Reply With QuoteYou can make a corn starch slurry, mix it with the strawberry mixture and bring it to a boil for a minute. That should thicken it up.Originally Posted by Speak With Bread
I made sweet and sour chicken. The typical take out batter fried stuff is too much of a lead ballon for me, so, I just dusted the chicken in corn starch and pan fried it in a couple of tablespoons of oil. I stir fried some boccoli and then tossed it in some sauce to coat. Very light and tasty.
You can make a corn starch slurry, mix it with the strawberry mixture and bring it to a boil for a minute. That should thicken it up.
Made Peposo yesterday for the first time.
Thinly sliced meat off the bone layered with lots of garlic, rosemary, salt and plenty of pepper in a pot. The bone on top of the final layer to hold everything down and add flavour. Then a bottle of good sweet Chianti and water until everything is covered. Bring to a boil and cover tightly (I used foil under the lid) then in the oven for AT LEAST six hours at 150 celsius.
Press the meat apart with a fork before serving.
I served it with home made fried Polenta (polenta corn flour, parmesan, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon) and simple boiled potatoes. Oldschool Italian and very lovely.
Corn starch should thicken it, as Brad Grenz suggests. I'm not sure if it'll produce a good frosting, though.
Frosting is a mix of fat and sugar. If it's too liquid, you probably need less water and more fat. Cook it down some more, maybe? It might take a few hours of simmering to get rid of enough of the water. Then cream some butter or cream cheese and combine with the strawberry mix to make frosting.
Another thought is to try to make a custard out of it, which sounds tastier to me than frosting.
I took two pork tenderloins, trimmed the silver skin (what a pain), sprinkled them with salt and pepper and seared the outside. Then I sliced them into medallions, and seared those as well. When they were cooked through, I added a bag of sliced frozen peaches and some chili pepper flakes and a splash of vinegar and let everything simmer a bit. Then at the very end I added a tablespoon of butter.
It was so good! I can't wait to try it with pineapple.
I just had the organic mussels we were gifted. They were absolutely delicious. Mussels will be something I make regularly. Me and a couple of friends are planning on going to a little fishing village in West Cork in a few weeks. These will be on the menu for the night I cook.
I did them very simply. Mixed some onions and garlic into white wine, and let it simmer for a few minutes. Added in some cream and the mussels and steamed them for about seven minutes. Mussels into two bowls, om nom nom.
I'll be heading to the local market sometime soon to get some more.
Wait, you're Irish? Where mussels is a part of one of your most famous songs? Where you get some of the best mussels in the world?!
And you didn't eat mussels beforehand? Good thing you were gifted that bag - mussels are fucking great (Danish mussels are also pretty good and I grew up on a small island - love the buggers)
Oh no. I love mussels, and I've eaten them plenty of times before, loads of times before in fact. Mostly when I was in France or Spain as they seem to have a different attitude to mussels there. Mainly that they are delicious and you should feast yourself on a massive bowl of them with the accompanying Pommes Frites. Irish restaurants seem to treat them like a dainty little delicacy where six spread nicely around a plate should be enough for any greedy bollix and they then charge a fortune for them.
I've just never cooked them for myself before. I had a bad mussel years ago, spent the night feeling awful and having visual hallucinations before getting sick all over the bathroom. I think that fear of not being a chef who was trained in how to prepare them held me back, as I was always wary of getting a bad batch and repeating the poisoning.
However, a few days ago, one of my mother's clients, an organic fish farmer gifted her three organic salmon steaks and kilo of organic mussels. He's one of Ireland's top mussel exporters, and supplies a huge amount of seafood to top rated French restaurants. Since we had them, I figured I'd give it a go of cooking them, otherwise they'd go to waste. Seeing as it's mussel hour T + 30 minutes and I feel ok, I've decided I'll definitely be doing them again. Unless I get sick in the next day or so. Which I hope I won't. Because mussels are delicious.
Not an interesting dish, but an interesting trick. I was lazy so I made my standard chili:
Stew beef, lightly fried, then oil drained
Equivalent volume of onion
1/2 that of peppers (poblano and a bit of jalp this time)
(fry beef, drain, add peppers and saute for two minutes, add onions and reduce heat, saute for three minutes
then came a can of black beans (lazy, yes I know)
And my chili slurry:
Canned whole tomatoes (about two cups plus juice,) TBSP of whole cumin, TSP of garlic powder, TSP of ground sage, TBSP of salt, TSP of Bloemer's chili powder, TSP of cayenne, beat it to death in a food processor
Had it cooking and starting to simmer, dipped in the trusty chopstick to taste and found it iron-y and dull. Another 2/3TSP of salt, and suddenly I had a salty mess. I don't know what happened but I went from blah to blech in a second. I added vinegar, pasta, beer, all helped but didn't really fix it.
Then I tasted at the wrong time.
Turns out that a light tongue burn is just about right to fix a salty dish. Suddenly delicious!
H.
Now we find out if Rimbo still posts. If anything can draw him from his lair, it's your chili heresy.
I need to find some good chili minus beans recipes. I love chili, but my SO hates beans. :(
What's wrong with that chili recipe? It looks remarkably like mine, except for the peppers (they give me acid), though I do use ample cayenne and chipotle.
If anything, my heretical ingredients are probably dark cocoa nibs and freshly-grated ginger.
That's directed at Ed, by the way. I don't know what to do for you, Athryn. Beans are kind of important to the whole mix, or else you just have tomato soup.
Most texas-style chili is without beans, actually.
Yeah, there are chili snobs . . . err . . . purists who will insist that beans are heretical in chili. A proper chili to these people is just a meat and pepper stew.
That's hotdog chili to me. Nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't really stand up as a dish by itself.
Athryn, are you asking for a good bean substitute? I mean, a good chili recipe with beans is the same recipe without beans. You just don't add, you know, the beans. If you're wanting bulk you can do the other heretical thing and add spaghetti.
H.
I don't know if you've included these when you said beans, but I know a fair few people (myself included) who won't eat beans but will eat chickpeas and lentils.
For me it could be because I associate chickpeas and lentils with indian food while normal beans are of the "tinned beans" in tomato sauce.
I normally make the beans myself in a pressure cooker, but I didn't have time. Love them beans.
H.
I'm all about the beans, so I can't argue too hard. I have had some decent chili that was bean free in the past. It requires a LOT of meat and a very thick consistency and maybe some good bread/crackers/sour cream/cheese to really stand up as a dish on it's own sans beans.
Yeah, if you take the beans ouut of chili with beans, it ends up soupy. I just need to do some research on the Texas styles (and check the recipe that was PMed to me, thanks Marged!)
I personally love beans and bean soups. My mom makes an awesome bean and ham hock soup.
1 lb Chicken gizzards
1/2 lb chicken liver(dumped the other 1/2 in the sink by mistake)
1 lb anduille sausage sliced
1 chipolte pepper deseeed
1 cup salsa
2 cloves garlic
black pepper to taste
simmer for 1 hr
1-12 0z can of refried beans
simmer for 1 hr
I don't even bother with meat in chili anymore. Just beans and beans and lentils and beans. Delicious.
Made classic lasagne. Only thing different than most is that I made everything from scratch and used liver with the Meat (chicken, couldn't get duck).
A little textured vegetable protein goes well, too, and imparts a meat-like texture. Not the same as proper ground chuck, natch, but it works, especially if you're preparing it for mixed company.
Interesting. I will have to try that with the next batch.
You are on an Italian kick! Did you make it with a bechamel?
OK, so here's a question ... whenever I pan fry a white fish (grouper or what-have-you) I can never get it to not stick to my pan. I heard on Food Network that it's just a matter of waiting - that the fish will de-stick itself eventually - but I've not seen that yet.
My wife suggested a light coating of flour would help (give it a better crust) but I dunno ... suggestions?
FYI, I get the pan nice and hot before putting the fish in and I cook them in grape seed oil so high smoke point and all that.
Stainless steel, I assume? Have you tried dragging it through the oil before setting it all the way in? That might take off the surface liquid enough to help. Otherwise flour should also do this, or get yourself a cast-iron skillet if you're opposed to nonstick.
H.
Boo on food that tries to pretend to be something else. If you're serving bean soup, just serve bean soup and don't be a pussy about it.
Of course... And yes, I love Italian and am familiarizing myself with the classics.
Sorry about the delay in responding. I didn't mean to go Executioner5 on you guys, I just didn't notice the thread was active.
Anyway, the most conservative sect of the great church of chili holds that tomatoes and onions are proscribed. As I come from the reformed wing, Rimbo has lectured me in the past on this board for my apostasy. We both agree, however, that beans have no place in chili.
Cocoa nibs fall under the heading of spices and special ingredients, so feel free to go nuts.
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