. I'm drooling. They would be good with muenster cheese too.

 

[Moonbear]

I got back to bread baking again. It's been a while, but I've been craving good, crusty bread, and that's nowhere to be found in stores around here (we have bakeries, but none that are any good). I made the best bread EVER yesterday, and it was the first time I've made a loaf without using any recipe. The sponge ended up the perfect density for sandwiches, the crust perfectly crispy, even if it looked a little funny in shape, and I got a really good flavor into it by doing a sourdough starter, but only letting it go a day before using it, so not very sour, just a sort of rich flavor from it, and using a little whole wheat flour blended with regular white flour. I think I got the proportions just right for my tastes. Of course, I used no recipe, which means I'll never make the same bread again! Still, after years of following recipes, I'm happy I finally got the knack for it to make it without a recipe and have it come out not just edible, but good!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I miss bread. I haven't had any in almost a year. But I sure feel better! [blood sugar issues]

 

[Monique]

That reminds me I need to dust off my bread-kneader and start baking my own. I just need to find a good source of flour (one that is not overpriced), dried fruits and nuts. A wholesale store might be a good start.

I miss bread. I haven't had any in almost a year. But I sure feel better! [blood sugar issues]

I can't imagine living without bread, what do you eat as a replacement during the day?

 

[netgypsy]

I don't do bread either but I did like a bread that was called "health nut" but unfortunately Arnold bought it out, renamed one of their recipes "health nut" and stopped producing the original which was amazing. The original was a whole grain blend with a lot of walnuts in it and a great chewy texture and rich flavor that didn't taste like burnt crust.

The absolute tastiest bread I ever ate was one a family member made as a teen. It was the recipe on the bread flour bag and I can't find it anywhere. We made it in a French White round casserole dish and it ended up looking like a big mushroom as it bulged over the top. We would eat the whole loaf at one sitting with a bit of PUBLIX butter (best tasting butter so far and cheap).

 

[turbo]

I couldn't do without bread. My wife makes the best French bread available anywhere. She saw a demo at a kneading seminar (part of a 3-day conference) and bought an instructional DVD featuring the baker (nuclear-sub safety guy who also works for King Arthur Flour). Ingredients are unbleached white flour, water, yeast, and salt. That's it. She uses that base dough to make variations of the bread containing ripe olives, garlic, herbs, etc (alone or in combination). Very popular stuff with our friends and neighbors.

 

[rollcast]

Here's 2 recipes that are favourites in our house. There's no quantities for the crumble as there never was a recipe as such to begin with, it sort of evolved into its current state.

Apple and raisin crumble

Chop apples, place in pan with some honey and brown sugar, make this slightly over sweet.

Add lemon juice, stew the apples on the hob,

Put raisins into orange juice and leave over night, do this the night before.

when the apples just start to soften add the raisins.

cook for another 3 mins, add the cinnamon

place in tin, sprinkle crumble over top and then cookScones

8 ounces plain flour, think you call it all - purpose
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 ounce sugar + extra for glaze
2 ounces butter, cut this up into small pieces
3 ounces raisins or cherries
2 tsp Lemon juice (doesn't have to be freshly squeezed)
2.5 fl ounces strawberry yoghurt
2.5 fl ounces milk + extra for glaze

Soak raisins overnight.
Mix flour, b powder, salt and sugar together.
Rub in butter until like breadcrumbs.
Add raisins and mix.
Add lemon juice and mix.
Mix yoghurt and milk in jug.
Add yoghurt and milk mixture in stages until it just forms a dough (its better if its too dry)
Turn out onto board.
Only knead enough to bring it into a ball.
Roll out until its about 2 - 3 inches deep.
Cut into rounds with cutter or glass.
Place on floured baking tray - it must be floured and not greased as grease can burn the bottom of the scone.
Brush tops with milk and sprinkle over some sugar.
Place in preheated oven at 200°C for 10 - 15 minutes.
Once they start to brown on the top lift one out and cut to see if they're cooked through.Leave to cool and serve with jam and cream

 

[netgypsy]

cheese breads for diabetics

preheat to 475 F

12 ounces white crumbling Colombian or Mexican cheese
1/3 cup yucca flour (any hispanic grocery - yucarina)
1 egg
2 tablespoons almond flour (organic section in grocery like Publix) (recipe calls for corn meal but the almond flour works fine)
2 teaspoons sugar (optional I don't use it) 1 teaspoon salt (I don't use it either)

Put the yucca starch, corn meal and cheese in the food processor for about 15 seconds (you can add salt here but I don't use it either)

Add the egg to the mixture and process for 2 minutes. It will initially make a ball but then get softer and thinner and spread out.

Roll into balls and put on a cookie sheet or just drop into a muffin pan. You can make pretzel like shapes too. The dough is soft and sticky. I use a spoon to dig it out of the food processor and just shape it a bit. sometimes I just do it like drop biscuits.

Turn oven down to 425 and bake 10 to 15 minutes or until bottom is golden. Serve hot. Reheat if they get cold. They aren't good cold.

There are many variations you can do. I've use a little Parmesan (the good kind), red pepper flakes and you can top with the smuckers lower sugar jam too.

 

[MarcoD]

I miss bread. I haven't had any in almost a year. But I sure feel better! [blood sugar issues]

How are you getting through life without bread?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I can't imagine living without bread, what do you eat as a replacement during the day?

I don't. The reason I feel better is that I'm not consuming all of those carbs. I try to get most of my carbs from fresh fruits and vegetables, and milk, and otherwise eat a high-protein diet.

I went on an Atkins-like diet plan for five months and lost thirty pounds. But my carb intake was severely limited. Now I eat far more carbs but still keep them to a minimum. When on the full-blown diet, my carb intake was limited to I think about 20 or 25 grams per day. That was tough - that's two tortillas a day, max! I know this is all controversial but I feel better than I have in years.

I haven't used processed sugar in a year either. That was another big hurdle for me!

 

[Moonbear]

I actually go long periods of time without bread. I don't like store bought bread and don't have time to bake it regularly, and just don't miss it much. That makes it seem so much better when I do bake and get a good loaf. My usual carb vice is potatoes.

 

[netgypsy]

I did the super low carb thing for a while then switched to low glycemic index. it worked just as well. Generally feeling more energetic.

My weakness is mac and cheese so I switched from mac to tofu cut in thin strips - egg plus cheese plus milk or cream over the tofu is fantastic.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My usual carb vice is potatoes.

Thanksgiving is a total loss now. No taters, no sweet taters with marshmellows on top, no breads, no pumpkin pie,

Actually, I can cheat a bit now and get away with a bit of dessert. But all of those foods are off the menu.

Netgypsy, I always include the glycemic index when making food choices. No argument here.

 

[netgypsy]

There are some potato sticks (Tractor supply of all places) that are quite low carb (high fat of course) but they make a nice snack if you don't overdo them. Also if you use the red potatoes and soak them overnight, drain and add the mayo, some vinegar and seasonings it's pretty low also. Again small portion. Allowing to sit in the frig again overnight supposedly drops the glycemic index even lower. And al dente pasta is pretty low especially if you load up on the sauce.

 

[Evo]

After eating the best homemade french bread since I was old enough to eat solid food, within the last 6 months I discovered plain white bread. I can't get enough of it. I crave sandwiches made with the stuff. It's soft and smooshy and tasty.

I feel like I'm in the confessional "Forgive me Father for I have sinned".

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I can't even remember the last time I ate plain white bread... I know I had some in 1979. Beyond that, all bets are off.

Tsu still likes to get Wonder Bread on rare occassions for grilled cheese sandwiches. She might have done that two or three times over 25 years. I think I had one piece once.

 

[Borek]

After eating what they call bread in London, I always wondered what they call a bread in US.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

After eating what they call bread in London, I always wondered what they call a bread in US.

Wonder Bread is to real bread what a hot dog is to a steak.

Oddly, people who like plain white bread don't like Jackie Evancho.

 

[dlgoff]

After eating the best homemade french bread since I was old enough to eat solid food, within the last 6 months I discovered plain white bread. I can't get enough of it. I crave sandwiches made with the stuff. It's soft and smooshy and tasty.

I feel like I'm in the confessional "Forgive me Father for I have sinned".

I eat a half loaf of Honey Wheat at a setting.

 

[turbo]

I eat a half loaf of Honey Wheat at a setting.

That's my father's vice. Toast it and butter it and sprinkle garlic powder on the butter.

My only forays into white-bread territory are rolls for hot dogs.

 

[netgypsy]

We always called regular white bread - "gummy white bread". As kids we would pull out the center of several slices, wad it up into a dough like ball and eat it. The critical attribute of the ball wad was that it had a faint gray color caused by dirty children hands so when you bit out a chunk the interior was snow white. It's still the best for grilled cheese sandwiches. Fried in a frying pan floating in butter. There are two schools of thought on making a grilled cheese - the "load on the mayo" and the YUK, mayo is nasty on grilled cheese. Sometimes we added cooked bacon and tomato slices. YUMMMM

 

[nobahar]

I can't even remember the last time I ate plain white bread... I know I had some in 1979. Beyond that, all bets are off.

I need to know why this date.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I need to know why this date.

Haha, a family thing.

 

[Monique]

I don't. The reason I feel better is that I'm not consuming all of those carbs. I try to get most of my carbs from fresh fruits and vegetables, and milk, and otherwise eat a high-protein diet.

I didn't mean what you eat as a carb replacement, that appears to be your answer. You must eat something for breakfast and lunch, right? Do you cook special meals, or do you eat dinner left overs? Many countries have warm meals for lunch, but in the Netherlands a sandwich with cheese or sandwich meat is the standard. I wouldn't have time to eat a warm meal during breakfast/lunch, I usually eat a sandwich on-the-go.

 

[turbo]

I'm a stay-at-home dad for Duke, so I can raid the refrigerator and nuke some leftovers for breakfast/lunch. Never did the commercially-prepared sandwich thing anyway, though. I was a dedicated brown-bagger, even all through college.

 

[rollcast]

This is a proper breakfast round my way.

The photo isn't mine but that is definitely what an Ulster fry should look like.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I didn't mean what you eat as a carb replacement, that appears to be your answer. You must eat something for breakfast and lunch, right? Do you cook special meals, or do you eat dinner left overs? Many countries have warm meals for lunch, but in the Netherlands a sandwich with cheese or sandwich meat is the standard. I wouldn't have time to eat a warm meal during breakfast/lunch, I usually eat a sandwich on-the-go.

Ah. When I made the big change, the first thing was to go with a high-quality protein drink for breakfast. What has really helped also is that the stores now have nice selection of prepared trays of mixed fruits and vegies, so, unless I'm slacking, those are a constant, any time of day. I eat a lot of cheese, roast chicken, with ~ as much tuna as the government recommends [mercury]. Peanut butter is a constant, often with celery, but sometimes I just take a bit with some sugar-free jelly and have a PB sandwich in a bowl - without the bread. For a long time I couldn't eat peanuts [GI distress] but that seems to be fine now, so nuts are back in the diet. And I still eat a lot of tacos! They can be a very healthy, low-carb meal if prepared properly. And even with fast food, occasionally I treat myself to a lettuce-wrapped burger. Most places offer Atkins-friendly options.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A whey protein drink, btw.

Another big change is in the use of salt. I don't put any salt in while cooking anymore. I just lightly salt the exterior of the food, which generally provides as much or more flavor than adding when cooking. It is amazing how one's tastes can change in this regard. Foods that I used to love, like bacon, are now almost too much to tolerate. In fact I hardly ever buy bacon anymore - maybe a few times a year. And as a kid I loooooooved Spam sandwiches. Recently I tried Spam and couldn't eat it. It was like eating a salt lick! Bleh! Lately I've even caught myself trying to drown the salt from a pickle by taking very small bites. They taste almost too salty to eat now.